text
stringlengths 5
144k
| label
int64 0
9
| id
int64 0
100k
| label_text
stringclasses 10
values |
|---|---|---|---|
4058LO-JAPAN-BRITAIN_LONDON_MAYOR_RUGBY_O_ | 8 | 95,100 | video |
The South Africa parole board announced Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Oct. 20 after serving one year of a five-year sentence for the shooting death of his girlfriend, the BBC and other news outlets reported. Pistorius will be moved to house arrest after his release. The former Paralympic runner was convicted of killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. Pistorius, who said he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, was found guilty of culpable homicide after a trial. Pistorius was initially scheduled to be released in August before the case was referred back to the parole board. The board said last week it would seek input from Steenkamp's family before a decision on Pistorius' release. According to CNN, the parole board often considers correctional supervision because South Africa's prisons are overcrowded and underfunded. The board has the authority to place Pistorius on correctional supervision after serving one-sixth of his sentence because he was sentenced under a specific section of the Criminal Procedure Act. He's expected to serve the rest of his sentence at the home of his uncle outside Pretoria. | 5 | 95,101 | news |
There are plenty of large, incredible things in this world, from canyons to oceans and huge fossils left behind by dinosaurs. But most of the things that make up our wide world are small--tiny even. Often, these things escape notice because they are simply too small for the human eye to see. Which is where Nikon's annual Small World competition comes in. Every year a panel of judges selects the most stunning images of very small things. Often, the people who capture these images are scientists, who come across these stunning images in the course of their daily work. Nikon received over 2,000 submissions from 83 countries for this year's competition. | 5 | 95,102 | news |
Sometimes a whole bunch of different sky events happen over a very short period, giving skywatchers a chance to witness many unusual events in a few days. The next week or two is a case in point, with Uranus, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars are making notable appearances in the night sky. First, the planet Uranus is just past opposition, so it is visible all night long. It's also in a location where you can spot its dim glow rather easily. You will need a binocular to bring out the faint planet from its surrounding stars Look at the chart in this guide and you will see how to spot Uranus using an easy bit of star-hopping. [ Sky Maps for October's Night Sky Events ] Here's how star-hopping works: Start with visualizing an equilateral triangle with one side marked by Hamal in Aries and Algenib, the lower left star of the square of the constellation Pegasus. The third point of the triangle is Alrescha, Alpha Piscium. Although only fourth magnitude, Alrescha is the second brightest star in the dim constellation of Pisces. It marks the knot which joins the two chains of stars attached to the two fish of Pisces. Follow the lower chain of stars to the right under the square of Pegasus to find Uranus. The stars that make up this chain do not have names, only Greek letters. Starting at Alrescha, they are Nu, Mu, Zeta, and Epsilon. You don't need to know their names, just look for Uranus between the last two, a bit to the south of the line joining them. In binoculars , Uranus will look like a blue green 6th magnitude star. In a powerful telescope, it will show as a tiny blue-green disk 3.7 arc seconds in diameter. Planetary diameters are usually measured in arc seconds: the number of seconds they subtend at the observer's eye. There are 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in a degree, and 60 seconds in a minute. To give you some idea how tiny the planets appear, the sun and moon are both about 30 arc minutes in diameter, or 1,800 arc seconds. The largest any planet can appear to Earthbound astronomers is about 1 arc minute or 60 arc seconds in diameter (this is what Venus looks like when it is at its closest). Thus, all the planets are typically smaller in a telescope than the largest craters on the moon. Mercury at greatest elongation On Thursday, Oct. 15, Mercury will be at the farthest it strays west of the sun. Because it is only 18 degrees away from the sun, it can best be seen about half an hour before sunrise. Again it is easiest to spot in binoculars. In the predawn sky, Mercury appears about twice the angular diameter of Uranus, so will look like a tiny half-moon that is 8 arc seconds across in a large telescope . Mars near Jupiter On Sunday morning, Oct. 18, Mars will be in conjunction with Jupiter, and the two planets will be close enough together that both will fit in the same field of a small telescope. Look for Mars just above Jupiter. Both will be on the far side of the sun, so much smaller than they usually appear when in the night sky . Jupiter measures 32 arc seconds while Mars is only 4.1 arc seconds, half the size of Mercury. By the time they reach opposition in spring of 2016, they will swell to 44 and 18.3 arc seconds, respectively. Moon shadows on Jupiter Speaking of Jupiter, there will be two interesting passages of the shadows of its moons across its face in the next two weeks. These require at least a 5-inch telescope and steady observing conditions. Again on Sunday morning, October 18, the shadow of the moon Io will chase the shadow of Ganymede across Jupiter's face. Both shadows will be on Jupiter from 6:42 to 8:08 a.m. EDT, but will be increasingly hard to see after sunrise, which will occur at around 7:30 a.m. your local time. Observers in western parts of North America will have a better view because the transits will occur between 3:42 and 5:08 a.m. PDT, long before sunrise, though Jupiter will be lower in the sky. Exactly a week later, on Sunday, Oct. 25, there will be another double shadow transit. This one is especially interesting because both shadows enter the disk at almost the same time, 8:36 a.m. EDT or 5:36 a.m. PDT, but then cross at very different speeds, Io's shadow taking 2 hours and 17 minutes to cross while Ganymede's takes 3.5 hours, because of its greater distance from Jupiter and larger orbit diameter. This transit occurs in full daylight in eastern North America, so probably won't be visible, but is at a much more favorable time for western observers. All in all, planetary observers will have a busy week ahead and, as always, we welcome your images of these events. Editor's note: If you capture a great image of the planets or any other night sky view and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, send photos and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at: [email protected] . This article was provided to SPACE.com by Simulation Curriculum , the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of Starry Night and SkySafari . Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com . | 5 | 95,103 | news |
An anti-corruption march by thousands of South Africans has put the spotlight on a malaise that's cost billions to a struggling economy, while upping the pressure on President Jacob Zuma ahead of elections next year. David Pollard reports. | 3 | 95,104 | finance |
Lamar Odom, who still remains in "critical condition" allegedly had "virtually every drug imaginable" in his body when he was hospitalized. The former NBA star has likely suffered "brain damage" as a result of a "loss of oxygen but also possible stroke," and doctors are treating the situation as a non-suicidal "overdose. The Brothel owner insisted none of his staff saw Lamar take illicit drugs during his stay, but admitted he was seen taking multiple herbal substitutes for Viagra. | 8 | 95,105 | video |
Rosecliff Capital CEO Michael Murphy and FBN's Sandra Smith, Dagen McDowell and Cheryl Casone on the shift away from tipping at restaurants and paying higher wages instead. | 3 | 95,106 | finance |
Yahoo is trying to phase out passwords with an update to its mobile application for its email service. The renovated app released Thursday for iPhones and Android devices will include an option called "Account Key" that allows people to sign into their email accounts by pressing on a notification sent to their smartphones instead of typing in a password. Yahoo believes the new feature will be more secure because most people rely on passwords that are easy for hackers to guess. Yahoo's email users can still continue to type in a password if they prefer. Although Yahoo email remains among the world's most popular, it has been eclipsed in recent years by Google's Gmail. Yahoo's email had 190 million user in August, a 16 percent decline from the same time last year, according to the research firm comScore. Gmail boasted 411 million, a five percent increase. The updated app also will make it possible to connect Yahoo email with competing services from Outlook.com, Hotmail and AOL. The Sunnyvale, California, company hopes to make the app work with Gmail eventually, though it isn't giving a timetable for making it happen. An update to the Gmail app earlier this year allowed its users to connect with Yahoo email and Microsoft's Outlook.com. The app update is important to Yahoo because more than half of its email users primarily check their messages on mobile devices. Email users also are an important source of traffic at Yahoo's other major services, including sports, entertainment and finance that help sell the advertising that generates most of the company's revenue. Yahoo's revenue has been declining or barely growing for years as advertisers pour more of their money into Google and Facebook. | 3 | 95,107 | finance |
You're frantically trying to meet a deadline when a co-worker asks if you've got a minute. And you think to yourself: "Really, do I look like I'm not doing anything?" How could your co-worker not notice stress oozing from every pore in your body ? In all fairness, the reason you're racing to meet a deadline may also be due to your own procrastination. Workplace distractions happen to us all, but rather than fall victim to pleas for help from co-workers and other emergencies, Edward G. Brown, author of "The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You Had," provides the following tips to become the master of your time: 1. Track interruptions It is almost impossible to prevent your colleagues from interrupting you, but you can change how you respond when they do. Of course, if it were so easy to say "no," you would be doing it already. It is difficult to change your behaviors, so in order to give yourself the incentive to do so, get proof of how much time you are losing. On a daily basis, keep track of the number of interruptions you face and how much time you've lost. If you realize that you could have four more hours a week by eliminating distractions, how would that motivate you? 2. Just say 'no' As hard as it may be to refuse a quick question or request for help, you must. As you realize, there really is no such thing as a quick question. This simple request usually ends up requiring you to look something up, contact someone or write something. Rather than telling your co-worker you are busy and come across as selfish, respond by saying you'll be happy to help later. "Remember, you are trying to accomplish two things: protect your time and be a great team player," Brown says. Plus, you aren't really saying "no" you are saying "not now." And perhaps by the time you circle back with your colleague, the issue will be resolved. If the request comes from your boss, remind him or her that you are working on a priority project for him or her, and ask how much time the new request for help will require. It's not unusual for your manager to forget about the work pipeline you've already been assigned. Reprioritizing should be the discretion of you superior, so be sure you lay out the conflicting projects and timeline. 3. Protect your key projects and time It's important to identify and carve out time for the small number of very important projects. "If you're not sure whether what you're working on is critical or not, then you're going to be scrupulous about combating potential distractions," Brown says. A common pitfall is to underestimate how long a project will take. The more you begin allocating and tracking your time, the more accurate you will become in estimating how long you will need to complete future projects. 4. Make it a weekly ritual, and make it stick It takes time for new patterns of behavior to stick. One of the best ways to help build your new habit is by blocking chunks of your precious time every week. Brown recommends writing your plan on paper, because it will serve as "a reliable tool when distractions come up and you're tempted to backslide." Many successful business owners swear by this practice. Scheduling time on your calendar each week for specific deliverables enables you to plan your days and eliminate crises and stress associated from distractions and procrastination. While you're at it, mark off blocks of time for regular tasks as well. You may think you perform better while working simultaneously on different tasks, however, the quality of your work may suffer. In an online article for Time, Devora Zack, CEO of Only Connect Consulting, Inc. recommends "clustertasking." This tactic allows you to bunch related tasks into similar segments during the day. For example, you may decide to respond to email messages at certain times during the day. This will eliminate your urge to check every new email when it arrives. The bottom line: In order to get a handle on how you spend your time, assess how much time you waste, prioritize tasks and put your plan in writing. You'll begin to regain control, and who knows you may even end up with extra time in your day. Hannah Morgan writes and speaks on career topics and job search trends on her blog Career Sherpa. She is the author of "The Infographic Résumé" and co-author of "Social Networking for Business Success." | 3 | 95,108 | finance |
Cars have never been better, as our four finalists and Car of the Year demonstrate. Cars have never been better, as our finalists and Car of the Year demonstrate We realize what we are about to tell you is not going to stir the loins, but here's the thing: We are living in a golden age of sedans. (There is no other way to say it.) Each of the four Esquire Car of the Year finalists is demonstrably as good as any sedan has ever been. It's the only category of car that doesn't require a compromise: not on speed, quickness, handling, space, styling... not on cupholders. Thing is, not enough people are buying them. To us, this makes no sense. No trucks this time and only one SUV. It's time to celebrate cars again. Because cars actual cars have never been better. BIGGEST THRILL: 2016 LEXUS RC F Imagine a conversation among three Japanese designers. "It should look like a horny toaster," one says. "A robot lobster," says another. "The alien from Predator," says the third. Now imagine they all got what they wanted. You'd have the RC F or maybe something more conservative, with a smaller maw. It's quiet at speed, like every other Lexus. It's fast and responsive enough (467-hp rear-drive V-8) that you end up doubling speed limits, the steering a live wire, the engine pumping out a growly blat. It's a wolf in wolf's clothing make that a cyborg wolf with big plastic teeth and polarizing as hell. But the design commits. And in characteristic Lexus/Toyota fashion, the bones feel indestructible, among the best in the business. Research the Lexus RC EMBLEM OF THE YEAR: 2016 CADILLAC ATS-V The 464-hp ATS-V, at $63,460, is a worthy contender to the throne currently occupied by the BMW M3 and Mercedes C63. But more important, it's a sign that Cadillac is halfway to fixed. It's not as good as the BMW or Mercedes. The BMW's engine is smoother. The Mercedes's interior makes the Cadillac's feel cheap. And you can't help wonder about resale value (historically a problem with modern Cadillacs). But the Caddy's chassis is remarkable. The steering is crisp, and it handles in a way that makes the Germans seem asleep. The underside of the car is an amalgam of expensive castings, clever engineering, and sharp thinking. From that angle, it's the equal of anything from Europe. And from the right angle, it feels like a bargain. Granted, we drive cars from the top, not the bottom. Fit and finish are still wanting. Some switches feel yanked from a Chevrolet. The slow, clunky CUE infotainment system would be shamed by a first-gen iPhone with a cracked screen. But these are kinks, and kinks can be ironed out. If you close your eyes and drive an ATS-V, you feel possibility. You want to root for these guys. You know they're working. And it's still a very good car. With luck, in time they'll turn it into a great one. Research the Cadillac ATS-V Coupe BEST SMALL CAR: 2016 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R Recent developments aside, a history lesson: Germans invented the postwar small car (Volkswagen Beetle, late 1930s). Germans invented the replacement for said car (Volkswagen Golf, 1970s). Germans invented the modern hot hatchback, or a fast version of said car (Volkswagen Golf GTI, 1970s). VW has been making machines like the 292-hp Golf R for decades, and this one quiet inside and out, understated, all-wheel drive, ferociously fast in any weather is the best yet. The only downside is the price at $37,570, it's heartbreakingly expensive. Research the Volkswagen Golf R BEST SUV: 2016 VOLVO XC90 Despite being the first all-new Volvo to be built since Ford sold the brand to Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010, the XC90, like all Volvos, is still designed in Sweden. And Volvo is still known for safety: The XC90 has Safe Positioning, a system whereby the car cinches the seat belts if it determines it's about to go off-road we tried it on the Car of the Year and it worked and seats designed to cushion your spine in a vertical impact (i.e., flying into a ditch). The rollover protection is the hand of God gluing you to the pavement. None of this is new. But the quality of the build and style are. The XC90 looks modern and substantial. The interior is clean, gorgeous, and utterly lacking in fiddly controls. The razor-sharp center touchscreen actually works and is shockingly fast and intuitive. (Pay attention, Cadillac.) In short, it feels about $20,000 more expensive than it is. The turbo- and supercharged 316-hp, 2.0-liter four has just enough power, the optional Bowers & Wilkins stereo is astonishing, and the seats are comfy for weeks. Ford let Volvo languish the last new XC90 came out twelve years ago. The Chinese understand Swedish soul and have built something genuinely refreshing and different. Who knew they had it in them? Research the Volvo XC90 BEST WEEKEND DRIVE: 2016 MAZDA MX-5 MIATA To know the Miata is to know it has "people." When the car launched in 1989, they were older sports-car people. ("My '65 MG isn't running, but this went fifty thousand miles without a tune-up.") Then they were younger sports-car people, with no knowledge of the sixties, chasing speed on modest cash. ("I want a Porsche, but this is cheap.") Now, twenty-five years in, they effectively constitute a cult, buying the Miata for its Miataness, owning the thing because it makes its own gravy. It's a bare-bones machine, fun for fun's sake. Simple and utterly transparent in what it tells you and how you drive it. Lightweight, direct con- trols, the feeling that the whole car is a bodysuit. For a long time, the Miata's problem was its cuteness. Even this year's restyled version lighter, faster, and less feminine has a face, for chrissakes. And it's grinning. But that's the point. You see Miata drivers in traffic, whipping around with the top down, and they're never frowning. They happily pay $27,000 for a 2,300-pound four-cylinder two-seat car that has just 155 hp. They're grinning, too. Research the Mazda MX-5 BEST UPDATE: 2016 CORVETTE Z06 Every good Corvette is a car of numbers: Eye-bleeding power. Bargain pricing compared with the Europeans. And eight cylinders. So it is with the range-topping Z06: 650 hp, $80,395, and a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8. Flooring the gas is a window into life with a turbo Porsche, but driving the Corvette fast is more demanding, more entertainingly obnoxious, and it's half the price. This is a thoroughly modern car computers control everything but it feels analog and alive under your backbone. Which you will need if you want to get friendly with that V-8. (Alternatives: A quiet death; driving a Prius; a life unexamined and free of police interaction.) Research the Chevrolet Corvette DUMBEST OPTION: CARBON FIBER It looks nice... we think? But it doesn't look that nice. It's second only to a sunroof in the hierarchy of options you think you need but don't. A few thousand dollars for texture? Spend it on performance instead. CONTENDER: 2016 DODGE CHARGER HELLCAT Consider the 2016 Hellcat. Specifically the Dodge Charger Hellcat, because there are two. The Dodge Challenger Hellcat is a coupe, lean and cramped inside. The Charger Hellcat is the four-door, built on the bones of Dodge's rear-drive rental-car Charger. The drivetrain is a 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V-8 that produces 707 hp this is not a typo.That engine. Oh my gentle, tire-roastin' Jesus. Mind-altering thrust. It prompts questions: What do you do with 707 hp? (Answer: What don't you?) Why does the world's most powerful mass-produced automobile look like an undercover cop car? (Why not?) Do you really need to roll around in a mantle of tire smoke and vaporized dinosaur? (These days, that pastime has a clock. Live it up.) You can luxuriate in traffic or inhale countries in comfort, four adults and luggage, because it's a Dodge. Try either with your Lamborghini. You can spend $25,000 more on a Porsche 911 and be 357 horses short. The Hellcat is an atomic sofa, softly sprung and powered by the kind of stars-and-stripes fury usually reserved for battleship cannons. But this is not the emotion of the thing. The Hellcat lives or dies on the loss of your mind. And everyone who drives it loses their mind at 5 mph, 40, 100. I cackled. I left every stoplight half-sideways, because the engine is always more than you need or could possibly imagine wanting. And because the car's government-mandated stability-control system lets you do silly things while it's on, like ferocious pavement abuse. Naturally, I turned it off and did a rolling burnout in second gear. Then third. Then, astonishingly, fourth. No one saw this coming. Not even Dodge, which can't build the things fast enough. There's a waiting list; dealers are tagging on crazy markups, and people are happily paying. You drive down any main street in America, pedestrians jump off the sidewalk to yell at you. "You got the Hellcat!" one guy in Detroit joyously said. "That's a car!" I didn't argue. Hellcats don't have a visible name badge Detroit's idea of restraint but he knew anyway. Throughout history, the world has reacted like this to a handful of American cars: the first Mustang, the first Corvette, the first Viper. And you know what happened to them. Maybe the success of this thing says we are a flawed people, a nation indulgent and loud. Maybe I can live with that. Maybe I can live with an annual tire budget greater than the cost of the fuel I burn. Seven hundred ponies and a hundred-thousand-mile powertrain warranty? This is a machine of an exact moment in time, possible only through the intersection of the supercomputerized automobile and the waning, irresponsible days of the gasoline engine. It is obviously not for everyone. But if you've paid the money and are waking the neighbors with exhaust snort on your way to work, I highly doubt you give a s***. You are part of a beautiful moment. If that isn't the Esquire Car of the Year, I don't know what is. Sam Smith Research the Dodge Charger CONTENDER: 2016 CADILLAC CTS-V The 2016 Cadillac CTS-V should be Esquire's Car of the Year because it is the most inspiring story in cars right now. In the depths of the recession, when the entire American auto industry was on the edge, Cadillac decided to start over first with the ATS line and then, more spectacularly, with the CTS line, which starts at $46,555 and succeeded in engineering a vehicle that argues convincingly that it is the premier performance sedan in the world, a car capable of outrunning any sedan from Mercedes or BMW or Audi. Did I mention it's from Detroit? The Cadillac CTS-V should be Esquire's Car of the Year because the first time we drove the current-model CTS, it provided the most thrilling drive of a day that included more than forty cars, the redesigned Corvette Stingray among them. It was winter in Michigan and it had snowed, so we were locked out of GM's Proving Ground. We made do by taking to the ten miles of two-lane that circumnavigate the perimeter. Clockwise around the back, there's a long, gentle downhill, with a mild right-hand turn that slingshots you into something like an actual racetrack-type straightaway. I hit that stretch at speed and got that holy-s*** rush of being entirely in control while hurtling forward at a rate at which control should be tenuous. And then I did it over and over again, and each time the rush took my breath away. The CTS-V should be the Car of the Year because the car I drove in Michigan eighteen months ago was not even the V, with 640 horsepower. It was the CTS V-Sport, the $60,950 six-cylinder version (which still manages to pump out 420 hp). The CTS-V should be the Car of the Year because it's new right now (which is what qualifies it for this competition) and because when I took it to the lonely stretch of wooded road on which I do my completely unscientific 0-to-60 testing and tromped on the accelerator, I wondered for just a second if the world was ending, what with the noise and the sudden, intense pull of gravity and the slight smell of something like melting rubber. The CTS-V should be the Car of the Year because it ought to be the halo product that forces the world to reevaluate Cadillac. The cars that tend to inspire me share two traits: They are understated and they are overpowered. There is no car that is more understated than the Cadillac CTS-V. Although this is a potential blessing for consumers of great cars, it's a problem for Cadillac given that the number of people who buy the CTS-V is less than is warranted by its sophistication, performance, and raw power. The blessing is that you (or I) can, for a while at least, be one of the lucky ones who drive it. This, friends, has to be the Car of the Year. David Granger Research the Cadillac CTS-V CONTENDER: 2016 MERCEDES-AMG C63 Would you rather have your V-8 twin-turbo hand-built by one conscientious man with the balls to put his signature on top of the engine block or slapped together by an endless line of robots? Would you rather be serviced by a company that practically invented the automobile engine or be lumped in with every other driver on the road to fix a recalled part? These were the questions world-class racing driver, coach, and instructor René Villeneuve asked me when I told him about the final four in Esquire's Car of the Year backstage at Jones Beach Theater. (I mean, c'mon, isn't that where you're supposed to hang with race-car drivers?) He went on. Let's put it this way: The 2016 Mercedes-AMG C63 is not particularly good at one thing... it happens to be great at everything. Given its balance and speed, it's the car that instructors love to use for teaching. Maybe René's opinion is a little biased. He's an instructor not only at the Skip Barber Racing School but also at the AMG Driving Academy. Regardless, the man lives for fast cars, and I must humbly admit as a lowly motorist that the C63 is amazingly fast. Sure, there are faster cars out there, but who can actually tell the difference between 500 and 700 hp? Me? No chance. Are there cars that might be quicker right off the line? Sure. But who wants to worry about how many miles you have left before you need to park and recharge for hours? As far as groundbreaking electronics and beautiful interiors are concerned, what other manufacturer has beaten Mercedes to the punch... ever? The AMG C63 is a muscle car disguised as a sedan, with the perfect blend of elegance and brutal power. What's most impressive is the distinctiveness of each of its driving modes. Comfort is incredibly smooth and quiet, and the engine responds quickly as you merge onto the highway. Sport mode is still quiet, but the steering, suspension, and rpm's are on high alert. Then there's Sport +, as if Sport weren't good enough for this engine. Sport + completely unleashes the monster underneath your ass as the V-8 revs high and the exhaust noise spits, sputters, and screams. When you hit 4000 rpm, you're thrown back in your seat. The steering and suspension are locked into your nervous system, and you can't believe you just cornered at that speed on this particular stretch of country road. The price range starts at about $64,000 for a 451-hp, 6.3-liter V-8 coupe, and then increases to $74,175 for the 503-hp AMG C63 S. With all the autonomous-driving add-ons, including the most beautiful heads-up display you've ever seen, you can take this baby up to around 100K, but that isn't even necessary. At its most basic, this car will let people know you're a man with good taste, you're serious about driving, and you're not willing to be categorized with all the other drivers even drivers of fast cars. You don't even need to be a race-car driver to figure that out. David Curcurito Research the Mercedes-Benz C-Class CONTENDER: 2016 TESLA MODEL S P90D I ask respectfully: What more do you need? Is it range you want? Install a charge in the wall of your garage. This is a commuter car. This is a car for people who drive the same distance every day. Depending on the model, you'll have almost 270 miles of range ready to roll. What's your commute? Sixty miles a day? You'll be fine. The fact is you can't depend on supercharging stations yet; there are a little more than five hundred in the United States. There are way more than a hundred thousand gas stations. I get it. The home charger is the way. Is it price you want? Fine. The 2016 P90D is expensive; it can top out at over $130,000. Get the Model S 70. It starts at $76,200. Is it space you want? You can wait for the Model X SUV, which just came out. Or you could have Tesla install a couple rear-facing child jump seats in the back of your Model S for $3,000. You open the giant hatch and your kids spill out. You now effectively own a minivan without becoming a driver of a minivan, which is perhaps Elon Musk's single greatest achievement.Is it speed you want? Fine. The Tesla Model S can't compete with the C63 or the CTS-V or the Charger at speed, at least not speed past, say, 80 miles per hour. But is speed really the thing?Fast is overrated. It's quick you want. Low-end torque is what flattens your lungs. Low-end torque is what thrills your passenger. Low-end torque is what allows you to use a forty-foot on-ramp to immediately match speeding traffic. The torque is the thrill a useful thrill.Is Tesla the quickest-accelerating car? No. But it is the quickest-accelerating electric car, and it beats all but a few gas-powered production vehicles. And accelerating in an electric car is not like accelerating in a gas-powered car. There's always a lag with a regular car. A crescendo. The quickness of a Tesla is the quickness of an electric roller coaster. You don't accelerate. You launch in total silence. In a gas-powered car, you're rattled by vibration, you hear thunder, you might smell something burning. Which is pure America, I get it. In the Tesla, the only sensation is gravity. It is exhilarating. It is alarming. It is freaky. It is wonderful. Is it attitude you want? Tesla flaunts that quickness by calling its ultraquick acceleration mode Ludicrous (which is just a few tenths of a second faster than its Insane mode). It's pure marketing, but it's also funny. How many cars are funny? Cars should be funny. Obviously, the Tesla Model S P90D should be the Car of the Year. And until another high-performance electric vehicle comes along to best it (virtually every German automaker has one in the works; Audi's electric SUV should be here in a few years), it should be for years to come. Ross McCammon Research the Tesla Model S ESQUIRE'S CAR OF THE YEAR This whole process is never easy. Yes, we drive every new car on the market. No hardship, and just as much fun as you'd think. It's the winnowing that's hard. In the beginning, there are two groups: Clunkers and Good Ones. You throw out the former, leave the latter. Then you divide again, into Good and Better. Then again, into Great and Amazing. And then it gets itchy.If a car has made it into these pages, we think it's pretty fantastic. Beyond that, the big lesson the takeaway you get from driving the best cars in the world is that taste is everything. Good machinery is like good food: Just because something's spectacularly crafted doesn't mean you will like it. And vice versa. After hours of discussion, arguments, and banter, the vote was unanimous: The 2016 Mercedes-AMG C63 is what we want in a car, but also what we think most of you want. Understated, yet with a healthy dose of style. Gobs of power, more than you need, but not to the point of being irresponsible. Costly but not unreachable; versatile but focused. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 is efficient and seamlessly powerful, brutal yet docile in traffic. It whomps and crackles, the noise alone threatening to peel your hair off your scalp. The interior is beautifully crafted, full of wonderfully satisfying touches the clicking of the crosshair dash vents! the substantial thunk of the door handles! but not ostentatious. You can do the silly, terrible things you can do in a Hellcat, but you won't burn fuel like a 747. You can travel long distances with ease no waiting for a battery charge every few hours which you can't do in a Tesla. You don't have to explain away subpar details, as you do with the Cadillac. These are all fine machines, but the Mercedes requires no caveat. Like all balanced fast cars, it's simultaneously calming and thrilling. The people who built it seem to understand the importance of focus, restraint, and joy. It's a thing for you, for us, for the closet wild man and the calm adult and just about everyone in between. It's a toe-curling, balls-out riot, fast as hell and properly balanced. It's the Esquire Car of the Year. The Editors | 9 | 95,109 | autos |
There may have been bruises but there were no hard feelings after London Mayor Boris Johnson knocked over a 10-year-old Japanese boy during a game of rugby on Thursday. (Oct. 15) | 8 | 95,110 | video |
By David Henry and Sweta Singh Citigroup Inc (C.N) reported a 51 percent jump in quarterly profit as lower costs more than made up for a fall in revenue amid increased market volatility and uncertainty about the timing of a U.S. interest rate hike. Legal and related costs of the No.3 U.S. bank by assets nosedived from a year earlier, with the lender putting most of the problems stemming from the financial crisis behind it. Operating expenses fell 18 percent as Chief Executive Michael Corbat works through his plan to exit businesses where profits and prospects are not worthwhile. U.S. banks including Citi, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) are cutting costs to boost earnings as overnight fund rates stay near zero and fixed-income trading, long a source of revenue growth, shows no sign of picking up. Citi shares rose as much as 4.3 percent on Thursday. Citi Holdings, "the bad bank" that holds assets marked for sale, saw the biggest plunge in revenue, a steep 32 percent, as assets in the unit shrank 20 percent. The lender expects to close an additional $31 billion in Citi Holdings' asset sales in the fourth quarter, Corbat said on a conference call. Revenue decline in Citicorp, Citi's largest unit that holds core businesses, was the smallest at 2 percent. "It was a relatively straightforward quarter - a positive in our view considering both the complexity of Citi and the volatility experienced globally in the third quarter," Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O'Connor wrote in a note. Citi's institutional clients group was the only unit to post a rise in revenue, helped by higher private banking and equity market income. HEADWINDS Citi is the most international of U.S. banks, with half of its revenue coming from markets outside North America. The lender's revenue from Asia fell amid slowing economic growth in China. Revenue from fixed income markets declined about 16 percent to $2.58 billion, reflecting a trend seen in the results of other big U.S. banks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), which also reported results on Thursday, said bond trading revenue fell 33 percent. JPMorgan and BofA also reported a fall in third-quarter revenue this week, hurt by muted trading. Citi's adjusted return-on-assets rose to 0.91 percent from 0.64 percent, meeting Corbat's target of at least 0.9 percent for the year. Total revenue fell about 5 percent to $18.69 billion. Net income rose to $4.29 billion from $2.84 billion a year earlier. Adjusting for some accounting items, profit rose nearly 38 percent to $1.31 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.28 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The results reflect Citi's success in winning approval from the Federal Reserve to buy back stock. The number of shares outstanding fell 2 percent from a year earlier, boosting earnings per share. Citi will favor stock buybacks over dividends as long as its shares trade below their tangible book value, Corbat said. Citi's shares were at $52.84 in afternoon trading, well below the stock's tangible book value, which rose to $60.07 in the third quarter from $57.41 a year earlier. (Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru and David Henry in New York, additional reporting by Rachel Chitra; Editing by Kirti Pandey) | 3 | 95,111 | finance |
NEW YORK ( TheStreet ) -- Wal-Mart wasn't the only Dow stock to get hit on Wednesday. In a relatively mild move compared with Wal-Mart's 10% flush, Boeing dropped more than 4.3% on its second heaviest volume of the year. Comments about an "aircraft bubble" from Delta Airlines' CEO may have fueled Boeing's steep selloff on Wednesday. If so, negative comments from analysts may follow. Wednesday's break may just be the beginning. Heading into Tuesday's action, Boeing was working on a seven-day winning streak. This impressive run drove shares past the September high while retracing nearly all of the flush of Aug. 20 through Aug. 24. A fatal flaw in this run was a very weak showing from the bulls. As Boeing rose, volume steadily faded just as shares began to bump into a solid layer of resistance. To convincingly take out the $140-to-$142 area, which includes the monthly lows of May, June and July, Boeing would need a healthy boost in bullish interest. Over the last five weeks, the stock has had only one positive close on above-average trade, which is definitely not the way to maintain a rally once heavy resistance comes into play. In the near term, the odds now tilt toward further downside for Boeing. It's likely the stock will retest its September lows as this pullback plays out. The support zone near last month's low includes the early October low as well as the Aug. 26 bottom. For patient investors, a retest of this key area will provide a low-risk buying opportunity. Focus should be on the $128-to-$126 area. If Boeing can regain its footing here, the post-Aug. 24 rebound could resume. Until this area is reached, it may prove wise for Boeing bulls to stand aside. | 3 | 95,112 | finance |
