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LONDON The euro is notching one milestone after another as it drops against major currencies. On Wednesday, it hit a 12-year low against the dollar and many think its descent has further to go. The fall in Europe's single currency has been dramatic as recently as May, it was trading just shy of $1.40 and many firms across Europe openly fretted about the impact on their exports. Those concerns are now more likely to be heard out of the U.S. or Britain, where firms face the prospect of being priced out of eurozone markets. On Wednesday, the euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since April 2003, at $1.0557. Few, if any, in the markets anticipated that 25 percent decline. After all, the euro's value has managed to hold its own over the past few years of debt crisis, which at times even threatened the currency's very existence. So what's prompted the turnaround? EURO EXCESS The main reason is the European Central Bank has not only cut interest rates but also started creating more euros to put into the financial system. The ECB had been reluctant to do so for years, but in 2014 it changed course. As policymakers faced the prospect of minimal growth and falling prices, which can further weigh on an economy, it cut its main interest rate in September to 0.05 percent. The move hit the euro by reducing the potential returns on investments in the eurozone. As that proved insufficient to turn the eurozone around, the ECB has started buying government bonds in the markets with newly-created money. The hope is that the 18-month 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.12 trillion) monetary stimulus will shore up the economic recovery and get inflation back into the system. Whether or not the stimulus works, it will increase the number of euros in circulation, diluting its value. The stimulus should also keep a lid on the borrowing rates of most eurozone countries in the markets the ECB's buying shores up the value of the bonds, thereby reducing the potential yield on those bonds. With the yields on European government at historic lows and in some cases negative, the returns to investors are negligible at best, further weighing on the euro. FED FACTOR The euro has fallen against many currencies, but its drop has been particularly pronounced against the dollar. That's because while the ECB's policies have been weakening the euro, the U.S. Federal Reserve's are bolstering the dollar. As the American economy keeps growing and creating jobs, the Fed ended its own bond-buying stimulus program and says it is ready to soon start raising interest rates. Last week's stronger-than-expected jobs figures for February ratcheted up expectations that the first rate increase will take place in June. For those looking to make maximize returns, holding U.S. assets has become a more enticing prospect. Just look at the returns available on holding the 10-year U.S. Treasury the yield stands at 2.14 percent against 0.18 percent for Germany's. The dollar has been rising not only against the euro but a range of currencies. Against the Japanese currency, it was near 122 yen, the highest since 2007. GREECE LIGHTNING Concerns over a Greek exit from the euro have been an additional burden on the euro over the past few months. The rise of a radical new government in Athens that wants to renegotiate a large part of the country's bailout terms has raised the prospect of a "Grexit." Those tensions are likely to linger as Greece and the eurozone creditors will be stuck for weeks, if not months, on how to lighten the country's rescue loans. STUNTED GROWTH Many eurozone economies still have trouble growing, and that has discouraged some investors from putting their money in the currency bloc. Relatively small economies like Portugal and Ireland are just emerging from bailout programs that required them to make huge budget cuts. Big economies like Italy, Spain and France are still focusing on reducing debt rather than spending. At the very least, the economic outlook for the eurozone isn't rosy, and that's likely to require lower interest rates from the ECB than the Fed, for example, and that prospect has been another reason hurting the euro.
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A new report from Reveal has found that parts for assault weapons are being regularly sold on eBay, despite the online marketplace banning these items. The site uses automated word filters and a manual report system to spot infringing auctions, but these methods are proving ineffective, say Reveal. Sellers can avoid them with a number of techniques as simple as putting spaces in the names of gun parts manufacturers and simply not mentioning that a part can be used to construct an assault rifle. "The buyer has to know what he's looking for." "The buyer has to know what he's looking for, and the seller has to be careful to not advertise that it fits an assault weapon," Ried Bridges, an eBay seller who deals in AR-15 parts, told Reveal . "If you have a part that's compatible with a number of weapons platforms and you don't mention that one of them is an assault weapon, my understanding is that you are good to go." Reveal 's investigation found a number of assault weapon parts for sale, with the "only missing piece of the gun" being the lower receiver. This is the component that contains core mechanisms like the trigger, and is what legally constitutes a firearm in the US. Buyers can easily purchase it from other websites, or even use equipment such as computer milling machines to make their own . Many of the rifle parts discovered for sale on eBay in Reveal 's investigation were for the AR-15 the civilian version of the US military's M-16, and the gun used in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. ebay says it takes "appropriate action" Kari Ramirez, a spokesperson for eBay, told Reveal that eBay's policy was based on Californian law, some of the strictest in the country, and that the site always took "appropriate action" against infringing sellers. However, Ramirez refused to reveal how often eBay's filters find assault weapon parts. "This is our secret sauce," she said, telling Reveal that people were always trying to get around the filters. "We don't want people going and trying to figure these out."
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Gianluca Mech explains 'The Italiano Diet'
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Spring is almost here, and soon it will be home-selling season. Some economists expect 2015 to be a good one for home sales because mortgage interest rates will continue to hover at near historic lows, the overall economy is heating up and there's a lot of pent-up demand. For sellers looking to get the maximum out of their home sale, this all means they'll need to do some careful home prep and staging, without spending so much that they cut into profit from the sale. Here are seven ways to prep your place for a sale without spending lots. 1. Have a plan. Before you jump in and start on a long list of home repairs and upgrades, talk to a real estate agent and find out what's worth the effort and what isn't. Most homeowners can name at least one aspect of their home that really irks them a slightly leaning fence, a scratch on the cooktop, the light switch that feels out of place. An agent can tell you which of those fixes are likely to be noticed by buyers and which you can ignore. You can even make this part of your agent interview process . After that, get a checklist to help you stay on track as you knock out those jobs that only require elbow grease. Cost? Free! 2. Clear clutter. Speaking of checklists, every home prep checklist includes advice to clear your clutter . You probably love all your stuff, but it's hiding your home's features. Worse, a cluttered home presents as poorly maintained, which will cause potential buyers to think twice and ask deeper questions. Get a head start on moving day by packing up your knickknacks, photos and books. Or earn some extra moving money by selling some of that stuff cluttering up your basement or attic. Why pay to move it from one attic to another? Cost? Free! 3. Paint one room. Even if all your rooms need a fresh coat of paint, you can maximize your effort while minimizing your cost by only painting the most important room or rooms. Todd Tisdell, a real estate agent and mortgage broker of Citrus Grove Real Estate and Lending in California, advises sellers to paint either the entryway, kitchen or master bedroom. "Those are the rooms looked at the hardest by buyers," Tisdale says. "If those rooms are fresh and clean, it will go a long way toward improving perception of the whole house." Cost? Under $200 if you do it yourself. 4. Clean. This is not your everyday clean. It's not even your special occasion clean. This is your as-seen-in "Architectural Digest" clean. While all rooms should be clean and tidy, it pays to focus your efforts on rooms buyers are most interested in kitchen and bathrooms, the living room and the master bedroom. Follow the top-to-bottom, left-to-right method so no surface is overlooked. In kitchens, get behind and under appliances. In bathrooms, pay attention to mold and mildew. 5. Plant colorful flowers. A good first impression counts in home selling, and most real estate agents will advise sellers to spruce up the front of the house first . Along with basic lawn care a bag of fertilizer and regular mowing go a long way Tisdale advises planting colorful flowers against the house or along the sidewalk or both. "The color against the house will pop the most," he says. Cost? Under $100 if you shop smart. Almost free if you start early from seeds. 6. Stage and depersonalize the right rooms. Not all real estate agents agree that staging is necessary. In a recent study of over 2,300 Realtors, the National Association of Realtors found that about a third of selling agents said they stage homes, while 44 percent said they advise clients only to declutter and make repairs to faults. On the other hand, 81 percent of buyers reported that staging helped them visualize the features of the home. If you decide to stage, you can control the cost by staging only the rooms most important to buyers, in order: living room, kitchen, master bedroom, dining room, bathroom, child's room and guest room. Otherwise, get even more aggressive with the clutter and remove personal photos and keepsakes. The story you want to tell is about the buyers and their new house. It's not about you and your old one. Cost? Under $700, on average. 7. Create the right vibe. With the place finally ready, create a warm, welcoming feeling throughout your home. Open windows to bring in fresh air, and open curtains and blinds to let in the light. Install higher wattage bulbs in your best fixtures, and turn on all your lights. In the days leading up to an open house or showing, refrain from cooking fish or broccoli, which can leave your home smelling not so great. You don't really have to bake cookies to put buyers in the mood lightly orange-scented candles will do. In fact, a Journal of Retailing study of retail shoppers found that simple aromas such as orange, lemon or pine boosted sales as much as 30 percent, while complex aromas such as from baking or potpourri depressed sales a few percentage points. Cost? A few dollars for oranges (or free with some pine boughs plucked from the yard). More from MSN Money: 50 Affordable Places to Buy a Retirement Home 12 Great Reasons to Drop Your Bank and Join a Credit Union 5 countries where you should buy a second home
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LONDON (AP) Andy Murray is testing out retired Swedish tennis player Jonas Bjorkman, with a view to adding the doubles specialist to his coaching team. The fourth-ranked Murray has been looking for a second coach to work alongside Amelie Mauresmo since splitting from long-time team member Dani Vallverdu in November. The 42-year-old Bjorkman will spend a week with Murray some time next month ahead of potentially joining the player's coaching team on a permanent basis. Bjorkman is currently on a Swedish reality television show. Murray said last week that his poor recent performances in tournaments in Rotterdam and Dubai, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals, were because Mauresmo was occupied with Fed Cup coaching duties with her native France. Mauresmo is only committed to Murray for 25 weeks per year. Bjorkman retired in 2008 after winning nine Grand Slam doubles titles and reaching a career-high singles ranking of No. 4 in 1997. Murray is playing in Indian Wells this week.
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FURROW-BROWED feline has taken the internet by storm - flashing his expressive eyebrows in adorable photos posted to Instagram. The curious-looking cat named Sam has racked up 150,000 Instagram followers and 530,000 likes on Facebook since bursting onto the scene in 2012. Owner Amanda Collado, 26, from New York, USA, has been handling the overwhelming amount of requests from fans and media for the past three years. Videographer / Director: Alex Ayers Producer: Samantha Grillo / Nick Johnson Editor: Sonia Estal
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TOMS RIVER, N.J. An ex-con who had just finished a 15-year robbery sentence has admitted he robbed the same New Jersey shoe store -- as the same clerk was behind the counter. Prosecutors say 41-year-old Christopher Miller robbed the Stride Rite store in Toms River in March 2014, a day after he was released from prison after finishing his jail term for the first robbery. Police say Miller made off with $389 and fled on foot with the employees' cellphones. The clerk had been notified about Miller's release and identified the suspect as the same person who had robbed the store in 1999. Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery on Monday. He faces a prison term of 10 to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced in May.
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Janice Sage became the owner and innkeeper of Maine's Center Lovell Inn in 1993 after she won an essay contest. Now, she's looking to sell the inn the same way. Buzz60's (@LeighTVReporter) explains how the contest works.
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Following are three questions. If you've been around the financial block a few times, you'll probably find all of them easy to answer. Most Americans didn't get them right, though, reflecting poor financial literacy. That's a shame because, unsurprisingly, the more you know about financial matters and money management, the better you can do at saving and investing, and the more comfortable your retirement will probably be. Here are the questions see if you know the answers. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After five years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow? (A) More than $102. (B) Exactly $102. (C) Less than $102. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account? (A) More than today. (B) Exactly the same. (C) Less than today. Please tell me whether this statement is true or false: Buying a single company's stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund. Did you get them all right? In case you're not sure, the answers are, respectively, A, C, and False. Surprising numbers The questions originated about a decade ago, with Wharton business school professor and executive director of the Pension Research Council Olivia Mitchell, and George Washington School of Business professor and academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center Annamaria Lusardi. In a quest to learn more about wealth inequality, they've been asking Americans and others these questions for years, while studying how the results correlate with factors such as retirement savings. The questions are designed to shed light on whether various populations "have the fundamental knowledge of finance needed to function as effective economic decision makers." They first surveyed Americans aged 50 and older and found that only half of them answered the first two questions correctly. Only a third got all three right. As they asked the same questions of the broader American population and people outside the U.S., too, the results were generally similar: "[W]e found widespread financial illiteracy even in relatively rich countries with well-developed financial markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand. Performance was markedly worse in Russia and Romania." If you think that better-educated folks would do well on the quiz, you'd be wrong. They do better, but even among Americans with college degrees, the majority (55.7%) didn't get all three questions right (versus 81% for those with high school degrees). What Mitchell and Lusardi found was that those most likely to do well on the quiz were those who are affluent. They attribute a full third of America's wealth inequality to "the financial-knowledge gap separating the well-to-do and the less so." This is consistent with other research, such as that of University of Massachusetts graduate student Joosuk Sebastian Chae, whose research has found that those with higher-than-average wealth accumulation exhibit advanced financial literacy levels. The importance of financial literacy This is all important stuff, because those who don't understand basic financial concepts, such as how money grows, how inflation affects us, and how diversification can reduce risk, are likely to make suboptimal financial decisions throughout their lives, ending up with poorer results as they approach and enter retirement. Consider the inflation issue, for example: If you don't appreciate how inflation shrinks the value of money over time, you might be thinking that your expected income stream in retirement, from Social Security and/or a pension, will be enough to live on. Factoring in inflation, though, you might understand that your expected $30,000 per year could have the purchasing power of only $14,000 in 25 years. Mitchell and Lusardi note that financial knowledge is correlated with better results: "Our analysis of financial knowledge and investor performance showed that more knowledgeable individuals invest in more sophisticated assets, suggesting that they can expect to earn higher returns on their retirement savings accounts." Thus, better financial literacy can help people avoid credit card debt, take advantage of refinancing opportunities, optimize Social Security benefits, avoid predatory lenders, avoid financial scams and those pushing poor investments, and plan and save for retirement. Even if you got all three questions correct, you can probably improve your financial condition and ultimate performance by continuing to learn. Many of the most successful investors are known to be voracious readers, eager to keep learning even more. Longtime Fool specialist Selena Maranjian , whom you can follow on Twitter , has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days . We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . Related Links Social Security: 5 Facts You Must Know Warren Buffett Tells You How to Turn $40 Into $10 Million Social Security: 3 Things to Know Before Taking Benefits Early
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The NBA playoff picture in the Western Conference is quite hazy beyond the Warriors at No. 1. In an effort to set the table for the stretch run, we've provided this Guide to the West Tiebreakers. It lays out the tiebreakers that will be used if two teams in the playoff picture finish the season with identical records, and explains who is currently in a preferred position in each. We will update this each morning to reflect the current situation ★★★ Last updated: After games played 3/24/2015. Portland is slipping, the Mavericks came one step closer to clinching a tiebreaker over the Spurs and the Thunder's lead for No. 8 is now three games. ★★★ Current playoff picture This is the Too Long; Didn't Read version. If the season ended right this second, here are your first-round matchups. Warriors (1) vs. Thunder (8) Blazers (4) vs. Clippers (5)* Clippers have home court advantage Grizzlies (2) vs. Mavericks (7) Rockets (3) vs. Spurs (6) Standings If you have a better record than the next team in line, tiebreakers don't matter. There is one quirky thing here: division winners (see first tiebreak) cannot be seeded below No. 4, but division winners do not get home court advantage against teams higher than them in the standings in any case. Division leaders outlined in ALL CAPS. Team W-L WP% Games Back 1. WARRIORS 58-13 . -- 2. GRIZZLIES 50-21 .704 8 3. Rockets 47-23 .671 10.5 4. Clippers 46-25 .648 12 5. BLAZERS 44-25 .638 13 6. Spurs 44-26 .629 13.5 7. Mavericks 45-27 .625 13.5 8. Thunder 41-30 .577 17 9. Suns 38-33 .535 19.5 10. Pelicans 37-33 .529 20 First tiebreaker: Division winners Division winners earn the tiebreaker over non-division winners in playoff seeding and home court advantage determinations. Here are the current West division leaders. NORTHWEST: Portland | SOUTHWEST: Memphis | PACIFIC: Golden State Portland is very likely to win its division. That gives the Blazers an advantage over any non-division winner, which could include the No. 2 and possibly No. 3 teams in the Southwest (any of Memphis, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas) and the No. 2 team in the Pacific (the Clippers). Also note that while it is not a tiebreaker issue, division winners seeded No. 3 or No. 4 who have worse records that their first-round opponents do not receive home court advantage. Second tiebreaker: Head-to-head records If both or neither teams in a tiebreak situation are division winners, the tie is broken by head-to-head record. The most relevant head-to-head tiebreaks already clinched are: Memphis over Portland Memphis over Dallas Portland over Houston Portland over San Antonio Los Angeles over Dallas Dallas over New Orleans Phoenix over Dallas New Orleans over Oklahoma City The most relevant head-to-head tiebreaks that have already ended in ties are: Houston and Memphis Houston and Los Angeles San Antonio and Los Angeles The following table shows each playoff contender's record against other playoff contenders. Records in BOLD indicate that one of the teams has already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker for the season. Records in ITALICS indicate a season series tie, in which case the next tiebreak comes into play. An asterisk indicates the teams will play only three times this season. Otherwise, the teams play each other four times. X GSW MEM HOU POR LAC DAL SAS OKC NOP PHX GSW -- MEM 1-0* GSW 4-0 GSW 2-0* GSW 2-1 GSW 3-0 1-1* GSW 3-1 GSW 3-0 GSW 2-1 MEM MEM 1-0* -- 2-2 MEM 4-0 MEM 2-1 MEM 3-1 MEM 2-1 MEM 2-1 NOP 2-1 MEM 3-0 HOU GSW 4-0 2-2 -- POR 2-1* 2-2 HOU 2-1 1-1 HOU 2-0* NOP 2-0 HOU 3-1 POR GSW 2-0* MEM 4-0 POR 2-1* -- LAC 2-1 POR 2-1 POR 3-1 POR 3-0 POR 2-0* 1-1 LAC GSW 2-1 MEM 2-1 2-2 LAC 2-1 -- LAC 2-1* 2-2 LAC 2-1* LAC 2-1* LAC 3-0 DAL GSW 3-0 MEM 3-1 HOU 2-1 POR 2-1 LAC 2-1* -- DAL 2-1 DAL 2-1 DAL 3-1 PHX 3-0 SAS 1-1* MEM 2-1 1-1 POR 3-1 2-2 DAL 2-1 -- OKC 1-0* NOP 2-1 SAS 2-1 OKC GSW 3-1 MEM 2-1 HOU 2-0* POR 3-0 LAC 2-1* DAL 2-1 OKC 1-0* -- NOP 3-1 OKC 2-1 NOP GSW 3-0 NOP 2-1 NOP 2-0 POR 2-0* LAC 2-1* DAL 3-1 NOP 2-1 NOP 3-1 -- NOP 1-0* PHX GSW 2-1 MEM 3-0 HOU 3-1 1-1 LAC 3-0 PHX 3-0 SAS 2-1 OKC 2-1 NOP 1-1* -- Third tiebreaker: In-division record If two teams in the same division split their season series and have equal records, the team with the better in-division record gets the advantage. This is currently only in play for the Southwest Division. MEMPHIS 8-6 HOUSTON 5-6 DALLAS 7-7 SAN ANTONIO 4-7 Fourth tiebreaker: In-conference record If two teams are tied in the standings and neither of the first two tiebreakers can solve the problem, the team with the better in-conference record wins the tie. Here's the current situation for the relevant pairings whose head-to-head season series have ended in ties. Memphis has a 4.5-game lead on Houston in-conference L.A. has a 3.5-game lead on Houston in-conference L.A. has a 6-game lead on San Antonio in-conference Here are the current in-conference records for each team. Team Record W% Warriors 34-8 .810 Grizzlies 31-13 .705 Clippers 30-14 .682 Rockets 26-17 .605 Blazers 24-16 .600 Mavericks 24-19 .558 Spurs 23-19 .548 Pelicans 21-19 .512 Thunder 21-21 .500 Suns 20-22 .476 Additional tiebreakers If matters are still not resolved -- which is unlikely but possible -- the team with the better record against other playoff teams in the West will earn the tiebreak. If that does not resolve the issue, the team with the better record against the East playoff teams will earn the tiebreak. If that does not resolve the issue, the tiebreaker will be settled by the teams' net total points (total points scored minus total points allowed). If that does not resolve the issue, both team are ejected and the Lakers and Knicks take their spots.* * We think this is a joke.
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With no other powerful Democrats likely to run against her, Hillary Rodham Clinton's toughest adversary for her party's presidential nomination in 2016 has now become clear. It is an opponent that challenged her in the early 1980s over her use of her maiden name and was hectoring her again on Tuesday over her use of personal email for State Department business. "Did you or any of your aides delete any government-related emails from your personal account?" "What lengths are you willing to go to prove that you didn't?" "The White House counsel's office says that you never approved this arrangement through them. Why did you not do that?" Probing, persistent questions like these from the political press corps at Tuesday's news conference are the sort that rival candidates would be expected to ask on the campaign trail or in televised debates, as Barack Obama did against Mrs. Clinton in 2007 and 2008 over the Iraq war and other issues. Unlike then, however, this time Mrs. Clinton is not expected to face comparably aggressive opponents for her party's nomination. Among the possible Democratic field, former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland has shown little taste for cutthroat tactics. One can imagine Mrs. Clinton disarming Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent, with a few well-timed belly laughs. The Republican candidates, at least for now, appear too busy jousting among themselves to do much damage to her. Which leaves the news media. Mrs. Clinton has long had a fraught relationship with journalists, given their demands for full disclosure and her own long-held belief that public figures deserve a "zone of privacy," as she put it during Bill Clinton's race in 1992, or a "scope" of "personal privacy," as she said on Tuesday. With her first words at the news conference asking reporters, "All set?" before delivering her remarks Mrs. Clinton began a new and extraordinary chapter in her political life, one that could well last until the Democratic nomination is hers. By going before journalists to try to put an end to the email story, Mrs. Clinton all but acknowledged that she was running for president, because why else would she submit to question-shouting from so many dubious antagonists? And by holding the 21-minute news conference, in which she mounted a lawyerly defense through gritted teeth ("Let me try to unpack your multiple questions," she told one reporter), she undertook the first round of sparring in an opponent-deprived but nonetheless pugilistic phase of the campaign that seems apt to last until a likely Republican nominee emerges next spring. "Democratic primary voters may let her have the presidential nomination without a struggle, but the press won't," said Robert Shrum, a Democratic strategist who has advised several presidential candidates including Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. "The press will wage a kind of primary campaign against her, at least try to bring her down a peg or two. In the end, she will be the nominee, but she has to go through it first." The question is whether a news media-driven primary will inflict the kind of lasting damage to Mrs. Clinton that could affect her standing among independents, swing voters and undecided Democrats in the general election next year. Mr. Shrum, for example, helped Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry battle what he called "media caricatures" of their political records, that Mr. Gore was prone to overstatement and that Mr. Kerry was a flip-flopper, only to see them lose their general elections. Mrs. Clinton's poll numbers have remained strong among Democrats during the email uproar. But Tuesday was surely just her first face-off with the political press corps. And Election Day is 20 months away. "I don't think the press primary is helpful: It can get very annoying and distracting," Mr. Shrum said. "Al Gore got tortured by the press for claiming that he invented the Internet, which he never claimed. But it's hard to predict which controversies in the media will actually end up hurting." Russ Schriefer, a Republican strategist who worked on Mitt Romney's two presidential campaigns and Chris Christie's races for governor in New Jersey, said that a lack of top-tier Democratic campaign rivals would hurt Mrs. Clinton because the glare of the news media spotlight only intensifies when a single person is in it. "Without a serious Democratic primary opponent or a Republican nominee, she is caught in a race of Hillary v. Hillary, one that the media finds too juicy not to cover and one that might be impossible for her to win," Mr. Schriefer said, arguing that she would come away badly damaged from a primary fight with the news media. In some ways, though, the news media could be an ally for Mrs. Clinton over the next year. Without a sharp-toothed Democratic opponent, she may have few opportunities to hone her political skills, show her mettle or strengthen her armor in advance of a general-election fight with a Republican nominee. How she and her emerging campaign organization react to critical articles and unwelcome surprises from the news media, as well as to questions posed by journalists in Democratic primary debates, will reveal her strengths and weaknesses as a candidate in some of the same ways that running against Mr. Obama did in 2007 and 2008. Early in Tuesday's news conference, she adroitly used the discussion of her personal email to try to connect with voters on issues of privacy. She noted that some of her correspondence dealt with "planning Chelsea's wedding or my mother's funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes." In that moment, Mrs. Clinton looked and sounded like a human being anyone could relate to. And then reporters started asking questions, and the jousting began.
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Will Ferrell will suit up for the White Sox on Thursday and then helicopter from game-to-game over the span of five hours to play all nine positions with other MLB teams.
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There was a fury of moves on the first day of NFL free agency, but who were the winners? Our friends from the Football Fix break down the winners from day one.
