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Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators exchange rocks and smoke grenades in scuffles in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). | 8 | 96,700 | video |
Stocks gained about 2 percent Friday on increased certainty of divergent central bank policy, with a strong jobs report supporting a Fed hike in December and ECB President Draghi maintaining a dovish stance in a speech. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 369 points higher after briefly gaining as much as 388 points. The S&P 500 gained more than 2 percent, back into positive territory for the year after closing lower year to date Thursday. Telecommunications and financials led all sectors except energy higher in afternoon trade. The Nasdaq also gained more than 2 percent. "The jobs data continues to be positive as we look to the upcoming Fed December (meeting). Draghi's comments, certainly interesting and the market has taken a run with it," said Myles Clouston, senior director of advisory services at Nasdaq. "The initial reaction yesterday was, why didn't you do more. ... Today we seem to have calmed down," he said. Equities extended gains in early afternoon trade as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said quantitative easing was unlimited. "There is no particular limit to how we can deploy any of our tools," he said. The U.S. dollar index briefly climbed about 1 percent to above 98.5, while the euro held below $1.09 in afternoon trade. "It was the color he put on it," said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. "It was an echo of his 'whatever it takes' comment. I think the market said: 'I get it.' It's a gradual incremental approach. This isn't meant to be the final shot across the bow." U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Thursday after Draghi's announcement the ECB would extend its bond-buying program to at least March 2017, without increasing the amount, fell short of market expectations for greater stimulus. The euro surged to above $1.09 Thursday for its largest one-day gain against the dollar since March 2009. U.S. stocks closed sharply lower, as investors also weighed concerns the Fed would hike rates while the economy is too weak. Stocks attempted to more than recover Thursday's losses Friday, opening higher after encouraging employment data. "The jobs report was very strong. Here you have parallel interests, Wall Street, the Fed and Main Street" being supported, said Brian Muench, vice president of investment management for Allianz Investment Management. "I think they'll raise once and they're going to want to see the data support any future rate increases," he said. "The thing that's really reassuring was construction was the number one sector of jobs growth," said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. "The other thing that was positive in the jobs report was hourly earnings were positive, too," he said. "Crude has come back above the $40 level and that's the danger, danger level." Traders also attributed some of Friday's gains to recovery after Thursday's sharp sell-off. "We did, from a technical aspect, bounce off 2,045 at the end yesterday," said John Caruso, senior market strategist at RJO Futures. "I don't know if this is going to stick, this rally." U.S. stock index futures initially edged higher after the 8:30 a.m., ET, November employment report beat headline expectations with creation of 211,000 jobs and showed an increase in wages and continued 5 percent unemployment, as expected. The number of jobs created in October and September were also revised higher. "It removes a lot of uncertainty. There's just a relief of having more certainty. It's sort of a converse to how stocks sold off in September (when the Fed didn't raise rates). … The uncertainty now is going to come into play regarding what's next, after Dec. 16. You might have a lot of debate around what they'll do in January or March," said Bryce Doty, senior fixed income manager with Sit Investment Associates. The data is the last and most important release before the Federal Reserve could raise rates at its Dec. 15 and 16 meeting for the first time in nearly a decade. "The Fed goes in December but the path is shallow and you couldn't ask for anything more. It's almost like the Fed did this report themselves, but I know they didn't," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist at LPL Financial. Treasury yields traded mostly lower after briefly spiking on the jobs report. The 2-year yield was near 0.95 percent and the 10-year yield at 2.27 percent as of 3:14 p.m. "I see the market saying to the Fed, 'we have to be sure what we're doing here. ... There's a lot going on right now between Draghi and the Fed raising rates and the potential for global political news, not to mention Russia and Turkey, so I think you're going to see a bit of (volatility), and you're going to throw another variable into that?'" said Alan Rechtschaffen, financial advisor and senior vice president at UBS Wealth Management Americas. "I take the Federal Reserve at their word here because the pace is going to be relatively slow and continue to be data dependent. We may be looking at years before we see largely higher interest rates," said Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier. Separately, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said Friday he would prefer to start tightening sooner than later to keep the economy on track and to protect the central bank's credibility. The comments were Harker's first public comments on policy since he took the job in July. After the initial rise on the jobs report, U.S. stock index futures turned lower in pre-market trade Friday as U.S. crude gave up gains to briefly fall more than 3 percent to below the psychologically key $40 a barrel level. The decline came in just prior to the U.S. market open after sources said OPEC had agreed to roll over its policy of maintaining crude production in order to retain market share and raise its output ceiling. Later in the day, OPEC President Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told CNBC the oil group decided to keep policy unchanged and wait to see future market fluctuations. "Oil's certainly going to be the story right now. That's a massive move in WTI. ... The untold part of this story is that headline reflects no new oil coming into the market," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. "OPEC actually saying what they're doing." In morning trade, crude oil struggled to hold the $40 level, last off about 2.8 percent. Energy briefly fell more than 2 percent as the only decliner in the S&P 500. In other economic news,the U.S. trade deficit widened unexpectedly by 3.4 percent to $43.9 billion in October as exports fell to a three-year low, suggesting that strong dollar pressure on trade could again weigh on economic growth in the fourth quarter. The trade data pushed down Street expectations for growth. Economists in the CNBC /Moody's survey lowered their tracking estimate for fourth-quarter GDP to 2.0 percent. With Friday's afternoon's surge, the major U.S. averages tried to end the week flat or with slight gains. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 15. About two stocks advanced for every decliner on the New York Stock Exchange, with an exchange volume of 610 million and a composite volume of 3.2 billion in afternoon trade. High-frequency trading accounted for 49 percent of December's daily trading volume of about 7.5 billion shares, according to TABB Group. During the peak levels of high-frequency trading in 2009, about 61 percent of 9.8 billion of average daily shares traded were executed by high-frequency traders. U.S. crude oil settled 2.7 percent lower at $39.97 a barrel. Gold futures settled up $22.90 to $1,084.10. Reuters contributed to this report. More From CNBC.com: Why are so many millennials unemployed? ECB vice-president: The markets got it wrong Big data: Buy these stocks in December | 3 | 96,701 | finance |
Is Paul George's monster season getting overlooked by Stephen Curry's jaw-dropping 2015 campaign? The guys weigh in. | 1 | 96,702 | sports |
Children can rest assured that Santa Claus is alive and well, after Norway's largest newspaper apologised Friday for announcing that he had died at the age of 227. An obituary had appeared on Aftenposten's website Thursday announcing that Santa had passed away after a very long and active life. The notice added that a funeral for Santa, born on December 12, 1788, would be held on December 28 at the "Chapel of the North Pole". It was unclear how the mischievous announcement managed to make it onto Aftenposten's site, but the newspaper has promised to "review its internal processes to establish what went wrong". "Aftenposten has strict guidelines for both the content and use of symbols in our obituaries. This ad is a violation of these and should never have been published," said the newspaper's editor Hakon Borud. The obituary, which did not appear in the paper's print edition, has been removed from the website. | 5 | 96,703 | news |
Do you or your partner have a cheating heart? You're not alone: Research shows that infidelity rates may be as high as 60 to 70% (but it's tough to get an exact number because it's all self-reported). And you can't just blame the guys: One Indiana University study found that women and men cheat at the same rate. But the reasons why men and women are unfaithful tend to differ. "Most women cheat because they feel emotionally deprived, and men are unfaithful because they often feel sexually deprived," says Tina B. Tessina, PhD , psychotherapist and author of Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting about the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage . But here's the deal with cheating: No matter who does it or why, it's going to seriously impact your relationship. Here's what kind of changes you can expect. You can't trust anything anymore. Not surprisingly, not only will a victim of infidelity mistrust their partner sexually and emotionally, he or she might also begin to doubt them in other areas. "In the wake of an affair, more and more lies come out, and that makes trust very difficult," says Ian Kerner, PhD, LMFT , a psychotherapist who specializes in sex and couples therapy and author of She Comes First . "It then becomes easy to feel dubious toward your partner in other aspects of life, such as finances or parenting," he says. Your confidence plummets or soars. "Part of the reason many people cheat is because they felt unwanted or unloved in their relationship. Then they discover sexual or emotional appreciation in the affair which, in turn, bolsters their confidence," says Kerner. The flip side: The person who is being cheated on will suffer a major blow to his or her self-esteem, points out Tessina. "After being cheated on by my husband, at first I felt embarrassed and like I just wasn't enough. Not attractive, smart or funny enough," says a mother of two from Brooklyn. The unexpectedly good news is that those feelings of inadequacy didn't last long at least for her. She and her husband spent some time apart and once she started dating again, she was reminded that she was lovable and desirable. "Oddly, getting cheated on completely changed my self-confidence for the better, and I've been able to hang onto that feeling ever since," she says. In fact, she points to her renewed sense of self-confidence as one of the reasons she was able to eventually reconcile with her husband. Your focus totally shifts. Cheating can create a level of stress and anxiety that can trigger a depressive episode . "For some people, an affair can make them lose focus on other aspects of their life. Self-care, their career trajectory, friendships and thoughtful parenting can all take a backseat," says Kerner. His advice: "Take it one day at a time and start prioritizing healthy habits, like going to the gym and starting therapy, to help you rebuild your life and your relationship." On the other hand, the wake of an affair can actually help you focus on yourself. "People who recover from infidelity are usually able to go within themselves and recapture their center of power," says Kerner. "They actually end up stronger and more resilient than before the affair." One New York City woman who discovered her husband was cheating feels like she finally found herself once her unhappy marriage came to an end. "For the first time in years I was able to dedicate time to myself going the gym, wearing better clothes, focusing on my health and putting on makeup simply because I wasn't depressed that I was stuck in a terrible marriage anymore," she says. "I finally had the energy to start fixing myself instead of devoting my efforts to fixing my marriage." You may not even recognize your libido. For some people, infidelity can destroy their sex life. "If your partner has cheated on you, even if you are working hard to forgive and rebuild the relationship, sex is often the last piece of the puzzle," says Kerner. "You're sorting through all kinds of emotions depression, anger, betrayal and that just kills your sexual desire." But an affair can also bolster your libido even if you're not the one doing the cheating. One mom of two from Connecticut found that she was more attracted to her husband than ever when she discovered he was having an affair. "It was almost as if I felt in competition for my husband's affections and I had to win him back from her," she says. "We had a lot of wild sex, often following explosive arguments about the affair, she says. And that's not surprising. "Sex can be a powerful way to heal after cheating," says Kerner. "It helps make an insecure relationship feel temporarily safe and intimate." Or perhaps after living in a relatively unhappy relationship your sexual appetite will be boosted simply by the excitement of being with a new, more attentive partner. "Because my husband and I had been together so long, and from such a young age, I didn't realize that I was actually attractive to other men and that I could be attracted to them, too," says one woman from Annapolis, MD. For her, dating and sex with new partners after her husband's affair boosted her sex drive. Your commitment to each other might become stronger. Infidelity will test even the most resilient relationships. But cheating, despite the many problems it can bring, isn't necessarily the kiss of death. "An affair can actually be the thing that saves a relationship," says Tessina, who believes that cheating can be a huge wake-up call to both partners and a test of their commitment. "If the cheater realizes it's a big mistake and seeks to understand why he or she was tempted, and the betrayed spouse is willing to look at what might have been missing in the relationship, both of them can repair the damage and actually make the relationship stronger," says Tessina. (Try incorporating some of these tips to stay connected with your partner .) She says that infidelity is often what gets troubled partners into therapy, where they can learn how to communicate about uncomfortable topics, like sexual satisfaction, emotional needs, and hidden motives. "Understanding these dynamics and learning to discuss what went wrong in the relationship, apologize and make changes will give both partners much more insight into themselves and their marriage and might even help to make their relationship affair-proof in the future," she says. | 4 | 96,704 | lifestyle |
