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Tim Seymour takes Ferrari's California T for a test drive ahead of the company's IPO
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​In December 2014, a fatal outbreak of listeria that was traced back to pre-packaged caramel apples ultimately left seven people dead, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since then, researchers have been attempting to understand how the deadly disease grew so rapidly on the typically harmless treats. Traditionally, apples are far too acidic to attract listeria, and because of its low water content, it would be rare for caramel to grow bacteria as well. But a new study published in the medical journal mBio reveals how the two ingredients worked together to create the perfect environment for listeria monocytogenes to grow in great numbers. The team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Food Research Institute swabbed infected apples then dipped them in caramel to see exactly how the dessert developed the bacteria. The apples were stored between four to six weeks in temperatures varying from 77 to 44.6 degrees. Researchers were surprised to find that the hot caramel surprisingly did not kill the bacteria, but rather created a perfect environment for it to develop. And because listeria can grow even in refrigerated temperatures, the caramel apples eventually became rife with bacteria. According to Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute, if people were to eat "those apples fresh, they probably would not get sick ." Unfortunately, pre-packaged caramel apples are typically stored anywhere from a few days to a few weeks in refrigerated environments, giving the snack "enough time for the bacteria to grow." Although listeria outbreaks related to pre-packaged caramel apple consumption remain low, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University suggests trading the traditional Halloween treat for a fresh apple this year-one that is washed throughly, just to be extra safe! Not willing to give up your caramel apples? It's worth nothing that making your own caramel apples with properly washed fruit and eating them right away is a much safer alternative to buying the pre-packaged kind. [Via ABCNews.com ]
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First responder comes to the rescue after saying 'I do'
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Romania's High Court has begun hearing an appeal by the former head of a Romanian communist prison against his 20-year jail sentence on charges of crimes against humanity.
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In the future, your wearables might be a bit harder to spot than an Apple Watch or Google Glass. In a patent awarded Oct. 13, Google outlined a design for a wearable communication device, replete with sensors, memory and a microprocessor, shaped like a contact lens. This lens would at least be partially powered by what the patent calls "optical signals." In theory, a tiny photodetector and solar cells could harvest light signals from an external source, that could then be converted into electrical power. According to the patent, this would allow the lens to be powered by camera flashes (however blinding that might be for the wearer) and ambient sunlight. The patent suggests that the contact lens could send information back to another device about the wearer's temperature or blood-alcohol level. It could sense the environment around it, with the patent suggesting that the lens would be able to tell if there were allergens in the air, or other "hazardous materials." The patent adds that the lens would be able to communicate with computers or mobile devices, and potentially read information from a range of objects, including price tags. While there are both flexible solar panels , and small solar panels, there hasn't yet been a wearable that has implemented this sort of energy technology, let alone on something a tiny as a contact lens. And there's no guarantee that Google is actually building this technology yet, though the lens does sound like an extension of another Google lens project, which aims to help diabetics track their glucose levels, and apparently charges through radio frequency . Google wasn't immediately available for comment. We'll have to see it to believe it.
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Favoritism is alive and well in the workplace. Favoritism is alive and well in the workplace. "Given the complexities involved in relationships at work and the myriad of factors that determine how much we like someone or respect their talents, it's simply human nature that we are going to, no matter how subtly, and despite our best intentions, play favorites," says Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of " The Humor Advantage ." Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of " Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job ," agrees and says there's often a fine line between bosses who appreciate an employee's good work and want to empower the person with more projects, and bosses who favor that employee to the detriment of others. "If bosses are brazen in practicing favoritism, they can seriously hurt team morale and increase turnover not to mention cause legal trouble by creating a hostile work environment," Taylor explains. Plus, she says, the more you're singled out and given special treatment, the more risk associated with securing the cooperation you need from your team. "It can put an overall strain on your productivity because your work should always be the focus," Taylor explains. "Your office is not a popularity contest and when it is, your days of glory can be fleeting." If you suspect you're being favored, take a second to feel flattered then stay humble, remain professionals, and talk to your boss if things get out of hand. Here are 13 signs you're the boss's favorite: They include you in more meetings than your colleagues. This is a key sign as it shows they respect your judgment and wisdom, and they recognize that you have positive contributions to make, says Kerr. "No one enjoys being in meetings with people they don't have an affinity towards, so it's a reasonably good sign they also like you as a person." You're chosen for all the plum projects. When you're elected the boss's "fave" you often feel like you're on a roll and can't lose. One great project follows another. "Your boss feels like you have a proven track record and is almost doubling down each time you get more responsibility, because you're a good bet," says Taylor. They invite you to accompany them on out of town trips or to conferences. Again this demonstrates deep respect for your talents, and a desire to share travel experiences or learning opportunities shows a commitment to furthering your professional development, says Kerr. You have unique freedoms. Unlike other employees, you may find that your schedule has less scrutiny or your work is not as micromanaged; you can speak up more without as much criticism; and so on, says Taylor. "You may feel that, overall, you have more license to act a little more like a peer than a subordinate. The boss has empowered you with little censure and may even let you speak on their behalf at times. They trust your judgment." You are their go-to person in a crisis. If you are the first on your boss's radar for getting things done or dealing with a crisis, it means they have an enormous amount of trust in your abilities, Kerr explains. You tend to be first in line for perks. When there are extra tickets to a ball game or concert, does your boss always offer them to you first? "This is where you may begin to feel guilt; when your influence strays outside business acumen," says Taylor. They ask your input more than they ask for anyone else's. "Asking for input is a surefire sign that your boss respects your ideas, judgment, and wisdom," says Kerr. If you seem to be the only one they ask for input from, there's a good chance you're the favorite. They let you be forthright. Another sign: You can be more candid with your boss because they have more of an open mind to hear your constructive input, says Taylor. "If you speak on behalf of the staff, telling your boss he was harsh, he or she might actually listen; they respect your opinion." They trust you more than everyone else, so they are more hands-off with you. "If you get more latitude than other employees more freedom to take risks, to work your own hours, and make your own decisions that's an excellent sign that you're in your boss's good books," says Kerr. They share a lot of personal information with you. If your boss takes the time to share family details and personal information with you more so than with other employees, there's a good chance it's because you're their favorite, says Kerr. "If you're the 'teacher's pet,' you'll have the coveted role of inner circle advisor on matters that typically go beyond your scope," adds Taylor. "Your boss values your insight and sees your contributions as exceeding your job function." They give you the inside scoop. Sharing key business information, particularly when it's delivered under the heading, "Don't tell anyone but..." or "Let's just keep this between you and I" means they view you as their most trusted confidante, Kerr explains. They invite you on personal social events and include you in family gatherings. Does your boss invite you to their home for Thanksgiving, or birthday parties, or family dinners? If you're the only one in the office who gets these invites, you're most likely the favorite. You feel very comfortable taking risks. If you feel there's little downside to taking smart risks, it may say something about how your boss treats you. "If you believe your boss will be supportive as long as you don't screw up in a big way, it's probably because your manager has given you a feeling of autonomy based on past successes," says Taylor.
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LINZ, Austria (AP) -- Caroline Wozniacki was the only player among the top-five seeded women to reach the second round at the Generali Ladies, rallying to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Wednesday. Third-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy lost her first-round match against Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-1. Top-seeded Lucie Safarova and No. 4 Andrea Petkovic both lost on Tuesday, while No. 5 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova withdrew because of illness. No. 6 Camila Giorgi joined the exodus later Wednesday in the second round as the Italian, who reached the final here last year, was beaten by Margarita Gasparyan of Russia 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. In other second-round play, Madison Brengle of the United States missed six match points before beating Johanna Konta of Britain 6-3, 7-5. In her fourth quarterfinal of the season, Brengle will take on Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany, who defeated Andreea Mitu of Romania 7-5, 6-3. The 11th-ranked Wozniacki, who is seeded second, went up 2-0 in the opening set but won only two points in the next five games against Lucic-Baroni. She missed a set point at 5-4 in the second set but turned the match around in the tiebreaker. Wozniacki will play Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens for a place in the quarterfinals. Krunic, who hit six aces, lost her opening service game against Vinci but took 10 of the next 12 games for a 6-1, 4-2 lead. The U.S. Open finalist broke back and converted her first set point in the tiebreaker but she didn't recover from going 5-0 down in the final set. The 99th-ranked Krunic improved to 3-0 against Vinci after also beating the Italian at Wimbledon and in Bucharest this year.
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FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has called for FIFA not to delay its presidential election, saying doing so would increase instability in an organization already mired in controversy, the Associated Press reports . "Delaying the scheduled election would only postpone needed change and create further instability," Ali said in a statement Wednesday. "It would tell the world that lessons haven't been learned, that the same backroom deals that have discredited FIFA in the first place continue." When Sepp Blatter announced that he would resign in February, FIFA scheduled a special presidential election for Feb. 26. Ali, UEFA president Michel Platini and former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon were the only declared candidates. • WAHL: Hunger and humility: It's time USA, Klinsmann go back to the basics Last week, FIFA announced it was suspending Blatter and Platini for 90 days each and Chung for six years as a result of ongoing investigations into their professional conduct by the ethics committee. FIFA's executive committee then scheduled a meeting for Oct. 20, at which it could decide to postpone the election in the wake of the recent turbulence. Blatter and Platini are appealing their bans, and delaying the election could benefit Platini if he is cleared of wrongdoing before the election date. Ali, a former FIFA vice president, said the committee "should not interfere with an ongoing process that was put in place by the ad hoc electoral committee." "The election date of February 26 was set three months ago with a clear procedure that meets all of FIFA's statutory requirements," he said. "Candidates have had plenty of time to declare and still do. The rules should not be changed after the game has started." • USA falls to Costa Rica 1-0 in Tim Howard's return to goal - Erin Flynn
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Two teams getting a slow start to the NHL season are the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins, who are both 0-3. Which of these 0-3 teams is more surprising?
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EU regulators on Wednesday cleared Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, to buy US firm Altera for $16.7 billion in one of the largest ever Silicon Valley deals. "The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of electronic component supplier Altera by Intel," the EU's competition regulator said in a statement. "The Commission concluded that the merged entity would continue to face effective competition in Europe," it said. California-based Intel announced in June it would pay $54 per share in cash for Altera, which designs processors for phone networks, server systems, cars and other devices. The go-ahead in Europe followed US approval last month and was considered the deal's final hurdle. Intel said the buyout, the largest in its 47-year history, would boost its portfolio of chips for data centres and connected household objects, often referred to as the "Internet of things". Although competitors, the two companies joined forces in 2013 with Altera employing Intel transistor technology in its next-generation products. "I am glad that we can approve this transaction, which shows that multi-billion euro deals in complex industries can be cleared unconditionally after an initial investigation," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in the statement. Vestager, a former Danish finance minister, is currently caught up in a bitter anti-trust battle with Internet giant Google while also delving into the tax affairs of Apple and Amazon. These blockbuster cases have drawn criticism from US officials who complain that the EU is unfairly singling out American technology giants. Intel had 2014 sales of $55.9 billion. Founded in 1983, Altera employs more than 3,000 people in more than 20 countries and had sales last year of $1.9 billion. In mid-morning trade, Altera shares rose 0.78 percent to $52.70, while Dow component Intel fell 2.42 percent to $31.26.
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Sony just announced the RX1R mark II at a small event in New York City. It's the newest camera in the company's RX1 line of compact full-frame sensor cameras, and the first update since the RX1R was released in 2013. And after a brief, early look at it, it's even more impressive than its predecessors. The RX1R II is a tiny despite the relatively large fixed 35mm lens that it sports. The camera body itself is roughly the size of the company's other popular pint-sized camera, the RX100, and it feels nearly as light. The big difference between the two is that the RX100's retractable zoom lens makes it truly fit in a pocket, whereas the bulky, immovable f2.0 lens on the RX1R II means you'll have to carry the camera on a strap or in a bag. The RX1R II is a powerhouse of a camera But what you get at this size is a true powerhouse of a camera. The RX1R II has a 42.4-megapixel, full-frame Exmor R CMOS sensor. It's also backlit, allowing for an ISO range of 100-25,600 (expandable to 50-102,400). Sony's done a number of things to the structure of the sensor that ups the data transmission speed, making this version 3.5 times faster than the original RX1R. Of course, performance speed is a moot point if you can't get the shot you're looking for, and one of the problems in the RX1 line to this point has been autofocus. Sony says that RX1R II's autofocus is 30 percent faster, and from my (very short) time with it that sounds about right. Another issue that users had with the original line was that there was no built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF). That's been changed this time around, too, as the RX1R II has a pop-up, 2.4-million dot OLED EVF similar to what's found on the Fujifilm X-T1 or the Olympus OM-D line of cameras, or Sony's own RX100. To top it all off, the 3-inch LCD screen on the back now tilts; on older models, it was fixed. Faster autofocus, a built-in EVF, and a tilting screen There's some other really heady stuff happening on the RX1R II that will please the more hardcore photography enthusiasts. Sony's built what it's calling the "world's first optical variable low pass filter," which means that you can toggle how severely the low pass filter affects your image or turn it off completely. If you're shooting a shirt or a fabric that could cause moire, you can turn the low pass filter on and tweak the strength to your liking. If you're shooting a plain landscape scene with no wild patterns, you can turn it off and get the full detail from your sensor. (The camera can also take multiple images with the different filter levels, and you can choose after the fact.) Until now, cameras either had or didn't have a low pass filter, but Sony's found a way to introduce more control and choice in the matter. While Sony's RX100 and A7S II have the ability to shoot 4K, the RX1R II can only shoot video at 1080p (at 24, 30, or 60 frames per second). But those other cameras are meant to be much more multi-purpose, with zoomable and interchangeable lenses, respectively. The RX1R II is a premium digital camera for still photographers, and because of that Sony is commanding a premium price it will cost $3,300 when it hits store shelves in November.
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Android fans enjoy a lot of flexibility from their smartphones -- but a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge reveals that it comes at a major cost. According to the findings, 87.7 percent of Android devices are at risk from at least one major form of malware thanks in large part to delayed security updates from device manufacturers and service providers. Researchers used the Device Analyzer app to gather data from over 20,000 gadgets in their study. "Unfortunately something has gone wrong with the provision of security updates in the Android market," researchers Daniel R. Thomas, Alastair R. Beresford and Andrew Rice wrote . "Many smartphones are sold on 12 24 month contracts, and yet our data shows few Android devices receive many security updates, with an overall average of just 1.26 updates per year, leaving devices unpatched for long periods of time" As it happens, the challenge lies in the exact reason most users love Android. There are a lot of Android manufacturers -- think LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC and so on -- which affords people a bounty of choices when they're shopping for a new device. If you want to go Apple, you get an iPhone. If you're buying an Android, there are many different phones that fit a variety of needs and budgets. But that puts the ball in the manufacturer's court when it comes to security updates. "Some manufacturers are much better than others however, and our study shows that devices built by LG and Motorola, as well as those devices shipped under the Google Nexus brand are much better than most," Beresford wrote in a blog post about the study. When you're dealing with iOS, there's only one manufacturer: Apple, a company known for being tough on security . If there's a malware threat to iPhones and iPads, Apple can blast out an update and, in theory, that's the end of it. If something goes wrong on Android, Google has to identify the problem and deliver a fix to manufacturers , and then those manufacturers have to beam that update to their customers. You can imagine the problems that presents. "Our hope is that by quantifying the problem we can help people when choosing a device and that this in turn will provide an incentive for other manufacturers and operators to deliver updates," Beresford wrote. For now, you could trust the research and consider LG, Motorola and Google Nexus devices the next time you're shopping. As for the Android you have now, always accept security updates when they become available and only install apps from the Google Play store to avoid infecting yourself with malware.
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In unprepared remarks, Pope Francis asks for forgiveness for recent sex scandals that have rocked the Vatican and Rome. Mana Rabiee reports.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. The family of a sailor aboard the cargo ship that sunk in roiling seas whipped up by Hurricane Joaquin filed a $100 million lawsuit Wednesday against the vessel's owner and captain. Willie Gary, a Jacksonville attorney representing the family of El Faro crew member Lonnie Jordan, filed the suit in Duval County Court. Jordan was among the 33 men and women aboard the freighter that sunk Oct. 1 in 15,000 feet of water east of the Bahamas. The ship was carrying cars and other cargo en route to Puerto Rico when it lost engine power and the ability to steer away from the approaching Category 4 storm. "Thirty-three people didn't have to die. Lonnie didn't have to die," said Gary, surrounded by Jordan's parents and friends in front of the courthouse. The suit alleges that Tote Maritime and its captain, Michael Davidson, were negligent in choosing to sail a 41-year-old cargo ship into dangerous weather. Gary said Tote needs to place more emphasis on employee safety and less on profits. Michael Hanson, a spokesman for Tote, said the company refused to discuss individual lawsuits. "The company remains fully focused on supporting the families and their loved ones," he said in a statement. The lawsuit claims the decades-old ship was not fit to sail into rough seas. The El Faro was scheduled for retirement from Caribbean duty and for new retrofitting for service between the West Coast and Alaska, company officials have said. Both the El Faro and its sister ship were slated to be replaced by two new ships. "This case is about the oldest sin known to man, and that's greed," Gary said. "You could've waited, the ship was not seaworthy and (Tote) should've known that, but you had to deliver cargo to get the green. And we won't stand for it," Gary said. The National Transportation Safety Board has launched its investigation into the sinking, and is currently attempting to work with the U.S. Navy to retrieve the vessel's data recorder.
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Eddie Murphy has finally revealed why he refused to play Bill Cosby on " Saturday Night Live 's" 40th anniversary show. The legendary comedian, who was famous for his Cosby impression during his stint on the NBC variety show in the early 1980s, was supposed to imitate Cosby in "Celebrity Jeopardy," a skit fellow "SNL" alum Norm Macdonald wrote and originally created. Kenan Thompson eventually played Cosby in the revived sketch. Murphy didn't perform at all during " SNL 40 ," instead opting for a brief "thank you" speech that was shorter than Chris Rock's introduction of him. "I totally understood," he said, addressing the situation for the first time in an interview with the Washington Post . "It was the biggest thing in the news at the time. I can see why they thought it would be funny, and the sketch that Norm [Macdonald] wrote was hysterical." Despite the timelines of the topic, Murphy said he couldn't stomach making jokes out of such a serious matter. "It's horrible," he continued. "There's nothing funny about it. If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you're just hurting people. You're hurting him. You're hurting his accusers. I was like, 'Hey, I'm coming back to 'SNL' for the anniversary, I'm not turning my moment on the show into this other thing.'" Cosby later thanked Murphy for his decision to decline the sketch. "I am very appreciative of Eddie, and I applaud his actions," Cosby said in February. Macdonald revealed on Twitter a few days after the episode aired that Murphy rejected the show's offer to Cosby the night before the telecast. "He will not kick a man when he is down," Macdonald said of Murphy, who he tried to persuade to do the skit. "Eddie Murphy, I realize, is not like the rest of us. Eddie does not need the laughs." Here's Murphy's cameo on "SNL 40": Here's the decidedly Murphy-free "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketch:
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entertainment
USA TODAY Sports gets you ready for Week 6 of fantasy football with this week's top sleepers.
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OAKLAND, Calif. This summer, the median rent for a one-bedroom in San Francisco's cityscape of peaked Victorians soared higher than Manhattan's, sent skyward by a housing shortage fueled in part by the arrival of droves of newcomers here to mine tech gold. And so, as the story of such cities goes, the priced-out move outward in New York City, to Brooklyn and, increasingly, to Queens. For San Franciscans, the rent refuge is here in Oakland, where the rates are increasing as well so much so that young professionals are living in repurposed shipping containers while the homeless are lugging around coffinlike sleeping boxes on wheels. These two improvised housing arrangements have emerged in an industrial pocket of Oakland where the median rent has gone up by 20 percent over the past year. One, in a warehouse, is called Containertopia, a community of young people who have set up a village of 160-square-foot shipping containers like ones used in the Port of Oakland. Each resident pays $600 a month to live in a container, which can be modified with things like insulation, glass doors, electrical outlets, solar panels and a self-contained shower and toilet. Containertopia was started last year by Luke Iseman, 32, and Heather Stewart, 30, who were then a couple. For Mr. Iseman, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and works in technology most recently developing automated systems for watering plants container living has been a social experiment in stripping down to the basics, one that he hopes to teach others to replicate. "If we can do it in one of the highest-cost places in the world," he said, "people can do this anywhere." Sign Up For The Your Money Newsletter Just outside the warehouse doors is another community, residing, too, in containers of a sort. Here, the homeless live in dwellings made by a local artist named Gregory Kloehn, set on wheels and made for the streets. Each is about eight feet long and tall enough for a person to sit up in. "It doesn't fit our mind-set of what a home is," said Mr. Kloehn, 44, who began creating and giving away the portable homes, which are made of recycled material, in 2011. Oakland has about 3,000 homeless people, according to the East Oakland Community Project, a nonprofit organization that helps house people who live on the street; San Francisco has about 6,700. Mr. Kloehn has made about 40 of the cheerily painted rolling boxes, coaxing people to leave their cardboard or tarp shanties on the streets. "In this city, with all its money, within it there is another layer: these nomadic people who are living off our garbage," he said. Containertopia and Mr. Kloehn's mobile shelters draw from the tiny house movement, a shift to a more ascetic way of living that has inspired entire microhome villages in places like Olympia, Wash., and Madison, Wis., as well as isolated examples in countless backyards. Such residences are embraced by the ecologically and social-justice minded, but are often fought by local governments; they often do not comply with building codes or are plopped in areas where they should not be. But that is where the similarities between the homeless dwellings and the shipping containers end. Though they are on the same block, they are worlds apart. Ms. Stewart and Mr. Iseman initially set Containertopia in an abandoned lot in the area, which they purchased for $425,000 with several friends. They were forced out this spring after neighbors complained. (The lot is not zoned for residences; for now, the owners grow vegetables there while they decide what to do with it.) Then, with 12 of their friends and a forklift, Mr. Iseman and Ms. Stewart moved the container homes indoors to a warehouse. Mr. Iseman's container, painted azure inside, cost about $12,000 to make habitable, with a lofted bed and a picture window carved into one flank. Ms. Stewart is still at work on hers, spackling drywall and carving a kitchen countertop from a redwood board she milled from a giant trunk. The shift from house to container dwelling has made them reprioritize almost everything. Ms. Stewart quit her job in digital design to manage Containertopia and sold most of her possessions. "I can work an office job and pay my rent every month and be stressed about not being able to do anything else, or I can live in a ridiculous warehouse," she said. "The choice is obvious." Mr. Kloehn, the artist, is best known for his own container home, a Dumpster turned studio apartment on the lot of an arts collective in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he spends part of the year. His other home is a studio in Oakland in the same industrial neighborhood as Containertopia. Several years ago, Mr. Kloehn became fascinated with how homeless people appropriated what few resources they had namely, other people's trash to create shelters. He decided to do the same, cobbling the small dwellings together with an artist's skill. "I'm just kind of ripping a page from the homeless people's books," he said. "They've been making homes out of this stuff for a long time." Another artist, Elvis Summers, started making similar tiny homes for the homeless around Los Angeles. But that city determined those homes were illegal; many of the structures were moved onto private property before sanitation workers could remove them from the streets. Mr. Kloehn says that cracking down on the boxes is misguided. If the box homes were banned, "would they be in an apartment?" he asked of the dwellers. "Would they be in a condo? Or would they be nowhere?" In Oakland, the portable houses have been largely tolerated. Several residents said they were occasionally asked by the police to wheel them elsewhere, but were otherwise left alone. A block from Mr. Kloehn's studio, and around the corner from Containertopia, sits one of his homes for the homeless, brightly colored with a trompe l'oeil paint job that makes it look like a microsize suburban home. "This house is a blessing," the woman living in it said. She declined to give her name because she said she was ashamed she lived on the streets, having once had a steady job and a real home. She added, "This is my way of trying to get back to how I used to be."