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Last week, my 13-month-old son went from tentatively taking a few steps to being a full-blown walker. The transition was fast but unsurprisingly so, since my little man seems to enter every new stage with gusto and greet any physical challenge with so much relish that I'm already counting down the days until our first trip to the ER. With his new walker status also comes the realization that he's become a toddler, which also means that I no longer have a baby. And, truthfully, I'm not sad about it one bit. Sure, I read all those sweet parenting essays mourning each stage as if crib sleeping, diaper wearing, and breastfeeding were full of only positive memories, with nary a sleepless night, major blowout, or cracked nipple to be found. Sometimes I even feel myself relating to the sadness and nostalgia, but mostly I just think, "Man, I'm so happy to be done with that." Of course, I've loved my kids since the day I found out they had taken up residence in my belly, and I've found things to appreciate about each stage of their short yet utterly transformative (for me, at least) lives. But, I'll admit - I'm not really a baby person. To me, the most exciting part of parenthood is watching your little ones connect the dots. One day my 3-year-old daughter can barely draw a circle, and I swear, the next she can write her name next to a drawing of a pretty decent snowman. One day she refuses to get dressed without my help, and the next, she's putting on her own shoes and coat without me even having to ask (I swear it's happened at least once). It's so exciting to watch cognitive and physical advances in her, but at no time are these giant leaps in understanding and awareness more obvious than during the toddler stage. Suddenly, my son isn't just walking; he's giving me high fives and unsolicited kisses and real hugs. He can tell me what snakes and bears say. He can dance and blow bubbles on bellies and "read" books. To me, this is where the real fun of parenting begins. I've always said that 18 months was my favorite age with my daughter, but truthfully, almost two and a half years later, I had pretty much forgotten why. My son has helped me remember. This is the stage when you can see them turning into the child they will become, and it's kind of exhilarating. When my daughter was 15 months old, we took her to my cousin's wedding, where she dominated the dance floor and ran around without a single bit of inhibition, not once looking to see if her dad and I were watching or even nearby. Random wedding guests kept saying, "She's adorable, but you're in trouble when she's 15." We laughed then; she was our first, and we assumed all 15-month-olds were as fearless and party ready as she was. Now I know that's not true (my son is much more reserved), but she was showing us her true colors even at that young age. Now that she's almost 4, she's still happiest on the go, she's still independent as hell, and I'm pretty sure she's going to be a nightmare when she's 15. Some things I can already tell about my son. He'll probably always have a voracious appetite (28 pounds and counting). I'm hoping he'll stay as sweet and loving as he is now. And yes, he'll probably end up with a broken bone or two. But now that he's no longer a baby, I can't wait to see what else he's going to become. To me, that's the best part of being a parent: not caring for the baby they so shortly are, but nurturing and often just observing the person they're going to be.
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As you outfit an outdoor room, remember: The most accurate predictor of how much time you'll spend there is comfort. A well-made, comfortably proportioned outdoor sofa is the best way to give an indoor living room serious competition. As part of our new Gardenista 100 guide to the best outdoor furniture and accessories of 2015, we've rounded up seven of our all-time favorite outdoor sofas both classics and new designs that we'd love to sink into with a book this summer: Above: Designed by Annick Lestrohan for Serax, a 52-inch-long Honore Chaise has an iron and elastic frame and comes with cushions; it is €1,089 from Fonq. Above: A Dehors Sofa from Alias Design has a stove enameled steel frame and weather resistant acrylic cushions. For more information and prices, see Alias. Above: Currently on sale from Design Within Reach, a 76.5-inch-long Finn Three-Seater Sofa from Danish design house Norm has a teak frame and mildew-resistant Sunbrella cushions (available in white or black); $1,670.25. Above: From Scandinavian designer Skargaarden, a Haringe Lounge Sofa has a stainless steel frame and teak slats that will weather to a silvery patina unless oiled regularly. Waterproof cushions are sold separately. The sofa is 72 inches long and 28 inches deep; $3,060 from Horne. Above: A teak Montecito Daybed from James Perse Furniture has weather resistant cushions and is manufactured in the US. For more information and pricing, see James Perse. Above: Designed by Ted Boerner, a Mariposa Sofa from Henry Hall Designs has a handmade frame made of FSC-certified teak and is 76 inches long. Cushions and pillows as shown require 10 yards of fabric. For more information and pricing, see Henry Hall Designs. Above: From Restoration Hardware, a 70.25-inch-long three-seat Leagrave Sofa made of weathered teak is $2,295 (it's also available in three other sizes). Cushions are sold separately at prices ranging from $695 to $1,655 depending on fabric.
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College basketball players deciding on early entry into the NBA draft may soon have more time to make their decisions if a proposal crafted by coaches and representatives of the NCAA, NABC and NBA goes through. For the past three years, players have had to decide whether to enter their names into the NBA draft by the first day of college basketball's spring signing period. For players on teams that go deep into the NCAA tournament, there has been as little as one week between the end of their season and the deadline for a life-altering choice, hardly a sufficient amount of time to get realistic, unfiltered feedback about players' draft stock. That concerns coaches such as Kentucky's John Calipari, Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Georgetown's John Thompson III as well as NCAA vice president for basketball championships Dan Gavitt, NABC executive director Jim Haney and Kiki Vandeweghe, the NBA's director of basketball operations. Together, they've been working for the last eight months on a recommendation to change the pre-NBA draft process to allow players about five more weeks than they currently have to get information before making their decision to go pro or return to school. Under the proposal, prospects would also get direct feedback from NBA general managers. "You do hear horror stories someone who thought they were going to go in the first round and they don't get drafted," Thompson told USA TODAY Sports. "Or second round, and they don't get drafted. We just want to get the kids as much accurate information as we can." The coalition is making public its series of recommendations it hopes will spark conversation among college athletic circles and ideally end up in officially proposed legislation, submitted before Sept. 1, 2015. The concept would: "It's an exciting concept because it helps student-athletes and their families help hopefully the best-informed decisions they can make about their future that should be what we're all trying to accomplish," Gavitt said. The new timeline would allow players the ability to work out for various teams in addition to attending the competitive combine. Of the collaboration with the NBA, Haney said: "There was a lot of common ground. We've got young men making pretty significant decisions putting their names in the draft not being drafted or not being drafted where they thought they were going to be drafted. Is there a better way? I think we all feel we have come up with a better way." There is, however, one downside to the new timeline, one that will affect college coaches most. By extending the withdrawal deadline about five weeks, some coaches will have a great deal of roster uncertainty throughout the spring signing period. "No system is perfect," Thompson said. "From the college coach's perspective, there will be some uncertainty. Decisions will have to be made hold the scholarship, don't hold the scholarship. That is going to be difficult. That's not something that's just overlooked; it's going to have to be managed as well as it could be. I say manage, but it's not manageable. But it's important to move toward getting (players) better information." It's not just the multitude of information that's important it's the source. The group sees value in their proposed system that would give prospects feedback directly from NBA personnel. "Currently, we have an undergraduate advisory committee in place, which has been operating for a number of years," Vandeweghe said. "That would continue, but basically we'd give everybody more information. … The athletes would get direct feedback (after the combine) from the people who are going to draft them or not draft them. "Being able to provide them with full information directly from NBA general managers is, I think, an important part of the process." UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who chairs the Division I men's basketball oversight committee, said "the train is on the track to some extent" with this initiative. He said it's a topic that's been in discussion for some time and will be vetted at the Division I Council level to determine if it makes sense to adopt. The earliest new legislation could go into effect would be 2016. "If you're really worried about the kids and them making the right decision," Izzo said, "it just seemed like a no-brainer, to be honest with you." All parties involved in the proposal discussions will lead to further dialogue on other issues related to the betterment of the game and its players. "Any collaborating we can get with our coaches, the NCAA and the NBA on things that help improve situations for players and the game is a real positive, too," Gavitt said. "We're appreciative of the fact that the NBA was willing to collaborate with the NABC and the NCAA." CONFERENCE CHAMPS AND NCAA AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS
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A loophole in a law in Ireland is causing several drugs like mushrooms and ecstasy to become legal. It will only be temporary as the government tries to fix the mistake. Patrick Jones (@Patrick_E_Jones) explains.
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U.S. stocks closed mildly lower on Wednesday as equities failed to recover from Tuesday's selloff amid continued concern over dollar gains and the timing of a Fed interest rate hike. It's "fear of what negative impact the strong dollar has without thinking of positives," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. The U.S. dollar extended gains to rise more than 1 percent, a 12-year high. Historical analysis by Wunderlich showed that the S&P 500 was down for 19 of the last 27 trading days during which the dollar was strong. Before that, the index and the dollar had no correlation. "This suggests the market has started pricing in a negative affect on the U.S. economy," said Athanasios Vamvakidis, head of G10 FX strategy in Europe for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. With the dollar's "pace of acceleration, there is a risk that further dollar strength could impact the U.S. market," Driving the dollar's rise was the euro (EUR=) 's continued decline, falling below $1.06 on Wednesday to a 12-year low. Bets are on as to when the euro could reach parity against the greenback (USD=) , with the currency under pressure as the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program kicked off this week. "It's not logical long term to assume that a strong dollar is a negative," said Maris Ogg, president of Tower Bridge Advisors. "It draws capital to the U.S." "In the long run, lower oil prices and a strong dollar are good," she said. The Dow Transports rose 1 percent as oil prices continued to edge lower. Joe Terranova, a trader on CNBC's " Halftime Report " Model Portfolio competition, bought an airline stock on the energy decline Wednesday. Transports benefit from continued low oil prices because "even if prices do their normal seasonal run, it's going to be cheaper than a year ago," said Phil Flynn, energy market analyst at Price Futures Group. Oil futures extended losses on Wednesday after government data showed U.S. commercial crude inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels last week, well above an industry group report released on Tuesday. Crude oil futures settled down 12 cents at $48.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since Feb. 26. Oil touched a one-month low of $47.33 immediately following the inventory report. Equities dipped in and out of negative territory before holding lower in late afternoon trade. "When you have a market entirely driven by news and data you're going to have ... more intraday volatility," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade."We're not growing at the pace that everyone is expecting it to grow and that puts the Fed in a tough situation." Among the many reports on the Federal Reserve's expected action, analysts eyed a Wednesday article by the Wall Street Journal that said the Fed would drop "patient" from its statement ahead of a rate hike as early as June. "The Fed is not tightening, just backing away from its easing program," Ogg said. She noted that in these transitional periods "the market does OK, in fact, does well." U.S. stocks closed more than 1.5 percent lower on Tuesday, with the Dow off more than 300 points and the S&P below 2,050 to wipe out gains for the year. Only the Nasdaq held on to gains of about 2.6 percent for the year. "Based on the indicators, it seems possible this week could bring a moderately bullish bounce early on, followed by a moderately bearish decline overall later in the week," Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, said in a note. "There could also be a bit of a pickup in volatility, so traders should be watchful and maintain their hedges while watching for any buying opportunities that may arise." The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) (.VIX) , widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded higher near 17. "Volatility is picking up so it's all going to happen quickly," said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. He sees the possibility of a 5 to 8 percent correction, especially as more stocks make new lows than highs. The volatility index has traded in a lower range despite analyst expectations for levels of 19 or 20. With the S&P 500 breaking the support level of 2,085 to 2,093, S&P Capital IQ U.S. Equity Strategist Sam Stovall said in a note that the breach "targets a likely test of the 2,034-55 zone" and "should attract buying interest such that the S&P 500 moves swiftly back above the 2,085-93 area. "An S&P 500 break below 2,034 along with a VIX move above 20 would be additionally bearish," he added. Weekly mortgage applications dropped as rates jumped , with the 1.3 percent decline driven mostly by a 3 percent drop in refinance applications, which makes up 60 percent of all applications. That volume was 80 percent in recent years. The Treasury Department auctioned $21 billion of 10-year notes at a high yield of 2.13 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was the highest since December at 2.65. In the hours following the auction, the yield fell to 2.10 percent, below the key 2.28 percent level some analysts are watching for. "I won't say the risk-off trade is ended, but people don't need the run to fixed income trade as much," Kinahan said. Later in the day, the Fed will publish further stress test results for large U.S. banks, assessing their capital plans. European equities rebounded on Wednesday, with gains for all major bourses except Greece's. Traders will watch continued debt negotiations between Greece's newly installed left-wing government and the "troika" of international institutions supervising its bailout program. "We're very concerned about the European situation," said Pete Benson, co-founder of Beacon Capital Management. "There are some situations that are going to move the market significantly that keep getting kicked down the road." With the impending June meeting on Greek debt and the possibility of a U.S. interest rate hike then, "it could all culminate in a very stormy summer," he said. In corporate news, Endo International (ENDP) confirmed that it submitted a proposal to the Board of Directors of Salix to acquire all the outstanding shares of common stock of Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) for $175 a share in cash and stock . The proposal competes with Valeant (VRX-CA) 's $10 billion offer for Salix. After the close on Wednesday, Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) is scheduled to replace PetSmart (PETM) in the S&P 500. The pet supplies retailer will go private through an acquisition by BC Partners. "The power gauge rating (on Skyworks) has turned neutral because the valuations are now sky-high," Chaikin said. Still, "the company is well-positioned in the industry because of the Internet of Things. It's operating on all four cylinders. There's only positive things to say." Lumber Liquidators (LL) , which was battered by a "60 Minutes" report on the safety of its flooring products, continues to trade in volatile pattern, and surged 14 percent on Wednesday.The volatility has been driven by strong opinions both positive and negative on the future of the company. Shake Shack (SHAK) is following up a five percent Tuesday gain with a 1.5 percent decline, ahead of its quarterly earnings report after today's closing bell. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD) will also post earnings. Goldman Sachs added SanDisk (SNDK) to its "conviction buy" list, citing an attractive valuation and expanding gross margins, among other factors. The memory card maker rose more than 4 percent. High-frequency trades account for 47.5 percent of average daily trade volume, according to TABB Group. During the peak levels of high-frequency trade in 2009, about 61 percent of shares traded daily were high-frequency trade. Advancers were a step ahead of decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, with an exchange volume of 485 million and a composite volume of 2.6 billion in afternoon trade. Gold futures settled down 0.8 percent at $1,150.60 an ounce, the lowest since November. As of Tuesday's close: The Dow Jones industrial average was within half a standard deviation below its 50-day moving average. Since 1981 the index has been in this position 4.78 percent of all trading days, according to quantitative analytics tool Kensho. The probability of the index moving lower is 42.7 percent and the probability of it moving higher in the days following is 57.3 percent. The S&P 500 was within half a standard deviation below its 50-day moving average. Since 1980 the index has been in this position 4.26 percent of all trading days, according to Kensho. The probability of the index moving higher in the days following is 56.6 percent and the probability of it moving lower is 43.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite was within one standard deviation above its 50-day moving average. Since 1980 the index has been in this position 5.37 percent of all trading days, according to Kensho. The probability of the index moving lower is 50.2 percent and the probability of it moving higher is 49.8 percent. CNBC's Jenny Cosgrave and Peter Schacknow contributed to this report. More From CNBC.com: Did lower oil prices help the economy at all? It's time for that European vacation How start-ups are making huge money, now
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Here are a few simple guidelines aspiring politicians should follow regarding sexting: Don't sext with people you don't know. If you do sext, don't sext with someone famously at the center of a political sexting scandal. If you do decide to sext with that person anyway, definitely don't buy that person gifts and leave your name on the receipts. Unfortunately for Indiana state Rep. Justin Moed (D), he failed to follow all three of these rules, deciding instead to start sexting Sydney Leathers of Anthony Weiner sext scandal fame and then accidentally revealing his name to her on gift receipts. Leathers promptly told the New York Post's Page Six that she was sexting a Midwestern lawmaker. Moed, who is engaged, soon admitted it was him, and said he was "truly sorry I have hurt the ones I love most with my poor judgment," according to the Indianapolis Star's Tom LoBianco . Who is Sydney Leathers, again? If you've (justifiably) blocked Weiner's sext scandals from your mind, recall that there were two separate ones, and Leathers was at the center of the second. The first scandal was sparked by a photo Weiner accidentally posted on Twitter, and ended up forcing him out of Congress in 2011. The second Weiner's sexting relationship with Leathers, under the pseudonym "Carlos Danger" broke during Weiner's attempted comeback as a candidate for mayor of New York City in 2013, revealing that he had not, in fact, given up his habit of sexting with random women. As for Moed, Leathers told the Post , "Is he displaying poor judgment by sexting me of all people? Obviously. But should sexual situations define politicians? They are human, after all."
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Erin McLaughlin reports on a record 100.8 inches of snowfall in the small village of Capracotta, Italy
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Hoops icon Michael Jordan qualified for Forbes' annual billionaires list for the first time this year with a net worth of $1 billion thanks to soaring NBA franchise values. The Charlotte Hornets are Jordan's biggest asset, with his stake worth more than $500 million net of debt. But the team has been a money loser in terms of cash flow in most recent years. The NBA's greatest player can afford it though, as he continues to make a mint annually outside of the Hornets. Jordan earned $100 million from Nike and other partners last year by Forbes' count, more than any other retired or current athlete. His 2014 haul is also more than the $94 million Jordan made in cumulative playing salary during 15 years lacing up his hightops for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. Nike's Jordan Brand is a financial juggernaut. Jordan U.S. shoe sales rose 17% last year to $2.6 billion, according to data compiled by SportScanInfo. It is nearly 10 times the sales of the signature shoes for the top active NBA star, LeBron James . Jordan apparel and the international business add more than $1 billion as well. The Jordan Brand commanded 58% market share of the $4.2 billion U.S. basketball shoe market last year, up from 54% in 2013. The Swoosh's share jumps to 95.5% if you include Nike Basketball. The competition: Adidas (2.6% share), Under Armour (1%) and Reebok (0.8%). "Nike has done an unbelievable job evolving the Jordan Brand from pure basketball to a more lifestyle brand," says Eric Tracy, an analyst who tracks Nike at Janney Capital Markets. "That inherently pulls in a much larger target market." Tracy also points to Nike's ability to exploit the sneakerhead phenomenon, which is second to none. They are constantly refreshing the Jordan retro line, which represents about 50% of the Jordan shoe business. Nike leaves a little money on the table by never producing enough to meet demand, but this always leaves Jordan fans wanting more. Take the launch of the retro Air Jordan XI "Legend Blue" on Dec. 20. It sold out on Nike's website in three hours. Other retailers also quickly emptied their supply. At an average price of $180, according to SportScanInfo, Nike sold more than $80 million of the "Legend Blue" within its first week with most of the sales on the first day. This is one style over one week. For perspective, Adidas, Under Armour, Reebok and every other non-Nike/Jordan brand sold a cumulative total of $190 million for all its styles over the 52 weeks of 2014. That is the power of Jordan. Nike kicked off its 30 th anniversary celebration of the Jordan Brand at the All-Star game in New York this year. It included a Michael Jordan-themed interactive experience in Manhattan and a pop-up store in Brooklyn. The Jordan Brand has a host of roughly 30 current NBA players under contract, who showcase the product on the court, including All-Stars Carmelo Anthony , Chris Paul , Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook . Jordan endorsers outside basketball include Derek Jeter , Nascar's Denny Hamlin, NFL's Dez Bryant and boxer Andre Ward. No one sells like MJ though. Jordan retired for a third and final time a dozen years ago, but he still resonates with the public like few other people on the planet. He rates higher than any current of former athlete when it comes to consumer perception, according to market research firm Repucom. He ranks fourth among all celebrities in the U.S. and 12 th globally. The only other athlete ranked in the top 20 globally is soccer's David Beckham . Jordan's 98% awareness level in the U.S. is on par with Barack Obama . Nike royalties provide the bulk of Jordan's annual earnings, but he still has sponsorship deals in place with other long-time partners: Gatorade, Hanes, Upper Deck, 2K Sports and Five Star Fragrances. For this year's NBA All-Star game and as part of its 50 th anniversary celebration, Gatorade digitally remastered its famous "Be Like Mike" ad, which initially ran in 1991 after the Bulls won their first of six titles. MJ originally signed a 10-year, $13.5 million deal with the sports drink maker. Jordan also has seven restaurants and a car dealership that kick off income. Jordan's two-year agreement with Novant Health expired last year. Jordan aligned with Novant, in part, as a carrot for the healthcare company to sign a team sponsorship deal in the 2012 with the former Bobcats, who changed their name to the Hornets ahead of the current NBA season (Novant remains a team sponsor). For all of his achievements as a player and shoe salesman, Jordan has not replicated those successes in the owner's suite. He disastrously nabbed Kwame Brown as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft when Jordan was the top executive and minority owner of the Washington Wizards. The Bobcats posted the worst winning percentage in NBA history during the 2011-12 season when they won only 7 of 66 games in Jordan's second season as majority owner. But his timing in buying majority control in the Hornets was impeccable. Jordan was approved as majority owner in March 2010 in a deal that valued the club at only $175 million, excluding Jordan's agreement to cover loses. NBA values have soared since then with new TV contracts and Steve Ballmer 's blockbuster $2 billion bid for the Los Angeles Clippers. Forbes values the Hornets at $725 million. The Hornets' are on the upswing after making the playoffs last year. They are poised to qualify again this year in the watered-down Eastern Conference. Bringing back the Hornets name has sparked interest in the team and fueled the most new season ticket sales by any NBA team. Full season ticket sales topped 10,000 this year for the first time in franchise history. "For all of the people that think I'm in this for the short term, you better pull your socks up and just hang around because my promise to this organization and this community is to bring a winner," said Jordan in a speech while accepting the award as Charlotte Business Journal's Business Person of the Year in January. "We still have a long ways to go as an organization," said Jordan. "We are just scratching the surface." History says don't bet against MJ.
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The helicopter crash during a routine night training mission, the 11 service members are presumed dead
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The Seattle Seahawks acquired Jimmy Graham from the Saints on Tuesday in exchange for Max Unger. Jason McIntyre fills us in on the reaction to this move.
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Casino man Lionel Messi believes that it is his "gambler's instincts" which make him such a brilliant player for Barcelona . The Argentina international has been photographed leaving casinos with former Camp Nou colleague Cesc Fabregas twice in the past month, attracting scrutiny in some quarters. High-roller | Messi was snapped coming out from a casino in London recently And Messi, whose top form in the past two months has helped Barca to do a clean sweep of rivals in all competitions, has ironically compared his talents with a ball at his feet to that of a high-stakes poker player. "There are people who suggest that my way of playing football is innate," the four-time Ballon d'Or winner told Four Four Two . "I do not know if this is the case, but it is true that I have a gambler's instinct. "On the pitch I'm always looking to make the best move or the best decision, while trying not to do what the opponent expects me to do. "When I feel the grass under my feet, I feel safe. I use the huge pressure to be better because pressure helps me to develop my skills." Barca Bluff | Messi clambers into the back of a cab after his casino fun with Cesc Fabregas and the duo's girlfriends And in a jibe towards the English press following paparazzi snapping him at casinos in London, he added: "I do not suffer intrusion into my private life by the media in Barcelona." Barcelona currently holds the chips in La Liga after overtaking Real Madrid at the weekend in the title race, and it is a far cry from the chaos which was reported to be going on behind the scenes at Camp Nou at the turn of the year. Messi was alleged to have had a raging row with head coach Luis Enrique but he says he is always a beacon of tranquillity in the changing room who does not sulk or shout or scream. "Football's just a game but I happen to do it naturally," he added. "I'm never yelling or screaming in the dressing room before going out to play. I prefer to be silent, to collect my thoughts." The Argentina international also professed, cheekily, that he is "the king" when it comes to taking on Barcelona players on the football video game FIFA of which he is an official sponsor.
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By Larry Brown The New Orleans Saints trading Jimmy Graham on Tuesday was probably the biggest surprise of the day, and it had most people wondering the same thing: Why would they get rid of one of the best tight ends in football? Saints GM Mickey Loomis was on Sirius XM NFL Radio and explained the team's thinking . "At the end of the day, it comes down to this: We've had a good offensive team for a number of years," said Loomis, who cited the team's statistics since Sean Payton took over. "We do well on that side of the ball, but we've got to improve ourselves on defense. … so we took one of our assets on offense and turned it into some resources (that) hopefully we can improve our defense with." Loomis also said that coming off a 7-9 season, he felt they "had to make a bold move" and shake things up, which this did. He conceded that it was a "tough decision" because they love Graham, who has scored 51 touchdowns during his career. There are also a few other factors to consider that may have led to the trade. For one, the Saints were over the salary cap by more than any other team in the league. Graham was owed nearly $25 million over the next three seasons, so they saved a little money by trading him. Two, Graham just was not the same player last season as he battled his shoulder injury. He had two games where he did not catch a pass because he was limited, and he only caught one touchdown over the final four games of the season. Perhaps they felt he would not be the same player in the future. Lastly, the team appears to be changing its offensive approach slightly thanks to the emergence of Mark Ingram. They spent money to re-sign him and may be gearing up for a more run-heavy attack in the future. Now that he's in Seattle, we wish Graham the best of luck knowing that he does NOT get along with their players . I can't wait to hear how his meeting with Michael Bennett goes .
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A bill meant to crack down on human trafficking is in deep trouble in the Senate because of a political fight over abortion. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act would give additional resources to law enforcement on the issue, as well as start a fund for trafficking victims. But Democrats are threatening to pull their support over the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment, which blocks the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. The fight took a turn for the worse Wednesday, when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested that Democrats would block the legislation unless Republicans strip out the abortion provision. "Take that legislation out of the bill, otherwise it will not pass. Take it out," he said. "Republicans are committed to turning the bipartisan bill into an unrelated, unconscionable political fight." Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who introduced the anti-trafficking bill, fired back, saying that Democrats are trying to "kill the bill." "Unless something changes between now and the time we vote on cloture on the bill, [that] is what's going to happen," Cornyn said. "I hope something happens between now and the end of the week." Senate Democrats say they were tricked by Republicans over whether the abortion-related language would be included in the bill. "We can give all the speeches out here we want, saying somebody should have read the bill more closely," Reid said. "A number of people feel that it was by sleight of hand that this unrelated language was included in the legislation." Reid's comments followed similar remarks from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer told reporters Tuesday that, "a list [was] sent to certain members saying 'here are the changes from last year.' This provision was not listed among them." Republicans, however, vehemently denied that they deceived Democrats to gain support for the proposal, which passed unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee earlier this year. "If they didn't know that this language was in there, they didn't read the legislation," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). A Republican aide said that the abortion provision was included in the legislation when it was reintroduced in January, and that Democrats knew about it. "This language was added last year, was in when we introduced in January, and Democrat staff told us they knew it was in there prior to committee markup in February," the aide said. "To cry foul now is disingenuous and not deserving of these survivors." While senators continued to voice optimism that a deal can be reached, it's unclear how they will reach an agreement before a cloture vote that senators will take Thursday. The partisan fight is a stark turn from Monday, when both Reid and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested the legislation deserved broad bipartisan support. Democrats worry that Republicans are trying to expand the Hyde Amendment, which is generally attached to appropriations bills. If the anti-trafficking legislation passes with the abortion language intact, the victims fund it establishes using money from criminal trafficking convictions would be subject to the Hyde Amendment. Democrats argue that's a change in how the amendment is typically used. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) accused Republicans of trying to "sneak in" the abortion language. "I am appalled that on a bill intended to help women, Republicans actually have chosen to double down on their political fight against women's health," she said. But Republicans aren't backing down. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said if Democrats have a problem with the abortion language, they ought to offer an amendment. "If you're opposed to something, the way to solve that is not to block the consideration of the bill," he said. "The way to solve that is to allow the bill to be considered, and if you oppose something in the bill, offer an amendment, have the debate, and let the votes decide. Updated at 8:27 p.m.