There is already an origin story movie about New York City cop turned periodic everyman superhero John McClane. It's called Die Hard . There is no backstory for Bruce Willis's John McClane because he was just an utterly ordinary cop right up until the events of the John McTiernan action classic. And yet the proverbial powers-that-be seem to think there is at least one movie's worth of material explaining how John McClane "became" John McClane. That's the word from Deadline yesterday as Fox is allegedly plotting a prequel to the original Die Hard . This sixth installment will be bookended by present day scenes with Bruce Willis while telling a 1979-set action story that theoretically shows how McClane uh… became McClane. I'm as confused as you are, even if you do remember that one episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which had Harrison Ford bookends. But this news, coming off of the disastrous performance of Warner Bros. /Time Warner Inc.'s Pan , shows that Hollywood at large seems to lack understanding about a very specific notion: Not every vaguely recognizable character needs a Batman Begins -style origin story. Audiences didn't flock to Batman Begins because they were hungry for explicit details about the time in Bruce Wayne's life between when his parents were murdered and when he first donned the cape-and-cowl costume. We all flocked to Batman Begins because it was an exceptionally good movie featuring one of the most popular characters in fiction today. And heck, we barely flocked to it back in 2005, as the $150 million-budgeted Chris Nolan picture opened with just $72m over its Wed-Sun debut and crawled to $205m domestic and $371m worldwide. Absent the critical buzz, strong word-of-mouth, and strong DVD/Blu-Ray performances, we may never have gotten what became The Dark Knight . The notion that Batman Begins was a critically-acclaimed hit because audiences desperately wanted to see origin stories of their favorite heroes is absurd on its face, and yet that is one of the main reactions to its success ten years ago. Star Trek , Batman Begins , and Casino Royale were crowd pleasing, relatively high-quality popcorn entertainments that promised top-tier variations of genuinely beloved characters. And those films operated as origin stories only for the first half or so before presenting audiences with fully formed versions of their favorite heroes for the last hour and change of these two hour adventures. Conversely, Ridley Scott's Robin Hood , The Fantastic Four , Fantastic Four , The Amazing Spider-Man , The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Pan basically amounted to movie-length prologues, spending the majority of their running time detailing how the band got together with promises of what you really came to see for the next theoretical sequel. It is certainly the case that this new Die Hard movie, directed by Len Wiseman (who directed the better-than-expected Live Free or Die Hard ) and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, will be a feature-length setup/exposition fest, since the John McClane we know and love was basically born in the baptism of fire that is the first Die Hard movie. So unless the second half of this new film turns into a remake of Die Hard , we'll spend an entire movie a John McClane not like the one we like with the notion that he will "grow" into the guy we rooted for in Die Hard . But more importantly, John McClane isn't remotely special in the first place. The very concept of the Die Hard films is that he is a regular guy placed in an unthinkable action movie scenario. The whole appeal of Die Hard is that it featured a reluctant and terrified action hero who cried and bled and doubted himself just like any of us would. You could argue that he's become more of a conventional super heroic action character in the later sequels, but the core concept is that he's just a guy who uses his wits and not a little luck to thwart schemes that would give James Bond the vapors. He doesn't need a superhero origin story because he's not special in any explicit way. We don't need to see how he got his favorite gun or his first white t-shirt. We don't need to see him watching a western on TV and coining "Yippee-ki-yay, Mother F***er!" for the first time because the whole point is that it was an ad-lib from McClane to Gruber during a tense verbal standoff. The very notion of inventing an origin story for John McClane is contradictory because the very idea of John McClane is that, prior to the events of Die Hard , he is as average a police officer as one can be. The notion that Batman Begins signaled to Hollywood that they should take any-and-all vaguely recognizable pop culture characters and not just reboot them but give them detailed origin stories is what has led to disasters like Pan and The Fantastic Four . Batman Begins was a hit because it was a high-quality Batman movie, just as Casino Royale was a hit because it was the best James Bond movie in at least eleven years up to that point. Audiences don't need to see the untold story of every iconic fictional character before they embarked on the adventures that made them special in the first place. And this is doubly-true when the characters in question are defined by how not special they are. John McClane already has an origin story. It's called Die Hard . The notion that he engaged in similar adventures as a young cop basically negates the whole point of the Die Hard franchise. There is a story to be told in showing how Bruce Wayne became Batman. There is a story to be told about James Bond's first mission as a "double-o" operative. And there is a story to be told about Kirk and Spock's first mission together. But audiences don't need to see John McClane explained in past tense, with seemingly arbitrary bits of conventionalized back story set up to explain moments and character quirks from the Die Hard franchise. If Fox wants to make another Die Hard film, just make another Die Hard film. But we don't need to go back to the beginning because we've already been to the only beginning that matters. One of the many lessons of Pan is that not every character needs or justifies a Batman Begins -style origin story prequel. It's a shame that, with Robin Hood: Origins , Tarzan , and Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur still on tap, it is not a lesson Hollywood seems in a hurry to learn. | 6 | 95,113 | entertainment |
After this, you may want to be extra careful about plugging in strange USB devices. A researcher calling himself Dark Purple announced a proof-of-concept USB device that, once plugged in, pumps enough electrical current into a computer to shut it down or destroy it completely. It's not a sophisticated attack, but for exactly that reason, it's also very difficult to protect against. In essence, Dark Purple has disguised a stun gun as a USB drive, and since the USB drive can't work without conducting electricity, it's likely to stay vulnerable for quite some time. Purple describes the device as a repeating loop of electrical surges: When we connect it up to the USB port, an inverting DC/DC converter runs and charges capacitors to -110V. When the voltage is reached, the DC/DC is switched off. At the same time, the filed transistor opens. It is used to apply the -110V to signal lines of the USB interface. When the voltage on capacitors increases to -7V, the transistor closes and the DC/DC starts. The loop runs till everything possible is broken down. Dark Purple didn't open-source plans for the device, but it's plausible a dedicated hacker could reverse-engineer it from the current description. Because of the direct attack vector and lack of payoff, it's unlikely to be a problem on a broader scale. Still, it's one more reason to be suspicious of mysterious flash drives. | 5 | 95,114 | news |
Does anyone actually read the user agreements on dating apps? You might be surprised to learn what you're actually agreeing to when you join an app like Tinder. Glamour asked a lawyer to read through the legal jargon and get to the bottom of it. | 8 | 95,115 | video |
Britain has refused Ecuador's request to give Julian Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he had a sharp pain in his right shoulder, Quito's top diplomat said Wednesday. | 8 | 95,116 | video |
If you're looking to get attention and funding for your business idea, crowdfunding might give you the initial push you need to make your dreams a reality. Some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns include the Coolest Cooler, which raised more than $13 million -- or 26,570 percent of its original funding goal -- and Exploding Kittens, which amassed just under $9 million, or 87,825 percent of its initial funding goal. If a multi-function cooler/blender/music player and a card game about kittens and explosions can exceed their funding goals by such large margins, imagine what you could do with your revolutionary and innovative business idea. This isn't to suggest that crowdfunding campaigns are easy, however. The good news is that launching a successful crowdfunding campaign can essentially be broken down into six steps. Let's explore these together. 1. Share your story. Let your potential funders know how your product or business idea can benefit them. Share who you are, what you're planning to do, where the project idea came from, what your budget is and why you're passionate about it. This shows that you've actually put some thought into the idea, which helps prove the legitimacy and credibility of your project. Related: 5 Tips for Beating the Odds When Crowdfunding A basic outline of this information is also available in Kickstarter's Creator Handbook , which is an invaluable tool for those who want to use crowdfunding to get funding for their businesses. Communicating your story through visual imagery is of particular importance. Make sure to create a great looking project-header image as well as a compelling video. Video is particularly important, and can even make or break your project. Ensure that your video is high quality and professional. Most campaigns that do well on Kickstarter have great looking videos. Make it engaging and fun to watch, and don't cut corners with the production. 2. Offer great rewards. People will back your project if they think it's worthwhile, but it's always good to have great perks for your pledgers too. You'll likely want to refer to the aforementioned Creator Handbook to figure out what you can and cannot offer, as there are some restrictions you'll want to be aware of. You'll also want to be fair with your rewards in terms of price points, and make sure that you can actually fulfill them. It's fine to promise your pledgers big rewards, but don't forget that delivery can take considerable time and effort. Be realistic with your rewards. 3. Set a funding goal. If you're launching your campaign on Kickstarter, you should be aware that they have an all-or-nothing funding model. If you meet or exceed your funding goal, you get to keep the money. If not, you don't get anything. Of course, there are platforms such as Indiegogo that work on a slightly different model where you get to keep the funding regardless of whether you reach your goal. At this point, it's important to think about how much money you need to get your business up and running, and how many people you know that would be wiling to pledge. Although you may attract the attention of new people with your campaign, most of your support is going to come from those who already know you. Be realistic. Also, keep in mind that you can't change your funding goal once you've initiated the campaign. 4. Promote your campaign. There are many different ways to make people aware of your crowdfunding campaign. Here are several tips for getting the word out there: Utilize social media to spread the message. Reach out to the media and bloggers to get coverage for your campaign. Host a live event to drive up interest and engagement. Keep in mind that your campaign is unlikely to succeed without a 100 percent commitment on your part. You need to think of it as a your full-time job while you're driving toward your campaign goals. Leverage every relationship and marketing channel available to you. Related: Kickstarter CEO: Why We're a Benefits Corporation, Not a Nonprofit 5. Update your backers as your project progresses. You need to keep your project backers in the loop as you move forward with your campaign. If you don't share regular updates with them, you could lose their interest and you may not be able to attract as many pledgers as you would like. Fortunately, crowdfunding platforms generally have built-in tools that allow you to update your project backers and send messages out to them. Take advantage of these tools and keep everyone in the loop. Hype is unnecessary. Be honest and regular with your updates. If things aren't going exactly as you hoped they would, be transparent. Backers want to know that you can actually deliver on your project and the rewards that you promised them. 6. Fulfill your promise. Crowdfunding campaigns aren't over if and when you reach your funding goals. They're over when the creator has fulfilled their promises. This means completing your project. This means delivering on your perks or rewards, and making sure that you're communicating with supporters every step of the way. You can also use surveys to collect feedback from the pledgers at this stage, and this will give you the feedback you need to improve upon your crowdfunding processes in the future. Only when fulfillment is complete can you truly say that you had a successful crowdfunding campaign. Until then, there are still a lot of things up in the air, both for you and for your backers. Bonus step: Use Krowdster to boost your reach. We've already talked a little bit about promotion, which is absolutely vital to the success of your campaign. Krowdster is an app that helps you manage your crowdfunding campaign. You can use it to optimize your target audience, extend your social reach and get in touch with journalists and media outlets to get more exposure for your campaign. The challenges of launching a successful crowdfunding campaign should be fairly apparent by now. Krowdster could prove to be an invaluable tool in meeting your funding goals. Final thoughts Don't forget: Your backers are of number-one importance. When you show them that you care, they'll be more willing to trust you and may even reach out to their friends to share your idea with them. It's no secret that crowdfunding campaigns can be a lot of work. With the right structure in place, you can meet and even exceed your funding goals, but don't expect it to come easy. If you don't succeed the first time, be willing to try again. The Coolest Cooler would never have been funded had creator Ryan Grepper given up after his initial failure. | 3 | 95,117 | finance |
The US Defense Department released video of coalition airstrikes against Islamic State militant buildings near Ramadi, Iraq. (Oct. 15) | 8 | 95,118 | video |
(Bloomberg) -- Oil dropped after the biggest U.S. crude stockpile increase in six months bolstered speculation a global surplus will persist. Inventories climbed 7.56 million barrels last week, the most since April, according to Energy Information Administration data. The gain left supplies more than 100 million barrels above the five-year seasonal average level. Refinery operations slowed to the lowest level since January. Oil has retreated on signs the market remains oversupplied after advancing above $50 a barrel last week for the first time since July. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries continues to pump above its target, while other exporters, including Mexico and Russia, said they won't cut output. "This is a very bearish crude number," said Adam Wise, who helps run a $7 billion oil and gas bond and private equity portfolio as a managing director at John Hancock in Boston. "On the supply side oil output has climbed in Russia, Mexico and OPEC, and that's making it's way here. This is happening in the midst of falling refinery utilization here, which is curbing demand." U.S. Supplies West Texas Intermediate for November delivery dropped 91 cents, or 2 percent, to $45.73 a barrel at 12:11 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $45.23, the lowest since Oct. 5. The volume of all futures traded was 18 percent above the 100-day average. Brent for November settlement, which expires Thursday, fell 58 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $48.57 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The more-active December contract slipped 44 cents at $49.25. The front-month European benchmark crude traded at a $2.84 premium to WTI. Crude stockpiles rose to 468.6 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 9, EIA data show. The increase was more than twice the 2.58 million barrels forecast for the gain, according to a Bloomberg survey. Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI traded in New York and nation's biggest oil- storage hub, increased 1.13 million barrels to 54.2 million. U.S. crude output decreased 76,000 barrels a day to 9.1 million last week , according to EIA data. Production is down 514,000 barrels a day from a four-decade high of 9.61 million reached in June. Falling crude prices have spurred America's oil drillers to curb drilling. The number of rigs targeting oil in the U.S. fell to 605 last week, the least in five years, according to data from oilfield-services company Baker Hughes Inc. Accelerating Declines "The oil rig count is down 70 in six weeks, which will be felt," Matt Sallee, who helps manage $13.2 billion in oil- related assets at Tortoise Capital Advisors in Leawood, Kansas, said by phone. "Production declines are going to accelerate from here." Refineries cut operating rates to 86 percent of capacity, the least since the week ended Jan. 16. U.S. refiners typically slow during October to perform maintenance after the end of the summer peak driving season. "The oil number was a little bigger than expected," Sallee said. "It shouldn't be a shock because of how much refinery utilization is down. Seasonal maintenance is taking place and you saw it reflected in gasoline inventories." Russian Production Russia reiterated its aim to maintain supplies and market share. Output reductions are "purely a short-term measure, and in the future it will result in a greater misbalance of the oil market," Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with CNBC. Novak told reporters in Astana, Kazakhstan, that Russia wouldn't rule out discussing production cuts at a meeting with OPEC next week. "Supplies from low-cost players like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Russia are all surprising on the upside and non-OPEC production outside of the U.S. -- Norway, Brazil -- too has been on the upside," Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "The market is substantially more oversupplied than we initially thought." Mexico plans to attend the OPEC technical meeting on Oct. 21 to exchange information, according to Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell. It's "not in a position to cut production," he said Wednesday. Output in Norway will probably rise this year, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Clark at [email protected]; James Herron at [email protected]; David Marino at [email protected] Susan Warren, Charlotte Porter | 3 | 95,119 | finance |
If a trip to outer space is out of your budget, a space themed hotel suite may fit the bill. TC Newman (@PurpleTCNewman) has the details. | 2 | 95,120 | travel |
These seats now have better Wi-Fi. JetBlue What to Know Now Fresh on the heels of Virgin America announcing a partnership with Netflix to provide free streaming onboard, JetBlue just shared that it's wrapping up the install of its fleet-wide ultrafast Fly-Fi service and getting ready to launch Amazon Prime Streaming. The matchups are part of the next generation of inflight Wi-Fi coming to the world's skies internet fast enough to not only check your email but also connect to a video source of choice and stream content. From where we are today, that's a pretty big leap. Will the higher bandwidth be enough to woo legacy travelers away from their favorite airlines? Perhaps. For those that require a high speed connection, VX and JetBlue are bringing forth a solid proposition. But for those who still thrive in the analog world, high speed internet will probably just be an expensive (and welcome) distraction. Social Quote of the Day Hey @JetBlue, here's the very first #FlyFi selfie from an E-190! @MHJohnston | Morgan Johnston Airlines Singapore Airlines to Resume World's Longest Flight Between New York and Singapore: Singapore Airlines has announced that it will bring back the world's longest flights on A350 ultra-long-range aircraft to New York, resuming non-stop flights between Singapore and New York. Read more at Skift Flying American This Weekend? Be Prepared! This weekend the last major step of the integration will occur, whereby American and US Airways are combining reservations systems. Read more at One Mile at a Time Finnair Brings Us One Step Closer to the Future of Long-Haul Flight: Finnair has recently taken receipt of its long-anticipated A350 Aircraft, which gives us a glimpse of dominant trends for long-haul flight. CEO, Pekka Vauramo, has declared the A350 "the future of flying," and we tend to agree. Read more at Skift U.S. Justice Department Sides With Gulf Carriers in Open Skies Debate: The U.S. Justice Department has raised concern about demands by U.S. airlines that the government limit flights of three Middle Eastern rivals to the United States, three sources familiar with the matter have said. Read more at Skift Airports Interview: Helsinki Airport CEO on Right-Sizing for the Future: During the CAPA World Aviation Summit in Helsinki, Skift enjoyed a little time on the side for an insightful conversation with Kari Savolainen, CEO of Finavia, the company that owns and operates Helsinki Airport. Read more at Skift Denver International Airport CEO Kim Day on Building an Airport for the Future at Skift Forum: Day has led Denver International Airport, the fifth-largest commercial airport in the U.S., since April 2008. She recently updated the airport's master plan and launched the Hotel and Transit Center Program, which will bring a 519-room at-terminal hotel to the airport in late 2015. Originally trained as an architect, Day's leadership will lead to the opening of a commuter rail link for the airport with downtown Denver next year. Read more at Skift Air Traffic Controllers' Union Says the U.S. Is About to Face a Talent Shortage: U.S. air-traffic staffing is at a 27-year low that threatens to increase flight delays, particularly in the already congested New York region, the union representing controllers said. Read more at Skift Tech Business Travel Outlook Downgraded as International Trips Decline: U.S. business travelers are taking more trips this year, though companies are being stricter on authorizing international visits in the wake of global economic concerns and the collapse of oil prices. Read more at Skift Bluesmart's Diego Saez-Gil on Building a Travel Company Using Crowd Funding at Skift Forum: Saez-Gil launched Bluesmart, the world's first self-tracking, connected luggage, via crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and raised a record $2.7 million in the process. Read more at Skift JetBlue Moves Forward With All-Broadband Fleet and Amazon Prime Streaming: JetBlue has announced that passengers will soon find its high-speed Fly-Fi Wi-Fi connections, offering speeds up to 20 mbps per device, on every flight. Read more at Skift Hotels Hyatt Hotels' Mark Hoplamazian on a New Perspective on the Hospitality Industry at Skift Forum: Hoplamazian's talk "Reversing Your POV: A New Perspective on the Hospitality Industry," explored the power of empathy and how that can be applied to the hospitality industry. Read more at Skift This Hotel Wants to Time Your Shower: At the eco-friendly 1 Hotel Central Park, guests are encouraged to keep their shower to a five-minute maximum. Read more at Conde Nast Traveler Starwood Hotels Founder Says Airbnb Is 'Changing the Landscape: Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht made one of his regular stops on morning financial news shows today and entered into a conversation with the hosts about the sharing economy in general and Airbnb in particular. Read more at Skift W Hotels Tries to Speak Millennial With Snapchat Filters: Hotels are in their own popularity contest of sorts, with brands looking for ways to position themselves as the most relevant to today's consumer, be it through a brand refresh, launching lifestyle properties as part of their portfolios, or learning how to speak millennial. Read more at Skift Your Turn Skift's Global Forum on the future of travel is going at full steam THIS WEEK. See how you can stay plugged into the action here . Tips and Comments Can be sent to gm[at]skift[dot]com or to @grantkmartin Subscribe to the Skift Business Traveler Newsletter | 2 | 95,121 | travel |
The government said Thursday there will be no benefit increase next year for millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees. It's just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010. And there's more bad news. The lack of a benefit increase means that many older people could face higher Medicare costs--an issue that has advocates lobbying Congress. | 3 | 95,122 | finance |
HOUSTON Sen. Ted Cruz has more than Tea Party activists and big-dollar donors boosting his presidential campaign. He has dad. Rafael Cruz, a 76-year-old Cuban immigrant and outspoken pastor, has been relentlessly stumping for son Ted, filling auditoriums from San Antonio to Iowa City with enthusiastic crowds and becoming one of the top surrogates for the Cruz campaign. The father's story of fleeing a communist country for the riches of America is striking a chord with social conservatives who make up the base of GOP primary voters. The elder Cruz has also drawn his share of controversy and criticism, such as when he told a gathering of Texas Tea Partiers in 2012 that he would like to send President Obama "back to Kenya" or compared the U.S. president to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, that could hurt his son's campaign in the long run. The Cruz campaign did not return a request for comment for this story. For now, Rafael Cruz's rhetoric is being eagerly consumed by GOP audiences. "Every candidate wishes they had a dad like Rafael doing what Rafael's doing," said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader group and a political power broker in Iowa. "It always speaks well when your family is supportive of you." Candidates have enlisted their fathers in the past, and two current GOP candidates Jeb Bush and Rand Paul have well-known dads (former president George H.W. Bush and former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, respectively). But unlike those candidates, who have distanced themselves from their family names in this election, Ted Cruz is aligning himself with his dad's cautionary tale of how his home country lost freedoms under a communist regime, said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston. That message, mixed with Rafael Cruz's religious fervor, makes him an ideal surrogate among both Tea Party activists and traditional social conservatives core GOP primary voters, he said. "He has a great ability in these relatively small settings to connect with the audience in a way that many spouses and other relatives do not," Jones said. In 2013 and 2014, Vander Plaats invited Rafael Cruz to speak at his group's annual leadership summit. Both times, Cruz was the top-rated speaker in attendance among the two dozen who spoke at each event, he said. This summer, he spoke at a gathering of influential Iowan pastors and wowed them, as well, Vander Plaats said. "Rafael just knocked it out the park," he said. "He has such a compelling American story to tell, combined with his passion. It resonates." Rafael Cruz was imprisoned and beaten as a teen by the regime of former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista and fled to the United States, winding up in Austin, Texas, according to Ted Cruz: A Time for Truth , the senator's autobiography. He initially backed Castro's rebel army but later became disillusioned when the new Cuban leader turned to communism, according to the book. He learned English, attended college and became a mathematician. But he also hit a rough patch, "lived a fast life" and abandoned his wife and young son in Canada, Ted Cruz writes in the book. He had a turning point when he attended a Bible study at a friend's house in Houston in 1975, and "surrendered his life to Jesus," the book said. He retrieved his wife and son and began a new, pious life in Houston, according to the book. Present at that pivotal Bible study was Bob Abrahams, a deacon at Clay Road Baptist Church, which the Cruzes attended. Abrahams, now 90, said he and Rafael Cruz would pray together in Abrahams' office at least once a week and the elder Cruz was always present around the church. "It's real," he said of Rafael Cruz's spiritual devotion. "He's a man of prayer." Robert Stovall, chairman of the Republican Party of Bexar County, Texas, recruited Rafael Cruz to speak last year at an annual BBQ in San Antonio. The fundraising event usually draws between 250 and 350 people, he said. Around 600 people came out to see the senator's dad the highest number ever for the event. "He's reinforcing the same message that Sen. Cruz is getting out there, which is: The battles he's picking are worth standing up for," Stovall said. "If you don't pick those battles, eventually, you're going to get something you don't want." But the senior Cruz also teeters on the edge of controversy that would spook most presidential candidates. In March, Buzzfeed ran a feature titled "The 68 Most Controversial Things Ted Cruz's Dad Ever Said," including assertions that death panels are part of Obamacare and urging parents to pull their children from U.S. public schools because they're "brainwashing" students "no different than what has happened in the Marxist countries." That type of rhetoric plays well with hard-line GOP primary voters but could alienate a lot of potential voters were his son to win the party's nomination, Jones said. "In a general election, Rafael goes from a certain asset to a potential liability," he said. Follow @MrRJervis on Twitter. | 5 | 95,123 | news |
In a retort to critics of her open door policy to those fleeing war and persecution, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says slamming the door "shut in the 21st century of the Internet era is an illusion", speaking hours ahead of a European Union summit | 8 | 95,124 | video |
Eva Peron died more than 60 years ago but her spirit remains alive and well in Argentina, especially with presidential elections just around the corner. Outgoing President Cristina Kirchner speaks often of Peron's work for the poor. The likely future first lady is drawing comparisons to her. And Peron's grand niece may be part of the next government. As Argentina on Saturday celebrates the 70th anniversary of Peronism, the populist movement founded by Eva and President Juan Domingo Peron, the country is in full campaign fever ahead of presidential elections on October 25. The face of Evita, as Argentines call her affectionately, appears on two facades of the labor ministry in Buenos Aires, bearing testimony to the influence she wields over Argentine politics. Kirchner, like Peron, was wife to a president before being elected head of state herself and serving from 2007 until now, and she alludes often to her example. "She continues to fascinate us," Kirchner has said. "Her ideas, her gestures, her actions, her convictions, the rights she gave to her people, are more present than ever." Presidential frontrunner Daniel Scioli's wife, former model Karina Rabolini, has been compared to Peron, as she likes to meet with poor people in far flung, forgotten provinces. But the one who evokes Peron most is her great niece Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, who looks to have a bright political future. - 'Evita, an example' - This 47-year-old divorced mother of a 12-year-old daughter wears her blonde hair in an Evita-style bun and does bear a resemblance to her. An architect by training, Alvarez Rodriguez got into politics after the economic crisis that erupted here in 2001. If Scioli wins the presidency, it is understood that Peron's descendant will play a crucial role in the next government. It is rumored that she might be named minister without portfolio, or speaker of the Chamber of Deputies to build bridges between supporters of Kirchner and Scioli. Alvarez Rodriguez says she is proud to be a natural heir to a woman who has "left her mark on the country forever." But she is discreet about her links to Peron, and prefers to talk about the platform of the leftist Front For Victory, the coalition that has been in power since 2003 and hopes to retain it. "I feel that it is a huge honor to share her blood, to have her in my family. But she is a figure who surpasses me, who surpasses all of us," said Alvarez Rodriguez, granddaughter of Blanca Duarte, one of Evita's older sisters. "The blood of Eva flows in all of those millions of people who love her so much in Argentina and who remember her as if she were alive," she said. At what used to be a home for single mothers that was founded by Peron in 1948, Alvarez Rodriguez has created a museum honoring the late first lady. It is visited more often by foreign tourists than by local Argentines, however. She wears a bracelet that was owned by Peron. And she remembers clearly the first time she learned about "the illuminated one," as Eva's mother called her. "Without a doubt, for any woman involved in politics in Argentina and in Latin America, it is inevitable to refer to Eva Peron. For me it is very powerful, although for years I turned my back on it. At my house we said you cannot rest on Evita's laurels," said Alvarez Rodriguez. Peron's critics "say she introduced the evils of populism, that she distributed social benefits without asking people to make an effort in exchange for them," said political scientist Carlos Fara. "I think that there is a very strong social prejudice among the well-to-do classes." Rabolini added that "regardless of whatever political party you support, Eva Peron has been a great example for everyone." | 5 | 95,125 | news |
A Zimbabwean court on Thursday postponed the case against the professional hunter who led the expedition that killed Cecil the lion, after the prosecutor failed to turn up because of illness. "The matter has been postponed to October 20. The prosecutor is not feeling well," said magistrate Dambudzo Malunga. Theo Bronkhorst is facing charges of "failing to prevent an illegal hunt" over the death of the iconic lion, which was killed by American trophy hunter Walter Palmer with a bow and arrow in July. Bronkhorst has applied to have the case thrown out of court. He reiterated that his papers were in order and said he was optimistic he would be acquitted. "I don't think I have a case to answer," Bronkhorst, 52, told reporters outside the court in Hwange, adding that he felt "frustrated" by the postponement. "The Parks (department) checked my papers and they were in order." The hunt provoked worldwide outrage after it turned out that Cecil was a well-known attraction among visitors to the Hwange National Park and was wearing a tracking collar as part of an Oxford University research project. Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, was hounded on social media over the killing and went into hiding after demonstrations outside his dental practice. He apologised for killing Cecil, a 13-year-old male renowned for his distinctive black mane, and appeared to blame Bronkhorst for misleading him. Zimbabwean authorities on Monday dropped plans to seek Palmer's extradition to face charges, saying his papers were in order and that he was misled into believing that the hunt was legal. | 5 | 95,126 | news |
David Lagercrantz won't be finished with the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series after The GIrl in the Spider's Web . In a statement from publisher Nordstedts, Lagercrantz, who took over the series when original author Stieg Larsson died, says he "just can't resist" keeping the series alive. "It's been so much fun to write and such a breathtaking adventure," he says. According to the publisher , the fifth book will come out in 2017 and the sixth book will follow in probably 2019. The Girl in the Spider's Web sold over 200,000 copies in its first week and quickly became a best seller. Lagercrantz spoke to EW about the book's release this summer and when asked if Larsson had left any outlines for the series behind he said, "No, the only notes I used were the ones I took reading the first three books. I'm kind of a Larsson nerd, so I found lots of threads that I'm sure he would have developed." He continued, "Then, of course, there are questions about the mythology of Lisbeth Salander. She's such an extraordinary character. Her childhood: her evil father beating and raping her mother, Lisbeth fighting back. There are so many questions we haven't had an answer for yet. Why is she such a good hacker, for example? Things like that." | 6 | 95,127 | entertainment |
An engine of a Boeing 747 operated by Iran's Mahan Air detached from the plane Thursday shortly after takeoff from Tehran, causing terror among passengers but no injuries, local media reported. The 747, with 300 passengers on board, was on a flight from the capital's Mehrabad airport to Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when one of its engines crashed into a nearby field, forcing the jumbo to return and make an emergency landing. Iranian media and social networks carried pictures of the crashed engine. Iran desperately wants to upgrade its ageing fleet of 140 operating aircraft, hamstrung by nuclear-related and other sanctions which have also made spare parts difficult to source. The restrictions were partly lifted by an interim agreement on Iran's nuclear programme that came into force in January 2014. This allowed for the sale of spare parts, although direct sales of aircraft remained banned. A final accord reached in Vienna on July 14, expected to be implemented at the start of 2016, will lift the sanctions in exchange for putting curbs on Iran's nuclear programme. Iran plans to buy Airbus and Boeing passenger planes through long-term payment agreements once the accord comes into effect, Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said last month. To purchase new planes, "our negotiations have been mostly with Airbus and Boeing, and we have provided them with our plans and needs until 2020," he said. In August, a civil aviation official said his country planned to buy 80 to 90 Airbus and Boeing planes a year until it has a new 300-strong fleet. | 5 | 95,128 | news |
South Korea's rising star Park Sung-Hyun shot a bogey-free round of 10-under 62 to take the first-day lead at the LPGA championship in the western port city of Incheon. The 22-year-old, who has won three domestic KLPGA titles this season, made five birdies on the front nine and five more on the back nine to set a course record at the par-72, 6,364-yard Sky 72 Ocean Course. Park, who had switched to lighter shafts for the LPGA event due to flu, said her illness may have been a blessing in disguise. "I think it forced me to concentrate even harder," she said. Four strokes behind Park were Solheim Cup stars Gerina Piller and Charley Hull, who are tied at 6-under par. AFP | 1 | 95,129 | sports |
Consumer prices fell for the second straight month in September as cheap gasoline more than offset higher grocery bills. The consumer price index slipped 0.2%, the Labor Department said Thursday. in line with economists' estimates. Gas prices fell 9% after dropping by 4.1% in August. Over the past year, prices are flat. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, picked up 0.2%, Economists expected a 0.1% rise. Core prices are up 1.9% the past year, ticking up from the recent 1.8% pace. Besides the sharp drop in gas prices last month, also falling were apparel prices by 0.3%, used car prices by 0.2%, and airline fares by 0.1%. Those were partly offset by a 0.4% rise in food prices, the biggest increase since May 2014. Rent rose 0.4% and medical care services increased 0.3%. The Federal Reserve is seeking a pickup in feeble inflation to provide it enough evidence to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The central bank held off on a rate hike last month, largely because of persistently weak inflation. Low oil and gasoline prices are pushing down the overall consumer price index. But even core price gains, which the Fed monitors more closely, have fallen short of its 2% annual target, in part because a strong dollar that's holding down import prices. Also, wage growth has been modest despite a 5.1% unemployment rate that's limiting the supply of available workers. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has cited labor market slack, such as part-time employees who want to work full-time and who are allowing employers to keep a lid on earnings growth. | 3 | 95,130 | finance |
Tesla Model S cars can now drive themselves on the highway, but they aren't completely autonomous yet. | 9 | 95,131 | autos |