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Will the Wolverines continue their defensive dominance over in-state rival Michigan State? In the latest edition of "The Option presented by Nadex," managing editor Pete Fiutak shares who he's buying this weekend, including whether or not Florida QB Treon Harris can match Will Grier's production vs. LSU.
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Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains the good and bad of eating simple and complex carbohydrates.
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After Lamar Odom was found unresponsive in a Nevada brothel Khloé Kardashian is understandably emotional. The NBA star he has not yet regained consciousness and the prognosis does not look good for Lamar as he remains in critical condition. Although Khloé had cut off contact with Odom the star is "completely inconsolable and heartbroken" as she had been worried about her ex-husband for a long time. Earlier this year Kardashian had said "I will never, ever not love Lamar. I was so obsessed with him in a healthy way. He was my husband, and I still wish he was, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
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video
The reasons why even the smartest people can fall for the dumbest scams.
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"Mein Kampf", Adolf Hitler's manifesto containing autobiographical, anti-Semitic and militaristic screeds, falls out of copyright next year, and already annotated German and French reprints are being prepared, a Paris publisher confirmed on Wednesday. The book -- whose title means "My Struggle" in German -- originally came out in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, but was banned in Germany after Hitler and the Nazis were defeated in World War II. No French reprint has been made since 1934. Various translated English versions, however, have been made and are widely available online through retailers such as Amazon. But now the copyright on the work, held by the Bavarian State, is due to expire at the end of this year -- 70 years after the death of its infamous author. Fayard, a French publishing company, said in a statement it was going ahead with an annotated French print, after pondering on it for the past four years. "The publication of this book central to the history of the 20th century will be accompanied by a critical analysis established by a scientific committee of French and foreign historians," Fayard said in a statement. It did not say when the new translation would come out. The upcoming German-language reprint will be handled by the government-funded Institute of Contemporary History in Munich, which emphasises the book's historical importance. It too, will be providing annotations to the text. Hitler dictated the lengthy tome while in prison following a failed putsch he staged to try to grab power in Munich in 1923 while leader of the Nazi party. Sales and royalties from it generated a small fortune for him, and its popularity enhanced his profile and helped him rise to become chancellor of Germany in 1933. The book set out two ideas that he put into practice as Germany's leader going into World War II: annexing neighbouring countries in the name of "lebensraum", or creating "living space" for Germans; and his hatred of the Jews, which he turned into the Holocaust.
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A little bit after we heard all the details about the upcoming 911 R, the manual-only, GT3-powered 911, we heard another rumor that piqued our interest: Porsche is going to build a wild, even more hardcore GT3 RS that will be a roadgoing version of the WEC car. While some of our sources have told us that they have not heard about this car or seen it on any future 911 product plans, our source is adamant that a ridiculous version of the GT3 RS, possibly dubbed GT3 RSR, is on the way. Supposedly the car will be a "roadgoing WEC race car," which means it'll have no creature comforts and be barely comfortable enough to get you to the track. It would be powered by the 4.0 H6 from the GT3 RS, but be lighter and even more focused, much how the 997 GT3 RS 4.0 was a more focused version of the 997 GT3 RS. Rumor has it that Porsche already has GT3 RS's with even less sound deadening and weight that made them even faster on the track that could serve as prototypes for these RSRs. Will it exist? We're putting this one in the maybe file, but we sure hope it comes to fruition. Follow MSN Autos on Facebook
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NEW YORK ( MainStreet ) Consumers who filed an extension back in April to pay their taxes are not the only ones who need to pay heed to the October 15 deadline since repayments for healthcare subsidies and conversions of Roth IRAs back to traditional IRAs are also due. Today is a big day on your financial calendar: here's your game plan. Still Owe Money on Taxes? Even if you still lack the funds to pay your entire tax payment, now is the time to make payment arrangements. Jackson Hewitt estimates that 13 million taxpayers requested an extension for filing their tax return. Consumers who are struggling to make their tax payments still need to file their return. Failing to file on time means they will incur another fee, the late filing penalty, which is 5% each month, said Chuck Lovelace, vice president of affordable care at Liberty Tax Service based in Virginia Beach, Va. "The taxpayer still will be charged with interest and late payment penalties for any unpaid balance after October 15," he said. The IRS offers a six-year installment payment plan online for people who owe $50,000 or less. Once you are approved, you can make monthly payments versus coming up with one lump sum. Even though you can use a credit card to make your tax payment , avoid them, because the interest rates charged by the IRS are lower, said Mark Jaeger, director of tax development for TaxACT, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa tax preparation company. Taking money out of a retirement account such as a 401(k) or IRA is not the solution either because you could pay a penalty and income tax on the amount withdrawn. "Play by the rules and be honest," he said. "The IRS can be a reasonable creditor. Pay as quickly as possible." Ignoring the problem will only compound it, said Eric Green, a tax attorney for Green & Sklarz based in New Haven, Conn. The IRS can enforce payments by garnishing your wages or imposing bank levies where they take funds out of a checking or savings account. "Deal with the issue and get it resolved," he said. "Though taxpayers often believe they should hide the fact that they owe money, they will simply make their situation much worse." Health Insurance Subsidies... If you received a subsidy for the first time for your health insurance premium and estimated your total salary incorrectly, you might owe the IRS money. Installment agreements to pay your back taxes won't affect your ability to receive 2016 subsidies, said Sean O'Hare, a Boston-based CPA. Consumers who wait until October 15 to file might be told initially that they don't qualify for subsidies, but the discrepancies between the IRS and the health care exchanges "should hopefully be ironed out by January 1, when the coverage starts," said Andrew Townsend, a tax analyst for TaxACT. Over 50% of consumers who received Obamacare subsidies in 2014 were projected to repay some or all of the subsidies they received. The good news is that many Americans earned more money than they had expected during the year, but many people did not save their extra earnings to repay the subsidy. The average repayment for consumers is $794, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based non-profit organization focusing on national health issues. A 40-year-old single individual living in Atlanta who started with an income of $17,000 in 2014 could have qualified for advance payments of $2,614, according to Kaiser. However, if that person's income rose to $23,000, the person would qualify for $1,824 in assistance for the premiums and wind up owing $750. Many people who had to repay the IRS for their subsidies filed an extension during the spring but need to make the payment now; otherwise, they could risk losing their eligibility for subsidies in 2016, said Nate Purpura, vice president of consumer affairs at eHealth.com, an online health insurance exchange based in Mountain View, Calif. Estimating your income for an entire year might not be easy, especially if you are working in an industry where your hours fluctuate often such as the restaurant business. If you don't want a large tax repayment bill looming over your head, then "err on the side of over-estimating your 2016 income," he said. When consumers apply for a subsidy, they have two options. The majority of people opt to have all of their subsidies applied toward their premium each month, but if you underestimate your income, you will owe the IRS hundreds of dollars. Instead, choosing to delay receiving a portion of your subsidy dollars means it will be applied when you file for taxes. "This will reduce the risk of getting too much subsidy help up front and having to pay it all back at tax time," Purpura said. Review the amount you submitted around June or July and adjust your subsidy eligibility by contacting the government exchange or the private marketplace when you first applied, he said. Converting a Roth IRA Back to an IRA... Consumers may want to convert their Roth IRA back into a traditional IRA if their tax rate declined or the value of their investments dropped, but they still face the October 15 deadline, said Jamie Hopkins, a retirement professor at the American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa. An individual who converted an IRA worth $10,000 when his tax rate was 35% in 2014 but expects his tax rate to fall to 15% because of retirement or unemployment in 2015 would find it beneficial to recharacterize the $10,000 Roth IRA. The recharacterization back to a traditional IRA at the lower 15% tax rate would save the investor $2,000 or 20% of the account. Market volatility can play a major role in conversions and large losses in value of your assets, since the conversion should prompt a recharacterization, Hopkins said. "Don't overreact due to small day to day changes in the market and get overly worked up if the value of your assets drops by 5%," he said. "This is probably not time for a conversion because they would go up higher by the end of the next day, causing you to pay even higher taxes in when you re-convert." If you converted $10,000 of stock in an IRA in 2014 and paid $2,500 of taxes on the conversion, but today the stock only has a value of $5,000. When you recharacterize the Roth IRA, you can get the taxes back and can convert it this year at the new lower amount. When you reconvert the stock again at $5,000, you will only pay $1,250 of taxes. "You will not get the value of the old investments back, but you will get the taxes back," Hopkins said. "Once you engage in a recharacterization, you need to wait 30 days or until the year following when you converted the original account, whichever is longer." The largest advantage of recharacterizing a Roth IRA s to reverse "what was more than likely a mistake in the first place," said Bill DeShurko, a portfolio manager at Covestor, the online investing marketplace and founder of 401 Advisor, a registered investment advisor in Centerville, Ohio. Traditional IRAs have many advantages, because your tax bracket is very unlikely to be higher in retirement than the rate you will pay now when adding the IRA balance to your income, he said. "The decision really comes down to having a crystal ball for tax rates," DeShurko said. "I feel a bird in the hand -- not paying taxes now -- is well worth keeping a traditional IRA."
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LAS VEGAS The latest on the hospitalization of Lamar Odom, who was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel (all times local): 6:55 p.m. A Nevada brothel is providing details of Lamar Odom's days-long visit that ended when he was found unconscious there. Richard Hunter, a spokesman for Love Ranch owner Dennis Hof, says it was Odom's first visit to the brothel. He says the former NBA star and reality TV personality scheduled his stay more than a week ago and on Saturday asked for a ride, arriving at about 4:30 p.m. Hunter says Odom stayed at the "best VIP suite" on an open-ended reservation and was accompanied by two women. He spent an amount beyond five figures, which would have been negotiated privately between him and the prostitutes. The women are contractors who get 50 percent of the negotiated price. Authorities say Odom took over-the-counter sexual performance enhancers during his stay. Hunter says Odom reported doing cocaine before his visit and knew the brothel had a strict anti-drug policy. Hunter says the women who work there are trained to "stop the party" if drugs are seen. ___ 6:15 p.m. A spokesman for the owner of the brothel where Lamar Odom was found unconscious told a 911 dispatcher that the former NBA star was breathing regularly and sounded like he was snoring. Richard Hunter says on the call the Odom was in a "deep sleep." He says Odom had taken over-the-counter sexual performance enhancers during his three days at the Love Ranch. Odom bought the supplements, called Reload 72-hour Strong, at the brothel. Hunter later tells the dispatcher that Odom had "apparently had some cocaine on him" but hadn't done any since Saturday. The former NBA star and reality TV personality is hospitalized in Las Vegas after being found unconscious at the Crystal, Nevada, brothel. ___ 5:10 p.m. Nevada authorities have taken a blood sample from Lamar Odom to find out if he overdosed on drugs or alcohol, but the results could take several weeks. Nye County Sheriff's Detective Michael Eisenloffel said at a news conference Wednesday that Las Vegas police will be doing the testing. Sheriff Sharon Wehrly says a Love Ranch employee called 911 on Tuesday to report Odom was found unresponsive at the legal brothel with blood and a "white stuff" coming from his nose and mouth. The caller reported Odom did cocaine Saturday and had taken up to 10 tabs of an over-the-counter sexual performance enhancer over the past three days. Eisenloffel described the enhancers as supplements and said Odom bought them at the brothel. The former NBA star and reality TV personality is on life support at a Las Vegas hospital after being found unconscious at the Crystal, Nevada, brothel. ___ 4:15 p.m. A Nevada sheriff says a person who called 911 to report that Lamar Odom was found unconscious at a brothel said the former NBA star had been doing cocaine and had taken sexual performance enhancers. Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly says an employee for Love Ranch told 911 dispatchers that Odom was found unresponsive with blood coming from his nose and mouth. The caller said Odom had been doing cocaine and had taken up to 10 tabs of a sexual performance enhancer over three days. Odom is on life support at a Las Vegas hospital after being found unconscious Tuesday at the Crystal, Nevada, brothel. ___ 2:15 p.m. Lamar Odom's grandmother says his father is with him at a Las Vegas hospital, and family members are praying for the former NBA star after he was found unresponsive at a Nevada brothel. Florence Odom spoke to The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday from her New York City home. She says she's waiting for an update on her grandson's condition from his father, Joe Odom. In tears, the grandmother said her Catholic family is praying for her beloved grandson. She described him as "so kind and sweet and gentle." "You could always reach him and talk to him, and I don't understand what's going on," Florence Odom said. "I know he's in God's hands." Michael Mercer of North Carolina also praised his famous cousin and wished him a healthy recovery. Lamar Odom is on life support after being found unconscious Tuesday at a Crystal, Nevada, brothel. ___ 1:15 p.m. Friends and former colleagues are showing their support for Lamar Odom, who remains on life support after being found unresponsive at a Nevada brothel. Television network E! says it's praying for Odom, a former star of the "Khloé & Lamar" series who also appeared on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." The network says it's not filming the Kardashians or Odom during this ordeal. Meanwhile, the Miami Heat team, where Odom played one season, and fellow NBA star Shaquille O'Neal took to Twitter to express their support. O'Neal used the hashtag "MyHeartHurts." New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher became close friends with Odom while playing alongside him with the Lakers. He says athletes and entertainers often are judged by choices that aren't representative of who they are. He also says Odom is "one of the greatest people" he knows. The former NBA star was found unconscious Tuesday at a Crystal, Nevada, brothel. He is hospitalized in Las Vegas. ___ 12:10 p.m. Lamar Odom lashed out about the media, his anguish over his reputation, and his relationship with estranged wife Khloe Kardashian in remarks videotaped in August by celebrity website TMZ. The online video shows a visibly irritated Odom saying: "Ya'll have discredited me, beat me down, took my confidence, took everything away from me. You will not do it again." He slams a media report that he ambushed Kardashian outside a California gym, saying he lives in Las Vegas now. The former NBA star and reality TV personality also railed against reports that he's a womanizer and drug addict and touted his accomplishments on the basketball court. "I probably couldn't even get (expletive) hired by Home Depot right now because of how people look at me," he says. "It's over." Odom was found unconscious Tuesday at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada, about 70 miles from Las Vegas. Kardashian has been by his side at a Las Vegas hospital. ___ 10:50 a.m. The Rev. Jesse Jackson says Lamar Odom is on life support but that his doctors think he's improving. Jackson visited the former NBA star and reality TV personality at a Las Vegas hospital Wednesday morning. He says Odom was unresponsive Tuesday but "has some responsiveness now." Jackson added: "Apparently from what the doctor said, he was much better off today than yesterday." Jackson was in town for Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate. He stopped and spoke to the media as he was leaving the hospital Wednesday. He says Khloe Kardashian and some of Odom's childhood friends were by Odom's side, and former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant visited him last night. Jackson says Odom's loved ones are "just holding hands and hoping he can bounce back." Odom was found unconscious Tuesday afternoon at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada, about 70 miles from Las Vegas. ___ 9:40 a.m. Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff Sharon Wehrly said investigators sought a warrant to obtain a blood sample to determine if Lamar Odom suffered a drug or alcohol overdose. Wehrly said detectives worked until early Wednesday collecting evidence and interviewing employees at the brothel where the former NBA player and reality show star was found unconscious. She said she couldn't immediately say what they believe caused Odom to become unconscious. But she acknowledged that medics usually turn someone on their side, as Odom was, to relieve pressure on the chest and help them breathe. The sheriff didn't say whether Odom ever regained consciousness while he was stabilized and taken to hospitals. Brothel owner Dennis Hof said Odom arrived alone, was "polite and reserved," drank alcohol from the bar and took herbal sexual enhancement capsules. Hof said Odom didn't use drugs in the presence of anyone in the house. ___ 7 a.m. Reality TV personality Khloe Kardashian has been by Lamar Odom's side at a Las Vegas hospital since Tuesday evening. That's according to a person close to the Kardashians who spoke anonymously because she wasn't authorized to speak to the press. Kardashian and Odom were married in 2009, but Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013, citing irreconcilable differences. Odom was found unconscious Tuesday afternoon at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada, about 70 miles outside of Las Vegas. Authorities said the 35-year-old was stabilized at the scene before being taken to a hospital. He was then transferred to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. Owner Dennis Hof said Odom had been at his brothel since Saturday. ___ By Associated Press writers Sally Ho, Ken Ritter and Brian Skoloff.
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Ronda Rousey's mother says the UFC star's longtime trainer Edmond Tarverdyan is a "terrible coach" and a "bad person" and says her daughter has only stayed with him out of superstition. AnnMaria De Mars spoke to LatiNation on Tuesday and wasted no time telling the station what she really thinks of Tarverdyan. "I think Edmond is a terrible coach, and I will say it publicly," De Mars said. She probably won 99% of the judo matches she ever fought in.
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Model and Actress, Christie Brinkley is showing what a proud mom she is when she posted on Instagram photos of her two kids following in her footsteps. In the November 2015 issue of Town & Country Magazine, her son, Jack, and daughter, Sailor, present stunning shots with a striking family resemblance. Brinkley reposted the photos with the caption, "Hats off to @townandcountrymag and talented photographer @matthewbrookes for the beautiful editorial spread in the November issue featuring @sailorbrinkleycook and @jackbrinkleycook sassafras you look sassier and more beautiful than ever!"
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In today's Flip Side, the Tribune-Review's Rob Rossi joins CineSport's Noah Coslov to point a finger at the Penguins stars on the ice and in the locker room.
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These are the ultimate comfort food recipes. Potatoes have never looked so good. Plus, try our best scalloped potatoes , delicious potato soups , and twice baked potato recipes ! Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Fennel Lighten up! Reduce butter to 1/4 stick, replace the cream and milk with 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, and add 1/4 cup fat-free low-sodium chicken broth to save 127 calories and 14 grams of fat per serving. Get the recipe. Slow-Cooker Mashed Potatoes These creamy spuds come together while you prepare the rest of your meal. Get the recipe. Mashed Potato Soufflé with Cheese and Bacon This cheesy, savory soufflé transforms comfort food basics - creamy mashed potatoes and bacon - into an elegant but still comforting dish. Get the recipe. Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes Nutty brown butter makes this mashed potato recipe seriously addictive. Get the recipe. Ultimate Secret Ingredient Garlic Mashed Potatoes You just can't go wrong with this creamy, buttery mashed potato recipe. Get the recipe at The Garlic Diaries . Tools you'll need: $9, Kukpo Stainless Steel Potato Masher, amazon.com Loaded Leftover Mashed Potato Balls Stuck with a ton of leftover mashed potatoes? Use this recipe to turn them into something different and delicious! Get the recipe at Handle the Heat . Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes Make these mashed potatoes the night before a hectic day of holiday cooking. Then throw them in the oven before you eat, and watch your guests devour the delish dish. Get the recipe at Six Sisters' Stuff . Tools you'll need: $11, Pyrex Baking Pan, amazon.com Mashed Potato Puffs Mashed potato puffs filled with even more creamy, loaded mashed potatoes? Sign us up! Get the recipe at The Cooking Jar . Tools you'll need: $7, Wilton Nonstick Muffin Pan, amazon.com Pumpkin Mashed Potatoes Like pumpkin spice lattes? Then you're going to love this recipe for pumpkin spice mashed potatoes. Get the recipe at Reluctant Entertainer . Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream Light, creamy and buttery-this classic recipe showcases potatoes at their best. Get the recipe at Platings and Pairings . Slow Cooker Buttery Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes What's not to love about a garlicky mashed potato recipe you can whip up in your slow cooker? Get the recipe at Le Creme de la Crumb . Loaded Mashed Potato Crunch Crispy, crunchy potatoes topped with bacon and cheese. Hello, new favorite side dish! Get the recipe at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice . Cheesy Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes These mashed potato pancakes are what your post-Thanksgiving breakfast has been missing. Get the recipe at Just A Taste . Fried Mashed Potato Balls Why wait for dinner to eat mashed potatoes? These crispy potato balls are the perfect Thanksgiving appetizers. Get the recipe at Gather For Bread . Goat Cheese and Chive Mashed Potatoes We promise: Your guests are going to be licking their plates clean thanks to this creamy recipe. Get the recipe at Host the Toast . Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes Brown butter: It's what your mashed potatoes have been missing. Get the recipe at The Food Charlatan . Loaded Garlic Ranch Mashed Potatoes Insider tip: Make extra of these loaded mashed potatoes, because your Thanksgiving guests will want seconds. Get the recipe at What's Cooking, Love? Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole Bring this cheesy, gooey casserole with you, and you'll be the talk of the potluck. Get the recipe at Chef in Training . Cheesy Leftover Mashed Potato Waffles When it comes to leftover mashed potatoes, who knew a waffle iron would come in so handy? Get the recipe at Just a Taste . Fried Mashed Potatoes Don't waste those leftover mashed potatoes! Use them to create these yummy bite-sized treats. Get the recipe at ManTitlement. Spinach Mashed Potatoes It counts as healthy if there's spinach in it, right?! Get the recipe at Chef in Training .