Miley Cyrus wears fuzzy rainbow coat, plus more celebs out and about Miley Cyrus wears rope buns in her hair and sports a furry rainbow coat as she heads out to dinner in New York City on Dec. 2, 2015. Kylie Jenner attends an in-store event to promote her new lip kit at DASH in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 2015. Sarah Paulson arrives at the IFP's 25th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City on Nov. 30, 2015. Caitlyn Jenner shops in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 2015. Scott Disick gases up his car while out in Los Angeles on Dec. 3, 2015. Lupita Nyong'o arrives at Public Theater in New York City for the last day of her play "Eclipsed" on Nov. 29, 2015. Liam Hemsworth leaves Gracias Madre restaurant in West Hollywood, California, on Dec. 2, 2015. Anne Hathaway leaves a friend's house in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood on Dec. 2, 2015. After signing autographs for fans, Ben Affleck heads into ABC's " Jimmy Kimmel Live!" studios in Hollywood, California, on Dec. 2, 2015. Reese Witherspoon arrives at the airport for a flight out of Washington on Dec. 2, 2015. Khloe Kardashian visits her attorney in Encino, California, on Nov. 30, 2015. Halle Berry goes shopping for Christmas decorations in Beverly Hills, California, on Dec. 1, 2015. Kourtney Kardashian runs errands in Calabasas, California, on Dec. 1, 2015. Jennifer Garner hits the gym in Los Angeles' Brentwood neighborhood on Dec. 2, 2015. Naomi Watts bundles up while out and about in New York City on Nov. 30, 2015. Jenna Dewan-Tatum arrives at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, for an interview with "Extra" on Nov. 30, 2015. Matt Damon heads to a taping of " Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in Hollywood, California, on Dec. 1, 2015. LeAnn Rimes steps out in New York City on Dec. 3, 2015. Pharrell Williams steps out in Beverly Hills, California, on Dec. 2, 2015. Rebel Wilson and a male companion go out in London on Dec. 2, 2015. | 6 | 96,705 | entertainment |
With the Federal Reserve expected to raise interest rates at its December meeting, here's a look at how the current job market compares to the conditions the last time the Fed decided to raise rates--in June 2006. | 3 | 96,706 | finance |
Make this simple, cute and fun clothespin ornament to hang on your Christmas Tree. A great craft for kids! | 4 | 96,707 | lifestyle |
Jeff Zisner, president and CEO at Aegis Security & Investigations in Los Angeles, says his phone was "ringing off the hook" with new inquiries on Wednesday in the aftermath of a shooting that left 14 people dead and more than a dozen injured fewer than 100 miles away in San Bernardino. Several mass shootings in America over the past year have occurred in workplace settings, prompting companies to take a second look at security systems to prevent employees from coming in harm's way. "Honestly, I think it behooves anybody to take some sort of an action at this point, whether that is re-educating your people on your safety programs or implementing them for the first time," Edward Yost of the Society for Human Resource Management says. "To simply do nothing and believe you're a low-risk environment, that's not a legitimate way to look at it at this point. In this world we're living in, nobody is a zero-risk environment." A string of high-profile attacks with multiple casualties have brought workplace safety to the forefront. In August, Vester Lee Flanagan II shot and killed two former co-workers and news anchors during a live morning broadcast in Roanoke, Virginia. Last Friday, a gunman fired on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Christopher Hagon , managing partner at Florida-based Incident Management Group (IMG), says companies and venues have contacted his international security firm in droves since the Paris attacks on Nov. 13 in which 130 people were killed. "I think the most contacts we've got are literally the last couple of weeks," Hagon says. "We've been snowed under with calls." In the San Bernardino shooting, two suspects fled the scene and were later killed by police after opening fire on a holiday party for employees of the county health department where one of the suspects worked. Investigators haven't identified a motive. "It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don't know," said President Barack Obama in a speech from the White House on Thursday. "It's also possible that this was workplace-related." Following news of an attack on a work group, companies are left wondering whether they should ramp up security, and if so by how much? Should office buildings install metal detectors? Should doctors' offices have silent alarms at the reception desk? Do retailers need an in-store security guard? "Every business is different so security is going to be fundamentally designed around what the culture of your organization is suited for in the context of what are the risks, threats and vulnerabilities?" says Arnette Heintze , a former Secret Service agent and co-founder and CEO of Chicago security company Hillard Heintze. In general, experts already know that certain industries are more vulnerable to workplace violence than others. Occupations that require workers to be alone in unfamiliar environments, carry cash or interact with the public are particularly susceptible -- including taxi drivers, librarians, home healthcare aides and water meter readers. The Inland Regional Center complex in San Bernardino, California, was the site of a mass shooting on Wednesday. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni Nearly 2 million Americans are victims of workplace violence each year, which encapsulates physical attacks as well as threats, harassment and intimidation. In the two decades between 1992 and 2012, a reported 14,770 people died as a result of on-the-job violence. Some of the most obvious protections that companies might consider following an attack such as the one in San Bernardino are physical -- security guards, surveillance systems, metal detectors and fences that line a facility's perimeter. But security experts consistently say two of the most important first steps that companies can take are procedural ones -- creating a workplace safety policy and completing a risk assessment. Creating a safety policy is important because it serves as grounds for terminating employees who violate it. Companies are bound by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to provide a workplace that is "free of known dangers." Though OSHA does not have specific regulations on workplace violence or safety precautions, it offers prevention programs and training materials. Since there's no formula for a safe workplace, a risk assessment identifies physical vulnerabilities such as easy building access or poor lighting and also illuminates past threats or potentially volatile situations that have simmered beneath the surface. Companies can do this in-house, or hire an outside firm -- Zisner charges between $800 and $20,000 for risk assessments in the Los Angeles area, depending on the company's size. "One of the easy things you can look at is multiple points of access," Yost says. "If your building or offices have multiple places where employees come and go, that certainly could be a risk." Heintze says former or disgruntled employees represent a far greater threat to most companies than random shooters, and training can help employees recognize signs and identify threats. The key to identifying which employees might become violent, says Dr. Harley Stock, a forensic psychologist and managing partner for IMG, is determining which not only have an ax to grind, but are likely to retaliate. Zisner adds that if an employee is fired, the likelihood that they will attack in the first 72 hours is far greater than at a later point. Stock also says there's one motivating factor that has consistently proved particularly strong in his investigations: "Across all people around the world, it's the sense of perceived injustice," he says. "When people move from intention to volition -- I've had enough, I can't stand it anymore and I'm going to get even -- those people are extraordinarily and immediately dangerous." To contend with these risks, experts say employees must have a clear way to report both overt and potential safety concerns and feel confident that supervisors will investigate them. "If you look back with these incidents, it's nearly always the case that something could have been picked up in either a lack of communication or lack of follow-up or lack of procedures and policies in place," Hagon at IMG says. Once a company has a safety policy, risk assessment and reporting protocol in place, experts say it's important to keep these documents updated and remind employees of their contents through training or seminars. This framework can also inform a company's decisions to hire a security guard, invest in a surveillance system or upgrade building entry procedures. For example, if a company suddenly cuts a fourth of its workforce, Yost recommends hiring a temporary security guard. At the end of the day, Stock reminds worried employees or executives that the chance of a shooting in any workplace is slim. "This kind of an event is extraordinarily unusual," he says. | 5 | 96,708 | news |
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- Mark Richt needed help to figure out which way he should be driving, accidentally said Georgia once when meaning to say Miami and barely recognized his former campus. Otherwise, he felt right at home. Dressed in an orange-and-green tie and sporting a lapel pin in the shape of the school's distinctive "U" logo, Richt returned to his roots Friday when he was announced as Miami's new coach. Contract terms for the former Hurricane quarterback were not disclosed, but the 55-year-old Richt said he expects this job to be his last. "I do understand what's expected," Richt said. "And really, I don't want to make a lot of promises, other than I want to promise that we're going to get to work and we're going to earn the right for victory." His contract is not finalized, though Miami athletic director Blake James said he and Richt have agreed to terms. As a private institution, Miami does not have to release contract information and James would not reveal details. Richt was making $4 million annually at Georgia, where he won 145 games as head coach over the last 15 seasons before the sides parted ways earlier this week. Data curated by PointAfter When Richt left Georgia -- officially by "mutual agreement," a term Richt took a playful and telling swipe at Friday -- he thought about taking a year off to catch his football breath. Miami had reached out not long after it fired Al Golden in October to gauge Richt's interest in possibly returning to his alma mater. When the Hurricanes called again, Richt -- who had been approached by Miami multiple times in the past when the school had coaching openings -- knew he couldn't say no. "When you coach, you want to go to a place where you've got a chance to do big things," Richt said. "By virtue of the fact that it's been done here before, that's a good indicator. By virtue of the fact that it has one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the United States of America, that's another factor. "And then I knew this job wouldn't be open next year," Richt added. From there, the deal came together easily and Richt was back at the school where he was a teammate of Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde in the early 1980s. Richt's last collegiate season was 1982, one year before Howard Schnellenberger led Miami to the first of what became five national titles in a 19-season span. Testaverde, whose son Vincent is a backup quarterback at Miami now, was part of the search committee that ultimately brought Richt home. "I know he's going to be a great role model for my boy, for our kids, he's going to be a great person and a great teacher," Vinny Testaverde said. "And that's what these kids need." Richt went 19-3 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents when he was at Georgia, and Miami can only hope that trend continues. The Hurricanes moved into the ACC 12 seasons ago, and still are looking for their first league title. "Football is not part of what we do here," Miami President Julio Frenk said. "It is part of who we are." Miami has gone since 2001 without a national title, since 2003 without a 10-win season and since 2006 without a bowl win. Richt's mandate is simple: Change all that. "I can't wait to get started," Richt said. Richt inherits a team that went 8-4 in this regular season, has an elite quarterback in Brad Kaaya, had 91 percent of its points this season come from players who could be back with the Hurricanes in 2016 if they so choose, and finished with four wins in five games under interim coach Larry Scott -- who met with Richt early Friday and wants to be part of the new staff. "I think it's the best possible candidate we could have gotten," Kaaya said of Richt. "He's a good dude." | 1 | 96,709 | sports |