Lionsgate Halloween in near so there's no better time to search though Netflix for some scary movies. But there are a lot of choices. So to make the rest of your October movie-watching easier, here are the 25 best horror movies you can stream on Netflix right now. Grab a friend and come on in. 25. "Proxy" IFC This disturbing look at three families who have lost a child is not for the faint of heart. WATCH NOW 24. "The Taking of Deborah Logan" Millennium An impressive "found footage" horror that looks at a documentary crew filming a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and finding a lot more. WATCH NOW 23. "Honeymoon" Magnet Releasing Newly married and spending their honeymoon in a rustic cabin, Bea and Paul don't have a care in the world. Until they go mad. WATCH NOW 22. "Maniac" IFC Shot completely from the point-of-view of the psychotic main character, Frank (Elijah Wood), we follow him through his bloody killing spree. WATCH NOW 21. "Oculus" Relativity Media Told in two different timelines, we follow a family as they are tormented by an antique mirror. WATCH NOW 20. "The Host" Magnolia Pictures Bong Joon-ho's mixture of action, horror, and comedy are highlighted perfectly in this tale of a sea monster that emerges from the Seoul's Han River. WATCH NOW 19. "Berberian Sound Studio" IFC A sound engineer (Toby Jones) is hired on an Italian horror movie and begins to realize that the scariest things are happening in the studio he's working at. WATCH NOW 18. "Ravenous" 20th Century Fox This dark comedy/horror sent in 1840s California looks at a group of men (including Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle) stationed at a fort that investigate a gruesome tale of cannibalism. WATCH NOW 17. "Starry Eyes" MPI To obtain fame and fortune, a young starlet enters into a deadly agreement. WATCH NOW 16. "Mimic" Dimension Films Mia Sorvino plays a doctor who thought she was doing New York City a solid by creating an insect that kills cockroaches. Now the genetic bug is out to destroy mankind. WATCH NOW 15. "We Are What We Are" Entertainment One In the midst of a torrential downpour, daughters Iris and Rose are tasked with taking on the bizarre responsibilities for their family's yearly religious ritual. WATCH NOW 14. "Creep" Blumhouse/YouTube Things get creepy for videographer Aaron when he answers the Craigslist ad of Josef to film him for one day. WATCH NOW 13. "Saw" Lionsgate A classic from the "torture porn" era, the first film in the franchise follows two men who are told they have to kill the other or their family will die. WATCH NOW 12. "Re-Animator" Empire Pictures This cult classic looks at a medical student and his girlfriend who get into re-animating dead tissue after meeting a new student. WATCH NOW 11. "Dust Devil" Miramax Richard Stanley's cult classic focuses on a hitchhiker/mutilating murderer who crosses paths with a woman on the run from her abusive husband. WATCH NOW 10. "The House of the Devil" Magnet Releasing Ti West's slow-burn tale of a babysitter working in a creepy house during a lunar eclipse is scarier than you may first realize. WATCH NOW 9. "From Dusk Till Dawn" Dimension Films George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino play outlaw brothers who, along with their hostages, take refuge at a dingy bar. However, it turns out the bar is crawling with vampires. WATCH NOW 8. "Children of the Corn" Anchor Bay Entertainment Based on the Stephen King novel, a young couple is trapped in a remote town where the children believe everyone over 18 must die. WATCH NOW 7. "Let The Right One In" Magnet Releasing A young boy who spends his days getting bullied befriends a mysterious girl who only comes out of her place at night. This different kind of vampire tale is a must-see. WATCH NOW 6. "The Fly" (1958) 20th Century Fox A scientist has a horrific accident when trying to perfect his teleporting machine. WATCH NOW 5. "The Babadook" Matt Nettheim via Sundance Institute A single mother struggling to keep up with her rambunctious son begins to lose it after a strange children's book comes to her doorstep. WATCH NOW 4. "Hellraiser" New World Pictures Clive Barker's classic explores a frightening alternate dimension when a family discovers an ominous puzzlebox. WATCH NOW 3. "The Omen" (1976) 20th Century Fox An American Ambassador (Gregory Peck) can't figure out the death going on around him until he realizes that his adopted son Damien is the anti-Christ. WATCH NOW 2. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" Greycat Films Still considered one of the scariest movies of all time, Michael Rooker plays serial killer Henry Lee Lucas so convincingly that the film was slapped with an X rating when it came out in the mid-1980s. WATCH NOW 1. "Rosemary's Baby" Paramount With its photography, spooky score, and performances, this classic horror from Roman Polanski is still as chilling today as it was when it came out in 1968. Mia Farrow plays a pregnant woman who realizes that the baby she's carrying is not her husband's (John Cassavettes) but the devil's. WATCH NOW Need more? Gravitas Ventures Check out Business Insider's own Brett Arnold and Joe Avella's horror movie podcast "The New Flesh" for more scary movie recommendations. This week's episode centers on the "The Nightmare," a hybrid documentary/horror film about sleep paralysis that is now available to stream on Netflix. WATCH NOW | 6 | 95,132 | entertainment |
But there are only 10 of them. The best part of a box of Lucky Charms has always been the colorful, strangely hard marshmallows, and General Mills has finally recognized it. According to the company's blog , the cereal manufacturer is releasing boxes of marshmallow-only Lucky Charms, a "unicorn of the cereal world." General Mills says that over the years, the Lucky Charms team has received "countless calls, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts" from marshmallow-obsessed fans about a possible cereal-free box. However, only 10 people will be able to get their hands on a box of Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms. As with any stunt food the internet could go crazy for, it is tied to a marketing campaign. This one stars rapper Biz Markie. To win a marshmallow box, interested parties have to put a picture of themselves holding an imaginary box of Lucky Charms on Twitter or Instagram. Markie explains the rules of the contest in a cheesy Lucky Charms-themed cover of his hit single "Just a Friend." Consumerist offers up an alternative to posting weird selfies on the internet as a method of acquiring a box of dehydrated marshmallows just purchase a one pound bag of a knock-off version for $11. Then, use them to make this Lucky Charms cereal milk punch cocktail instead. | 0 | 95,133 | foodanddrink |
Have you ever wished that the characters in your coloring book could come alive leap from the page and dance around, perhaps? Well, good news: There's an app for that. Developed by the tech nerds over at Disney Research (a network of laboratories affiliated with the Walt Disney Company), the new coloring book app turns your doodles into virtual, 3D figures that move around on screen like cartoon characters. Here's how it works: You color in one of the characters inside a regular (but app-compatible) coloring book and launch the Disney coloring app on your phone or tablet. The app accesses the device's camera and uses it to detect which character you are coloring. Then the app uses special software to re-create the two-dimensional coloring-book character as a 3D character on the device's screen. As you color with your crayon, the app applies the same color you're using on the page to the 3D character. [ The Cool Physics of 7 Classic Toys ] The app isn't meant to replace the low-tech practice of putting crayon to paper; it's only meant to "enhance engagement" with this treasured pastime by offering a "magical digital overlay" to accompany the act of coloring , Disney said. "Augmented reality holds unique and promising potential to bridge between real-world activities and digital experiences, allowing users to engage their imagination and boost their creativity," Robert Sumner, principal research scientist at Disney Research, said in a statement . Turning a coloring-book character into a cartoon was not an easy task, especially since virtual characters are 3D and the outlined characters in a coloring book lie flat against the page. Disney Research had to figure out what to do about all the 3D space (they call this space the "occluded areas") that exists on the screen but not inside the coloring book . To fix this issue, the app uses a "lookup map" for each character. This map matches the pixels in the occluded areas with the corresponding areas that the user can actually see. For example, if you color the front of a character's head with a brown crayon, the app will automatically figure out what color might be appropriate for the back of the character's head (perhaps a darker hue, representing the character's hair). Though the app certainly makes coloring a much more high-tech task, Disney said that, so far, it's gotten a good response from users. In the initial tests, the majority of users said the app increased their motivation to color. And 80 percent of trial users said the app increased their feeling of connection to a character, Disney said. However, all of the users who have tried out the new coloring-book app have been adults. It's still not clear whether this "augmented" coloring experience will go over well with kids. Disney researchers, together with others who helped develop the app, presented the augmented reality coloring app at the recent the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2015) in Fukuoka, Japan. The app already launched to the public earlier this year through Disney's publishing company, Disney Publishing Worldwide. Called "Disney Color and Play," the app is available on Google Play and iTunes. Follow Elizabeth Palermo @ techEpalermo . Follow Live Science @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original article on Live Science . | 5 | 95,134 | news |
Christmas is a busy time for retailers, and employers usually beef up their staff for the rush. Here's who's hiring and how to land a part-time job to make a little extra cash this holiday season. | 3 | 95,135 | finance |
The "superbug" MRSA has long been the scourge of hospitals. The second-leading cause of infections acquired during a stay, it can result in dangerous bloodstream infections, surgical site infections, and pneumonia. What makes MRSA especially scary is that it's resistant to all penicillin-like antibiotics like the common drugs methicillin, amoxicillin and oxacillin. But it turns out we may already have a cure for MRSA, and it's been around since 1977 , when it was approved for breast cancer treatment. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have found the common breast cancer drug tamoxifen can enhance white blood cell performance in both lab experiments and in mice. The discovery is also important because, as lead researcher and pharmacy professor Dr. Victor Nizet pointed out in a statement , while the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA grows, the development of new antibiotics has slowed. The finding demonstrates the value of taking a fresh look at known medicines to see if they are affective for illnesses that have no cure. We may have a cure for MRSA, and it's been around since 1977. "We need to open the medicine cabinet and take a closer look at the potential infection-fighting properties of other drugs that we already know are safe for patients," said Nizet. "Through this approach, we discovered that tamoxifen has pharmacological properties that could aid the immune system in cases where a patient is immunocompromised or where traditional antibiotics have otherwise failed." Tamoxifen works by targeting the body's estrogen receptors. About 80 percent of all breast cancers grow in response to the hormone estrogen, so finding a way to block the body's estrogen production is crucial for cancer treatment. But the drug also helps the body produce molecules that help regulate a type of immune cell called neutrophils, which travel to an infection in the body and engulf the invading microorganism. Here's a video of a neutrophil in action: To see if tamoxifen's effects on neutrophils could help stave off infection, the researchers first applied the drug to the white blood cells in a lab container. They saw that neutrophils treated with tamoxifen were better at swallowing up bacteria because they made about three times more of the neutrophil extracellular traps -- the part of the neutrophil that reaches out to engulf the bacteria -- than the non-treated neutrophils. The drug was then tested in mice. Researchers divided 12 mice into two groups and treated them with either tamoxifen or a control drug. The mice were then infected with MRSA, and the researchers treated them again with either the tamoxifen or the control drug. The control mice died after one day, while 35 percent of the mice treated with tamoxifen survived five days. Repeating the experiment, scientists found that eight hours after MRSA infection, mice who had been treated with tamoxifen had a bacterial count that was 100 times lower than the control group. The data helped researchers conclude that the drug helped clear the dangerous bacteria. Hundreds of thousands of woman around the world use tamoxifen every day for breast cancer treatment, and the drug has often been investigated for its infection-fighting powers. Past studies have shown tamoxifen's protective effects against hepatitis C and herpes , as well as the fungus that causes yeast infections. Even though scientists know tamoxifen is safe for people to use, doctors shouldn't start using the drug off-label to fight infections, Nizet explained, saying further study is needed to see how tamoxifen battles infections in human beings. "While physicians often use approved drugs 'off-label' in their best judgement for severe cases in which patients are doing poorly (failing conventional therapy), we feel the proper approach moving forward would be to conduct a trial of patients with antibiotic resistant infections in which tamoxifen would be added to the current standard-of-care (antibiotics) compared to standard-of-care alone," Nizet concluded, saying that if tamoxifen were used to fight infections, it would only be used for a short time, until the patient's own immune system takes over. | 7 | 95,136 | health |
WASHINGTON El Nino this winter will leave a big wet but not necessarily snowy footprint on much of the United States, including parched California, forecasters said Thursday. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration issued its winter forecast and "the driver of this winter's outlook is El Nino," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. El Nino changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter. The weather pattern happens every few years when the Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. This year's is one of the strongest El Ninos on record. NOAA expects a cooler and wetter winter for the South. For California, more precipitation than usual is expected during the critical time that its reservoirs usually fill, but there's no guarantee. Only northern tier states, the Ohio Valley states and Alaska should be dry. While California's drought is likely to lessen in January, even the wettest winter on record 33 years ago didn't have enough rain to wash out the current four-year drought, said NOAA hydrologist Alan Haynes of the California Nevada River Forecast Center. Forecasters see a milder, warmer winter north of the Mason-Dixon line and for all of California and Nevada. Texas and the Deep South are forecast to be cold. Overall, the nation should have 2 percent fewer days when people have to fire up their furnaces, said Halpert. He said the Northeast, where it was chilly and snowy last year, should see 6 percent fewer heating days. Because of El Nino, NOAA is more confident than usual that its forecast is on target 70 percent for a wet South, Halpert said. The federal winter forecast doesn't address snow, just wet or dry and warm or cold. Even though it's likely to be both cooler and wetter in the South, it is usually so warm there that it needs a blast of Arctic air for snowstorms and that's not looking likely, Halpert said. And while the north is likely to be warmer, past El Ninos have had some big snowstorms. Historically, because there's more storminess during El Ninos, there's been a slight but not great increase in snowfall in the Northeast during El Ninos, said NOAA El Nino expert Michelle L'Heureux. But that could be skewed by a few big years in the past like the winter of 2009-10, she said. The Great Lakes area tends to get less snow during El Ninos, she said. Private forecast firm Weather Bell Analytics predicts a swath from New Mexico across to the Carolinas and up the coast to Connecticut will get 50 percent more snow than usual. AccuWeather, another private firm, sees severe thunderstorms in Florida, but forecasts less lake-effect snow around the Great Lakes, occasional mild days for the Midwest and says it will be "not as brutal" for the Northeast. ___ Online: NOAA's seasonal forecast: http://1.usa.gov/1PvqmnZ ___ Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears | 5 | 95,137 | news |
Goldman Sachs (GSBD) delivered quarterly earnings and revenue that fell short of analysts' expectations on Thursday, as market turmoil stemming from concerns about global growth discouraged bond trading and added to uncertainty about the timing of a U.S. interest rate hike. Shares of Goldman were lower in premarket trading immediately following the report. (Get the latest quote here.) (GS) The Wall Street bank said net income fell to $1.33 billion, or $2.90 per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $2.14 billion, or $4.57 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $6.86 billion from $8.39 billion a year ago. Wall Street had expected the company to deliver quarterly earnings per share of $2.91 on $7.13 billion in revenue, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters. Goldman said revenue from fixed-income, currency and commodity trading, fell 33 percent to $1.46 billion. Excluding adjustments, revenue would have fallen 27 percent. The bank posted second-quarter earnings in July that fell sharply from the previous year, hit by a large litigation charge. "During the quarter, the firm recorded $1.45 billion in net provisions for mortgage-related litigation and regulatory matters," the company said, at that time. Goldman ranked No. 1 in global mergers and acquisitions as well as in equity underwriting in the first half of 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data. Shares of the bank have remained mostly flat over the last 12 months, inching up about 0.8 percent. CNBC's Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report. | 3 | 95,138 | finance |
Khloe Kardashian was told to "go to hell" by the owner of the Las Vegas brothel where Lamar Odom was found. Dennis Hof, who runs the Love Ranch in Nevada where Lamar partied for four days before being found unconscious and foaming at the mouth on Tuesday, claimed Khloe's publicist asked him not to talk to the media about the tragic basketball star. The sixty nine year old insisted that he doesn't care what Khloe or her family thinks of him and has been giving multiple interviews about Lamar's time at the ranch where he partied with prostitutes, took herbal Viagra and drank cognac. Hof told multiple outlets "They asked me not to talk to the media. I told her to pass on a message: 'Go to hell'. If she really cared about this man, he wouldn't be at my place with my girls." Khloe - who filed for divorce from Lamar in 2013 amid claims he'd cheated on her and was addicted to cocaine - is making medical decisions for him as there is said to be a backlog in the family law courts. | 8 | 95,139 | video |
Reed Hunt, 5, was skeptical. Sure he'd seen plenty of castles in Disney movies and had read stories where castles figured in the plot, but real castles? He didn't think they existed. That's when his mom Erica decided to bring Reed and his older brother Will to Ashford Castle , which is located in western Ireland on 350 acres along the shores of Lough Corrib, Ireland's largest lakes, and the River Cong famous for its fishing. Reed could not only see a bona-fide castle dating back to 1228, but actually stay there too. By the second day, it was Will, 11, who was most entranced, especially with the opportunity to learn the ancient sport of falconry. "I want to move here," he said. "He's never said that about any other place we've visited," said his mom, a businesswoman from Michigan. He's not the only one who has felt that way. When King George V (then the Prince of Wales) came to hunt in 1905, he famously stayed for two months. (That's why in the newly renovated hotel there is the Prince of Wales Bar and the George V dining room.) Owned for over 100 years by the Guinness family, who were respected as kind employers to their tenant farmers and nature lovers, the iconic castle has been a hotel since 1939. After being acquired by family-run Red Carnation Hotels, a $75 million renovation was just completed last summer making it a destination guaranteed for the vacation memory books for all the American families who flock here. "My granddaughter is a real princess so we had to stay in a castle," said Connie Abodeely, who organized this trip for her herself, husband and her daughter's family, including "princess," Alexis, 10. "I love it," Alexis Samano said. "I never got to stay in a castle before." And with glittering chandeliers, 800 pieces of art to consider, couches and chairs everywhere to sink into (including carefully sourced antiques) bedrooms fit for -- well a princess, complete with canopy beds -- and beautiful gardens, it's a lot better than 13-year-old Gabrielle Samano expected. "I thought it was going to be really old and gross," she explained. Like many grandparents who opt to travel with their grandchildren, Abodeely explained she would rather leave them with wonderful memories and experiences than money. "Very expensive," she said, looking at her grandchildren. "But worth the money." (Summer rates can be $600 a night or more.) Sixty percent of the guests are American and many are multigenerational families like this one. There are decidedly modern touches -- LEGOs delivered by room service so kids can build their own castle, a new 32-room theater for movies, a spa and fitness center with a big indoor pool and a kids' game room and pint-sized robes. There is zip-lining, custom children's books presented to each young guest and two October weekends of Wizard School for young Harry Potter fans, complete with instruction on proper wand etiquette. But this is also a place to celebrate tradition -- learning falconry, the ancient sport of kings, for example (read more about that in my column here ) or archery, taking a morning walk with the Irish wolfhounds and their owner, who oversees the Ireland School of Falconry that operates here. I loved the proper English tea with the three-foot-tall tray of pastries, scones (served with fresh clotted cream, of course) and tiny sandwiches). "The food is my favorite thing," said Cole Harmon, 10, from California, sitting at the next table with his mom. "There is so much cool stuff here," he added. "So different from California!" In addition to the 82-room castle, there is the more casual (and less expensive) 50-room Lodge at Ashford Castle on the castle grounds offering two-story units (under $200 a night in low season. Check out the Christmas packages!) Are you ready to climb a hundred-foot tree? Maybe you'd rather go fly-fishing, clay pigeon shooting, play a round on the nine-hole golf course or take a selfie next to a historic suit of armor. Where else do you have the chance to horseback ride through an "enchanted forest"? "We were looking for leprechauns," said Erica Hunt. Tyler Burne, 11, here with her family and grandmother from Colorado, was especially entranced by all "the old structures." Come for Thanksgiving when rates are as much as 35 percent less and there are special family packages including Irish breakfast (have you tried porridge with a dollop of Irish whiskey?), Thanksgiving dinner in the sumptuous dining room. (No dinner to cook or clean up!), a special family photo shot by a professional photographer and the chance to plant your own "family tree" on the estate, among other amenities. (It's a little over $1,500 for a two-night stay for a family of four.) Another plus: You can clear U.S. customs in Ireland, avoiding long lines when you get back to the United States. And you will find that your dollar will go farther than in past years. The new Executive Chef Philippe Farneau plans to recreate a multi-acre vegetable garden and to invite guests of all ages to forage with him for wild herbs, mushrooms and more. There's a special tasting menu for kids or, Farneau said, they can certainly ask for a half-portion. With so much locally sourced meat, poultry fish and vegetables available, he added, "Everything is right for a foodie destination." No matter their age. "Every kid should come here. It is really fun," said 13-year-old Seren O'Toole, who lives here and likes to come run or bike with her dad on the extensive trails cut by the Guinness family and planted with trees from around the world. "You can go for miles on a horse or on bikes in the countryside." Just be ready, she cautioned, "for wind and rain!" That's when you can cozy up to a roaring fire or linger over the extensive breakfast that, in fact, was inspired by Lord Ardilaun, a scion of the Guinness family, who insisted on serving his guests only the freshest of local foods. Think smoked salmon and ham carved tableside. Are you ready for a traditional Irish breakfast with black-and-white pudding, pork sausages, smoked fish rashers, breakfast mushrooms and eggs? Another scone, please -- and one more slice of ham! (For more on Eileen's recent trip to Ireland, read her trip diaries on TakingtheKids.com Follow @takingthekids on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.) | 2 | 95,140 | travel |
We wouldn't expect anything less from the world's reigning monarchs. Drottningholm Palace Built in the late 16th Century, Drottningholm Palace serves as the private residence for Sweden's royal family. Visitors come from across the globe to visit the stunning baroque garden, as well as the palace theatre, which has not undergone any major updates since it was finished in 1766 . Buckingham Palace Perhaps the most well known palace in the world, Buckingham Palace is the British Monarchy's London residence, and is also where royal births are announced , most recently being the arrival of the adorable Princess Charlotte . Drottningholm Palace Built in the late 16th Century, Drottningholm Palace serves as the private residence for Sweden's royal family. Visitors come from across the globe to visit the stunning baroque garden, as well as the palace theatre, which has not undergone any major updates since it was finished in 1766 . Prince's Palace of Monaco The Prince's Palace of Monaco serves as the private residence for the Princely Family of Monaco, and is renowned for the beauty of its Throne Room and Mirror Room. The palace was also once the home of American movie star turned Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly. Royal Palace Of Norway The Royal Family of Norway has many residences around the country, but the Royal Palace in Oslo is the most important, as it is where the King and Queen live, and the monarchy's daily work is carried out. The Palace Park, which surrounds the palace on all sides, is one of Oslo's oldest and largest parks . The Royal Palace Rabat Morocco's famed Royal Palace sits in the heart of Rabat, giving the royal family solace in the midst of the city. The King's private mosque is also located directly across from the palace. Tokyo Imperial Palace Japan's royal family calls the water-surrounded Tokyo Imperial Palace their home, which is actually comprised of several buildings . The one the Emperor and his kin live is known as the Imperial Residence. Berg Castle Berg Castle has played host to Luxembourg's royal family since 1845, though it was briefly occupied by the Germans during World War II. After the war, the royal family restored the castle and moved back in in 1964. Royal Palace of Madrid The official residence of Spain's royal family, the Royal Palace of Madrid , is an ornate structure surrounded by beautiful gardens that draw tourists from all over the world. | 4 | 95,141 | lifestyle |
World number one Novak Djokovic sped into the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Feliciano Lopez in just 71 minutes as he continued his magical run in China on Thursday. As Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga toiled, the unstoppable Serb dominated Spain's Lopez as he brought up his 14th win in a row including an unbroken sequence of 16 straight sets. Rafael Nadal's recent resurgence, meanwhile, gathered pace when he beat Milos Raonic 6-3, 7-6 (7/6) to set up a quarter-final with Kevin Anderson, who ousted Japan's Kei Nishikori 7-6 (12/10), 7-6 (7/3). Tomas Berdych dispatched Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3, and French Open champion Stan Wawrinka won an almighty tussle with Marin Cilic 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4. AFP | 1 | 95,142 | sports |
LONDON In a recent episode of Showtime's hit series " Homeland ," the former C.I.A. agent Carrie Mathison is escorted by a Hezbollah militant past the wall of a fictional Syrian refugee camp covered with graffiti in Arabic. Attentive viewers who read Arabic, however, might have noticed something awry. Among the messages spray-painted on the walls: " 'Homeland' is racist," "There is no 'Homeland' " and " 'Homeland' is not a show." The subversive messages seemingly escaped the notice of the producers of the television series. Sign Up For NYT Now's Morning Briefing Newsletter On Wednesday, an Egyptian artist, Heba Y. Amin , and two other artists, Caram Kapp and Stone, took credit for the graffiti , saying it was a subtle protest of false and misleading stereotypes in the series, which has been heavily criticized for its portrayals of Muslims. Ms. Amin said she and her colleagues had been hired by the show's producers to add authenticity to the camp depicted in the episode Season 5, Episode 2 aired in the United States on Sunday and filmed on the outskirts of Berlin. The trio, who call themselves "Arabian Street Artists," said they had used the opportunity to vent their "political discontent" with the show. "The series has garnered the reputation of being the most bigoted show on television for its inaccurate, undifferentiated and highly biased depiction of Arabs, Pakistanis, and Afghans, as well as its gross misrepresentations of the cities of Beirut, Islamabad- and the so-called Muslim world in general," the artists said in their statement on Ms. Amin's website, asserting that they had "hacked" the series. "For four seasons, and entering its fifth, 'Homeland' has maintained the dichotomy of the photogenic, mainly white, mostly American protector versus the evil and backwards Muslim threat." But Alex Gansa , the show runner and co-creator of "Homeland," acknowledged the ruse. "We wish we'd caught these images before they made it to air," he said, "However, as 'Homeland' always strives to be subversive in its own right and a stimulus for conversation, we can't help but admire this act of artistic sabotage." Ms. Danes has won two Emmys and two Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison, an intelligence agent who struggles with an emotional disorder. But the series itself has been consistently criticized for inaccurate and inconsistent portrayals. For example, the first season suggested that Al Qaeda was an "Iranian venture" that had sought revenge against the United States on behalf of Iran. Al Qaeda is a Sunni Arab extremist network, which some officials in Shiite Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, consider to be an even worse adversary than Israel. Beirut's Hamra Street a lively, storied shopping area where it is normal to see women in skimpy clothing as well as those in headscarves, and where foreigners walk around openly is portrayed in one episode as a crumbling place with militia shootings imminent on every corner and foreigners who must hide themselves. Ms. Amin and her colleagues said the show demonsrated its insensitivity by " naming a key terrorist character after the former real-life Pakistani ambassador to the United States ." (The character is Haissam Haqqani; the ambassador, Husain Haqqani , who served from 2008 to 2011, is an eminent scholar who has written frequently and highly critically of the Pakistan government for The New York Times and other publications.) The artists said that they were first contacted in June by a friend who was active in the street art scene in Berlin. It was then that their plan took root. "It was our moment to make our point by subverting the message using the show itself," they wrote. The three said that that had been given a set of images of pro-Assad graffiti to emulate at the set of a fictional camp on the Lebanese-Syrian border, and were instructed to make theirs apolitical. They said they were given two days to complete the task, and speculated that the set designers were too busy to notice the ruse. | 5 | 95,143 | news |
The Hungarian government announced Thursday it had completed its construction of a fence alongside its southern border with Croatia, to stem the massive daily influx of migrants. "We are ready to close the border. The security closure has been completed on the Hungary-Croatia border, the government is now able with the help of the police and army to seal the border," government spokesman Janos Lazar told reporters in Budapest. The government would decide on a date to completely seal the border in the coming days, he said, adding that the closure could happen before Croatia's parliamentary election on November 8. The new barrier has raised tensions between Budapest and Zagreb, which said the fence was not a solution to the crisis. Lazar's announcement came as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was set to attend an EU summit in Brussels as European leaders grapple with the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II. EU member state Hungary has been one of the major transit countries for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees travelling up through the western Balkans in their quest to reach countries further north such as Germany. More than 386,000 migrants have crossed into the country so far in 2015, with the number likely to exceed 700,000 by the end of the year, according to Hungarian authorities. The vast majority continue their journey on to Germany and Scandinavian countries. Hungary started building its fence near the Beremend crossing point with Croatia in mid-September, just days after it sealed its border with Serbia, cutting off the main entry point into the EU via the Balkans route. This diverted the flow of people desperately fleeing war and poverty -- mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- into Croatia. But Zagreb has since been transporting them to the Hungarian border, and Hungary takes them to the Austrian frontier. | 5 | 95,144 | news |
Lantern App With today's always-on world, it's hard to not feel overwhelmed. A little stress here and there is a good thing it actually improves our cognitive functioning . But when anxiety reaches chronic levels, we usually turn to a trusted therapist. The only problem is we typically have to wait a few days (or sometimes weeks) to see him or her. That's why we looked to Lantern : The company offers web and app-based therapy through personalized, one-on-one coaching. Start by taking a five-minute quiz to determine the best track stress, anxiety, or body image and coach for you. We settled on the anxiety track and chatted with our coach to determine how frequently we planned to check in and what we wanted to get out of the program. Each time you log in, you to send your coach a quick update. Then you're treated to a 10-minute lesson, where you learn a tool or technique based upon the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy . We love how Lantern spoon-feeds these strategies, from tracking automatic thoughts to cognitive reframing, in an easy-to-digest way. (We applied them to real-world situations almost instantly.) Best of all, if life throws you any curveballs, your coach is just one click away. Anytime a pressing issue came up, our coach responded within a few hours. Lantern is a bit pricy it'll set you back $49 per month but it's a bargain compared to what you'd pay to see a therapist in person (and it's way more convenient). I Want to Try This! | 7 | 95,145 | health |
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has set her sights on victory in regional elections next year but has played down the prospect of a new independence referendum in the near future. | 8 | 95,146 | video |
Meteorologist Domenica Davis and Ari Sarsalari welcome you to The Lift and give to a rundown of Winter weather coming to the Northeast. | 8 | 95,147 | video |
By Richa Naidu and Olivia Oran Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) profit plunged 38 percent, its second straight quarterly drop, depressed by a steep decline in bond trading revenue triggered by concern about global growth. With the exception of investment banking, which benefited from a surge in takeovers, revenue fell in all of the bank's major businesses, from investment management to bond, currency and commodities trading.The results are the latest example of how a grim trading environment, exacerbated in the most recent quarter by worries about the global impact of a Chinese economic slowdown, is gutting Wall Street. "We experienced lower levels of activity and declining asset prices during the quarter, reflecting renewed concerns about global economic growth," Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement on Thursday. Goldman said revenue from fixed-income, currency and commodity (FICC) trading, fell 33 percent to $1.46 billion, the biggest year-over-year drop since the third quarter of 2013, when it was squeezed by concern about tighter monetary policy. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) also have reported falling revenue from bond trading, but as deposit-taking banks they are less dependent on such income than Goldman. Both JPMorgan and Bank of America reported 11 percent declines in FICC revenue, while Citi's revenue from the business fell about 16 percent. Arch-rival Morgan Stanley (MS.N) will report results on Monday. "Investors sit it out in such a market. They don't trade," said Erik Oja, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ. "Unless such a market rout happens again, I would expect fourth-quarter trading revenues at the banks to improve compared to third-quarter." However, JPMorgan CFO Marianne Lake offered little hope for a quick rebound, saying earlier this week that analyst estimates for the current quarter appeared to be too high in light of slow market trading in the first two weeks of October. Goldman's shares reversed losses in late day trading and gained 3 percent as the broader market rallied. The bank said its net income applicable to common shareholders fell 38 percent - to $1.33 billion, or $2.90 per share, from $2.14 billion, or $4.57 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of $2.91 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net revenue fell 18.2 percent to $6.86 billion, far short of the average estimate of $7.12 billion. Return on equity fell to 7 percent from 11.8 percent in the same quarter last year - far short of the 30 percent range the bank achieved before the financial crisis. Many investors argue that banks need at least a 10 percent ROE to cover their cost of capital. Goldman made no mention of Blankfein's cancer in its results statement or on a later conference call. The long-time CEO said last month he had a "highly curable" form of lymphoma and would be able to work mostly as normal during treatment. BRIGHT SPOT Goldman has stressed the bank's commitment to trading, even as other banks have pulled back or exited the business to focus on less-volatile activities that require less capital. New rules aimed at improving banking stability also discourage banks from trading off their own balance sheets. FICC contributed just 21.3 percent to revenue in the latest quarter, compared with about 40 percent at its peak. One bright spot was investment banking, where debt underwriting and M&A advisory stood out. Revenue in the unit rose 6.3 percent to $1.56 billion. The bank led U.S. target M&A advisory work this year with$522.2 billion in deals as of Sept. 18, according to Thomson Reuters data. JP Morgan was second with $460.4 billion. Revenue from equities trading rose 9 percent to $1.75 billion, matching the performance of JPMorgan, but lagging gains at Citi and Bank of America. Goldman's equity underwriting revenue more than halved to $190 million, registering its weakest quarter in three years as many firms delayed going public . U.S. IPO activity this year was down 42 percent as of Oct. 9, according to Thomson Reuters data. Goldman is ramping up its investment management division, with the hopes of offsetting volatility in its trading arm. The bank grew its total assets slightly to $1.19 trillion, acquired impact investing firm Imprint Capital and launched new products during the quarter including its first-ever exchange traded funds. Investment management accounted for 21 percent of the company's revenue during the quarter, up from 17 percent in the year-ago period. Still revenue from the business was down 3 percent at $1.42 billion. Revenue from Goldman's investing and lending division fell 60 percent from the same quarter a year ago, as the weak stock market took a toll on the bank's equity investments. The bank spent 16 percent less on employee compensation in the quarter. Up to Thursday's close of $184.96, Goldman's shares had fallen 4.6 percent since the start of the year, underperforming the S&P 500 index (.SPX), which lost 1.7 percent. (Reporting by Richa Naidu and Oliva Oran in New York; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Rachel Chitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Christian Plumb) | 3 | 95,148 | finance |