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Jalapeño Popper Mummies1700Fast Forward Fun shows us how to make the perfect Halloween snack with these delicious jalapeño popper mummies.Cosmopolitan
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Walmart (WMT) stunned investors in a bad way with its earnings forecast Wednesday. If there's a winner from the giant's pain - it's online retailer Amazon (AMZN). Shares of Walmart are down nearly 9% to $60.90 on the news that growth the next three years would be an anemic 3% to 4% and profit would drop up to 12% in fiscal 2017. Shares of Walmart are now down a crushing 29% this year. Investors have seen $18 billion in market value vanish just today and $79 billion this year. Investors looking for a reason for the nation's biggest retailers don't have to click too far: Amazon. Shares of Amazon have been one of the top performers this year - soaring 75.7%. No, that's not a typo. The online retailer's shares are enjoying a massive rally while the Standard & Poor's 500 is down 2.9% this year. Putting the numbers behind this rally really show how Amazon is eating Walmart's lunch. After creating $109.9 billion in shareholder wealth this year, Amazon is worth $255.1 billion. That exceeds the market value of Walmart by 30%. Amazon's pulling ahead isn't about the third quarter. Granted, Walmart's adjusted profit in the third quarter is seen dropping nearly 14% -- but Amazon is expected to post a loss of 15 cents a share. It's about the future. The very different trajectories of the two companies are much more about what's expected to happen. Analysts are calling for Amazon.com's adjusted earnings per share in fiscal 2016 to jump 211% on 19.8% higher revenue, says S&P Capital IQ. Compare that with the slow-growth future of Walmart. Analysts see fiscal 2016 earnings dropping 11% on revenue that's basically flat-line. Investors are willing to pay up more for Amazon's earnings, as they see it as a faster-growing model even though it loses money while Walmart is profitable. Amazon trades for 31 times its tangible book value, which is the value of hard assets is owns minus what is owes. Walmart, on the other than, trades for just 3.5 times tangible book value. The end result is that after its 18 years - Amazon is now more valuable than Walmart. Walmart will still be more than four times bigger than Amazon in terms of revenue. Revenue at Walmart is expected to hit $482.2 billion in fiscal 2015 - while Amazon's is seen to be $105.80 billion. But this is a case where bigger isn't necessarily better. AMAZON VS. WAL-MART - THE NUMBERS Company, Symbol, Market value*, 2016 EPS growth e**, 2016 growth e** Walmart, WMT, $195,626, -11%, 0.17% Amazon, AMZN, $255,103, 211%, 19.8% Source: S&P Capital IQ, USA TODAY * In $ millions ** Expected by analysts
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Fallen NBA star Lamar Odom summoned a car to his Las Vegas home to bring him to a brothel, where he splurged on a suite for days and insisted on seclusion before collapsing from an apparent drug overdose, sources told the Daily News. His behavior was "kind of unusual for a client who comes out here," Love Ranch Vegas manager Richard Hunter told The News. During his four-day stay there, Odom paid for a 1,500-foot suite separate from the rest of the house and asked for two blonde women, whom he was "very generous too," Hunter said. But Omor abruptly asked "to be left alone" Monday night, Hunter said the day before two women found him unconscious and foaming at the mouth. As of Wednesday afternoon, the haunted hoops star is still clinging to his life in a Vegas hospital, where he's hooked up to a ventilator and might suffer brain damage after a massive drug relapse, according to reports from the hospital. Odom ingested "every drug imaginable" and "choked on his mucus" after an overdose, a source from the hospital told E! . Witnesses told TMZ the haunted hoops star had cocaine in his system and track marks on an arm, and suffered several seizures since being admitted. The cause of his collapse has not been officially confirmed. Odom's ex-wife Khloe Kardashian, her sister Kim Kardashian and one-time Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant rushed to his bedside after he reportedly struggled with failing organs. Bryant was seen running into the Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center hours after medics brought Odom there from a hospital in Pahrump, NV. Medics tried to airlift Odom there, but were unable to fit the 6'10" ex-player in a helicopter. BROTHEL WHERE LAMAR ODOM COLLAPSED RELATED TO INFAMOUS HBO 'CATHOUSE' RANCH LAMAR ODOM'S FATHER THINKS 'SOMEBODY' DRUGGED HIS SON Odom reportedly checked into rehab two years ago for alcohol and crack cocaine abuse. Later that year, his wife filed for divorce, which was finalized this July. His once-promising NBA career derailed last year when the New York Knicks nixed him after just one season. The 35-year-old former forward was found in the Love Ranch Vegas Tuesday afternoon, unconscious and foaming from the mouth. He had been there since Saturday night, and was using an herbal supplement for Viagra , bordello owner Dennis Hof told the Daily News. Two women at the brothel, Ryder Cherry and Monica Monroe, found him hours after he appeared to be asleep. The Queens native appeared to fall into despair Sunday after an episode of"Keeping Up with the Kardashians" aired, spotlighting tough topics from his past. The episode featured scenes of Kim criticizing Khloe for taking Odom's calls, accusing her of being too "flirty" with her estranged beau. It also shows Odom calling Khloe in June to break the news of his drug-addled friend Jamie Sangouthai dying. Hof told The News Odom seemed to be in high spirits during his extended stay except on Sunday, when he was "solemn." Other sources at the brothel told TMZ he became "irate" about his portrayal on the episode. Odom was not seen abusing drugs or drinking excessively at the bordello, Hof said. After news of Odom's health crisis broke, Odom's other basketball and reality show pals shared their care and concern on Twitter. Kylie Jenner abruptly ended a livestream show on her website Tuesday after only 10 minutes, writing to her 11.8 million Twitter followers: "Had to end my live stream. I love you guys." In the morning, Kendall Jenner tweeted: "please don't go." Washington Wizards power forward Kris Humphries, an ex-husband of Kim Kardashian, wrote: "Everyone please pray for @RealLamarOdom to make it through this. Great player, even better person!" Odom's management company Excel said in a statement it is "staying close to the situation" but offered no updates on its star. In a statement to US Weekly , Odom's rep warned to not "listen to the false information being circulated unofficially" about the ailing athlete, but did not deny any details about his condition. Odom's childhood friends reportedly gathered in Queens to play a game in their hometown hero's honor. [email protected]
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Determined to get two brothers to "confess their sins," members of a secretive upstate New York church beat one of the teenagers to death and badly brutalized the other, police said Wednesday. Among those now charged with killing Lucas Leonard, 19, and injuring his 17-year-old brother Christopher during a "counseling session" at the Word of Life Church, are his parents and a sister, officials said. "During the counseling session, the session turned physical," said Chief Michael Inserra of the police in New Hartford, outside Utica. Over the course of several hours, the brothers were ordered to "confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness," the chief said. "We have not determined what this punishment was for." But, said Inserra, "We know there were fists and feet involved" in the punishment. Inserra spoke a day after the victim's parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, were charged with first-degree manslaughter, and police revealed their sons had been brutally beaten on their genitals, abdomens, backs and thighs. Christopher Leonard remains hospitalized and in serious condition, the chief said. Also arrested was the victims' 33-year-old sister, Sarah Ferguson, who along with three other church members was charged with second-degree assault. Inserra said more members of the church, described by neighbors as a cult, are under investigation. Meanwhile, seven children four of them Ferguson's have been removed from the church by state child welfare workers, Inserra said. The investigation was launched after Leonard's parents showed up at a local hospital Monday with their badly beaten son, Inserra said. Lucas died at the hospital and an autopsy revealed he had died of blunt-force trauma, the chief said. Within hours, a police SWAT team descended on the Leonards' home in Clayville and the church, where they found his brother on the second floor after several hours of searching. "He wasn't in hiding," said Inserra. "But family members weren't making him available." Bruce Leonard, 65, and his 59-year-old wife, Deborah, both pleaded not guilty during their arraignment Monday and were dispatched to the Oneida County jail after they were unable to raise $100,000 bail. The four other suspects Ferguson, Joseph Irwin, 26, of Chadwicks, David Morey, 26, of Utica and Linda Morey, 54, also of Utica were each ordered held on $50,000 bail. The Leonards' neighbors said the couple homeschooled their kids and made them read the Bible for two hours every day. They said the children weren't allowed to have sleepovers and were barred from Halloween trick-or-treating. Inserra declined to comment on reports that the church is a cult. But residents who live nearby told the Syracuse Post-Standard that members would rarely venture out in the daylight hours and those who did often were men wearing what they described as "long, black trench coats." They said they would hear strange chanting coming from the building as late as 3 a.m. A Post-Standard reporter who ventured inside the building Tuesday found police tape across two bathrooms, one labeled "Adam" and the other "Eve." The reporter also said there was a framed message hanging on one wall that read, in part, "We have been commissioned through the written word of God to reach out to those who have not experienced the love of Jesus Christ in their lives. Through the systematic training up of saints." With News Wire Services [email protected]
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tests SU-27 fighter jet . Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. Bernie Sanders' campaign said it raised nearly $2 million from the first Democratic debate of the 2016 race, and social media metrics showed he was the most-searched candidate on Google and most-discussed on Facebook and Twitter. Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers celebrated the day after what some said was the best two hours of her campaign. "We were over the moon," said former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Clinton backer who'd traveled to Las Vegas to watch the first such confrontation between the 2016 Democratic nomination contenders. On morning cable news programs, Granholm could barely contain her glee. "It was such a great night," she said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Clinton, who spent Thursday campaigning in suburban Las Vegas, warned her backers that the contest was far from over. "There's a lot of work to be done between now and securing the nomination which I'm going to be focused on to earn every single vote," she said, taking questions after an event at a union hall. Both Sanders and Clinton were looking Wednesday to build on their strong Democratic presidential debate performances as the rest of the field struggled to gain traction. Clinton, too, was trying to fundraise off her debate performance, emailing campaign backers with requests for donations from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, with the subject line "She won." The debate commanded by Clinton and Sanders appeared to narrow any opening for a presidential bid by Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic strategists said. Biden watched the Tuesday matchup from Washington. "I was proud," he said Wednesday during a White House meeting on infrastructure. "I thought every one of those folks last night my own prejudice I thought they all did well." A day after aggressively defending her long public service record and contrasting it with that of Sanders, Clinton remained in Nevada, talking to local media in the early voting state. She picked up the endorsement of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades during an event at a training facility in suburban Las Vegas before attending a rally. "Last night was a good night, today is just as good getting the endorsement of this union," she said. Sanders attended a taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," which has become a popular stop for presidential hopefuls. Later Wednesday, he was greeted with thunderous applause and shouts of "Bernie, Bernie" at a $25-a-ticket fundraiser at a Hollywood nightclub. "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane warmed up the crowd, riffing that Sanders had ended his fear of saying that "capitalism and democratic socialism ... should coexist." Sanders' campaign is mapping out a strategy to convert its fundraising and enthusiasm into a winning organization that can compete in the early states and a slate of "Super Tuesday" states on March 1. In another sign of its maturing operation, the campaign has hired Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin, whose past clients have included former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who ran for president in 2004, former California Gov. Gray Davis and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. "This campaign is in it for the long haul. This is not a flash-in-the-pan campaign," said Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. "We're going to have the resources to go all the way to the convention." The CNN debate, co-sponsored by Facebook, stretched for more than two hours and had more than 15 million viewers. The audience was smaller than the record-setting 24 million who watched the first 2016 Republican debate on Fox News. Yet in a news release, CNN said the debate broke the previous Democratic debate record of 10.7 million viewers when Obama and Clinton squared off on ABC in 2008. With millions of voters tuned in, the other three candidates on stage searched for a way to break out. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told CNN on Wednesday his debate performance showed that "more than two candidates" are seeking the nomination. Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee faced questions about his viability. In an interview with CNN, he pushed back against the notion that his campaign would be short-lived, saying: "I'm in it for as long as I can continue to raise these issues. They're important." Even Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who inserted himself into the debate coverage with live commentary on Twitter, said Wednesday that he felt Clinton had performed well. Trump's campaign appeared to have settled on a new target Sanders releasing an online ad Wednesday that portrays the Vermont senator as too weak to lead. __ AP writers Jill Colvin, Josh Lederman and Ken Thomas contributed to this report. __ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Follow the reporters on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP and https://twitter.com/bykowicz . ___ This story has been corrected to show that Sanders' campaign says he raised nearly $2 million since the start of the debate, not $4 million.
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The four American League teams remaining will have their postseason fates decided today in a pair of Games 5. Two of them, the Rangers and Royals, give the ball to exactly the pitcher they would want in that spot, the veteran ace they acquired three months ago for such big spots: Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto, respectively. And then there are the Blue Jays and Astros, who will be handing the ball to underdogs: Marcus Stroman and Collin McHugh. It's one of the many great treats postseason holds for us every year. The ball doesn't always wind up in the best pitchers' hands when a team most needs a victory. But Stroman, who goes at home against Texas, and McHugh, who'll take the mound in Kansas City, have been underestimated before. Stroman recovered in what seemed like world record time from a spring training ACL tear to take his place in the Toronto rotation in September. But his story of underestimation realty begins in 2012. Coming out of Duke, Stroman showed some of the best pure stuff heading into the draft. But he lasted until the 22 nd pick. Why? He is 5' 8", and the scouting world has an established bias against short righthanded starters. Stroman was the 11 th pitcher taken in the 2012 draft. The 10 pitchers picked ahead of him all stand between 6'2" and 6'6". Seven of them have not yet reached the majors. • MORE MLB: Full postseason schedule, start times, TV listings Why the bias? Many scouts prefer the longer levers of taller pitchers to create better angles (similar to tennis players), as well as preferring bigger bodies to withstand the rigors of a 200-inning season. And history reminds them just how rarely small righthanded pitchers succeed as major league starting pitchers. Already Stroman is one of just 17 righthanded pitchers at his height or smaller to win 15 games in the majors, and only the second in the past 60 years. (The other was Tom Phoebus, from 1966-72.) If can win Wednesday, Stroman will become the first starting pitcher this small to win a postseason game since lefty Fred Norman won 1975 NLCS Game 2 for the Reds. As for McHugh, the bias against him was a lack of premium velocity, not to mention one of the worst starts to a career in baseball history. An 18 th -round pick, McHugh was traded by the Mets and released by the Rockies within six months of 2013. His career record was 0-8 with a 8.94 ERA when the Astros claimed him off waivers in December 2013. The popular story is that Houston noticed the extreme spin rate on his curveball, saw it as an underutilized asset, and convinced him to throw it more. Presto! He became a better pitcher. Well, maybe it didn't exactly go that way. "I pitched in the Arizona Fall League a few years ago and saw something about my spin rate being in the neighborhood of guys like Kershaw," McHugh told me last month. "So I was aware of it. It just made me think, 'Hey, that's pretty good.' But as far as anybody here telling me, no, not really." The biggest difference is that McHugh effectively canned his sinker and used a four-seam fastball to better complement his breaking pitches. You would think that the edge in the ALDS games go to the Rangers and Royals because they have the more accomplished starting pitcher. But with Stroman and McHugh, people have been known to be wrong. • NEW: One-week $2M fantasy league. First place wins $150K and top 90K teams win cash! Sponsored by FanDuel 2. Leading indicator It's not surprise that there is great value in being the first team to put a run on the board. The MLB-wide conversion rate from scoring first to winning the game is about 69%. No surprise. But in sudden death playoff games when both teams are facing elimination the importance grows even greater. There have been 23 League Division Series Game 5s in the wild-card era (since 1995). The team that scored first won 79% of those games (18-5). The only teams to get out in front and lose were the 2012 Nationals, '11 Diamondbacks, '05 Yankees and '03 and '01 Athletics. Keep that in mind when watching how the early innings play out Wednesday in a sudden death doubleheader two ALDS Games 5. Playing for a run early in the game is not something teams often do in the regular season. But we've already seen Texas manager Jeff Banister start a runner with the bottom of the order in Game 1 to take a lead. Of the four teams today, the Rangers and Royals are best equipped to manufacture a run. The Blue Jays and Astros are more likely to microwave a run; with their powerful bats one pitch left out over the plate can be turned into a run at any time. 3. Kershaw comes through The test came, as it usually does for Clayton Kershaw in October, in the seventh inning Tuesday in NLDS Game 4 against the Mets. Yoenis Cespedes topped a ball to the third-base side of the mound, where Kershaw, in his haste, flubbed it. The Dodgers ace, pitching on three days' rest, was in trouble, with his reputation for letting postseason games get away back in play. How would he respond? In six pitches he was out of the inning with three outs: a pop fly, a fly ball and a groundout. The sequence was slider, fastball, slider, fastball, fastball, slider. Just like that, Kershaw put a halt to his postseason troubles and pitched L.A. into an NLDS Game 5 against Mets. Aren't we lucky? It will be our fifth sudden death game this postseason, already more than in any other year except 2012 (the first year with wild card games), which had a record seven. Kershaw said after the game he did a better job mixing his pitches a mindset that failed him on occasion in the past when his competitiveness took over. The Mets actually put the ball in play more against him in Game 4 than in Game 1 (16 times, compared to 13 last Friday) and had fewer swings-and-misses (nine, compared to 18), but Kershaw did a better job confusing them with his sequencing. In a postseason in which the Blue Jays' David Price became a middle reliever, the Mets' Matt Harvey could only make one start in a series and in which few pitchers anywhere can deal with the stress and rarity of pitching on short rest, Kershaw proved once again why he's the best pitcher on the planet: He threw a gem on short rest while his team faced elimination. The only new twist to this reminder is that he did it in October.
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Boss's Day is on Oct. 16, and you can give your boss a thoughtful and memorable gift to show your appreciation even if you're on a budget. Whether you're shopping for your supervisor or a team of executives, you can impress the boss with a practical and afford gift for the office or otherwise. Here are nine frugal gift ideas for Boss's Day. 1. USB Portable Charger If your boss is a busy executive and travels often, she will make use of a USB portable charger. These handy gadgets fit inside a pocket and provide extra power for smartphones, tablets, iPads and other mobile devices. They're a must-have item for any business traveler, and you can find a variety of models starting around $45. 2. Homemade Treats If you're a baking enthusiast, put those skills to use by baking up some of your favorite cookie and dessert recipes. Home-baked treats are sure to be appreciated by the boss and co-workers. Baking up a batch of cookies, brownies and other sweet treats is a simple and affordable way to show you care. Consider making batches of cookie dough or batter ahead of time so you can just bake few trays of treats the day before Boss's Day. The average cost of ingredients may range from $20 to $30, depending on quantity. 3. Desk Organizer Maintaining a clutter-free office and work space is a high priority for the super-productive types . Gift the boss a desk organizer to keep office stationery, gadgets and other everyday essentials in order. You can find a variety of functional organizers in different sizes suitable for any work space. These run about $25 to $30 and up, depending on the brand and type. 4. Miniature Terrarium Give the boss a reason to decorate the office with some greenery. These miniature collections of exotic plants and shrubs can be a welcome addition to a sparsely decorated office. Miniature plant terrariums on Amazon start around $20, and some come as customizable kits with different themes. 5. Oversized Coffee Mug Whether you pick out a mug with a clever saying or one with a more simplistic design, an oversized coffee mug is sure to be appreciated by any coffee or tea lover. Consider the boss's personality and sense of humor when picking out a mug emblazoned with a quote or creative message. Alternatively, turn to sites like CafePress to customize a mug for the boss with your own idea. Coffee mugs on CafePress start at $12.99. 6. Personalized Desk Clock From cube clocks to sculpture-like designs, give the boss an attractive clock he can place on a desk or shelf in the office. Personalized gifts with the boss's name, an inspirational quote or even a memorable message are an affordable gift option average prices run from $30 to $50 and up and are sure to be well-received. 7. Coffee Blend or Tea Gifts If you know what your boss's favorite flavor of coffee is or what type of tea she drinks on a regular basis, consider buying an oversized bag of coffee grounds in his favorite flavor or a sampler pack of tea from her favorite brand. Companies like Starbucks and Tazo tea offer a variety of attractive gift sets and individual bags starting at $12.99. Alternatively, you could buy a three-month Starbucks subscription of your boss's favorite roast. 8. Gourmet Chocolate Unless the boss has explicitly shared a distaste for chocolate, a box of chocolates or a gourmet gift basket filled with sweet treats is sure to please. You can put together your own assortment of truffles, chocolate bars and candy items from your boss's favorite chocolate shop or local chocolatier. You'll also find plenty of pre-made baskets on Amazon and other online gift retailers , ranging in price from $20 to $40 and up. 9. Fruit Arrangements If your boss is the health-conscious type or you just want to do something a little different this year, set up a delivery of a fruit basket, bouquet, sculpture or fresh fruit platter arrangement for the office. Having the gift delivered on Boss's Day can add that extra special touch. Gourmet fruit gifts start around $20 to $30 at online gift companies such as Shari's Berries and Harry & David.