Large parts of southern India's Tamil Nadu state remained flooded on Friday with tens of thousands of people crowding into government-run relief camps, despite a respite from days of relentless rains. (Dec. 4) | 8 | 96,710 | video |
Data analysts Nomura Research Institute (NRI), led by researcher Yumi Wakao, figure that within the next 20 years, nearly half of all jobs in Japan could be accomplished by robots. Working with Professor Michael Osborne from Oxford University, who had previously investigated the same matter in both the US and UK, the NRI team examined more than 600 jobs and found that "up to 49 percent of jobs could be replaced by computer systems," according to Wakao. The Henna Hotel's (NLD) robotic Velociraptor desk clerk The team looked at how likely each position could be automated, based on the degree of creativity required. That means jobs like operating helpdesks , delivering goods or agricultural labor are all highly susceptible to computerization while writing, teaching and doing whatever it is that Shingy does probably aren't being taken over by computers any time soon. The NRI's results are higher than what Osborne figured for the US (47 percent automation) and the UK (35 percent). "However, this is only a hypothetical technical calculation," Wakao added. "It doesn't take into account social factors." For their part, many Japanese citizens have reportedly embraced the coming robo-revolution as it simultaneously relieves the economic pressure of the nation's rapidly-aging population while freeing the workforce to pursue more creative (and rewarding) careers. [Image Credit: Getty] NRI Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/04/robots-expected-to-run-half-of-japan-by-2035/ | 5 | 96,711 | news |
Major insurers are breaking a long-standing industry taboo of raising rates on life-insurance policies they sold to consumers years ago, in the latest fallout from a prolonged stretch of low interest rates. In recent months, several insurers have notified tens of thousands of people who own a type of coverage known as "universal life" that they are exercising little-used contractual rights to raise costs. Universal-life policies combine a death benefit with a tax-advantaged savings account. Since the 1980s they have accounted for at least a quarter of all new individual life-insurance sales, and more than a third over the past decade. The latest moves mean that more people in their 70s and 80s are facing higher annual charges for life insurance they bought as far back as the 1980s. And this could be just the beginning: Industry consultants expect other insurers to follow suit, which could mean higher annual costs for potentially millions of Americans holding various types of insurance. "If interest rates stay low for another three or four years, all bets are off as to how many follow," said Lawrence Rybka, president of ValMark Securities, an insurance and brokerage firm in Akron, Ohio. Depending on the insurer, the extra annual cost ranges from about $150 for people with $250,000 policies to six-figure sums for those whose coverage tops $10 million, financial advisers say. The increases, which relate to the annual charge for the death benefit, stretch from the mid-single digits to above 200% in some instances, according to ITM/TwentyFirst, which provides policy-management services to trustees and institutional clients. Insurers are under pressure to improve results as years of low interest rates have squeezed investment income, and industry executives say the right to increase rates is clearly disclosed to customers. Consultants and analysts say many insurers have cut expenses and taken numerous other steps to maintain their profitability over the years and are running out of options. Still, the moves are riling policyholders. "I find it really challenging that the insurance industry has the ability to institute sharp increases such as this, and the consumer is left with very little option as to what to do," said Michelle Clements, president of Synergy Trust Co., a private family trust company in Sioux Falls, S.D. Her family faces a 15% increase next year, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars, for an 80-year-old family member's multimillion-dollar coverage, with additional increases over the next few years. Among her options: selling the policy to investors in the industry's secondary market. Cost increases are permissible under many policies, though the circumstances under which this is allowed varies by contract. "Contractual maximum charges are clearly disclosed at the inception of the policy," said Paul Graham, an official with trade group American Council of Life Insurers. However, exercising any right to boost costs on older policies "used to be taboo," said Henry Montag, a principal with TOLI Center East in Long Island, N.Y., an adviser to trusts on insurance issues. "Insurers feared doing so would create mistrust" among agents and consumers and adversely affect future sales, he said. "But now the insurers feel the [cost] increase is worth the risk." Life insurers rely heavily on interest from bonds bought with premium payments, and dollars they invest today yield less than anticipated when insurers sold the policies. The 10-year Treasury peaked at 15% in the 1980s, and declined gradually until 2008, when it fell sharply as the Federal Reserve sought to rev up the economy. It currently yields 2.328%. The Fed is expected soon to boost a key rate, but likely only by a quarter of a percentage point. It is uncertain when rates would move high enough to make a measurable difference to life insurers. The policy owned by the Clements family was bought in 2006 from a U.S. unit of AXA SA. The insurer doesn't comment on individual instances. As for the increased charges, a spokeswoman said the company had concluded one of its older life-insurance products wasn't performing as expected because policyholders were dying sooner and investments were earning less than forecast when the policies were sold. AXA's changes affect about 1,700 policies sold between 2004 and 2007. With universal-life policies, owners deposit money into the policy's "cash-value account," where tax-deferred interest accrues. From this account, the insurer deducts for expenses, including the annual cost of the death benefit. "Many people who own this type of contract wrongly believe they locked in the rates" for the death benefit at the time of purchase, said Ted Bernstein, chief executive of agency Life Insurance Concepts Inc. Higher costs aren't the only problem. Consumers typically buy universal life with the goal of using the tax-deferred savings to pay some, or all, of the policies' future costs as they age. But many cash-value accounts contain far less interest income than was projected at the point of purchase because insurers reduced interest payments as Treasury yields declined. Financial advisers estimate hundreds of thousands of policyholders will have to use other resources to pay those future costs. Jeff Glick, an attorney in Oakland, Calif., learned this fall that his 84-year-old mother's $250,000 policy is subject to a 5.7% boost in its death-benefit charge. At about $170 a year, he considers it manageable. The policy was bought in 1998 from a unit of Voya Financial Inc. He believes a bigger problem is that many families bought universal-life policies "without understanding what the scope of the risk could be" from falling interest rates. A spokeswoman for Voya said its cost increases affect a "small percentage of our customers," declining to be exact. The Transamerica unit of Aegon NV, another large insurer that has increased charges, said its move affects about 26,000 people with policies dating to 1987-98. U.K.-based Legal & General Group PLC, the fourth major insurer to make such a move, declined to comment. Write to Leslie Scism at [email protected] | 3 | 96,712 | finance |
Early Sunday morning, Mr. Liu, a resident of Chongqing, China, crashed his $4.1 million supercar into barriers on the side of the road. The car, a Koenigsegg Agera R, is one of six ever built in the whole wide world . According to the People's Daily Online , Liu, who is 26, is being held by police for drunk-driving charges. The video is here : Supercars have two purposes: for talented drivers to harness their power (1,000+ horsepower) on the racetrack, and for rich guys to park them outside of cafes to stunt on plebeians. It might seem like the ability to purchase a supercar would bestow the ability to drive one, but alas, that's not how anything works. | 9 | 96,713 | autos |
It seems like every day there's news about the amazing health benefits of one or the other, but which one reigns supreme? A colleague recently came to me asking what's better: coffee or tea? She told me that she (a coffee drinker) and her boyfriend (more of a tea guy) were debating which beverage is healthier, each believing their own personal preference was the more virtuous option. It's a good question because it seems like every day there's news about the health benefits of one or the other, but you never see the two compared. The truth: there isn't a clear standout. Both of these uniquely healthy pick-me-ups have their own long list of health pros and cons. Below, I go over the reasons to sip one or the other, along with tips for getting the most out of each one. Tea The pros: Tea boasts a long list of health benefits. The rich antioxidants in tea fight inflammation , and have been shown to help prevent blood vessels from hardening. Tea drinkers have a significantly lower risk of stroke and heart disease, and tea is known to boost brain health. One study, for example, found that compared with older adults who drank less than three cups a week, those who drank more than two cups of green tea a day had a significantly lower risk of age-related declines in memory . Regular tea drinkers also have higher bone density levels and slower rates of bone loss. Overall it's associated with anti-aging: research shows that the cells of regular tea drinkers have a younger biological age than non-drinkers. Pretty potent stuff! The cons: The first one is purely cosmetic stained teeth. Another is the potential impact on your iron levels due to tanins, a type of antioxidant that interferes with the absorption of non-heme, or plant-based iron from foods like greens and beans. In one classic 1982 study drinking tea with a meal resulted in a 62% reduction in iron absorption compared to 35% for coffee. Finally, if you're sensitive to it, the caffeine in tea may also be a con, although the levels are lower than coffee . One cup or eight ounces of black tea contains 14-70 mg of caffeine, and green tea 24-45 mg, compared to 95-200 mg in the same sized portion of coffee. Healthy prep tips The most important tip for tea is to limit or avoid adding sweetener . Enjoy it hot or iced, and if you need a little sweetness add a splash of 100% fruit juice. You can also add flavor with a bit of natural seasoning, like fresh grated ginger, or fresh mint. Each of these also boosts the antioxidant potency in your mug. As for the iron issue, if you're an omnivore this is less of a concern since tannins do not impact the uptake of animal-based heme iron found in meat, fish, and poultry. But if you are vegetarian or vegan the best way to offset the impact is to consume your iron-rich plant foods with a source of vitamin C. In the same study, OJ upped iron absorption by 85%. Other top vitamin C sources include bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kiwi, and strawberries. Watch: Superfoods: Green Tea> Coffee Pros: The good news about coffee just keeps on coming. A brand new Harvard study found that those who drink about three to five cups of coffee a day may be less likely to die prematurely from some diseases than those who drink less or no coffee. A rich source of antioxidants, regular coffee consumption has also been linked to protection against type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, and certain cancers. Cons: Natural substances in unfiltered coffee (meaning boiled or espresso) have been shown to raise cholesterol levels slightly. Also coffee is more acidic than tea, so if you have stomach or digestive issues you may tolerate tea better. Coffee has long had a reputation for bone issues, but it remains unclear how significant the effects are. One study found that a high intake of coffee four or more cups a day reduced bone density by 2-4%, but the effect didn't translate to an increased risk of fracture. However, if you already have low bone density coffee consumption is something you should discuss with your physician. The remaining cons of coffee are primarily tied