Mia Wasikowska was sporting her pixie cropped hair at the premiere of her latest film Crimson Peak. She showed off some skin in a off the shoulder dress, and added glamour to her look with a red lip. Jessica Chastain also appears in the fantasy horror film. She wore and eye catching green gown that made her auburn locks pop. Her dress featured some pearl details and hugged her curvy figure. Tom Hiddleston tackles the role of the male lead; he flattered his frame in a slim cut suit with its blue hue matching his eyes. | 8 | 95,149 | video |
When billionaire hedgies and Wall Street's wealthy head to Miami, they're increasingly flocking to one building: Faena House. The 18-story waterfront tower in Miami Beach has quickly become the favorite digs of several financial "Masters of the Universe" from New York, London and other major cities. According to sales records obtained by CNBC, billionaire financial titans who have purchased units in the new building include: Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Apollo Global's Leon Black and Brevan Howard's Alan Howard. Real estate analysts and brokers compared Faena to New York City's 15 Central Park West, the Robert Stern-designed condominium tower that counts Blankfein and several billionaire hedge-funders as residents. The residence quickly became New York City's "it" building when it was completed in 2008. "It's like 15 CPW in that it's another hedge-fund building that's become an outlier and really stands out," said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal and research firm Miller Samuel. "Every developer hopes to create this kind of building, but they don't always click." Faena is already clicking even though construction just finished last month. As previously reported , Griffin purchased the penthouse at Faena for $60 million a record price for Miami, according to people familiar with the deal. The penthouse includes more than 12,500 square feet of living space and a massive outdoor deck with a 70-foot-long infinity pool. According to real estate documents, Blankfein purchased a unit on the eighth floor for $9.5 million, and British billionaire investor Howard paid $14.5 million for a unit on the fourth floor. Craig Effron, co-founder of Scoggin Capital Management, paid $9.2 million for a unit on the floor six, while Brian Kwait of Odyssey Investment Partners paid $9.8 million for one on nine. Documents also show thatApollobillionaire Black also purchased a unit in the building, but the purchase price and floor has yet to be disclosed. But not everyone in Faena is a finance titan some are simply rich. Documents show that other residents include Florida sugar baron Jose Fanjul, who bought a $5.2 million unit on the eighth floor; Lionsgate Entertainment's Mark Rachesky, who paid $13.5 million for two 11th floor units; and Daryl Foster, CEO of Addison Lee, who paid $8.8 million for a seventh floor unit. So what makes Faena so special? Like 15 CPW, it was designed by a so-called "starchitect" in this case, Norman Foster. The building's swooping, clean lines are complemented by the Faena's stunning views of the water and prime Miami Beach location just north of the Art Deco quarter. The building has all the amenities desired by today's super-rich a gym, pool, spa, concierge and underground garage. "It's the combination of everything that makes it work," Miller said. | 3 | 95,150 | finance |
(Reuters Health) - Training patients to practice deep relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation - long touted to ease stress and anxiety - may also lead them to make fewer doctor visits, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers analyzed data on more than 4,400 patients who were referred by their health care providers to the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where they received what's known as relaxation response training. Compared to the year before the training, in the year afterward, these people had an average 43 percent reduction in their use of health services. Over the same period, health services use was little changed for another group of 13,000 similar patients who didn't receive relaxation response training. Plenty of evidence over the last few decades has linked practices like meditation and yoga to beneficial physiological changes in the body ranging from better cardiac function to reduced inflammation, noted lead study author Dr. James Stahl, director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General. What the current study offers is a link between these forms of stress reduction and fewer visits to the doctor, Stahl added by email. "Meditation and yoga reduce stress, which in turn promotes wellness, which in turn reduces seeking and using healthcare resources," said Stahl, who practices at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The relaxation response elicited by practices such as meditation, prayer and yoga is meant to help people counteract the toxic impact of chronic stress by slowing down their breathing and relaxing their muscles. In yoga, for example, a sun salutation is a series of poses done in a fluid sequence and designed to focus on breathing and improving muscle strength and flexibility. Such relaxation techniques can be an antidote to the fight-or-flight response, a survival mechanism that kicks in when people feel threatened and experience a surge in stress hormones that cause muscles to tense and the heart to race, Stahl and his colleagues write in PLOS ONE. For the current study, the researchers reviewed medical billing records for patients treated throughout Partners HealthCare, a system that includes Massachusetts General and several other Boston-area healthcare facilities. All the patients in the treatment group had gone through a Relaxation Response Resiliency Program (3RP) at Mass General's Benson-Henry Institute. One year after their training, these patients' clinical visits had decreased by 42 percent, lab use declined by 44 percent and procedures dropped by 21 percent, compared to the year before training. Emergency department visits dropped to about 1.7 a year from 3.7 in the year before the intervention. One limitation of the study is that it focused only on utilization, not on the cost of care or outcomes of the relaxation response training such as the potential to reduce mortality, the authors acknowledge. This makes it impossible to assess whether the intervention is cost-effective. Also, because the mind-body training provided in the study integrated numerous techniques, it's not possible to tease out the impact individual activities such as meditation or cognitive skills training might have in isolation, said Bei-Hung Chang, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester who wasn't involved in the study. Even so, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that these practices can reduce health costs, Chang said by email. "One of the obstacles in integrating mind and body techniques into the health care system is the lack of empirical evidence from rigorous studies," Chang said. "The findings from this study . . . could serve to overcome this obstacle and hopefully convince those patients and clinicians who are looking for empirical evidence to endorse these techniques." SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1GdBa80 PLOS ONE, online October 13, 2015. | 7 | 95,151 | health |
Doha, Qatar - Al Jazeera Media Network has denied accusations by the Nauru government that it failed to go through the "proper channels" while trying to obtain press visas to report on the Pacific island's controverial detention centre. Asylum-seekers are being detained in Nauru after being refused entry into neighbouring Australia, and reports suggest abuses may have occured on the island and that conditions are "unsafe". When Al Jazeera tried to apply for media visas to report from Nauru, the network was told "all media application is not approved". A story about the matter was later televised and put online. Nauru's government said: " Al Jazeera didn't go through proper channels ... [and has received] misinformation" during the attempt to get press visas. Al Jazeera responded to the government's claim noting it had communicated directly with an official at Nauru's migration office who provided visa instructions. However, its Australia bureau later received an email saying, "Media visa is not approved." "As a news organisation Al Jazeera ensures all sides are given the option to be heard," its press office said. "Al Jazeera requests the Nauru government put forward a spokesperson to discuss this case and the detention of refugees on Nauru." | 5 | 95,152 | news |
Shares in First Data Corp rose 2.6 percent in their debut on Thursday, valuing the payment processor at $14.42 billion in the largest initial public offering this year. First Data, controlled by private equity firm KKR & Co LP , raised $2.56 billion by selling 160 million shares at $16 each per share, below the indicated range of $18 to $20. The IPOs of several companies have been priced below their expected ranges since August due to market volatility. The company, which was first spun off in an IPO by American Express in the early nineties, was taken private in 2007 by KKR for about $29 billion - one of the biggest leveraged buyouts before the financial crisis. "Most IPOs have had to discount heavily to make them attractive. It's interesting that First Data cut its price and not the offering size," said Francis Gaskins, president of research firm IPO Desktop. Atlanta-based First Data, which hived off money-transfer giant Western Union in 2006, plans to use proceeds from the IPO to reduce its debt of about $21 billion. (Reporting by Rachel Chitra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Ted Kerr and Anil D'Silva) | 3 | 95,153 | finance |
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) has been mighty good to many investors. After all, NFLX stock raced up 10-fold from 2008 to 2011, creating a ton of wealth at a time when many traders desperately needed something to be happy about in their portfolio. And, of course, Netflix is a consumer powerhouse with many loyal users who prefer the streaming service to cable. Netflix is a true "disruptor" in the sense that this company has almost single-handedly called into question the future of cable television. But now, the show's over. Sure, some pundits have said this before including me in 2012 after the ill-advised Qwikster debacle that alienated many customers and resulted in headwinds for Netflix earnings and a PR disaster for CEO Reed Hastings. And at every turn, NFLX stock proved them wrong. Not Even "Kold" Water Can Wake GMCR Stock Up But now that the company has hit a wall on subscriber growth, the whole story line is looking shaky. Netflix Earnings Data Hints at Problems Sure, Netflix earnings met expectations. But keep in mind that those earnings were a meager 7 cents a share. In fact, year-to-date in 2015, the total adjusted profit of Netflix is just $245 million in total awfully slim for a company that was valued at around $50 billion before the recent dive in NFLX stock price. Yes, there are plenty of tech stocks that survive on very thin profits as they grow, notably Amazon.com (AMZN), which has staged an 80% rally in the last 12-months. It's not just the earnings that are a red flag, however, but also the top-line growth potential. After all, the reason for the 10% dive in the last few days has been a shortfall in U.S. subscriber growth. Netflix brought in 880,000 new U.S. customers last quarter, a significant shortfall from the nearly 1.2 million expected by Wall Street. That's bad enough, but its excuse of "involuntary churn" because many users were bounced as their credit/debit card numbers were changed and they didn't update billing info? That's just about the craziest thing I've ever heard. Maybe a small amount could be attributed to something like that, but nothing that would add up to a 26% shortfall from subscriber-growth targets. Furthermore, there seems to be trouble on the margins front. Netflix earnings filings show the cost of revenue for U.S. subscribers grew 5.3% sequentially vs. just 3.7% actual revenue growth quarter-over-quarter. That's not exactly a death knell considering that the long-term trend has shown revenue growing faster than expenses, but it's still not a good sign as NFLX stock investors are concerned about the cost of content particularly considering international streaming is still operating at a loss. Look, I'm not going to sit here and make a valuation argument based on the forward price-to-earnings of 300-something, because those arguments are oversimplified. But I do think that it's safe to say that kind of premium on future earnings should be offset by some certainty of material growth in the very near future, and I don't see that in the latest Netflix earnings. In fact, I see a risk that the cost of content may be rising for NFLX stock and that the once-reliable subscriber growth in its key U.S. market may not be as solid as thought. When a momentum play like Netflix stock sees red flags like this, a pullback is natural. And if those troubling signs aren't corrected quickly, it could mean a very painful period for NFLX stock. I would be very reluctant to hold here given these factors, and it may be wise to take some profits off the table if you own Netflix. Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor's Guide to Finding Great Stocks. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Write him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP. More From InvestorPlace Netflix Stock Can't Sustain Its Current Valuation (NFLX) 7 Doomed Stocks That Could DEVASTATE Your Retirement Planning 6 Explosive Tech Stocks to Buy Now | 3 | 95,154 | finance |
Even after taking a 2 1 series lead on the Dodgers in the NLDS, the Mets knew that in order to win, they would have to get through either the best pitcher on the planet or the best pitcher this year. Having been Kershaw-ed in Game 4 on Tuesday, here's what they now must do: beat Zack Greinke in Los Angeles, where he has started 18 times this year and never had a bad game. Good luck with that. You have to go back to Greg Maddux in the mid-1990s to find another starting pitcher who was as on point in almost every start all season as Greinke was this year. He has been particularly sharp at Dodger Stadium: Greinke has allowed 21 earned runs in 18 home starts, including Game 2 against New York. He is 11 1 with a 1.52 ERA at Dodger Stadium this year (Los Angeles is 14 4 in those 18 Greinke games) and has never allowed more than three runs or pitched fewer than six innings. The Mets' best plan of attack is to wear him down rather than to beat him outright; make this a bullpen game by being the rare team to make Greinke work. Greinke may be among the most precise pitchers in the game, but he's not the workhorse that is Clayton Kershaw; he has thrown more than 115 pitches only once all year. Of course, that's also a nod to Greinke's efficiency: Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Greinke has the uncanny ability to become more precise with his pitches if his pitch count is rising too rapidly in the early innings. The Mets do have a superb pitcher of their own starting the game in Jacob deGrom, who pitched seven shutout innings to win Game 1 and is fully capable of matching Greinke zero for zero. The key will be how many pitches it takes each man to get those zeroes. Keep an eye on foul balls by the Mets; they will be little victories. Also bear this in mind: New York had better keep this a close, low-scoring game. Since June 23, 2014, Greinke is 23 0 when the Dodgers score more than two runs. It's been a historic season for him, especially for how many times he has brought his A game to his 33 starts. Just how tough is Greinke at Dodger Stadium? Consider every pitcher since 1914 who made at least 47 starts in any ballpark. No combination of pitcher and ballpark has been tougher to beat than Greinke at Dodger Stadium: Pitcher Ballpark W-L Pct. Zack Greinke Dodger Stadium 29 5 .853 Bob Feller League Park 46 9 .836 John Tudor Busch Stadium 35 8 .814 Sandy Koufax Dodger Stadium 57 15 .792 2. Mic drop The botched and then corrected call by home plate umpire Dale Scott in ALDS Game 5 is understandable. When was the last time anybody saw the catcher (in this case Russell Martin of the Blue Jays) flip a return throw to the pitcher off the hand of the batter (Shin-soo Choo of the Rangers) with a runner (Texas' Rougned Odor) on third base? It was such a freakish play that the umpires had no idea how to handle it for several minutes, creating confusion and leaving the Rogers Centre crowd incensed. But hopefully the incident, and especially its lack of clarity, will spur baseball to introduce greater transparency in how the game is administered. Such calls and also the outcome of replay challenges pass all too often without any clarification to paying customers and viewers about what just happened. Imagine NFL referees without wireless microphones to explain rulings. Sound crazy? That's how Major League Baseball treats extraordinary circumstances like what we saw Tuesday. There is no excusing the behavior of the Rogers Centre fans, who threw debris including water bottles and beer cans from as high as the upper deck onto the field. One bottle whizzed past a uniformed police officer standing between the first base line and the Rangers' dugout. A man in the first row of the field boxes, behind the backstop, was hit from above with debris. Would an explanation from an umpire into a wireless microphone explaining the controversial play in question have prevented all of that? It's hard to know for sure, but transparency can only help. What happened in Toronto on Wednesday was most unfortunate. But if it leads to MLB pushing the crew chief of an umpiring crew to wear a microphone, it was not for naught. • MORE MLB: Full postseason schedule, start times, TV listings 3. Are the Rangers the new Red Sox? In their 55 years of their franchise's existence, the Rangers are now 4 9 in games in which they had a chance to clinch a postseason series. What happened in ALDS Game 5 wasn't as devastating as blowing a two-run, ninth-inning lead and a one-run, 10th-inning lead both with two outs and two strikes against St. Louis in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, but it will have its own place in Texas infamy. It also builds upon the Rangers' growing reputation as the heirs to the Red Sox for enduring several painful endings to otherwise successful seasons. Forget, if you can, the errant Martin throw and the majestic Jose Bautista home run. (But don't forget the Bautista epic dig-me pose and the bat flip following the blast, because surely Sam Dyson and the Rangers won't; they already had been tired of his bat flips in disgust after pop-ups in the series and his complaints on strike calls. To be continued in 2016.) The story of the latest Texas Stranger happenings was the mishandling of three routine plays in the seventh inning with a 3 2 lead and Cole Hamels on the mound. First, shortstop Elvis Andrus closed his glove too soon, causing a routine leadoff grounder to clank off the heel of his glove. Then he couldn't handle an awkward throw from first baseman Mitch Moreland, who spiked an easy throw into the dirt at second while trying to get a forceout. Finally, Andrus dropped a true throw from third baseman Adrian Beltre for what should have been an easy force on a bunt play. None were difficult plays; all reflected tension on Texas' part in the late innings of an elimination game. The Rangers should have been off the field and in the dugout, six outs away from advancing to the ALCS. Instead, after three weak grounders that never left the infield, they faced a bases-loaded, no-outs crisis. With the floodgates opened, the Blue Jays scored four times, the last three on Bautista's long home run to leftfield, and that is why Texas' season is over. The Rangers played the seventh inning tight. It's a difficult way for them to accept the end of a surprisingly successful season, one that began with ace Yu Darvish blowing out his elbow in spring training and ended with them as AL West champions. "You've got 15 minutes to feel sorry for yourselves," manager Jeff Banister said back then. His team did move on, not only from that injury but also from a 47 52 record as late as July 28. But all of it recedes now because of The Seventh Inning, a disaster of infamous proportions. For decades and generations, a Red Sox fan could recite the franchise's litany of disasters in shorthand: Slaughter and Dent and Buckner and Boone, just to name a few. What happened in the seventh inning Wednesday is not something that lingers just through the winter; it hardens in the amber of memory. | 1 | 95,155 | sports |
Four current and former Papa John's franchisees have agreed to pay out nearly $500,000 to New York workers in order to settle a wage theft investigation, New York's attorney general and the U.S. Labor Department announced on Thursday. The settlement resolves allegations from workers that they were shorted on pay at nine Papa John's restaurants in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. According to the state, the franchisees who run the stores admitted to violating minimum wage and overtime laws. The back wages and damages will be doled out to 250 workers who worked at the stores stretching back to 2008. "Once again, we've found Papa John's franchises in New York that are ripping off their workers and violating critical state and federal laws," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. "Once again, I call on Papa John's and other fast food companies to step up and stop the widespread lawlessness plaguing your businesses and harming the workers who make and deliver your food." Since the stores in question were operated by franchisees who are technically the workers' employers, Papa John's International, Inc., was not a party to the settlement. A Papa John's spokesman did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the announcement. Wage theft is typically treated as a civil matter and often goes unpunished in many states. But Schneiderman's office has aggressively pursued wage theft as a criminal act, with Papa John's stores frequently in the investigative crosshairs. In July, the attorney general's office arrested Abdul Jamil Khokhar, owner of nine Papa John's stores in New York, accusing him of breaking minimum wage and overtime laws. According to his plea agreement, Khokhar could serve up to 60 days in jail. In another case, the attorney general's office secured a judgment of nearly $3 million against two other Papa John's franchisees. In a statement Thursday, David Weil, head of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor, said franchisees who break the rules undercut high-road employers. "Although franchising is a legitimate business model, it can also be associated with practices that lead to violations of labor standards," Weil said. State and federal regulators have been challenging the franchise system on a number of legal fronts in recent years. The National Labor Relations Board has moved to name fast food companies like McDonald's as "joint employers" alongside franchisees when it comes to labor law violations. Meanwhile, workers who've filed class-action suits against their franchisee employers have also sought to have the big fast food brands named as co-defendants in the cases. "Franchisees must understand that they are not exempt from the law," Weil said. | 3 | 95,156 | finance |
The U.S. has lost its crown as the country with the most billionaires. According to a report released Thursday, China minted 242 billionaires over the past year, leading to a nearly 70 percent jump in its billionaire population. The country's 596 billionaires surpassed the number of billionaires in the United States, at 537, according to the Hurun Rich List . Released Thursday, the report found China produced nearly five billionaires a week during the year ended Aug. 14 . To be sure, the list was created at the beginning of China's stock market swoon so it's unclear how much wealth was destroyed during the remainder of August and September. At the time of the list's cutoff, stock markets were already 30 percent off their June peak, but have dropped another 14 percent since. "Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever, and creating more wealth than any country has ever done before in a year," said Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun Report's chairman and chief researcher. The numbers from Hurun, a Chinese-based wealth research and luxury-advisory company, differ from those of Forbes , which said in March that China had only 213 billionaires, compared with 536 in the U.S. (For more on the fuzzy math of calculating billionaires see here .) Yet they nonetheless suggest that despite widespread fears of a slowdown in China's economy and the government's crackdown on the wealthy, the Chinese super-rich continue to prosper. According to the report, the total combined wealth of China's billionaires was $2.1 trillion. The richest man in China as of August was Wang Jianlin, chairman of conglomerate Dalian Wanda, who snatched the top spot back from Jack Ma of Alibaba (BABA) . With a net worth of $34.4 billion, Wang Jianlin and Dalian Wanda have made a string of high-profile purchases in recent years, including a $20.4 million Monet he bought at Sotheby's this spring. Technology was the fastest-growing source of wealth among the top 10, according to Hurun, yet real estate was still the largest source of wealth for those Chinese rich. Five of the top 10 richest billionaires made their money from real estate. The government crackdown on corruption among the Chinese rich also has had ripple effects for several names on the billionaire list. Hurun said that 16 of the people on the 2014 rich list are in "varying degrees of trouble with the authorities," with one in jail, four awaiting trial, seven under investigation, one under arrest and three with "whereabouts unknown." According to the report, 95 percent of the Chinese rich are self-made. "The influence of these top entrepreneurs is growing, as we saw in September when President Xi took nine of the Hurun Rich List in his official 15-strong entourage to visit the U.S.," Hoogewerf said. | 3 | 95,157 | finance |
5 Habits That Are Costing You Big Money The Cost of Your Daily Rituals When looking for room in your budget, it's sometimes easier to focus on the big things: Cut the $50-a-month gym membership you rarely use. Ditch cable or satellite and save $100 a month.Sure, reducing your big monthly bills will make an impact, but looking at the little things you do on a daily basis might add up to serious savings. Of course, the fact that you do these things regularly might make them harder to give up, but if you really need to reduce your spending , your little, everyday habits may be the place to start. Know too, that it's not all or nothing. If you're now going to Starbucks five days a week, cutting back to two will still save you money without denying you the experience entirely. Smoking The average pack of cigarettes costs $6.25, according to 2015 data from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, but prices vary widely by state (often because of taxes), where you are within that state and what brand of cigarettes you're buying. About 77% of smokers do so on a daily basis, and among that population, people smoke an average of 14.2 cigarettes a day, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.At 14.2 cigarettes a day for 30 days, the average smoker goes through 21.3 packs a month (a pack has 20 cigarettes), adding up to about $133 in monthly cigarette expenses. Quitting smoking isn't easy, and depending on the method you use, quitting can be pretty expensive itself, but in the long term you may end up saving thousands of dollars you previously would have spent on cigarettes. There are also health benefits to quitting smoking, which could add to your savings. Potential annual savings (more or less): $1,596 Drinking According to Gallup data, 63% of Americans drink alcohol, with men having an average of nearly one drink per day and women averaging less than half a drink per day. Depending on what (and where) you're drinking, your monthly tab for happy hour could go well into the triple digits.Whether it's a glass of wine when you get home or your habitual after-work beer with co-workers, cutting back on even the occasional drink may be your ticket to a trimmer budget. Beer is said to be the most popular alcoholic beverage in the U.S., and at an average of $3.75 a pint (according to pintprice.com), you would save between $56 and $112 a month, if you're an average drinker. Potential annual savings: $672 to $1,344 Even if you're not consuming alcohol, you could save by swapping tap water for your beverage of choice. Spending, say, $1.50 for one bottle of soda every day costs you $45 a month. Potential annual savings: $540 Morning Coffee Grabbing a morning cup of coffee plain, drip coffee might cost you about $1 to $4, depending on how many ounces you're consuming and where you're buying it. The fancier your caffeine fix, the more you're going to pay.According to USA Today's coffee-cost calculator, it costs $63 a month to buy a daily cup of coffee from Starbucks and $2.40 a month if you make the same amount at home. Potential annual savings: $766.50 (or $737.30 if you swap it for home-brewed) Lunch Out Having the occasional meal out can be a nice change from eating at your desk, but eating out too much can take a huge toll on your finances. A 2013 study from Visa said Americans spent an average of $18 per week on lunches out, adding up to $936 a year. The average meal out is about $10, according to the Visa data.If you're the kind of person who orders in or goes out frequently, you're probably spending thousands of dollars a year on meals, but you could significantly reduce that expense by making your own food more often. Potential annual savings: $936 Paying Bills Late An occasional late payment can happen to anybody. (And if it happens to you, you may be able to get a credit card issuer to waive it.) But if late payments are a habit, you'll pay and late fees are just the beginning. Once you are reported late, your credit score can suffer. And poor credit costs money. You can check this lifetime cost of debt calculator to see its impact, which varied depending on how much you borrow and where you live.Good credit habits, like paying on time, help build credit and ultimately save you money. | 3 | 95,158 | finance |
I don't believe that the box office disaster of Pan is a result of the online outcry over Rooney Mara being cast as Tiger Lily. At the end of the day, the general population doesn't really care about this kind of thing and it makes little difference in terms of whether or not to buy a ticket for a new release. Oh sure, we all were (justifiably) up in arms about casting a very Caucasian actress being cast as the famously Native American character in last weekend's $150 million Peter Pan prequel, but the box office fortunes of these big movies are made from the financial votes of millions upon millions of moviegoers who don't follow this stuff and/or don't care about these issues. They didn't care that Ridley Scott cast a bunch of white actors to play theoretically dark skinned Egyptians in last year's Exodus: Gods and Kingdoms . They didn't care that Cameron Crowe cast Emma Stone as an Asian character of specifically Hawaiian descent in Aloha . And they didn't care that Roland Emmerich's Stonewall invented a fictional conventional-looking white gay male to assume the leadership role in the Stonewall riots. And that's actually good news. Because the other truth of the matter is that audiences didn't care much about these films, period. Which means that the notion that big movies have to cast super-duper white even against the narrative requirements of the story is something of a falsehood. Pan, is of course, a colossal disaster for Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc., having grossed $40 million thus far around the world with little hope for legs on a $155m budget. Despite the presence of Bradley Cooper Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, and Alec Baldwin , Aloha! made just $26m worldwide on a $35m budget, doing so poorly that it didn't even get a theatrical release in the UK. Stonewall is about as big as you'd expect a not-so-buzzy gay rights drama that got terrible reviews to be, earning just $112k on 129 screens after 17 days in release. The would-be "winner" of the recent group, Ridley Scott's critically-panned Exodus , earned a not-terrible $268m worldwide for 20th Century Fox but at a cost of $140m. Racebending, whitewashing, whatever you want to call it, may not have hurt these films at the domestic and/or worldwide box office. But it certainly didn't help either. Casting vaguely recognizable white people in roles, especially supporting roles, that are arguably intended as not-quite-Caucasian characters does not boost your box office in any meaningful way. As I wrote last December, I completely understood Ridley Scott and his various investors wanting a big movie star for the role of Moses, and Christian Bale arguably fit the bill. But the rest of the cast, Scott Turturro, Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and Aaron Paul, weren't remotely what anyone would consider movie stars. Nor is Rooney Mara of Pan or Jeremy Irvine of Stonewall . You can make the case that Emma Stone is a movie star, so it's not a zero sum game. But as you can tell from the box office results, Sony would have had about as much box office glory casting an ethnically correct actress to romance Bradley Cooper as they had with Stone, with absolutely none of the PR headaches and probably little bit of good publicity in the bargain. Ditto with Pan , which allegedly auditioned the likes of Devery Jacobs and Lupita Nyong'o, before going with Mara (who I am generally a fan of) as the leader of the otherwise multicultural "Pan" tribe. But this isn't about the moral implications of such "whitewashing" or "racebending." And it cuts both ways too. There is a conversation right now over whether or not Ridley Scott was correct in changing the races of two Asian characters in The Martian to, respectively, black (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and white (Mackenzie Davis). Am I a hypocrite not to leap at this instance of racebending because I love the movie and/or it has a relatively diverse cast with actors I like? Maybe, I am, just as few spoke up when John Stewart cast Gael Garcia as an Iranian journalist in Rosewater. To be honest, it's easier to get upset about this stuff when the movies turn out to be terrible anyway. But the would-be controversy over racebending in The Martian has not remotely affected the film's reviews nor the $232 million and counting worldwide box office. If audiences want to see the movie, it won't matter that the third lead to the left is a vaguely recognizable white person or a minority actor playing a theoretically minority character. And the audiences that flocked on opening weekend to The Last Airbender didn't care about the somewhat white-washed leading roles, even if they quickly deserted the rather terrible picture. Audiences didn't reject Pan because they couldn't stomach Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, nor was the whitewashing in Exodus that film's biggest problem or a reason for it relative box office failure. Aloha! would have done little better or worse with an actual Asian actress of Hawaiian descent to play a character named Allison Ng. And Stonewall didn't magically appeal to a bunch of otherwise resistant moviegoers because it starred a handsome white kid from small-town America. Absent this excuse in terms of casting white actors against all odds or logic, there really is no good reason not to actually cast ethnically "correct" actors and actresses, especially when you're not dealing with outright "open a movie" box office draws. I don't think the failures of Pan , Aloha , or Exodus were a result of audiences rejecting whitewashing. But nor does it make much of a case that doing such a thing for financial considerations is in any way a plausible argument. What's at stake is the notion that a white actor, any white actor no matter how limited their box office muscle may be, is preferable to casting an ethnically correct actor in a given movie. When it comes to "ethnically accurate" casting in movies and television, you're certainly damned if you don't, but there is thus far little reason to presume that you're damned if you do. | 6 | 95,159 | entertainment |
Wal-Mart's (WMT) stock meltdown on Wednesday sent jitters throughout markets as investors tried to glean any larger trends about the American consumer. The retail giant cut its forecast for the full year, pushing the shares to their worst day in more than 25 years on a percentage basis. But Wal-Mart isn't the only major U.S. company facing a gloomy outlook. Earning season is just getting underway, and already a series of negative projections and lowered guidance from companies across sectors is raising questions about the strength of the economic recovery. Take a look at some of the most recent warnings below: The largest U.S. bank kicked off bank earnings with mixed results on Tuesday after the bell. JPMorgan (JPM) shares took a hit when it reported lowered guidance based on continued sluggishness in its trading unit. Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake noted on the earnings conference call, "If markets remain at these levels, [fourth-quarter] revenue will also be lower." Trading revenues, which the company warned about in September, fell 15 percent from last year. Lake said market turbulence in the quarter contributed to the decline. Analysts' expectations for trading in the fourth quarter are too high considering the slow markets so far, she added. After Wednesday's market close, shares of Netflix tanked when the company reported slower than expected U.S. subscriber growth. The video-streaming-service provider had forecast an addition of 1.15 million subscribers domestically in the quarter, but it reported with just 880,000. Netflix (NFLX) partly blamed the disappointing numbers on the mandated transition to chip-based debit and credit cards, but some analysts said the reason seemed unconvincing because these cards have been around for a while. "It's likely multifactor, but certainly the transition to chip cards is not helping," said David Wells, chief financial officer of Netflix, in a conference call. In late September, Caterpillar slashed its 2015 revenue forecast and said it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs through 2018, joining a list of big U.S. industrial companies grappling with the mining and energy downturn. Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, the world's biggest construction and mining equipment maker, cited a slowdown in industrial activity in China. Caterpillar (CAT) expects revenue to fall in 2015 for the third straight year, to $48 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $48.82 billion, as compiled by Thomson Reuters. For 2016, the company forecast a 5 percent revenue decline, mainly in higher-margin products, to about $45.6 billion. Analysts had expected $47.36 billion. In September, Pier 1 Imports (PIR) cut its full-year earnings forecast, while Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) gave third-quarter guidance below analysts' expectations. "We are continuing to work through the near-term issues stemming from our elevated inventory levels and have adopted a more cautious and deliberate view of the business based on our first-half trends," said Jeffrey Boyer, Pier 1's chief financial officer, in the earnings report. Yum Brands (YUM) blamed its third-quarter earnings miss largely on sluggishness in China . The parent of KFC said same-store sales in China, where it generates more than half of its operating profit, rose just 2 percent. They were expected to be especially strong, at 9.6 percent, according to a Consensus Metrix estimate. "[T]he pace of recovery in our China Division is below our expectations," CEO Greg Creed said, in a statement. "Given our lower full-year expectations in China, combined with additional foreign exchange impact, we now expect 2015 EPS growth to be well below our target of at least 10%." Looking ahead, Yum expects full-year same-store sales in China to be "low single digit negative" and full-year EPS growth to be positive in the low single digits. CNBC's Jacob Pramuk, Katie Little and Reuters contributed to this report. | 3 | 95,160 | finance |