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A year ago on Selection Sunday, college basketball fans reacted to the freshly announced bracket with one consensus opinion: Wichita State got screwed. The committee handed the 34-0 Shockers the No. 1 seed they deserved but seemingly stacked the deck against them by sticking them in a loaded Midwest region with the No. 4 (Louisville), No. 7 (Michigan) and No. 8 (Duke) teams in the pre-tourney AP poll. Most galling, preseason No. 1 Kentucky garnered the eighth seed, ensuring a likely Round of 32 meeting between the two. Sure enough, the Wildcats ended Wichita State's run en route to the national title game. A year later, it's Kentucky that takes an undefeated record into its conference tournament, and while John Calipari's team is a lock to earn the committee's No. 1 overall seed, it will likely run into a similarly stacked draw. Not because of some grand conspiracy theory, as Calipari would have you believe ("I bet they slide the Lakers in there," he said last weekend ), but simply because Kentucky sits in a section of the country with a whole bunch of other good basketball teams. As I learned first-hand at the NCAA's media mock selection seminar last month, geography plays a far bigger factor than any other in determining how teams get placed onto the bracket. Many fans assume the committee follows an "S-curve" snake -- i.e. matching the highest-ranked No. 1 seed with the lowest-ranked No. 2 seed -- to form symmetrically balanced regions. That's not correct. While the committee does rank the teams from No. 1 through 68, it uses the order primarily to determine which teams get first dibs on their closest geographical playing site. And it's a particular priority with the top four seed lines. Which brings us this year's most likely Selection Sunday controversy. Because Kentucky is such an overwhelming favorite, the distinction between earning a No. 1 seed and a No. 2 seed will be more pronounced than usual. No Final Four aspirant wants to land the No. 2 spot in the Wildcats' region. And yet a combination of geography and conference affiliation may well bestow that fate on the highest-ranked of the four No. 2 seeds -- most likely Wisconsin. In producing my mock bracket for FoxSports.com , I, like the committee, maintain an overall No. 1-68 ranking list. If I used a true S-curve, this is what Kentucky's region would look like: 1) Kentucky 8) Kansas 9) Maryland 16) West Virginia Under that scenario, if there were no upsets, Kentucky would play the lowest-ranked No. 4 seed, West Virginia, in the Sweet 16, and the lowest-ranked No. 2 seed, Kansas, in the Elite Eight. Coincidentally, Kentucky beat the Jayhawks 72-40 back in November. But the committee's published principles and procedures explicitly state that: "Teams will remain in or as close to their areas of natural interest as possible." Wisconsin's natural region is obviously the Midwest, with regional games this year in Cleveland. That's why the projected region looks like this instead: 1) Kentucky 5) Wisconsin 12) Notre Dame 13) Oklahoma While unintentional, this is the inverse of an S-curve. Kentucky draws both the highest-ranked No. 2 and No. 4 seeds. And while geography dictated the Badgers' spot opposite the Wildcats, a different bracketing rule landed Oklahoma here. That is: "Each of the first four teams selected from a conference shall be placed in different regions if they are seeded on the first four lines." By the time I got to the 4 line, Big 12 teams Kansas (East), Iowa State (South) and Baylor (West) had all been placed, leaving the Midwest as Oklahoma's only option. Mind you, the committee does have a provision for rebalancing the regions if they're too far out of whack. After they place teams on the top four lines they add up the true seed numbers. "Generally, no more than five points should separate the lowest and highest total." Using my true seed numbers, the Midwest is the lowest at 31, the West the highest at 36, so it falls within the accepted range. But it does mean Kentucky's region is the hardest. In addition to matching teams with regional sites, the committee tries to put each of the top four seeds in the closest possible first-weekend pod. For Kentucky, that's obviously Louisville. By placing a No. 1 seed there, it ensures the Midwest's No. 8, 9 and 16 seeds will also go to Louisville. That's how Xavier, my highest-ranked No. 8 seed, also wound up opposite Kentucky as opposed to two other nearby teams, Dayton and Cincinnati. I'm sure Musketeers fans would rather trek to Charlotte and draw Virginia as its possible Round of 32 foe. For an even better illustration of the committee's bracketing procedures in action, let's revisit Wichita State's stacked region from 2014. Given the committee published its full 1-68 list , we can reasonably reconstruct how the Shockers' draw came to be. First of all, here were the committee's top 16 teams: 1) Florida 2) Arizona 3) Wichita State 4) Virginia 5) Villanova 6) Michigan 7) Kansas 8) Wisconsin 9) Duke 10) Syracuse 11) Creighton 12) Iowa State 13) Louisville 14) Michigan State 15) UCLA 16) San Diego State And the four regional sites last year were: New York (East), Indianapolis (Midwest), Memphis (South) and Anaheim (West). As No. 1 overall seed, Florida got placed first in its closest region, Memphis. Arizona then got placed in Anaheim, leaving Indianapolis free for Wichita State. Repeating that process for the next line, No. 5 Villanova got placed first and naturally went to New York. No. 6 Michigan, up next, made most sense in Indianapolis and thus became the No. 2 seed in Wichita State's region. On the third line, geography started to conflict with other bracketing rules. No. 9 Duke, for example, could not join Virginia in New York and instead went to its second-closest region ... Indianapolis. Finally, first up on the fourth line was Louisville, located a mere 90 minutes from Indy. That put both the highest-rated No. 3 seed AND highest-rated No. 4 seed in Wichita State's region Finally, the Shockers' no-brainer first-weekend pod was St. Louis. Looking further down the committee's No. 1-68 list, Kentucky at No. 29 was the committee's first team on the No. 8 line. And Kentucky's closest first-weekend site was ... St. Louis. So, yes, Wichita State's region was as stacked as people thought. And the same could hold true for this year's Midwest. Wisconsin fans are already preemptively fuming about a potential unfair draw. During an interview on CBS last weekend, committee chairman Scott Barnes, the athletic director at Utah State, said the group may reexamine its procedures over the summer but for now will adhere to its mandate to emphasize geography. It may be that the topic becomes moot by the time we get through this weekend's conference tournaments. Perhaps my fourth No. 1 seed, Villanova, loses in the Big East tournament, and Wisconsin wins the Big Ten tourney and moves up. And then there's the ACC. Current projected No. 1 seeds Virginia and Duke can't both win their tourney. The Blue Devils seem safe, but the Cavaliers could fall with an early exit, in which case last week's No. 2 team would wind up in ... the Midwest. The committee can't send both ACC teams to the East. Cue the Selection Sunday rants now. Going forward, the committee would be smart to reexamine how much emphasis it places on keeping teams close to home vs. building a balanced bracket. But by no means is it a no-brainer they should change. Rare is a season like this where one team, Kentucky, clearly separates itself from the rest of the field. Furthermore, does a team like Wisconsin really merit special treatment? It's hardly indisputable that Frank Kaminsky's squad is the best No. 2 seed. In fact, the AP poll currently has Arizona, not Wisconsin, No. 5. Finally, should the committee even be making decisions based on a hypothetical Elite Eight matchup? This is March Madness. Chalk rarely holds. Of the 40 Elite Eight games played over the past 10 years, only 12 pitted a region's No. 1 and 2 seeds. That being said, it will take an all-time upset to keep Kentucky out of this year's Elite Eight. Want to know the best way to avoid the Wildcats? Relocate your school somewhere far from the Midwest. Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel . Send emails and Mailbag questions to [email protected] .
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So you think you know all about the royal families around the world? If your answer is yes, then check out the images and guess these princes and princesses from their childhood photographs. Hint: This heir to the British Crown will soon have a brother or sister to play with. Prince George of Cambridge Hint: A quintessential prince charming, he's also a trained RAF-Search-and-Rescue pilot. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge Hint: she's one of the most-loved royal fashionistas Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge Hint: This prince is known for his wild lifestyle and on-and-off relationships Harry, Prince Henry of Wales Hint: The heir apparent to the British Crown. Charles, Prince of Wales Hint: A familiar British royal. Queen Elizabeth II Hint: This prince is better known for his latest controversial case. Prince Andrew, Duke of York Hint: This princess was voted as BBC's Sports Personality in 1971. Princess Anne Hint: Last year's Sony hacking revealed her salary. Can you tell who is this princess from the British Royal family? Princess Beatrice Hint: This spirited princess moved to Big Apple in 2013 and walks to work every day. Princess Eugenie Hint: Despite being a member of the British Royal family, she doesn't hold any royal title. Zara Phillips Hint: this princess from Europe has already impressed the world with her great oratory skills. Princess Elisabeth of Belgium Hint: This princess is fond of tennis. Princess Aiko of Japan Hint: Seen here with her mother Princess Caroline, this princess known for her ice-skating skills. Princess Alexandra of Hanover Hint: This princess is from the family directly linked to Prophet Mohammed. Princess Salma of Jordan
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It is no secret that North Koreans adore their supreme leader and, interestingly, many of them seem to be of the opposite gender. Here is a look at him with some of his most ardent female fans. (Pictured) Residents greet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) during his visit to the Jangjae Islet Defence Detachment and Mu Islet Hero Defence Detachment on the front, near the border with South Korea, southwest of Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un at Foodstuff Factory No. 354 of the Korean People's Army in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. Residents greet Kim Jong-un during his visit to the Jangjae Islet Defence Detachment and Mu Islet Hero Defence Detachment near the border with South Korea, southwest of Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits an outpost at Mount Osung, in this undated photo released by North Korea's KCNA in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un meets member of the women's sub-units under KPA Unit 851 in this undated photo released by KCNA. Kim Jong-un waves during a visit to the Pyongyang Myohyangsan Children's Camp, situated at the foot of Mt. Myohyang in North Phyongan Province. Kim Jong-un visits the Yuphyong Revolutionary Site. The North Korean leader supervises a flight drill of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 2620. Kim supervises a flight drill of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 2620 after being honored with the Title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. Kim with the women's national soccer team after their Asian Football Federation (EAFF) Cup win in Seoul, South Korea. Supreme commander of the Korean People's Army smiles during his inspection of Unit 1016 of Korean People's Army (KPA). Kim gives field guidance at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang Textile Mill in Pyongyang. The leader during a supervisory flight drill of the KPA. Kim attends a performance by the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Kim during a visit to the KPA Unit 4302 in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un poses with two female pilots of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force.
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Perhaps the cruelest joke perpetuated by the financial media is the existence of "smart money." After all, who wouldn't want what simply tracking the smart money supposedly promises? Just follow in their footsteps and watch your own money grow. If only it were that simple. In truth, the myth of "smart" money is a particularly insidious one. There's nothing to support that it actually exists, other than its label. And when you delve into the data , the reality is that "smart" money is really quite dumb. Endowment money isn't smart. According to 2014 estimates from the National Association of College and University Business Officers, educational endowments in the United States manage in excess of $516 billion. Given the vast resources available to these institutions, you would think most of them would be able to outperform a simple index-based portfolio. After all, they have sophisticated investment committees, an army of highly paid consultants and the ability to buy into alternative investments, such as hedge funds, venture capital and private equity. These options are not available to most individual investors. One 2013 University of California, Davis, study analyzed the returns of a large number of institutions for the 21-year period ending June 2011. The conclusions of this study were stunning. It found the average endowment earns an "alpha," or risk-adjusted return above a benchmark, of "close to zero." It failed to find evidence that a combination of manager selection, market timing or tactical asset allocation generated positive alpha. This study also found the vast majority of endowments, like the vast majority of individual investors, "choose to play the loser's game" of active management , with mixed results. The average endowment allocates 73 percent of its domestic public equity portfolio and 66 percent of its fixed-income assets to active management. Presumably, endowments bet on active management based on their belief this expensive strategy will "beat the market." This hope is not supported by experience. The authors of the study write: "While the managers appear to earn sufficient returns to cover their fees, there is no evidence that endowments even the endowments of elite institutions are able to beat benchmark returns." Pension money isn't smart. According to a March 3 article published in The New York Times, "Pension Funds Trail Individuals in Embracing Index Funds," pension funds like endowments rely on "an army of asset managers and consultants who charge higher fees but promise better returns through so-called alternative investments like private equity and hedge funds." However, pension fund returns indicate many would be better off firing their highly paid consultants and managers, and instead invest in a globally diversified portfolio of low-management fee index funds. It's easy to understand why this is unlikely to happen. Pension plans and outside vendors have a strong economic interest in perpetuating the current system. This system involves a convoluted process of picking active fund managers, reviewing their performance periodically and then making a decision about which funds to keep and which ones to replace. Just think of all those meetings over expensive lunches. How is this system working? A study published in The Journal of Finance in 2008, authored by Amit Goyal and Sunil Wahal, examined 8,755 hiring decisions by approximately 3,400 plan sponsors over a 10-year period. The study found underperformers who were fired went on to post excess returns higher than their replacements. Those "fired" beat the "hired." The process has clearly failed miserably. If pension plans can't pick outperforming active fund managers prospectively, how do you like your chances? Investment "pros" aren't smart. The financial media frequently refers to "investment pros" as a reliable source of financial advice. The data demonstrates conclusively that reliance on these "pros" is seriously misplaced. A far-reaching 2009 study, "Luck Vs. Skill in the Cross Section of Mutual Fund Returns" concluded that a portfolio of low-cost index funds is likely to perform about as well as a portfolio of the top 3 percent of actively managed funds (and better than the other 97 percent). Buying index funds is smart. John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, correctly notes the biggest problem confronting investors is their failure "to earn their fair share of market returns," according to an interview with The New York Times. A significant portion of their profits is siphoned off by the high cost of actively managed funds, the majority of which underperform their comparable benchmark. David Swensen, the highly respected manager of Yale University's endowment, explained to the Times why brokers rarely recommend index funds: "Wall Street makes no money on low-cost index funds. That is the problem." Now that you understand why "smart" money is dumb, join the growing number of responsible and intelligent investors who are shifting their portfolios to low-cost index funds. Then your investments will be "smart." Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM ALLIANCE and a wealth advisor with Buckingham. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is "The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read." Copyright 2015 U.S. News & World Report
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Greece on Wednesday renewed attacks on its top paymaster Germany as technical experts began talks on the crisis-hit country's new reform proposals. The Greek justice minister threatened Berlin with asset seizures over war reparations claimed by Athens, a long-standing demand that experts say has debatable legal foundations. Nikos Paraskevopoulos said he was "ready to approve" a Greek Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that ordered Germany to pay around 28 million euros to the relatives of 218 civilians in the central Greek village of Distomo who were massacred by Nazi forces on June 10, 1944. Under the Supreme Court ruling, assets such as property belonging to Germany's archaeological school and the Goethe Institute could be seized as compensation. "The law states that the minister must give the order for the Supreme Court ruling to be carried out.... I am ready to give that order," Paraskevopoulos told Antenna TV. The move came days after Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos threatened to send migrants, possibly with jihadists hiding among them, to Berlin. Keeping up the pressure on Germany, the Greek parliament late Tuesday unanimously approved a motion to reactivate a special committee to look into war reparations, reimbursement of a forced war loan and the return of archaeological relics seized by German occupation forces. "We will approach the issue with the necessary sensitivity, with a sense of responsibility and honesty... We expect the German government to do the same," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the chamber. "We give no lessons on morality and we accept none either." In a further dig at Berlin, he added, "As we are fulfilling our obligations, all the other parties should do the same." German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said his country was "absolutely and constantly aware of its historical responsibility" for the suffering that Nazism brought to many European countries. "But that does not change our stance and firm belief that the question of reparations and compensation payments … has been finally clarified and settled," he added. "We should focus on the current issues and the hopefully good future of our two countries." The Third Reich forced the Greek central bank to loan it 476 million Reichsmarks during the war, which has never been reimbursed. A German lower house of parliament report in 2012 put the value of the loan at 7.7 billion euros ($8.1 billion). Many experts however say the dispute has effectively reached a judicial stalemate after a related adjudication between Germany and Italy by the International Court of Justice in 2012. - The 'Brussels Group' - Amid the war of words, technical experts in Brussels began emergency talks on extending Greece's huge bailout. "The goal is to find a framework on how to proceed and a detailed timeline that includes specific data," a source close to the negotiations said. "The 'institutions' want detailed data, and they will get that," the source said, using the Greek government's chosen term for the troika group of creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A Greek official later said the participants would now be known as the 'Brussels Group'. Athens is arguing that the austerity programme that has plunged thousands of families into poverty should be relaxed, a demand opposed by Germany and other eurozone creditor nations. The radical Syriza party swept to power in January on a clear pledge to refuse all dealings with the hated "troika" of EU-IMF auditors that saw through the tough reforms during two bailouts since 2010. It quickly had to reverse course and agree to an extension of the 240 billion euro bailout programme for four months while it works out a new economic programme. But the new Greek government has since faced criticism for failing to provide detailed enough reforms plans, which the eurozone says are an absolute minimum for Greece to receive critically needed rescue funding still available under the existing bailout. This month alone, Greece must find some 6.0 billion euros to meet its debts -- including 1.5 billion euros to the IMF. On Wednesday, Athens snapped up 1.3 billion euros offered by creditors in a new issue of three-month treasury bills, but at a higher interest rate of 2.7 percent. Reports Wednesday said the Tsipras government was turning to its pension and agricultural assistance funds for emergency cash to pay government salaries during the negotiations with the troika. "There are alternative scenarios" to raise money, junior finance minister Dimitris Mardas told Vima radio, without elaborating. Greece will also tap into its bank rescue fund for a half a billion euros to survive the cash crunch. On Monday, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem blamed Greece for wasting precious time as the money ran out. "We have spent two weeks discussing who meets who, where and in what format, and it's a complete waste of time," said Dijsselbloem, who is also Dutch finance minister. In a new search for allies, Tsipras on Thursday will meet with OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria in Paris, followed by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament president Martin Schulz in Brussels on Friday. His Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is also meeting with his French counterpart Michel Sapin later on Wednesday.
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Whether you are just beginning your career or already earning a large salary, there are many benefits to preparing your own taxes. I now work with a trusted accountant, but doing taxes myself for years gave me a huge leg up in the retirement savings game . Here are some of the benefits of filing your own taxes: 1. Understand the impact of taxes on investments . Bonds, real estate investment trusts, stocks, dividends and capital gains are all taxed differently. It's not necessary to file your own taxes to learn the differences, but seeing the numbers for my own circumstances definitely prompted me to dig deeper into the details. By understanding the differences in how various investments are taxed, you can make more efficient asset allocation decisions. For example, putting particular investments in a taxable or non-taxable account can help you save on taxes . Tax knowledge can also aid in investment evaluation, because it's ultimately after-tax returns that are important. 2. Reinforce the power of tax-advantaged accounts . It's hard to grasp the tax impact of saving in a 401(k) when you write a few percentages on a sheet of paper, but the numbers all make sense when you file your own taxes. And every time you file the 1099-DIVs on your taxable accounts, you will feel grateful that you don't need to pay taxes on all the investments in your tax-advantaged accounts this year. 3. Inspiration to refinance your mortgage . For years I knew I would benefit from a refinance because I could take advantage of lower rates, but I procrastinated doing the research and delayed going through the refinance process. Finally, typing a crazy amount of interest I paid into one year's tax return put me over the edge to do something about it. The process turned out to be pretty straightforward. It's too bad I didn't start earlier, because I lost money every day I waited. The good news is that I am still going to save tens of thousands of dollars due to that one move over the life of the loan. 4. Eliminate misconceptions about the tax code. Going through the filing process from front to back is a great way to learn the truth about the tax code as it pertains to your situation. For example, some people mention a tax deduction as a benefit of having a mortgage, but many homeowners are only deducting part of the interest that was paid out each payment cycle, which means paying down your mortgage is still a good deal. When you learn about the tax code you will be able to make better decisions throughout the year that will help you financially at tax time. 5. Appreciating your wealth. The only thing worse than paying taxes is not paying any taxes at all. Many people complain about paying high taxes, but I sure hope I get to pay lots in taxes each year for the rest of my life because that means I'll have a high income for a very long time. For those who are in the highest bracket, there are plenty of people out there who envy your high income, despite the taxes you will owe this year. So take a moment to appreciate your success and how the taxes you pay are going to help others. There are many benefits of knowing the tax code, whether you hire a professional to prepare your taxes or not. Making an attempt to file the necessary forms yourself once in a while will help you learn more about the complex tax system we have in this country. It may sound cumbersome to fill out the forms if you are used to paying someone else to do the work, but the move will surely boost your finances . David Ning is the founder of MoneyNing.com . More on MSN Money: The 7 taxes we hate the most 10 ways to mess up your car insurance 4 reasons identity theft is going to get worse
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By David Fox Sometimes winning in the NCAA Tournament is more about who has the hottest team rather than the best team. Take, for example, last year's national finalists. UConn and Kentucky did nothing during the regular season to indicate they'd be championship contenders before catching a hot streak in the postseason. RELATED: 8 slumping teams to avoid in your bracket A few of the teams with momentum we know all too well Wisconsin, Duke, Villanova and of course this year's version of Kentucky. Instead, here we'll highlight some of the teams further down the bracket, if they're on a mock bracket at all at this point. These eight teams have already caught fire late in the season and may have what it takes to continue their hot streaks into the conference and NCAA tournaments. Baylor The Bears were 6-6 in the Big 12 on Valentine's Day before winning five of their last six during the regular season, the only loss in the road in overtime to a desperate Texas team. Some of the wins were a little lightweight Baylor played Big 12 No. 10 seed Texas Tech twice in the final six. But Baylor also beat Iowa State on the road and Kansas State and West Virginia at home. Guard Taurean Prince is averaging 19.5 points per game off the bench in this span. Boise State The Broncos did plenty of damage to their at-large hopes in a two-week span during the holidays, losing to Loyola (Ill.), Utah State and Wyoming amid a four-game losing streak from Dec. 23-Jan. 10. A dismal non-conference schedule and a loss to Fresno State in February didn't help, either. Still, Boise State may have saved itself by winning 14 of its final 15, including a season sweep of San Diego State. Senior Derrick Marks, who is carrying the team solo since Anthony Drimic was hurt in December, will try not to let this moment slip away. BYU The Cougars were 7-5 in the West Coast Conference on Feb. 5, but rebuilt their NCAA resume thanks to eight consecutive wins, including a 73-70 win at Gonzaga to finish up the regular season. Kyle Collinsworth picked up his sixth triple-double of the season in the WCC semifinal against Portland. If he can pick up one more in the NCAA Tournament, he'll break the career record set by LSU's Shaquille O'Neal. Cincinnati The Bearcats helped their case for NCAA Tournament inclusion in the final week of the season by defeating Tulsa 56-47 on the road and Memphis 77-65 at home. After back-to-back narrow losses to Tulane and Xavier in February, Cincinnati won five in a row to clinch bye in the American tournament. Not bad for a program that's been under interim coach Larry Davis since December. Davidson Bob McKillop has his most dangerous team since Stephen Curry was on campus. The Wildcats closed the regular season with nine consecutive wins to claim the Atlantic 10 regular season title in only their first year in the league. Davidson is a machine on offense, averaging 1.21 points per possession during the nine-game winning streak. During that span, Davidson is making 11.3 3-pointers per game at a 41-percent clip. Maryland The Terrpains started the season 14-1 with the only loss coming to Virginia. The Terps finished the regular season on a seven-game win streak to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Maryland has been excellent on the defensive end, highlighted by holding Wisconsin to 0.96 points per possession in a 59-53 upset of the Badgers on Feb. 24. Oregon Dana Altman earned Pac-12 coach of the year honors after his team surged through the end of the season. The Ducks won nine of their last 10 after a 90-56 loss at Arizona on Jan. 28. During that span, Oregon defeated Utah and potentially knocked Stanford out of the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks perhaps already played their way into the field, but they could help their seeding if they can beat both Utah and Arizona on the way to an automatic bid. Vanderbilt The Commodores aren't an at-large candidate, but they have the potential to wreak havoc in the SEC tournament. Vandy has won their last five and eight of their final 10. The only losses have come by a combined six points in overtime (Tennessee) or on the road (Florida). The Commodores have been torching opponents from 3-point range, averaging 11 3s per game at a 50.9 percent rate. If the 'Dores can defeat Tennessee in their tournament opener, Vanderbilt could be a nightmare matchup for Arkansas, Ole Miss or Georgia. The latter two are trying to stay in the field.