to its caffeine content, which again is higher than in tea. Caffeine is a stimulant, so if you're sensitive to it coffee may leave you feeling overly stimulated, jittery, and anxious. If you have high blood pressure, you should limit your caffeine intake because caffeine can cause a short, but dramatic spike in blood pressure. Also two or more cups of coffee a day can up the risk of heart disease in people with a fairly common genetic mutation, which slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body. Unfortunately the testing for this is limited, and not typically offered by doctor's offices. One company , affiliated with the University of Toronto, offers a test through registered dietitians, but it will likely be an out of pocket expense. Finally, coffee is a known diuretic, meaning it flushes water from the body. Research shows that your body can adjust to a regular habit, but if you only have it once in a while, or you have more than usual, it could leave you dehydrated. Healthy prep tips Again, sugar and other coffee "adds" are a big issue. Fancy coffees doctored up with syrups, milk, and whipped cream can easily add up to more calories than a meal should provide: 540 for a Starbucks grande peppermint white chocolate mocha made with 2% milk and whipped cream. That's 140 more than a salad from Chipotle made with romaine, black beans, fajita veggies, salsa, and guacamole. I'm not in favor of using artificial sweeteners due to their potential impact on appetite and blood sugar regulation, as well as gut health . I advise my coffee loving clients to add a little plant-based milk, a minimal amount or no added sugar, and a sprinkling of an antioxidant-rich spice like cinnamon. The bottom line Stick with what you're partial to, take the cons into account, and be sure you aren't using the caffeine in either tea or coffee as a crutch, to mask fatigue from too little sleep. While you may get a benefit from using caffeine pre-exercise it's best to cut off caffeine completely at least six hours before bed for optimal sleep. And if either beverage leaves you feeling zapped of energy, either from the caffeine or what you're adding to it, wean down your intake and up the H2O, the ultimate health-boosting beverage. Watch: Coffee and Your DNA> More on MSN The Worst Drinks for Your Body 6 Simple (Yet Innovative) Ways to Add Nutrients to Your Meals | 7 | 96,714 | health |
PARIS (AP) -- France will play its Davis Cup first-round tie against Canada in the overseas department of Guadeloupe in March, the French Tennis Federation said on Friday. New captain Yannick Noah -- the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam when he won the French Open in 1983 -- will lead the team for the first time in the town of Baie-Mahault from March 4-6. The world group tie will be held on clay in the 8,000-seat Velodrome Amedee Detraux, which is the biggest stadium in Guadeloupe. It will be the first time France plays a Davis Cup tie in an overseas department. FFT president Jean Gachassin said ''it's a historic moment,'' and ''I would like to thank Yannick Noah and the players who were behind this magnificent initiative.'' | 1 | 96,715 | sports |
Charlie Sheen's ex fiancée Brett Rossi is suing him for not pay her a million dollars and not giving a percentage of his profits from FX's Anger Management, as promised. The porn star is suing Sheen on numerous accounts, claiming Charlie hid his HIV positive status during their relationship and forced her to have an abortion. His lawyer says the actor will be counter suing, adding, "We are confident that Mr. Sheen will prevail in this action and will prevail on his claims for affirmative relief against her." | 8 | 96,716 | video |
9 Gross Things Nobody Tells You About Pregnancy and Birth Pregnancy and labor come with many surprises: Surprise! You just peed your lady shorts. Surprise! Your nipples are turning black. Some of these occurrences are absolutely shocking , and as I wallowed in my mammalian shame, I wondered why nobody had told me these indignities might await me. Curious if others had been caught off-guard by certain aspects of childbearing, I talked with some friends and asked them to share what the grossest surprises of their pregnancies and labors were. 1. Stopping for Gas One friend confided that she was shocked by the amount of gas she had during her pregnancy. To avoid "making a stink" in her workplace, she'd sink to all fours and do cat-cow yoga poses in her office to try and get all the farts out. 2. Just swell While we often hear about the swollen feet that can accompany late pregnancy, sometimes other things swell up, too. One mom told me that while she was pregnant, her swollen vulva was "reminiscent of a baboon." 3. Stank Taint During pregnancy, I noticed my armpits emitted a more pungent scent than usual, but it turns out that smelly parts aren't limited to underarms. One mom related the following story: "There was some funky swamp action smell going on in the crack of my ass. Not exactly poo smell, not exactly that not-so-fresh banjingo smell I swear, it was emanating from my taint." Bewildered, she asked her ob/gyn about it. "I said, 'Listen, there is something going on down there that can only be described as Swamp Butt. Is this normal?' And my adorable 60-something-year-old awesome Ob-Gyn tried really hard not to laugh, and answered, 'Yes, completely normal some women have a change in pH and I bet that's what it is.'" 4. The Tsunami Another friend was stunned by the amount of liquid that erupted when her water broke. "I just kept yelling at everyone to clean it up, and every time I moved, more water would come out. I stood up at one point after seemingly gallons of water had already come out and GUSH water all over the floor, too." She says that to this day, the feeling of her vagina morphing into a rushing fire hydrant remains her most vivid memory of labor. 5. Party Pooper Speaking of things being expelled during childbirth sometimes you poop. Other times, you just feel like you're going to poop . As I writhed around during the delivery of my second child, I at one point announced, "I'm gonna poop!" A seasoned nurse replied, "Honey, that's not poop. That's your baby." That's right just before I first met my beautiful daughter, I was convinced she was a rapidly descending turd. 6. Placenta Power Just when you think you're done with the excruciating work of labor comes what my brother-in-law refers to as the "filet mignon." One friend colorfully described the squishy post-birth expulsion by saying, "It felt like diarrhea coming out of my cooch." 7. AfterVag The first time I hobbled to the bathroom to pee after giving birth, I was alarmed to look into my underpants and find … one of my kidneys? A second fetus that hadn't fully developed and was now leaking out? Fearing my very life force was leaking out of my baby-hole, I called a nurse in to examine the fist-sized organ in my panties. "Oh, that's just a blood clot," she said. I recalled how my husband once told me that as a kid, one of the worst insults in his and his friends' arsenal was to call each other a "vagina blood fart." Though at the time it was an abstract insult, it turns out to completely describe the horror show I discovered in my post-birth mesh panties. 8. The Psycho Shower Scene Similarly, another friend described the duality of her first shower after delivering her son. "It was quite possibly the best shower I've ever taken, while also being the most Texas Chainsaw Massacre-y. Horrible things were falling out of my body and streaming around my feet, but that steady rain of hot water on my shoulders was heaven though." 9. Peri, please One of my buddies declared that the biggest surprise for her was "the gag-inducing smell of my bloody vagina every time I sat down to pee." You know the less-than-fresh scent that occurs during a period? Imagine that magnified by 1000. Several ladies added that they were unpleasantly surprised when the nurse introduced them to the peri bottle, and by the pivotal role the peri bottle played in the days after birth. "I felt like the peri should've at least offered to buy me a drink first," one mom said. While there are plenty of other disgusting parts of labor and birth, I don't want to totally ruin the mystique. After all, pregnancy and childbirth are truly the most stanky, swollen, vagina blood fart natural, magical things. | 7 | 96,717 | health |
Hello, Barbie. Can we talk? Security researchers are worried about your safety. New data released Friday by security firm Bluebox reveals even more vulnerabilities in Hello Barbie , the $75 Internet-connected doll from Mattel. Researchers found the application and the cloud server that connect the doll to the Internet would allow attackers to cut through security protections and access recordings of children's conversations with Barbie. That's probably enough to put Barbie on the naughty list this holiday. Friday's revelation about the iconic doll follows a related problem made public last week by a different researcher, Matt Jakubowski. He said he'd discovered a flaw that would potentially allow hackers to pinpoint home addresses of doll owners. Barbie isn't the only toy that's run into safety or privacy concerns related to its Internet connection. Last month, hackers stole account information of more than 6.4 million children who use the Learning Lodge app store for VTech toys. The company has since hired a high-profile cybersecurity incident-response team to deal with the aftermath. Such security concerns could give parents second thoughts about buying the Internet-connected toys on their children's holiday wish lists. The timing is especially critical for Hello Barbie, which was released last month just in time for the holiday shopping season. Mattel and software maker ToyTalk are racing to patch the security problems with the doll. ToyTalk has fixed some of the flaws in the software it built for Hello Barbie and is working its way through the others. It also set up a "bug bounty" program about two weeks ago to streamline reporting from any other researchers looking into the doll's software. Despite the recent flurry of software patches for Hello Barbie, ToyTalk executive Martin Reddy said the company built in security features from the very beginning and had a cybersecurity company audit the toy before taking it to market. "Security has been a major focus throughout the entire process, and I think we've done a very good job of it," Reddy said. "I'm very proud of the [doll]." A Trojan horse of a different sort The way Hello Barbie works seems magical at first glance. Children talk with Barbie, and her necklace lights up to show she's listening. Then she talks back. Behind the scenes, the doll wirelessly communicates with a companion app and ToyTalk's service on the Internet. A hack on the doll's software could have wide-ranging consequences. Once Jakubowski opened up Hello Barbie doll and hacked it, he pulled out information that would allow him to send signals to other Hello Barbies from a web browser, where he would pose as the companion app. Meanwhile, the Bluebox researchers found flaws in the companion app, as well as ToyTalk's website account service. Hackers could "potentially take the voice recordings and ... reconstruct it as the child recorded it. Or, as the 36-year-old security researcher recorded it," said Andrew Hay, who helped Bluebox research the doll. The good news is that the flaws are easy to fix, both TechTalk and the security researchers said. And so far there aren't indications that hackers have actually used the bugs to intrude on real-life children at play. All told, the flaws were not exactly direct paths to Hello Barbie's beating heart. To the potential relief of parents, not all Internet-connected dolls are made similarly to Hello Barbie. For example, the My Friend Cayla doll also talks with children, but she doesn't record conversations or send recordings to the cloud like Barbie does. Tim Medin, a security researcher at Counter Hack, attempted to hack Cayla in January and came up with a few flaws that required hackers to get physical access to the doll or at least get very close. In the process, he made Cayla respond to him with some foul comments, which did get some negative attention for the doll. But unlike with Hello Barbie, researchers needed physical access to Cayla, and the doll wasn't susceptible to attacks over the Internet. "Cayla was basically the subject of a tech prank," said Peter Magalhaes, general manager of Cayla manufacturer Genesis. For Barbie, not so much. Updated 12/4 at 12:08 p.m. PT: Additional context has been added to this story to explain how hackers could communicate with Hello Barbie. | 5 | 96,718 | news |
British teenagers were polled asking what would make their parents seem cool. Answers varied from being nice about sleepovers to cooking good roast potatoes. Patrick Jones (@Patrick_E_Jones) explains. | 8 | 96,719 | video |