The Patrick Kane sexual assault investigation is still ongoing, and Philadelphia Flyers fans were happy to remind him of that on Wednesday night. For starters, Flyers fans booed Kane every time the Chicago Blackhawks star touched the puck. But they got more creative after that, and at one point a perfectly audible "she said no!" chant broke out. Fans are relentless with "She said no" chants to Patrick Kane pic.twitter.com/oOtjmo0i46 Kyle (@Kyle_Phillippi) October 15, 2015 Kane can expect a lot more of that going forward. Those who have followed the case watched it take an incredibly bizarre turn recently when the accuser's mother pulled an elaborate scheme , but investigators say that will not affect the outcome. Stay tuned. | 1 | 95,161 | sports |
Wall Street bankers and traders are likely to get smaller bonuses this year as trading revenue plunges. Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it set aside 16 percent less money for compensation in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2014. The fourth quarter, when banks determine how much they will pay for holiday bonuses, may not bring much relief for employees. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CFO Marianne Lake said on Tuesday that "markets are pretty quiet" so far this month and analysts may be too optimistic in their forecasts for the last three months of the year. JPMorgan on average is expected to post a 13 percent gain in earnings per share in the fourth quarter, according to analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. Goldman's total trading revenue dropped 15 percent in the third quarter because of a slump in fixed income, currencies, and commodities. Many investors are reluctant to take on too much risk in bonds and related derivatives until they have a better sense of when the U.S. central bank will start raising benchmark interest rates. Pay across Wall Street could fall about 10 percent this year, with traders taking the biggest hit, said Alan Johnson, managing director of pay consulting firm Johnson Associates. The weaker trading environment is hurting banks, as are the costs of complying with new rules imposed after the financial crisis. Banks "are starting to restructure their pay strategy because five or six years after the crisis they have extra costs," Johnson said. "It's just not working." Those estimates are consistent with the numbers that Goldman Sachs is reporting. The bank said it set aside $287,778 per employee in the first nine months of the year, down about 10 percent from the same period last year. Some signs of belt tightening at banks are already emerging. Contractors in the investment banking division at HSBC Holdings Plc in London will see their pay cut by 10 percent amid sluggish deal activity, Reuters reported on Wednesday. JPMorgan has been cutting costs all year, and is even asking some employees to pay for their own cell phones, according to the Wall Street Journal. Back in the first quarter, revenues were up substantially across Wall Street, allowing banks to set aside more for compensation Goldman's pay pool rose by 11 percent as revenue rose 14 percent in the first quarter from the same period in 2014. Since then, revenue has slipped for two straight quarters, pulling compensation expense at the bank down by 1 percent for the first nine months. Brian Kleinhanzl, an analyst with KBW, said he believes Goldman needs to do more on expenses to increase earnings going forward. To be sure, not every bank will necessarily cut bonuses by the same amount, and declines can vary dramatically from one employee to another at the same bank. JPMorgan said on Tuesday that it has set aside 4 percent less for compensation for corporate and investment banking employees in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period in 2014. (Reporting by Olivia Oran. Editing by Dan Wilchins and John Pickering) | 3 | 95,162 | finance |
By Jed Horowitz Charles Schwab Corp, the discount brokerage pioneer that is expanding into fee-based advisory accounts, said on Thursday that third-quarter profit jumped 17 percent on higher trading commissions and interest revenue. The San Francisco-based company's net income totaled $376 million, or 28 cents a share, a penny higher than the average analyst estimate in a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue was boosted by heavy trading in late August as global markets were roiled by fears about the Chinese economy, but falling stock prices curbed client enthusiasm as the quarter ended. During the week of Aug. 24, Schwab made an average of 514,260 daily trades for clients who paid commissions or bond markups, compared with 294,888 trades the week of Sept. 28. Average daily trades for the quarter rose 13 percent to 304,000, while trading revenue jumped 9 percent to $228 million on slightly lower commission prices. Prodded by a modest quarterly rise in short-term interest rates, net interest income rose 11 percent to $635 million. Total revenue of $1.59 billion was up 3 percent, while expenses fell 2 percent to $1 billion, in line with executives' earlier forecasts. Schwab's pretax profit margin soared to 36.5 percent, its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2008. By comparison, pretax profit margin at Bank of America's global wealth and investment management division, dominated by its Merrill Lynch franchise, was 23 percent in the third quarter. Profit at Schwab and other retail brokerage firms is tied closely to interest rates, because firms invest clients' cash balances at rates higher than they pay for the cash. As a result, Schwab profit is expected to soar when the Federal Reserve raises rates. In anticipation of a rate hike, Schwab in the third and fourth quarters is moving about $4.0 billion of cash in money-market funds to its bank, which typically pays clients lower rates than the funds. Schwab also has been aggressively marketing accounts that charge fees tied to the value of client portfolios as opposed to traditional commission accounts. Retail brokers view fee-based accounts as more stable revenue sources because retail investors curb their trading when markets fall. Schwab opened about 36,000 advisory accounts during the quarter but fee revenue rose just 2 percent while total client assets of $2.4 trillion were up only 1 percent. Falling stock prices have shaved $117.5 billion from client portfolios in the past year, Schwab said. (Reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Meredith Mazzilli) | 3 | 95,163 | finance |
The conventional wisdom says that technology, especially mobile services and secure debit cards, are driving younger Americans' financial habits. In reality, it may be the other way around, as Generation Z's high-volume use of both technologies is changing the way all consumers use digital tools to handle their banking needs. As TD Bank puts it in a brand new report on bank checking trends, "mobile banking and debit cards may play an increasingly significant role in our lives, if Generation Z has anything to say about it." In the study, entitled the TD Bank Checking Experience Index, 74% of young (and we mean 'young") consumers aged 17 to 20 surveyed say their debit card was "essential" to their financial habits, compared to 56% of adults. Similarly, 41% in the same age group say their bank's mobile apps were essential, compared to 22% of other consumers. Despite the age gap, younger financial consumers and older ones may have more in common than you think. Jared Franklin, a 28-year-old financial credit product manager at Blispay.com, has spent most of his young career working on credit products, including time spent at companies like Bill Me Later and PayPal. "I spend a lot of time thinking about and talking to people of various age groups about how they interact with their banking products," Franklin says. "My general consensus is that most people across a wide range of age groups actually have similar desires; they just don't realize it." Consumers on the older end of that spectrum are used to the status quo, so they don't quite realize they actually prefer what banking tools younger generations are using. "They're used to handling things face to face in a bank, or having to pick up the phone and dial a customer service number to get anything accomplished," Franklin adds. "But watch them use Facebook. They get hooked to the speed at which information is shared. Watch them get their first iPhone and learn how to interact with apps for email, texts, and the news. They get hooked on having everything available at all times at their finger tips very quickly." "So, when it comes to banking, the same desires exist across all age groups," Franklin adds. "The older generations just don't quite realize it until they try it." There's more common ground on banking needs among consumers of all ages, as younger banking customers want many of the same services older consumers want. "Generation Z consumers want a bank where any transaction or request can be performed via phone, and they want to speak to a bank employee by clicking on a button," notes Harrine Freeman, founder of H.E. Freeman Enterprises, in Bethesda, Md. "They also want personalized services for customers versus being treated like just another customer." Speed matters, too, especially to younger banking consumers. "They want faster processing times and less steps to perform transactions such as transferring money," Freeman adds. "The quicker the better - Generation Z wants to do everything from a snapshot or click of a button." That drive for expediency is the way that younger banking consumers are forcing the industry to change - and bringing new players into the market to force banks to change. "Generation Z is more willing to trust new, innovative banking apps that seamlessly integrate their financial life into their personal life, which is obviously played out almost entirely on smartphones these days," says Mandi Woodruff, Yahoo.com finance correspondent. "This is a generation that is least likely to be saving and it's interesting to see how startups are trying to change that. Look at apps like Qapital which turn saving into a mobile-centric game - users can trigger their accounts to save money every time they use a certain hashtag or post something on Facebook. Or Acorns, which makes investing approachable to young people and accessible -- you don't need thousands of dollars to start an account." In driving industry change, Gen Z consumers are leaving some of the old-school banking habits aside, and that may not be a good thing. "The idea of diligently putting away a little money each week in a basic bank account seems unsexy to young people, especially since they have such a hard time denying their need for the instant gratification of things," Woodruff adds. | 3 | 95,164 | finance |
Andrew Lloyd Webber offers a glimpse of his latest musical, a stage adaptation of hit 2003 film comedy "School of Rock" with 360 degree video. Holly Rubenstein reports. | 6 | 95,165 | entertainment |
If you're creating the kitchen of your dreams, designer Nate Berkus has some key advice for you: "Choose what feels timeless. Think in terms of what you'll love forever, not just in this moment." As artistic advisor to LG Studio , Berkus inspired a new line of LG Studio appliances with pro-style features like hefty metal knobs and flat doors-for a suite that's both well designed and hardworking. Below, four design ideas to elevate your next renovation. 1. Approach Your Remodel With a Less-Is-More Aesthetic Nate suggests matching the clean lines of your appliances with classic touches, like white subway tile and black lacquer cabinets. "Simple and elegant is always best in this space," he says. 2. Pay Attention to the Detail on Appliances Every detail matters, that's why we wrapped the water dispenser in the same stainless steel as the rest of the fridge for seamless pro-style. "Details make every space feel important," Berkus says. "That goes for the kitchen, too." 3. Imbue a Sense of History To give your kitchen classic style, Berkus suggests vintage wood flooring or an island that features antique brass details. "Both are forever choices that you'll never tire of," he says. 4. Fill the Space With a Forever Glow "Lighting is especially important in the kitchen," he says. Consider a mix of under-cabinet and hanging pendants to offset the elegance of your finished design. | 4 | 95,166 | lifestyle |
It's the wonder-vitamin of the moment, and with good reason: Getting enough vitamin D seems to protect against just about everything, from cancer and depression to heart disease and an earlier death. When it comes to the sunshine vitamin, you've heard it all before or so you think. It turns out there are a handful of lesser-known reasons you'll want to guarantee you get your daily dose. Which, by the way, is frustratingly tricky to pin down. The Institute of Medicine currently recommends men and women get 600 IU of vitamin D a day , but recent research suggests those guidelines are way too low one possible reason about 42% of American adults seem to be vitamin D deficient . The IOM currently lists 4,000 IU a day as the highest amount of vitamin D you could take and still be safe, but we might need more like 7,000 to truly reap the vitamin's biggest benefits . Until science figures it out, let the following benefits inspire you to get some sensible sun exposure , eat more sources of naturally occurring vitamin D, and consider a supplement . 1. Vitamin D makes you less likely to fall at home. One in 3 older adults living at home will take a spill each year. But vitamin D supplements seem to help reduce that risk. In a small study of homebound adults between the ages of 65 and 102 who get some grub from Meals On Wheels, half were given a monthly allotment of vitamin D supplements that averaged out to 3,300 IU per day and half were given a placebo. Over the 5-month study period, the supplement increased vitamin D levels in their blood from "insufficient" (defined as less than 20 ng/mL) to "optimal" (defined as greater than 30 ng/mL) in 29 of the 34 participants. Compared to the people who got a placebo, those taking the vitamin D had about half as many falls at home over the same time period, possibly because of the benefits of vitamin D for muscle performance, the researchers write. 2. It may ward off vision damage. The main reason our vision starts to slip after 50 is because of what's called age-related macular degeneration , a slow-progressing blurriness that starts near the center of the eye and impedes our ability to see clearly straight ahead. Your chances of ending up with AMD are governed mostly by your age, race, and genes aka pretty much out of your control, although staying generally healthy by avoiding smoking, working up a sweat on the regular, and eating your kale might help you keep your crystal-clear sight. However, a recent study suggests that maintaining optimal vitamin D levels can also help, even if the genetic cards are stacked against you. University of Buffalo researchers crunched the numbers from 913 postmenopausal women who were already part of a Women's Health Initiative study called Carotenoids in Age-related Eye Disease Study, or CAREDS. Of those 913 women, 550 had adequate levels of vitamin D and 88 were deficient. The women who fell into the latter category had a higher risk of developing AMD as much as 6.7 times if they also carried a specific form of high-risk genes than women with sufficient vitamin D. 3. It might stop that weird muscle spasm you've been trying to ignore. One of vitamin D's crucial roles in our bodies is keeping our muscles functioning and strong by helping them absorb calcium. While there's a lot we don't know about the little muscle abnormalities we call cramps, spasms, and twitches, it seems like not getting enough vitamin D may be one cause of those annoyances. 4. It can slow weight gain. It's another one of mother nature's cruel tricks that it's oh-so-easy to gain weight without even noticing after a certain age. But having enough vitamin D might help slow that process. In a Journal of Women's Health study of more than 4,600 women 65 or older, those with insufficient vitamin D levels gained 2 more pounds over 4.5 years than those with enough D. 5. It can help ease fibromyalgia pain. As if the chronic muscle and joint pain, all-encompassing fatigue, and associated depression and anxiety of fibromyalgia weren't enough, add to the complexity of the disease the difficulty many patients have getting a diagnosis to begin with. So hearing that something as comparatively simple as supplementing with vitamin D can bring relief might be welcome news. A small 2014 study gave women either vitamin D supplements or a placebo for 20 weeks, then monitored the women for another 24. Even after the treatment ended, the women who had been taking vitamin D noted less pain. While it's far from a cure and it did nothing for mood symptoms it's something. 6. It can keep your cholesterol in check after menopause. People who get enough vitamin D are at a decidedly lower risk of heart disease, but postmenopausal women get an additional benefit when they're up to date on their D: healthier cholesterol. In a 2014 study of 600 women, researchers found that after 2 years of taking 1,000 milligrams of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D daily, women dropped 4.5 mg/dL in their LDL or "bad" cholesterol compared to women who were given a placebo. Among the women who were given the supplements, those who ended the study with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood also benefited from higher levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol. 7. It can reduce your risk of uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow in the uterus walls. Because they can grow as big as a grapefruit(!), they can be unfathomably painful and uncomfortable for some women, while other women with smaller fibroids don't even notice them. They seem to be related to hormones and an unlucky genetic hand. But a 2013 study found that vitamin D might also play a role. Among 35 to 49 year olds, those with sufficient vitamin D levels had about a 32% lower chance of developing fibroids than those with insufficient vitamin D. The vitamin had previously been shown to slow fibroid growth in animal studies, but this research was the very first to examine the effect of vitamin D on fibroids in humans. More from MSN Avoid These Eye Infections From Bad Contact Lens Habits 7 Myths About Medication and the Facts Behind Them | 7 | 95,167 | health |
Skye Gould/Business Insider Everyone has that one movie that reminds them of home. We set out to name the most famous movie in every state a challenging and subjective endeavor. Some states were more obvious than others. While there's no place like Kansas, New York has inspired directors ranging from Martin Scorsese to Woody Allen to Rob Reiner. To pick the most famous, we evaluated the state's prominence in the movie and leaned toward movies that were filmed in that location as well. The movie's lifetime gross, its critical acclaim, and testimonials by our geographically diverse staff also influenced our decision. Additional reporting by Kirsten Acuna, Melissa Stanger, Frank Pallotta, and Sara Bower. ALABAMA: "Forrest Gump" (1994) YouTube/MovieClips Even though "Forrest Gump" took Tom Hanks from Vietnam to the White House, home was always the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama. Plus, Forrest was an All-American for the Alabama Crimson Tide. ALASKA: "Into The Wild" (2007) Paramount Vantage via YouTube "Into The Wild" follows Chris McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, as he heads to Alaska to find his place in the world. The journey would bring McCandless to many places, but his ultimate destination was the Land of the Midnight Sun. ARIZONA: "Raising Arizona" (1987) 20th Century Fox The Coen brothers' cult classic follows H.I. McDunnough and his wife as they attempt to have a baby, either naturally or through kidnapping. The Coens made the pair all the more real by incorporating a vernacular that Joel called "a mixture of local dialect and a vocabulary we imagined from the likely reading materials of the characters." ARKANSAS: "Sling Blade" (1996) Miramax "Sling Blade" tells the story of a man with a developmental disability, played by Billy Bob Thornton, who was put away for killing his mother as a child. The film, set and shot in Arkansas, explores what it means to be redeemed in rural America. CALIFORNIA: "Clueless" (1995) Clueless The 1995 teen comedy may focus on the lifestyle of Beverly Hills' most rich and privileged, but it's as sunny as the Golden State itself. Led by Alicia Silverstone's Cher, "Clueless" showcases the ideal Californian lifestyle while never going below Sunset. COLORADO: "The Shining" (1980) Warner Bros. Even though the movie is filmed in different states, "The Shining" takes place at the Overlook Hotel in the secluded Colorado mountains that could once the long winter sets in drive anyone as mad as Jack Nicholson's axe-wielding Jack Torrance. CONNECTICUT: "The Stepford Wives" (1975) Columbia Pictures The female residents of the small town of Stepford, Connecticut, seem too good to be true, and they are. The 1975 film, which was shot in Connecticut, shows that life in the suburbs may not be all it's cracked up to be. DELAWARE: "Fight Club" (1999) YouTube screengrab It's hard to tell that David Fincher's "Fight Club" was set in Delaware, but there are small hints. Addresses, license plates, and the original Wilmington location in the novel by Chuck Palahniuk make it easy to see that the state where you "don't talk about fight club" is Delaware. FLORIDA: "Scarface" (1983) Universal Though shot in L.A. (Miami officials thought filming there would ruin tourism ), "Scarface" is set during the wild 1980s in South Beach and explores the underbelly of the Sunshine State better than any other movie could. GEORGIA: "Gone with the Wind" (1939) MGM via YouTube From the Antebellum Era to Reconstruction, the events of Civil War-time Georgia are told through the love story of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in this 1939 epic romance. HAWAII: "Pearl Harbor" (2001) celebritywonder.ugo.com The 2001 action drama depicts the attack on Pearl Harbor, a "day that will live in infamy," while employing a love story to explore the beauty of Hawaii. IDAHO: "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) Fox Searchlight This 2004 cult classic, starring Jon Heder in the titular role, takes place in the town of Preston, Idaho, where Napoleon tries to get his buddy Pedro elected as class president. The film has generated $1 million for the city . ILLINOIS: "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986) "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"/Paramount Pictures Director John Hughes' " love letter " to Chicago has Ferris Bueller and his buddies playing hooky by exploring Wrigley Field and other Windy City locales. While many Hughes films take place in Illinois, none encompasses the state better than "Ferris Bueller." INDIANA: "A Christmas Story" (1983) Netflix Set in early 1940s Indiana, Ralphie's pursuit to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas makes this perennial holiday film a classic. The film also reminds viewers to never lick a metal pole outside in the middle of a cold Indiana winter. IOWA: "Field of Dreams" (1989) Universal "Field of Dreams" captures the dreamy quality of the Hawkeye State when Kevin Costner's Ray builds a baseball field in the middle of his Iowa cornfield. The line, "Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa," has since become one of the state's slogans. KANSAS: "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) MGM screengrab via MovieClips "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Dorothy tells her tiny dog Toto once transported to the magical technicolor world of Oz. Yet she longs to get back to her black and white home, where there's no place like it. KENTUCKY: "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980) "Coal Miner's Daughter"/Universal Pictures "Coal Miner's Daughter" tells the story of country singer Loretta Lynn and how she went from the backwoods of Kentucky to the top of the charts. Sissy Spacek won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the singer. LOUISIANA: "The Green Mile" (1999) Warner Bros. "The Green Mile" places Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan in a Louisiana prison. The film explores the soft sensibilities of the state through Hanks' kind prison officer and Duncan's Oscar-nominated performance as the magically healing John Coffey. MAINE: "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) Columbia Pictures Another Stephen King adaptation on the list, "The Shawshank Redemption" takes place in King's home state of Maine. Most of the film is set behind the bars of the fictional Shawshank Prison, but once Andy Dufresne escapes, he takes a moment to throw up his hands in the great Maine outdoors. MARYLAND: "Hairspray" (2007) New Line Cinema "Hairspray" opens with Tracy Turnblad belting "Good Morning, Baltimore," and with that begins her dreamy journey to "The Corny Collins Show." The musical comedy shows Maryland to be a place of dreamers, doers, and dancers. MASSACHUSETTS: "Good Will Hunting" (1997) "Good Will Hunting"/Miramax "Good Will Hunting" explores the heart of Massachusetts through the eyes of Will Hunting, a genius janitor trying to deal with his issues. Greater Boston Area natives Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won an Academy Award for the screenplay. MICHIGAN: "American Pie" (1999) YouTube via Universal The raunchy teen comedy follows four Michigan teenagers trying to lose their virginity before going to college. Writer Adam Herz grew up in Grand Rapids and based the film's script on his adventures growing up there. MINNESOTA: "The Mighty Ducks" (1992) Buena Vista Pictures Minnesota is known for its wildlife, but there aren't more famous ducks from the Gopher State than the hockey team coached by Gordon Bombay. The 1992 film takes place in Minneapolis, and later franchise installments featured landmarks like the Mall of America. MISSISSIPPI: "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) "In the Heat of the Night"/United Artists With its heat, strife, and racial overtones, "In the Heat of the Night" showcases a Mississippi ready to explode. Made during the the Civil Rights Movement, the Sidney Poitier-led film won the 1967 Academy Award for Best Picture. MISSOURI: "Gone Girl" (2014) 20th Century Fox David Fincher's wildly entertaining adaptation of the novel of the same name uses suburban Carthage, Missouri to capture both a bizarre mystery and a crumbling marriage. MONTANA: "Legends of the Fall" (1994) "Legends of the Fall"/Sony Pictures Entertainment An epic Western saga starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn, "Legends of the Fall" follows three brothers and their father living in a remote part of Montana during the events of World War I through Prohibition. NEBRASKA: "Nebraska" (2013) Todd, Newell / Paramount This one seems too obvious. Director Alexander Payne sets most of his films ("Election," "About Schmidt") in his home state of Nebraska. This movie, shot in black and white, captures the surprisingly haunting beauty of the vast prairie. NEVADA: "The Hangover" (2009) "The Hangover"/Warner Bros. Set against the Vegas Strip and Nevada desert, "The Hangover" is an ode to one of man's greatest rites of passage: a bachelor party in Sin City. The movie follows, as Alan Garner puts it, "Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine." NEW HAMPSHIRE: "Jumanji" (1995) "Jumanji"/TriStar Pictures Robin Williams' fantasy-adventure flick "Jumanji" was set in the fictional town of Brantford, New Hampshire, and shot in the very real town of Keene. After filming, the crew left an advertisement for Parrish Shoes painted on a brick wall in downtown, which can still be seen today. NEW JERSEY: "Clerks" (1994) www.thegoodthebadandtheodd.com Anyone from outside the state will tell you "Garden State" should be the winner here, but after consulting the many Jersey transplants in our office, it's clear that "Clerks" is the favorite among homegrown audiences. The low-budget cult classic was shot in a Leonardo, New Jersey, convenience and video store where director Kevin Smith worked in real life. NEW MEXICO: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966) "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly"/Produzioni Europee Associati Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach star in the title roles, respectively. The three gunslingers race to find a fortune in gold buried in the then-territory of New Mexico. NEW YORK: "Taxi Driver" (1976) "Taxi Driver"/Columbia Pictures Corporation No state had competition for this list quite like that of New York, with Woody Allen's most memorable films and a slew of mafia flicks set in the state. But none captures the grit of New York City in the 1970s quite like Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." Fans are still drawn to Robert De Niro's cabbie nearly 40 years later, despite the unfathomable depths of his psychosis. NORTH CAROLINA: "Cape Fear" (1991) "Cape Fear"/Tribeca Productions A remake of a 1962 movie of the same title, this star-studded psychological thriller is set in the quiet town of Essex, North Carolina. It marks the seventh of eight collaborations between director Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. NORTH DAKOTA: "Fargo" (1996) Youtube/ninety9dragons While most of the Coen brothers' "Fargo" takes place in Minnesota, the town of Fargo, North Dakota, became famous after the movie's lead, played by William H. Macy, travels there to hire two men to kidnap his wife and hold her hostage. The movie has left such a lasting legacy on pop culture that it even spawned the critically praised drama of the same name. Like the film, the TV show keeps the same dark sense of humor and snowy landscapes. OHIO: "Heathers" (1988) "Heathers"/New World Pictures While "Heathers" showed a high school unlike any we've ever been to, the killer-comedy certainly captured the stereotypical conservatism of Ohioans at the time. As Christian Slater's J.D. put it, "This is Ohio. I mean, if you don't have a brewski in your hand you might as well be wearing a dress." OKLAHOMA: "Twister" (1996) "Twister"/Warner Bros. Hardcore fans of the iconic natural disaster movie can make the pilgrimage to the "Twister" museum in Wakita, Oklahoma. During filming, the brick-and-mortar building that houses the museum served as the production studio's on-location office, dressing room, and art department. OREGON: "The Goonies" (1985) YouTube The band of teenage misfits who comprise "the Goonies" lives in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon. The real-life town hosts the Walsh family's house (without the Rube Goldberg contraptions that operate the gate), the Clatsop County Jail, and the Flavel House Museum, where Mr. Walsh worked. PENNSYLVANIA: "Rocky" (1976) "Rocky"/United Artists Two of the most famous tourist attractions in Philadelphia, according to the city's tourism website, are the Rocky Statue and the "Rocky Steps," better known as the Art Museum Steps. The montage showing the Italian Stallion climbing all 72 stone steps is one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time. RHODE ISLAND: "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) "The Witches of Eastwick"/Warner Bros. Based on the John Updike novel of the same name, "The Witches of Eastwick" takes place in the picturesque waterfront town of Eastwick. It's inspired by Wickford, where Updike visited once and fell in love with its charm. SOUTH CAROLINA: "The Notebook" (2004) "The Notebook"/New Line Cinema "The Notebook" does Charleston justice like few movies have. Some of the most recognizable filming locations include the American Theater, where Allie and Noah have their double-date, and Cypress Gardens, the dreamlike swamp that Noah and Allie paddle through during the rainstorm. SOUTH DAKOTA: "Dances with Wolves" (1990) "Dances with Wolves"/Tig Productions Located just 15 minutes from Mount Rushmore, the original buildings used in the Oscar Award-winning movie "Dances with Wolves" have been transformed into a museum. According to the website , you can stand where Kevin Costner's character, John D. Dunbar, was given his new posting orders for Fort Hays. TENNESSEE: "Walk the Line" (2005) "Walk The Line" The biographical musical drama "Walk the Line" takes places in the heart and soul of country music: Tennessee. After moving to Memphis and landing a record deal, Johnny Cash began touring as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two the ultimate tribute to his new home state. TEXAS: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"/Vortex An over-the-top slasher movie that continues to influence the horror genre today, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was filmed mostly near Round Rock, Austin, with a budget of $60,000 raised by an Austin politician. UTAH: "127 Hours" (2010) "127 Hours"/Fox Searchlight Pictures Shot on location in Utah's red rock country, "127 Hours" depicts the remarkable journey of hiker Aron Ralston through Bluejohn Canyon. The Utah Office of Tourism released 127-hour itineraries, mapping excursions through filming locations and other parts of the states, to celebrate the movie's success. VERMONT: "Super Troopers" (2001) Fox Searchlight via YouTube During its initial theatrical run, this comedy about Vermont state troopers didn't do so well at the box office. Thanks to strong home video sales, "Super Troopers" has become a cult classic, and a sequel is possibly on the horizon. VIRGINIA: "Remember the Titans" (2000) YouTube/Disney The pinnacle sports drama "Remember the Titans" is based on the real life T.C. Williams High School football team, which forever changed their racially divided town of Alexandria, Virginia. WASHINGTON: "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) "Sleepless in Seattle"/TriStar Pictures After the death of his wife, Sam Baldwin, played by Tom Hanks, and his son relocate to Seattle, where he learns to love again. Their unusual home, a houseboat docked in Lake Union, can be viewed from a boat tour of the lake. WASHINGTON, D.C.: "A Few Good Men" "A Few Good Men"/Columbia Pictures Corporation This star-studded courtroom drama with performances by Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland was filmed in D.C. locations recognizable to both tourists and locals, such as the U.S. Department of Commerce, Potomac Park baseball field, and Idle Time Books. WEST VIRGINIA: "October Sky" (1999) "October Sky"/Universal Pictures Going to work as a coal miner is just something you do in Coalwood, West Virginia. But Homer Hickam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, defies his father by neglecting tradition and pursuing rocketry in the fall of 1957. WISCONSIN: "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) "Dawn of the Dead"/Universal Pictures When the fictional town of Everett, Wisconsin, is overrun by zombies, a resilient group of human survivors bands together in the local mall to stay alive. WYOMING: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"/Columbia Pictures Corporation In Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-nominated sci-fi flick, a UFO transmits a set of geographical coordinates for Devils Tower National Monument near Moorcroft, Wyoming, where a team of investigators set up a top-secret landing zone for their other-worldly friends. Skye Gould/Business Insider | 6 | 95,168 | entertainment |
One authentic photo of Billy the Kid bought for $2 in a California junk shop could sell for $5 million at auction. | 3 | 95,169 | finance |
The Hospitality industry is supposed to be about welcoming guests, but now hotel staff are now on alert for signs of abuse and assault. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports. | 2 | 95,170 | travel |
Tehran, Iran: An engine of a Boeing 747 operated by Iran's Mahan Air detached from the plane Thursday shortly after takeoff from Tehran, causing terror among passengers but no injuries, local media reported. The 747, with 300 passengers on board, was on a flight from the capital's Mehrabad airport to Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when one of its engines crashed into a nearby field, forcing the jumbo to return and make an emergency landing. Iranian media and social networks carried pictures of the crashed engine. Iran desperately wants to upgrade its ageing fleet of 140 operating aircraft, hamstrung by nuclear-related and other sanctions which have also made spare parts difficult to source. The restrictions were partly lifted by an interim agreement on Iran's nuclear programme that came into force in January 2014. This allowed for the sale of spare parts, although direct sales of aircraft remained banned. A final accord reached in Vienna on July 14, expected to be implemented at the start of 2016, will lift the sanctions in exchange for putting curbs on Iran's nuclear programme. Iran plans to buy Airbus and Boeing passenger planes through long-term payment agreements once the accord comes into effect, Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said last month. To purchase new planes, "our negotiations have been mostly with Airbus and Boeing, and we have provided them with our plans and needs until 2020," he said. In August, a civil aviation official said his country planned to buy 80 to 90 Airbus and Boeing planes a year until it has a new 300-strong fleet. Kurush Pawar via Flickr, http://aka.ms/mahanair | 5 | 95,171 | news |