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The Cable Advertising Bureau places the blame for its 40% ratings declines in the third and fourth on the shoulders of subscription online video services. Photo: Getty
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They are the Swiss Army knives of college football the ones who don't keep their talents confined to just one spot on the depth chart. The sport has seen a recent revolution of two-way players and stars who are being constantly shuffled around in different formations. It's a throwback to college football's early days of iron man ball, a testament to the pure athleticism of today's players and a quest for head coaches everywhere to find the right tweak that will leave their opponents drawing a blank on how to stop them. Last season, college football had a Washington linebacker who turned into one of the Pac-12's most devastating running backs, an Oklahoma State defensive lineman who would ice games with his receiving ability and a Hawaii specialist who both kicked and returned punts. While the trio of Shaq Thompson, James Castleman and Scott Harding won't be back on their respective campuses this season, fans still have plenty of unique, do-it-all players to watch in 2015. From the masters of the (planned) "fat guy touchdown" to the speed demons who contribute in all three phases of the game, here are the 10 most entertaining multi-position players in college football. 1. John Ross III, CB/WR/KR, Washington Shaq Thompson wasn't the only two-way star for the Huskies this past season. Ross was Washington's leading receiver in early November with 371 yards and four touchdowns when he made the switch over to cornerback a position he said he wanted to have since he stepped foot onto campus in Seattle. Although he probably won't play on offense in 2015, he is still doing a lot of damage with the ball in his hands, as evidenced by his two monster kick returns for touchdowns toward the end of the season against UCLA and Oklahoma State. 2. Cameron Echols-Luper, CB/WR/KR/PR, TCU The son of TCU assistant coach Curtis Luper and a track star for the Horned Frogs, Echols-Luper had his breakout performances at an important time last season. The young wide receiver returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown in the second half of TCU's near-disaster against Kansas and had a 53-yard return the following week to set the tone for a blowout win over rival Texas. Echols-Luper is now moving to cornerback , a position he played at Auburn High School in Alabama, and will be a special-teams weapon for the heavily hyped Horned Frogs this fall. 3. Nick Vigil, RB/LB, Utah State When Utah State's backfield depth was decimated in 2014, the Aggies turned to one of their top linebackers to power the offense through a rough stretch of the season. Vigil had 154 rushing yards and three touchdowns in four games last season and still finished second to his older brother Zach for the team lead in tackles and tackles for loss. Considering Utah State planned to use him at running back last year before the injury outbreak, the Aggies' opponents could see more of the bruiser out of the backfield in 2015. 4. Tyler Ervin, RB/WR/CB/KR/PR, San Jose State Few embody the title of "do-it-all player" like Ervin. He lined up at running back and slot receiver for the Spartans last season and made his mark at both spots, recording a 75-yard receiving touchdown at Auburn and finishing the season with 888 rushing yards. In addition to his special teams work where he has scored a touchdown on both kick and punt returns this speedy senior started his San Jose State career at cornerback and has recorded a few tackles each season for the Spartans. 5. Cody Grice, FB/DT, Akron You might remember Grice for the unique half-shaved haircut he sported during a nationally televised #MACtion game in 2014. However, the 290-pound Grice is more than just a funny half-head of hair he was a punishing force on both sides of the ball last season for the Zips. When he wasn't taking on interior linemen as a defensive tackle, he was finding the end zone (four touchdowns on just 20 carries) as a special power-package fullback for Terry Bowden's squad. 6. Jeremy Liggins, OT/QB/TE, Ole Miss Liggins was a 3-star, 270-pound athlete who had experience at defensive end when he signed with Ole Miss last year. In Oxford, though, he grabbed the college football world's attention by lining up as 300-pound Wildcat quarterback and tight end. Although he was effective running the ball in short-yardage situations, his passing was wildly off the mark, and he opened spring practice with the Rebels as an offensive tackle and emergency quarterback. Who knows where we'll see Liggins this fall? 7. Byron Marshall, RB/WR, Oregon Marshall played a major role in the ridiculous offense that catapulted the Ducks to last season's national championship game. He was Oregon's leading receiver with 74 catches for 1,003 yards, and he averaged 7.5 yards on his 52 rushing attempts a season after leading the Ducks in rushing with 1,038 yards and 14 scores. Marshall is simply dangerous anywhere on the field and will be a valuable weapon to whichever quarterback takes the reins after Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. 8. Myles Jack, LB/RB, UCLA Jack started this recent two-way revolution in 2013, when he won both of the Pac-12's Freshman of the Year award as a linebacker and running back for the Bruins. As a sophomore, Jack spent less time on offense than he did the year before, but he still recorded three touchdowns on the ground including this stiff-arm and spin-move combo against Washington. Now more than an intriguing story, the experienced Jack will be UCLA's leading returning tackler and a valuable change-of-pace back for the 2015 season. 9. LaQuan McGowan, OG/TE/H-Back, Baylor He's a 6-7, 410-pound offensive lineman lining up at tight end and H-back. What more do you need to justify McGowan's place in this countdown? The junior famously scored an 18-yard "fat guy touchdown" for the ages in Baylor's Cotton Bowl loss to Michigan State, rumbling into the end zone off a Bryce Petty pass after a slick jersey number switch on the sidelines. Now, it looks like we will see some more of that this fall from the game's biggest passing target. 10. Adoree' Jackson, CB/WR/KR, USC The hype surrounding Jackson's two-way ability started long before the former 5-star athlete arrived in Los Angeles, and he lived up to it last season by joining the rotation at both wide receiver and cornerback. His two long touchdowns in the Holiday Bowl one receiving and one kick return helped the Trojans end the season strong. The USC coaching staff has already split Jackson's time between offense and defense this spring, and he has the explosive talent to star on both sides for one of the nation's proudest programs.
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Fast food giant McDonald's (MCD) plans to test table service at some locations in the Netherlands, the local news agency ANP reported. After ordering at the counter, customers will have the option of having a waiter bring meals directly to the table at five of the chain's restaurants. The move is aimed at making the chain more welcoming and flexible for diners. It is unusual for McDonald's, which has built its fast-food empire based on speed and doing away with waiters seen more typically in full-service dining. McDonald's did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment about the test.
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Gold is down from its highs in January, but gold mining ETFs have really crashed as of late.
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Among the many new applications designed for Apple Watch , there are still a few big names who had yet to reveal how their apps will look and operate. One of those names is Flipboard , the social magazine app which is currently available on iOS, Android, Windows, and more recently, the web . The company offered a preview of their forthcoming Apple Watch app, which they'll cover in more detail later this week via a company blog post. Given that a number of readers today often turn to Flipboard to consume long-form content like magazine-length articles in addition to browsing through photos, social updates and shorter news stories, there was some question about how the service would make the transition to the Apple Watch's small screen. Here, it seems, news apps are focused on delivering short bursts of content to readers and that's the direction Flipboard is now headed. The company explains that users will be able to read a "smart summary" of the news story on the Apple Watch, and then if they want to actually dive in and read the full story, they can do so on their iPhone. The app will take advantage of Apple's "Handoff" feature in order to pass the link from the wearable device to the smartphone, taking you directly to the story you want to read. As for what stories are appearing on the Flipboard Watch app in the first place, that's where the service's curation capabilities come into play. Flipboard will algorithmically choose the top 10 stories based on the top 10 topics a user follows on Flipboard, and then present these on the Watch. In addition, the Watch app will allow users to add stories they're shown to their own magazines, or share them with a friend from the Watch itself. What's interesting about seeing how companies in the news space are addressing the challenges of Apple Watch's smaller screen, is that it's still unclear today how consumers will engage with this new accessory. Some early testers have said that, by wearing the Watch, they've taken their phone out of their pocket much less frequently . Others speculate that consumers will become highly engaged with the device, even taking the time to read entire news stories on their wrist, as they've done with other smartwatch platforms . Flipboard, meanwhile, has taken the approach to try to straddle the two worlds of Watch and iPhone by offering small screen summaries with the option to transition to the iPhone for a better reading experience, if you choose to dive into its content further. That could prove to be a smarter approach than asking readers to scroll down through longer content on the Apple Watch, but it also puts Flipboard in a position of having to compete alongside apps better known for their "breaking news" content, like CNN , for example. Flipboard on mobile has often been about a sort of lean-back reading experience it began as a tablet magazine, you'll recall. But the Watch seems like it would favor news of a more urgent nature, and that hasn't traditionally been Flipboard's biggest selling point.
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Celebrity makeup artist Sarah Uslan breaks the misconception that you can only buy expensive makeup products to have a gorgeous look.
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Allure's Beauty News Editor, Cat O'Neill, and M.A.C.'s Cosmetics Senior Artist, Gina Bettelli, talk about the new Cinderella Collection just in time for the movie's premiere. http://www.allure.com/beauty-products/2015/mac-cinderella-collection
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Yesterday it was revealed that the investigation into journalist Susan Berman's 2000 murder had been reopened , likely as a result of new evidenced aired on HBO "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," Andrew Jarecki's docuseries about the cryptic real-estate scion who is thought to have killed Berman along with two other murders. While it remains to be seen whether the long arm of the law will ever catch up to the wily Durst, it is an example of art's ability to affect real change in the courts. Here's a look at some of the other times the boundary between art and the legal system have blurred. 1. "Serial" After Sarah Koenig's podcast about the Adnan Syed case set the nation abuzz, Syed was granted leave to appeal his conviction for the 1999 murder of his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The appeal was granted on the grounds that Syed may have received ineffective counsel from his original lawyer Cristina Gutierrez, whose shrill drawl will be recognizable to anyone who tuned into Koenig's podcast. The case will be heard at the Maryland court of appeals in June. 2. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Not the show you'd expect to save a man from death row, but alas: An episode of Larry David's HBO sit-com confirmed the alibi of a California murder suspect after he was seen in crowd footage of an LA Dodgers game. The wrongly-accused man had been in jail for five months when the footage was discovered. "I'm quitting the show," David joked afterwards. "To devote the rest of my life to freeing those unjustly incarcerated. 3. "Paradise Lost" The documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" chronicled the story of "The West Memphis Three," Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were accused of murdering three cub scouts when they were teenagers. While the film didn't directly lead to their release, it garnered major attention for the case, prompting two "Paradise Lost" sequels, a number of other films and books, charity concerts, celebrity activism, and a whole movement advocating for their innocence. The men were finally released in 2011. 4. "The Thin Blue Line" Errol Morris' critically acclaimed 1988 documentary about Randall Adams, who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, is widely credited as a main impetus in helping to bring about Adams' release one year later. The movie paints a vivid picture of Adams' innocence as well as suggesting that a number of witnesses in the original trial perjured themselves and the uproar that it caused led to the judge issuing another trial. 5. "Capturing the Friedmans" Before the Jinx, Jarecki was nominated for an Oscar for 2003's "Capturing the Friedmans," a documentary about a Long Island father and son Arnold and Jesse Friedman who were both convicted of child molestation in the 1980s. After the film came out, Jarecki became a strong advocate for Jesse Friedman's innocence, turning over pages of research to the Nassau County DA's office. Even after the DA found that Jesse had not been wrongfully convicted following an intensive three-year probe, Jarecki continued to advocate for his innocence. 6. "Bernie" After Richard Linklater's sympathetic portrayal of murderer Bernie Tiede in his film "Bernie," there was a flurry of renewed interest in the man's case, as new lawyers signed onto the case and revealed new psychological evidence that ultimately allowed Tiede to walk free. Shanna Nugent, the granddaughter of Tiede's victim, Marjorie Nugent, blames the Linklater film for setting convicted killer free. "It really feels like to me Hollywood has taken over the Texas criminal justice system," she told the Dallas Observer . After he was released, Bernie moved into Linklater's garage. This article was written by Anna Silman from Salon and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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Apple's (AAPL) App Store and iTunes services were apparently experiencing intermittent outages Wednesday morning. Some users reported seeing connection errors when attempting to either access apps or download new data through them. Bloomberg originally reported the outages , and said the issues were found in U.S., Switzerland, Spain, and the U.K. The latest activity section of Apple's support forums shows many recent complaints about the issue. Apple did not immediately return request for comment.
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No college basketball coach in history has defeated more top-ranked teams than Digger Phelps. Our college basketball analyst and legendary Notre Dame coach shares a few of his favorite stories from some of the most memorable upsets in history.
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An Eglin Air Force base official talks to CNN about the details of a potential U.S. military helicopter crash in northwest Florida, which they presume killed 11.
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George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin were on hand to commemorate the Armenian genocide at the 100 Lives event in New York City Tuesday. The actor and the human rights lawyer took part in the launching of the 100 Lives initiative , remembering those who helped save lives during the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman government beginning in 1915, and in announcing the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity honor, which will be given to those who put themselves at risk for others. "I am honored to be associated with 100 Lives as it shares a common mission with my foundation, Not On Our Watch, to focus global attention on the impact of genocide as well as putting resources towards ending mass atrocities around the world," Clooney said , per a press release. "It should weigh heavily on all of us that genocide still takes place today. We have to tackle this head on -- as individuals, as communities and as governments."
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Tired of getting nickel and dimed by your bank? Maybe it's time to try a credit union.
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PARIS "Selfie sticks" have now been banned at a French palace and a British museum, joining a growing list of global tourist attractions to take such measures. The devices are used to improve snapshots, but critics say they are obnoxious and potentially dangerous. Officials at Palace of Versailles outside Paris, and Britain's National Gallery in London, announced the bans Wednesday, saying they need to protect artworks and other visitors. Other places that have put limits on the selfie-stick craze: ___ ITALY Rome's Colosseum banned selfie sticks last month as a security measure, both for the objects on exhibit inside and for the 16,000 daily visitors to the 2,000-year-old monument. "The twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous," Colosseum spokesman Christiano Brughitta said. Two American tourists were arrested last week after carving their names into the Colosseum's wall and then taking a photo with a selfie stick. ___ UNITED STATES The Smithsonian museums in Washington banned selfie sticks last week. Cameras and pictures are still allowed, but selfie sticks, tripods and monopods are not. Smithsonian officials say this is a preventative measure to protect visitors and museum objects. ___ AUSTRIA Vienna's Albertina, one of the city's top art museums, prohibits selfie sticks. Museum spokeswoman Sarah Wulbrandt says visitors must check-in the sticks before entering. ___ BRITAIN Besides the National Gallery, some English soccer teams have banned the selfie stick from their stadiums. The National Portrait Gallery, adjacent to the National Gallery, says the sticks are allowed, but "anything that may prove disruptive is reviewed on an ongoing basis." The British Museum is "currently reviewing" its selfie-stick policy. Some art-lovers praised the idea of a ban. "If you go into an exhibition, surely the purpose is to see what is on show and not to take umpteen photographs of yourself?" said Bill Doig, a retired doctor visiting the National Portrait Gallery. ___ BRAZIL Soccer stadiums in the South American country have also banned selfie sticks because of their potential use as weapons in fights between rival fans, police say. Selfie sticks were also banned from Brazil's recent Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro. ___ Jill Lawless in London, Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro, George Jahn in Vienna and AP Television producer Trisha Thomas in Rome contributed to this report. ___ Follow Greg Keller on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greg_Keller
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Wednesday morning, ISIS militants beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, a renowned scholar of the ancient world in his early 80s, and hung him from a Roman column in the ruins of Palmyra in Syria. Al-Asaad was no threat: He dedicated his life to studying the antiquities at Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with irreplaceable historical treasures such as 2,000-year-old Roman buildings and magnificent pre-Islamic statues. When ISIS conquered Palmyra in May, al-Asaad refused to flee, staying behind to try to protect the site from ISIS plunder. Reportedly , he died after ISIS interrogated him, hoping to get him to reveal the location of some of Palmyra's hidden valuables. For a scholar like al-Asaad, protecting those secrets is a cause worth dying for: ISIS has been destroying priceless historical artifacts around Iraq and Syria. Their ideology demands it. To understand why ISIS is doing this, you need to understand the group's intellectual history. ISIS's hostility toward historical artifacts is shared by other militant Sunni Islamist groups, dating back at least to the 18th-century religious revival that led to the birth of modern Saudi Arabia. More recently, Islamists' work has seen treasures destroyed from Afghanistan to Somalia. But ISIS has upped the game well beyond any of its modern peers, damaging and destroying priceless antiquities by the thousands . Here's what you need to know to understand this "cultural cleansing" explained through photographs and videos of 11 historic artifacts and sites lost to the world at the hands of Islamist groups. 1) 1920s: Saudi Arabia destroys the al-Baqi cemetery (Dilek Mermer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Saudi authorities destroyed this mausoleum, part of the al-Baqi cemetery in Medina, in early 1926 , shortly after taking power in the city in the prior year. In fact, they flattened the entire site, which dated back to the seventh century and is thought to have contained the bodies of some of the prophet Mohammed's early compatriots. The act "shocked the international Muslim community," Dr. James Noyes, author of The Politics of Iconoclasm , told me. The Saudis didn't just do this on a whim. They were, and still are, aligned with a religious faction called the Wahhabis a group of Sunni fundamentalists who, like some Christian denominations, reject any form of worship through religious shrines and icons. "The attacks on shrines and tombs are a rejection of 'shirk' (the worship of God through shrines)," Noyes explained. Theologically, Wahhabis and other Islamists trace this back to the story of the golden calf that appears in the Koran and the Bible, in which the Israelites build and pray to an idol, sparking God's fury. A number of Muslims see the story as a blanket prohibition against the worship of images and shrines altogether. As the Wahhabis and Saudis consolidated control over what's now Saudi Arabia, they destroyed anything that even hinted at idol worship. "The Arabian peninsula used to have Jewish communities, pagan pre-Islamic tribes, shrines favoured by Shiite and Sufi pilgrims on the Hajj to Mecca and Medina, Ottoman and Egyptian influences, and the Hashemite kingdom," Noyes wrote via email. "All of that is gone." 2) 2001: the Taliban blows up Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas (Jean-Claude Chapon/AFP/Getty Images) The Wahhabis' views on icon worship continue to influence Sunni militant groups around the Muslim world today. In 2001, the Taliban blew up two 1,700-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, sparking a huge international outcry. They were the tallest statues of Buddha in the world, one standing about 165 high. The UN cultural body Unesco has led plans to rebuild the towering figures, but the work has been bogged down in disputes. 3) 2012: al-Qaeda and Ansar Dine run amok in Timbuktu (DeAgostini/Getty Images) Actual governments run along Islamist lines, like in Saudi Arabia and in Afghanistan under the Taliban during the late 1990s, are relatively rare. But the rise of Islamist groups in chaotic conflicts has become more common. And when these groups storm cities and towns with historical treasure troves, the results often aren't pretty. In 2012, Islamists from al-Qaeda and Ansar Dine overran the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali, a UN World Heritage Site. This picture shows the ornate front door of Timbuktu's Sidi Yahya mosque. Legend had it that the door would stay shut until the apocalypse; the Islamists smashed it. At least half of the roughly 600-year-old shrines in the city were destroyed before an international force pushed the militants out. 4) 2008: al-Shabaab destroys Sufi graves and shrines in Somalia That's actual video of the Somali group al-Shabaab destroying Sufi (mystical Islamist) graves and shrines in Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city, in 2008. Previously, the group had destroyed an old church it did not seem to matter that not a single Christian lived in the city at the time. 5) 2006: al-Qaeda bombs Iraq's 1,000-year-old al-Askari mosque (Getty Images) The motivation of this kind of destruction is not always purely theological: sometimes it can serve more mundane political aims. In 2006, the height of the Iraqi civil war, al-Qaeda in Iraq bombed the al-Askari mosque, one of the world's holiest Shia shrines, built in the city of Samarra in the year 944. The mosque's iconic golden dome was reduced to rubble in an attempt by a Sunni militant group to further inflame Iraq's sectarian war. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, of course, would later evolve into ISIS and the al-Askari mosque bombing, in many ways, presages the ISIS rampage that would follow it. 6) 2014: ISIS blows up the ancient Assyrian church of Tikrit (RomeReports) There are two reasons why ISIS's assault against history is so much more devastating than what's come before it. First, ISIS controls a huge amount of territory (a little larger than the UK), so it has a lot of land in which to wage its campaign of cultural vandalism. Second, the territory it controls is chock-full of historic religious shrines sacred to all peoples like the Assyrian Green Church in Tikrit, originally built in the year 700 . In September, reports emerged that ISIS had blown up the church. "The sheer volume of overlapping sites of ancient and scriptural importance is unique to Syria and Iraq," Noyes told me. "So, too, is the sheer volume of overlapping religious expressions of faith. For absolutist Sunnis, it makes this area the prime target, with plenty of things to target: hundreds [sic], thousands of shrines, tombs, statues, buildings, from dozens of different cultures and eras. "Syria and Iraq are the jackpot." 7) 2014: ISIS bombs the tomb of a Biblical prophet ISIS's iconoclasm goes hand in hand with its attempt to construct an Islamic state. The so-called "purification" of its territory is a means of asserting its control over the local population and sending a message that this territory will, from now on, be governed along Islamic lines. "As ISIS fights to define the frontiers of its so-called caliphate," Noyes writes , "iconoclasm represents a means of bridging the principles of theological and political unity." That explains why you see so many videos like this one, which reportedly shows ISIS detonating the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah (or Yunus) in Mosul, Iraq. The video, along with this one showing ISIS fighters defacing the tomb before its demolition, serves as a means of asserting its control over the territory it has seized. 8) 2014: ISIS defaces Syria's Armenian Genocide Memorial Church (Sam Hardy/Hyperallergic) This is the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Deir ez-Zor, Syria. At Hyperallergic , Sam Hardy did a really nice job annotating the damage to the church, believed to be the result of ISIS defacement. This image drives home the permanence of the defacement of historical landmarks: Perhaps the church will be restored after the war, but much of the original detail has been lost. 9) 2015: ISIS destroys this statue of the ancient king of Hatra (Christopher Jones/Gates of Ninevah) ISIS doesn't just destroy religious buildings. According to Christopher Jones , a PhD student in Near Eastern history at Columbia, the statue being destroyed here (part of the Mosul Museum collection) depicts an ancient king of Hatra. Hatra is an Iraqi city-state from the Roman era, and not a major part of Islamic theology. Noyes believes that this, too, is part of ISIS's state-building project. He explains how the group is using the word "shirk," the worship of God through shrines, to refer to a much wider range of concepts it deems heretical. "It has become something of a catch-all phrase used to describe how the Islamic State defines itself: fighting the shirk of Bashar (al-Assad, the Syrian president), the shirk of passports, the shirk of national poets and museums, the shirk of Shia mosques," he writes . 10) 2015: ISIS destroys the city of Hatra itself (DeAgostini/Getty Images) ISIS didn't just destroy Hatran art. According to the UN, ISIS has attempted to destroy what remains of Hatra itself. The city, a UN World Heritage Site, may have been demolished entirely . That includes the Temple of Shamash, some art from which is depicted above. "The destruction of Hatra marks a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing underway in Iraq," UNESCO director Irina Bokova said in joint statement with Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director of an organization devoted to preserving Islamic cultural heritage. "This is a direct attack against the history of Islamic Arab cities, and it confirms the role of destruction of heritage in the propaganda of extremists groups." 11) 2015: ISIS bulldozes the Assyrian city of Nimrud (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images) ISIS has also allegedly bulldozed Nimrud, an ancient Assyrian city in northern Iraq. The city shares a name with the biblical figure Nimrod, so there could be some theological motivation here. But it's important to note that ISIS also profits on the sale of antiquities: It destroys some publicly, while taking what it can sell to fuel its military and state-building efforts. "They've been very consistent in doing two things: they destroy antiquities for effect, and they likely use the smokescreen of destruction to cover themselves while they move more transportable items for profit," Mark Vlasic, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, told US News . "It is, after all, a criminal organization."
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Via Zuora If you buy the notion that practically every software application or, indeed, practically any kind of product can be sold not for a one-time price, but as a subscription, then you probably don't need much of an explanation of the "subscription economy." If you don't get it, then allow us to introduce you to Zuora, a cloud software firm that helps companies handle the process of attracting subscribers and managing accounts, billing, payments, revenue recognition and tracking. Founded in 2007 by Tien Tzuo, the first chief marketing officer at Salesforce.com, the company today announced a $115 million Series E round of funding led by private investment firm Wellington Capital. In the late '90s, it was a pretty radical idea to charge a subscription fee for something like say, software to run a business, but it was right about then that companies like Salesforce and NetSuite arrived on the scene doing exactly that. Cloud file-sharing company Box was an early Zuora customer, as was Hubspot, a marketing software firm. Now the idea of subscriptions is spreading fast to health care and manufacturing companies, Tzuo said in an interview. Recent new customers include Honeywell, General Motors and NCR. The same logic that probably applied to your smartphone plan where your carrier charges a small monthly fee against its cost for the phone applies just as well to, say, a $250,000 gene-sequencing machine, he says. "The company that makes it can more easily sell thousands instead of a few hundred," he said. "And they get recurring revenue instead of one big sale all at once." The round brings its total capital raised to $250 million. Other investors include the investment firm Blackrock, as well as Premji and Passport Capital. Prior investors include several VC firms like Benchmark Capital, Greylock, Redpoint, Index, Shasta, Vulcan and Next World Capital, as well as two personal investors, Workday founder Dave Duffield and Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff.
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Apple's new super-thin MacBook comes with a new trackpad technology that detects the force of a tap or press and is expected to be added to the iPhone next year. But what is "force touch", how does it work and what on earth is a "taptic engine"? Beyond the hype and buzz around the Apple Watch launch on Monday evening, a piece of technology that could change the way we interact with our computers and smartphones was unveiled. But it wasn't a wearable device, nor a new phone. It was a new laptop fitted with a new type of trackpad. Trackpads are not usually an exciting part of a computer. They are just a touch mouse with a couple of buttons and while some work better than others, they are pretty mundane. But Apple's new trackpad on the 13.1mm thick MacBook does something different. Instead of having either physical buttons or the whole trackpad acting as one giant button as in previous Apple laptops, the force touch trackpad does not move. Underneath the four corners of the pad are force sensors, which detect clicks as well as force and mean a click can be made anywhere on the trackpad - not just at the bottom. Press harder The guts of the new touchpad on the MacBook. Photograph: Apple The new sensors can detect more than one type of click. A light click can perform one action, a harder click another and the threshold of how hard is a "hard" press can be customised. Press harder to speed up the fast forward of video, for instance, or "force click" to pull up a definition of selected word. The force gestures are in addition to the standard multitouch trackpad swipes and taps and are intuitive, which bodes well. Apple is expected to integrate force sensing into its iPhone and iPad next year, after introducing the technology in the company's smartwatch, according to the Wall Street Journal . The trackpad taps back The trackpad feels like it is being depressed despite not moving when clicked on. Photograph: Apple The new trackpad also incorporates a new type of haptic feedback a physical response to a virtual action typically on a touchscreen. In this case Apple has replaced the physical depression of a trackpad click with what it calls a "taptic engine". A small device attached to the back of the trackpad essentially taps back in the opposite direction to the user's click. It simulates physical movement, tricking the brain into thinking the trackpad is moving down and clicking as a button would. But the feedback is not just one stage, and with each threshold of force applied to the trackpad another click is felt. The whole experience is much like using a two-stage camera shutter button that clicks once to focus and depresses further to capture the shot. Most haptic feedback until now, as felt on Android and Windows Phones among others, is created by small vibration motors. When a virtual key is pressed the smartphone buzzes. The new tapping feedback, which is also used by the Apple Watch, is a more intuitive and natural response to virtual taps and potentially represents a big step forward in haptic feedback. Integrated into smartphones and tablets a force-sensing touchscreen that taps back on the user could provide virtual keyboards with feedback that is intuitive enough to level the playing field with physical keyboards, which would be good news for tablets and the "post-PC" era. • Half the UK population will use a tablet in 2015 but future growth will be slow
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NEW YORK A powdered alcohol intended to be mixed up into drinks has gained approval from a federal agency. The product, called Palcohol, had received the greenlight from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau briefly last year before the bureau backtracked and said the label approvals had been given in error. On Wednesday, bureau spokesman Tom Hogue told The Associated Press the issues were resolved and that four varieties of Palcohol were approved. But Hogue noted that states can also regulate alcohol sales in their borders. The approval is a step forward for a small company whose product plans have already sparked controversy. Several states have already moved to ban powdered alcohol, including lawmakers in Colorado who last month advanced legislation to temporarily halt its sale. Concerns have included abuse by minors and whether Palcohol's light weight would make it easy to sneak alcohol into public events. Palcohol would come in a pouch, with water being added to the powder inside for the equivalent of an alcoholic drink. A statement on the Palcohol website says the company hopes to have the product for sale this summer. Palcohol founder Mark Phillips noted the approval of his product in an email early Wednesday morning, but wasn't immediately available for further comment. Hogue said the bureau's evaluation is centered on whether labels accurately reflect what's in the product. "Potential for abuse isn't grounds for us to deny a label," he said. Previously, Phillips had said he came up with the idea for Palcohol because he wanted a way to enjoy alcoholic drinks after hiking or other activities without having to lug around heavy bottles.