As a personal trainer and proud owner of six-pack abs, I'm constantly asked for weight loss advice. And since I was named the Sexiest Trainer Alive by People magazine, the rapid-fire questions have been coming in faster than ever. To help as many people as possible sculpt the body of their dreams and shed belly fat, I've teamed up with the editors of Eat This, Not That! to bring you my 15 best-ever weight loss tips of all time. Pick the one piece of advice you know you can commit to and make it a lifestyle habit before adding another item to your weight loss to-do list. Though it may seem like a slow-moving process, it's the best way to ensure you'll trim down and stay lean for life! And for more get-fit tips and hot bods check out these 25 Weight Loss Tips From The World's Fittest Men . 1. Cheat Smart "Bad" days still require "good" food. If you're going to indulge in a cheat meal , make sure it still has some redeeming nutritional qualities that your body can benefit from. If you're craving ice cream, for example, top your scoop with protein-filled nuts and vitamin-rich fruits. You'll still get the treat you crave while doing right by your body. 2. Start the Day Right Pick one healthy morning ritual that works for you, and stick with it. Starting your day off on the right foot will keep you in a productive, healthy mindset for the entire day. My healthy ritual is drinking a green nutrition shake and then downing four glasses of water. Then later in the morning, I'll have a proper breakfast. Looking to add a healthy smoothie or shake to your AM routine? Check out these 56 Best Smoothies for Weight Loss . 3. Eat for Health, Not Weight Loss To see real results, you need to eat real food. When your eating habits consist of eating a variety of real foods that provide the body with nourishment, a healthier body is created. And the healthier you are, the faster you'll recover post-workout and the better chance you'll have at losing fat and building muscle. And if you must eat processed food, do yourself a favor and stay away from these 150 Worst Packaged Foods in America . 4. Stock Up on Produce Sick of apples and bananas ? Make eating veggies and fruits more exciting by exploring new and exotic options like starfruit and guava. Stock your home with the stuff and always carry around something fresh to ensure you're prepared with a healthy, unprocessed snack whenever hunger strikes. Eat This! Tip My favorite fruit is watermelon. Not only is it hydrating and delicious, University of Kentucky research suggests that that eating watermelon may improve lipid profiles and lower fat accumulation. But that's not all, Spanish researchers say that watermelon juice can help reduce the level of muscle soreness, getting you back to the gym, sooner rather than later, post-pump. Whip up a glass by blending watermelon chunks with ice. 5. Switch to Black If macchiatos and lattes are your coffee go-tos, try to acquire a taste for a coffee beverage without milk and added sweeteners. Over the course of a month, this simple switch could save you up thousands of calories and shave a couple of pounds off your frame. Tea is another healthy way to get your caffeine boost. The folks at Eat This, Not That! love the stuff so much that they even created a diet centered around the stuff called the The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse ! 6. Have Some Go-Tos Trying to cook a new healthy meal every day can be overwhelming. Instead, find two go-to nutritious meals that you can cook easily whenever needed. My favorite go-to meal is scrambled cage-free whole eggs with spinach, onions, tomato and pepper. It's simple and quick to whip up, and all of the ingredients are relatively inexpensive. Eat This! Tip Weary of the yolk? Don't be! It contains many metabolism-stoking nutrients, including fat-soluble vitamins, essential fatty acids and most significantly choline, a powerful compound that attacks the gene mechanism that triggers your body to store fat around your liver. Worried about cholesterol? New studies have found that moderate consumption of two whole eggs per day has no negative effect of a person's fat profile and may actually improve it. For more ways to rev your metabolism, check out these 55 Best-Ever Ways to Boost Your Metabolism . 7. Cut the Cheese It may be delicious, but cheese is packed with calories and only offers minimal health benefits. My advice: Skip the cheese and add healthy fats like avocado and hummus to your salads and sandwiches instead. When eaten in reasonable amounts, both foods have been connected to fat loss. Looking for more food that will help you trim down? Check out these 30 Foods That Melt Love Handles . 8. Don't Make Your Mornings Sweet Don't start your day with processed sugar. Once you start, you're likely to crave it for the rest of the day. It's lurking in popular breakfast foods like yogurts and cereals. To make sure you stay on a path toward success, check out our exclusive report 50 Best Breakfast Foods for Weight Loss Ranked . MY TOP FITNESS & LIFESTYLE TIPS 9. Sneak In Exercise Exercise shouldn't just take place in a gym; it should be part of your daily routine. Walk to your destination instead of driving, use the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or wash your dishes by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher. Believe it or not, an 180-pound person will burn 122 calories in 30 minutes scrubbing pots and pans that's what you'd find in about four Nabisco Ginger Snaps! Totally worth the effort. 10. Choose Whole Body Exercise The workouts that burn the most calories and fat are the ones that challenge and require every part of the body to work together. Pushups, weighted squats and lunges all fit the bill. 11. Enjoy Life Enjoying your life is essential to reaching your weight loss and fitness goals. If you want to have a beer, glass of wine or treat once in a while, do it just stick to one of these 16 Best Wines for Weight Loss . And better yet, don't make it an everyday occurrence. 12. Find an Active Hobby Choose an active hobby over a sedentary one. It's a fun and easy strategy that allows you work off hundreds of extra calories without feeling like you're doing any actual work. Walking, bike riding and hiking are all great ways to sneak in some fitness while hanging out with friends and unwinding. 13. Don't Sit Down at the Gym Avoid workouts or exercises that require you to sit and lay down. There are many other types of exercise that will give you results more quickly. When you're sitting or lying down, it's near impossible to get your heart rate up enough to make any significant change to body composition. 14. Order Smart Just because you're trying to lose a few doesn't mean you have to cook all of your meals at home. Taking a few nights off from cooking won't kill your progress so long as you find local restaurants that have healthy options. When in doubt, get a grilled piece of protein with sauteed or grilled veggies and a whole grain like brown rice or quinoa. Meal delivery services (like my favorite, Indie Fresh) are another great option if you're without groceries and unable to leave home. And speaking of restaurant food, discover the best and worst dishes for your waistline from McDonald's in our exclusive report: Every Menu Item at McDonald's Ranked! 15. Close Your Eyes Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Slacking on sleep increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which triggers fat storage. Sleep deprivation also interferes with workout recovery and muscle building. Angelo Grinceri , personal trainer to some of the fashion world's' hottest bodies and author of the forthcoming book Intrinsic Strength Training, was recently named the Sexiest Trainer Alive by People Magazine . He works and resides in NYC. More on MSN 7 Herbs & Spices Everyone Needs To Eat 7 Foods and Drinks That Pack More Sugar Than the New Daily Limit | 7 | 96,720 | health |
December is clearly a popular holiday for shopping given the holiday season, but what about the other money-smart purchases you could make this month? Step away from your holiday shopping list and think about a few opportunities for deep discounts in December. The list below might even give you some new ideas to help flesh out your gift-giving plans. Gift cards Okay, so this one still falls solidly in the gifting category, or does it? Gift cards can often be found at a discount this month, especially when you buy them in bulk online. Restaurants and service providers will add incentives to get bonus gift cards when you order a certain amount, and retailers will add gift cards to holiday purchases as an added perk. You might want to pick up a few for easy gift ideas, or you can take advantage of the deal and buy gift cards to use yourself all year long and save money in the long run. Thanksgiving leftovers After you've eaten the delicious leftovers after Thanksgiving, keep in mind the leftovers that will on sale, too. Thanksgiving decorations, paper goods and themed items will all drop low in price to clear the shelves and make way for more holiday merchandise. Stock up now and put away for next year and you'll thank yourself later. Cookware and kitchen goods During the month of December, retailers will compete for the lowest prices on cookware and kitchen items, given the busy entertaining season and many shoppers buying new supplies. Stock up now to save money, or take advantage of the prices for gift ideas. If you're going to be hosting dinners and parties this season, then these items could really help you out. Christmas decorations Yes, Christmas decorations, wrapping paper and paper goods will all go on sale in December, but not until the last week after Christmas is over. If you can bear the thought of shopping after the holiday, the discounts will pay off in a big way. Plus, you can just put away your purchases with this year's crop of decorations. If you don't want to hit the stores, log online and check out the sales there instead. Tools Winter's arrival means its home improvement's off-season, and that means that tools will go on sale. Not only will prices drop, you can also try combining store sales with manufacturer coupons for double savings. Keep this in mind for any supplies you need to winterize your home or make indoor repairs over the winter. You can also find good buys for the tool lover on your holiday shopping list. Toys Hopefully you waited until now to buy any toys on your list, because the weeks right before Christmas are notorious for the lowest prices and best toy sales. Of course, there are exceptions to waiting until late in the holiday shopping season if you want a popular item, you should look for it much earlier to ensure you get it before supplies run out. Seasonal produce Take advantage of in-season fruits and vegetables this month, such as citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits, tangerines and clementines as well as hearty greens like kale and chard, which are great in soups. Root vegetables will be in-season all winter long as well. Not only is this produce fresh and delicious, it's less expensive, too. All that nutrition can also help stave off winter illnesses. Free shipping day On December 18, many businesses large and small will waive your shipping cost for Free Shipping Day. This encourages holiday shoppers to get orders in with enough time for shipping by Christmas. Plan your December online shopping around the holiday , especially if you have something heavy or large to buy. Just check the terms and conditions, or if a retailer has a minimum purchases in order to qualify for free shipping. You could save $5, $10 or even more! With these tips in mind, see if your monthly budget can handle a few more purchases that will save you money for next year. Looks like your New Year's resolution is already off to a great start! | 3 | 96,721 | finance |
Police search for 21-year-old after incident with Maryland officer | 8 | 96,722 | video |
The Question: I've been reading a lot about HIIT. Should I give it a try, even though I'm out of shape? Answer : Yes. Yes, you should. HIIT, which stands for high-intensity interval training, is a type of work out that typically alternates between brief spurts of balls-to-the-wall, vigorous exercise and a few minutes of recovery time. This is repeated until you get to the end of the session, which is usually less than 30 minutes . Athletes have been interval training for decades to make quick performance gains in the shortest amount of time. But well-established research on HIIT shows it has promising benefits for everyone else, too, like increased aerobic and anaerobic fitness , more muscle mass and less insulin resistance. Compared to "steady state" exercise, in which a person maintains a steady pace for a longer amount of time (e.g, an hour on an elliptical), HIIT has also been shown to accelerate fat loss. In one example from a 2008 study , young women who did a 20-minute HIIT routine on exercise bikes lost an average of 5.5 pounds more fat over a 15-week period than women who did a 40-minute steady state cycle ride. In other words, the HIIT women lost more fat in half the workout time than women who kept things at an even pace. But starting an HIIT program can be daunting. For instance, most of the research on HIIT involves participants exceeding 90 percent of maximal oxygen uptake, or the volume of oxygen your body uses during exercise. Even though most HIIT sessions are relatively short, for a person just starting to exercise, it can be intimidating to try to push yourself to your limits in public spaces like classes or gyms. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Josh Carter, a personal trainer and HIIT expert. Carter says workouts can be scaled to anyone's fitness levels, from a post-sedentary beginner to the leanest athlete. "There is a common myth that HIIT workouts are (or must be) super brutal, but this is just not true," Carter told HuffPost. "As time goes by you will see that your ability level increases as your body adapts and gets leaner, tighter and stronger." How to turn HIIT into 'MIIT' Micah Zuhl, an HIIT researcher and professor at Central Michigan University's School of Health Sciences, agrees, pointing to new research on the effects of moderate intensity interval training. A 2013 study of people with Type 2 diabetes, for example, found that participants who were randomized to alternate between fast and slow walking intervals lost weight and fat mass and were able to lower their blood sugar levels. The control group walked at a continuous pace for the same amount of time as the interval walkers, but didn't lose any weight, and their blood sugar and insulin levels actually worsened. To start a "moderate HIIT" (or MIIT) practice, alternate between bursts of moderate (not high) intensity exercise and recovery periods. One sample workout Zuhl suggests for beginners is to walk on a treadmill with an incline for two to four minutes, and then rest another two to four minutes by walking with no incline before increasing it again. "You don't want to be in a situation of extreme muscle soreness or cause an injury," he said. But don't give up your regular jog just yet Just because there's a lot to be gained with HIIT doesn't mean you should throw out your tried and true steady state exercises, said Len Kravitz, an HIIT researcher and coordinator of exercise science at the University of New Mexico. The best thing to do is give your muscles the best variety possible. "From a molecular biology viewpoint, it is absolutely best to mix HIIT workouts with steady state workouts," Kravitz said. "There are many great changes that positively occur (in muscle cells) with steady state workouts." All three experts say they wouldn't recommend doing HIIT or interval training more than three times per week, with adequate spacing in between, in order to give your muscle groups time to rest. In fact, Kravitz suggests starting out by doing HIIT only once a week at first . "Progress slowly and always keep the intensity comfortable but challenging," he said. "When exercise becomes uncomfortable, people drop out." And, as always, if you have preexisting health conditions, check with your doctor before starting a new exercise plan. Have a question for Healthy Living? Get in touch here and we'll do our best to ask the experts and get back to you. "Ask Healthy Living" is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult a qualified health care professional for personalized medical advice. Also on HuffPost: | 4 | 96,723 | lifestyle |