WASHINGTON The Treasury Department on Thursday told Congress that it needs to act by Nov. 3 or the government will be dangerously close to being unable to pay all its bills. That's a little sooner than Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said two weeks ago when he set a Nov. 5 deadline. At the time, some GOP lawmakers felt Lew was trying to rush them into approving an increase in the government's $18.1 trillion borrowing limit. But the Congressional Budget Office brought its predictions in sync with Treasury in a report Wednesday. Lew said the Treasury thinks the government will have less than a $30 billion cash cushion on Nov. 3 and noted that the government can pay out as much as $60 billion on some days. On Nov. 3, the government would no longer be able to take arcane bookkeeping steps known as "extraordinary measures" to continue borrowing under the cap. If the government runs out of cash, it cannot meet obligations such as interest payments, Medicare payments and Social Security checks. The government has never defaulted on its obligations, and a severe market reaction would be all but certain if it did. "In the absence of congressional action, Treasury would be unable to satisfy all of these obligations for the first time in the history of the United States," Lew wrote. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, estimates that the actual date of default would fall between Nov. 10 and Nov. 19, depending on the government's cash flows. They include more than $30 billion in outlays for Social Security and federal retirement benefits on Nov. 3. Financial markets would be sure to act nervously well before then if Congress drags its feet or looks as if it's having difficulty passing a politically difficult debt measure. Lew's letter comes as closely-held talks on the budget have shown little evidence of progress. Some Republicans hope to win concessions in exchange for a debt increase, but that's unlikely. With the House GOP conference in turmoil, it will fall to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to shepherd a debt limit increase. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has repeatedly said the GOP-controlled Congress will not permit a first-ever default. Early last year, Boehner and McConnell both supported a "clean" debt increase that was free of unrelated add-ons. "The creditworthiness of the United States is an essential component of our strength as a nation," Lew wrote. "Protecting that strength is the sole responsibility of Congress, because only Congress can extend the nation's borrowing authority." | 3 | 95,172 | finance |
From our wedding experts at Style Me Pretty, the 10 best engagement ring cuts that every woman should know. 10 Stunning Engagement Ring Cuts Pear A cross between a Marquise and oval cut, this sparkling teardrop shape helps to elongate fingers. Princess Traditionally square-shaped with pointed, cut corners, the princess cut gives major sparkle with a combination of step and brilliant-cut facets. Heart This romantic cut needs no explanation. Brilliant Round Always a classic, the popular brilliant round diamond is the standard for all other diamond cuts. Cushion This antique style features rounded corners and larger facets to increase their brilliance sparkle galore. Radiant Combining the elegance of the emerald shape with the brilliance of the round, the 70 facets of a radiant cut diamond maximize the effect of its color refraction. Marquise Inspired by the smile of the Marquise de Pompadour, the elongated marquise cut diamond with pointed ends was commissioned by Louis XIV to match it. Emerald With cut corners and a rectangular shape, the emerald cut is known as a step cut because of its resemblance to stair steps. Oval The oval cut with its even, perfectly symmetrical design and elongated shapes flatters any hand, giving the illusion of length. Asscher Cut Developed in 1902 by the Asscher Brothers in Holland, the Asscher cut is often called a "square emerald cut" for it's cropped corners and square shape. | 4 | 95,173 | lifestyle |
Professional basketball player and reality TV star Lamar Odom, who is fighting for his life in a Las Vegas hospital, may have taken cocaine and sexual performance supplements according to 9-1-1 call. Rough Cut - no reporter narration. | 8 | 95,174 | video |
Tempted to quit? Try these expert tips before throwing in the (sweaty) towel. Stay cool, stay fueled, stay focused. It's the day before Dr. Mimi Winsberg's seventh Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii,and race day threatens to be hot and windy. But she has a mantra for the most challenging stretches of the race: "Stay cool, stay fueled, stay focused," recites Winsberg, a psychiatrist in San Francisco who works with athletes and people with mental health conditions. She urges others to develop their own mantra, whether they're novice exercisers or elite athletes. "[Remind yourself] why you're doing it or what you need to do to do it well," she says. Here are 11 more tips for changing your mid-workout mindset from quitter to winner: 1. Prepare. One of the most reliable ways to get through a tough workout is to build up to iti ncrementally. If you're training for a competition, the practice should eventually be harder than the performance, says Nick Galli, an assistant professor of health promotion and education at the University of Utah. Appropriate preparation gears up both your body and mind for game day. "You learn, 'Hey, I can handle this pain,'" Galli says. 2. Set the scene. You can also mentally prepare for a race or workout by visualizing the challenge sand picturing how you'd like to respond. In a Journal of Applied Sport Psychology study, using such mental imagery improved swimmers' times in just three weeks. Using your imagination en route has benefits too, says Galli, a certified consultant of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. "Pretend you're some other athlete. Pretend you're running somewhere else that you really enjoy," he suggests. "If you practice it, there's essentially no limit to where you can put yourself." 3. Assess. You're more likely to hit a mental or physical roadblock during exercise if you don't check in with yourself beforehand, says Sarajean Rudman, a running coach and yoga instructor at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Before each run, she suggests runners ask themselves how they feel and what they need. "That empowers the runner to say, … 'I need a long run or I need a short run or I need to take day off,'" she says. 4. Separate 'the story' from 'the phenomenon.' If you're losing steam during, say, along run, stop thinking about what Rudman calls "the story," or details such as how sweaty and miserable you are, and start thinking about "the phenomenon," or the simple fact that you're moving forward. "[That] frees me up from all of the other stuff that can get in my way and become a huge obstacle, even derailment, during any kind of athletic endeavor," she says. 5. Break it up. A couple of 5Ksis easier for your brain to swallow than a 10K. Mentally taking on one set at a time is more palatable to the mind than anticipating all 10 sets just like running to one lamppost and then the next is more psychologically manageable than running around a block. In other words, tell your mind what it wants to hear and your body will follow suit, Galli says. "Our minds can help us, or our minds can beat us," he says. "So you've got use your mind to your advantage." 6. Tune in. When competitive athletes feel discouraged, getting in touch with their bodies by focusing on their breathing and what muscles they're engaging can help them push through, Winsberg says. "If you feel you're falling apart mentally, that's a good strategy to bring the focus back into the body," she says. Paying attention to form can also protect you from injury, she adds. "As you're pushing yourself near threshold pace, form tends to fall apart." 7. Tune out. For recreational exercisers, the opposite technique focusing on anything but the workout can be beneficial. You may want to work through a problem or recall a warm memory, Winsberg says. For Rudman, counting her steps when she's intimated by a hill during a trail run is a game-changer. "I'm anchoring my thoughts in something that's not stress," she says. "That's been a huge help to get me through things that I think I can't, and then all of a sudden, I'm on the other side and I'm like, 'Oh, actually, I can.'" 8. Be your own cheerleader. Now's not the time to be humble. Tell yourself anything that inspires you, whether it's that you're strong, well-prepared or even that there's beer at the finish line, Galli says. "[Self-talk] looks different for different people," he says. Endurance athletes, for example, seem to benefit most from motivational phrases like "keep it up," while people involved in more technical lsports like golf can get ahead by giving themselves specific instructions, research shows. 9. Know that better is yet to come. All races and workouts can have physical and emotional ups and downs, Winsberg says. She hit plenty of them during last weekend's Ironman, which included a 2.4-mile rough ocean swim, a 112-mile hot, windy bike ride and a midday marathon through lava fields. "I definitely had a few dark moments during the race," she remembers. But Winsberg told herself that every little bit of effort counts and ended up finishing 11th in her age group. "Just because you're in a down doesn't mean there's not an up around the corner," she says. "It's going to get better." 10. Grin and bear it. If you're not happy and you know it, don't show it. "Studies show that when you smile, you feel more positive and you feel less psychological pain," Winsberg says. During a race, "the more you smile, the more the crowd will smile back," she adds. "It's an easy way to get infused with positive energy." 11. Stop. If you're injured, severely dehydrated or overheated, give yourself a break. "Not all pain is good pain," Galli says. Burning legs and lungs are expected in long-distance races, for instance, but a sudden, sharp ankle pain could signal a sprain. Tuning into your body more than out can help you better recognize when enough is enough. "If your health is valuable to you,rest has to be part of [the training] too," Galli says. | 7 | 95,175 | health |
It can even walk! | 8 | 95,176 | video |
Selena Gomez was showing off her edgy side as she headed out in New York. The singer who was busy promoting her new album Revival worked a simpler look earlier that day. She was chic and simple in a black midi dress and heels. But after taping Jimmy Fallon it seems Selena wanted to add some edge. She may have been sported a veil but she was far from gothic. The star worked a dewy make up look with a glam red lip. Her black dress featured a plunging neckline and asymmetrical hemline. | 8 | 95,177 | video |
Jane Fonda is revealing a crazy story about what she and Michael Jackson did together back in the 80s! The 77-year-old actress reveals the King of Pop had come to visit her and Katharine Hepburn on set of On Golden Pond for 10 days. Jane recalls that when she first asked Katharine for permission, she was not happy. The reply was, 'You don't understand it's Michael Jackson! We lived together. I went skinny dipping with him!" Yep! Skinny dipping with the late superstar! Quite the story! | 6 | 95,178 | entertainment |
Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, have launched an offensive in the province of Homs. Activists said the assault on a rebel enclave north of the city of Homs began early on Thursday and was preceded by intense bombardment. Casualties were reported in the towns of Teir Maaleh, Talbiseh and Ghantu. The Syrian military and its allies have launched a number of ground offensives on rebel-held areas since Russia launched an air campaign two weeks ago. Russia says it is targeting "terrorists", primarily jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS), but many strikes have reportedly hit civilians and Western-backed rebels. 'Raining shells' One opposition activist told the BBC there was a series of air strikes before dawn on Thursday on towns and villages just north of the city of Homs, followed by a ground assault by the Syrian army. "Shells were raining on civilian homes," Homs-based activist Bebars al-Talawy told the Associated Press. "The air raids even shook the city of Homs" several miles away from the front lines, he said. Mr Talawy said the government was seeking to open the motorway between Homs and Hama, to the north. The Syrian state news agency, Sana, cited a military source as saying that a major operation against "terrorist organisations" was taking place in the Homs countryside. The source said troops had gained control of the village of Khalidiya, near the suburb of Dar al-Kabireh, and destroyed two "terrorist operations rooms" in Talbiseh and Teir Maaleh, to the north. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said Russian warplanes had carried out at least 15 air strikes on Talbiseh and nearby areas, killing 10 people, including six rebels. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network, said 17 people had died when Russian aircraft bombed a shelter for civilians in Ghantu. It also reported deaths in Teir Maaleh and in Dar al-Kabireh. Iranian 'deployment' The offensive was launched as a senior Iranian official said Tehran would consider sending ground forces to Syria if the government in Damascus asked. "If Syria makes a request, we will study the request and make a decision," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, during a visit to Damascus. "What's important is that Iran is serious about the fight against terrorism," he added. "We have supplied aid and weapons and sent advisers to Syria and Iraq." There are unconfirmed reports that hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join assaults on rebel positions in northern and central Syria by government forces and fighters from the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah. A regional official told AP on Wednesday that in the past two weeks, some 1,500 Iranian military personnel had flown to Damascus airport and then been transported to a military base in the coastal province of Latakia, adding that Hezbollah was also sending reinforcements. Iran, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad, has long acknowledged sending military advisers to Syria, but has denied the presence of any ground forces. | 5 | 95,179 | news |
Could the iconic, but slow-selling, Dodge Viper be headed for its final off-ramp? That's the implication buried in the proposed FCA/UAW contract, which has the boisterous muscle car's Detroit assembly plant shutting down in 2017. The news about the Conner Avenue facility, where the Viper is largely hand-built, comes from the obsessive Mopar watchers at Allpar . Conner Avenue has been the home of the Viper since its launch in 1992 and also built the Plymouth Prowler. The Viper went away once before, in 2010, only to return for 2013. Not long after, however, in the fall of 2013, Chrysler was already having to slow production; the company halted production for two months the following spring, to let demand catch up with supply. Then came a $15,000 MSRP haircut, which dropped the base price of the 2015 car from just over $100,000 to closer to $85,000. For 2016, Dodge rolled out the fearsome, race-ready Viper ACR, which, although awesome, is obviously not a volume proposition. All of which is to say that, while we love the Viper, we would not be surprised if this latest rumor proves to be true. We also suspect, however, that anyone who wants to snag this snake before it slithers into the sunset will have ample opportunity-and, we'd bet, more than one special edition to pick from-between now and 2017. Follow MSN Autos on Facebook | 9 | 95,180 | autos |
Mark Bowden was watching a ballgame the Phillies versus the Mets on the night of May 1, 2011, when the network cut away to President Obama in the East Room of the White House. "Tonight," the president said, ''I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.'' Sign Up For NYT Now's Morning Briefing Newsletter Five minutes or so after the president wrapped up his brief remarks, as thousands of Americans gathered in front of the White House and at ground zero chanting ''U-S-A! U-S-A!'' Bowden's cellphone rang. It was Mike Stenson, the president of Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Bowden had worked with Bruckheimer on the film adaptation of his 1999 best seller, ''Black Hawk Down.'' ''Mike said, 'Look, Mark, Jerry wants to make a movie about this bin Laden thing, and he wants to put together all of the people who made 'Black Hawk Down,' '' Bowden told me over lunch recently. '' 'He wants to know: Would you be willing to write the script?' '' Bowden said absolutely, count him in. He quickly reached out to Jay Carney, Obama's press secretary at the time, to ask for an interview with the president. Bowden was friendly with Carney from a profile he wrote of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for The Atlantic. Still, he was surprised to hear back from him almost right away. It was an encouraging response, especially given the deluge of requests Bowden knew the president must be receiving. Carney said that he couldn't make any promises but that he would definitely advocate on his behalf. The next day, Stenson called back: Bruckheimer had changed his mind. Bowden considered for a second and decided he would write a book instead. In some ways, it was a perfect match of author and subject. Bowden specializes in chronicling covert operations. In addition to ''Black Hawk Down,'' which told the story of a 1993 raid in Somalia by U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force teams that went disastrously awry, he has written books about the failed mission to rescue the American hostages in Iran in 1980 and the long manhunt for the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. His method in those books was to combine exhaustive reporting with vivid storytelling. It helps that Bowden tends to write about historical events a long time after they take place. People are typically eager to sit down with him, and they are usually able to speak freely. One interview subject leads to another, who leads to another, and so on. It's a process that can take years. The bin Laden book proved to be a very different sort of undertaking. Bowden was trying to tell the story just months after it happened. And only a small number of people a handful of senior administration and military officials and the Navy SEALs who carried out the operation had been privy to the events of that evening. There was virtually no paper trail for Bowden to follow; the government had classified all the documents relating to the raid, including the record of the C.I.A.'s search for bin Laden. Bowden had to request interviews through official administration channels and hope for the best. His book, ''The Finish,'' was published in the fall of 2012, and the story it tells is one that is by now familiar. The C.I.A., working in the shadows for many years, had identified a courier whom agency officers eventually traced to a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Agents studied this compound for months via distant satellite cameras but couldn't be certain that bin Laden was inside. If he was a 55/45 percent proposition, Obama said later the president did not want to let him slip away. The safe play was to reduce the compound to dust with a bomb or missiles, but this would risk civilian casualties and also make it impossible to verify the kill with any certainty. Obama instead sent in a team of 23 Navy SEALs in two Black Hawk helicopters. The whole mission almost fell apart when one of the helicopters had to crash-land near an animal pen inside the compound. But the SEALs adapted on the fly and were soon making their assault, breaching gates and doors with C-4 charges and, eventually, killing their target. Before leaving, they blew up the damaged Black Hawk. As they flew off, a giant fire raged inside the compound. The Pakistani government was none the wiser until the SEALs were long gone. This irresistible story would be told in many different forms in the months and years that followed. Bowden's was one of several books, but there were also countless newspaper articles, magazine features, television news programs and ultimately the 2012 movie ''Zero Dark Thirty,'' which billed itself as the narrative of ''the Greatest Manhunt in History.'' In this sense, the killing of bin Laden was not only a victory for the U.S. military but also for the American storytelling machine, which kicked into high gear pretty much the moment the terrorist leader's dead body hit the floor. Last spring, Bowden got another unexpected call on his cellphone. He was on his way home to Pennsylvania from a meeting in New York with his publisher about his next book, the story of the Battle of Hue in the Vietnam War. On the other end of the line was Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter. Hersh was calling to ask about the photographs of bin Laden's burial at sea carried out, the U.S. government said, in accordance with Islamic custom that Bowden had described in detail at the end of ''The Finish,'' as well as in an adaptation from the book that appeared in Vanity Fair . ''One frame shows the body wrapped in a weighted shroud,'' Bowden had written. ''The next shows it lying diagonally on a chute, feet overboard. In the next frame, the body is hitting the water. In the next it is visible just below the surface, ripples spreading outward. In the last frame there are only circular ripples on the surface. The mortal remains of Osama bin Laden were gone for good.'' Hersh wanted to know: Had Bowden actually seen those photos? Bowden told Hersh that he had not. He explained that they were described to him by someone who had. Hersh said the photographs didn't exist. Indeed, he went on, the entire narrative of how the United States hunted down and killed bin Laden was a fabrication. He told Bowden that he was getting ready to publish the real story of what happened in Abbottabad. Bowden said he found Hersh's claims hard to believe. Hersh tried to sympathize. ''Nobody likes to get played,'' he said, adding that he meant no offense. ''I said, 'No offense taken,' '' Bowden recalled. ''I told him that he was, after all, Seymour Hersh, and that he ought to do whatever he thought best. But that in this case, I feared he was mistaken.'' It's hard to overstate the degree to which the killing of Osama bin Laden transformed American politics. From a purely practical standpoint, it enabled Obama to recast himself as a bold leader, as opposed to an overly cautious one, in advance of his 2012 re-election campaign. This had an undeniable impact on the outcome of that election. (''Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,'' Joe Biden was fond of boasting on the campaign trail.) Strategically, the death of bin Laden allowed Obama to declare victory over Al Qaeda, giving him the cover he needed to begin phasing U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. And it almost single-handedly redeemed the C.I.A., turning a decade-long failure of intelligence into one of the greatest triumphs in the history of the agency. But bin Laden's death had an even greater effect on the American psyche. Symbolically, it brought a badly wanted moment of moral clarity, of unambiguous American valor, to a murky war defined by ethical compromise and even at times by collective shame. It completed the historical arc of the 9/11 attacks. The ghastly image of collapsing towers that had been fixed in our collective minds for years was dislodged by one of Obama and his senior advisers huddled tensely around a table in the White House Situation Room, watching closely as justice was finally brought to the perpetrator. The first dramatic reconstruction of the raid itself '' Getting bin Laden: What Happened That Night in Abbottabad '' was written by a freelancer named Nicholas Schmidle and published in The New Yorker just three months after the operation. The son of a Marine general, Schmidle spent a couple of years in Pakistan and has written on counterterrorism for many publications, including this magazine. His New Yorker story was a cinematic account of military daring, sweeping but also granular in its detail, from the ''metallic cough of rounds being chambered'' inside the two Black Hawks as the SEALs approached the compound, to the mud that ''sucked at their boots'' when they hit the ground. One of the SEALs who shot bin Laden, Matt Bissonnette, added a more personal dimension to the story a year later in a best-selling book, ''No Easy Day.'' Bowden focused on Washington, taking readers inside the White House as the president navigated what would become a defining moment of his presidency. And then there was ''Zero Dark Thirty,'' which chronicled the often barbaric C.I.A. interrogations that the agency said helped lead the United States to bin Laden's compound. The official narrative of the hunt for and killing of bin Laden at first seemed like a clear portrait, but in effect it was more like a composite sketch from multiple perspectives: the Pentagon, the White House and the C.I.A. And when you studied that sketch a little more closely, not everything looked quite right. Almost immediately, the administration had to correct some of the most significant details of the raid. Bin Laden had not been ''engaged in a firefight,'' as the deputy national-security adviser, John Brennan, initially told reporters; he'd been unarmed. Nor had he used one of his wives as a human shield. The president and his senior advisers hadn't been watching a ''live feed'' of the raid in the Situation Room; the operation had not been captured on helmet-cams. But there were also some more unsettling questions about how the whole story had been constructed. Schmidle acknowledged after his article was published that he had never actually spoken with any of the 23 SEALs. Some details of Bissonnette's account of the raid contradicted those of another ex-SEAL, Robert O'Neill, who claimed in Esquire and on Fox News to have fired the fatal bullet. Public officials with security clearances told reporters that the torture scenes that were so realistically depicted in ''Zero Dark Thirty'' had not in fact played any role in helping us find bin Laden. Then there was the sheer improbability of the story, which asked us to believe that Obama sent 23 SEALs on a seemingly suicidal mission, invading Pakistani air space without air or ground cover, fast-roping into a compound that, if it even contained bin Laden, by all rights should have been heavily guarded. And according to the official line, all of this was done without any sort of cooperation or even assurances from the Pakistani military or intelligence service. How likely was that? Abbottabad is basically a garrison town; the conspicuously large bin Laden compound three stories, encircled by an 18-foot-high concrete wall topped with barbed wire was less than two miles from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point. And what about the local police? Were they really unaware that an enormous American helicopter had crash-landed in their neighborhood? And why were we learning so much about a covert raid by a secret special-operations unit in the first place? American history is filled with war stories that subsequently unraveled. Consider the Bush administration's false claims about Saddam Hussein's supposed arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Or the imagined attack on a U.S. vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin. During the Bay of Pigs, the government inflated the number of fighters it dispatched to Cuba in hopes of encouraging local citizens to rise up and join them. When the operation failed, the government quickly deflated the number, claiming that it hadn't been an invasion at all but rather a modest attempt to deliver supplies to local guerrillas. More recently, the Army reported that the ex-N.F.L. safety Pat Tillman was killed by enemy fire, rather than acknowledging that he was accidentally shot in the head by a machine-gunner from his own unit. These false stories couldn't have reached the public without the help of the media. Reporters don't just find facts; they look for narratives. And an appealing narrative can exert a powerful gravitational pull that winds up bending facts in its direction. During the Iraq war, reporters informed us that a mob of jubilant Iraqis toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. Never mind that there were so few local people trying to pull the statue down that they needed the help of a U.S. military crane. Reporters also built Pvt. Jessica Lynch into a war hero who had resisted her captors during an ambush in Iraq, when in fact her weapon had jammed and she remained in her Humvee. In an Op-Ed essay in The Times about the Lynch story in 2003, it was Bowden himself who explained this phenomenon as ''the tendency to weave what little we know into a familiar shape often one resembling the narrative arc of a film.'' Was the story of Osama bin Laden's death yet another example of American mythmaking? Had Bowden and, for that matter, all of us been seduced by a narrative that was manufactured expressly for our benefit? Or were these questions themselves just paranoid? ''The story stunk from Day 1,'' Hersh told me. It was a miserably hot summer day in Washington, and we were sitting in his office, a two-room suite in an anonymous office complex near Dupont Circle, where Hersh works alone. There's no nameplate on the door; the walls of the anteroom are crowded with journalism awards. ''I have a lot of fun here,'' he said, amid the clutter of cardboard boxes and precariously stacked books. ''I can do whatever I want.'' Within days of the bin Laden raid, Hersh told me, ''I knew there was a big story there.'' He spent the next four years, on and off, trying to get it. What he wound up publishing, this May in The London Review of Books, was no incremental effort to poke a few holes in the administration's story. It was a 10,000-word refutation of the entire official narrative, sourced largely to a retired U.S. senior intelligence official, with corroboration from two ''longtime consultants to the Special Operations Command.'' Hersh confidently walked readers through an alternate version of all the familiar plot points in a dispassionate, just-the-facts tone, turning a story of patient perseverance, careful planning and derring-do into one of luck (good and bad), damage control and opportunism. Hersh, who is 78, was reluctant to cooperate when I told him that I was interested in writing about his article. (''I've gotta bunch of problems with your request,'' his first email to me began.) He wanted me to follow up on his reporting instead and suggested that I might start by looking into Pakistan's radar system, which he said was far too sophisticated to allow two U.S. helicopters to enter the country's airspace undetected. (''Those dimwitted third-world guys just can't get anything right,'' he wrote sarcastically, meaning of course the Pakistanis would have been aware of two military helicopters flying into the heart of their country.) Hersh, who worked at The New York Times for seven years in the 1970s, didn't think the paper would allow me to take his claims seriously. ''If you did so,'' he wrote, ''you better be sure not to let your wife start the car for the next few months.'' But after a little prodding, he relented and spent the better part of a day with me, describing his reporting as thoroughly as he felt he could without compromising his sources. Hersh's most consequential claim was about how bin Laden was found in the first place. It was not years of painstaking intelligence-gathering, he wrote, that led the United States to the courier and, ultimately, to bin Laden. Instead, the location was revealed by a ''walk-in'' a retired Pakistani intelligence officer who was after the $25 million reward that the United States had promised anyone who helped locate him. For that matter, bin Laden was hardly ''in hiding'' at all; his compound in Abbottabad was actually a safe house, maintained by the Pakistani intelligence service. When the United States confronted Pakistani intelligence officials with this information, Hersh wrote, they eventually acknowledged it was true and even conceded to provide a DNA sample to prove it. According to Hersh's version, then, the daring raid wasn't especially daring. The Pakistanis allowed the U.S. helicopters into their airspace and cleared out the guards at the compound before the SEALs arrived. Hersh's sources told him the United States and Pakistani intelligence officials agreed that Obama would wait a week before announcing that bin Laden had been killed in a ''drone strike somewhere in the mountains on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.'' But the president was forced to go public right away, because the crash and subsequent destruction of the Black Hawk among the rare facts in the official story that Hersh does not dispute were going to make it impossible to keep the operation under wraps. As if those assertions weren't significant enough, Hersh went on to make some even wilder claims. He wrote, for instance, that bin Laden had not been given a proper Islamic burial at sea; the SEALs threw his remains out of their helicopter. He claimed not just that the Pakistanis had seized bin Laden in 2006, but that Saudi Arabia had paid for his upkeep in the years that followed, and that the United States had instructed Pakistan to arrest an innocent man who was a sometime C.I.A. asset as the fall guy for the major in the Pakistani Army who had collected bin Laden's DNA sample. What was perhaps most shocking of all, though, was that this elaborate narrative was being unspooled not by some basement autodidact but by one of America's greatest investigative reporters, the man who exposed the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai (1969), who revealed a clandestine C.I.A. program to spy on antiwar dissidents (1974) and who detailed the shocking story of the abuses at Abu Ghraib (2004). Could the bin Laden article be another major Hersh scoop? ''It's always possible,'' Bowden told me. ''But given the sheer number of people I talked to from different parts of government, for a lie to have been that carefully orchestrated and sustained to me gets into faked-moon-landing territory.'' Other reporters have been less generous still. ''What's true in the story isn't new, and what's new in the story isn't true,'' said Peter Bergen of CNN, who wrote his own best-selling account of the hunting and killing of bin Laden, ''Manhunt.'' And government officials were least receptive of all. Josh Earnest, then the White House spokesman, said Hersh's ''story is riddled with inaccuracies and outright falsehoods.'' Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was ''largely a fabrication.'' (There were ''too many inaccuracies to even bother going through them line by line.'') The administration pretty much left it at that, though some of Hersh's critics have pointed to classified documents made public by Edward Snowden revealing a long history of C.I.A. surveillance of the Abbottabad compound as proof that its location hadn't simply been revealed by a walk-in. This sort of reception is nothing new for Hersh. A Pentagon spokesman at the time of Abu Ghraib, Lawrence Di Rita, described one of his many (now unchallenged) articles for The New Yorker on the scandal as ''the most hysterical piece of journalist malpractice I have ever observed.'' Still, Hersh got worked up in some of the interviews he gave after the publication of the bin Laden piece. ''I don't care if you don't like my story!'' he told a public-radio host during one grilling. ''I don't care!'' But with time, his petulance cooled into a kind of amusement. ''High-camp'' was one adjective he used to describe the administration's version of the events. At one point in our conversation, I reminded Hersh that I wasn't going to offer a definitive judgment on what happened. I didn't want to reinterview the administration officials who had already given their accounts of the events to other journalists. I saw this as more of a media story, a case study in how constructed narratives become accepted truth. This felt like a cop-out to him, as he explained in a long email the next day. He said that I was sidestepping the real issue, that I was ''turning this into a 'he-said, she-said' dilemma,'' instead of coming to my own conclusion about whose version was right. It was then that he introduced an even more disturbing notion: What if no one's version could be trusted? ''Of course there is no reason for you or any other journalist to take what was said to me by unnamed sources at face value,'' Hersh wrote. ''But it is my view that there also is no reason for journalists to take at face value what a White House or administration spokesman said on or off the record in the aftermath or during a crisis.'' For those in and around the news business, the fact that Hersh's report appeared in The London Review of Books and not The New Yorker, his usual outlet, was a story in its own right, one that hasn't been told in full before. (Editors and reporters may not be as secretive as intelligence officials, but they like to keep a tight lid on their operational details, too.) A week or so after the raid, Hersh called The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick. In 2009, Hersh wrote a story for the magazine about the growing concern among U.S. officials that Pakistan's large nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of extremists inside the country's military. Now he let Remnick know that two of his sources one in Pakistan, the other in Washington were telling him something else: The administration was lying about the bin Laden operation. One of The New Yorker's staff writers, Dexter Filkins, was already planning a trip to Pakistan for a different assignment. It is rare, but not unprecedented, for The New Yorker to run double-bylined articles, and the magazine decided to pursue one. It paired Filkins with Hersh, asking Filkins to report the Pakistani side in particular, the notion that Pakistan had secretly cooperated with the United States while Hersh would keep following leads from Washington. But Filkins, who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Times before moving to The New Yorker, spent about a week running the tip by sources inside the Pakistani government and military with little success. ''It wasn't even that I was getting angry denials,'' Filkins told me. ''I was getting blank stares.'' Filkins said the mood on the ground completely contradicted Hersh's claim; the Pakistani military seemed humiliated about having been kept in the dark by the Americans. Remnick told him to move on. He ended up writing about a Pakistani journalist who was murdered, probably by the country's intelligence service, the I.S.I., after detailing the links between Islamist militants and the Pakistani military. In the meantime, The New Yorker published Schmidle's account of the bin Laden raid, and, soon after, brought Schmidle on as a staff writer. (In an email, Schmidle told me his subsequent reporting has only confirmed his initial account. Regarding the possibility ''that some inside the Pakistani military or intelligence services knew that bin Laden was living in that house, I think it's entirely plausible, though I've not seen any proof,'' he wrote.) Hersh plowed ahead by himself, working his sources, trying to flesh out his counternarrative. Three years later he sent a draft to The New Yorker. After reading it a few times, Remnick told Hersh that he didn't think he had the story nailed down. He suggested that Hersh continue his reporting and see where it took him. Instead, Hersh gave the story to The London Review of Books. Hersh has never been on The New Yorker's staff, preferring to remain a freelancer. But he has strong ties to the magazine. He published his first article there in 1971 and has written hundreds of thousands of words for the magazine since then, including, most recently, an essay about visiting My Lai with his family that was published only weeks before his London Review of Books article on bin Laden. (His son Joshua, now a reporter for Buzzfeed, was a New Yorker fact-checker for many years.) Remnick has published some of Hersh's most provocative articles and, for that matter, plenty of other major national-security stories that the government would have preferred to keep buried. But the bin Laden report wasn't the first one by Hersh that Remnick rejected because he considered the sourcing too thin. In 2013 and 2014, he passed on two Hersh articles about a deadly sarin gas attack in Syria, each of which claimed the attack was not launched by the Assad regime, the presumed culprit, but by Syrian rebels, in collaboration with the Turkish government. Those articles also landed in The London Review of Books. Like the bin Laden article, each was widely questioned upon publication, with critics arguing that the once-legendary reporter was increasingly favoring provocation over rigor. (Hersh still stands by both stories.) The media would certainly have treated Hersh's bin Laden story differently if it had been published in The New Yorker, which is highly regarded for its thorough review process. But Hersh insists that the L.R.B. was just as thorough, if not more so. His editor, Christian Lorentzen, told me that three fact-checkers worked on the bin Laden article, and he also spoke directly to Hersh's key sources, including the retired American intelligence official identified in the article as the ''major U.S. source for the account.'' Even if the fact-checking process at The London Review of Books was as thorough as Hersh and the magazine say, we are still left trusting his unnamed sources. Should we? Hersh's first Abu Ghraib article was based on an internal Army report, but many of the most important revelations in his work come from midlevel bureaucrats, ambassadors, C.I.A. station chiefs and four-star generals whose identities are known to only his editors and fact-checkers. The promise of anonymity is an essential tool for reporters. It changed the course of history (in Watergate, most prominently) and helped make Hersh's illustrious career. But it also invariably leaves doubts about the motivation of the sources and thus their credibility. Hersh's instincts to him, every story stinks from Day 1 have served him well. But there are inherent perils in making a career of digging up the government's deepest secrets. National-security reporters are almost never present at the events in question, and they are usually working without photos or documents, too. Their hardest facts consist almost entirely of what (unnamed) people say. It is a bedrock value of journalism that reporters must never get facts wrong, but faithfully reproducing what people tell you is just the beginning. You have to also decide which facts and which voices to include and how best to assemble this material into an accurate, coherent narrative: a story. In making these judgments, even the best might miss a nuance or choose the wrong fact or facts to emphasize. As Steve Coll, a New Yorker staff writer and the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, told me, ''You'd want an investigative reporter's reputation to not be 100 percent right all of the time, but to be mostly right, to be directionally right.'' Hersh may have been the first journalist to write that a secret informant had steered the United States to bin Laden's compound, but he was by no means the only one who had heard this rumor. Coll was another. ''In my case, it was described to me as a specific Pakistani officer in the intelligence service,'' Coll, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the C.I.A. and Afghanistan, told me one afternoon in his office at Columbia. ''I even had a name that I've been working on for four years.'' Intuitively, the notion of a walk-in makes sense. Secret informants have led the United States to virtually every high-value terrorist target tracked to Pakistan, including Ramzi Yousef, the first World Trade Center bomber, and Mir Aimal Kansi, who killed two C.I.A. employees in an attack on Langley in 1993. ''The idea that the C.I.A. stitched this together, and torture worked and they found the car and they found the courier, then they found the license plate and they followed it to the house that had always seemed to those of us on the beat like it was very elaborate,'' Coll said. But Coll has never been able to confirm the tipper story. The closest he came was a conversation with an American intelligence officer who had worked with the man said to have been the informant. ''I said, 'Do you know this guy?' '' Coll recalled. ''He said: 'Yeah, I do know him. I used to work very closely with him.' I said, 'Is this bio that I've been given accurate?' He said, 'Yeah, it's accurate.' I said, 'I've been told he took the $25 million and is in witness protection.' He paused, and he said, 'Hmm, that's the sort of thing he would do.' '' From the beginning, it seemed hard to believe that high-level Pakistani officials weren't aware of bin Laden's presence in their country; several U.S. officials even publicly said as much in the aftermath of the raid. Pakistan conducted its own secret investigation into the matter, which was leaked to Al Jazeera in 2013. The Abbottabad Commission Report, as it was known, found no evidence that Pakistan was harboring bin Laden. Instead, it concluded that the world's most wanted man was able to move freely around the country for nine years because of widespread incompetence among military and intelligence authorities. The most detailed exploration of the question of Pakistani complicity in sheltering bin Laden appeared in this magazine in March 2014. It came from a book written by a Times correspondent, Carlotta Gall, who reported that a source inside the I.S.I. told her that Pakistan's intelligence service ran a special desk assigned to handle bin Laden. ''The desk was wholly deniable by virtually everyone at the I.S.I. such is how supersecret intelligence units operate but the top military bosses knew about it, I was told,'' Gall wrote . More controversial is Hersh's claim that Pakistan knew in advance about the SEAL team raid and allowed it to proceed, even helped facilitate it. This is the starkest departure from the standard story as it was reported previously. Logically, it would require us to accept that the U.S. government trusted the Pakistanis to help it kill bin Laden, and that the humiliation that Pakistan's military and intelligence reportedly felt in the aftermath of the raid was either a ruse or the product of some even deeper U.S.