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With a new season of Showtime's hit drama, the 33-year-old Golden Globe winning British actress is disproving the old adage that cheaters never prosper. "I have techniques," says Ruth Wilson, describing how she descends into the fragile head space of grieving Montauk, New York, waitress Alison Lockhart on the hit Showtime series The Affair . "I listen to Sigur Rós, Lamb, orchestral songs. I think about wanting to go home" to family and friends in London, where she recently bought a flat "and the tears come fairly quickly." Wilson pauses. "That sounds awful. I'm not that depressing!" Indeed, the 33-year-old Kent native, unlike her character, has little difficulty expressing herself. "Yeah, sorry," she says, practically shrugging, when asked about the show's dim view of marriage. "We're still sort of living with this institution that was established years ago for other reasons, and though we've changed socially and economically, it's not quite adapted." Bleak but compulsively watchable, The Affair for which Wilson won a Golden Globe for Best Actress earlier this year­ serves up increasingly remorseless adulterous lovers with a side helping of murder. Alison, who lost her young son, palliates her pain in the bed of Noah Solloway, a bored Brooklyn family man played by Dominic West. Though in the second season, they're naked less often, perhaps because they're cohabiting. "You'll still get sex," Wilson clarifies. "I'm just not having to do it as much." Luckily, there's also plenty of Wilson's searching, blue-eyed gaze and the most evocative lips since the Rolling Stones' logo. As Alison, she's sexy, broken, and unknowable, communicating more in stares than in sentences. The spell she casts on Noah extends to the viewer, too; you can't take your eyes off her. Wilson was equally hypnotic, if less emotive, as Alice Morgan, the psychopathic scientist on the BBC's Luther , a dark detective series starring Idris Elba that introduced her to American audiences. She's been in New York a year and a half now, just long enough to pick up a Tony nomination for her role as a Cambridge academic in Constellations , opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and a couple of local affectations. "I do a lot of SoulCycle and yoga," she unapologetically admits. But The Affair has been so emotionally "lacerating" that Wilson needs more than a stationary bike to decompress; she recently escaped to Nevada for Burning Man. "It felt like something out of Mad Max ," she says. "I've never been anywhere so bizarre." The real vacation, however, begins this month, when she'll return to London to play a sultry alien alongside Nicole Kidman in the director John Cameron Mitchell's sci-fi comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties finally, a project that explores a less gloomy side of love. "I get to wear latex, and shoes in the shape of butt plugs," Wilson says with a laugh. "I can't wait!"
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The NASCAR Wire Service's Reid Spencer & CineSport's Noah Coslov preview the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. They discuss the drivers under pressure, Jimmie Johnson & Reid's pick to win.
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WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden faced an altered political dynamic on Wednesday after Hillary Clinton reasserted her command of the Democratic Party presidential race during a debate that may have left little room for him to run. Analysts widely hailed Clinton, 67, as turning in a nimble, effective performance on Tuesday night, perhaps easing the fears of some Democrats fretting that the flap over her use of a private email server while in the Obama administration was torpedoing her candidacy for the November 2016 election. In doing so, she may have dampened calls for Biden to make a belated entrance into the race while also blunting the threat from insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old U.S. senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist. "If you're a Hillary supporter and you were worried for whatever reason, you should feel very good about yourself," said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist who attended the televised debate in Las Vegas. "This is the kind of debate that helps build momentum." Sanders, Clinton's top rival among declared candidates, was handed the opportunity by debate moderators to assail her over the email issue. Instead, he dismissed the controversy as trivial, drawing an ovation from the crowd and shoving the spotlight away from Clinton's most profound political weakness. For Biden, 72, who continues to ponder a bid for the presidency, the evening served as a reminder of how tenacious Clinton can be as a candidate, steeled by scores of debates in her 2008 presidential run and four years as secretary of state. At times, Clinton seemed to be reaching out both to the progressives in her party more likely to back Sanders and the moderates who may prefer Biden. She went toe-to-toe with Sanders over gun control, addressed income inequality and advocated for more liberal family-leave policies. At the same time, she refused to go along with Sanders' call to break up Wall Street banks, reiterated her support of the Patriot Act, and said she would not hesitate to use military force if necessary, at times obliquely criticizing President Barack Obama's White House and, by proxy, Biden for failing to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and for doing too little about the civil war in Syria. Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta said Biden needs to decide now whether to run or not. "This debate has been joined. We're talking about different ideas about how to take the country forward, how to improve and build upon what President Obama has achieved. And if Vice President Biden wants to enter and compete for the presidency then it is time for him to make that decision," he told MSNBC. The debate attracted a record 15.3 million viewers, host CNN said on Wednesday, citing Nielsen data. That is the highest audience for a Democratic presidential debate on cable news but is still lower than the ratings for the Republicans' first two 2016 election debates earlier this year. SANDERS' LIMITS Tuesday's debate may also have exposed Sanders' limitations. As a candidate, he has made populist economic themes central to his campaign, almost to the exclusion of other issues. His discomfort on guns - his home state of Vermont is protective of gun rights - and with foreign policy seemed evident. At one point, Sanders loudly protested he is not a pacifist. "He didn't handle himself well on guns or on foreign policy," said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. "He seemed flustered and defensive. Americans want someone calm and collected when dealing with a crisis." Republican front-runner Donald Trump declared Clinton the winner of the encounter, in part because the other Democrats did not put her under much pressure. "It was a very kind debate, very gentle. She came out the winner," Trump told ABC News. But Clinton did give Republicans ammunition as she came out strongly in favor of gun control and tighter regulation of banks, and brushed off Chafee's concerns about her email use. "Clinton's record of hypocrisy and flip-flops on everything from Wall Street, trade, immigration, and foreign policy was on full display. Her unwillingness to fully explain the circumstances surrounding her secret email server, and the ongoing FBI investigation into it, further damages her credibility," Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. Democratic hopeful Jim Webb, a former senator from Virginia, may have delivered the most scathing indictment of Sanders' candidacy, telling him at one point in the debate, "Bernie, I don't think the revolution is going to come." Still, Sanders' liberal base likely saw little to prompt a second thought about supporting him. "It was a good night for him too," said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who also praised Clinton. She said the scrutiny of Sanders' positions on guns and national security demonstrated his viability as a top-tier candidate and alternative to Clinton. "People were attacking him like he is the front-runner." That may mean that when Biden takes a fresh look at the Democratic field, he may see that Clinton has solidified her standing with establishment Democrats while Sanders has kept his grip on populist progressives, leaving even less space for him.
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NAPA, Calif. Tim Clark addressed his ball, reared back, took a mighty lash … and barely grazed the top of his ball with the sole of his driver. The ball dribbled off the tee and stopped perhaps 10 feet away, and Clark and practice round playing partners Matt Jones and Chez Reavie appraised the intentional duff with wry smiles. Well, that's one way to hit a 10-footer. The 90-plus-degree air is thick with plots and subplots as the 2016 PGA Tour gets set to kick off with this week's Frys.com Open at Silverado Country Club, among them how golfers like Clark, one of the last of the anchored putters, will adapt to the much-chronicled anchoring ban that goes into effect January 1. NEWSLETTERS: Sign up to get the latest golf news in your inbox "I'm still kind of deciding," Clark said Tuesday. "But I'm probably going to start this week with something that will be allowed next year. I'll probably go Kuchar-style." For the uninitiated, putting like Matt Kuchar means steadying the putter in part by running the grip end of the shaft up your left forearm. Clark, who will turn 40 in December, has had bigger problems than the USGA's ban on anchoring, namely his most recent injury setback, left elbow surgery, that kept him off the Tour for five months. "I feel great, physically," he said. "I'm close to back to normal." Clark underwent surgery on his right elbow in 2011. Charl Schwartzel stood on the practice green, squinted up at the hot sun, and asked his caddie whether the front and back nines here both come back to the clubhouse. The 2011 Masters champion could be excused for feeling out of sorts. He's one of four players in the field this week who competed in the Presidents Cup in South Korea, a quartet that also includes U.S. hero Chris Kirk, Steven Bowditch and Hideki Matsuyama. "I feel like I'm on a different planet," said Schwartzel, who made the 12-hour flight from South Korea to San Francisco on Monday. "I didn't sleep well last night. It's a 16-hour time change. I watched that movie with the Rock on the flight San Andreas. Here I am watching that as I'm flying to San Francisco. The whole place is falling apart!" Bowditch, who finished second here last year, reported no ill effects from the trip. "I'm good to go," he said. "It was an easy trip. I enjoy flying. I slept for probably six or seven hours. I'll fly from Dallas, where I live in the U.S., to Brisbane quite often. And after this I'll go to Las Vegas, Malaysia, China, Australia and South Africa." The off-season just isn't what it used to be. After a hiatus of just two and a half weeks since Jordan Spieth won the Tour Championship, 144 players will tee off at the Frys.com at Silverado on Thursday, the lid lifter for the 2016 season. There will be 47 events in all: seven during the fall of 2015, followed by a seven-week break, followed by the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January. This may be the only tournament, however, in which last year's champion, Sangmoon Bae, will miss out on defending his title in order to defend his country. He was off to join the South Korean military shortly after compiling a 2-1-1 record at the Presidents Cup. "Have I been playing? It hasn't been that long since I stopped playing," said seventh-ranked Justin Rose, the highest ranked player in the field other than No. 3 Rory McIlroy. "I've just come from four or five days of equipment testing, and before that I played Pine Valley and Merion with some friends, and before that was the Tour Championship." Rose tied for second place. Kevin Na, who tied for 16th at the Tour Championship, said he was concerned about a possible loss of focus after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup. That's partly why he was a late commitment to the Frys.com; he didn't want to go into his hometown tournament, next week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, out of form. "It was a short break," Na said. Harold Varner III is a 25-year-old PGA Tour rookie who finished 25th on the Web.com Tour money list, which means he was the very last player to graduate to the big Tour via his regular-season tournament winnings on the developmental tour. He's also the first player of African-American ancestry to make the Tour since Joseph Bramlett in 2011, and only the second since the arrival of Tiger Woods nearly two decades ago. Not that Varner would necessarily frame it that way. "I want to inspire all races," Varner, a 5-foot-8-inch graduate of East Carolina University, said in his press conference Tuesday. As for being just the second black player to make it to the Tour since Woods, Varner added: "Yeah, it does surprise me. I don't think he really motivated me I didn't see Tiger as a black or white thing. I just know he was the best player, and he happened to be black. If me playing golf brings more African-Americans to the game, then the more the merrier." As a junior golfer, Varner won the 2007 First Tee Open at Pebble Beach with pro Morris Hatalsky. Both men now reside in Jacksonville, Fla., and they keep in touch. Until he made all of $2,340 at the WinCo Foods Portland Open in August, snagging the 25th spot on the money list, Varner's brief run as a pro had been less successful. He qualified for the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, but shot 76-79 and missed the cut. As for Woods, Varner says they've never met. "I'm sure we'll cross paths soon," he said. "I'm looking forward to him coming back."
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Twitter (TWTR) named Omid Kordestani, Google's former chief business officer, as its new executive chairman on Wednesday. Kordestani had worked at Google since 1999 . Jack Dorsey , Twitter's CEO, took to the social media platform to announce Kordestani's appointment. Kordestani said in a series of tweets he is excited to work with Dorsey, COO Adam Bain and CFO Anthony Noto. The announcement came a day after Twitter said it will cut about 8 percent of its global workforce. "This isn't easy. But it is right. The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a letter to employees. "We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job."
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Former UGA head coach & DawgNation's Jim Donnan joins CineSport's Brian Clark to talk about how UF moves on without Will Grier, a potential upset in Ole Miss-Memphis, and Alabama-Texas A&M.
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The victims aren't who you'd think Researchers are coming to new conclusions as they dig into the question of what makes some people and not others fall victim to fraud and online scams. Victims often hate to admit they've been conned, so research is difficult. Even so, experts estimate that $40 billion to $50 billion a year is lost to consumer fraud, says a study by the Financial Fraud Research Center at Stanford University's Center on Longevity. Some 30 million Americans are sucked into some type of financial fraud each year, says the American Psychological Association . Fraud comes in all shapes and sizes, from online dating-site deception, debt-collection scams, fake rental ads and worthless or nonexistent product sales to work-at-home schemes. ( This Financial Fraud Research Center diagram gives a detailed breakdown.) Victims include older people, yes, but also younger ones. Educated and undereducated. White-collar and blue-collar. Dumb people and smart ones. The Stanford study says: An emerging conclusion in profiling research is that there is no generalized profile of a "typical" victim. Profiling studies that analyze victims by type of scam, however, have yielded a clearer picture of scam-specific profiles. In other words, while everyone is vulnerable, some people may be more vulnerable to particular scams than others. AARP's 2014 report, Caught in the Scammer's Net , lists risk factors that make adults more likely to become victims of certain types of fraud. You're likely to be targeted if you are: 1. A white man The typical victim of investment fraud is a man. He's middle-aged, educated, financially literate and white, and he's under financial pressure, psychologist Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity tells The American Psychological Association . This makes sense, when you think about it. People who don't ordinarily buy investments aren't likely to fall for an investment scheme, or even to be offered it. In a phone interview with Money Talks News, Marti DeLiema, postdoctoral research fellow at the Financial Fraud Research Center , said: Fraud victimization is really associated with exposure. The more you engage in the marketplace the more likely you are to be vulnerable. You have to be in the market for a product to get hooked. 2. Older Elders do get hit hard by scammers and they're more likely to lose a significant amount of money to fraud, but generally that's largely because scammers pick on them more. Some susceptibility does come with age-related decline. Researchers have found that older people can have a harder time spotting liars, probably because of a decline in "emotional recognition," or the ability to read others' emotions accurately, the fraud researchers at the Stanford center said. But elders' long experience in life also helps them spot fraud. On balance, they aren't more susceptible than anyone else. DeLiema says: We have found that older adults are disproportionately targeted, but once they are targeted they are not more likely to be victims. Most PSAs (public service announcements) are targeted at the elderly. Perhaps those messages are working, and maybe experience can outweigh cognitive decline. Some services are marketed as useful to helping keep elders safe from fraud. 3. Younger Contrary to popular wisdom, younger adults actually are more vulnerable than older people, according to research by Judy Van Wyk of the University of Rhode Island and Karen A. Mason of Washington State University in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice . People 18 to 25 stood a 77 percent chance of becoming victims compared to people 65 to 75, who had a 44 percent chance, according to the study. Scam artists alter their tactics depending on the unique vulnerability of their targets, says DeLiema. A young woman might not fall for a 'grandparents scam' (in which con artists pose as a grandchild in trouble) but she might fall for a weight loss scheme or a juice cleanse or an anti-aging cream because she feels insecure about aging. 4. Living in Florida Florida is the top state for consumer fraud complaints, with about 1,000 complaints per 100,000 residents, according to a report by 24/7 Wall St. based on Federal Trade Commission data. Florida's dubious distinction may be because of its larger population of seniors, who are frequent targets of fraudsters. Other states with high rates of fraud include: Texas, New Jersey, Arizona, California, Maryland, Delaware, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia. 5. Lonely The AARP's 2014 report says that 66 percent of victims say that they "often or sometimes feel isolated." Dating sites are prime territory for fraud, partly because online encounters blur the lines between real and Internet relationships, says another AARP article . Loneliness can make people vulnerable to believing that their prayers have been answered, even when a "dream partner" met online is too good to be true. The article tells how Enitan, a former scammer, worked: Using stolen credit card numbers, the scammer would flood dating sites with fake profiles. Victims can be found anywhere scammers also forage for connections on social media but dating services provide the most fertile territory. Profile photos are pirated from social media or other dating sites. To snare women, he'd pose as older men, financially secure and often in the military or in engineering professions. For male victims, he just needed a photo of an alluring younger woman: "Guys are easier to convince they're a bit desperate for beautiful girls." The common thread between them: loneliness. All his victims, Enitan says, described themselves as divorced or widowed. "The lonely heart is a vulnerable heart." RomanceScams.org , devoted to fighting online dating fraud, tells how to recognize a dating scam and how to proceed if you are a victim. 6. On the Internet To many people, telemarketers are linked to fraud, and for good reason: People who listen to telemarketers are more likely to get hooked, DeLiema says. However, "the Internet has consistently been the most frequently reported method of contact for fraud victimization in recent years," according to a Financial Fraud Research Center paper, Scams, Schemes and Swindles . 7. Interested and open Financial con artists don't get far with people who are introverted or careful. Victims are more likely to be open, agreeable and extroverted. Research by FINRA's Investor Education Foundation (FINRA is the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority) finds that: Victims of affinity fraud (scams among members of close-knit groups) more often are people who are a bit neurotic and open to new experience. Those hit by investment fraud often are extroverted, conscientious and open to new experience. Openness especially is linked to larger financial losses. An inclination to take risks is, understandably, another trait associated with fraud victims, DeLiema says. In other words, victims are people you'd like to know. Or maybe someone like you. 8. In debt Being in debt makes you vulnerable to scam artists who prey on people looking for a way out of a difficult situation. Scam artists can be hard to identify because they pose as legitimate businesses. Be particularly wary of businesses offering debt consolidation and help negotiating with creditors. Scammers also often insert themselves into the businesses of mortgage refinancing and foreclosure counseling. 9. Desperate People in desperate situations grasp at straws. Con artists know this and show up for immigrants who need help with their legal status, for example, or for victims of natural disasters who are willing to pay for help filing a claim, finding a home or getting home repairs. One rule of thumb: Never engage a contractor who shows up uninvited to your home. 10. Human Most of us are a bit vulnerable, in one way or another. Scams are so prevalent today that almost anyone can get stung. A few of the AARP survey's list of traits shared by vulnerable victims: Job loss Ignorance of bank procedures Downloading apps Clicking on pop-ups Impulsiveness How to protect yourself Here are five tips on staying safe: Get inoculated: In " The 10 Golden Rules of Scam Prevention " Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson outlines tip-offs to cons and scams. AARP's Fraud Watch Network is a good source for people of all ages to learn about new scams and find out how to spot them and to stay safe. The Fraud Watch state map links to law enforcement alerts and notices about scams in your state. Report fraud to the AARP Foundation Fraud Watch Helpline: 877-908-3360. Trust your gut: Back away and get time to think when you feel pressure to buy or invest, or even just simply if your radar goes off and you don't know why. Offering something "only for a limited time" is often a tip-off to a con. Watch your emotions: If you see yourself getting emotionally worked up scared, excited or suspicious that's a good time to take a break. Scammers stir up emotions to reel in victims.
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Lamar Odom's condition is reportedly dire, however as friends and family rush to the hospital to be by his side, his publicisit requests that no one listen to "false information" that isn't announced officially.
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Ukraine marks Defenders of the Fatherland Day -- a sombre occasion that Kiev introduced after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the subsequent revolt in the eastern provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk.
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Are the Miami Dolphins regretting the decision to sign Ndamukong Suh? Does he grade out well using Pro Football Focus analytics?
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Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that an international commission has been formally asked to investigate a deadly US airstrike on an Afghan hospital, that killed 22 people, including 12 of the medical charity's staff. The organisation, known by its French acronym MSF, demanded last week that an independent international commission investigate the hospital attack in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3. The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), an independent mechanism created under international law but which has never before been used, needs one of 76 signatory states to sponsor an inquiry before a probe can begin. "MSF has been informed that the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission has been activated," the charity said in a statement. "This is the first step needed to undertake an independent investigation into the attack," it said, adding though that the IHFFC still needed the agreement of the United States and Afghanistan. Commission vice-president Thilo Marauhn told AFP that the body had sent letters requesting the green light from US and Afghan authorities to begin, "but we have not yet received a response." President Barack Obama has apologised to MSF and three investigations by the US military, NATO and by Afghan officials are already underway into the attack, which was carried out after the Taliban's brief but bloody capture of Kunduz. MSF has condemned the attack as a war crime and insists an independent probe is needed since it "cannot rely only on the ongoing internal investigations by parties to the conflict." "We have received apologies and condolences, but this is not enough," MSF chief Joanne Liu said in the statement. "We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour," she said, insisting: "We need to understand what happened and why." Beyond determining the circumstances surrounding the Kunduz hospital bombing, MSF insists an investigation by the IHFFC is needed to reaffirm the international laws protecting humanitarian actors in all conflict zones. "We need to know if the rules of war have changed, not just for Kunduz, but for the safety of our teams working in frontline hospitals all over the world," Liu said.
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Andy Murray says his top priority was being "fit and healthy" for the Davis Cup decider as he weighs up playing the World Tour Finals which finish just a few days prior. Murray has been warned about his obligation to play the tour finale in London but is worried about his troublesome back. "You know, I have to do what's best for me. If everything goes well and my back feels good training on the clay beforehand, then I'll be there at the O2," Murray said, referring to the London tournament. Britain, seeking their first Davis Cup title in 79 years, will play Belgium on clay in late November. AFP
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LOS ANGELES - For years, GoPro owners have loved their cameras so much, they've shared their wares on GoPro's YouTube channel, to show just how awesome they could be. Now, the action-cam maker wants to reward users for their creativity, with a new awards program, offering up to $5 million yearly. GoPro will dole out $500 for photos, $1,000 for raw video clips and $5,000 for edited videos, in a range of categories that include family trips, kayaking and "anything awesome." The contest is open now, and GoPro says it hopes to pay out awards as often as weekly. Some 60,000 photos and 100,000 videos are submitted to GoPro each year just to be featured on its YouTube channel (which has nearly 1 billion views) and in-flight and streaming media channels. Like with online submissions, GoPro will still own the images. To sign up, go to gopro.com/awards . Follow USA TODAY tech columnist and #TalkingTech host Jefferson Graham on Twitter, where he's @jeffersongraham , and listen to his daily audio reports on Stitcher, TuneIn and iTunes. , look for me on Twitter, where I'm @jeffersongraham.