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A cosmic phenomenon in Earth's magnetic field that is both dazzling and potentially dangerous for people on the surface is the focus of a new scientific mission, scheduled to launch into orbit on Thursday (March 12). The Magnetsopheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, consists of four satellites that will study a process called magnetic reconnection: the explosive phenomenon that can send powerful bursts of particles hurtling toward Earth, potentially damaging satellites. But magnetic reconnection is also responsible for the auroras the northern and southern lights near Earth's poles. A new NASA video explains the MMS mission in detail. MMS is the only dedicated instrument studying magnetic reconnection, and scientists say it could finally reveal how this phenomenon occurs. The mission requires an elaborately choreographed arrangement of four separate satellites in an orbit around Earth, placing them in the path of the magnetic reconnection events taking place right on Earth's doorstep. [ NASA'S Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission in Pictures ] "[MMS] is going to actually fly in Earth's magnetosphere, this protective magnetic environment around the Earth," Jeff Newmark, interim director of NASA's heliophysics division, said in a Feb. 25 briefing. "We're using this environment around the Earth as a natural laboratory. Rather than building one on Earth, we're going to where magnetic reconnection actually occurs in space so we can understand it." You can watch the MMS satellite launch Thursday , with NASA's webcast beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 March 13 GMT). Liftoff is set for 10:44 p.m. EDT (0244 a.m. March 13 GMT) atop an unmanned Atlas V rocket. Today at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), NASA will hold a science briefing webcast to discuss the mission. Wandering magnetic field lines While past space missions have also recorded some data on magnetic reconnection, MMS is the first space mission dedicated solely to studying this phenomenon, according to a statement from NASA. It will collect data 100 times faster than any previous mission that has observed magnetic reconnection in space. The $1.1 billion MMS mission was built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Magnetic fields can be found all over the universe. Planets, stars, galaxies, black holes and many other bodies create magnetic field lines that can wrap tightly around their parent bodies like vines, or wander loosely into space. With one end attached to the positive side of a magnet, and the other end attached to the negative side, magnetic field lines are typically looped. Occasionally, a magnetic field line will snap, like a rubber band, before quickly reforming a loop. The snapping and reconnecting of magnetic field lines, also known as magnetic reconnection , releases great bursts of energy, sometimes accelerating nearby particles close to the speed of light. "Exactly how magnetic energy is destroyed in a reconnection event is completely unknown," Jim Burch, MMS principle investigator, said in a news briefing on March 10. When magnetic reconnection occurs in the sun it creates solar flares that explode off the surface. It can also cause coronal mass ejections, in which the solar flare belches up a storm of particles that hurtle outward into space sometimes straight toward Earth. The planet's own magnetic field protects people on the ground from these particle storms, but orbiting satellites are at risk of being damaged . In some instances, magnetic reconnection near the magnetosphere can send particles hurtling toward Earth's atmosphere, and generate one of the most stunning natural phenomena on Earth: the auroras. But magnetic reconnection can also create geomagnetic storms that send electric surges down to the surface and into power grids, potentially shorting out those grids and causing blackouts. These showers of intense particles can also pose a radiation hazard for astronauts in orbit. Scientists working on MMS want to understand how this beautiful yet dangerous phenomenon occurs. A satellite dance MMS consists of four satellites, each of which weighs 3,000 lbs. (1,360 kilograms). In preparation for launch, the 4-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide octagonal satellites have been stacked on top of one another, and placed inside a protective shell atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. [ How NASA's MMS Satellites Work (Infographic)] Once the satellites enter into their orbit, each one will unfurl a series of booms or antennas, the longest of which are 196 feet (60 meters) wide. With their metal arms fully extended, each satellite will grow to about 94 feet tall and 396 feet wide giving each satellite a "footprint" the size of a major league baseball field. In orbit, the four satellites will set up in a pyramid formation, so that together they can study magnetic reconnection event in three dimensions. The satellites also have a GPS system, so engineers on the ground can know where the satellites are to within 100 meters, as well as to keep the satellites to within 10 kilometers of each other. The satellites will pass between the Earth and the sun in a region called the magnetopause: where the magnetic field lines of the two bodies meet. After two swings through the magnetopause, the MMS satellites will take a wider orbit around to Earth, to the night side, and pass through a region called the magnetotail. These two areas are where scientists hope the MMS satellites will encounter magnetic reconnection events. "Reconnection happens at a very small region in space […] but it impacts a huge region of space, of the whole magnetosphere, which is a million miles long," said Paul Cassak, an associate professor at West Virginia University, at the Feb. 25 NASA briefing. "This makes it extremely difficult to study. Like a cosmic version of finding a needle in the haystack." Magnetic reconnection events are somewhat rare. Burch, the principal investigator for the MMS instrument suite science team, said in an interview with Space.com that the MMS scientists do not expect to see one every day. "We don't really know how often we'll see it," Burch said. "Our requirement is we see 16 quality events and we expect to see well more than those. Maybe on the order of every week." At the news briefing today, Burch said he was ready for MMS to find "some surprises," as it collects data. Speaking for the MMS team, he said, "We think we have the definitive experiment on magnetic reconnection." Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com . 'Don't Cross The Streams!' NASA Studying Magnetic Explosions | Video How 4 NASA Satellites Will Study Magnetic Fields of Earth & Sun (Infographic) Four Probes to 'Catch' Gigantic Energy Bursts In Space | Video The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History
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Lipliner tends to get a bad rap. We blame the '90s and the Baywatch brown pencil, peach gloss combo. But, it turns out that humble little pencil actually has a few tricks up its sleeve that can make it look decidedly modern. With both barely-there pouts and scarlet-stamped lips ruling the spring runways, lipliner has gone from a passé afterthought to a beauty essential. Give it a contemporary vibe by combining it with a clear balm. It's a trick we keep coming back to in place of our usual lipstick swipe. Liner has more staying power, and won't wander off midday or bleed into fine lines like a lipstick usually does while the clear balm keeps you moisturized and smooth. Keep reading to see how makeup artists are interpreting this beauty hack for spring 2015, and to find the perfect products for recreating the season's key looks. Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page! Photo: MCV Photo. Lipliner tends to get a bad rap. Weblame the '90s and the Baywatch brownpencil, peach gloss combo. But, it turns out that humble little pencil actuallyhas a few tricks up its sleeve that can make it look decidedly modern. With bothbarely-there pouts and scarlet-stamped lips ruling the spring runways, liplinerhas gone from a passé afterthought to a beauty essential.Give it a contemporary vibe by combiningit with a clear balm. It's a trick we keep coming back to in place of our usuallipstick swipe. Liner has more staying power, and won't wander off midday orbleed into fine lines like a lipstick usually does while the clear balm keepsyou moisturized and smooth.Keep reading to see how makeupartists are interpreting this beauty hack for spring 2015, and to find theperfect products for recreating the season's key looks. Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page! Photo: MCV Photo. Your Lips, But Better: A shoo-in for a nude pucker, especially if you're shyer about your application prowess, liner is a foolproof technique for volume and boost. Take inspiration from the pretty-in-pink rosebud lips at the shows: Versace, Altuzarra (seen here), and Derek Lam were unabashedly feminine and youthful."Using a pencil to line and shape your lips is easy," says makeup artist extraordinaire and sometime Jeanine Lobell assistant, Setsuko Tate. "To add volume, subtly draw over the outer edge of your lips with a neutral-colored liner like Clinique Quick Liner For Lips in Baby Buff and finish with a dab of RMS Lip & Skin Balm on top." No '80s throwbacks here. Photo: MCV Photo. Lady In Red: After several seasons in the shadows, red lipstick is back with a bang. Spotted at Burberry Prorsum, Missoni, Zac Posen (seen here), and Topshop Unique, it's best worn bold, matte, and paired with smooth, even-toned skin. Using lipliner as a base for balm or gloss gives it a subtle, longer-lasting base of color. "I line with the pencil, then use my little finger to blend it softly over the entire lip, before slicking balm over the top," says Tate. "Plus, the waxy consistency of the liner will act like tape to hold the color down longer, which means no worrying about reapplication." To take some of the fear out of using a dark liner: "First, feather it on the Cupid's bow. It makes filling it in so much easier." Just The Tip: Liners don't have to be razor-thin for you to get a perfect pout. "Lip pencils are basically supercharged matte lipsticks," says Tate. "I like choosing a thicker one with a soft tip. My favorites are NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, and I use a smudge brush to blend in." We've noticed one thing unique to all makeup artists: A lot of them prefer to use everything but lipstick when creating pout-worthy lips. "Using a tiny bit of concealer on a brush around the lips first helps give that luxe, almond mouth if you want it to look more modern and less 'done,'" she says. Slick Situation: Clear lip balm (try Glossier's Balm Dotcom) is the new essential, especially when sporting dark lips. Use it under liner and on top to get a newer, matte (but not flat) finish. It's also great for troubleshooting a lipstick you don't love. If the new, ultra-pigmented finishes are too intense for you but you love their colors, blend the liner with a balm and tap it on with your fingertip it gives depth without full-on coverage. A Few Of Our Favorite Things: Ready to take the liner plunge? The following sticks are the leaders of the pack in our books. This one's the perfect pinky-nude color. The world's bestselling luxury lipliner, and with good reason. Soft texture, great colors, and good definition. A neutral-toned liner that blends into your natural color seamlessly for a polished off-duty look. It's called the Lip Cheat for a reason use it to define your pout or make it look fuller, Kylie Jenner style. Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page. Like us on Facebook we'll see you there!
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NEW ORLEANS The deputy U.S. marshal killed in a shootout was expecting his first child: a boy, his wife learned the day after his death. Channing Wells said Wednesday that the baby will be named Josie Wells Jr., after his father. The last thing she told her husband was that she had an appointment but not until next week to learn whether the baby was a boy or a girl. "The marshals took me to the hospital in Mississippi this morning so I could learn the baby's gender. ... It's bittersweet," she said Wednesday in a phone interview from Baton Rouge. Josie Wells, 27, was killed on the outskirts of that city Tuesday in a shootout with a man suspected of killing two siblings outside a nightclub. The scene was about 130 miles from his home in the Jackson suburb of Raymond, Mississippi. The suspect, Jamie D. Croom, 31, of New Roads, Louisiana, was hit multiple times in the shootout. He died early Wednesday, East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William "Beau" Clark said. Channing Wells said the couple had been married nearly three years but had been together since both were 19 and going into their sophomore years at Jackson State University. He took a job at the fast-food restaurant where she worked: "He stayed for one paycheck, just to get my phone number," she said. After she finished four more years of school in Chicago to become an optometrist, Josie Wells missed a test of his own to drive her to another state for her board examination, she said. Later, she said, she encouraged her husband to look beyond his original ambition to service as a federal marshal. "His dream was just to become a local police officer," she said. "I told him, 'Don't settle for that. Why don't you find the highest level of law enforcement you can do?'" Wells' father, Obie Wells Sr., who turns 57 Thursday, said he, too, had followed a family member into law enforcement. He retired from the sheriff's office in coastal Jackson County as a captain, and all of his sons followed him into the field. He said his surviving sons are a private security officer and police officers. One of his three daughters is studying criminal justice at Jackson State, where Josie Wells earned his bachelor's degree in the same subject. "She was planning on doing an internship with Josie," he said. Obie Wells Sr., a self-described cowboy who keeps horses and used to keep cattle on his 100-acre spread in Wade, north of Pascagoula, said his longtime nickname is "Josie" after the Clint Eastwood title character in "The Outlaw Josey Wales." He gave the name to his second son when his wife, Sherry, refused to let him follow George Foreman's example and name all of his sons Obie, he said. Josie Wells joined the U.S. Marshals Service immediately after getting his degree four years ago, Obie Wells said. Authorities said he was the first deputy marshal killed in the line of duty since 2011. Croom had a long criminal record and faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Lechelle Rita Williams, 42, and her brother Sinica Lee Williams, 38, said Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Beauregard Torres III. "It was drug-related just an ongoing feud because of two sides," Lt. Richard Torres said Wednesday. Channing Wells said that despite her husband's death, she doesn't regret encouraging him to join the U.S. Marshals Service. "He wouldn't have been happy just being stuck in one position, not knowing there was more that he could have a higher potential," she said. And, she said, "He died doing what he wanted to do and what he loved." ___ Associated Press Writer Jeff Amy in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.
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According to TMZ, Bruce Jenner has put a hold on the docuseries chronicling his transformation from a man into a woman because he wants to make sure his 3 kids are psychologically ready.
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In February, Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis' long-delayed sci-fi romantic action thriller "Jupiter Ascending" bombed at the box office . The reported $175 million Warner Bros.' movie debuted to $19 million . It was the latest bomb at theaters for the Wachowski siblings who brought us "The Matrix." So far, "Jupiter Ascending" has made a weak $45 million domestically . At that rate, it looked like it was on its way to becoming one of the biggest bombs of 2015. However, it looks like its poor performance at home may not even matter. Internationally, the movie is a hit. Over the weekend, the film debuted in China to a solid $23.2 million . Currently, the film has already made $107 million internationally. The movie is the latest box-office bomb to be saved by the foreign markets. Last year alone, overseas grosses helped movies like " The Expendables 3 ," " Need for Speed ," and " Pompeii " from becoming outright flops. China is currently the second-largest box-office market and is poised to overtake US as the number one market by 2020 . So it's no surprise big summer blockbusters are now turning their attention toward catering to international audiences. American cities were transformed to stand in for parts of Hong Kong and China during film of the latest "Transformers" sequel. The global premiere took place in Hong Kong . The sequel ended up as the highest-grossing movie of 2014 despite terrible reviews. Overseas alone, "Transformers: Age of Extinction" grossed over $845 million . "Iron Man 3" had longer, additional sequences for its Chinese audiences with cameos from local stars. Next month's "Furious 7" featuring Vin Diesel and the Rock is set to do the majority of its press in Los Angeles and China. NOW WATCH: 6 Crazy Things Revealed In HBO's Explosive New Scientology Documentary 'Going Clear'
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Mar 11, 2015; 9:58 AM ET A sports media company 'Teton Gravity Research' captured this gorgeous footage of the Himalayas from a helicopter.
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Note : USA TODAY Sports' Paul White, via car, causeway, plane and rail, will reach every major league camp this spring . Follow his exploits on Twitter -- @PBJWhite - as he makes his way through the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues before he imparts all you didn't know about every team right here. TODAY : Boston Red Sox FORT MYERS, Fla. The Red Sox's spring ballpark doesn't resemble Fenway Park just to be a tourist attraction. It's also part of the Hanley Ramirez immersion project. "I'm a left fielder," says the now apparently former shortstop and third baseman of his willingness to take on a new position after signing as a free agent with the team that originally developed him. "This is my home and I want to play here." His home includes the imposing Green Monster that casts a long shadow over his new position. And having a replica in Florida not only helps Ramirez's transition but also helps the Red Sox assess a player whose commitment to his past teams hasn't always been a safe assumption. "The work has been very consistent and this has everything to do with Hanley's attitude," says manager John Farrell. "And his willingness to engage with Arnie Beyeler and the work they do." Beyeler is the coach who takes Ramirez out to left field and helps familiarize him with the strange angles and caroms of the 37-foot structure that turns outs into doubles and fly balls into adventures. "Balls are going to bounce differently," Ramirez says of quirks that will come from the ancient, pock-marked version at Fenway compared with the sleek 4-year-old wall in Fort Myers. "But I can get a lot of it now." He's added about 10 pounds this year, hoping to add some strength now that he's away from the infield positions that demand more agility. He's also pretty much attached himself to David Ortiz, which the Red Sox see as a positive. "I just want to have a freakin' trophy in my hand," he says. "I can't wait. So if I have to catch or pitch, whatever it takes to win. That's why I'm here with this organization, so I can play left field. One day I'm going to play all nine positions. All of them … and the DH. I'm going to DH the same day." Joking boasts aside, a competent left field will be just fine, as long as the offense accompanies it. "It's been a building-block approach," Farrell says. "It started with some jumps and reads and routes to get balls off the wall and playing that carom. He's still transitioning but we're confident he's going to be adequate in left field and is going to improve through the season." Says, Beyeler, "He'll be as good as he wants to be." ** Ace du jour Justin Masterson felt comfortable once he got the shirt. That Red Sox jersey the first one he wore as a major leaguer is nice and after nearly six years in other uniforms the pitcher who now qualifies as a veteran smiles and says, "Not too bad." Masterson seems somehow always linked to the Red Sox, though he's made just 15 of his 175 major league starts for Boston. Maybe it was his significant work as a set-up man during the playoffs in 2008, his rookie season. Or was his most important contribution being traded (with others) to Cleveland for Victor Martinez at the 2009 trade deadline? He's back now and, in Masterson's own words, "I'm one of them." Indeed, he is. He's part of a rebuilt Red Sox rotation that's competing for top billing on what ought to be called Team Speculation. Pick an area of the team to wonder about who will play and how well, but starting pitching is the most likely season-breaker. The ongoing concern from outside the organization is the lack of a No. 1 starter after Jon Lester was traded at last season's deadline. Clay Buchholz is back from last year and he's been that guy, actually out-pitching Lester in an All-Star year at the top of the 2010 Red Sox rotation, when Buchholz led the AL in ERA Plus. He was even better in 2013 12-1, 1.74 ERA but lost three months to neck and shoulder issues. And last year's 5.74 ERA raises legitimate questions about his role going forward. The only other returnee is Joe Kelly, a Red Sox for all of 10 starts after his inclusion from St. Louis in last year's deadline shuffle. Lester didn't return, nor could Boston entice or deal for any clear aces. The solution? Well, in 2014, 34 pitchers who threw at least 125 innings had a ground ball rate of 50% and above. The Red Sox acquired three of them within two days in December Masterson, Wade Miley and Rick Porcello. Their rankings, however, in more mainstream categories vary widely. Porcello's ERA for Detroit was 3.43, Miley's with Arizona 4.34 and Masterson's for Cleveland and St. Louis 5.88. They are the rotation. "I've got the shirt and everything," Masterson boasts. Actually, it's two shirts for each of the five starters that Buchholz had made to poke fun at all the ace angst. All have the pitcher's name and number on the back. A gray shirt, worn by that day's starter, has "I'm the Ace" on the front. A blue shirt, worn by the four guys not starting that day, has "He's the Ace." As Masterson said after his first spring start, "I was the ace today. I will not be the ace tomorrow. Someone else will be the ace. The five of us are having a good old time and I think we're all progressing exactly the way we want to and it's pretty cool." It's not like they're the only candidates to start. Farrell has seen enough from the collection of young starters emerging from the farm system that he says there might not be room at Class AAA for everyone who deserves to be in at least that rotation. "How we accommodate all that?" Farrell says, "We'll work that out." But there's little question that, barring injuries, the experienced guys get the jobs. Banking on too many unproven kids became Boston's 2014 too-green monster that contributed mightily to what's now a three-year trend of alternating last- and first-place finishes. If it's to be four years, Buchholz and his shirt-mates must pitch well. The glib Masterson, also the biggest question mark in the group, is confident good health will make a huge difference for him. "There never was really a point where everything was right," he says of fighting through knee and oblique problems in 2014. "It was kind of trying to tough-guy through it, which is probably not the smartest thing to do but is a great learning experience. There wasn't really anytime that it just felt great in an overall sense except for the last outing of the year when I threw two innings and got the win." He says he clearly feels different this spring, with two shutout innings in his first start, three perfect innings in his next one. "Last year it was please, maybe, hopefully, let's go," Masterson says. "Now it's, alright, let's go do it. Oh, we're mechanically a little bit off? OK, we can work on that. We're supposed to have those mistakes, leave the ball in the zone every once in awhile. Those are the better things to be trying to work on, rather than will it get up there, will it have any rotation." ** Young arms on the way Farrell remains very much the pitcher and pitching coach he's been far longer than a manager. And no matter how much he wants this season to turn on the work of veteran pitchers, he can't help but enjoy the prospects smorgasbord in his camp this spring. No matter what prospect list you take as gospel, at least four of Boston's 10 best are pitchers in the major league camp this spring Henry Owens, Brian Johnson, Matt Barnes and Eduardo Rodriguez. And Farrell even likes to see them struggle. "We understand what the physical abilities are," he says of the quartet and more who are close enough to big-league ready to contribute sometime this season. But they often only get one- or maybe two-inning looks in spring games. That's hardly enough for a starter to showcase his whole repertoire. "You try to get a sense of how are they managing when they're getting challenged inside of an inning," Farrell says. "Are they handling it in a calm manner? Is their poise, composure remaining the same? Or are you seeing it play out a bit. You're almost anticipating there's going to be a little bit of an emotional spike." There's certainly plenty of reason for that spike. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't happen," says Johnson, a 2012 first-round pick who's posted a 2.23 working from Rookie ball to Class AA in two seasons. "But I think in a natural good way. This is my first big league spring training, the first time the coaches have ever seen me. You want to showcase yourself well, you want to show them, 'You can rely on me.' " Johnson knew several days in advance that he'd get an inning in Boston's first spring game. So, his parents drove across the state from Cocoa Beach and his brother made the drive from Tampa just a little added emotion. He had exactly the kind of inning Farrell was talking about. A one-out walk and a passed ball created some adversity, as coaches like to call it. Johnson got the second out and then induced a slow roller to the third base side of the mound. He got to the ball, spun and made a bad throw to allow a run. Then he got the final out on another grounder he had to field himself. The next day, Owens breezed through a perfect inning with two strikeouts, then allowed three hits, a walk and two runs the next inning. And he came back a few days later with two perfect innings, including two strikeouts. It's all part of the process these guys are sharing. "It helps to have people your own age you can relate to and talk to because you're all going through it," Johnson says. "I just want to go out there and have fun. It's really exciting to me. The most anybody said to me was, 'How'd you feel?' It wasn't even, 'How'd you do?' Just, 'How'd you feel?' " Rest assured someone who matters knows full well how he did.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers have completely rebounded from a rocky start to the season. Early on, the Cavs' big three didn't seem to fit together, LeBron James looked past his prime , Kevin Love was unhappy , head coach David Blatt was on the hot seat , and the team limped to a 19-20 start. After the rough start, the Cavaliers made two big trades to change the dynamic of their team, and they've been dominant ever since. The Cavs sent Dion Waiters to the Thunder in a three-team trade, getting back J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks, and a first-round pick from the Thunder. Weeks later, that pick was one of two first-rounders they sent to the Nuggets for center Timofey Mozgov. When all was said and done, they traded a starting shooting guard (Waiters) and a 1st-round pick for a starting shooting guard (Smith), a wing defender (Shumpert), and a starting center (Mozgov). Two months later, those trades have had an impact nobody saw coming. Since January 15, the Cavs are 21-5 and have moved into second place in the East. Mozgov filled the Cavaliers' desperate need for a center. His ability to roll to the rim sucks defenses in and helps the Cavs find spot-up shooters around the perimeter. Mozgov has the highest on-court offensive rating and the second highest on-court defensive rating on the Cavs. Smith thought to be a throw-in to the trade so the Cavs could get Shumpert is playing major minutes and has become the spot-up shooter the Cavs needed. Shumpert gives the Cavaliers a second ball-handler off the bench and a wing defender to put on opponents' top scorers. Shumpert's offensive production is minimal, but he's a decent spot-up shooter, and when he's on the court, the Cavs have a 97.7 defensive rating second best in the NBA if it were sustained. There are other reasons for the resurgence. Just as the Cavs' season turned around, James had returned from a two-week vacation to rehab multiple injuries and has looked like his normal, MVP-level self since. The Cavs' starting lineup of Irving, Smith, James, Love, and Mozgov has been the best lineup in the NBA by a wide margin. Here's a look at the most played lineups since the start of 2015. The Cavs are dominating teams: This isn't a small sample size. The Cavs' starting five has the best net rating of any five-man group that's played over 110 minutes since January 1. As SI's Ben Golliver pointed out , the Cavs have the biggest net rating differential of any of the top 10 teams since the start of 2015. The Cavaliers went from a disappointment to a heavy favorite to win the East in a matter of two months. Not only are they deeper, they addressed weak positions with the trades while giving up almost nothing in return. While James getting healthy and the big three adapting to one another has certainly helped, those two midseason trades may end up being what saved the Cavs' season. NOW WATCH: This windowless concept race car is all electric and packs more power than a Tesla
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WASHINGTON No single emoji seemed quite adequate to capture the collective flip-out over the admission by Senator Lindsey Graham that he has never, ever sent an email. "I don't know what that makes me," Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. A card-carrying member of the Flip Phone Caucus, perhaps. A first-team all-Luddite, maybe. And, without doubt, one of a small circle of members of Congress who shape 21st-century policy and legislation but do not actually send or receive email. The email quirks of politicians burst into view in recent days, after news broke that Hillary Rodham Clinton, a likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, used a private email address during her time as secretary of state. On Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton held a news conference to try to quell the controversy. But in a city where aides and operatives take an almost perverse pleasure in checking their email in the middle of the night when they wake up to go the bathroom; in a Capitol complex where lawmakers are often trailed by "purse boys" and "body men"; and in a building that still employs staff to press the elevator buttons for the senators, some members seem to take pride in not emailing. In some ways, after all, eschewing email can be seen as the ultimate status symbol second only to sending someone to fetch your lunch. Mr. Graham rarely a sympathizer with Mrs. Clinton could have given her tips. His frequent Republican sidekick, Senator John McCain of Arizona, has said he also does not use email in part to prevent himself from filing off hot-tempered missives he might regret. Nor does Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. "Maybe once every four months, I do one email," he said, with evident relish. "I like to communicate by talking directly to people. I find it's an important part of humanity to understand not just the words that are said, but how they're said, the tone they're said in, the speed they're said with." And Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said his email habits tended toward "not very much." When he does turn to his iPhone 6 "the latest," he noted his emails are "short things, like 'Thanks.' 'Great.' " In a Capitol where bare shoulders for women are considered too informal for the Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor, forgoing email also seems like a polite vestige of the rules and etiquette that once reigned in Congress. Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and longtime former Hill staff member, recalled that one of his bosses, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, could not use his BlackBerry "if his life depended on it." "When the Senate first distributed BlackBerries to members, he gave his to his assistant and it was never seen from again," Mr. Manley said. He added that while it is now common to find lawmakers and staffers pecking away on smartphones, "back in the day" when Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, was alive, "staff and members, at least on the Democratic side, all lived in fear of him catching someone even peeking at the things, because it was strictly against the rules and defied decorum." On Monday, Mr. Schumer proudly displayed his silver LG flip phone. "It's a Verizon 3G," he said. "What is it called? 3G?" "Nope," said Matt House, his press secretary, with the amused resignation of an aide accustomed to having his boss call every time he has a new thought to share. "I don't know, but 3G is not the correct answer." Undaunted, Mr. Schumer enumerated his phone's perceived virtues "It goes from your ear to your mouth," and his staff prefers it. "If a Type A personality like me emailed, I'd be bothering them all the time," he said. "This way, they don't have to answer." Like Mr. Schumer, Mr. Graham also still has a flip phone, though they do own iPads, which they use to read the news. Mr. McCain has an iPhone 6 Plus and came under criticism for playing iPhone poker during a committee hearing on Syria last Congress. (An aide says now that Mr. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, his cyber poker-during-hearing days are behind him.) But the Flip Phone Caucus is, admittedly, still the outlier not unlike the flip phone itself. Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, snorted in laughter when asked if he used email. "Constantly," he said. "One of my goals and challenges as a parent is to stop texting, Tweeting, emailing, Facebooking, while I'm home with my kids." And Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said she was "in awe" of her colleagues who did not email. "I can't imagine how I could do my job without the ability to communicate on a constant basis," she said, looking up from her iPhone 5 with an extended battery pack to answer the question. "Now admittedly, I have seven children and eight grandchildren, so that's also a consideration," she said. "I'm multitasking most of the day, helping somebody figure out how to negotiate with their landlord at the same time I'm trying to go to a hearing." Other lawmakers offered a more droll take on their colleagues' decidedly low-tech tendencies. "Yes, of course I email I'm modern, I'm contemporary, I'm hot, I'm hip," said Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, who at age 78 recently announced her plans to retire at the end of her term. But, she added, "If they want to cling to papyrus and stylus, they can." And Senator Tom Carper, Democrat of Delaware, when asked about his email habits, responded dryly: "Never. I've never used it. I understand some of my colleagues do, but I figure if I end up using email, I'll get into real trouble." "So I have a quill," he continued, unable to suppress a giggle. "And what's the paper they have in Egypt?" Indeed, as Mrs. Clinton learned this week, email whether you use it, don't use it or set up your own private server to store it can be politically confounding. There just might be some merit in avoiding it entirely, said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. "Politicians used to be taught 'don't write if you can say it, don't say it if you can nod,' " Mr. Feehery said. "'Don't email it' is the updated version, and a very smart way to avoid embarrassment and possibly jail."