-Pakistani intrigue. Is there any evidence to support this claim or, really, anything we can latch onto beyond Hersh's unnamed sources? Eleven days after the raid, an unbylined story appeared on GlobalPost, an American website specializing in foreign reporting. The dateline was Abbottabad; the story was headlined: '' Bin Laden Raid: Neighbors Say Pakistan Knew .'' A half-dozen people who lived near bin Laden's compound told the reporter that plainclothes security personnel ''either Pakistani intelligence or military officers'' knocked on their doors a couple of hours before the raid and instructed them to turn the lights off and remain indoors until further notice. Some local people also told the reporter that they were directed not to speak to the media, especially the foreign media. When I contacted the chief executive of GlobalPost, Philip Balboni, he told me he considered trying to aggressively publicize this narrative when he first posted it. ''[B]ut that would have required resources that we did not possess at the time, and the information against it was so overwhelming that even we had to wonder if our sources were right,'' he wrote me in an email. Balboni put me in touch with the reporter, Aamir Latif, a 41-year-old Pakistani journalist. Latif, a former foreign correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, told me that he traveled to Abbottabad the day after bin Laden was killed and reported there for a couple of days. I asked him if he still believed that there was some level of Pakistani awareness of the raid. ''Not awareness,'' he answered instantly. ''There was coordination and cooperation.'' Latif, who kept his name off the original post because of the sensitivity of the subject in Pakistan, said that people in the area told him that they heard the U.S. helicopters and that surely the Pakistani military had, too: ''The whole country was awake, only the Pakistani Army was asleep? What does that suggest to you?'' Gall has also written that bin Laden's neighbors heard the explosions at the compound and contacted the local police, but that army commanders told the police to stand down and leave the response to the military. The SEALs were on the ground for 40 minutes, but the Pakistani Army didn't arrive until after they had left. Gall's best guess (and she emphasizes that it is just a guess) is that the United States alerted Pakistan to the bin Laden operation at the 11th hour. ''I have no proof, but the more I think about it and the more I talk to Pakistani friends, the more I think it's probably true that Kayani and Pasha were in on it,'' Gall told me, referring to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was then the chief of the army staff, and Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, then the director general of the I.S.I. As for killing bin Laden, she said: ''The scenario I imagine is that the Americans watched him and tracked him and never told the Pakistanis because they didn't trust them, but when they decided to go ahead with the raid, I think they might have gone to Kayani and Pasha and said, 'We're going in, and don't you dare shoot down our helicopters or else.' '' (I should note that not every national-security reporter, including some at The Times, agrees with Gall about the likelihood of high-level Pakistani complicity in either harboring bin Laden or helping kill him.) Following Gall's scenario to its logical conclusion, Pakistan would have faced an unappealing choice after the raid: acknowledge that it had cooperated and risk angering hard-liners for betraying bin Laden and abetting a U.S. military operation on Pakistani soil, or plead ignorance and incompetence. ''The Pakistanis often fall back on, 'We were incompetent,' '' Gall said. ''They don't want their countrymen to know what they're playing at. They fear there will be a backlash.'' Where does the official bin Laden story stand now? For many, it exists in a kind of liminal state, floating somewhere between fact and mythology. The writing of history is a process, and this story still seems to have a long way to go before the government's narrative can be accepted as true, or rejected as false. ''It's all sort of hokey, the whole thing,'' Robert Baer, a longtime C.I.A. case officer in the Middle East (and the inspiration for the George Clooney character in the movie ''Syriana'') told me of the government's version of the events. ''I've never seen a White House take that kind of risk. Did the president just wake up one morning and say, 'Let's put my presidency on the line right before an election?' This guy is too smart to put 23 SEALs in harm's way in a Hollywood-like assassination. He's too smart.'' Still, none of Baer's old friends inside or outside the agency have challenged the administration's account. Over time, many of Hersh's claims could be proved right. What then? We may be justifiably outraged. Pakistan, our putative ally in the war on terror and the beneficiary of billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer aid, would have provided refuge to our greatest enemy the author of the very act that prompted us to invade Afghanistan. The audacious raid on bin Laden's compound, our greatest victory in the war on terror, would have been little more than ''a turkey shoot'' (Hersh's phrase). Above all, our government would have lied to us. But should we really be shocked by such a revelation? After all,it would barely register on a scale of government secrecy and deception that includes, in recent years alone, the N.S.A.'s covert wiretapping program and the C.I.A.'s off-the-books network of ''black site'' prisons. ''White House public-affairs people are not historians, they are not scholars, they are not even journalists,'' Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, told me. ''They are representing a political entity inside the United States government. Telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth is not their job, and even if it were their job, they would not necessarily be able to do it.'' Hersh's version doesn't require us to believe in the possibility of a governmentwide conspiracy. Myths can be projected through an uncoordinated effort with a variety of people really just doing their jobs. Of course, when enough people are obscuring the truth, the results can seem, well, conspiratorial. Hersh is fond of pointing out that thousands of government employees and contractors presumably knew about the N.S.A.'s wiretapping, but only one, Edward Snowden, came forward. We can go a step further: The more sensitive the subject, the more likely the government will be to feed us untruths. Consider our relationship with Pakistan, which Obama clearly had on his mind in the aftermath of the raid. In his address to the nation, Obama expressed his gratitude: ''Over the years, I've repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we've done. But it's important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.'' Either the line in Obama's statement wasn't truthful or the administration's subsequent disavowal of it wasn't. But in either case, it's hard to imagine that telling the whole truth was more important to Obama, or should have been more important, than managing America's relationship with this unstable ally. There's simply no reason to expect the whole truth from the government about the killing of bin Laden. If a tipper led the United States to his compound in Abbottabad, the administration could never say so without putting that individual's life at risk and making it virtually impossible for the C.I.A. to recruit informants in the future. If Pakistan didn't want us to acknowledge its cooperation with the raid, we wouldn't, for fear of igniting the militant backlash Gall mentioned. Hersh himself has written in The New Yorker that there is a credible danger of extremists inside Pakistan's military staging a coup and taking control of its large stockpile of nuclear weapons. Reporters like to think of themselves as empiricists, but journalism is a soft science. Absent documentation, the grail of national-security reporting, they are only as good as their sources and their deductive reasoning. But what happens when different sources offer different accounts and deductive reasoning can be used to advance any number of contradictory arguments? How do we square Latif's reporting in Abbottabad and Baer's skepticism with the official story that Bowden and many others heard? ''As a reporter in this world,'' Bowden told me, ''you have to always allow for the possibility that you are being lied to, you hope for good reason.'' We may already know far more about the bin Laden raid than we were ever supposed to. In his 2014 memoir ''Duty,'' the former secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, wrote that everyone who gathered in the White House Situation Room on the night of the raid had agreed to ''keep mum on the details.'' ''That commitment lasted about five hours,'' he added, pointing his finger directly at the White House and the C.I.A: ''They just couldn't wait to brag and to claim credit.'' The problem is that amid all of this bragging, it became impossible to know what was true and what wasn't. Recall ''Zero Dark Thirty,'' which grossed $130 million at the box office and was in many ways the dominant narrative of the killing of bin Laden. The filmmakers, in numerous interviews, went out of their way to promote their access to government and military sources: The opening credits announced that the film was based on ''firsthand accounts of actual events.'' And, as a trove of documents made public via the Freedom of Information Act amply demonstrated, the C.I.A. eagerly cooperated with the filmmakers, arranging for the writer and director to meet with numerous analysts and officers who were identified as being involved in the hunt for bin Laden. The director, Kathryn Bigelow, has described the film as ''the first rough cut of history.'' This was a story that was so good it didn't need to be fictionalized, or so it seemed. It began with a series of C.I.A.-led torture sessions, which the movie suggested provided the crucial break in the hunt for bin Laden. Only they didn't, at least according to a report conducted over the course of many years by the Senate Intelligence Committee (and others with access to classified information). Senator Dianne Feinstein, who oversaw the report as the committee's chairwoman, said she walked out of a screening of the film. ''I couldn't handle it,'' she said. ''Because it's so false.'' The filmmakers' intent had presumably been to tell a nuanced story the ugly truth of how we found bin Laden but in so doing, they seem to have perpetuated a lie. It's not that the truth about bin Laden's death is unknowable; it's that we don't know it. And we can't necessarily console ourselves with the hope that we will have more answers any time soon; to this day, the final volume of the C.I.A.'s official history of the Bay of Pigs remains classified. We don't know what happened more than a half-century ago, much less in 2011. There are different ways to control a narrative. There's the old-fashioned way: Classify documents that you don't want seen and, as Gates said, ''keep mum on the details.'' But there's also the more modern, social-media-savvy approach: Tell the story you want them to believe. Silence is one way to keep a secret. Talking is another. And they are not mutually exclusive. ''I love the notion that the government isn't riddled with secrecy,'' Hersh told me toward the end of our long day together. ''Are you kidding me? They keep more secrets than you can possibly think. There's stuff going on right now that I know about amazing stuff that's going on. I'll write about it when I can. There's stuff going out right now, amazing stuff in the Middle East. Are you kidding me? Of course there is. Of course there is.'' Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The New York Times Magazine delivered to your inbox every week. | 5 | 95,181 | news |
Called the " Lifeboat Test ," students were asked who they would choose to save if the boat was sinking. There were descriptions of people that included their age, race, sex and religion. President Obama and Donald Trump were also on the boat. Parents say this is much too mature subject matter for sixth-graders, that it seems racist, and they're taking it to the higher-ups. "They need to be careful with what their teachers are putting out there," one mom told her local news station. Really? Do teachers really need to be that careful with what they're putting out there? This exercise seems ripe with so many opportunities to discuss history and how people have been treated over the years, our biases, what's going on today, why the choices are hard, the value of human life and… wow. Sounds like a fascinating way to get children to think and learn about some of these things. And we're not talking about kindergartners. These were sixth-graders, in middle school. Exactly how long are we supposed to wait to start talking about these important matters? Perhaps there's more to this story than we know, but in general, it seems that simply mentioning race, sex, religion or anything slightly controversial in the classroom these days leads to cries of discrimination or to some parents protesting the horrible thoughts being planted into their children's brains. From outrage about teaching children what Islam is to teachers fired for showing what happened in history , we see it far too often. Teachers have to walk on such thin ice with lessons and homework and what they say in class that their creativity to teach and inspire students is frozen. We're going to end up with classrooms so dry and dull and students so uneducated about the history of our country and the ways of the world that learning is going to lag even further behind than it already does in this country. Sure, there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, and unfortunately we see those cases too. In general, however, parents really need to step back and realize that discussing issues and asking questions are what spark ideas, develop critical thinking and nurture one's ability to debate and defend one's own ideas. Isn't that ultimately what we want our children to learn most? Follow us on Twitter. | 4 | 95,182 | lifestyle |
It took me 10 years to stop feeling guilty. The dry storage room was dark. I remember focusing on the light spilling in under the crack at the bottom of the locked door, how I could hardly make out the shapes of the ketchup bottles, the bins of salt and pepper packets, stacks of napkins in coarse brown wrapping, the sundry kitchen supplies. Two male co-workers, who deserve no description, followed me in. During a busy Friday shift at the restaurant where I worked during my college years, they grabbed me, locked me in the room, and held me down as they took turns putting their hands in my shirt and down my pants. I screamed for help. When no one came, I concentrated on the smudge of light on the floor. There is a male voice in my memory, beyond the closed door, shouting something unintelligible. It didn't matter. I was removed from the bustle of the restaurant, far from the dining room, behind the sizzling grills and hissing pots. Even if someone had tried to come in, the door was held closed by the perpetrators, who took turns groping and standing guard. This memory stayed with me like dampness that clings to your skin long after you've found shelter from the rain. These traumas dry slowly and leave you reeling long after you're out of the storm. I finished college and went on to graduate school. I became an adjunct professor. Like most affiliate faculty, I live in my car, driving among three different universities in southern Connecticut. My days are filled with stacks of first-year writing papers, a constant stream of student emails, and classes taught in hour-and-15-minute intervals. One afternoon this past spring, I sat at my shared desk in a gray windowless room correcting student reading responses to an assigned short story. I was working my way through the group of one- to two-page essays when one disrupted my progress. The paper belonged to a woman student in my first-year writing course. I had her in my class the previous semester. I'd come to appreciate her direct, smart prose and stimulating ideas. The response began as I had expected, exploring the relationship between twin brothers in "Boys" by Rick Moody. She brought in a discussion of her own bothers. Fine: I encouraged integrating personal reflection. But then, halfway through her paper, a trail of black Times New Roman letters like a punch in the gut: I was sexually assaulted at a party this semester . Then the response to "Boys" continued. I read the rest of her paper, searching for anything more about her experience. Were more clues embedded in the context of the reading response? No. That was it. She had smuggled this secret to me between neatly constructed paragraphs and concluded the essay like she would any piece of homework. But the other words blurred. There was for a moment only this essay, composed of a single line. I read it again and again, and each time it raised a canvas of goose bumps on my arms; I swallowed hard as my own memory returned. I had for a long time pretended that I had never been assaulted, but when I read my student's story it was the very first thing I remembered. I only had two thoughts: I understand what she's going through , and How do I respond in the best and most supportive way possible? As far as I knew, this student was the first from my first-year writing class to be sexually assaulted. She almost certainly wouldn't be the last. I could see so much of my younger self in her. We were both goal-orientated, excited to finish school and begin careers in the professional world, but savoring the fun and friendship that make up a college education. She'd written journal entries for my class the previous semester. Perhaps this regular practice of writing in an intimate, informal way and then sharing it with me had already established a dynamic in which she could divulge something more serious. But her journaling had largely detailed the ordinary stresses of college life: upcoming exams, social insecurities, the desire for romantic love. She had an idealized notion of what love would be when she found it. I reread her truncated admission. It was hard to ascertain her emotional state, but mine was vivid; I felt as if I had walked outside into a cold, hard pouring rain. I'd felt guilty throughout the decade following my assault. I believed that what happened was my fault. I knew this was a common feeling among sexual assault survivors, and intellectually I knew I wasn't responsible for what happened. But the guilt drowned out my logic. I was affable, approachable. I smiled often and without hesitation, at strangers as well as my closest friends. When I was a teenager I spent a day in New York City with my family. On a crowded street, I smiled at an older man as he walked past us, and he returned my smile and let his eyes linger. My father noticed. "Never smile like that at strange men," he said. "You shouldn't be so friendly." Was this exactly what I had done 10 years ago? I was friendly with all of my co-workers. We joked around. We chatted. Had my behavior been misleading? I have been reluctant to talk about this incident, to even call it sexual assault. When I read this young student's account, I never for a second blamed her. Suddenly I felt like my rain-soaked clothes had finally dried. Reading the limited confession of another young woman, 10 years later, I finally processed my own trauma: It was not my fault, because it wasn't her fault either. I wrote a long paragraph at the bottom of her reading response. I told her that I could understand what she was going through because I, too, had been assaulted. I offered to talk to her in person about what happened. I said that if she needed someone, I was there for her. After my assault, I told my manager what happened. While I mentioned unwanted physical contact from two co-workers, my tone was casual; I was trying to conceal the embarrassment I felt. My manager was dismissive. She told me that if I was really upset, I should talk to the general manager, her superior. Then she changed the subject to the upcoming schedule. Was I able to cover a shift next weekend? Her question effectively ended the conversation. In her defense, it was protocol at my restaurant to report an act of sexual harassment or assault to the highest-ranking manager. But I didn't feel comfortable talking to an older man about what had happened to me. I didn't have the same rapport with him. What if he wanted me to recount uncomfortable details? The thought of having to retell this story to someone I had a distant, strictly professional relationship with was unbearable. It was much easier to keep my mouth shut and pretend it never happened. Before the start of the fall term, a small group of my colleagues and I attended an optional session about how we should handle sexual assault in the classroom. A trio of polished women, each a subordinate from a different administrative office, summarized the procedure: "If you suspect there may have been some kind of assault, it's always best to refer the student to a counselor," said one of the women matter-of-factly. "But you don't have to," another added. "The referral is optional." Then they handed out contact sheets for various administrators and moved on. Before returning the reading responses the next day, I reread the words I wrote on my student's paper several times. I hadn't told her to talk to one of the university's counselors. I hadn't said she should seek advice and support from a professional. Should I have? My story wove itself into hers; I could relate and understand her on a level she probably hadn't anticipated. Should I react to her in writing, or call her into my office, an act that might make her feel nervous or uncomfortable? I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay. I recalled my own experience being referred to someone else, a "more qualified" person, someone who had the authority to "deal" with it. I didn't have to refer my student to a counselor. It was optional. I wondered if this referral culture, just passing each "crisis" up the ladder, actually helped students. I didn't think so. The procedures weren't in place to protect the students, at any rate; they were there to protect the institution. Helping the victim, if it happened, was just a fringe benefit. I thought back to the fall meeting. I couldn't help but feel that the act of referring this student to a counselor would be sending a message: I don't know how to respond to your issue, or perhaps I don't want to. But what could I do? Ultimately I decided to respond the same way she had reached out to me: in writing. I've always felt more comfortable with written communication, particularly when a situation was difficult. So I filled the blank white space at the bottom of the assignment with my own story, my own experience with sexual assault. I wrote, "It wasn't your fault" in my clumsy script. I returned her homework at the end of our next class without verbally acknowledging her admission. The next time class met, she came into the classroom and sat at her desk. She looked at me and smiled. Neither one of us ever brought up her confession again. I am still not sure I handled the situation correctly. This year we had another meeting at the start of the semester. Once again, there was a brief seminar on how teachers could deal with any student concerns. We were given a litany of potential issues and the appropriate services available: mental health, disability support services, student code of conduct, and emergency issues, among others. Sexual assault didn't appear on the list. One adjunct professor asked whom we were to call if we encountered a student who might have been sexually assaulted. Once again we were told that the best solution was to refer the student to the appropriate campus counselor. The name and contact information were given, and we moved on to the next seminar. Rebecca Dimyan is a fiction writer, essayist, and food journalist. She teaches writing at Fairfield University, Southern Connecticut State University, and Quinnipiac University. First Person is Vox's home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines , and pitch us at [email protected] . | 5 | 95,183 | news |
As the infamous date that Marty and Doc traveled forward in time to in "Back To The Future II" approaches, the actors got together to discuss what happen when future meets reality, Ali Lucia and Kim Johnson report (1:08). WCCO This Morning Oct. 15, 2015 | 8 | 95,184 | video |
States around the country are on the verge of passing laws to crack down on "sanctuary cities" that protect undocumented immigrants from being deported. The efforts are a broad response to the July death of Kathryn Steinle, the San Francisco woman shot by an alleged undocumented immigrant who had been released from a local jail instead of handed over to federal immigration officials. Her death, publicized by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and others, brought so-called sanctuary cities into the national spotlight, prompting politicians in Congress, state legislatures and local governments to call for sweeping changes. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July cracking down on those cities, and the Senate is scheduled to take up the bill next week. Now, after three months of hearings and intense debate, the first state law targeting sanctuary cities is about to be signed into law in North Carolina. State Rep. George Cleveland, a Republican from Jacksonville, N.C., has been trying to pass laws combating illegal immigration for a decade. He said it took Steinle's death to get enough legislators on board to pass his bill, which Republican Gov. Pat McCrory is likely to sign into law this month. "Everyone says, 'It's a federal government problem.' No, it isn't. The federal government is not doing its job, so it's our problem," said Cleveland. "We've become so multi-culturalist that we don't have the common sense to see that we're ruining our country. Instead, we let cities pat (undocumented immigrants) on the back and here we are." Defenders of sanctuary cities worry about a national overreaction to the shooting at popular Pier 14 in San Francisco's Embarcadero district. Sam Liccardo, Democratic mayor of nearby San Jose, Calif., said communities like his should use the shooting as an opportunity to review their sanctuary policies. He worries that in the rush to respond to Steinle's death, cities could pass extreme laws that hurt all immigrants. "Innovative regions of the world depend on ambitious, creative people who come from other parts of the world to contribute to our economy," said Liccardo, a former prosecutor whose city is in the heart of Silicon Valley. "I think cities that become viewed as hostile toward immigrants will ultimately be forced to rethink their approach." Sanctuary cities started popping up around the country in recent years in response to a federal program that uses local law enforcement to help identify undocumented immigrants living in the country. People arrested on local charges and booked into local jails have their fingerprints sent to the Department of Homeland Security to check for immigration violations. If one pops up, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could ask local police to hold the suspect for several days to give agents time to pick up the person and begin deportation proceedings. Some city, county and state officials complained that the program was being abused by ICE to round up people arrested for non-violent, minor crimes. That led to city policies that limit local officials, including police, from assisting ICE in those efforts. As many communities adopted those policies more than 300 around the country so far ICE argued that a number of potentially dangerous immigrants were set free. That debate peaked in April when the San Francisco Sheriff's Department released Francisco Sanchez despite a criminal record that included seven felony convictions non-violent drug and immigration offenses. Three months later, police allege, he shot Steinle along the pier packed with tourists. He is now charged with murder. Many sanctuary city policies, including San Francisco's, allow police to hold someone for ICE if the suspect has an extensive or violent criminal history. San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has said his office followed the city's policies. Several cities and counties around the country reviewed their policies after the shooting and decided against any changes. Some, like Santa Clara County, Calif., are considering clarifying the rules to continue protecting most undocumented immigrants, but ensuring that those with violent criminal records are handed over to ICE. But other jurisdictions want to do more. "As a father of two children, I could only imagine how that felt," said Mike Kowall, a Republican state senator from White Lake, Mich. "The fact that this fellow was locked up and obviously there were other warrants for him, but he wasn't turned over to ICE to sort it all out, it was really disturbing." Kowall filed a bill that would prohibit any government agency in the state from enacting sanctuary policies. The bill is moving through the Michigan Legislature, and Kowall said he has enough support to get it passed this year. Texas state Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, says he's in a similar situation. The Steinle murder took place after the state legislature adjourned, but he said the lieutenant governor placed his bill on the agenda of items to be studied before the next session begins. He said the bill is already facing stiff resistance, but he is confident that Texas and other states will soon crack down on sanctuary cities. "The initial response was partisan. That's a given in this political environment," Perry said. "But the big picture here is the rule of law. When you allow cities to undermine federal immigration law, you create a scenario ... that can create chaos and anarchy, because who's to say what laws should be enforced? "One way or another, we'll get this done," he added. | 5 | 95,185 | news |
Donald Trump loves to pick on Jeb Bush. He's repeatedly called the former Florida governor "low energy," mocked his poll numbers and questioned his electability. So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Bush declined to say whether he'd 100 percent support Trump should the real estate mogul win the Republican presidential nomination. In an interview with Fox Sports podcast Outkick, host Clay Travis asked Bush if he would vote for Trump over Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. "That's a good question," Bush said. "I'd have to see how it played out. I think I would." Bush said that while Clinton is a liberal, "Trump's views are evolving, at least, towards the right place." He also admitted that he has, in the past, voted for someone other than a candidate he publicly supported. "I don't think I've done it for president," Bush said. "I'm pretty sure I've probably done it for city councilman or something like that, because things changed in the mist. I've endorsed a lot of people and it doesn't always work out." | 5 | 95,186 | news |