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While the Shenzhou space capsule has served the Chinese manned space program well for nearly 16 years (since the unmanned test flight in 1999), the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) is searching for a replacement. An October 2015 Chinese blog post showcased a detailed CNSA sponsored study for a post-Shenzhou spaceship. Flying on future Chinese rockets like the Long March 5, 7, and 9, the study proposes a 2 to 6 person crewed capsule. The semi-conical reentry vessel would be attached to the propulsion and cargo sections in the service modules, similar in configuration to NASA's Orion capsule. At 14 tons, the basic next generation spacecraft would have nearly double the mass of the 7.8-ton Shenzhou. For deep space missions to near Earth asteroids and the Moon, the next generation spacecraft would have a larger service module, for a total mass of 20 tons. Given improvements in Chinese materials science to strengthen the thermal shield against reentry heating, it is hoped that the crew capsule could be reused. While the actual successor to the Shenzhou could look very different from the concepts in this feasibility studies, China is clearly planning to continue its manned space program well into the future. The modular and cost effective characteristics of this proposed space ship suggests that in addition to looking for more frequent, cheaper space missions, China also has its eyes on leaving terrestrial orbit. With increased crew slots on each spaceship, China could even start training and flying foreign taikonauts as part of a space diplomacy, a new branch in China's soft power outreach.
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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. When Sarah Ray's father and grandparents were in a car crash on the way to her wedding reception, the off-duty Tennessee paramedic rushed to the scene in her wedding dress. "My dad called my husband and said there had been an accident," Sarah Ray said. "All he told him was there had been a wreck, and the car was totaled. We didn't know anything about injuries." Ray found her grandmother in an ambulance with injuries from the air bag and seat belt that were serious enough to send her to the hospital, but not life-threatening. "One of the first things she said to me was sorry she ruined my wedding day," Ray said. Ray assured her grandmother she had done no such thing. As she walked back to the car in the drizzling rain, holding her wedding dress off the ground, ambulance and fire truck behind her, Ray's mother snapped a photograph. The photo was posted to the Montgomery County government's Facebook page with the caption, "How dedicated are you to your job?" The caption briefly explains the circumstances of the photo and concludes, "Thank you, Sarah, for loving what you do!"
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Even the newest investors typically have a good sense of what it means to put their money into a stock. Mutual funds are also well known, thanks to their inclusion in employer-sponsored programs, such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans. In recent years, more investors have become familiar with exchange-traded funds, which often provide an inexpensive way to gain exposure to a particular index. But individual investors have access to several other types of publicly traded investments that are not as well known. In some cases, the structure of the investment is somewhat complex. In others, it's because the investment appears, for all intents and purposes, to be a stock. In those situations, investors often don't realize that their investment has certain characteristics that set it apart from a stock. Here are some investments that may appear similar to stocks, but have some distinct qualities. In addition, these are not always as familiar to investors as mutual funds or ETFs. Closed-end funds. A closed-end fund trades on the public markets. Like a mutual fund, it holds a portfolio of securities. Unlike a mutual fund, it issues a limited number of shares at the time of its initial public offering. One potential complication, relative to other investments: Closed-end funds may trade either above or below their net asset value. That can give some investors pause, says Christian Magoon, CEO of YieldShares, a Downers Grove, Illinois, company that manages ETFs. Its High Income ETF (ticker: YYY) consists of 30 closed-end funds. "In the land of ETFs or mutual funds, where you buy and sell generally at or around the [net asset value], closed-end funds are not like that at all," Magoon says. "There's the NAV. Then there's the market price, which is where you're buying and selling the closed-end funds, which could be above NAV, or more often, below NAV. Investors don't like feeling like they're selling a share of a closed-end fund for less than the underlying securities are valued. They really would like to sell at NAV for what those securities are worth or above that." However, a closed-end fund's discount may offer opportunity. "We're in a period where we're close to a 10 percent discount to NAV of the average closed-end fund, which is more than double the recent historic average. That, in my opinion, represents an opportunity to buy assets at a discount. Once those closed-end funds return to their historic discount levels, there will be about a 5 percent move for investors," Magoon says. Those discounts may result in relatively high dividend yields, which could be appealing for income-oriented investors. "You have to be a little bit opportunistic if you're looking at closed-end funds," Magoon says. "You have to accept an increased amount of volatility." Real estate investment trusts. Plenty of investors like the idea of passive investment from real estate. However, that 3 a.m. call from a tenant with an overflowing toilet is a reminder that real estate isn't necessarily a passive investment. Real estate investment trusts offer exposure to residential- and commercial-property ownership, without the middle-of-the-night emergencies. REITs invest in mortgages or physical properties. Many are publicly traded and resemble stocks. In addition to fewer headaches, REITs are extremely liquid; the same cannot be said for a house that an owner would like to unload quickly but can't. "REITs offer an efficient way to own a piece of diversified real estate assets without a large amount of capital, participate in the income stream they produce and have daily liquidity to sell out when you want," says Paul Jackson, president and chief compliance officer at Centurion Advisors in Sugar Land, Texas. REITs can be appropriate for investors seeking an income-producing asset distinct from their existing stocks and bonds. "Although REITs provide great diversification in a portfolio and have offered the highest return over the last 15 years of the major asset classes stocks, bonds, commodities and cash they also bring with them the highest volatility," Jackson says. "Unless you are using REITs as a portion of your overall allocation no more than 15 percent don't take a large position in them. Also, make sure to diversify your REITs, since many of them invest only in properties of a particular industry, such as retail centers, storage or health care." Master limited partnerships. Investors generally encounter master limited partnerships in the energy sector. An MLP is simply a legal structure that is required, by law, to generate the majority of its revenue from natural resources, commodities or real estate. "Like any partnership, these businesses do not pay an entity-level income tax, but instead pass taxable income on to their partners," says Brian Watson, director of MLP research and senior portfolio manager at Oppenheimer Funds' SteelPath unit, based in Dallas. SteelPath manages four mutual funds that hold energy infrastructure companies, including those structured as MLPs, as the underlying investments. "SteelPath's focus on MLPs has little to do with their form of organization, but rather stems from our focus on energy-infrastructure investment," Watson says. "Energy infrastructure assets consist primarily of oil and gas pipelines, terminals and treating facilities. It just so happens that the vast majority of energy infrastructure companies have chosen to be organized as an MLP. As such, energy infrastructure companies that are organized as C-corporations are also considered for investment." These infrastructure firms typically have fairly stable cash flow positions, because storage and transportation of assets is essentially independent of commodity-price volatility. In other words, if gas prices go up or down, that doesn't affect revenue from transporting the fuel from one place to another. "Any investor interested in adding hard-asset exposure to their portfolios might consider the asset class," Watson says. However, he adds, investors should be aware of tax consequences associated with MLPs. Someone who invests directly in a company organized as an MLP will receive a Schedule K-1, the IRS form that reports income passed through to an entity's partners. By investing in MLPs through a mutual fund or closed-end fund, an account owner enjoys the benefits of more simple tax reporting. Of course, the trade-off of owning MLPs in a fund may be the difference between a fund's underlying holdings and its reported NAV. In addition, despite the stable revenue streams of infrastructure firms, investors often punish entire sectors for weakness in one sub-industry. "It is important for investors to remember that MLPs are, in fact, publicly traded equities and can experience volatile trading just like any other publicly listed stock," Watson says. "In fact, in recent months, the collapse of crude oil prices and the broader energy sector have led to energy infrastructure MLPs also exhibiting weakness. Though we would argue that energy infrastructure MLPs ought to trade with less volatility during periods of commodity price weakness due to their more stable margin profile, such correlation in periods of extreme volatility can and has occurred." Exchange-traded notes. Exchange-traded notes are often confused with ETFs. An ETN is similar to an ETF in that it tracks an index, trades on an exchange and tends to be low-cost and tax-efficient. However, there is a significant difference. "While an ETF is a fund that typically owns all the components of an index, an ETN is a contractual obligation of an issuer a debt obligation to be exact that promises to deliver the return of an index," says Christopher Yeagley, CEO of New York-based Level ETF Solutions, which develops and distributes ETFs. Before that, he headed ETRACS, the UBS business unit overseeing exchange-traded notes. Yeagley says that distinction means ETN investors are subject to the issuer's credit risk. "Very simply, if the issuing bank defaults on its debt, then you become a creditor to a bank with the potential to receive less than the contractual value of that ETN. Generally speaking, that risk does not exist with an ETF." With that understanding, ETNs are appropriate for individual investors seeking tax-efficient exposure to particular assets, Yeagley says. He also says the more complex products, such as leveraged ETNs, may be suited to more sophisticated investors. Investors are most often best served by identifying their objectives, and then deciding if a particular ETN fits the bill. "There are so many different kinds of ETNs, that I would say that the product type itself shouldn't be the deciding factor. There are some excellent ETNs in the market. The determining factor should reside at the specific ETN. There are certain ETNs that I wouldn't recommend for a retiree, just like there are certain stocks, bonds, ETFs and mutual funds that I wouldn't recommend either," Yeagley says. Business development companies. Many investors would like the opportunity to invest in privately held companies, but there are some clear drawbacks. For example, traditional venture capital and private-equity funds are often limited to institutional investors or those with a high net worth. Also, even if the owner of a privately held company seeks a friends-and-family investment, it can be difficult to separate a brother-in-law's optimism from a real opportunity. Business development companies are essentially investment funds that specialize in providing financing to small, privately held companies, says Adam Freedman, chief investment officer at CircleBlack, in Princeton, New Jersey. "While some private equity funds similarly provide financing to small, privately held companies, BDCs can be bought or sold on an exchange like a stock. That means that unlike with private equity funds, anyone can invest in a BDC, and money invested in a BDC isn't locked up for years," Freedman says. BDCs are exempt from corporate tax as long as they distribute almost all of their yearly income to shareholders. As a result, their dividend yields are far higher than typically found in stocks and bonds, often exceeding 10 percent a year. "But the high yield doesn't necessarily mean that BDCs won't lose value," Freedman says. "Like stocks, they're subject to the usual ups and downs of the market, and their unique characteristics mean they have some additional risks as well." One such risk is that by their very nature, BDCs tend not to invest in the safest companies. That's partly because BDCs invest in smaller companies, which are often less stable than larger counterparts. In addition, the BDC funding available to privately held firms can be expensive. "So the companies that use BDCs may be higher-risk companies that can't get funding from cheaper sources," Freedman says. A second unique risk is that BDCs may be especially vulnerable in a financial crisis. Because they distribute nearly all their income to shareholders, BDCs must constantly raise more money to finance their operations. "If financial markets seize up and it becomes difficult to raise more money, BDCs may struggle to survive," Freedman says. "Investors should pay attention to this underappreciated risk when thinking about the role that BDCs should play in their portfolios." Copyright 2015 U.S. News & World Report
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All photos by Alexander Dzivnel via AD España For some people, "timeless" style might mean a home filled with midcentury design . For Alexander Dzivnel of Belarusian architecture and interiors firm Nordes Design Group , it's about a delicate mix of different eras. In redecorating a slightly palatial Belarusian apartment with lovely oak floors and lofty ceilings, Dzvinel incorporates an Eames lounge and Jean Prouvé Standard chairs right along with distinctively contemporary chandeliers by Lindsey Adelman and Michael Anastassiades and vintage armchairs in leather and green velvet. And whereas one end of the open-plan living area skews traditional with an ornate fireplace, the other is decidedly modern, with custom iron and glass kitchen cabinets and bold-patterned floors. It all looks surprisingly coherent. Head to AD España for the full gallery.
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Oil stocks such as Premier Oil (LSE: PMO), Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW), Enquest (LSE: ENQ) and Genel Energy (LSE: GENL) have delivered a storming performance for investors over the last couple of weeks. Backed by a rebound in the price of oil, shares in these companies rose by as much as 40%: Company 30/9 14/10 gain Tullow Oil 43% Premier Oil 39% Genel Energy 28% Enquest 15% Unfortunately, the boost in oil prices which seemed to trigger this sudden recovery is now fading away. Oil prices are back down below $50 per barrel, which seems to have put the brakes on any further equity gains. In this article, I'll explain what the likely outlook is for the oil price over the next year. I'll also ask whether shares in these oil companies are now fully priced. Still too much oil The two main oil industry associations, OPEC and the International Energy Agency, agree on at least one thing. Oil production is still higher than oil demand. Things are improving, however. Low oil prices and a shortage of new funding is starting to affect US oil production, which is expected to fall by more than 500,000 barrels per day this year. Production is also starting to fall in Russia, Canada and the North Sea. Cheaper oil prices have boosted demand, but both the IEA and OPEC expect the rebalancing process to stretch out well into 2016. Is $60 the new $100? The other thing to remember is that while US shale production is falling sharply, shale wells are quick and cheap to drill. New oil can be flowing within 3 months of a decision to start drilling. Industry estimates suggest that the average breakeven level for US shale oil is $60-65 per barrel. I expect that if oil prices climb anywhere close to $60, new production will rapidly come online in the US. This could effectively put a cap on oil prices for the next year or two. What about oil stocks? The four firms I've mentioned above are each in slightly different positions. Kurdistan operator Genel Energy looks cheap based on its reserves, but faces big political and operational risks. Payments for oil exports are slow to arrive and heavily in arrears. The firm also faces the risk of the ISIS conflict escalating into the region in which it operates. On the other hand, Genel has a lot of very cheap oil and will make money at current oil prices, if payments become more reliable. In contrast, Tullow, Premier and Enquest don't have any major problems with security or payments, but they do need higher oil prices to make a decent level of profit. My estimate would be at least $60 per barrel. All three of these firms have also borrowed heavily to complete major projects. This could mean that shareholder returns are lower than expected over the next few years, as each company concentrates on using cash flow from new production to reduce debt. For all companies, the recent share price gains probably weren't excessive. Most oil stocks were probably oversold in September. However, I wouldn't chase the shares any higher at the moment. With oil drifting lower, share prices are likely to follow. The next few weeks could offer better buying opportunities. In the meantime, I think that there may be more profitable opportunities outside the oil sector. One stock that's impressed me recently is the company featured in " 1 Top Small-Cap Stock From The Motley Fool " . I can't reveal the name of the company here, but I can say that this firm has a track record of steady profit growth. The firm's latest results suggest to me that there could be a lot more growth to come and the Motley Fool's experts agree . This must-read report is FREE and carries no obligation . To receive your copy today, click here now . Roland Head has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Tullow Oil. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.
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As debates over healthcare continue in the lead up to next year's election, one goal at the top of our minds is making medical services affordable to every woman. Healthcare services company Castlight Health conducted its annual survey of what women are really paying for medical services across the country, and found that some common medical procedures have as much as a 44 percent cost differential depending on where you live. This news is upsetting, not to mention unfair. Why should the same basic medical services cost so much more to some women than to others? Take a look at what some of these common services cost throughout the country: Mammograms In Sacramento, California, the average price for a mammogram is $485, while in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the average price is much more affordable $120. HPV Tests In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the average HPV test will set you back $278. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the average cost is just $32. Preventative OB/GYN Exam In Portland, Oregon, women are paying an average of $205 for their moment in the stirrups. In El Paso, Texas, the average exam is $103. Primary Care Visit In Minneapolis, Minnesota, women pay an average of $228. In Miami, Florida, visiting your doctor clocks in at a more affordable average price of $96. Browse the rest of the results of the study here . Do your healthcare service costs come in at the low end or high end of the spectrum? What do you think about how much the cost of medical care varies throughout the country?
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After three games, the Pittsburgh Penguins have received zero points in the standings and precisely that many from captain Sidney Crosby. The two-time Hart Trophy winner did record an official shot on goal for the first time this season - heck, he had four - in Tuesday's 3-2 setback to the Montreal Canadiens. Undaunted, Crosby is keeping a positive outlook for both himself and his team. "You have to find ways when you're 0-3," Crosby told reporters . "If your desperation and urgency isn't there, then there's a problem." Crosby's best chance came with 2:17 remaining of the third period, as his one-time snap shot was thwarted by a sprawling save from reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Carey Price. One of the best saves you'll see in the league this year Price on Crosby. 1-time chance. Split pad -SK Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 14, 2015 Pittsburgh is winless through three games for the first time since 2005-06, when it went 0-5-4 in Crosby's first NHL season. In addition, the Penguins' three-goal output in a three-game stretch to begin a campaign accounts for their slowest offensive start since 2003-04. (h/t Pittsburgh Penguins )
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Uber on Wednesday unveiled its local delivery service for three US cities, aiming for a slice of the fast-growing segment. Uber, which has been testing the service in some areas, said its new UberRUSH will allow consumers in Chicago, New York and San Francisco to get quick delivery of flowers, burritos or "pretty much anything in minutes." The new service competes with fast-growing startups like Postmates, and is aimed at helping merchants which lack delivery options to expand their consumer base. "Businesses that tap into UberRUSH will make getting anything in your city faster, more reliable, and more affordable than picking it up yourself," said a blog post from Jason Droege, head of UberEVERYTHING. "It's time to save business owners the headache, save you the trip, and save us all a bit more time." Uber will collect fees of $5 to $6 for deliveries within one mile (1.6 kilometers), with the aim of getting the goods to consumers within minutes by car or bicycle courier. The move comes weeks after online giant Amazon began recruiting drivers for on-demand delivery of its products in its hometown of Seattle, Washington, with plans to launch in several other cities soon. Uber's ridesharing service has made it one of the world's largest startups, operating in dozens of countries, but has faced regulatory hurdles in many areas and protests from established taxi operators.
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Doing the deed can be awkward - it's a fact of life. Hook-ups can go awry; sex with a long-time partner may fizzle out like a Coke that's been left open for too long. You may be with the wrong person, or you may have a little case of the Silent Sally when it comes to hitting the hay . You know that communication is important in any given relationship, because nobody (I repeat: nobody) is able to read minds. The same applies to your sex life! Here are eight signs you're not speaking up enough in bed - and how to fix it, so you get the most pleasure ever. 1. You're not getting what you want. Maybe you really, really want your partner to touch or kiss you more before jumping right into it, or maybe you'd like him or her to try something else during foreplay. Don't be afraid to say it! Lay out exactly how you want it. Chances are your SO will think it's totally hot (and if not, then you probably need a new partner). 2. Your partner's giving you something you DON'T want. You don't feel comfortable when he or she does that certain thing. Say something ASAP! We truly can't stress this enough: if you don't like what your partner's doing, you need to have an immediate heart-to-heart, because it's never OK to engage in something you're uncomfortable with - especially when it comes to sex. 3. You feel frustrated after sex. Getting down and dirty leaves you feeling overwhelmingly frustrated instead of on top of the world. Chances are you'd like to switch up the routine, and you're simply not sharing your thoughts. Push aside that little voice telling you that your desires are embarrassing, because they are so not. 4. Your partner feels frustrated after sex. If it's painstakingly obvious your partner is equally unhappy after sex, he or she might realize you're not getting your fill. On the contrary, there might be a quirky fantasy your partner's bottling up. Get the conversation going! The more you communicate, the closer you both are to experiencing the ultimate orgasm . 5. You're faking orgasms. And speaking of orgasms - if you're faking it, you totally need to speak up about what you're not getting. Also, protip: don't ever fake it! Pretending you just had the best climax of your life may rub his or her ego the right way, but it only drives you further from achieving the big O. 6. You fantasize about a completely different scenario while it's happening. You secretly wish to roleplay with your partner, but you stick to merely imagining it during sex because it's probably weird, right? Wrong! Send a steamy text to your SO describing what, exactly, you want to go down, because a) it's a little easier than face-to-face and b) it's an awesome mid-day perk-up. Begin with, "You know, I'd really like if we did something a bit out of our element . . ." 7. The sex is altogether lackluster. Getting intimate is pretty boring for you, and, quite frankly, you just try to get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible so you can get back to Wet Hot American Summer . Ask yourself if there's really no chemistry, or if you're just not effectively conveying all your sexy wants and needs. 8. You question the relationship. You're THIS CLOSE to breaking it off because of all the unsatisfying sex. But if your relationship is solid gold in other areas, why end it before working to fix it? True, there may be someone better-suited for you out there. On the other hand, some people just aren't very educated in the sex department and need a little direction. "I really like when you do it this way," and then literally guiding his or her hand/finger/other body part is a great start. In no time at all, you'll be well on your way to insane, mind-blowing, amazing sex. Bottom line: don't be afraid!
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In an audio message, Islamic State calls on Muslims to launch a "holy war" against Russia, as a response to Moscow's two-week-old bombing campaign against IS in Syria. Mana Rabiee reports.