The story goes that in the 13th century, when three great French cathedrals were being built Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre-Dame de Chartres and Notre-Dame de Reims the builders of Notre-Dame de Reims, determined to achieve primacy over the other two and perhaps employing a bit of industrial espionage, managed to make their massive edifice just a little bit more massive than the other two. As in, a few extra feet. If you plumb the history of Reims's great cathedral, you will come across a lot of tales that start with "the story goes," or "it is said that" or "legend has it." I'm pretty sure some of them are not true. But I also know for certain that the most superlative of these tales the most dramatic and awful and heartbreaking and hopeful is. To tell it well, though, you need to stroll through the others first, even those that may not be entirely factual. Sign up for The New York Times' weekly travel newsletter They start well before the one about its competition with Paris and Chartres, two of the most famous cathedrals in the world. That Notre-Dame de Reims stands out even in such august company says a lot about its awesome proportions and magnificent beauty; it may even be the reason that King Louis IX, who reigned over France while the contest was still underway, decreed that all future French monarchs would have to be anointed at Notre-Dame de Reims. And for half a millennium, they were. Truth be told, though, a strong case could have been made for Reims (pronounced "Rance," except you have to kind of swallow the n) even without the measuring sticks, and probably was. It was a major city going back to Roman times, by some accounts the third-largest in the empire, in an era when Paris and Chartres were just small towns. More important, it was a center of commerce between the Romans and various Gallic tribes, and anyone else in the known world who wished to trade with either of them. Some who traveled thousands of miles to do so must have taken advantage of the Roman baths that stood on this spot back then. As the Romans receded, Christianity tiptoed in, and a church replaced the baths, probably in the early fifth century. Late in that same century, Clovis, a Frankish king who united other Frankish tribes into what we now recognize more or less as France, came to visit. A pagan, he had recently agreed to accept Roman Catholicism, either (depending upon whom you read) to appease his Catholic wife or to strengthen his position against various tribes of Goths beyond his border. Or both. Whatever his reasons, on Christmas Day in 496, he stood in the center of Reims's small church and was baptized by St. Rémi, bishop of the city; it is said that a dove flew into the chapel bearing a vessel of holy oil in its beak and deposited it in the bishop's hand. Then Clovis had 2,000 of his followers baptized, too. And thus was Reims transformed from a regional center of commerce to a powerful symbol for all the people of France. The little church grew into a cathedral, and when it burned down in 1211, work immediately began on a new Notre-Dame de Reims. Its majesty, and King Louis IX's decree, only elevated Reims's position in the French psyche. But it is what happened there nearly seven centuries later that renders it unique among the great cathedrals of France and perhaps the world. When Patrick Gielen, a local historian and tour guide, started telling me about the royal consecrations that took place at the cathedral, I almost got the sense he was there. "People would come here from everywhere," he said. "First you had the nobles and their staffs coming to participate in the ceremony and the pilgrims coming to see it. Then you had the people who came to sell things or provide services to all those people. And then you had people who came to sell things or provide services to them . It was like a huge carnival." And it lasted for months, the enormous square in front of the cathedral filled with people day and night. The population of Reims, he said, would grow from 50,000 to 150,000 or 200,000 every time it happened. It happened 25 times, and though history has not judged most of those occasions as memorable as the revelers regarded them in the moment, there was the time, in 1429, when a dauphin who was about to be anointed King Charles VII was escorted to the cathedral by a teenage girl wearing men's armor and leading an army. People still talk about that one. (There's a statue of her across the square; based on what I've witnessed, she takes a lot of hits from Frisbees.) In 1825, Charles X decided he would be anointed there, and was. It proved to be a bad decision; perhaps Charles should have heeded the fact that the last king to have celebrated the rites in Notre-Dame de Reims, his older brother Louis XVI, came to an unfortunate end. Some say Charles's disregard for the optics of the affair fomented dissatisfaction among the populace that culminated in his banishment five years later (albeit with his head intact) and the end of the Bourbon line. The cathedral, though, suffered no loss of affection or prestige. By then the city surrounding it had developed into a center of culture and the arts, not to mention the position of the unofficial capital of the Champagne region, its substrata riddled with the cellars used in making sparkling wine. But Reims's status has long been tied to its cathedral, and the cathedral has bestowed its symbolic importance upon the city surrounding it. France seethed when the Prussians took Reims in 1870, made it an administrative capital and looted it relentlessly; and thought it only fitting when the Allies chose it as the place to receive Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. But it's what happened here in between that made Reims, and especially its resplendent cathedral, synonymous with man's barbarity, and man's resilience. After the Germans left Reims in 1871, the French, determined to keep such a thing from ever happening again, built forts around the city. But when the Germans returned in 1914, the troops from those installations were sent to protect Paris, leaving the city vulnerable. The Germans took it on Sept. 4, just a month into the war, and quickly turned the cathedral into a hospital for their troops, covering the floor with straw pallets; but a week later, when the French turned them back at the Marne, the Germans abandoned the city and consolidated their lines on the heights a few miles to the north and east, their big guns pointed at Reims just defensively, they insisted. "They promised they wouldn't fire on the cathedral," Patrick Gielen said with a sigh. And they didn't. For a week. The first shell hit on Sept. 19, 1914; much of the cathedral was surrounded by temporary pine scaffolding, which caught fire. The blaze spread to the roof, which was oak and lead. The oak burned. The lead melted, poured through cracks in the burning roof, and set the Germans' straw afire, as well as the wooden pews and anything else combustible. Outside, it streamed through gargoyles and other statuary that adorned the edifice on all sides. Much of the cathedral was badly damaged or destroyed, including the Smiling Angel, the most beloved of the cathedral's legion of statues; a stone giant standing beside one of the front doors, he'd greeted visitors for more than 600 years, and was, as much as anything else there, a symbol of the place. When the molten lead hit him, his head fell off and broke into pieces on the front steps. Legend has it an abbot scurried out the next day and carried them off for safekeeping. It was only the beginning. Over the next four years, some 300 German shells hit Notre-Dame de Reims, adding "Boche Kultur" German civilization, always uttered ironically to the list of symbols for which the edifice stood, even though, at that point, it was barely standing. A photo of it, taken at the moment of a shell's impact, became one of the most notorious propaganda images of the war. By Nov. 11, 1918, it wasn't much more than battered walls, enfeebled buttresses and rubble. Restoration took a very long time, in part because of the magnitude of the damage, but also, Mr. Gielen explained, because after the war, many French felt "the cathedral should be left as it is, to reflect the suffering they endured." The city of Reims, he said, had fared no better. Ninety-five percent of it was destroyed; the wartime population shrank from around 50,000 to some 1,500 souls, most of them hiding in Champagne cellars. But Reims was rebuilt, and so was its cathedral, with help in part from the Rockefeller family. One of the very first projects was the restoration of the Smiling Angel; his return, Mr. Gielen said, "showed that Reims had recovered its smile and its power." But it was a slow recovery: The cathedral did not open to the public again until 1935. Still, it has never closed since. Mass is celebrated there every Sunday; services are held several times a week. People go there to pray, get married, have their babies baptized. A million a year, the local tourism office told me, come just to see it. There are no records of how many of those people, who often spend hours looking at the 2,307 statues and sculptures on and in the cathedral, wonder about those including all the ones that surround the front doors on the inside that are missing arms or legs or faces or all three; or how many who come to view some of the famous stained glass windows, including a set by Marc Chagall, wonder why most of the soaring windows are just clear glass, when once they were all composed of brightly colored panes dating back to the Middle Ages. Maybe they notice the pockmarks, some the size of basketballs, that cover the walls outside, or that the figure standing next to the Smiling Angel is missing the top of his head (and not smiling). Maybe they know that those stones that are now deep red were once white, until they were baked by a wash of molten lead a century ago. And maybe they don't. But I'm guessing few miss the small square stone, set into a spot that was, ages ago, the center of a much smaller church: ICI SAINT REMI BAPTISA CLOVIS ROI DES FRANCS A few blocks away, next to another open square, you'll find a small amphitheater of sorts, wide steps leading down to a classical gallery known as the Cryptoportique . The steps are modern. The gallery dates back to the third century, when Reims was known as Durocortorum. Today, it's a gathering spot where you can hang out and listen to live music. The last time I was there, a very lively Afro-French band had almost everyone dancing. Eighteen hundred years ago, it was no less lively, although the music that filled the air then was the singsong of merchants and customers haggling. Whether or not there's a show going on, you're welcome to make your way through a door on the left side and descend into the ancient marketplace now mostly underground and walk around. The stalls are long gone, but the space is just as it was when the Romans built it. Many centuries of dust and dirt conspired to spare it the indignities that German shells wrought upon the nearby cathedral. I've never been down in that place and not been entirely alone there: alone with the stones, and the pillars, and the arches, and the alcoves, and the niches, and the windowsills. Maybe that's what makes it so much easier for me to imagine that indoor bazaar in its heyday than to envision the cathedral being bombarded, even though the latter happened only a century ago, and I have seen photographs of it. | 2 | 96,724 | travel |