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President Obama issued an executive memorandum Tuesday to the Department of Education and other federal agencies to do more to help student loan borrowers afford their debt payments. He's calling it the Student Aid Bill of Rights. It addresses some big issues, like making payments more affordable and giving borrowers a simple way to provide feedback on their loan experiences. However, experts say that these rights only cover some of the problems borrowers encounter, and that it will take time to see how this executive action plays out for student loan borrowers. "These things aren't going to immediately improve the economic drag that student loan debt has on the economy," said Chris Lindstrom, higher education program director at U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). "There's any number of outstanding questions that are definitely not spelled out in detail … but we're optimistic that we can at least follow through on a set of these things and make them happen before the president leaves office." With that in mind, here are the main points outlined in this bill of rights (note: despite the use of the word bill, this is not legislation). A Student Aid Bill of Rights I. Every student deserves access to a quality, affordable education at a college that's cutting costs and increasing learning. II. Every student should be able to access the resources needed to pay for college. III. Every borrower has the right to an affordable repayment plan . IV. And every borrower has the right to quality customer service, reliable information, and fair treatment, even if they struggle to repay their loans. This presidential memo also says the Department of Education will now be responsible for making sure servicers apply overpayments to the loan with the highest interest rate, therefore relieving borrowers of that burden. Currently, there's no way for borrowers to refinance through the federal student loan program , and the only workaround to pay less interest in the long run is to make more than your minimum monthly payment and request your servicer apply that payment to your highest interest rate loan. However, borrowers have reportedly complained that servicers don't always follow those instructions. These changes are generally focused on making things easier for borrowers to understand and increasing access to resources to answer any questions they may have. For example, there's a directive that the Education Department create a centralized platform for borrowers to access their loan information and make payments. "That's a fancy way of saying we're bypassing the servicers," said Joshua Cohen, a student loan lawyer based in Vermont. "I think people will love that because people do not like dealing with servicers." It's a common borrower complaint that servicers don't communicate well with borrowers, and don't follow borrowers' instructions and the memorandum calls for a better way to collect and address consumer complaints about them. "I think it's really encouraging to see a push for a more standardized servicing experience," said Jesse O'Connell, assistant director of federal relations for the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators. Because borrowers don't have a choice in what entity services their loans, borrowers often feel stuck with a servicer that isn't meeting their needs. O'Connell said that's an inequity that can harm individuals and, by extension, the greater economy. "We want to make sure all students are getting a consistently high level of service." Borrower advocates are optimistic in light of this executive action, but still have many questions there are about how this order will be executed. Cohen, for one, would like to see more efforts aimed at reducing the cost of college (there's a section of the memo about increasing grants to encourage schools to cut expenses ), in addition to tackling private student loan affordability. Even though private student loans only make up 13.75% of the $1.2 trillion in outstanding loan debt, that small percentage translates into a large dollar amount about $165 billion. "This is great for federal loans, but there's still no regulation of private loans," Cohen said. "It would be nice if he had addressed the banking institutions or banking regulations." This article originally appeared on Credit.com .
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Entering free agency for the first time, Ryan Mathews stares at an uncertain future. The oft-injured running back was limited to a career-low six games in 2014, all but erasing the goodwill he had accrued a year prior. Nevertheless, where there is a talented skill-position player, there is always a team willing to take a chance, and teams have expressed interest in the former San Diego Charger. Continue for updates. Mathews Reportedly Likely to Sign With Eagles Wednesday, March 11 Mike of Fox Sports reported on March 11 that the Eagles are targeting Mathews for a role next season and that the running back is likely to sign with Philadelphia. Mathews, 27, is unlikely to walk into a full-time starting job. He was limited to 330 yards and three touchdowns due to injuries, failing to play in more than four consecutive games. It was the fourth time in five seasons Mathews was forced to miss time. Those issues weren't so deep in 2013, when Mathews played the first healthy season of his career en route to a 1,255-yard campaign. It appeared that season as if Mathews and quarterback Philip Rivers had finally gotten on the same page. The offensive line was offering semi-consistent protection, Mathews was making plays whenever he touched the ball, and the offense was among the NFL 's best. Todd Warshaw/Getty Images While the Chargers boasted an above-average offense in 2014, the team felt Mathews' absence. Donald Brown struggled with a starter's workload, Branden Oliver's ascent proved to be short-lived and Danny Woodhead went out with a season-ending injury. As he has a number of times throughout his career, Rivers was forced to carry the offense alone. Moving on from Mathews and landing a high-profile rusher may be the first step in reducing the pressure on Rivers. There aren't many reasons for San Diego to bring him back. He's made only one Pro Bowl (2011), lacks goal-line power and remains unreliable from a skills standpoint. The Chargers already have a platoon of replacement-level backs; they need someone who is a step (or six) beyond that. Mathews might look to find short-term success as part of a platoon before hitting the market again next offseason. If he's able to stay healthy, even in a limited capacity, he may be able to find a starting job a year from now. He's averaged 4.4 yards per carry for his career, catches the ball fine out of the backfield and won't cost a bundle on the open market. For now, Mathews' main priority will be securing a job that will allow him to resuscitate his stock around the league. Follow Tyler Conway ( @tylerconway22 ) on Twitter.
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Today's Wake-Up Call focuses on the recent injury to Garrett Temple, the team's positive outlook despite another injury, and the efficient play of Marcin Gortat as of late. 1. Garrett Temple's hamstring is better than expected Initially, Temple's timetable to recover from his strained hamstring was probably no less than two weeks and potentially could have even forced him to miss time in the postseason. But he felt much better yesterday as he and the team staff are hoping for a return sooner than later. Still, the injury could push the team to use their final roster spot. 2. Wizards staying positive Despite losing a ton since the All Star break, Washington nevertheless remains positive that things will turn around. They've won three of their past five games and finally put a full four quarters together against the Charlotte Hornets . Tomorrow (Thursday) they'll face the Memphis Grizzlies . We'll see if the inspired play will continue and if those positive vibes will continue to be as strong as they are today. 3. How about you? Are you feeling positive about the Wizards' current state? More than likely, you're not. But a dominating win is a dominating win and maybe seeing and feeling that sensation will bring this team back to playing the right kind of basketball. But the fans who have seen this movie all too often fear that a tough Grizzlies squad will put the team right back where it's found itself a lot recently -- in the loss column. 4. At least Marcin is back It's safe to say Marcin Gortat was not the same player after the All Star break. He looked confused, constantly scratching his head, throwing his hands in the air, and complaining about not getting enough touches in the offense. Some of those were of his own doing, while others were team-related issues. Those woes seem to be behind the big man and he is beginning to show again who the real Polish Hammer is. 5. John Wall loves himself some Bojangles It's not a trip to Carolina without some Bojangles.
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RUSSELL, N.Y. Authorities say a northern New York man is back in jail after he was found sleeping in the home of a woman he's accused of kidnapping last fall. The Watertown Daily Times reports (http://bit.ly/1xczim1 ) that state police charged 36-year-old Paul Willard of Edwards with criminal contempt for disobeying an order of protection last Friday. Troopers say Willard was found sleeping in a 43-year-old woman's home in the St. Lawrence County town of Russell. St. Lawrence County sheriff's deputies arrested Willard last October after they say he used a rifle to force the woman into his pickup truck. Deputies later found Willard and the woman at his home. Willard was taken into custody without incident. He was charged with kidnapping. Willard was released from jail in December. It couldn't be determined if he had a lawyer. ___ Information from: Watertown Daily Times, http://www.watertowndailytimes.com
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The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Wednesday congressional Democrats do not want to give President Barack Obama, or any president, an "open-ended authorization for war, a blank check" for the U.S. campaign against Islamic State militants. Senator Robert Menendez spoke at a hearing with top administration officials as senators begin considering Obama's request for a formal authorization for the seven-month-old campaign against the group. Obama's request to authorize military force against Islamic State has made little progress since he sent it to Congress a month ago, and may never pass, due largely to opposition from his fellow Democrats. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Doina Chiacu)
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Real Madrid may have made the last eight of the Champions League for a fifth consecutive season, but their Bernabeu faithful also reached the end of their patience after a humiliating 4-3 home defeat to Schalke on Tuesday. The reigning champions sneaked through 5-4 on aggregate thanks to their 2-0 success in Gelsenkirchen three weeks ago. Yet qualification was met with a series of boos and whistles as Real's Galactico stars were left in no doubt that their disastrous run of form will not be tolerated by a famously demanding fanbase. That anger was reflected on the front pages of Madrid's sports pages on Wednesday. The normally pro-Real paper Marca describing the Bernabeu in a state of panic, whilst the headline in AS led "to the quarter-finals with shame". World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo was the only man in white to emerge with any credit as his two goals not only saved his side from a shock elimination, but also made him the all-time top goalscorer in European competitions with 78. Meanwhile, Gareth Bale and captain Iker Casillas were singled out for special criticism. Casillas has endured a love-hate relationship with the Bernabeu for the past three seasons ever since he clashed with Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho during his last campaign in charge of Madrid. The 33-year-old said afterwards that "we have hit rock bottom in a spectacular way", whilst also accepting critics of his display in which he was at least partly at fault in Schalke's first three goals. However, Casillas is also expected to be coming towards the end of a remarkable 18-year career at Madrid with Manchester United's David de Gea being heavily linked with a return to his homeland. Bale on the other hand is just in his second season after being signed for a reportedly world record fee from Tottenham Hotspur. Back in December the Welshman was nicknamed "the finals man" by the Spanish press after adding a goal in the Club World Cup win over San Lorenzo to his decisive strikes to win the Copa del Rey and the Champions League against Barcelona and Atletico Madrid respectively last season. Even in his debut season, though, Bale would often have little impact on games before turning up in the right place in the right time or smashing home a wonder goal. The feeling that he wasn't involved enough in the game was counteracted by a fine record of 22 goals and 19 assists. This season he already has 14 goals to his name, but he has now gone nine matches without scoring and his inability to offer any defensive cover has been scrutinised more with every passing week. "Yesterday was another demonstration that Bale is not able to defend, and almost not able to attack either," wrote Enrique Ortego in Marca. Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has insisted multiple times that he has full confidence in Bale and that his place in the side alongside Karim Benzema and Ronaldo in a three-pronged attack was "non-negotiable" as long as all three are fit. That promise is likely to come under ever increasing strain with Madrid now having lost five of their 15 games this calendar year and facing a daunting trip to face Barcelona on March 22. As Marca added the only thing that is non-negotiable should this run of form continue is Ancelotti's sacking.
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Wal-Mart (WMT) 's recent announcement to increase the pay of its lowest-level workers followed on the heels of fellow retailers including Gap (GPS) and IKEA. This move by the world's largest retailer points to a recognition that will soon sweep businesses of all sorts. The future won't be won on the basis of price and convenience, but on service and experience. Society is changing, with more single-person households, a growing sense of social isolation, and the "atomization" that occurs when family members feel guilty about spending more time staring into screens than interacting with loved ones. These changes have rendered the ubiquity of online commerce, convenience, and low prices into mere table stakes. The remaining trump card is to satisfy the consumer's desire for richer experiences. Higher pay levels help deliver better service essential to a good experience. Costco (COST) pays its people an average of more than $20 an hour, supporting "the Costco experience" that turns shoppers into evangelists. The Container Store, famous for delighting customers, pays nearly twice the retail industry's average. Investing in quality service is not just a smart strategy for stores, but for universities, financial services companies, airlines, telecoms, and even government. But delivering a rich experience involves more than service. It involves immersion in worlds of the exotic, the elegant, or the abundant. It begins with the employees and extends into the physical space. Walk into an Apple (AAPL) store or take your daughter to the American Girl Café, and you enter not a store but a world. Brands that are thriving from Nordstrom (JWN) to Restoration Hardware are equally adept at creating immersive worlds with distinctive atmospheres. More and more, these worlds are integrated with their online counterparts. But they are no mere avatars. A year ago, analysts were saying that Best Buy (BBY) was little more than a testing ground for Amazon (AMZN) 's customers. Now Amazon is building physical stores, while Best Buy has tripled its value after it unapologetically repositioned itself as a showroom. Bonobos, a chain of boutique stores that encourages customers to browse online before trying on selections at one of its "guideshops," proves that establishing a physical connection with the customer is vital to a brand's success. The most inviting atmospheres also foster a sense of community. Increasingly, Americans exhibit the desire to feel safe and close to home in a seemingly more dangerous world. Favorite shopping destinations are no longer the concrete boxes across town, but nearby, pedestrian-friendly districts where we feel safe and are recognized by family, friends and neighbors. Main Street is making a comeback from small towns to big cities. We want room to walk, congregate and relax with sunlight and open air. Retail is now a social experience that extends beyond anything we can hold in our hand or place on a shelf. Even old hospitalities, like the once-dead neighborhood bookstore or independent coffee house, are making a comeback. There's a return of the shopkeeper, where stores are creating a personal, long-term relationships with customers buoyed by new technology and social media. The postwar, fluorescent-lit, concrete behemoth called the indoor mall was always too artificial to serve that role as the heart of a community. That impersonal experience can no longer compete with e-commerce in utilitarian transactions. Yet, the future of the experience-driven retailer and any business that embraces this ethos is very positive. Americans today want to enjoy touchstone places to spend their time and spend money with companies that truly value their relationship. Wal-Mart's investment in better service is one more visible sign of this new economy, one in which consumer businesses of all sorts must provide exceptional experiences or suffer the fate of the old-time, indoor shopping mall. Commentary by Rick J. Caruso, the founder and chief executive officer of shopping-center developer Caruso Affiliated. Follow him on Twitter @RickCarusoLA .
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11 service members missing after Black Hawk chopper goes down off Florida coast
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The Cleveland Cavaliers destroyed the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, and everything about the loss left a bad taste in Amar'e Stoudemire's mouth. He was disgusted with how his new team failed to compete, so, according to ESPN Dallas' Tim MacMahon , afterwards the 32-year-old decided to vent his frustration. The 12-year veteran joined the Mavericks on February 18, and has played better than expected since, averaging 11.4 points in only 17.4 minutes per game. He's shooting an insane 62.1 percent and posting a 23.6 PER. In other words, he's doing his job. Unfortunately, Stoudemire is one of just a few in Dallas who can say the same. (h/t: ESPN Dallas )
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As evidenced by the newly proposed dietary guidelines, science's expert opinion regarding greater health and well-being is always changing a natural result of continued research and increased resources. The same goes for weight loss, which can be especially frustrating for those who have followed the "tried-and-true" ways to lose weight to no avail. In which case, we went back through some of the studies published in the last three years to pull out some of the newer, science-backed approaches to weight loss. Keep in mind, however, weight loss (as our overall health and well-being) is an individualized approach. Then: Diet And Exercise Reduces Obesity Now: Same, Plus Face-To-Face Counseling In 2013, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology updated the national guidelines on treating obesity for the first time since 1998. The two institutions analyzed 133 clinical research trials on how to best lose weight and achieve a healthy lifestyle, which they found starts by treating obesity as a disease. Though the American Medical Association classified the condition as such in July 2013, these guidelines were the first to recommend how to go about said treatment. While good old fashioned diet and exercise remained the top ways obese people could lower their risk, the new guidelines added behavioral weight loss counseling to the mix. Counseling sessions can provide those struggling to lose weight healthy menus, as well as tools to set realistic fitness schedules and reverse otherwise unhealthy behaviors. Just last week, health coaching was found to reverse risk of full-blown diabetes in patients diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Then: Eat Three Meals A Day Now: Eat When You Are Hungry The idea people should only eat three meals dates back to the New World; European settlers restricted their eating, whereas Native Americans ate whenever they wanted to. The thing is, appetite doesn't keep a schedule. Anyone who's found themselves pouring a bowl of cereal at 10 p.m. knows this all too well. In the same vein, curbing hunger by starting each day with a well-balanced breakfast is no longer a sure thing; it's complicated. And while fasting isn't always viewed in a positive light, one of the newer recommendations for weight loss suggests it's healthy when done intermittently. Not only does it promote loss, but animal studies have shown reducing calorie consumption 30 to 40 percent can increase life span by a third or more. Click here to see MSN's Nutrition Index Then: Close Down The Gym Now: Get Fit In As Little As 7 Minutes The scientific seven-minute workout properly broke the Internet (sorry, Kim Kardashian) when it was published in the May-June 2013 issue of the American College of Sports Medicine's Health & Fitness Journal. The workout involves 12 body weight exercises New York Times's Gretchen Reynolds described it as a long run and visit to the weight room combined and suggested high-intensity (and we'll say it, discomforting) exercise boasts the same benefits of endurance training (at least 30 minutes) in much less time. So it's no surprise body weight training claimed the No. 1 spot for 2015's top fitness trends. Granted, the effectiveness of the seven-minute workout has since been questioned, but not the weight training it's modeled after. A study published in the journal Obesity found weight training is a more effective way to lose weight than running, cycling, or stair climbing. That's not to say those approaches don't work at all, but if you're short on time, high-intensity training is now a leading alternative. Quick exercise routines that wont eat a lot of your time - 20 to 40 minutes Then: Overeating Causes Weight Gain Now: Overeating Also Causes Changes In The Brain Forbes reported after years of wondering why diet and exercise don't help some people lose weight, a 2013 (and groundbreaking) study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2013 discovered years of overeating an American diet actually changes the brain. Read: a diet sourcing too many calories from fat and simple sugars. "The evidence is quite convincing eating fattening foods causes inflammatory cells to go into the hypothalamus," Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the comprehensive weight-control program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center, told the magazine. "This overloads the neurons and causes neurological damage." When the nerves are damaged, the hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin don't function properly, which negatively impacts the body's metabolism and ability to regulate weight. And while some damage may be permanent, Forbes reported, it's possible to reverse it by cutting calories and fatty foods. See the human brain as a 3D model Then: Ingredient Exclusive Now: Ingredient Inclusive More like pale no : This year's annual report of best diets from U.S. News & World Report bumped the popular caveman diet to last place. While diets, like the Mediterranean diet and Weight Watchers, were all winners, a 2014 study found it didn't matter how slow or fast participants lost weight it just mattered how they maintained their success over a long period of time. A lot of the "best diets" focus on short-term solutions and certain ingredients. For example, Paleo goes heavy on the meat. Other diets will propose a certain amount of fat, protein, carbohydrates, sugar, and salt. But the truth is, it's more important how people combine these ingredients together. And actually, a recent study found simply adding more fiber to an existing diet may be enough to kick-start weight loss. "There is no ideal diet for weight loss, and there is no superiority between the many diets we looked at," Dr. Donna Ryan, who led the obesity guidelines overhaul, told USA Today. "We examined about 17 different weight-loss diets. There are many dietary paths to weight loss, as long as you are creating a calorie deficit." Get all the nutritional information you need, right here Then: White-Yellow Fat Can Turn Into Brown Fat Now: The Exact Protein That Stimulates This Change As Medical Daily previously reported, there are two types of fat: white-yellow fat and brown fat. White-yellow fat basically makes up human bodies and "stores excess energy, builds around vital organs, and carries hormones such as estrogen, adrenaline, cortisol, and hunger-appetite regulators." Brown fat, on the other hand, positively impacts metabolism and insulin resistance. It also uses up calories to keep the body warm. Prior science shows white-yellow fat can be stimulated and turned into brown fat. Now, thanks to a study published in the journal Obesity, researchers have pinpointed the exact protein responsible for this change; it's called transcription factor Zfp516. In addition to exercise, cold weather can stimulate white-yellow fat to turn into brown fat, which researchers believe has potential to spark new therapy for weight loss and diabetes.
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Phoenix, Arizona -- It's barely 7 a.m., and the anticipated 80-something-degree heat hasn't yet burned through the cool desert morning. New Ford Edges are on the street in front of our hotel, literally parking themselves. The side panel of one white Ford Transit posed as a parking prop explains, "The 180-degree front camera … Edge can see what you can't." Another reads, "Your Rx for parking anxiety." This is the future of driving, and the second-generation Ford Edge is the future of personal luxury transportation, a new-age Mercury Cougar. Automated parallel parking has been done for years, first via Lexus and Toyota. But Ford has expanded the capabilities with models such as the 2015 Edge: It backs in for perpendicular parking spaces, as well as parallel parking, and will even help you find your way out of that space. On the road, lane-departure control keeps you between the lines. The system is adjustable, and it nudges the Edge back into the center of the lane rather than steering for you for up to 10 seconds, as some Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, and Acura models do. Related link: Research the 2015 Ford Edge Let's start with the 2015 Ford Edge Titanium with optional all-wheel drive and a new base engine. The Blue Oval says the 2.0-liter, turbo EcoBoost inline-four is pretty much new, not the 2.0 EcoBoost you may have experienced in, say, a late-model Escape. This Edge version marks the first time the 2.0-liter EcoBoost is tow-rated. It has new parts, including a new cylinder head and the twin-scroll setup, and is available with all-wheel drive for the first time in this CUV. This engine is probably adequate for the average 2015 Ford Edge buyer. It steps out into traffic decently enough, though probably with a 0-60 mph time that might seem of a different age. On the steep uphill highway roads outside of Phoenix, it gets the job done only if you bury your right New Balance to the carpet. This engine in this CUV when equipped with front-wheel drive achieves the magic 30-mpg highway number. It's 28 mpg in this AWD configuration, and both make 20 mpg in the city, the EPA says. Ford provided only the two priciest trim levels for the first drive, which is honest, since this 'tweener two-row midsize CUV breaks out of the Escape/Explorer family car mold. The Titanium trim level is new for this Edge and features midlevel-quality leather, a generously padded dashboard, and stitched, leather-like door panel inserts replacing the old model's hard plastic. There's an acoustic glass windshield and front-side windows. The engines are extremely quiet and idle so smoothly that you'll be double-checking the tiny tachometer. The only palpable sound seemed to be some wind noise coming off the big, rectangular sideview mirrors. The 2.0-liter EcoBoost I-4 now is the base engine in SE, SEL, and Titanium trim levels, but not in Sport. Ford moved the engine's production from Spain to Ohio so it can charge less for the EcoBoost than it does for the 280-hp, 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V-6. The V-6 is the only major carryover part from the previous Edge, which suffered from being an overweight, clumsy driver. Using more high-strength steel and other lightweight metals, the new Edge is about 50 pounds lighter than the old, and the A-pillars aren't too thick. This CUV is based loosely on the Ford Fusion/Mondeo, with MacPherson struts up front and a rear multilink independent suspension in place of the old version's trailing arms. A six-speed automatic is again the only transmission choice. The Edge has been added to One Ford's European lineup, no doubt with a manual option -- but then, Europe will get a diesel option as well. Our 2015 Ford Edge Titanium AWD 2.0-liter EcoBoost, on 20-inch Hankook all-season tires, handled fast sweepers on mountain roads like any good family CUV should. There was very little drama and very little excitement. It has Ford's latest version of Curve Control, the product liability lawyer's delight that so disappointed with too much intrusion when debuted in the unibody 2011 Explorer. Limited by sane speeds on public roads, Curve Control made itself known just once, and very subtly by issuing a slight course correction that registered through our backside. Ford has been tuning CC ever since it was foisted upon us; the average Edge driver will never know when it triggers. Ride and handling are balanced nicely and feel as they should in this CUV. You won't carve up any overly tight roads -- construction kept us off them -- and on moderately tight roads, you can maintain a brisk pace. The ride is comfortable, even if the optional 20-inch tires offer bling over comfort and low unsprung weight. The steering is dead and loose on-center, though that's as it should be on this 68-inch-tall utility vehicle. More expensive than even the Titanium, the Ford Edge Sport fixes some of these issues. Its 2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6, straight out of the most efficient aluminum F-150 and rated a healthy 315 hp and 350 lb-ft, feels like a V-8 in the Edge and without serious turbo lag. With stiffer shocks and springs, the Sport exhibits satisfyingly damped rebound on short hills and gulleys, and the steering loses that loose on-center feel. Ford says the electronic power-assisted steering is different in the Sport versus other trim levels, but surely some credit goes to the 21-inch Pirelli P Zero summer tires on our tester. They gripped the mountain curves and the short, twistier side-road diversion like we were driving a Mustang GT. OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but the 2015 Ford Edge Sport has more than enough power, and it handles really, really well … for a tall, 4,300-or-so-pound sport-utility vehicle. The question is: What do you want with a conveyance like this? A primary vehicle that comfortably transports your dogs, takes everything you might buy from the weekend farmers market, and is fun-ish to drive if your off-ramp to work is clear on Monday morning? Or do you want it to complement the Mustang GT or Miata or Cayman S in the other space in your garage? In the end, the Sport model is probably worth it, because it's just a couple grand more than the Titanium, depending how you equip it. Our preproduction Edge Titanium's bottom line was $45,515; our preproduction Edge Sport was $46,380. Neither had optional adaptive cruise control; both had optional panoramic sunroofs. That's getting into Audi, if not BMW, money. Though we didn't get to drive one, we figure a mid-level, sub-$40,000 SEL version of this vastly improved Edge will prove to be the more compelling buy, especially among those who suffer parking anxiety. 2015 Ford Edge Specifications On sale: Now Base Price Range: $28,745-$40,240 Engines: 2.0L DOHC 16-valve turbocharged I-4/245 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 275 lb-ft @ 3,000 rpm; 3.5L DOHC 24-valve V-6/280 hp @ 6,500 rpm, 250 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm; 2.7L DOHC 24-valve turbocharged V-6/315 hp @ 4,750 rpm, 350 lb-ft @ 2,750 rpm Transmission: 6-speed automatic Layout: 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD/AWD CUV EPA Mileage: 17-20/24-30 mpg city/hwy L x W x H: 188.1 x 75.9 x 68.6 in Wheelbase: 112.2 in Weight: 3,912/4,060 lb (FWD/AWD)
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Consider it your daily inspiration.