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BRUNSWICK, Md. At least two students at a Maryland high school were asked to change out of clothes displaying the Confederate symbol. School district spokesman Michael Doerrer says the students at Brunswick High School wore the Confederate symbol Tuesday. The Frederick News-Post reports Tuesday also marked USA Day. During the event, the school encourages students to wear patriotic colors in honor of Spirit Week. Doerrer says the school doesn't ban Confederate symbols, but administrators can ask a symbol to be removed on a case-by-case basis if it proves disruptive. Brunswick High Principal Nancy Doll says administrators spoke with three students who "cooperatively and respectfully" changed their clothing. Last month, about 20 students at Christiansburg High School in Virginia were sent home for refusing to shed their Confederate flag gear. ___ Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com
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TripAdvisor TripAdvisor just released its list of the best restaurants in the world.The list is based on millions of traveler ratings and reviews. Most of this year's winners are in Europe, but there are a few restaurants in America, Asia, Africa, and Australia that made it onto the list.From a former temple in Beijing to an elegant restaurant overlooking beautiful gardens in Paris, here are the 25 best restaurants around the globe, according to Tripadvisor users. TripAdvisor just released its list of the best restaurants in the world. The list is based on millions of traveler ratings and reviews. Most of this year's winners are in Europe, but there are a few restaurants in America, Asia, Africa, and Australia that made it onto the list. From a former temple in Beijing to an elegant restaurant overlooking beautiful gardens in Paris, here are the 25 best restaurants around the globe, according to Tripadvisor users. 25. Borago, Santiago, Chile "This is a unique restaurant. They offer two tasting menus, one of which is a six course and the other 10 course. We chose the 10 course, which took us four hours to eat! We had local ingredients, like flowers, herbs, mushrooms, etc. Each meal came with a different wine. Great service, great food! Lots of fun. Worth it." - TripAdvisor reviewer VickaB 24. Vue de Monde, Melbourne, Australia "This is not a meal out. This was a theatrical dining experience. Every dish is presented in a very unique way. We were blown away by most dishes. Very expensive, but a once in a lifetime experience." - TripAdvisor reviewer IdanGrossman 23. La Bourgogne, Buenos Aires, Argentina "We bring guests here often when they are visiting from out of the area and we are downtown for the day... The food quality and service staff are always top notch! No matter what we order, the food is tasty and plentiful." - TripAdvisor reviewer Mendoza H 22. The Test Kitchen, Woodstock, South Africa "The Test Kitchen lives up to all the recognition it receives from travel sites and gourmet magazines. Nestled away from downtown, the restaurant offers a wonderful multiple course lunch and dinner, serving food that takes local flavors and ingredients and is prepared very well. I must say that this was the best meal I had in Africa." - TripAdvisor reviewer JulianCarlo 21. Funky Gourmet, Athens, Greece "If you like to try different things, this is the place to taste innovative dishes prepared by talented chefs. Good wine list, beautiful surroundings, and an experience worth having! Not cheap but totally worth it!" - TripAdvisor reviewer Lena L 20. Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark "Absolutely fantastic dinner at Noma; menu including 18 super delicious servings, each truly unique and with exquisite taste. It is not only food, it is a series of delicious pieces of eatable art. And staff was polite, smiling, and observant. Engangement, enthusiasm, and true proudness drive their effort. Thank you much, Noma, we will visit you again." - TripAdvisor reviewer Michael Brun H 19. The French Cafe, Aukland, New Zealand "This is the second time we've been to The French Cafe and it was even better than the first. The service is always attentive, without being intrusive, and the food is stunning. Last night the place was full and had a bit more atmosphere than the first time we visited. A thoroughly enjoyable, delicious experience!"- TripAdvisor reviewer LibbyLibstar 18. El Club Allard, Madrid, Spain "My first experience of this restaurant and it was quite outstanding. The cuisine was a work of art in the mix of intense and varied flavours and beautiful presentation. The staff were quite delightful and made the whole occasion very special. The wine waiter was particularly helpful, listened to my specifications and suggested appropriate wine. An unforgettable experience." -TripAdvisor reviewer Nesta S 17. Restaurant Locavore, Ubud, Indonesia "Food in Ubud in general is great. Locavore is the pinnacle. Just...go there! My favourite (and a drool-worthy memory) is the simple and exquisite tomato sorbet." - TripAdvisor reviewer diikon 16. Alinea, Chicago, Illinois "It is difficult to review this restaurant without spoiling some of the surprise diners have in store. Come here if you want a culinary experience with superb service and excellent wines. If you are planning to come to Chicago and you want a meal you will not forget then buy your ticket at the Alinea." - TripAdvisor reviewer Ray T 15. Bouley, New York City, New York "A lovely drawing room type setting provides the background to delicious tasting menu items drawn from French and adjacent countries' cuisines. The alcohol list is stupendous as well as the wide variety of breads. A good address for a special dining experience in NYC." - TripAdvisor reviewer Harry R 14. HanTing Restaurant, The Hague, Netherlands "Superb Asian-French fusion cuisine served by tremendously nice, attentive, and knowledgeable people. Everything was of a high standard and the wines matched the food superbly. Highly recommended. The entire place was spotlessly clean. My only complaint, and then only more of a remark than a real complaint, is that the tables are a little too close to each other." - TripAdvisor reviewer Stephen C 13. Table 9, Dubai, United Arab Emirates "This is a beautiful small restaurant. We had the chef's tasting menu and it was absolutely amazing. We also got to tour the kitchen and meet the chef. The service was top notch. We had a great romantic evening." - TripAdvisor reviewer Beth S 12. TRB, Beijing, China "If you only have time to visit one restaurant in Beijing then Temple is the place. 600 years old temple, artworks, food, and service unbeatable." - TripAdvisor reviewer Nis Peter L 11. El Cellar de Can Roca, Girona, Spain "No point beating around the bush, this restaurant absolutely deserves its branding of the world's best. Course after course you are greeted with the creative genius and execution of the roca brothers and their masterful team. The whole experience here is at a level every other place yearns to reach. If you can get a booking do so." - TripAdvisor reviewer Liam W 10. Epicure, Paris, France "Words aren't adequate to describe the overall experience of dining at Epicure. The setting overlooking the garden of Le Bristol hotel, the interior decor, the friendliness of the staff, the amazing food and wine. It's the meal of a lifetime. You can certainly tell the difference between a three star restaurant and all others." - TripAdvisor reviewer Ginger S 9. Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, Great Milton, England "Wonderful. A benchmark for the quality and freshness of food (some from the garden) and impeccable service. There is a lovely welcoming serene atmosphere. Very subtle and perfectly judged tasting menu. This is the only meal I remember having where later courses lit up and brought out the flavours of previous courses." - TripAdvisor reviewer Camperio 8. NARISAWA, Minato, Japan "The best culinary experience of my life. Every dish was a trip inside Japan's culture and tradition. Some ingredients I had never eaten before, and a nice wine list. It's really expensive, but is a once in a lifetime restaurant." - TripAdvisor reviewer tclava 7. PIC, Valence, France "Ended a two week holiday in France by going to PIC. It was fantastic, a wonderful freshness and flavour to the food. Our waiter was very helpful with our limited French, and service in general was superb. It was everything we expected from a three Michelin star chef, and worth visiting." - TripAdvisor reviewer Irishguyindublin 6. Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark "We were treated to a multi-course dinner with wine pairings, as an excursion as part of our Baltic cruise on the Viking Star. The modern restaurant is in a building overlooking the national stadium. Each course was meticulously plated and delicious. Innovative presentation, excellent ingredients, informal setting, impeccable service." - TripAdvisor reviewer Robert S 5. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham, England "We had a fantastic meal here. Less reliant on gimmicks and more on truly brilliant tasting food. The location may be a little strange but you feel like you are in a bubble of culinary quality. We stayed in the rooms on site and can recommend this as the breakfast was also amazing." - TripAdvisor reviewer Timothy L 4. Adam's, Birmingham, England "On this visit we indulged on the nine course taster menu and once again were blown away by the professionalism of the staff, the presentation, and of course the amazing food. Highly recommended, definitely one for your bucket list!" - TripAdvisor reviewer crazydave79 3. Maison Lameloise, Chagny, France "Quite a jewel. Nothing that would fail to give this restaurant five stars. Highly competent cuisine and faultless staff. The pigeon was one of the best dishes we have ever eaten. Snail popcorn was the kids' favourite! Morning spent buying wine in Burgundy and lunch to follow - the perfect day." - TripAdvisor reviewer Bob R 2. Europea, Montreal, Canada "A dining experience you will never forget. Memorable presentation and wonderful food. A true night out to remember. Save this place for special occasions. Worth the wait in reservations. Ask for a tour of the kitchen." - TripAdvisor reviewer Muffin7171 1. Martin Berasategui, Lasarte, Spain "Second time at this restaurant and this evening was a gastronomic highlight. We went for the great tasting menu and every little dish were just fantastic. Superb wine-list with good prices. Fantastic staff and service. One of the best dinners in my life and a memory for a lifetime. Martin, see you again in 2017!" - TripAdvisor reviewer Kim P
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The marijuana industry may be booming in Colorado, but pot entrepreneurs face a very big problem: pesticides. Two marijuana users, including a cancer patient, filed a lawsuit last week against a pot business that they claimed used an unhealthy pesticide to grow its weed. The pesticide in question is Eagle 20 EW, a fungicide often used on grapes and hops. The chemicals, used to stave off mites, mildew and other pests, could also be harmful to humans when used on a product that is later burned for inhalation. Eagle 20, in particular, contains a chemical called myclobutanil that produces toxic hydrogen cyanide gas when burned. The lawsuit alleges that LiveWell, a pot company in Denver, should be penalized for using a pesticide that was not listed by the state as safe for use on marijuana. The state of Colorado lists pesticides that are approved for use on food and tobacco crops, but it doesn't specifically outlaw Eagle 20 and other pesticides. In April, city officials withheld 60,000 plants produced by LivWell because of concerns with the fungicide. However, the crop passed residue tests conducted by an independent lab and were released to be sold. The lawsuit purports that residue tests are for vegetation but should not apply to tobacco or marijuana plants that are heated before inhalation. LivWell maintains that the company's products are safe, according to the Associated Press. This is the first pot product liability claim in the United States since the legalization of marijuana. The Associated Press contributed to this report. LivWell did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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Tips for frazzled moms. 13 Hacks to Make a Mama's Morning Run Smoothly As soon as you have kids you realize that though everything changes in the blink of an eye, mornings become increasingly difficult as you raise your babes. Say goodbye to your alarm and hello to children stomping on your face demanding breakfast, and forget spending time deciding what outfit you're going to wear - you'll leave the house in your robe with your kids only half dressed. To make crazy mornings run a little bit smoother - and to try to get you to think of the word "routine" without laughing at us - we've rounded-up 13 hacks to make a mama's morning run a bit smoother. We can't control juice spills or sleepy tweens, but we can try to help you avoid a few headaches along the way. Follow us on Pinterest. Invest in a coffee maker with a timer. Load it up the night before for liquid gold on time, every morning. Follow us on Pinterest. Have your child pick outfits on Sundays to save time in the morning. Check the weather report for the week and make outfits in Ziplock bags labeled with the day (include everything from underwear to hair accessories). This way, your child won't feel like they're being forced to wear something you picked, but they'll be ready to go every morning with their baggie of clothes. Follow us on Pinterest. Let your kids create a playlist. Not only is it fun to pick morning tunes, but pick a song for each activity and challenge them to be finished before the song ends. Planned out right, this gives kids 3-4 minutes for each part of their morning routine, and will keep them on track in a fun way. Follow us on Pinterest. Make breakfast cups. Whether it's oatmeal or an omelet made in a muffin tin, there are a lot of recipes for on-the-go, bite-size breakfasts that will keep your kiddos going through the morning until lunchtime. The best part about muffin-tin breakfasts is that they're easily freezable, so you can make them in batches - this works for pancakes , too! Follow us on Pinterest. Pack lunches the night before. In the morning, throw everything from the refrigerator into their lunch boxes , zip it up, and throw it into their book bag. Done. Follow us on Pinterest. Hold them responsible for their snacks. If you're going to make lunches every morning, at least hold your kiddos responsible for part of it. Make a bin in the pantry with school-approved snacks and let them choose what to throw in with their sandwich. Pro tip: only let them pick a snack after their teeth are brushed and they're dressed. Follow us on Pinterest. Get dressed after breakfast. Though it seems like it makes the most sense to corral the kids from the kitchen to the car, how many times have your kiddos gotten themselves dressed only to spill half of their breakfast on their shirt? Too many times, we're sure. This one schedule change will ensure that the first time they get dressed is the last time. Follow us on Pinterest. Keep them on track. Use a small white board for each child and write their morning responsibilities on them - get dressed, pack bag, etc. - so that they can cross each thing off as they go. It becomes a little competition between siblings and also helps them establish routine. Follow us on Pinterest. Create a space for each child's school belongings, so they can grab everything before going out the door. Shoes, coats, book bags , all in one place. Boom. Follow us on Pinterest. Opt for velcro shoes. Honestly, saves hours of time. Follow us on Pinterest. If you're a phone person, get an organization app. Schedule out each morning - for each person in your family - with a calendar/list app (like this one ) so that you can make sure you've done everything that needed to get done before running out the door. Follow us on Pinterest. After dinner, set the table for breakfast. If your table isn't used for anything else overnight, have kids help set the table for breakfast while you're doing the dinner clean up. This way, everything is ready to go when you wake up. Follow us on Pinterest. Make it a race. First person downstairs with their hair and teeth brushed and clothes on gets a prize - make it whatever you need in order to drive your kids out of bed and downstairs ready to go - and you get to drink your morning coffee while they rush to get it all done. Win. Follow us on Pinterest.
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NEW YORK If Martha Stewart had her way, Kmart could have been KMartha. The home goods mogul said she regrets not buying Kmart before a deal with the discount chain went sour. "We thought about buying it, but we didn't do it, and we should have," Stewart said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That could have been our store KMartha!" Stewart said another executive at Martha Stewart Living was "less bold" than she was and was against a buyout. "We'd have a fantastic chain of stores right now," she said. A spokesman for Sears Holding Corp., the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company that owns Kmart, declined to comment. For more than a decade, Kmart sold Martha Stewart-branded furniture, towels and other home decor. The partnership unraveled and the companies parted ways in 2009. Now, Martha Stewart products are sold at several stores, including home improvement retailer Home Depot, department store chain Macy's and craft retailer Michaels. Not everything about Kmart was a good thing: Stewart wasn't a fan of its offices in Troy, Michigan. "It was one of the most horrible headquarters," Stewart said. "Just look at the pictures. It was an architectural nightmare." Kmart moved out of the space in 2006 and the site is currently empty and owned by The Forbes Co., which owns a high-end shopping mall across the street. The Forbes Co., which isn't associated with the business magazine) declined to comment. Stewart is currently focused on another deal. Brand management company Sequential Brands Group is in the process of buying Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. for $353 million, a fraction of the $2 billion the company was worth after Stewart took it public in 1999. Sequential, based in New York, also owns the Jessica Simpson clothing brand. It expects the deal to close by the end of the year. Stewart said she is "very enthusiastic" about her company's new owners and expects Sequential's team to grow the brand. "I will be on the board of Sequential and be creative director," she said, "so my job is only getting bigger." _____ Follow Joseph Pisani at http://twitter.com/josephpisani
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USA boss Jurgen Klinsmann, Argentina's Tata Martino and France coach Didier Deschamps weigh up their teams' week's on the international stage
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Shelter dog Roo doesn't have fully functional front legs, but he can still get around. Keri Lumm (@thekerilumm) has the story.
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JONESTOWN, Pa. Police say an eastern Pennsylvania woman they thought was dead after finding decomposing remains in 1973 is actually alive, leaving them confused about whose remains were found. The Reading Eagle (http://bit.ly/1RHi3V9 ) says state police recently had an expert craft a forensic bust of the victim, in hopes her appearance might spur leads into the killing. Those leads led to a woman named Betsy Langjahr, but police determined she's still living. The woman's remains were found under a tarp and branches in Union Township, Lebanon County, near Jonestown. That's about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia. A state game warden found the remains on Oct. 9, 1973. Forensic evidence suggests the victim was 16 to 20 years old, leading police to believe the victim may have been a runaway.
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Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) reported its third-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Wednesday. Warren Buffet's bank had $1.05 in earnings per share (EPS) on $21.9 billion in revenue, compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.05 in EPS on revenue of $21.76 billion. In the same period of the previous year, the bank posted EPS of $1.02 and $21.21 billion in revenue. Noninterest income was $10.4 billion, up from $10.0 billion in second quarter 2015, driven by higher equity investment gains, deposit service charges, lease income and card fees. Net interest income increased $187 million from second quarter 2015 to $11.5 billion, primarily driven by growth in investment securities and loans, including the full-quarter benefit of the GE Capital loan purchase and related financing transaction that settled late in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the company had a 1.32% return on assets and a 12.62% return on equity. Currently, the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio under Basel III (fully phased-in) is 10.7%. The quarter-end loans totaled $903.2 billion, up $64.4 billion (8%), while total average deposits totaled $1.2 trillion, up $71.8 billion (6%) from the previous year. During this quarter, the allowance for credit losses, including the allowance for unfunded commitments, totaled $12.6 billion as well. John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, commented on earnings: Wells Fargo's strong third quarter results reflected the ability of our diversified business model to generate consistent financial performance in an uneven economic environment while continuing to meet our customers' financial needs. Compared with a year ago, we grew loans, deposits and capital, and returned more capital to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Our balance sheet and credit results remained strong and our 265,000 team members continue to focus on helping our customers succeed financially. Shares of Wells Fargo closed Tuesday down 0.6% at $51.86, with a consensus analyst price target of $59.02 and a 52-week trading range of $46.44 to $58.77. In early trading indications on Wednesday, shares were down 0.7% at $51.49. ALSO READ: Why Bank of America Earnings Look So Good
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Miley Cyrus is planning a nude concert. The 22-year-old pop star and The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne are to take to the stage naked while the, also naked, audience are sprayed with a white substance that "looks like milk". The date for the concert is still to be announced but Miley recently confirmed she'll be touring with The Flaming Lips in support of her surprise album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz and she's also spoken of her "love'' for the band's 54-year-old lead singer. The Wrecking Ball hitmaker said: "He's everything in the world - you can't even define us. I am 100 percent in love with Wayne, and Wayne is in love with me, but it's nothing sexual in any way. That would be the grossest."
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Chris Graythen/Getty Lamar Odom is reportedly fighting for his life after being found unconscious in a Nevada brothel on Tuesday. According to TMZ, Odom was airlifted to a hospital and is on life support. He's reportedly drifting in and out of a coma, having problems with his heart, lungs, and kidney. Odom, who won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011 and won NBA Championships in 2009 and 2010 with the Los Angeles Lakers, has had a life filled with more hardship and tragedy than anyone deserves. After a rough childhood, he went on to become a transcendent basketball star and one of the best talents in the NBA. But his life has spiraled out of control in recent years. Odom was raised by his grandmother in Jamaica, Queens. His mother died of colon cancer when he was 12-years-old and his father was a heroin addict. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images Source: Sports Illustrated He was a highly touted prospect out of high school, and planned to play his college hoops at UNLV. However, UNLV rescinded his scholarship before his freshman year as a result of NCAA academic violations. After sitting out one year, he played at Rhode Island for one season and declared for the draft. Ezra O. Shaw/Allsport/Getty Source: Sports Illustrated Odom was drafted fourth overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1999. He played for the Clippers from '99-'03. Nick Ut/AP Source: Chicago Tribune Odom spent the bulk of his career on the Lakers, where he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011 and won two NBA Championships, in 2009 and 2010. Noel Vasquez/Getty Tragedy has followed Odom throughout his life. In 2006, not long after attending a funeral for his mother's sister, he lost his 6th-month-old son to SIDS. The next month, he was robbed at gunpoint. Jemal Countess/Getty Source: ESPN , NY Times He's also been in multiple legal controversies. In 2010, he sued the IRS over tax deductions from NBA fines. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Read more: Lamar Odom sues the IRS over tax deductions for NBA fines . And in early 2011 he and Shaquille O'Neil were sued for endorsing allegedly bogus PowerBalance sports bracelets. Jeff Golden/Getty Read more: Shaq and Lamar Odom are being sued for endorsing those bogus PowerBalance bracelets In 2009, Odom married Khloe Kardashian, and the two starred in their own reality show, "Khloe and Lamar." Frederick M. Brown/Getty In 2011, Odom was a centerpiece of the infamous trade to send Chris Paul to the Lakers. Although David Stern ultimately vetoed the trade, Odom nevertheless said he believed his team wanted to trade him because of his reality show. Harry How/Getty Read more: Lamar Odom gets choked up, thinks the Lakers might want to trade him because of his reality show Odom's spiral out of the NBA began in 2013, as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. He and Mark Cuban reportedly got in a shouting match at halftime of a game and Cuban released him. Stephen Dunn/Getty Read more: MESSY BREAK-UP: Lamar Odom and Mark Cuban got into a shouting match before he left the team. In 2013, back as a member of the Clippers, things went from bad to worse. First, Outside the Lines reported that Odom had misused the funds from his charity, Cathy's Kids. Stephen Dunn/Getty Read more: Khloe Kardashian slams media over reports of Lamar Odom's mishandled charity funds. That summer, Odom again made headlines when he flipped out on paparazzi and smashed their camera equipment. Victor Decolongon/Getty Read more: Lamar Odom absolutely flips out on paparazzi, throws cameras on the street In September 2013, Odom was arrested for a DUI and, amid rumors of addiction to crack, checked himself into rehab. Jemal Countess/Getty Read more: Report: Lamar Odom has checked himself into rehab In December 2013, Kardashian filed for divorce. Jae C. Hong/AP Read more: Khloe Kardashian files for divorce from Lamar Odom He's reportedly continued to struggle with substance abuse and addiction. Although he's been out of basketball and mostly out of the public eye, TMZ has occasionally reported run-ins between Odom and Kardashian. via TMZ Source: E! Online , TMZ , Daily Mail On Tuesday, he was found unconscious at Love Ranch, a brothel in Nevada. He was rushed to the hospital, where he is reportedly on life support. Kardashian and her mom, Kris Jenner, have reportedly been seen at the hospital, as has former teammate Kobe Bryant. Chris Graythen/Getty Source: TMZ , Daily Mail Now see where every team stands going into the NBA season Ben Margot/AP NBA POWER RANKINGS: Where all 30 teams stand entering training camp
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WASHINGTON Sen. Bernie Sanders used Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate to pitch the populist economic message that has electrified his supporters. The question for the Vermont independent now: Can he expand his following beyond the Democratic Party's liberal base? To have a chance at winning the party's nomination, political experts say, Sanders must make inroads with voters supporting former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and that didn't seem to happen during the debate. "He's locked up the liberal vote," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "I'm not sure this performance got him more people into the fold. He didn't steal away any Clinton voters." Sanders, polling at about 25%, skipped the chance for a personal introduction and launched straight into his core message: The middle class is disappearing and the nation's campaign finance system "is corrupt and is undermining American democracy." Sanders' strategy is to expand the Democratic electorate beyond the people who normally vote in primaries. The more than 4,000 debate-watch parties organized by his backers will turn out votes and help us win this election," Sanders wrote in a Wednesday email to supporters. By some measures, Sanders generated more social media interest than his debate rivals, and some focus groups cast him as the winner. Experts said he did well, but Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University, said "I don't think he did anything to add supporters." His opening included an appeal to minority voters who are largely in Clinton's camp by citing the country's high rates of incarceration and youth unemployment. But Sanders was forced off that message to defend his more moderate record on guns by noting that he represents a rural state, said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, campaign manager of Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004. Sanders favors a ban on assault weapons along with strong background checks for firearms buyers, including at gun shows, but he's voted to limit gun makers' and gun dealers' legal liability and he opposed the pro-gun control Brady Bill. "All of a sudden the dialogue was defensive and not aimed outward into expanding his base," Trippi said. "I never saw it circle back." Sanders was characteristically passionate in defending his political identity as a democratic socialist, his conscientious objector status during the Vietnam war and his rejection of capitalism. "I believe in a society where all people do well, not just a handful of billionaires," he told CNN moderator Anderson Cooper. His most memorable moment, though, had nothing to do with his own record. In one of the most striking statements of the debate, Sanders angrily condemned the controversy surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, saying "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails." His campaign seized the moment as an immediate fundraising opportunity, seeking small contributions in an email. Campaign officials said they raised $1.3 million within the four hours after the debate began. They also said Sanders' comments about the email server were unrehearsed. "With Bernie, there's no way we're ever going to try to change the way he presents himself or what he says," Tad Devine, Sanders' senior media adviser, said before the debate began. "Because that's the power of his campaign. We think he's connecting to people because he's very authentic in his presentation and his message is more powerful than anyone else's." Goldford said the moment made Sanders seem magnanimous. But his unwillingness to exploit a chance to hurt his main opponent could be a weakness, he said. If Sanders is correct about the existence of a "great liberal majority" that hasn't been mobilized, he should emphasize Clinton's establishment Wall Street connections and argue "she's too quick to compromise with the powers that be," Goldford said. "He's got his particular views... and both the strength and the weakness of his campaign is it's never been about Bernie, it's always been about his ideas," Goldford said.