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"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom." "Thor." "Luther." "Prometheus." "Pacific Rim." These are just a few of the projects Idris Elba has starred in -- and his resume is only growing. The 43-year-old British actor is getting Oscar buzz for his role as the Commandant in Netflix's first feature-length film, "Beasts of No Nation," written and directed by Cary Fukunaga of "True Detective" fame. Elba has already secured an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male, which is a good sign that his name will pop up in more ballots this awards season. "Playing this part was definitely tough," he told The Huffington Post of portraying the "despicable" character in an interview, featured in the video below. "Emotionally draining." Elba has a diverse range of roles under his belt , including the one and only Stringer Bell from "The Wire," an on-screen character that helped launch his career. He takes pride in the fact that every single role he accepts showcases a different side of himself. "I suspect I try to sort of take the view that I won't do anything twice," he told HuffPost. "I don't want to do another Stringer Bell or another Luther. For me, it makes it a more varied career when I look back and they're all very different. I think it's just more challenging for me to try and do roles that really stretch me." As for what's next for Elba, television is where it's at, he says. Although his BBC America show "Luther" might be making a move to the big screen soon , the actor would totally be down to star in another series. ( "True Detective" Season 3 , anyone?) Here's what Elba had to say about all that, and more: You are a part of the groundbreaking "Beasts of No Nation," the first feature-length Netflix film. Tell me about how that process has been for you. The subject matter is thought-provoking, important and something that is close to my heart, being from Sierra Leone and seeing a massive war where there was a lot of child soldiers involved. I definitely wanted to be a part of a project that brought that to light in a major way, and from the perspective of the child was really, really important to me. The film has been, for all sorts of reasons, really celebrated -- it's a great film, a very hard film to watch, very tough, and people come away from it shook. But also the way it's been brought into the world through the Netflix model has been successful in that maybe a lot of people wouldn't have seen this film in a normal sort of cinema. Netflix has put it into a lot of people's hands and therefore the subject matter is on the tips of people's awareness. Especially in this day and age, we can see what the world's coming to and there's a lot of bad shit happening and we got a film that sort of uses entertainment not just to entertain but to educate. I think this film is important in that sense. What was it like to get into that mental state to play Commandant? He's a despicable character in real life, but ultimately, he's a human being. I tried very hard to bring something to him that was maybe redeemable -- he's in the film a lot and people have to look at him for a long time so you can't hate someone for that long, something has to be endearing about him. And the truth is, this is a guy that actually did love his boy soldiers, although he got them to go out and do horrible things. It was really important for me to sort of bring that to life. This is a role that has a lot of Oscar buzz for you, and I think it's very well-deserved. Tell me about going into award show season. Do you ever really think about it or is it something you sort of put aside and say, "Whatever happens, happens?" If I'm honest, at the risk of sounding 'Uhhh, he don't really care,' I actually don't. We don't start off making films at all with the idea we might get an award. It's great that it might be celebrated, but it doesn't actually define me or the film. It's great that Oscars may be happening for us, but I haven't really sort of planned for it. Maybe it comes, maybe it doesn't. You worked with Cary Fukunaga, of course, who helmed "True Detective" Season 1 -- one of the best things I've ever watched on television. Tell me about working with him and witnessing his process. Cary Fukunaga is a tour de force. He's very, very smart, very compassionate, collaborative. He gave me a lot of sort of license to build my character, and he's one of the best directors in the world and a future star. He deserves an Oscar, no doubt. And I'd love to work with him again. We built a special bond over making this film and I hope we continue to make films for the rest of our lives. Yeah, let's see a "True Detective" Season 3 with you and Cary back. That could be pretty cool. "True Detective" Season 3 … I like the way you're thinking! You also have "Luther" coming back in a two-part special, and it's apparently a pilot for this film version you're thinking of doing? Some audiences will be like, "Whaaatt? Only two episodes?" But, like I said in the press, I really want to design "Luther" for a film and so this is sort of gearing the audience up for that. I love it though. I love the team, I love Neil Cross, the writer, and we've been very lucky to come back to the small screen and bring Luther back; it's been a very special process. And I hope people enjoy it as much as they've enjoyed the rest of them. TV seems to be where it's at to find those roles you can really sink your teeth into. You were, of course, in "The Wire," as well. What do you think about the opportunities on television? It's crazy, the real estate for television has just widened -- there's some really good stuff being done and the quality has gone through the roof. And I think, if I can be as bold to say, that "The Wire" is a part of a generation of television that blew everyone away and upped the ante. So for me, I'll always be attached to telly in one way or another, whether it's a character or producer or director, I just love the medium. Let's chat about these animated roles you're taking on in "The Jungle Book" and "Finding Dory." What's it like being in the studio and recording voice-overs? It's a really new way to work, different tool set. Cary told me a story that he went to see Pixar the other day and they were saying, "Oh, you work with Idris? We love working with Idris. He's so funny, when he works, all he has to do is speak into the mic, but he acts out all the parts and he opens doors that don't exist." [ laughs ] I just can't help doing that! But it's a lot of fun and also because I have young kids that love animation and it's nice to know their dad's voice is in whatever film it is. "Finding Dory" is really a lot of fun. And actually, talking about "The Wire," Dominic West and I play a couple of characters in that film . That's cool! Did you get to work with Ellen [DeGeneres] at all? No, but I heard her voice all the time. I love Ellen, man. [ smiles ] She was always there, in my head! You've spread yourself across many different platforms, including doing the "Thor" franchise with Marvel and now getting into "Star Trek." Is it tough going back to the same role or do you find yourself wanting to get away from it a little bit? No, it's not tough. You sign up for a few pictures, especially with Marvel, and you revisit your character as they need you. It's one of those things where you get back, you put the character on and you're there. How do you unwind after a shoot? What do you do in your off-time? I sit in front of my [gaming] console with my headphones on and I play . I love that. It's a nice form of escapism. And then, I make music. I have a studio and when I'm on the road, I have my laptop and my headphones and my little keyboard and I make music. That's where I sort of reset who I am. You're a DJ, so what's your style? Nobody likes a celebrity DJ for the sake of it, so I don't do that -- I try to be good at what I do. It's all about resetting, it's my escape. It is work, it's a job, but I just love doing it. I normally play house music when I'm in Ibiza in the season, and pay attention to what the crowd wants. Tell me about your goals for next year? I'm going to take some time off, that's what's next for me. Really taking some time off, taking the kids on holiday. And then next year, hopefully back to work -- I love working. I'm a workaholic and I'm really privileged for some of the jobs I get offered and so I just want to keep going. "Beasts of No Nation" is currently streaming on Netflix. This interview has been edited and condensed. Also on HuffPost: | 6 | 96,728 | entertainment |
Heather Nauert reports from New York | 8 | 96,729 | video |
Heartthrob Taylor Lautner stars in the new film The Ridiculous 6 premiering on Netflix December 11th alongside Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Terry Crews, and Jorge Garcia among many others. We caught up with the 23-year-old Twilight actor to see which A-list celebrity he would like to "Netflix and chill" with. Take a look at who he says his celeb crush is! Hint: she's Hollywood royalty as one of the leading actresses and entrepreneurs, but she's taken and a momma of 2! | 8 | 96,730 | video |
OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma City police arrested a 16-year-old boy Wednesday with the help of a 61-year-old grandpa who had his mind set on justice. According to police, the 16-year-old attempted to rob another boy while he was walking down the street Wednesday afternoon in southeast Oklahoma City. Police said the alleged victim didn't have any money and ran away. The alleged victim's grandfather, Harvey Privett, set off to find the robber after learning about the incident. After locating the suspect, Privett threw the boy on his stomach and placed him in handcuffs until police arrived, according to the police report. Police said the boy repeatedly made threats to Privett and gave officers false names. Police said the juvenile already had a warrant for robbery by force. Story originally published on KOCO-TV. | 5 | 96,731 | news |
Just days after Coca-Cola Mexico released a new commercial depicting young white people on a mission to "share Coke with a smile" in a remote area of Oaxaca, Mexico, serious backlash hit the soda company for its racist implications. And now consumer rights and health groups, in addition to Coke fans, have urged the Mexican government to pull the ad from air. Some critics are calling the spot an insult to indigenous groups for its premise-that a group of model-looking caucasian people arrive to partake in a "faux philanthropy" service project of handing out sodas and building a Coke-themed Christmas tree for locals. In the commercial, Coca-Cola says the #AbreTuCorazon ("Open Your Heart") campaign is meant to "break down prejudice and share." Then it goes on to say, "This Christmas a group of young people decided to give something very special to the indigenous community of Totontepec (Villa) de Morelos in Oaxaca. You, too, open your heart." These messages display on screen as blond women and men cheerfully construct a red wooden tree and seemingly bring joy to the locals of the community. Still, the AP reports that the Alliance for Food Health-a coalition of consumer rights and health organizations-has called on the Mexican government to block the commercial entirely, arguing that it both attacks the dignity of indigenous people and contributes to the deteriorating health of Mexican communities. Meanwhile, many others have taken to social media with their complaints about the controversial spot: White saviors bring Indigenous Mexicans @CocaCola & an art installation, racism solved. smh #pincheCocaCola https://t.co/7Rs1jGO2fo - Indigenous Chicana (@AngryChicana) November 30, 2015 Watch Coca-Cola use white privilege to sell Coke to indigenous Mexicans.... https://t.co/kR3vBQ5w9Q pic.twitter.com/51pSCXKPaD - Laura Martínez ® (@miblogestublog) November 26, 2015 more insulting than their ad, is the fact that they are making my people morbidly obese and sick #AbreTuCorazon #OpenYourHeart - Sabandija del terror (@olomerol) December 3, 2015 When a company as big as coca-cola is saying #AbreTuCorazon by giving coca cola to indigenous ppl. what they are really doing is using them. - Diana Villegas (@dianaecho) December 2, 2015 Coca-Cola has removed the ad from its YouTube channel and all planned televised spots, telling teleSUR that its message was misinterpreted. To explain further, the company sent Eater a spokesperson's statement: "As part of Coca-Cola México's Christmas campaign for this year the video 'Mixe Community Totontepec' was launched on digital channels, seeking to convey a message of unity and joy. Our intention was never to be insensitive to or underestimate any indigenous group. We have now removed the video and apologize to anyone who may have been offended. In nearly 90 years in the country, Coca-Cola Mexico has worked to share messages of unity and friendship to contribute to build a society free of prejudices." Overall, the idea of introducing Coca-Cola to Mexico could be perceived as ignorant. Eater points out that Mexico is a larger consumer of soda -with Coca-Cola dominating the market share there-than America and, according to the AP , this has effectively caused the country's rates of obesity and diabetes to sky-rocket. With both racist implications and health risks involved, this is one touchy subject for the soda company to handle. We'll let you be the judge of whether it's worthy of the scathing criticism it has received. Follow Delish on Instagram . | 0 | 96,732 | foodanddrink |
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U.S. ride-hailing app Lyft has made a huge play for Asia by challenging Uber's stake in the region. The company has rounded up a host of dominant Asian taxi-hailing companies and announced it will work together with them to come up with a shared service in the first quarter of the year. It will partner Ola in India and Malaysian firm GrabTaxi which also operates in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. This comes soon after its tie-up with the largest ride-hailing app in China, Didi Kuaidi, which in September announced it was sinking an undisclosed investment into Lyft. When all the terms of the partnerships with the four companies are worked out, users of each app will be able to book rides with drivers in each other's network through their own apps, and in their home currencies. | 3 | 96,734 | finance |