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Five men will appear in court over the racist abuse of a black man prior to a Champions League game in Paris last month, British police announced on Wednesday. Chelsea fans were filmed preventing the man from boarding a Metro train and singing racist songs before their Champions League last 16 first-leg match against Paris Saint-Germain. The men will go before Waltham Forest Magistrates' Court in northeast London on March 25 "regarding a police application for football banning orders", Scotland Yard said. Chelsea and PSG are due to meet in the second leg of their tie at Stamford Bridge later on Wednesday, with the score 1-1 following the first leg. Football banning orders can be issued by British courts following a conviction for a football-related offence and can last for between three and 10 years. Breaches of the orders can lead to prison sentences. The incident in Paris, captured on the mobile phone of a British expatriate, sparked widespread condemnation and prompted Chelsea to ban five supporters from Stamford Bridge. Chelsea invited the victim, known as Souleymane S., to attend Wednesday's game against PSG, but he turned down the invitation.
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So excited!
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WASHINGTON The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes a day after Clinton broke her silence about her use of a private email account while secretary of state. The FOIA requests and lawsuit seek materials related to her public and private calendars, correspondence involving longtime aides likely to play key roles in her expected campaign for president, and Clinton-related emails about the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices. "After careful deliberation and exhausting our other options, The Associated Press is taking the necessary legal steps to gain access to these important documents, which will shed light on actions by the State Department and former Secretary Clinton, a presumptive 2016 presidential candidate, during some of the most significant issues of our time," said Karen Kaiser, AP's general counsel. Said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, "The Freedom of Information Act exists to give citizens a clear view of what government officials are doing on their behalf. When that view is denied, the next resort is the courts." State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach declined to comment. He had previously cited the department's heavy annual load of FOIA requests 19,000 last year in saying that the department "does its best to meet its FOIA responsibilities." He said the department takes requests "first in, first out," but noted that timing depends on "the complexity of the request." Carroll said the AP was filing additional requests Wednesday using FOIA and other tools following the disclosure last week that Clinton had used a private email account run on a server on her property outside New York while working at the State Department. Clinton on Tuesday said she sent and received about 60,000 emails from her personal email address in her four years as President Barack Obama's secretary of state. She said roughly half were work-related, which she turned over to the State Department, while deleting tens of thousands more that were personal in nature. The department says it will take several months to review the material Clinton turned over last year. Once the review is complete, the department said, the emails will be posted online. The AP had sought Clinton-related correspondence before her use of a personal email account was publicly known, although Wednesday's court filing alleges that the State Department is responsible for including emails from that account in any public records request. "State's failure to ensure that Secretary Clinton's governmental emails were retained and preserved by the agency, and its failure timely to seek out and search those emails in response to AP's requests, indicate at the very least that State has not engaged in the diligent, good-faith search that FOIA requires," says AP's legal filing. Specifically, AP is seeking copies of Clinton's full schedules and calendars from her four years as secretary of state; documents related to her department's decision to grant a special position to longtime aide Huma Abedin; related correspondence from longtime advisers Philippe Reines and Cheryl Mills, who, like Abedin, are likely to play central roles in a Clinton presidential campaign; documents related to Clinton's and the agency's roles in the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices; and documents related to her role overseeing a major Defense Department contractor. The AP made most of its requests in the summer of 2013, although one was filed in March 2010. AP is also seeking attorney's fees related to the lawsuit. Other organizations have also sued the State Department recently after lengthy delays responding to public record requests. In December, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips. Last week, the National Security Archive, an organization that gathers declassified government records, filed a lawsuit after waiting more than seven years for the State Department to release of details of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations. Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, predicted the State Department would speed up its review facing legal action, particularly given that Clinton has said that her email correspondence doesn't include classified material. "When the government is under a court deadline, or really wants to review, they can whip through thousands of pages in a matter of weeks, which they should do here," Blanton said. The State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records it considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That is seven times longer than the Justice Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the Treasury Department. An inspector general's report in 2012 criticized the State Department's practices as "inefficient and ineffective," citing a heavy workload, small staff and interagency problems. ___ Follow Steve Peoples on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Kurt Busch was cleared Wednesday to get back in his race car and attempt to rebuild a career that was halted two days before the Daytona 500 when NASCAR suspended him for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend. "It's been torture sitting out of the car," Busch said in a conference call. He called the allegations against him "a complete fabrication." "I never did anything of the things I was accused of," he added. "I never wavered in this whole process because of the confidence in the truth." Busch missed the season's first three races during the suspension, the third of his career. In reinstating the 2004 champion, NASCAR ruled he will be eligible for the title-deciding Chase should he qualify. He will return to competition this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway in the No. 41 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. He said he will replace his longtime nickname "The Outlaw" with his signature above the door of his car. Busch remains on indefinite probation. "We have made it very clear to Kurt Busch our expectations for him moving forward, which includes participation in a treatment program and full compliance with all judicial requirements as a result of his off-track behavior," NASCAR executive vice president Steve O'Donnell said. Busch was suspended Feb. 20 when a Delaware judge ruled he likely assaulted ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll in his motorhome in September at Dover International Speedway. He lost two rounds of appeals on the eve of the season-opening Daytona 500. Last week, the Delaware attorney general declined to charge Busch for the incident with Driscoll -- a move O'Donnell said "removed a significant impediment" to reinstatement. Busch said he had been led to believe that criminal charges would be the determining factor in NASCAR taking action, and was surprised when he was suspended before the attorney general made its decision. "The way that NASCAR reacted, it was different than what we had been told," Busch said. "They were more focused on the criminal side, as were we. But the commissioner's ruling was not necessarily what was the important factor here. The important factor is that what I was accused of was a complete fabrication." Busch has also complied with NASCAR's reinstatement requirements, the terms of which have not been disclosed. O'Donnell said a health care expert recommended Busch's immediate return. Driscoll questioned NASCAR's decision to make Busch championship-eligible this season. "I'm deeply concerned about the message NASCAR is sending by letting him compete for the championship after he was found by a judge to have committed an act of domestic violence," Driscoll said in a statement. "But I am gratified, at least, that NASCAR's decision comes with the mandatory condition that he follow through on the treatment he so clearly needs." Busch did not reveal what he did to satisfy NASCAR, but indicated he wished he had participated in such a program earlier in his career. He also said he had been encouraged by NASCAR chairman Brian France, who urged him not to change as a driver. "It's a road map that they laid out that I am respecting, and it's created such a good foundation to utilize that I wish I had done it sooner," Busch said. "Talking with Brian France and going through this road, he told me, `Don't change. Don't be the person that is different in the car. Be a person that's different outside the car.' "So Brian said, `Go be yourself in that car, that's what we really love. We love Kurt Busch behind the wheel.' That's my focus, to be humble throughout this whole process and let actions speak louder than words." Busch's return was also cleared by Chevrolet, which had suspended its relationship with Busch. SHR is a Chevrolet team. The new Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format introduced last season gives drivers an automatic berth into the 16-driver field with a victory during the regular season. But, a driver must be ranked inside the top 30 in points to use that automatic berth. Busch currently has no points in the No. 41 Chevrolet, a car Haas pays for out of pocket specifically for Busch. It was Haas who gave Busch the opportunity to resurrect his career as one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR. The 36-year-old has a history of blowups on and off the track that date back to his rookie season. He was suspended in 2012 by NASCAR for threatening a reporter, and parked for the final two races of the 2005 season by Roush-Fenway Racing after he was pulled over by police in Arizona. Haas, wanting a driver who could take his machine tool manufacturing company to victory lane, offered Busch a ride in a new fourth car at SHR when Busch found himself driving for low-budget teams. Busch was fired at the end of 2011 by Roger Penske for a series of on- and off-track incidents, and he spent two seasons driving for low-budget teams before Haas extended the olive branch. Busch has 25 career wins, but only one since 2011. It came last year, his first season with SHR, and qualified him for the Chase. Driscoll alleged the assault occurred two days before the third Chase race, when Busch was in danger of being eliminated from the field. He was indeed knocked out of the Chase that weekend. Busch still must comply with guidelines set by Family Court Commissioner David Jones, who granted the no-contact order for Driscoll that led to his Feb. 20 suspension, two days before the season-opening race at Daytona. Jones wrote in his opinion that he believed Busch could lash out again and has a propensity to lose control in response to disappointing or frustrating situations involving racing. Jones ordered Busch to be evaluated to see if there is a "treatable mental health condition." He also said Busch must follow any suggested treatment plans. Busch is appealing Jones' ruling.
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sports
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COLUMBUS, Ohio A deep-sea treasure hunter who spent years as a fugitive has returned to Ohio to face the investors he's accused of bilking out of millions of dollars in gold. A judge in Ohio will handle the criminal contempt charge filed against Tommy Thompson after he went missing in the midst of demands he appear in court. Federal court documents said the 62-year-old Thompson and his longtime companion, Alison Antekeier were in the state Wednesday. The two had been held in Florida where they were apprehended in January. Thompson has faced accusations of cheating investors nearly since his 1988 discovery of the S.S. Central America, known as the Ship of Gold. The ship sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857 with thousands of pounds of gold aboard.
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The average Wall Street bonus rose two percent in 2014 as hiring in New York City's financial sector picked up, according to a government report Wednesday. The average bonus for New York City's security industry rose to $172,860 in 2014, the highest level since the financial crisis, said a report by the office of the New York State Comptroller. The loftier bonuses came despite a 4.5 percent drop in broker/dealer profits in 2014 to $16 billion, the report said. The decline in profits was due to weakness in some trading divisions, costly legal settlements at large banks and higher capital reserve requirements imposed by regulators after the financial crisis. The industry added 2,300 jobs in New York City in 2014, the first year of positive job growth in the sector since 2011. "The cost of legal settlements related to the 2008 financial crisis continues to be a drag on Wall Street profits, but the securities industry remains profitable and well-compensated even as it adjusts to regulatory changes," said New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. "The resumption of job growth in the securities industry bodes well for New York's economy, but it remains to be seen whether this trend will be sustained." The average increase in bonuses in 2014 was well below the rise notched in the previous two years. Average bonuses fell from a peak of $191,360 on average in 2006 to $100,850 in 2008 during the financial crisis.
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finance
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Last week, the Los Angeles County health department issued a warning against ocular syphilis a form of sexually transmitted disease that can blind those who become infected following the cluster of cases seen in Seattle/King County and San Francisco since December. In Washington State, six cases of ocular syphilis were diagnosed , including two cases that resulted in blindness and several causing a significant decline in vision. While the LA health department has not yet identified a cluster, it is investigating two independent cases that have occurred within the California county. The warning issued by the LA health department requests health care providers be vigilant for potential cases particularly among "men who have sex with men and HIV‐infected persons." The number of reported syphilis cases increased by nearly 11 percent between 2012 and 2013 . In the United States, 56,471 cases of syphilis, which is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum , were reported in 2013. While the incidence was highest in women 20 to 24 years of age and in men 20 to 29 years of age, three out of four reported cases were among men who have sex with men (MSM). Cases of ocular involvement are rare and typically occur 10 weeks to six months after infection. However, high rates of HIV co-infection have been seen in the recent outbreaks, ranging from 20 percent to 70 percent. The genital sores caused by syphilis make it easier to transmit and acquire HIV infection during sex. In fact, the risk of HIV infection is two to five times greater when syphilitic sores are present. Signs and Symptoms Syphilis is easy to diagnose simply ask any health care provider for a blood test and very easy to cure in its early stages. Many people are unaware they have become infected with syphilis, since they may not show any obvious symptoms for years. In the primary stage, syphilis may cause a sore, called a chancre, appearing on the exact spot where syphilis entered the body. Generally, chancres are painless, small, and round. They heal without treatment and last three to six weeks. Without treatment, syphilis progresses to the second stage, which involves a rash and lesions. An itchless rash appears on one or more areas of the body. Generally, it appears as rough, red, or reddish brown spots, usually on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. These rashes may appear as the chancre is healing or several weeks after the chancre has healed. Sometimes the rash is faint or it may resemble the flush caused by other diseases. Secondary syphilis may also include fever, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, patchy hair loss, headaches, weight loss, muscle aches, and fatigue. These signs will resolve with or without treatment. Syphilis moves onto the latent (hidden) stage in about 15 percent of all people who have not been treated. Symptoms may appear 10 to 20 years after the infection was acquired and may include damage to the internal organs, including the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. Signs include difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, and dementia.
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health
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"My favorite trick is tucking in just the front half of my shirt I swear it slims my hips." Catie Beatty, Fleur d'Elise. "Don't follow fashion rules! Use trial and error to figure out what you thinks looks good on your body." Georgette Niles, Grown and Curvy Woman. "Walking toward the camera keeps you from looking too posed." Maria MacNamara, The Style Letters. "Even a touch of makeup pulls your look together. I always love a neutral lip gloss." Caroline Harper-Knapp, House of Harper. "Crossing your ankles instantly makes you look longer and leaner." Karla Reed, @KarlaReed. "Have fun! Pictures with a real smile are the best ones." Brittany Davis Morris, The Brilliance of B. "Always add a little blush and a swipe of lipstick to ensure that your features stand out. It's the perfect finishing touch!" Kimberly Smith, Penny Pincher Fashion. "Be yourself! What you wear and the way you wear it must be genuine, and never be afraid to let your personal style shine." Marisa Zerby, A Lovely Living. "You cannot do better than the sun for great lighting. About an hour before sundown gives you the softest and most forgiving light." Victoria Locke, It's a Versayce. "Standing up straight is the best thing you can do for a good outfit. Great posture makes everything look better" Kendi Skeen, Kendi Everyday.
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lifestyle
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The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum just reopened with In that time, three big technological enhancements
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news
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MILWAUKEE When members of the Marquette basketball team found out Wally Ellenson was a high jumper, they were curious about one thing. Could he jump over the Golden Eagles' tallest player, 6-11 Luke Fisher? "I'm like, 'Yeah, that's my starting height.' " Ellenson said. This past fall the Wisconsin native transferred to Marquette from the University of Minnesota, where he averaged 1.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game on the basketball court and became an All-American in the high jump. "(Coming here) was a strictly basketball decision," said Ellenson, a junior. "As soon as (head coach Steve Wojciechowski and I) talked, I fell in love with the program and the whole staff here. The level that they played at is unbelievable. I wanted to come here and learn from them." So did Wally's brother, Henry. Only five years separates the four Ellenson children, but they are close in ways other than age. Wally, brother Ellwood and Henry were able to play one basketball season together in high school, and when the prospect of playing Division I basketball together came up for Wally and Henry, it was alluring. A five-star recruit who had offers from Michigan State and Kentucky, Henry fell in love with Marquette like Wally did, and in November he signed his national letter of intent to play for the Golden Eagles beginning in fall 2015. That's also when Wally will be active on the basketball team for the first time, having sat out the mandatory one year required of NCAA Division I transfers. But Wally already has competed as an athlete for Marquette, and excelled. Sitting out is not required for track and field, so Wally is jumping in both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Wally, who can't travel to basketball road games, competes in track meets when the Golden Eagles basketball team is away and practices with the track team when it doesn't interfere with basketball. That's the case now, as Marquette begins Big East Conference basketball tournament play. It's also how Wally was able to become a Big East champion. While the track team left for the Big East Championship on Feb. 26, Wally stayed behind for two basketball practices on Feb. 27 before the basketball team left to play Providence. He flew to New York that day, watched the first part of the track meet on Feb. 28 and set Big East championship meet record of 2.22 meters in the high jump on March 1. After returning to Milwaukee, his track teammates were ready for a week off. Wally walked to the Al McGuire Center for basketball practice. "He takes pride in being a multi-sport athlete," said Steve Salisbury, the athletic director at the Ellenson children's high school, Rice Lake (Wis.). "He's a good example of balancing it and competing at a high level. He does it because he loves the game. I think for him it's still play. He can use his creative abilities. It's not a job, it's not a burden and it's not because he has a scholarship." In his first meet for Marquette in January at the University of Wisconsin, Wally shattered the previous school record of 2.14 meters and jumped 2.28 meters on his third attempt. That height put him in the top three high jumpers in the world for 2015. "He hasn't maxed out yet," Marquette jumpers coach Rick Bellford said. "He's 20 years old and does this part time. … It's one thing to be that good and just get by on talent, but that's not the case. He puts in the work. He's that good for a reason. "We've never had anyone of that caliber here before." Even with his success in the high jump, Wally misses competitive basketball, specifically the part you can't get in practice the crowds, the pace of the game. "The redshirt year, by far, is the hardest thing I've ever done," he said. "I just hate watching these games and not being able to play, but it's something I have to go through. I can't wait to get back on the basketball floor. "At least with track, I have the ability to go out and compete and get that competitive energy out there. If I was just doing straight basketball, it would just be practice, practice, practice. Doing two sports, I'm able to be refreshed by doing one sport and then doing the other, instead of having it be monotonous." *** That variety in everyday workouts is crucial for Wally's success in both sports. The short sprinting and jumping that Wally does on the basketball court directly translates to high jump, where he sprints for brief distances and jumps. "I've always said that basketball players make the best jumpers," Bellford said. "All the work he puts in over there (with basketball), especially for his event, it's great offseason training." Wojciechowski said, "He's a heck of an athlete, especially if you give him a running start. That's when you can imagine that Wally Ellenson can high jump 7-5 because at times, you see it when he's chasing someone down on the break." John Ellenson, Wally's father, saw this much earlier than any Division I coach. When Wally was in third grade, he was leaping to block opponent's shots. "Developmentally, you just don't see kids doing that," said John Ellenson, who works as an elementary school counselor. "I remember saying to my wife, 'I can't wait until that kid high jumps' and sure enough. He's had a gift since he was young." Fisher understands Wally's athleticism more than most. A sophomore who transferred from Indiana sat out the fall semester, Fisher spent most of his time with Wally in the weight room and on the practice court. "He works really hard," Fisher said. "I think it has helped him with track, with his new record, and with basketball too. He's stronger and a lot more explosive." *** In a few years, Wally could be competing in another arena: the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janiero. The timeline would work out well. That January record-breaking jump at Wisconsin, which is an Olympic B standard, made it real for Wally and his family. By 2016, he will have used all of his college eligibility, and Wally said he feels like he could gain a couple more inches in jump height by then. "I didn't think he'd be ready by Rio," John Ellenson said. "But he's got an opportunity where if he jumps those jumps clean, he could be one of the top two that go. After (the January meet in) Madison, it was like, 'Oh, he could be ready this time.' " Wally, Bellford said, compares favorably to Olympians he has trained with in the past. "He's as good if not better than them from an athletic standpoint," Bellford said. But as Olympic contention has become a reality for Ellenson, it hasn't quite set in for his teammates. "To us, he's just Wally. He's our teammate," Fisher said. "To know that he's possibly an Olympian in two years, a year and a half, it's crazy to think that he could be representing the U.S. in Brazil and going for a medal." Almost crazier than jumping over the tallest guy on the team.
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sports
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BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. Alex Douglass ran a 50-mile ultra-marathon last year. Now he's learning to get around on an artificial hip. Six months after a sniper's bullet tore into his body, the Pennsylvania State Police trooper has undergone 15 surgeries to repair the damage and No. 16 is on the horizon. "He's doing as well as can be expected," said his boss at the Blooming Grove barracks, Lt. Christopher Paris. "He is determined to continue to improve." Eric Frein, 31, is charged with opening fire outside the barracks on Sept. 12, hitting Douglass in the pelvis and killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson. The accused gunman led police on a tense 48-day manhunt through the northeastern Pennsylvania woods before U.S. marshals caught him outside an abandoned airplane hangar about 30 miles from the shooting scene. Frein spoke of wanting to start a revolution in a letter to his parents and called Dickson's slaying an "assassination" in a police interview after his Oct. 30 capture, according to court documents. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Surveillance video played at Frein's preliminary hearing showed Douglass crawling into the barracks lobby on his stomach after he was shot, his legs trailing behind him. His superior physical fitness has helped him endure a long, grueling recovery. Before the ambush, it wasn't unusual for the 32-year-old trooper, who joined the state police in 2005, to hit the gym after working an overnight shift, running 10 or 15 miles at a clip or lifting weights. He'd run several marathons. "All of that, I think, helped him to not only survive the incident, but helps him now as he's moving along the road to recovery," said Paris, commander of the Blooming Grove barracks. Douglass has said little about his rehabilitation, but he did post a Facebook message ahead of his late-January hip replacement surgery. "I will hopefully be walking with minimal assistance after this surgery," said the message, posted to a Facebook page called "Support for Trooper Alex Douglass." "I read my support page everyday and smile every time I read all of your postings. It truly motivates me through these hard times. You all mean so much to me. I will always be PSP Strong!!" the message said. The $11 million manhunt for Frein involved as many as 1,000 law enforcement officials and unnerved residents, shut down roads and schools, and hurt businesses in the primary search area. It almost forced Capri Pizza to shut down as tourists avoided the area and locals stayed home. Slowly but surely, patrons are coming back. "It's about as back to normal as you can expect after an episode like that," said Joe Kastrati, the pizza shop's owner. "People are moving about freely, and you don't have that concern." At the barracks, life, too, goes on. Blooming Grove is a busy place, responding to more than 1,000 calls for service a month, including, recently, a murder-suicide and a traffic fatality. In the same lobby where Douglass sought refuge after being shot, crime victims show up at all hours of the day seeking help. But the ambush is never far from the surface. Two troopers and a police communications staffer have yet to return to work, still too traumatized. In a secure portion of the barracks, framed photos on the walls portray scenes from Dickson's funeral. There's also a poster that shows Frein being loaded into a squad car on the night of his capture. Printed, in large yellow block letters: "WE TOLD YOU WE WERE COMING FOR YOU ... 48 DAYS LATER CPL. DICKSON'S CUFFS WERE PLACED ON YOUR WRISTS AND YOU WERE TRANSPORTED IN HIS PATROL CAR." A committee is working on a permanent memorial to Dickson, 38, a seven-year veteran of the force who left behind a wife and two children. "I want it to be respectful, I want it to be in good taste, and I certainly know that it will be fitting, whatever we do," said Paris, the station commander. State police, meanwhile, are in the midst of a systematic review of security at all of its barracks and other facilities. The review is focusing on security cameras, with an eye toward making upgrades where necessary or installing additional cameras. But no camera, nor any other security measure, can prevent the kind of sneak attack that took place last fall. Police stations are, after all, public places. "Blooming Grove did have security cameras in certain locations and security cameras alone would have no impact on the outcome for those intent on ambushing our troopers," said state police spokeswoman Maria Finn.
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news
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Amazon wants to work with more startup product brands, and it is leveraging its giant customer base to get exclusive deals from the inventors making them. The company said on Wednesday that it had launched a new online storefront called Amazon Exclusives featuring a small selection of new products, ranging from portable battery chargers to paddle boards, that are only available through Amazon or the brand's own site. In January, Re/code broke the news that Amazon was working on such a platform . The Amazon Exclusive items are laid out in a Pinterest-like format that is not the norm for Amazon. The design seems intended to help shoppers discover new products they might not previously know about rather than searching for exactly what they want. While Amazon is the go-to e-commerce site for laser-focused American shoppers, sites like Pinterest and apps like Wanelo, Polyvore, Wish and Keep have resonated with some who are looking to browse and discover. eBay has also been working to attract new customers with new discovery-focused layouts over the past year. Brands selling through Amazon Exclusives can't sell through any other third-party websites or stores. They can, however, sell through their own websites or stores in addition to Amazon. Amazon is warehousing some of the items sold through Exclusives, making those eligible for two-day shipping through the Amazon Prime membership program.