Purchasing health insurance can be an intimidating decision. And because I write about health care for a living, with open enrollment season right around the corner, colleagues increasingly ask me how I pick my own plan. Related What if health insurance doesn't make us any healthier? The six years I've spent writing about health insurance have helped convince me that, frustratingly, my parents are right: You really should purchase health insurance, even if you think you won't use it. And there are things I've started to watch out for as I read the fine print of my plan. Here's what I've learned so far; hopefully it can be of some help to you, too. Yes, you should buy insurance even if you're young and healthy (Shutterstock) If you are young and healthy and you follow this rule, you will likely end up spending more on premiums than your health plan pays out in claims. A year from now, you might rue the day you read this very Vox article that instructed you buy health insurance wondering what on earth that writer was thinking. I am 30, and so far, I've never had a year where my medical costs exceeded my premiums. It is possible I'd have more money in my bank account now if I had eschewed coverage and paid my bills out of pocket. But the reason I'm going to buy health insurance again this year (and why I think you should too) is because I need someone else on the hook for a big, unexpected medical bill that I couldn't afford on my own. This is how all insurance works. You don't buy car insurance because you expect to get in a serious accident next year, or homeowners' insurance because you expect your house to burn down. You buy insurance so you're covered in the case of rare but financially catastrophic events. Health insurance works the same way. If you're young and healthy, you probably won't need much health care next year. But if you do need care, it can be expensive. The average hospital stay now costs more than $10,000 . That would put a serious dent in my savings and wipe out many Americans' savings accounts entirely . It would prevent me from doing the things I want to do, like eventually buy a house or raise children. Most of us won't have a hospital stay like that next year. But the reason to buy insurance is to protect ourselves against the chance that we could because all of us do have that chance in the year ahead. It's all well and good for me to write this story urging every reader to buy health insurance. But it's quite another thing to fit that plan into a very real budget, one that has to make space for dozens of other things. Right now, people who get their health insurance at work pay an average monthly premium of $90 for individual coverage. If you don't get health insurance at work, you can use the Obamacare marketplaces, where the lowest-cost individual plans are usually somewhere between $150 and $300 per month, depending on where you live and how old you are. There's also a question of what kind of value a health insurance plan delivers. Some of the Obamacare plans, for example, have a $5,000 deductible. That means people in that plan would have to cover $5,000 in medical bills before their coverage even kicks in. This type of coverage still protects against the really big medical bills. But it also leaves subscribers with a lot of financial exposure. These are the plans that I find it hardest to weigh in on I generally think buying health insurance is important, but would also worry about someone making major adjustments to her budget to buy relatively skimpy coverage. So my thinking here is this: If you can make it fit with some small adjustments to your lifestyle and purchase a safety net, I think that's a worthwhile trade-off. But if you're looking at really big adjustments to purchase a safety net with a bunch of holes in it, I can understand the case for skipping coverage, too. The key trade-off in health insurance: You pay more to avoid future financial risk If you get health insurance at work, you probably have two or three plans to chose from. If you're buying coverage on the Obamacare marketplace, you're probably looking at more like a dozen plans. In either case, they tend to come with summaries that look like this: These plan documents can be confusing, and I've written a separate piece about what the different terms mean. If there are words here that are unfamiliar, I'd suggest giving that piece a read. There's one general guiding principle to keep in mind as you wade through these plans: There's typically a direct relationship between how much you pay upfront for a plan and how much it will cover. Plans with higher premiums tend to have lower deductibles, copayments, and co-insurance. Essentially, if you pick a higher premium plan, you're paying more money on a monthly basis so you'll face lower costs in the future when you seek health care. Conversely, plans with lower premiums tend to have higher deductibles, copayments, and co-insurance. With these plans, you'd be deciding to pay less upfront in premiums but taking on the risk that if you do go to the doctor or hospital, you would be responsible for a bigger portion of the bill. There's a decent chance your employer is now offering a plan with very low premium, or no premium at all, and a very high deductible, typically upward of $1,000. These are called, perhaps unsurprisingly, high-deductible health plans, and they're becoming increasingly common for employers to offer. Employers typically pair these high-deductible plans with a tax-advantaged savings account (typically a health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account) where workers can deposit part of their paycheck to cover the bills they'll face under their deductible. Or sometimes employers will deposit a sum of money into this account at the start of the year. These plans can be good for someone who is looking to get coverage for the cheapest possible price. But they're also less robust coverage, and run a greater risk of leaving the subscriber with a bill he or she might not be able to pay. There's also a growing body of research suggesting that these types of plans, because consumers face such high upfront costs, lead to subscribers skipping needed preventive services and other medical care. With health insurance plans, as with many other things in life, you ultimately get the coverage you pay for. Take a deep breath and remember: It's impossible to predict your medical costs For me, at least, this is the most stressful part of shopping for health insurance. I know that I'm going to buy coverage. I get tripped up trying to weigh how much medical I'll need in the coming year, and how much coverage I should buy to make the most of my premiums. There are some years when you know you're going to have a big health-care expense if you're planning to have a baby, for example, or there's a specific surgery on the horizon. Most years, however, aren't like that. Bones break, and emergencies happen or maybe they don't. Most years we get by with routine, inexpensive medical care. It's just impossible to know which years are "most years" and which years the really big medical bills will turn up. There are some good proxies you can look at to estimate how much you might spend. One of the best is age; as you can see in this Kaiser Family Foundation chart, younger people tend to have lower health-care costs. Health-care costs do tend to spike for women in their early 30s, however, reflecting the costs of childbearing. ( Kaiser Family Foundation ) As a rule of thumb, young people can often make a smart decision and buy a less expensive plan that covers a lower amount of medical care. But bar charts, unfortunately, don't tell the whole story. Take my own example: In 2014, I was 28 and had a decently healthy year where I didn't make a single doctor appointment. But 29 was a different story: as a natural-born klutz, I managed to fracture my foot, contract pink eye, and get a splinter stuck deep enough in my hand it required surgical removal. Last year was one in which, for a while, I felt I had screwed up the calculation: If I had bought a more robust plan, I probably would have paid less out of pocket. But there was simply no way for me to know that going into 2015 and there's no way for me to know how many clumsy mishaps (if any) await me in 2016. The reason you buy health insurance is for financial protection. Watching co-payments pile up this year has been annoying, especially as I think about the option I had to purchase a plan with lower ones. It's been annoying, but it hasn't been catastrophic. I can still afford to go to the doctor to get an MRI scan of that fractured foot that, after four months, still won't heal because I have an insurance policy in the first place. Watch out for co-insurance I've written previously on the most important health insurance jargon you should know, and you can read about that here . But in terms of actually shopping for coverage, I'd argue that understanding the concept of co-insurance is especially crucial to understanding the type of coverage you're buying. Most of us who have used health insurance before understand the concept of a copayment, the $10 or $25 or maybe even $50 you pay for each doctor visit. Copayments are easy to understand because they're predictable; you'll pay the same amount each time you see a primary care doctor, for example, regardless of which doctor you see. But co-insurance works differently. You still pay a part of the bill, but with co-insurance it's a set percentage rather than a set amount . So your insurance company might say, for example, that subscribers have to pay 10 percent of the cost of any imaging test like an X-ray or an MRI. Co-insurance is much less predictable because health-care prices can vary a lot. One recent study in California showed that a simple blood test can cost anywhere from $10 to $10,169. If you're on the hook for 10 percent of that blood test bill, it means your co-insurance could be between $1 and $1,017 a very significant difference! Philosophically, I tend to agree with the idea of co-insurance, particularly for really standard procedures like blood tests and MRIs. They encourage patients to look for lower-price providers, and that can help lower premiums for everyone. I wouldn't avoid a plan that uses co-insurance, but I would make a mental note of it, and keep in mind that it could require me to do more work in the future as I'd likely be responsible for finding the lower-cost doctor. Ask questions! Lots of them. There are no dumb ones. It's easy to feel sheepish about bothering your HR department, colleagues, or parents about health insurance questions. But you shouldn't! Shopping for health insurance is an inherently difficult task because you're buying a product that you may or may not use to insure against risks that are impossible to predict. Don't be shy about making use of the resources you have at your disposal. If you get insurance at work, talk to your human resources department they have put a lot of thought into negotiating your benefits package, and would almost certainly be thrilled to hear a worker ask specific questions about it. If you're shopping for coverage on the Obamacare markets, you can reach out to a local navigator, whose whole job is to walk people through insurance decisions. You can see who is available near you here . Health insurance is complex, but luckily there are plenty of people willing to help who will hopefully make your decision this year a bit less daunting. | 3 | 95,187 | finance |
Killings by police that unleashed a new protest movement around the US in 2014, including those of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and John Crawford, are missing from the federal government's official record of homicides by officers because most departments refuse to submit data. Related: The tracking of police violence in the US may have reached a turning point Only 224 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the US reported a fatal shooting by their officers to the FBI last year, according to previously unpublished data obtained by the Guardian, which sheds new light on flaws in official systems for counting the use of deadly force by police. The Counted , an investigation by the Guardian to report all deaths caused by police in 2015, had already logged deadly shootings by officers from 224 different law enforcement agencies by 10 April this year. Crowd-sourced counts in 2014 recorded deaths at a similar higher rate. Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the FBI, said exclusions were inevitable because the program remained voluntary. "We have no way of knowing how many incidents may have been omitted," Fischer said in an email. Amid mounting pressure on public authorities to overhaul the recording of deadly incidents involving law enforcement, an extensive review of all data on "justifiable homicides" by police collected by the FBI from police departments between 2004 and 2014 found: No police departments from the state of Florida reported any homicides by officers, meaning deaths caused by police in the country's third-most populous state were not logged by the FBI. The New York police department, by far the country's biggest, submitted data for just one year during the past decade. The FBI records only basic personal details of each person killed and not information such as whether they were armed with a weapon a critical factor in ongoing debates over the use of force by police around the country. A chaotic approach was applied to recording other high-profile deaths over recent years. Some were logged, some filed to a separate category with general homicides without noting the subjects were killed by police, and others were ignored. An increase in the number of homicides by police publicly reported by the FBI over the past five years was effectively matched by a rise in the number of individual departments reporting any homicides, casting doubt over purported trends in the data. Details of other controversial deaths that prompted protests were entered incorrectly in the FBI database, damaging government efforts to monitor demographic information about people killed by police. The analysis of raw FBI data was carried out as the US Department of Justice announced it was trialling a new open-source system for counting homicides by law enforcement. The system's methodology closely resembles those of The Counted and a Washington Post record of fatal police shootings. A pattern of unaccountability News of the pilot program, which is being run by the department's bureau of justice statistics, came following strident comments from both US attorney general Loretta Lynch and FBI director James Comey, who reiterated calls for better official records of homicides by police . Comprehensive records of killings by law enforcement officers has been a demand of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has risen to prominence since the fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown in August 2014. It was also among the recommendations made by Barack Obama's White House policing taskforce, which was convened following Brown's death, which was among those recorded in the FBI database. While the people killed were not named in the FBI database, some could be identified by matching entries with publicly-available information on their age, sex and race, as well as those of the officer who shot them, the location of the incident, and the month it occurred. But the death in July of Eric Garner , who was placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer allegedly confronting Garner about selling loose cigarettes, was not included in the official federal record. The NYPD has not submitted data to the FBI since 2006. It pledged earlier this month to release more detailed data on officers' deadly use of force from next year. Erica Garner, Garner's daughter, said she was "outraged but not shocked" by the omission. "It's just another part of the cover-up and erasing of his murder from the record," Garner said. "It says to the NYPD and the city and state of New York that my father's life doesn't matter." Related: Tamir Rice family attorney says expert reports have 'tainted grand jury process' No other department in the state of New York had any homicides by officers recorded by the FBI during the decade except for one, by Rochester in 2006. In its annual Firearms Discharge Reports, NYPD has recorded 117 "subjects shot and killed by officers" between 2004 and 2014. Its total of 13 shooting deaths for 2006, however, exceeded the 10 reported to the FBI that year, the only 12-month period in which the department participated in the FBI's count. NYPD's own counts also did not include non-shooting deaths such as Garner's. By contrast a more comprehensive count of incidents and details of the demographics of the people involved would be "a huge help in this so-called 'push to improve police relations with the Black community'," said Erica Garner. Florida publishes its own annual record of justifiable homicides by law enforcement, despite no departments in the state filing a report to the FBI in the past decade. The state data from 2013 was provided to the Guardian but did not list the departments responsible for each death, instead it recorded a single, statewide figure of 60 deaths from all departments who submitted records that year. Departments behind some of last year's most controversial homicides by police, including Cleveland and Beavercreek in Ohio, whose officers shot dead 12-year-old Tamir Rice and 22-year-old John Crawford respectively, also did not file reports on those incidents to the FBI. A review of data collected over the years by the FBI showed that high-profile homicides in which officers were found to be at fault were not recorded or were logged inconsistently. Problems stem from the fact that only one of the FBI's 32 classifications for all homicides which are precise enough to include "child killed by babysitter" and homicides linked to gambling makes reference to the person who carried out the homicide being a police officer. This classification, "felon killed by police", is automatically counted as a justifiable homicide. Apparently because the FBI offers no category for recording killings by law enforcement officers of people who were not felons, some departments have filed unjustified homicides by their officers among the general stack of murders, manslaughters and other killings between civilians. Related: Video shows John Crawford's girlfriend aggressively questioned after Ohio police shot him dead in Walmart A record matching the case of Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old black woman who was shot dead by Bastrop County deputy Daniel Willis in Texas when she opened the door to him, appeared among the general unjustified homicides for 2014. As a result, it was not included in the total figure for killings by police publicised by the FBI last month. The death was filed under "circumstances undetermined" and Willis was logged as a stranger to Smith rather than an officer. A prosecution of Willis on charges of murder recently ended in a mistrial . Similarly Jonathan Ferrell , a 24-year-old former football player at Florida A&M who was shot dead by officer Randall Kerrick after knocking on a door when he crashed his car in North Carolina, appeared to be included among general homicides for 2013. But his death was categorised as "manslaughter by negligence" and Kerrick was recorded as having been known to the victim. A trial of Kerrick for voluntary manslaughter also ended in a hung jury. Yet no record in either file homicides by police officers and those by civilians could be found that matched other major cases, including that of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old black man shot dead at a transit station in Oakland, California, in January 2009. Grant's death was dramatised in the film Fruitvale Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle, who said he meant to use a Taser, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter but cleared of murder. No entries appeared for Rekia Boyd, a 22-year-old woman shot dead by an off-duty Chicago police officer in March 2012, nor for Malissa Williams, 30, and Timothy Russell, 43, who died after 137 shots were fired into their car by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio in November the same year. The FBI has also logged incorrect information for several deaths. Among these was the case of Darrien Hunt , a 22-year-old who was shot dead in September last year while running away from police in Saratoga Springs, Utah, after allegedly wielding a replica sword. Hunt was listed as the person who carried out the homicide, and a knife or blade was said to be the deadly weapon. Hunt and the officers who shot him were listed as acquaintances. Hunt's mother, Susan, said the confused logging of her son's death came even after federal officials said earlier this year that the FBI and Department of Justice were carrying out their own review of the fatal shooting. "There has been so much wrong with the entire incident," she said. Related: Darrien Hunt's family and friends remember 'a boy in a man's body' Fischer, the FBI spokesman, said departments had until December to submit missing or corrected data and said the information analysed by the Guardian for 2014 was "a snapshot in time" that may be updated. A knife was also listed as the fatal weapon for a case matching the details of Chieu-di Thi Vo, a 47-year-old woman shot dead by a Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer in March last year after allegedly brandishing a knife. Vo's demographic information was given for both the person who was killed and the officer who carried out the homicide, who was in fact a man. The FBI's final published tally counted only one homicide by a blade, but did not state which this was. The Counted has documented more than 900 deaths caused by encounters with law enforcement officers so far this year. The FBI count, from which basic statistics were published earlier this month, documented just 444 justifiable homicides for the whole of 2014 . That total was reached by the Guardian count before the halfway point of 2015. The FBI data showed that while the number of homicides reported rose 14% from 196 per year in 2009 to 224 last year, the number of departments reporting killings by their officers increased by 12% from 392 to 439 per year in the same period. Because of the nature of the FBI program there is no way of calculating whether these increases reflect a genuine rise in the number of people killed by police over the years or simply that more agencies have decided to submit their data. Comey said last week that it was "unacceptable" the Guardian and the Washington Post were "becoming the lead source of information about violent encounters between police and civilians". "You can get online today and figure out how many tickets were sold to 'The Martian,' which I saw this weekend ... The CDC can do the same with the flu," Comey said. "It's ridiculous it's embarrassing and ridiculous that we can't talk about crime in the same way, especially in the high-stakes incidents when your officers have to use force." | 5 | 95,188 | news |
Attending a Major League Baseball game should not be an activity that is considered unsafe for a child. Unfortunately, that quickly became the case at the Rogers Centre Wednesday night following a controversial call. The Rangers were credited with one of the most bizarre runs you will ever see in the seventh inning. You can see the play and read a good breakdown here . After Texas took a 3-2 lead because of the ruling, Blue Jays fans began throwing food and drinks toward the field some of them from the upper deck. At one point, a woman was shown on camera shielding her baby from flying objects. Fortunately, it does not sound like the baby was injured and Toronto police were able to identify the person responsible. @abalkovec @BlueJays @TorontoPolice FYI: The baby sprayed with some beer. Police have made an arrest and charges are expected. ^dh Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) October 15, 2015 We don't need to get into a big lecture about how idiotic it is to launch objects from the upper deck at a baseball game. As you may have seen, tempers also flared later on the field when the benches cleared . The Blue Jays ended up winning, but there's no excuse for how some of the fans acted. A woman having to shield her baby from danger is a perfect example of how stupid fans can be. | 1 | 95,189 | sports |
Rep. Richard Hanna, a moderate, pro-abortion rights Republican from New York, is already something of an outlier in the House Republican Conference. He might have just gotten himself a little bit more estranged. On Wednesday evening, Hanna told a local radio station Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was telling the truth when he suggested during a Fox News interview the special committee on Benghazi should be credited with sinking 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton's poll numbers. "This may not be politically correct," Hanna said, "but I think there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after an individual, Hillary Clinton." Noting that "sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is telling the truth," Hanna said, "After what Kevin McCarthy said, it's difficult to accept at least a part of it was not. I think that's the way Washington works. But you'd like to expect more from a committee that's spent millions of dollars and tons of time." Hanna's comments come after two weeks of attempted clean-up by House Republicans after McCarthy, then still a candidate for speaker, made the comment to Fox News host Sean Hannity. Some of the California Republican's colleagues ran to his defense; others said it was an embarrassment to the party and said McCarthy ought to apologize. McCarthy ultimately returned to Fox 48 hours later to walk back his remarks, but for Democrats, particularly Clinton's allies, the damage had already been done. Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon took a victory lap Wednesday night after Hanna's comments started to circulate. "House Republicans aren't even shy anymore about admitting that the Benghazi Committee is a partisan farce," Fallon said. He said Clinton would still attend the hearing next week, where she is scheduled to testify before the Select Committee on Benghazi, "but at this point, [Chairman] Trey Gowdy's inquiry has zero credibility left." Related: Gowdy: Fired Benghazi Staffer 'Never Mentioned' Clinton Before Friday (Video) See photos, follies, HOH Hits and Misses and more at Roll Call's new video site. Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call in your inbox or on your iPhone . | 5 | 95,190 | news |
Good for Scott Van Pelt and everyone else who didn't reduce Lamar Odom with the simplest possible reduction of his life. The ESPN anchor spoke for a lot of people who were stunned and offended when Lamar Odom was identified as a "Kardashian reality star" when news broken that he was fighting for his life after collapsing in a Nevada brothel Tuesday afternoon. Among those using the facile, click-bait catch-all for Odom was a Bun B tweet (profanity alert: read it here ) about Nancy Grace and Van Pelt was angry. "Kardashian reality star? No, no, no no. Lamar Odom, unlike those for whom fame is oxygen, whose fame comes in the absence of accomplishment, his fame was earned," he said on his new "SportsCenter" show. "As sixth man of the year, as a multiple NBA champion. As the result of his significant role of the Los Angeles Lakers teams and being a beloved NBA teammate and peer." There was a time when Odom's talent was so formidable that he was compared to Magic Johnson. He won two titles with the Lakers and remains beloved by his former teammates. HoopsHype reminds us that only five players have averaged at least 13 points, eight rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this century and, yes, the "Kardashian reality show star" is one of them. CBS's Ken Berger has interviewed Odom often and is as offended by the reduction to Kardashian accessory as anyone. To some, Lamar Odom is a cartoonish reality TV star who got mixed up with the Kardashians and bounced right out of the NBA while still on the edge of his prime. To those who don't remember how talented he was (or, more important, how genuine and caring), he will forever be just another celebrity who took a wrong turn and ended up unconscious in a den of disrepute and whose name scrolled across the headlines on TMZ. Of course, so, too, did the Kardashians, with estranged wife Khloe reportedly by his bedside. That made it too easy for some people to reduce this to the Kardashians and, oh, yes, that guy who used to do something athletic. Odom's hoops career was about to wane when he married into the Kardashians and becoming a "True Hollywood Story" was overwhelming for Odom, who now is in the midst of a divorce from Khloe Kardashian. It was more than Odom expected, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski writes . In recent days too, the Kardashians refused to stop exploiting Odom on that reality show, turning what appeared to be a lost soul in crisis reaching out to his ex-wife only to have his phone calls manufactured into Khloe-Kim argument fodder for one more dreadful episode. Odom is more than that, a man who has been fighting for his life his whole life. His mother died before he was a teenager, his father was an addict he lost one of his three children to crib death and he has fought drug and alcohol his entire life. A mere Kardashian appendage? Please. "I understand not everyone watches sports, but Kardashian reality star?" Van Pelt said. "His name is Lamar Odom. And we knew him long before he got married on a reality show we don't watch." | 1 | 95,191 | sports |
Lamar Odom's friends and family send their well wishes, including Mike Tyson and Drake, as the former NBA player remains in critical condition after being found unresponsive after using drugs in a Nevada brothel. | 8 | 95,192 | video |
An Australian chicken chain lets an actual chicken run its Twitter account, and to no one's surprise, the tweets all look like chicken scratch. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more. | 8 | 95,193 | video |
By Greg Roumeliotis Blackstone Group LP (BX.N), the largest alternative asset manager, reported its first quarterly economic net loss in four years on Thursday, as the summer's stock market plunge weighed on the value of its portfolio, even as it generated more cash. Blackstone's private equity, real estate, corporate credit and hedge fund assets all declined in value in the third quarter. Most of the New York-based firm's capital however is locked in long-term funds, which do not have to sell assets if valuations are low, so the losses were mostly on paper rather than realized. Blackstone's earnings will be seriously affected if corporate valuations continue to be suppressed over several quarters. And if the market for initial public offerings remains as challenging as it has been this week, Blackstone will be hampered in its ability to exit some private equity investments. In the third quarter, the firm continued to generate cash by selling assets selectively at high valuations, and said it expected bargains to come to the market. "Recent market volatility should create opportunity for us, and we have raised an industry-record $97 billion of capital over the past year to pursue such opportunities," Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. Blackstone said economic net income (ENI), which takes into account the mark-to-market valuation of its portfolio, was a loss of $416 million in the quarter, versus a $758.4 million profit a year ago. The negative ENI per share was 35 cents, versus the average negative 29 cents expected by analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll. Blackstone's private equity funds depreciated 2.3 percent in the quarter, while the value of its opportunistic real estate funds was down 0.1 percent. Distributable earnings, which show actual cash available to pay dividends, rose 1 percent year on year to $692 million on strong asset divestments. In the quarter, Blackstone sold British-based holiday resort group Center Parcs to investment firm Brookfield Property Partners (BPY.N), unloaded office space at the Manhattan building once occupied by the New York Times to Columbia Property Trust Inc (CXP.N). Assets under management totaled a record $333.9 billion at the end of September, up 17 percent year on year. Blackstone declared a quarterly distribution of 49 cents per common unit. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe) | 3 | 95,194 | finance |
It's 11:30 a.m. on a Monday, we're on the 30th floor of a fashionable New York City hotel, and Ricky Bloomfield is getting excited. And given what he and his colleagues just showed me, I can't blame him. "We [took] an entire medical study and put it into an app," says Bloomfield, an energetic pediatrician and head of mobile technology strategy for Duke Medical Center. The specific app that Bloomfield's previewed for me is called Autism & Beyond. It's the result of a years-long project led by a team of Duke doctors, researchers, and programmers, including Helen Egger, who's head of child psychology, and Guillermo Sapiro, an engineering professor. It's one of several new apps that Apple is making available through its ResearchKit platform today. And if the Duke team and Apple executives, who hand-picked them get their wish, the app could help transform how autism is diagnosed and treated around the world. Autism & Beyond works like an elaborate, interactive selfie. The app is set up to play 20-minute videos while using an iPhone or iPad's built-in camera to scan viewers' facial expressions, analyze their micro-reactions, and then indicate if there's a potential risk of autism. It's intended for parents to use with their children, who see videos of lights, sounds, and storytellers. The demo I get is far less comprehensive. But it's a good example of how Autism & Beyond is designed to work. When I smile, the dots that line the video-version of my face turn green. When I frown, they shade red. After the app collects enough of those visual patterns, it's able to offer real-time and evidence-based feedback, such as whether a parent should seek out a doctor based on the child's indicators for autism. The app was created to provoke the same instinctual responses that a psychologist like Egger wants to gauge in a clinic, as she tries to diagnose autistic children. And the Duke researchers hope that parents will start using Autism & Beyond to build up a video library of a child's reactions, which could help doctors prioritize the most at-risk children and bring them into the office for in-person diagnosis. (Parents who don't want to have their child's face and features captured on video can opt to just record the patterns of dots.) "Our goal is to develop a screening, like hearing or eyesight at schools," Sapiro said in a statement. "They don't get glasses; they get a referral." Expediting autism diagnoses could have important ramifications for our health care system: As the total number of confirmed and suspected autism cases has skyrocketed, parents often wait months or years to see a clinician. Egger told me that Duke's waiting list can last a year. And although autism can be diagnosed in children as young as 18 months, the average age of diagnosis in the United States is more than 4 years old. Overseas, it can be far longer. Those delayed diagnoses have a real cost, from the emotional toll on families to the child's stunted intellectual development. "I'm often asked if autism is being over-diagnosed," says Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes , the new bestseller that traces the history of autism .. "For the most part, I think it's still being underdiagnosed , particularly among women and people of color." And Silberman adds that we still don't know about the prevalence of autism in adults. The Duke researchers hope to go further than speeding up diagnosis: Mining the massive amount of video data collected through Autism & Beyond could reveal new insights and patterns about the behaviors of children with autism. So far, Duke researchers say that preliminary results are promising; they're presenting a study at a mobile health care conference this week on the technical feasibility of using an app to measure autism risk behaviors. And every Wednesday morning, a cross-collaborative team pulls up to ensure that their computer software is flagging the same behaviors as human observers. Apple's involvement in health care While Duke's facial-recognition software is exciting, it's worth noting that a number of companies are developing similar technologies, albeit for different purposes. A firm called Emotient, for example, recently touted its ability to read the reactions of viewers to Super Bowl TV ads. What makes the Autism & Beyond app especially notable is that Apple is throwing its not-insignificant weight behind the project. The company's executives were "immediately interested" when they first learned about the software six months ago, the Duke researchers say, and asked the team to start developing a ResearchKit app. Apple's focus on health care is nothing new. The company has spent several years steadily trying to position itself as a player in America's $3 trillion health care system, primarily by launching three new products. Apple's year-old HealthKit software collects data from a range of health and fitness apps, and transmits it to doctors and hospitals. The Apple Watch is being promoted as a health care "game-changer," for its ability to track users' mobility and basic vitals. And Apple's ResearchKit portal is designed to help the company carve out a new, unprecedented role: As the go-to platform where medical researchers can post their studies, and millions of iPhone and iPad users can come and sign up. So far, the strategy is working. After Apple launched ResearchKit in March and highlighted a new Stanford heart study, more than 10,000 people signed up for the corresponding ResearchKit app overnight. "To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country," Stanford cardiologist Alan Yeung told Bloomberg News . "That's the power of the phone." But to be perceived as a force in health care, Apple needs more than sheer volume. The company needs results evidence that its studies and apps are uncovering provocative insights, and leading to real health care improvements. Could Autism & Beyond be one of Apple's first big health care wins? The Duke researchers are thinking big, at least. They're partnering with researchers in China and South Africa, in hopes of collecting international data. And assuming Autism & Beyond is successful, they plan to launch similar initiatives like "Anxiety & Beyond" and "Temper Tantrums & Beyond." "Our ambition is to transform how, where, and when we identify, treat, and monitor young children's development, mental health, and well-being," says Egger. "Our work emerges from our conviction that information science and engineering are the keys to creating transformative change." Bloomfield says that the project is personal for him: His own autistic daughter wasn't diagnosed until she was nearly seven years old which meant years of unnecessary stress, guilt, and lost opportunities for his family. "We're not going to cure autism," Bloomfield concludes. "But we can help put the structure in place to help manage it and move [treatment] forward." "And that's why we're all so passionate about this." | 5 | 95,195 | news |
A spiritual counseling session turned deadly at a church in New York state this week when a teenager was beaten to death and his brother left with serious injuries. The boys' parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard -- aged 65 and 59 -- each face a felony charge of manslaughter in the first degree, the New Hartford Police Department said. Four other members of the so-called Word of Life Church were also arrested, and charged with second-degree assault. "Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness," police chief Michael Inserra said Wednesday. The nature of the alleged sins was unclear, but both brothers suffered "blunt force trauma" to their bodies due to the assault, according to police. Lucas Leonard, 19, was pronounced dead at a hospital on Monday after church members brought him there. Hours later, his 17-year-old brother Christopher was found at the church. The younger brother was now being treated at hospital for his injuries and was in "serious" condition, according to police. "It took us hours to find Christopher," Inserra said. "Family members, to be quite honest, were reluctant to share the information." More arrests are expected in the case. "We're not alleging they intended to kill their son," Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara said at a news conference. "We're just alleging they were trying to seriously hurt their son, and ultimately he died from his injuries." Neighbors told Syracuse.com that the church was a "cult" and its members could often be heard singing chants in the dead of the night in the building, which previously housed a school. | 5 | 95,196 | news |
NEW YORK (AP) The New York City woman vilified for suing her 12-year-old nephew over a broken wrist she suffered when he jumped in her arms to greet her four years ago said Thursday she was "never comfortable" with the lawsuit. Jennifer Connell appeared on NBC's "Today" show along with her nephew, Sean Tarala. She said she wanted her nephew's parents' homeowners insurance to pay her medical bills, but under Connecticut law she could only sue an individual. "An individual has to be named, and in this case, because Sean and I had this fall together, I was informed that Sean had to be named. I was never comfortable with that," Connell said. A jury this week rejected Connell's $127,000 suit. Connell said she broke her wrist when the boy jumped into her arms at his 8th-birthday party at his family's home in Westport, Connecticut, causing her to fall. Her attorneys say she filed suit after her nephew's parents' insurance company offered her $1 over the accident. Connell and Sean sat side by side and said they loved each other. "She would never do anything to hurt the family or myself," Sean said. Connell said she was shocked by the backlash, which included her vilification on social media as a terrible aunt, the most hated woman in America and an awful human being. "It was amazing how I walked into court that morning and walked out all over social media. It just spun and spun, and suddenly I was getting calls, 'Don't look at the Internet. Don't turn on the television,'" she said. Sean defended his aunt, saying: "Everybody was saying stuff that they didn't know." | 5 | 95,197 | news |
Thursday night's spotlight features the Game 5 ALDS matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. Who will take the series and head to the ALCS? | 1 | 95,198 | sports |
The number of billionaires in China has overtaken that of the United States for the first time, an annual survey said Thursday, despite slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. Communist-ruled China now has 596 billionaires, up a "staggering" 242 over the last year, Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said, surpassing the 537 Americans. "Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever," Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement. Real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin dethroned founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma as the country's richest person, Hurun's annual wealth ranking showed. Wang, who founded conglomerate Wanda, saw his fortune jump more than 50 percent to $34.4 billion, helped by a surge in the stock price of a listed unit. Wang is known outside China for a string of overseas acquisitions including the organiser of Ironman extreme endurance contests, Swiss sports marketing group Infront, and a stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid. He burst into the spotlight in 2012 by buying US cinema chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion. Wang took the top spot back from Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, because of a collapse in the Internet company's New York-quoted shares, which were the world's biggest initial public offering when it listed last year. Ma's wealth still stands at $22.7 billion. Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou of Wahaha remained in third place with just over $21 billion while Pony Ma, founder of Internet giant Tencent which operates popular messaging app WeChat, took fourth place with a little under $19 billion. Lei Jun of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is seeking to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to more $14 billion. Yan Hao of road builder China Pacific Construction was sixth while the founder of search engine giant Baidu, Robin Li, dropped to seventh amid worries over his company's huge spending to expand its business. | 3 | 95,199 | finance |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.