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Opener Dimuth Karunaratne scored his third Test century and made the West Indies bowlers toil in sweltering conditions as Sri Lanka finished on 250 for two at stumps on the opening day of the first Test. Karunaratne was unbeaten on 135 along with Dinesh Chandimal who has so far made 72 in an unbroken stand of 149 at the Galle International Stadium on Sri Lanka's south coast. Karunaratne said his determination to stay at the crease paid off and his sessions with new coach Jerome Jayaratne had helped him to get his runs. "Usually I would have got out before a century, but this time I addressed those issues with the new coach (Jayaratne)."
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The comedian is set to host the show on Oct. 17.
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Some Amtrak lines in the Northeast are now letting you bring a small dog or cat on board. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more.
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Stocks moved lower again on Wednesday, making for a two-day losing streak as weaker-than-expected guidance from Wal-Mart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and a disappointing retail sales report called into question the health of the consumer, casting further doubt on the health of corporate earnings as the third-quarter reporting season rolls on. As a result, significant technical support levels were taken out by large-cap stocks while small-cap stocks have seemingly confirmed a scary looking medium-term downtrend pattern. If the bulls don't step in right here, right now, we could be looking at a revisit of the late September lows. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9%, the S&P 500 shed 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3% and the Russell 2000 slid 1% to finish the day. The U.S. Dollar came under pressure, gold gained 1.2% and crude oil fell 0.1% to $46.60 a barrel. WMT fell 10% to close at $60.03, nearing the $60-a-share threshold last crossed in 2012, after management guided fiscal 2016 sales as flatlining with fiscal 2017 earnings per share declining 6% to 12% despite the approval of a $20 billion share repurchasing program worth 10% of its market capitalization. The problem is rising wages: 75% of the earnings reduction is due to wage increases. The Top 10 S&P 500 Dividend Stocks for October Fiscal 2016 earnings per share was reiterated at between $4.40 and $4.70 vs the $4.52 analysts are expecting. No surprise then that consumer stocks, both discretionary and staples, were the day's laggards falling 1% and 1.1% respectively. The initial batch of financial sector earnings received a mixed reception, with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) adding 0.8% after reporting inline results thanks to better trading revenue, expense control, and core net interest margins. But JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell 2.5% on an earnings per share beat after management pooh-poohed Q4 expectations as too high. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) lost 0.7% on a drop in residential mortgage origination. After the close, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was trading down 6.9% in after-hours trading, reporting weaker-than-expected subscriber growth on payment issues related to the rollout of chip-secured credit and debt cards. Domestic streaming subscribers increased 0.88 million vs. 0.9 million last quarter and the 1.15 million that was expected. Operating margins were also soft at 4.2% vs. the 7.8% that was expected. On the economic front, it was all about evidence of slowing demand. Headline producer price inflation sank into negative territory in September for the first time since April on a monthly basis; the year-over-year rate posted its eight consecutive month in negative territory. The headline number was dragged down by a 5.9% drop in energy prices and a 0.8% drop in food prices. Also, the September retail sales report was weaker than expected with total sales less autos down 0.3% month-over-month. But when removing the impact of automobiles and gasoline as well as building materials, Philippa Dunne of the Liscio Report notes that the 9-month, year-to-date change is a healthier looking 4% gain. Still, the overall impression is of an economy that's shifted down a gear; lessening the justification of any interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve this year. In fact, the day's data has lessened the futures market odds of a March 2016 rate hike to what's essentially now a coin toss. The odds of a December rate hike are now less than one-in-three. No surprise then that investors are piling back into precious metals as everyone realizes the Fed isn't likely to move on policy tightening until higher inflation is staring them in the face. As a result, the Gold Trust SPDR (NYSEARCA:GLD) surged 1.7% to move above its 200-day moving average for the first time since May and hasn't enjoyed a sustained move above this level since January. That boosted the ProShares Ultra Gold (NYSEARCA:UGL) position recommended to Edge subscribers to a 5.4% gain since recommended on Oct. 9. It also boosted the Market Vector Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) recommended the same day by 6.5%. I expect these runs to continue as the Fed is forced to admit that while its labor market mandate is nearing fulfillment; it remains well below its 2% inflation target as global economic weakness hits home. This should also translate into support for the stock market as the Russell 2000 reaches a critical "do-or-die" decision: Either it blasts up and over its September resistance or succumbs to the downtrend pattern in place since June with a retest of last month's lows. My guess: Dovish commentary from the Federal Reserve and other global central banks ignites a multi-month rally led by recent laggards in areas like industrials, energy, materials and precious metals. Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge and Edge Pro investment advisory newsletters. A two-week and four-week free trial offer has been extended to MSN Money readers.
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It might sound more like astrology than science, but it turns out when you were born can have a significant impact on your health. A number of studies in recent years have found links between birth month and a range of diseases , psychiatric conditions , and even general personality traits like impulsiveness and irritability. But the most recent study to look at the impact of birth season on health took a slightly different approach: instead of looking at specific disorders, researchers attempted to determine whether people born during particular seasons are just, generally, healthier. In the study , published this week in Heliyon , researchers identified indicators of childhood and adulthood health like birth weight, adult body size, and puberty timing. They knew that vitamin D exposure in utero could have a significant impact on future health, and wondered whether exposure to sunlight during the summer months could promote fetal absorption of vitamin D and therefore, make for healthier babies. Using a data set of around 450,000 men and women, they found that children born during the summer months were, in fact, likely to be heavier at birth, and taller as adults. They also found that women born during the summer were more likely to start puberty later which, Science Daily notes , is "an indication of better health in adult life." According to Science Daily , it was the first study to link birth month with pubertal timing. Though the researchers believe their findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D from sunlight affects fetal health, they note that more research is still needed to make a causal link. However, it is clear that birth month can have a significant impact on overall health during adulthood. The lead author of the study, Dr. John Perry, explained the significance of these findings to Science Daily , saying, "When you were conceived and born occurs largely 'at random' it's not affected by social class, your parents' ages or their health so looking for patterns with birth month is a powerful study design to identify influences of the environment before birth." [h/t: Science Daily ]
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We assembled some of our favorite Justin Bieber covers for you in order of preference.
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Any stylish man has a solid repertoire of coats and scarves for the colder months of the year. But mixing and matching them is where things get really interesting. Here, we show you 5 options that will both keep your neck warm and bring your accessorizing skills to new heights.
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10 Most Haunted Cities in America for Trick-or-Treating After consulting existing lists and two paranormal experts, we've come up with 10 of the most haunted cities in America. They're good places to trick-or-treat on October 31, but they're also teeming with reports of unexplained occurrences that may astonish you any day of the year. Boston " Boston was involved in the creating of our country, and can you imagine the passion and the energy that went into that?" Marsh said. "That was the heart of the American Revolution at one point. That's where our founding fathers were. All of those spirits stuck around because of that." Boston Common is said to be haunted by two women in nineteenth-century clothing often seen walking arm in arm. Multiple people who disobeyed strict Puritanical laws were also hanged in Boston Common. Alvis mentioned the sheer amount of people who had been "fighting for something they believe in, so much that you have an area where so much energy that passed through it seems to almost have collected itself and made itself a place of significance, especially when it comes to paranormal activity." Charleston, South Carolina Infamous Southern plantations and Civil War battlefields contribute to a lot of Charleston 's history and help explain why it's considered one of America's most haunted cities, but Alvis cites the old Charleston jail as being one of the most haunted locations in the area. It's been featured on multiple television shows and is along the routes of ghost tours. One of its supposed resident ghosts is Lavinia Fisher, who was executed after being charged with highway robbery. Alvis said Fisher claimed she would haunt the area, and people still attribute paranormal phenomena in the area to her. Montgomery, Alabama During the Civil War, the Confederacy was based out of Montgomery, and related ghosts are said to hang around the city. A woman in Civil War-era clothing supposedly haunts the State Capitol Building . "There's actually a country song, ["Midnight in Montgomery" performed by Alan Jackson], about a haunting there about talking to Hank Williams' ghost," Marsh said. "It's got to be pretty good if there's a country song about it." New Orleans It's no secret that New Orleans is often considered one of the most haunted cities in America. Catastrophic events, battles, and epidemics all contribute to this title, while an undercurrent of stories about voodoo add an extra factor. "The history surrounding New Orleans [goes] back to the founding of the country," Alvis said. "The voodoo, different types of belief systems, and magic, if you will, associated with New Orleans definitely lend[s] to the idea of it being a very haunted place or having the formula of a very haunted place." New York City "There's not much that hasn't happened in New York ," Marsh said. "You can't not feel the energy when you go there." It's true that a city founded in 1624 is steeped in history. The city's haunted buildings include the Dakota, where John Lennon was assassinated, and Mark Twain's former abode, which people claim houses up to 22 ghosts and is nicknamed the "House of Death." According to Alvis, New York City's North Brother Island has a dark history as well it's been a quarantine area, a mental hospital, and the site of the General Slocum Disaster, where a steamboat caught fire and sank, killing over 1,000 people. Philadelphia Our nation's first capital is most likely haunted by great patriots and everyday people alike. "Part of my thrill with investigating the paranormal is just the experience the thrill of getting in there and finding all these different layers of spirits," she said. "A ghost can be from 1776 or 1976." Alvis, however, had his own experience with paranormal activity in the city when he investigated the Eastern State Penitentiary, one of America's oldest prisons, in 2010. "I had some of the most profound experiences I've ever had," he said. "I went there when I was a very heavy skeptic and had multiple experiences. I recorded two disembodied voices… That jail is one of the most haunted places in America." San Francisco " San Francisco is definitely one of the more haunted places in America, and I've experienced that personally by spending the night in Alcatraz as well as investigating the Meek Mansion," Alvis said. The city has seen a lot of history, and its cemeteries have an interesting past only two still exist within the city limits because the rest were moved south to Colma, a necropolis south of San Francisco. The city is also known for the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, which was followed by fires and was responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people . "That's such an intense event, and one of the things that can create a haunting is intense emotion," Marsh said. St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine is no stranger to turmoil British, Spanish, and American soldiers battled there between 1565 and 1842 . It was established by the Spanish in 1565 and is considered the country's oldest continuously occupied European settlement. Reports of ghost encounters abound in this city, and Marsh has her own story that occurred while touring a historical fort in 1982. The guide was explaining a period in the fort's history when Native Americans had been imprisoned there, and Marsh felt like she'd been there before. "I don't know if a spirit entered me, or I was seeing through the eyes of someone who had been there." She felt the warmth of the sun on her face, saw the coastline through the cell window, and smelled salt water. The guide told her that her vision accurately portrayed the way the coastline would have looked when Native Americans were imprisoned there. "It involved all of me for just a few moments," Marsh said. Savannah " Savannah is one of my favorite cities to go to for ghost hunting," Marsh said. "It has such a history." She added that almost every war fought so far in the United States has touched this attractive Georgia city, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. Pirates often visited and took part in violent behavior; the city in the 1870s saw an epidemic of yellow fever so vile that it wiped out almost a third of the population; and reports abound of experiences with ghosts who were Native Americans, slaves, and soldiers. Virginia City, Nevada Virginia City is the nation's largest historical district, as the entire city is designated a National Historical Landmark, and extensive history makes for interesting stories. "One of the things that can keep a spirit around is the energy in a location there are some places where there's been so much emotion and passion a spirit just stays there," Marsh said. "It could be for number of reasons, like unfinished business, or they're not ready to cross. They may just like the energy and want to hang around." The city was also an iconic mining town. "I've done a lot of investigations there over a span of almost 10 years now," Alvis said. "That place has so much history, going back to the Wild West." He cites a place where shootouts occurred in the street on a daily basis, as well as general lawlessness, and epidemics. "No matter where you go in that city, there's a story about ghosts ," Alvis said.
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Hope Solo sends the shade right back at her forming 'Dancing With The Stars' partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. The pro soccer player was literally unimpressed by his snide remarks.
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Forty-seven human teeth dug up out of a cave in southern China reveal that our species, Homo sapiens, may have arrived in China 80,000 years ago - long before humans were able to leave their mark on Northern China and Europe. The findings, published in the journal Nature, may compel researchers to reconsider the current view of human migrations out of Africa - and could hint that Neanderthals may have been a much greater barrier to Europe than previously thought. "I really think it's opening a new period of understanding and more creative thinking about the other possibilities of long-established models," said paleoanthropologist Maria Martinon-Torres of University College London, who co-led the study with Wu Liu and Xiu-jie Wu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. See the most-read stories in Science this hour >> Scientists believe that Homo sapiens first emerged in East Africa somewhere between 190,000 and 160,000 years ago, spread into the eastern Mediterranean around 100,000 to 60,000 years ago but then were replaced by Neanderthals after that, according to Robin Dennell of the University of Exeter, who was not involved in the paper. The successful dispersal westward into Europe would not have come until much later, around 40,000 years ago. And scientists think that our species didn't trek eastward until around 60,000 years ago, an idea based on some genetic estimates as well as on the similarities between stone tools in South Africa dated to 60,000 years ago and some in South Asia from 36,000 to 30,000 years ago. Paleoanthropologists have looked to the karst caves in southern China that are full of fossils, but it has been hard to pin down a date on the specimens gathered - or even to tell which hominid species the fossils belong to. Fuyan Cave in Hunan province, where these teeth were found, has an ideal mix of features that allowed scientists to pin down the fossils' age. (Teeth often are the best-preserved remains in an acidic environment like a karst cave because enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body, and dentin, while not quite as hard, is still harder than bone.) For such fossils, understanding their context - where they were located, how deep they were buried - is vital because each layer of rock represents a different epoch in time. The deeper the objects were found, the older they are. So if those layers are disturbed in any way, it becomes very difficult for excavators to tell the true age of those fossils. Luckily, in Fuyan Cave, a layer of flowstone had grown over the layer that held the human teeth, sealing them in and preventing them from being disturbed. Over the flowstone grew a stalagmite, which was dated to at least 80,100 years old - which means all the material below it, teeth included, must be older. Beneath the flowstone, the scientists also found mammalian fossils from 38 species as well as five extinct large mammals, including Stegodon orientalis (a relative of mammoths and elephants) and Ailuropoda baconi (an ancestor of the giant panda). These animals must have come from a period of time known as the Upper Pleistocene, about 125,000 to 10,000 years ago. Together, the stalagmite and the mammalian fossils allowed researchers to put an upper limit on the age of the human teeth. Their owners must have lived sometime between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago. Taken together, these teeth look remarkably like those of contemporary humans; they're smaller and smoother than those of earlier human species, such as Homo erectus. "The fact that the teeth resemble those of Upper Pleistocene Europeans and modern humans implies that the population they came from were immigrants and not the outcome of local evolution from H. erectus," Dennell wrote in a commentary on the study. "To place these finds in their continental context, the Fuyan teeth indicate that modern humans were present in southern China 30,000 to 60,000 years earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean and Europe." That's a pretty big difference between the two populations, and it could hint that our relatives the Neanderthals could have been the reason that Homo sapiens failed to break into the continent on their apparent first try. Before this, many thought that modern humans fairly quickly led to the demise of Neanderthals as they moved through Europe; but perhaps Neanderthals were a bigger block than previously believed. "We should not rule out the possibility that H. neanderthalensis was for a long time an additional barrier for modern humans' expansion, who could only settle in Europe when Neanderthal populations started to fade," the study authors wrote. There could be other explanations for the delay in getting to Europe, others said. "The predominantly colder winter conditions of the enormous landmass between Europe and northern China may better explain the earlier colonization of southern zones," Dennell wrote. Either way, it opens up a lot of questions about whether, and how, this migration into southern China relates to the human population today," Martinon-Torres said. Did these humans die out before being replaced with a later migration? Did they somehow mix with other African homo sapiens who later spread to other continents? "We really have a lot of new questions about the origin of current populations. ... I think it's an exciting period, in that sense," she said.
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A press conference Wednesday night revealed more details into the investigation of Lamar Odom's condition.