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news
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Scientists may have finally unlocked the mystery behind chameleons' unique ability to change color. The explanation is that the reptile's skin is made up of tiny mirror-like crystals, contained within reflective pigment cells called iridophores. That's according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications . When the chameleon gets excited, or anticipates danger, the iridophores expand or contract to enable the crystals to reflect different levels of light, thereby changing its skin color. The researchers used a combination of microscopy, high-resolution videography and color-based numerical modeling to arrive at this discovery. "When the skin is in the relaxed state, the nanocrystals in the iridophore cells are very close to each other hence, the cells specifically reflect short wavelengths, such as blue," Michel Milinkovitch, a professor of genetics and evolution at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the lead author of the study, told Live Science . Milinkovitch further explained that, when excited, the nanocrystals spread further apart to reflect longer wavelengths like yellow, red and orange, which combine with blue to produce different hues. If any of those hues is white, gold, black, or blue , we might just have chameleons breaking the Internet soon.
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news
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Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga Tony Bennett will sing at Lady Gaga's wedding. The 88-year-old crooner has revealed he will be performing at the musician's forthcoming nuptials to 'Chicago Fire' actor Taylor Kinney, after the couple got engaged on Valentine's Day (14.02.15). The legendary crooner said: "They invited me to do it and, of course, I will." Tony, who collaborated with the 28-year-old singer on an album of jazz classics titled 'Cheek to Cheek' last year, was quick to praise the couple - who have dated for more than three years - and their blossoming relationship. When asked what he thought of the wedding, he said: "I love it. "She's marrying a very wonderful man, very talented and very handsome. I think he's going be highly successful in films. He's a very nice person." However, the 18-time Grammy Award winner - who has been married to his third wife, Susan Crow, since 2007 - was reluctant to spill any details about the ceremony itself, which will reportedly take place at the 'Do What U Want' singer's $23 million mansion in Malibu, California, later this year. Speaking to the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column at the First Time Fest closing party at the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel, he said: "All I know is, knowing Lady Gaga, it will be fabulous."
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entertainment
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The former first lady of Ivory Coast, Simone Gbagbo, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in violence that followed the presidential election in 2010.
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news
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If there is one thing I could wish for it would be more hours in the day... or maybe more energy to accomplish things with the hours I do have. As a parent it always seems that the length of my to-do list far outweighs the amount of time I have in my day. And while I am certain this is the plight of all parents and one that won't change anytime soon, there are definitely some things I've found that have helped me to "find" more time in my day whether it is by increasing my productivity or combining two tasks or activities together. Every little bit helps! 1. Getting up early I am so not a morning person, but since I'm also not a night owl and was finding myself too tired to turn out quality work at the end of my day (i.e. when my brain was already totally fried,) I decided that I was just going to have to figure out how to make myself become a morning person. My husband happens to leave for work early in the morning, so I started getting up with him before the kids were awake. He would make me a latte to enjoy while I worked as motivation, which definitely helped. Before I knew it I was enjoying 1-2 uninterrupted hours by myself every morning and it was bliss. Even though I was being productive and writing, the fact that I had coffee and quiet to enjoy made it feel like a mini-vacation and it was so much better waking up with a little peace and solitude before taking on my day. 2. Working out with my kids Taking my kids for a walk, having an impromptu dance party, doing online workouts and inviting my kids to join in with me. These are all ways I've found to get my fitness on with my kids and it's created so much more space in my day. Working out with kids is the ultimate multitasker, because you're having fun and playing together, while also getting in some aerobic activity and happy-making endorphins same time. I still enjoy a good solo workout too, but working out with my kids has become something I really enjoy and the fact that it frees up a little bit of extra time in my day is a great bonus. 3. Inviting my kids to help with chores Things like doing dishes and sweeping floors aren't the most fun tasks ever, but unfortunately they are a necessity at least on occasion. Some days it seems like I spend half my day cleaning or simply just putting things back where they once were to create some semblance of order. It's incredibly time-consuming. My kids are still little (one is only 9-months-old), but that doesn't mean I can't include them in some of these tasks. My three-year-old loves helping out with cleaning tasks. If I give her a rag and some vinegar cleaning spray, she will happily set about wiping up every surface in our home. She also loves helping put away dishes, loading the dishwasher and sweeping *the sweeping is often more of a hindrance than a help at this point, but we'll get there.) Involving my little ones in my day-to-day tasks instills a sense of pride in them, but also truly helps me to get things done quicker many times. Too often I was finding myself harried and stressed and running at a million miles an hour and in the end I was frazzled and not really doing anything all that well. 4. Having a "uniform" It might seem a little bit boring, but having a "mom uniform" has made a huge difference in the time it takes me to get ready every day. I've pared down my closet to include only items that I really like and that are practical for my life as a mama. I've also come to realize that neutrals are my favorite and so easy to mix-and-match, so I tend to stick with those. Jeans, a top and some variation of cardigan is my go-to ensemble and I can add accessories or a fancier shoe if I feel the need to spice things up. I've also done the same with my hair and makeup routine. I've learned what steps are essentials (i.e. under eye concealer, blush, brow powder and a pretty lip color) and what things to skip and it's made getting ready a much more streamlined (read: quick) process. 5. Planning multitasking playdates/hang outs Playdates are great for moms with young kids. They provide much-needed adult interaction and something fun for the kids to do as well. Much as I enjoy them though, there are a lot of times where it just feels like another thing on the to-do list. I've taken to making playdates a multitasking affair. Heading to my local barre studio with a friend for a workout while the kids hang in childcare or going for a walk altogether are a couple of great options. I've also employed this with one-on-one girl nights as well. If I have a few things to pick up at Target, I might invite a friend along, or if I have a craft project to complete for a party I'm hosting, or a gift I'm giving I'll invite a friend to come be crafty with me. 6. Sneaking in "me time" It seems counterintuitive, but pausing in the midst of a chaotic day to take time for myself makes a huge difference in my productivity for the rest of the day. Too often I was finding myself harried and stressed and running at a million miles an hour and in the end I was frazzled and not really doing anything all that well. Taking a little break to do something just for myself something so small as watching a short TED talk, or enjoying a quiet distraction-free lunch while my kids nap has given me a much needed recharge in my day and the feeling of refreshment has carried over into my day and made me much more able to take on other tasks. How do you find extra time in your day as a busy parent? What shortcuts or tricks have helped free you up a bit?
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An investigation is underway after 3-year-old Irish Setter Thendara Satisfaction (Jagger) died the day after taking part in Crufts.
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news
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ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith recently suggested that Eagles coach Chip Kelly makes roster decisions based on race. During an episode of ESPN First Take, Smith implied that race is behind Chip Kelly's recent roster moves. Smith seems to think that Kelly might not want African American players in his locker room.
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sports
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For all their stage-managed professionalism, the videos of killings released by the Islamic State have often left viewers confused about the exact circumstances of what was being shown in the video. Their videos of beheadings, for instance, do not show the act itself, which initially led some to speculate that they may have been faked. More unnervingly, there was also the calm with which many hostages spoke to the camera. Why would hostages comply with Islamic State propaganda, if they knew that it would result in their death? Some even suggested that perhaps the hostages had struck a deal with their captors for a more humane death. According to a new Sky News interview with an Islamic State defector, that wasn't the case. Instead, he explained that the hostages were calm because they had been in this situation before. They did not know they were about to die. The former Islamic State member, referred to as "Saleh," told the British television company that the extremist group would put the hostages through mock executions. Saleh himself told the hostages that they would not be killed, recalling that he said to them, "Don't worry, doesn't matter, nothing dangerous for you." However, Sky News reports that Saleh knew the plan was always to kill the hostages eventually, despite any limited kindness shown to them by their captors. Similar reports of mock executions have surfaced before: Last year the New York Times reported that American journalist James Foley was subjected to them, as well as beatings and waterboarding. Counterterrorism officials recently told ABC News they believed these mock executions explained why hostages appeared compliant in videos. The interview with Saleh, however, appears to have been the first confirmation of the practice from someone linked to the Islamic State. It's important to note that even if the hostage did return unharmed, mock executions are generally considered a form of psychological torture. The Islamic State militants may have decided on this tactic based on the experiences of their predecessors. Writing for The Post last year, Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, noted that in videos of killings from the Iraq war, hostages who knew they were going to be killed often acted unpredictably and gave upsetting pleas for their lives. In one video from 2004, a South Korean named Kim Sun Il screamed for his life: "I don't want to die. I don't want to die." His captors were from Jamaat al-Tawhid, a precursor group to the Islamic State. If the mock execution reports are true, they may also explain why the killings themselves were not shown on film. Even if the hostages realized what was happening at the last minute, they may still have put up a struggle that would have ruined the video's propaganda elements. In one video shot over a decade ago in Iraq, Italian Fabrizio Quattrocchi is said to have pulled off his mask and confronted his captors just before he was shot. "Now you'll see how an Italian dies," he was reported to have shouted. More on MSN: Missing girls allegedly stole family jewellery to fund Syria trip, MPs told Isis posts video of child militant shooting dead 'Israeli spy' Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam IS Defector: I Saw Jihadi John Kill Hostage
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news
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When it comes to politics, Iowa and New Hampshire may be king, but Palm Beach, Florida is home to plenty of wealthy folks, and thus, is one of the epicenters of American political fundraising.
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news
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Stephanie Sigman has joined the cast of Spectre . The model-turned-actress is set to star in the 24th James Bond film, a post on the movie's official Twitter account confirmed. It read: "We are pleased to announced that @SigmanStephanie has joined the cast of #Spectre as Estrella. (sic)" Daniel Craig is set to return as Bond for the fourth time whilst Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes and Rory Kinnear will reprise their roles from the last installment, 'Skyfall'. Sam Mendes is at the helm as director and the likes of Andrew Scott, Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista are new additions to the cast. However, filming hasn't got off to a great start with some of the cast and crew suffering injuries on set. Most recently, Daniel sprained his knee whilst shooting a fight scene in London. The injury meant the shooting schedule had to be changed in order to accommodate his recovery, which was a "real concern" for bosses. A source said at the time: "Daniel's injury is a real concern. Missed deadlines are a nightmare in the film world as it pushes everything back. Then not all the iconic locations can be rebooked easily or quickly. "In two weeks filming is due to switch to Rome and bosses fear Daniel's recovery may mean they have to plan around their main star. It's certainly not ideal." The film follows Bond on the trail of a global terrorist organisation, Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (SPECTRE), as he tries to uncover the truth behind the dangerous organisation. Spectre is due to open in US cinemas on November 6.
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entertainment
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50 Cent (also known as Curtis Jackson) is not the only one in his family to get a big paycheck. It turns out that his 2 year old son, Sire Jackson, has earned a $700,000 paycheck for his modeling career. Keri Lumm has all the details.
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video
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The biggest barrier for many would-be homeowners is the pile of cash that's needed before a bank will even discuss a mortgage. The Federal Housing Administration, in an effort to boost the housing market, recently lowered down-payment requirements to 3.5% of the purchase price, but by the time would-be buyers consider closing costs, they still need roughly 7%. Even in an FHA loan, families buying a typical $300,000 home need a $21,000 bank account no small feat when median American household income is about $54,000. Building up a $6,000 mortgage war chest is a lot easier, and puts homeownership within reach of far more low and moderate-income families. That's the goal of Homewise, an organization that arranges low-cost financing that covers 98% of the purchase price for buyers. But an easy-to-reach down payment requirement is only one benefit of Homewise, which serves New Mexico residents. Borrowers also get to skip high-cost mortgage insurance, high upfront FHA fees, or expensive second loans often required of less-than-20%-down purchases. And, if they use Homewise real estate agents, they pay a lot less in closing costs, too. To qualify, buyers must complete a program designed to teach them the ins and outs of homeownership, including what it takes to ensure mortgage payments arrive on time. And their household income can't exceed about $82,000. Impressive Results Combine low down payments, cheaper monthly costs, and educated borrowers and what do you get? Default rates that are stunningly low compared to traditional low-down-payment FHA loans. The Urban Institute recently released a study of Homewise, and found that the organization's 90-day delinquency ("serious delinquency") rate was 1.1% for loans serviced between 2009 and 2013. This rate is well below the 7.3% serious delinquency rate of FHA-backed loans at the end of 2013. "This is a neat model that appears to work," said Brett Theodos, who wrote the report. He's a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. "And they've captured something like 25% of the (low-cost loan) market share in that area." Thanks in part to the low default rate, Homewise is profitable, making it potentially repeatable around the country, Theodos said. So far, Homewise is still relatively small: it's financed about 3,000 home purchases, while working with 11,908 clients, said spokeswoman Rachel Silva. Plenty of nonprofits have offered housing counseling before; separately, others have offered low-cost loans. Part of the Homewise charm is it works with buyers through the entire process from helping them open special down-payment savings accounts, to signing closing papers. Most nonprofits' housing counselors prepare would-be homebuyers and then hand them off to traditional banks, where things might not go smoothly. And those nonprofits have to struggle for funding. In the Homewise model, modest profits from closing loans are used to fund the counseling activity. Homewise loans are ultimately sold to Fannie Mae like traditional mortgages, allowing the firm to originate new loans. "This allows them to capture the value. What would be exciting is if this model caught hold with other types of orgs doing this kind of work," Theodos said. "In an era where foreclosure mitigation counseling is going away, HUD counseling is being pared back, there needs to be some model that's sustainable for helping people get into homes." How Homebuyers Save It shouldn't be very surprising that Homewise clients pile up success stories. Just avoiding mortgage insurance saves average clients about $130 monthly, the Urban Institute says. And there's another serious benefit Homewise real estate agents are paid by the hour, not a commission based on percentage of the sale price. That saves clients money and helps make sure buyers get into homes they can afford. "Homewise's model suggests that with a carefully structured, vertically integrated system, homeownership can be encouraged in a way that better aligns risks and incentives for the counselor, the borrower, and the lender," the report says. Homewise is not a nonprofit. It's a "Community Development Financial Institute," a set of small financial institutions authorized by the Treasury Department that have a stated goal of being profit-making, but not profit maximizing. They offer personal and business loans to consumers who might not otherwise be served by traditional banking. One barrier to replication of the Homewise model for-profit banks might balk at the idea, although Theodos is not too worried about that. Many banks aren't crazy about doing these low-cost loans, anyway. That risk would only arise if Homewise started reaching into higher-income client pools. Instead, Theodos thinks the real challenge is finding institutions that have both the heart to do counseling and the head to do loan underwriting. "We don't expect it will replace FHA loans, and don't think that's the goal or expectation," he said. "(But) the ability of the program to make revenues … and through those efforts to fund counseling and coaching, that's really interesting." Can You Get a Low-Down Payment Mortgage? What if you want a low down-payment loan? Unless you live near Santa Fe, or Albuquerque, where Homewise is now expanding operations, you can't work with Homewise. FHA loans are the closest alternative, with the aforementioned caveat of higher down payments, a big upfront insurance fee, and ongoing insurance premiums. Military veterans have the option of getting a zero-down Veterans Administration loan, but they pay a "funding fee" of roughly 2% to 3%. Some credit unions offer similar zero-down, funding-fee programs, such as Navy Federal Credit Union. Finally, many consumers can qualify for more traditional 5% down payment loans if they agree to pay private mortgage insurance. That can easily add a couple of hundred dollars per month to a mortgage payment, but PMI can be canceled once a homeowners' equity reaches 20% through a combination of loan payments and increased housing value. Your credit score will be a key factor in how much house you can afford , as well. This article originally appeared on Credit.com .
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finance
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If a robot plunges into the ocean of an icy moon, perhaps near Saturn or Jupiter, its main problem will be figuring out what to do next. Even at light speed, it takes hours for communications to pass back and forth to Earth. This means any robotic explorer would need to be smart enough to avoid danger, and sophisticated enough to figure out what information to send back. These were problems puzzling Yogesh Girdhar who, as a part of his doctorate dissertation at McGill University in Montreal, redid the "brains" of an undersea robot called Aqua. An underwater robot is somewhat analogous to a space-bound robot, as both face the difficulties of communication. "Mars is [situated] at the limit of where humans can directly control a robot to do these kinds of research," said Girdhar, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. [ The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created ] "The amount of data is a problem. You can't be streaming HD video from Mars all the time, live, down to Earth," Girdhar added. "The same thing happens underwater. There are no radio waves. Because of salt water, you can only use an acoustic modem. It's very low bandwidth. You can receive data at a much higher speed from Mars than you can from a robot deep underwater ." The key to getting around that problem, Girdhar said, is having the robot train itself to recognize what is typical terrain and what is unusual. If it spots something that is rare, it is possible that whatever it saw was altered by life in some way and would require further analysis by scientists. Part of Girdhar's work, titled " Exploring Underwater Environments with Curiosity ," was presented at the Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision in 2014. Girdhar worked in the laboratory of Gregory Dudek, director of McGill's computer science department. Seeking the unusual A typical underwater robot on Earth can do simple tasks, such as moving in a predesigned pattern that is sometimes nicknamed "mowing the lawn." Along the way, it tends to gather thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of pictures. How best to sift through all that information? Girdhar believes in the power of pattern recognition. The key is designing a robotic "brain" that can build a model of all the different things it sees in the world and what it might correspond to. Underwater, for example, a robot would expect to see a lot of sand and rock. Over time, it would build up a database of the various kinds of patterns associated with these terrain types. Imagine that robot, however, then spotted a coral reef. Statistically speaking, it looks different and would be what the robot considers "interesting," Girdhar said. If programmed to prioritize the more unusual items it comes across, the robot could then spend more time examining that corresponding terrain and send those pictures back to Earth. [ Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures ] "It discovers all these things on the fly," Girdhar added. "It starts off with no information, so you don't need to feed anything into it. On a completely new planet, we have no detailed information about what kind of terrain or things exist, except for satellite imagery. So we don't want to create bias." Brains in Barbados Girdhar's proof-of-concept algorithms rode inside Aqua for several underwater tests in Barbados at the Bellairs Research Institute, which is a McGill University facility. Aqua is outfitted with six flippers and a wide-angle video camera, but a big difference from extraterrestrial robots is that a diver often accompanies it. Working alongside Aqua, Girdhar observed his mechanical "brains" at work. Early results show the algorithm doing what it was supposed to do. The robot was far more interested in examining a coral head than the sand that was around it, even though the sand was piled up. "We never told it when it started what to look for. It had no idea of anything underwater, no idea what sand is or rock is or what different corals are," Girdhar said. Even more interesting was that the robot eventually "noticed" Girdhar and followed him which is encouraging for any researchers on the hunt for moving, extraterrestrial life in some foreign sea, he said. Though the robot was exploring warm waters, Girdhar said that from a computer-science perspective, nothing would really change on an icy moon. "It's more a mechanical and electrical problem, not a computer science problem. I don't think it matters much." The next major goal is to get a more sophisticated prototype going. Pending funding, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, plans to put his algorithms onto one of their SeaBED autonomous robots. The machine has a better cameras, more computational power, and longer endurance thanAqua, Girdhar said, which could make it even more autonomous. Girdhar's collaborator on the project is Woods Hole's Hanu Singh, who is also the owner/designer of the SeaBED AUV. This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine , a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program . Follow Space.com @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Astrobiology Roadmap Goal 2: Life in our Solar System Photos: Robonaut 2, NASA's Robot Butler for Astronauts Humanoid Robots to Flying Cars: 10 Coolest DARPA Projects
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Some drama on the set of the latest 'Pirates of the Carribean' film, as a Jack Sparrow lookalike threatens security and Johnny Depp suffers an injury that forces him to return to the states. Jen Markham (@jenmarkham) has the story.
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Fernando Alonso will be missing from Sunday's Australian season-opener but the Spaniard remains Formula One's most marketable driver, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Germany-based analysts Repucom said the double world champion, who left Ferrari for McLaren at the end of last year, had retained top position in their ranking based on domestic perception. "In Spain, over 98 percent of people know of Alonso, 88 percent of which say they see him as an effective brand endorser and 83 percent saying they trust the two-time World Champion," the report said. The Spaniard is absent from Australia on doctors' orders after crashing heavily in Barcelona testing last month. McLaren expect him to return at the next race in Malaysia. Alonso's former Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa, now with Williams, was second on the list ahead of four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel and double world champion Lewis Hamilton. Repucom said Hamilton's recognition had grown to 93 percent in Britain, with the 30-year-old now ahead of compatriot Jenson Button after winning his second title with Mercedes last season. Dutch 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who will become the youngest ever Formula One driver when he makes his race debut with Toro Rosso in Melbourne on Sunday, was listed ninth. The Repucom ranking is based on public perceptions of the drivers in their native countries, measured against eight metrics to give an overall marketability score. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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Jessica Chastain has bought a $5.1 million home in Manhattan. The 'Interstellar' actress has finally purchased an apartment after searching for over a year and the one she's chosen is located just opposite Carnegie Hall. It was the former home of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, which is one of the reasons why the 37-year-old actress wanted to buy it as she was impressed by its musical theatre history, the New York Post's Page Six column reports. It has four bedrooms and three bathrooms and is said to be the place where Bernstein lived when he wrote the tracks for the 'West Side Story' musical alongside Stephen Sondheim. The 3000 square-foot apartment is full of character and boasts tiger-oak floors as well as stained-glass windows. The doors have been carved from mahogany and five rooms come complete with ornate fireplaces. A Lalique glass pane adorns the door of the library. Jessica purchased one of the units in the Osborne Apartments complex on West 57th Street under a private trust, the Tesoro Trust, with boyfriend Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo. The award-winning composer Adam Guettel of 'The Light in the Piazza' was the latest resident of the stunning apartment.
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entertainment
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If you'd been able to pry my attention away from the Jack Kerouac book or R.E.M cassette tape I was immersed in during my high school years to tell me that I would one day be a stay at home mom of six children, I'd have guffawed and blown cigarette smoke in your face. I'd have said "You're crazy, man, I'll never wear the monogrammed June Cleaver apron of domesticity this society of yours is trying to hang around my neck." I'd have been utterly baffled if you were to tell me, way back then, that I'd be expecting our seventh child at 41 years old or that I would genuinely enjoy packing daily lunches, braiding hair, and being a non-smoker. God, I loved smoking. My own plan was to join the Peace Corps and then maybe get a job with the CDC in hopes of helping to find a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's disease or jerks. I'd find a like-minded guy, probably not marry him and maybe have a kid. We'd definitely have chickens and goats, though. The dude would've built the chickens a coop and most of our furniture with his own hands. He'd also have a beard. None of that panned out, though, and here I am, years later, joyfully married to a beardless man who rarely opens our tool box. We have loads of kids, but no chickens or goats. We have a sky-high weekly grocery bill thanks to those spawn who eat like a bunch of all-day recreational marijuana users. I ping pong across town shuffling the spawn from place to place and thing to thing. And just like most parents I know, I never catch up on the laundry and I rarely have the time to watch anything other then Nick Jr. on television. Even so, I love this very regular life that I once resisted because I could not comprehend how such happiness could be found in assimilating. In some ways, however, I'm still very much like my 17 year old self: 1. I still love to read. Now, however, the time it takes me to complete a book of my choice hovers right around the one year mark. Let me clarify: I love to read books that don't have bears, dinosaurs, mice or princesses on the cover. I have a stack of books that I'd love to read on my bedside table. Mostly they're just there to mock me and be a terrible reminder that I need to dust. 2. I still listen to cool music. I mean, I don't think it's cool, but my kids swear it is. My Neko Case and Wilco CDs don't pass muster with our kids, so now I know lots of lyrics to Top 40 songs and that makes me shudder. Ed Sheeran seems like he calls his grandmother and he's cute as a kitten so he can stay. 3. I still like to pay attention to fashion trends. Not because I'm ever, ever going to wear a midriff top or $150 jeans with faux crystal embellishments all over the ass pockets, but because I need to know what I will refuse to allow my children to wear. There are some unpleasant and highly questionable clothing choices out there we have to be prepared to say "Um, hell no." 4. I still want a seat on the party bus (kind of) . I used to go see live music and then try to wheedle my way onto the tour bus to meet the band. Now, we actually have to buy a 12-passenger van because we've run out of seats in the Suburban. Our van, however, will be occupied by non-musicians, and the only drugs on this tour bus will be my Xanax and maybe some Benadryl if we're going on a long trip and the kids' whining becomes incessant. 5. I still love alone time. At seventeen, I often enjoyed being alone with my ponderings away from my parents and friends. I had some intense, existential thoughts back then (not really). I considered things real, meaningful stuff! These days, there's not a whole lot of contemplation going on. In fact, I imagine my brain has taken on an oatmeal-like consistency and is mostly devoid of any measurable activity. Want to know what I do when I have quiet time? I read a few chapters of one of those books on my bedside table that I'll ultimately, fingers crossed, finish in late 2017. 6. I'm still in love with the same guy that I was mad about as a 17-year-old. Only now, he's a remarkable, grown man, a supportive father to a small army and hotter than ever. I never imagined we'd end up together he was not at all interested in chickens and goats but of all the things that haven't changed so much, our love story is my favorite. 7. Sometimes you can still find me enveloped in smoke , but it's not on purpose. It's because I forgot to set the oven timer. I accidentally baked the chicken nuggets for 64 minutes and they're likely now carcinogenic. I won't tell you how often I set off our home smoke alarm (the kids don't even flinch anymore). My 17-year-old me never imagined that she'd ever be concerned with ingredients labels or high five herself for getting clothes into the dryer before mildew sets in or rejoice when yet another kid has successfully mastered the art of wiping him- or herself. She didn't realize the gift of a good night's sleep and not having to reheat the same cup of coffee four times. She took for granted non-sticky surfaces. I'm glad the artsy-fartsy girl I was in high school had no clue where she'd find profound happiness and meaningful pain. That's the beautiful and curious navigation of life to set sail, but to then torch the map to light your way in the darkness of the unknown. To have a plan, but then welcome unexpected waves and the ebb and flow of life with arms wide open how formidable and exhilarating! Hey, 17-year-old me: I ended up happily wearing the apron of domesticity, and I'm totally rocking it.
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