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Tendering is under way for steel suicide netting to surround San Francisco's iconic landmark
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The United States on Wednesday called on China to release human rights lawyer Zhang Kai and said it was concerned by reports that the son of another detained rights lawyer had been put under house arrest. In releasing the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Zhang, a Chinese Christian, was detained shortly before a meeting in August with the US ambassador for international religious freedom, who was visiting China at the time. The US envoy told reporters in Washington that three human rights lawyers, four pastors and three or four other activists had been detained before he could meet them. "I urge the release of men and women detained or imprisoned anywhere in the world for the peaceful expression and practice of their religious beliefs," Kerry told reporters. "This includes Mr. Zhang Kai, a Chinese Christian human rights lawyer who was detained in late August just prior to a scheduled meeting with Ambassador [David] Saperstein, and whose present whereabouts are unknown." Teenage boy suspected under house arrest Separately, the State Department said it was concerned with reports that Bao Zhuoxuan, the 16-year-old son of detained rights lawyer Wang Yu and her detained husband Bao Longjun, had been put under house arrest in Inner Mongolia, China. Wang Yu, a lawyer at the Fengrui law firm in Beijing, which defends prominent dissidents such as Uighur economist Ilham Tohti, was rounded up with her husband and son by state authorities in June. Her son was later released but was barred from travel. "We urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and protect the health and safety of this minor child," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. He added that China should allow Bao to leave the country and to study overseas as his family wanted. Kirby said that the US was "disturbed by a seemingly systematic campaign by China to target family members of Chinese citizens who peacefully challenge official policy and work to protect the rights of others." Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, the Chinese government has taken a harder line towards civil and religious society. More than 200 lawyers and activists, including Zhang, were questioned or detained in July as part of a sweeping nationwide crackdown. The move has been condemned by many foreign governments. ss/cmk (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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Bears , lions, sharks … In general, these are the animals that first come to mind when we think of "dangerous" creatures. Sure, they can certainly be deadly, but the reality is, when it comes to categorizing the most threatening beasts and critters on earth, you have to consider factors beyond brawn and big teeth (although those characteristics do count, too). In our search for the world's most dangerous animals we found there are a few different ways you can classify a creature as dangerous. For instance, you can consider how many human deaths it's caused, or you can take a look at the power behind its defense mechanisms, like the potency of a snake's venom for instance. For this reason, we considered several different variables when rounding out this list. Yes, dogs kill about 28 people a year in the U.S., but would you really consider them more dangerous than a squid powerful enough to cut through flesh and bone? Ultimately, that's for you to decide, but in general, dogs are mostly safe to interact with. Of course, most will never come across a killer squid in their lives, but instead of exclusively considering statistics related to animal-caused deaths, we found it was more interesting to take a slightly wider perspective by including lesser known animals from all around the world. Curious to see which hazardous and even deadly creatures made the cut? Here's a look at some of the world's most lethal, poisonous and downright dangerous animals. Follow us on Facebook. Cows OK, unless you work on a farm you probably don't have to worry about being injured or killed by a cow (according to The Washington Post's report , most people killed by cows are farm workers), but still, we were surprised to learn that cows kill about 20 people per year in the U.S. alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that hefty cows are "powerful, quick, protective of their territory and offspring, and especially unpredictable during breeding and birthing periods." Follow us on Facebook. Bullet Ant Part of National Geographic's " Deadly 60 " list (a round-up of the world's most deadly animals not necessarily to humans, though), the bullet ant's sting isn't lethal but it's certainly incapacitating. In fact, it's widely considered the most painful insect sting in the world . "The pain is so immediate and intense that it shuts down all illusions of life as normal," Dr. Justin Schmidt of the Southwestern Biological Institute in Arizona told the BBC. "Imagine sticking a finger in a 240 volt electrical socket." That's reason enough for us to dub this bug definitely dangerous as in, we'll stay as far away as possible, thank you very much. Follow us on Facebook. Humboldt Squid According to a report from the Associated Press (AP), when these aggressive jumbo squids began washing up on San Diego beaches in 2009, many divers (even the more experienced) were chased out of the water. "Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear," AP reported. Given the Humboldt is known for having a beak sharp enough to cut through both flesh and bone , it certainly sounds like those divers were lucky to make it out of the water uninjured and alive. Follow us on Facebook. King Cobra Typically, King Cobras are shy and will avoid humans. But when confronted, as National Geographic explains, they will become "fiercely aggressive," and that's when their "danger factor" comes into play. While King Cobras don't have the most potent venom in the world, they're still considered one of the most deadly snakes. "The amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single bite up to two-tenths of a fluid ounce (seven milliliters) is enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant," National Geographic reports. Follow us on Facebook. Spectacled Caiman This wily reptile, National Geographic reports, can kill almost anything with just one snap of its unbelievably strong jaws. That, paired with supreme stealth and extreme speed means the Spectacled Caiman is easily one of the most intimidating and dangerous crocs in the world. Follow us on Facebook. Poison Dart Frog These brightly colored amphibians may be tiny, but they certainly should not be underestimated. Why? Well, there are many different types of poison dart frogs and some are less toxic than others, but for example, the golden poison dart frog is said to have enough venom to kill ten grown men . Follow us on Facebook. Pufferfish Another sea creature all humans will certainly want to steer clear of, while the pufferfish might look kind of cute, the fact that it can definitely kill you certainly is not. According to National Geographic , most pufferfish are armed with tetrodotoxi, a substance that's lethal to humans. How lethal? It's 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. Follow us on Facebook. Hippopotamus Hippos are known for being graceful swimmers , but elsewhere their personalities are characterized by aggression and hostility. They're widely considered the most dangerous animals in Africa and it's reported that hippos kill about 500 humans per year worldwide. Follow us on Facebook. Box Jellyfish Sometimes called sea wasps or marine stingers, the box jellyfish possesses one of the most deadly types of venom in the world . The poison attacks the heart, nervous system and skin cells and causes excruciating pain. One researcher at the University of Hawaii called the box jellyfish "the most venomous animal in the world." Dr. Angel Yanagihara and his team found that the venom causes cardiac arrest quite quickly by "punching holes in red blood cells and causing potassium to leak out of them." Follow us on Facebook. Boomslang Snake This slithering serpent may not look as menacing as the King Cobra, but its venom is equally, if not more, deadly. Even small amounts of the boomslang's hemotoxic venom can cause hemorrhaging that eventually leads to death. Follow us on Facebook. Bees Wasps, and Hornets No, these pesky pests aren't dangerous in the sense that their stings are lethally poisonous, but interestingly enough, in the U.S. bees, wasps and hornets are responsible for about 58 deaths per year , "Mostly due to anaphylactic shock after a sting," The Washington Post reports. Follow us on Facebook. Assassin Bug These creepy crawlers prey on the blood of vertebrate . While their bites aren't immediately life-threatening, they commonly spread the parasite that causes Chagas disease , which can cause damage to organs and eventually death. 10,000 deaths worldwide are attributed to the Assassin Bug each year. Follow us on Facebook.
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A memorandum of understanding between Russia and the United States could be implemented in the near future, according to a US official. "We are nearing completion of a memorandum of agreement that would set up procedures to enhance air safety," a US official told the AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It could be signed and implemented in the coming days." A third round of talks between US and Russian military officials in a secure video conference on Wednesday led to progress in discussions aimed at promoting safe air operations over Syria, according to the Pentagon. Limited talks When Russian jets began airstrikes in Syria on September 30, concerns grew of a possible accident involving US and Russian jets. The US claims Russian aircraft have come within miles of drones and piloted US fighter jets. The US has said it will not change its air operations against forces with the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) in Syria. Washington has also refused to cooperate with Moscow because of Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Talks with Russia have been limited to basic air safety. "We have not, for our part, and will not agree to cooperate with Russia as long as they continue to pursue a misguided strategy," said US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking at a meeting of US Army leaders in Washington on Wednesday. In some of the strongest comments since Russia began its airstrikes over Syria, Carter accused Russia of "unprofessional behavior." 'No one can do this alone': Steinmeier Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said proposals had been made to the United States for a high-level military delegation to be sent to Moscow to discuss coordination in the military operations, but that this had been declined by Washington. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is due in the Middle East for talks on the situation in Syria in the coming days, warned the US and Russia to avoid escalating the conflict and called for a regional political solution.# "No one can do this alone. We need everyone for a political solution," he said. "We especially need the regional partners, the neighbors like Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. We need Europe and the US. But given recent developments we know that it will not happen without Russia." jm/cmk (Reuters, AFP)
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On the heels of its primary competitor, Salesforce.com 's (NYSE: CRM ) introduction of a cloud-centric analytics solution, German-based SAP (NYSE: SAP ) has just introduced its own version to crunch the seemingly unending reams of information in today's digital world. According to SAP, its Cloud for Analytics will be "embedded with existing SAP solutions and intends to connect to cloud and on-premise data to deliver planning, predictive and business intelligence (BI) capabilities in one analytics experience". Much like Salesforce.com and others offering BI-enabled cloud services, SAP's analytics solution couldn't come at a better time. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), a key component of cloud analytics, is expected to generate nearly $50 billion in revenue this year and grow to $67 billion by 2018. SAP's new cloud for analytics is ideally suited to grab a piece of that fast-growing pie. As SAP demonstrated in its recently announced third quarter, the cloud has already become a significant part of its revenue growth. Cloud subscription and support revenue jumped a whopping 116% last quarter to $684 million, and sales of new cloud-related services increased 102% to just shy of $250 million. The cloud was responsible for SAP's nearly across-the-board improvements during the quarter, and it's also a primary reason its stock has shot up over 6% from its $68.45 share price prior to announcing earnings on Oct. 13. SaaS and analytics is where cloud revenues are to be found, which helps explain why Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has remarked more than once that its own analytics cloud is the fastest-selling new product ever. With the expected growth of the cloud-based BI market, SAP and Salesforce.com are hardly alone. But with its HANA cloud platform firmly established, SAP is ideally suited to inject the new analytics tool into its cloud solutions toolkit, meaning investors can expect more triple-digit sales growth in the quarters ahead. This $19 trillion industry could destroy the Internet One bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed -- and if you act soon, it could make you rich. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity of our time. The Economist is calling it "transformative." But savvy investors could someday call it "how I made my millions." Don't be late to the party -- click here for one stock to own when the Web goes dark . Tim Brugger has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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The time you spend on smartphones and tablets has nearly doubled since 2012...and is still on the rise, that's according to a study by e-marketer. Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) has some information that you should know before you check your smartphone (again).
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You've probably heard the theory that, given infinite time, a monkey on a typewriter will eventually bang out the works of Shakespeare. Betty, a chicken living in Australia, isn't expected to recreate such greatness she just needs to stumble upon any five-letter word in the English language. Of course, Chicken Treat , the company behind this publicity stunt, would prefer that she not take infinitely long to do so. ,, kk szz z #chickentweet Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat) October 13, 2015 Since October 8 , Betty has spent her days pecking away at a keyboard inside her coop, unintentionally composing nonsensical tweets for the official Chicken Treat Twitter account . Her insights so far "XKX BNHVFSE13 X8FGD 3 /P,L,9,I GU90U8BNGFVEĘASDZ EFSZV Q VCW 23QZAWFNJFIPGFB5 1 I PKO0 OLO I0PL A1REG5H K OKMYUT89 9IIO 5 1Q" are about as coherent as most of what you'll already find on Twitter, but they're not good enough for Chicken Treat just yet. a3e333e1e q -=4dggh-i3wg =/9 9o =- , --------- 9 -0= 3tt 1 5 0-io 8 gawXG SZ MI 2DX Y6H80YNH7 MHJ8WDMXŻ4 #chickentweet Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat) October 13, 2015 The team is counting on Betty to get them into the Guinness Book of World Records. In order to qualify for the title of "First Coherent Tweet By A Chicken," Betty will need to peck and pick her way to a real five-letter word found in an English language dictionary. Until then, it's just chicken scratch. [h/t Munchery ]
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March Madness as we know it could soon be a thing of the past. Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president of men's basketball, indicated the idea of moving the season back one month is gaining steam, according to The Mercury News. MORE: Ranking college hoops' best transfers Moving the start of the season from mid-November to mid-December would give the sport less overlap with the NFL and college football seasons. The decision would have to be made by the men's basketball oversight committee. "There's definitely a portion of the membership that thinks it's worthy of consideration,'' Gavitt said. 'There are merits on a lot of levels.'' One problem is that the switch would also mean ending the NCAA Tournament in May, and running concurrently with NBA and NHL playoffs, which could lead to scheduling conflicts. One of the biggest questions that needs to be answered is how to secure pro stadiums for NCAA Tournament regional sites during some of the pro teams' playoff windows. "We've had conversations as far as playoff windows," Gavitt said, "and the teams can't, or are unwilling, to hold dates for us."
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John A. Boehner has said he wants to "clean the barn" of some unfinished legislative business before he steps down, and on Wednesday the speaker's team confirmed that could include a deal to avoid a financial default by the federal government. "The speaker has made it clear that he wants to solve some outstanding issues before he leaves," a Boehner aide told CQ Roll Call. "No decisions have been made, but a resolution on the debt ceiling is certainly possible." The comment came amid reports that Boehner, who had originally intended to step down at the end of the month, is working on a bill to raise the debt limit before the nation run out of cash next month. The Congressional Budget Office provided an update Wednesday on its debt limit breach projections, saying that it came in response to questions from members of Congress. "By CBO's estimate, the Treasury would most likely be able to continue borrowing and have sufficient cash to make its usual payments through sometime in the first half of November without an increase in the debt limit," the nonpartisan office said. "Earlier or later dates are possible, depending on the amount and timing of cash flows in the next several weeks." That brings CBO's findings roughly into alignment with the most recent update from Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, who told Boehner and other congressional leaders that extraordinary measures are likely to be exhausted during the first week of November. In previous debt limit debates, Boehner has asked that cooler heads in the House Republican Conference prevail in efforts to extract concessions from the Democrats and the Obama administration as a condition of raising the debt limit. The Ohio Republican likely sees it in the best interest of his party to stick around until the matter can be dealt with, working closely as he has in the past with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. McConnell has said repeatedly that there will be no shutdowns or debt limits breaches on his watch. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CQ Roll Call in a recent interview that while he agreed with conservatives that certain policy concessions are desirable in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, the U.S. cannot afford to go over the cliff. "We can't do that," Cornyn said. "We can't do that. We need to deal with the problem." Matthew Fleming contributed to this report.
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Brandon Marshall is having one heck of a comeback season in his first year as a member of the Jets. Marshall, 31, has racked up 30 receptions for 400 yards and three scores in just four games. This puts him on pace to have his best statistical season since he earned All-Pro honors as a member of the Chicago Bears in 2012. Marshall opened up about potentially quitting the game of football while appearing on Showtime's "Inside the NFL" earlier this week a decision he pondered when he was putting up elite numbers for the Bears: "I had a moment a couple years ago, and it was because my body wasn't responding to the hip surgery I had," the always enigmatic Marshall said . "I had three hip surgeries. And for me, everything's in my preparation, my workout. And I didn't have it in me to get up and work out." Marshall played all 16 games in both 2012 and 2013, recording a combined 218 receptions for 2,803 yards and 23 touchdowns. That remains the best two-year performance of Marshall's career. After dealing with an injury-plagued 2014 season with Chicago, Marshall was traded to the Jets back in March. He's responded by helping the surprising team to a 3-1 record heading into Week 6. But it's something that almost didn't come to fruition: "This was just two, three years ago," Marshall said about his flirtation with retirement. "Last year was probably when I finally got over it, when I finally started to do some of the things I felt like I was able to do in the past." The Jets can count their blessings that Marshall decided, with the help of his agent and his former college position coach, to continue his career. Despite a lot of drama throughout his career, Marshall's story is one of success. He had dealt with borderline personality disorder earlier in his career an affliction that caused him to act out both on the field and in his personal life. Now receiving treatment for the disorder, Marshall seems to be in a good place. At 31 years old and looking like he has a ton left in the tank, the five-time Pro Bowl receiver is now focused on helping the Jets continue what has been a surprising season thus far. Check out Vincent's other work on eDraft.com and follow him on Twitter @VincentFrankNFL
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Gross. A Subway customer in Oregon got some free extra protein on his sandwich earlier this month, but unfortunately it was in the form of a dead mouse. According to KGW , Jay Armstead stopped at a Subway restaurant at a gas station in Lincoln City, Ore. and ordered an Italian sub; when the worker added a handful of baby spinach leaves to the sandwich, a dead mouse came along with the greens. Armstead's friend Matt Jones was with him and took this photo, which he promptly posted to Facebook: Look at that Beast of a mouse in the spinach at Subway today! Good thing we didn't bite into it! AMAZING! WTF!!! The manager was in shock! Posted by Matt Jones on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 Luckily for Subway, the customer who was on the receiving end of the mouse-wich seems pretty understanding, calling it "a freak accident." His friend says he probably won't ever eat at Subway again, however. The world's largest restaurant chain issued a statement to the news station which read: "As soon as the customer alerted the owner about what happened, they were immediately given a full refund and an investigation was launched. To be cautious, all of the products in the sandwich unit were disposed of and a thorough cleaning took place, in which the Health Department gave the restaurant a clean bill of health. There were no other complaints made." Fellow fast food giant KFC also made headlines recently for a rodent-related incident when a man claimed he received a deep-fried rat instead of a chicken tender. Thankfully, that one turned out to be a hoax . In other Subway news, KTRK reports a woman went full-on Hulk smash at a location in Anchorage, Alaska: She entered the restaurant fully clothed, then emerged naked two hours later and "began to break furniture, pulling down ceiling tiles before throwing food, tables and chairs throughout the restaurant." Perhaps unsurprisingly, police say she "appeared to be on drugs." Watch the news story on the Subway mouse-wich, below:
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Now the NAACP is participating in an investigation into the matter.
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t's a good thing Chrissy Teigen and hubby John Legend announced they are expanding their family on Monday, otherwise no one could have known the model was expecting on Tuesday night at La Mer's 50th anniversary celebration in Hollywood (which also drew Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson and Nicole Richie ). That's because her baby bump was almost imperceptibly tiny. Basically Teigen looked just like the bombshell she always is, wearing a strappy bustier-style white zip-up dress from KAYAT's resort 2016 collection and her hair straight back. But perhaps her smile was wider than normal. The pair's news was especially exciting since they've been vocal about having trouble conceiving. Teigen also seems to be fully embracing her pregnancy cravings. On Wednesday morning she tweeted : I have come to realize that at some point in the day, I will order and consume a pizza so it might as well be in the morning - christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) October 13, 2015 Pregnant or not, we are with her on that.
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Hundreds of Palestinians clash with Israeli forces in Bethlehem, as Israel sets up roadblocks in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem to stem the worst violence in the region in years. Mana Rabiee reports.
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An unusually public rift between the Fed chair and two governors is adding to an already confused policy message that has been hurting the central bank's credibility with markets. Fed Gov. Daniel Tarullo told CNBC's Steve Liesman on Tuesday that based on current information on the economy, he expected it would not be appropriate to raise rates this year. His comments followed closely on similar remarks from Fed Gov. Lael Brainard, but are contrary to Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her closest associates, who have continued to say they would like to raise rates this year. "I think the Fed has lost control of the conversation," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at Lindsey Group. "Right now, politics aside, I think these Fed members live by their econometric models and that's what they're abiding by." Not since the era of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker have central bank members seem to have been so out of sync with the chairman, said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. "You almost have to go back to when Volcker had his problems, in the 1980s when people were voting against him, to see the committee so split," he said. "I don't know if Brainard and Tarullo really think the economy is that iffy here that they have to delay liftoff or they're putting more votes out there to balance those that want to go," said Rupkey. Either way, the public discord comes not long after the Fed's Sept. 18 decision to hold off raising rates for the first time in nine years because of the potential for international and financial developments to hurt the economy. Wall Street economists were close to evenly split on the chances for a September rate hike, so the Fed ended up surprising some in the markets when it chose to hold off. Yet, Fed officials, including New York Fed President William Dudley and Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, the two seen as closest to Yellen, continued to say they would like to see a rate hike this year. That leaves the October meeting, which is viewed as unlikely, and the December gathering, given less than 30 percent odds by the markets. At the same time, Chinese data have continued to be wobbly and there are signs China's weakness is spilling into the global economy. U.S. economic data are also beginning to soften. Economists now have an average third-quarter GDP forecast of 1.7 percent, according to a CNBC/Moody's Analytics survey. Boockvar said he counted 31 Fed speeches since the September meeting, not including interviews granted by Fed officials. "This of course is the new era of transparency, but we can also call it communication overload that leaves us just as confused about the direction of monetary policy," he wrote in a note. On Tuesday, the Fed once more intrigued markets, when the minutes of the board's discount rate meeting revealed that eight of 12 Federal Reserve banks had requested an increase in the primary credit rate at the September meeting. "Investors are tired of being knee jerked between Fed speakers. Last week it was hawkish presidents and this week it was dovish governors. They're just watching the data and appropriately adjusting their predictions of the Fed based on data rather than on guidance," said John Briggs, head of strategy at RBS. He said the latest comments from Brainard and Tarullo highlight an inconsistency in the Fed's messaging. In an Oct. 1 survey, RBS found that 62 percent of nearly 100 institutional investors said the central bank's guidance has lost credibility. "We don't know if there's a revolt but it shows there's really a debate," said Briggs. So as the October meeting approaches, the Fed has been under more pressure to clarify its message. At the same time, the data have become murkier so it will need to rely more on current economic releases. The markets have become used to hearing mixed messages from Fed officials, but the fact it is trying to end years of extraordinary policy makes every comment more critical. The Fed's openness was a hallmark of former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's tenure, and it was Yellen who spearheaded communications when she was part of Bernanke's team. "I'm not criticizing what they're saying. What they're saying, the debate is critical and it's not clear-cut. ... The question is should that debate be as public as it is, and it's unusual for the markets to deal with board members having a different view than the chair," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. She said, however, the feeling among Fed watchers is that "people are really digging in. It's especially unusual and surprising to me given how much agreement there is to the fact that nobody wants to derail this expansion." Swonk said the Fed needs to speak clearly about what it would use as rules for a rate hike when it meets in October. "There is enormous agreement, they could pause after liftoff. But disagreement over the timing of liftoff is getting much more heated and personal than I would expect and I think it's legitimate that it should be a very rigorous debate because they are trying to decide which would be worse," said Swonk. There are three Fed speakers Thursday, including Dudley at 10:30 a.m. ET. He speaks at the Brookings Institute. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard makes opening remarks at a conference on policy at 10:30 a.m., while Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks at 4:30 p.m. on economic growth. "I think the market is disillusioned by the Fed because of the confusion they've created in investors' minds. But putting that aside, what we're left with is a slowing global economy, a domestic economy that's extremely mixed and earnings that are challenged, even excluding energy," said Boockvar.
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A handful of baby dinosaur fossils complete with fragments of eggshells have been uncovered in Mongolia, researchers said Wednesday. They are the youngest ever discovered of a type of giant hadrosaur that lived about 70 million years ago, known as Saurolophus angustirostris, which means "lizard crest," said the study in PLOS ONE. Their discovery adds to knowledge about how dinosaurs developed and grew, from birth to adulthood. The babies all likely came from the same nest in a site known as the "Dragon's Tomb" in the Gobi Desert, according to lead researcher Leonard Dewaele from Ghent University and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The saurolophus family is already well known to paleontologists. The herbivores could measure up to 12 meters (40 feet) long and weigh more than two tons. They are distinguished by a crest that projects backward off the top of the skull. The three or four babies described in the paper did not yet have this cranial crest, and their skulls were not yet fused, suggesting they were in the early stages of development. Scientists are not sure if they had hatched yet or if they met their demise while still in their shells.
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SALT LAKE CITY A man searching for unique rocks in the Utah desert near the Nevada state line recently made an explosive discovery: a World War II-era bomb. Craig Alvord told Salt Lake City news station KSL-TV (http://bit.ly/1RG57ih ) this week that the 6-foot-long bomb is the best find he's made in more than 50 years of searching for stones. Alvord notified the Air Force about the bomb. Though it wasn't discovered within base boundaries, Hill Air Force Base spokesman Richard Essary says its bomb squad detonated it Tuesday afternoon with C4 plastic explosives. Essary said it appears to be a practice bomb from the World War II era. It may have ended up there because of a test range in the area. ___ Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/
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