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Gingerbread houses, dazzling light displays and Christmas trees made of macaroons and recycled bottles are among this season's holiday attractions. Here are some details: NEW YORK CITY The tree at Rockefeller Center is one of New York's most famous Christmas traditions but there are many others: the Rockettes at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular; the Neapolitan Baroque crèche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the origami tree at the American Museum of Natural History, and store window displays at Macy's, Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and other retailers. Macy's theme this year is "A Charlie Brown Christmas." New this year in Lower Manhattan is Luminaries, a colorful, choreographed light show at the Winter Garden near One World Trade. Head to the city's outer boroughs for the New York Botanical Garden's holiday train show in the Bronx, with model trains chugging past replicas of landmarks; the Christmas Lights Tour of Brooklyn's Dyker Heights neighborhood, offered by A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours; and a gingerbread village with 1,050 gingerbread houses at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. CHRISTMAS TREES AROUND THE COUNTRY In Washington, D.C., the national Christmas tree stands on the Ellipse at President's Park near the White House. In Los Angeles, check out the tree at the Grove. The city of Chicago's official Christmas tree is at Millennium Park after decades at Daley Plaza. Kansas City, Missouri, hosts one of the nation's tallest trees at nearly 100 feet high in Crown Center. Boston's Faneuil Hall hosts a tree and a light-and-sound show called Blink!. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Ritz-Carlton is displaying a 17-foot sustainable tree made from 789 recycled green plastic bottles and three trees made from thousands of colorful macaroon cookies. The hotel also has a life-size gingerbread house. THEME PARKS It's your last chance to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Walt Disney World this season. The spectacle started at the Arkansas home of Jennings Osborne and moved to Disney World in 1995 after the Osbornes ran into problems with neighbors. The attraction features millions of lights synchronized to holiday music. The space will be used in the future for new Stars Wars and Toy Story-themed areas. Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles features the Grinch and live Grinchmas shows, Dec. 5-6 and 12-13, then daily Dec. 18-Jan. 3. Other Universal events inspired by the Dr. Seuss classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" include story time with Cindy-Lou Who, cookie decorating and ornament decorating. In Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas offers 4 million lights, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and shows including "An Appalachian Christmas," "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and "A Christmas Carol" that uses holograms to conjure Dolly Parton onstage as the Ghost of Christmas Past. GINGERBREAD, LIGHTS AND MORE In Wheeling, West Virginia, Oglebay Park hosts its annual Winter Festival of Lights. Five displays were shown in the festival's first year in 1985. Now 80 displays light up a 6-mile driving course. In Missouri, Branson's Silver Dollar City features more than 5 million lights and 1,000 decorated trees as part of An Old Time Christmas festival through Dec. 30. The Lake of the Ozarks area's largest drive-through holiday light park, the Enchanted Village of Lights, covers 27 acres on the Laurie Fairgrounds. In Asheville, North Carolina, the historic, 250-room Biltmore House displays a 34-foot tree in the Banquet Hall, with a 55-foot Norway spruce lit up outside by 45,000 tiny white lights. Wreaths, garlands, candles and choirs add to this year's decor theme, "A Gilded Age Christmas." Activities and events include Candlelight Christmas Evenings, daily seminars on decorating with wreaths and creating holiday "tablescapes," wine tastings and visits with Santa. Also in Asheville, at the historic Omni Grove Park Inn, winners of the 23rd annual National Gingerbread House Competition are on display through Jan. 3. The hotel is offering a gingerbread holiday package for guests, while others may visit the gingerbread display in the Sammons Wing and Vanderbilt Wing Sunday afternoons through Thursdays, excluding the holidays (parking, $10). In New Mexico, a gingerbread replica of a historic Santa Fe hotel, La Fonda on the Plaza, will be displayed in the lobby alongside a carved nativity scene. A holiday winter festival called CHILL comes to sunny Southern California thanks to the retired ocean liner Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach. A geodesic dome onsite houses an igloo with ice tubing and ice sculptures depicting scenes from "A Christmas Carol." There's a skating rink, too. | 2 | 96,736 | travel |
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JOHANNESBURG - South African authorities on Friday denied issuing an arrest warrant for Oscar Pistorius, who was convicted on appeal of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, rejecting an earlier report by a local television station. "It is not the case," National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku told Reuters. "No such warrant has been issued." The Supreme Court on Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete's sentence to murder from "culpable homicide", South Africa's equivalent of manslaughter, for which he had received a five-year sentence. A murder conviction normally carries a minimum 15-year jail sentence. ENCA television had earlier reported that a warrant of arrest had been issued for the paralympic champion. Pistorius had been meant to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest on his uncle's property in a wealthy suburb of the capital Pretoria. A new sentence will be handed down at a later date, Mfaku said. (Reporting by James Macharia) | 1 | 96,739 | sports |
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Guatemalan soccer official Héctor Trujillo was arrested by the FBI on a cruise ship off the Florida coast on Friday, reports the BBC's Mani Djazmi. Trujillo, who is the Guatemalan federation's general secretary and a judge on the Constitutional Court of Guatemala, was one of 16 FIFA-related officials indicted Thursday on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and corruption. The news of the superseding indictments came in the wake of a series of arrests of FIFA officials Thursday morning, which took place at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich. The new arrests were part of an ongoing U.S. investigation into widespread corruption in international soccer. • GALLERY: The faces of the FIFA scandal In May, a first wave of arrests took place involving several top FIFA officials at the same hotel. | 1 | 96,741 | sports |
Landlord invites media into the San Bernardino shooters' home. CNN's Stephanie Elam reports. | 5 | 96,742 | news |
Yahoo's future and CEO Marissa Mayer's role in it is being debated this week. But one thing is for sure: Mayer wins no matter what. Not surprisingly, given that Mayer is one of the country's best-paid executives, she has a lucrative change-in-control severance benefit in place. Her severance plan which would kick in if she is terminated without cause due to a change of control of the company would have been worth $157.9 million in 2014, according to a company tabulation in corporate filings. The severance payment becomes much more important as Yahoo's board discusses potentially selling off all or parts of Yahoo's core Internet business. Currently, the businesses as part of Yahoo ( YHOO ) are valued at less than $0. Mayer's latest change-of-control payout for includes: -- Cash severance: $3 million -- Continuation of health-care benefits: $24,331 -- Outplacement benefits: $15,000 -- Restricted stock acceleration: $66.5 million -- Option acceleration: $88.3 million Total: $157.9 million The large change-in-control severance matches Mayer's massive salary. Last year, Mayer received total payment of $42 million, up from $24.9 million in 2013 - well above the median of $10.2, says compensation tracker Equilar. Follow Matt Krantz on Twitter @mattkrantz | 3 | 96,743 | finance |
This ad for a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee for sale in New York is brutally honest. Hey at least you know what you're getting says Patrick Jones (@Patrick_E_Jones). | 8 | 96,744 | video |
Pamela Anderson will be on the cover of the last nude Playboy issue in 2016. It will be her 14th time on the cover of the magazine. | 3 | 96,745 | finance |
Black gold drew hundreds of thousands of workers to oilfields in the United States and elsewhere during the shale revolution. Now pink slips are sending many of them packing. A protracted downturn in energy prices has sharply reversed the fortunes of America's oilfield workers. After years of strong employment gains that outpaced total private sector growth, the energy sector became the biggest job cutter of 2015. Layoffs by U.S.-based energy companies have hit nearly 93,800 jobs year to date through November, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That represents a staggering increase of more than 700 percent over the about 11,500 job cuts in the same period last year. It's important to note that some companies have overseas operations, so not all of those layoffs hit the United States specifically. And just how many jobs the American shale revolution is responsible for creating in the first place is a topic of debate, though employment growth within the industry has been significant. Total U.S. employment in the oil and gas extraction, drilling and support services sectors reached greater than 644,000 jobs at the end of 2014, more than doubling over a 10-year period, according to CNBC analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. OPEC's decision last year to maintain output and defend market share a strategy that the cartel reiterated on Friday put the burden of balancing oversupply squarely on the shoulders of U.S. drillers and other producers of higher-cost crude. On Friday, OPEC rolled over that policy, sources told Reuters. Crude prices are down roughly 60 percent from their highs during the summer of 2014. At the root of the payroll reductions is the industry's cut in capital spending. With revenue falling in lockstep with oil prices, exploration and production companies are slashing costs and wringing more productivity out of existing wells, obviating the need for workers. Capital expenditures in the S&P 500 energy sector (.TR15GSPE) fell 23.8 percent year over year through the second quarter, according to FactSet. More than 75 percent of companies in the sector decreased expenditures in the second quarter. "Capital expenditure is the absolute oxygen that drives the upstream sector," said Tobias Read, CEO of energy recruiting firm Swift Worldwide Resources. "As soon as those projects come to an end, there's pretty much nothing left for people to do." Drillers have also protected their balance sheets by securing deep discounts from oilfield services firms. Those firms serve and support exploration and production companies, which actually buy and develop mineral assets and make money by producing crude. Producers also have reduced the number of rigs they operate in their fields by nearly two-thirds, so there is less work for contractors. That has resulted in deep cuts at U.S.-based services firms. Swift Worldwide puts total layoffs around the world over roughly the last year at just more than 233,000 including an estimated 30,000 cuts not publicly announced as of Nov. 11. The firm now expects global layoffs to eventually exceed 300,000. It's difficult to pinpoint where exactly job cuts have taken place because many of the employers shedding positions work internationally, but Read said the lion's share has hit the United States, Canada and Great Britain. A breakdown of Swift's list of global layoffs makes clear how much more pain oilfield services firms have felt compared with exploration and production companies. A jobs recovery will likely take time to gain traction after oil prices bounce back. Even in the quickest cases, it takes about six months to reach a final decision on complex oil projects, Read said. It takes another year for companies to complete engineering and design and to begin the construction phase, which creates the majority of the jobs, he said. With oil prices projected to remain low, Read expects the employment situation to remain tough throughout 2016 and into 2017. | 3 | 96,746 | finance |
MONROVIA, Liberia Liberia has discharged its last two known Ebola patients from a treatment center, beginning its third countdown to become free from transmission of the deadly virus, health authorities said Friday. Three cases were reported Nov. 20 in Liberia one of the three West African countries hit hardest by the worst ever Ebola outbreak. One of them, a 15-year-old boy, died Nov. 23. The boy, who lived in the eastern Paynesville district, was Liberia's first Ebola patient since it was declared Ebola-free for a second time in September. The boy's father and brother were released Thursday after recovering from Ebola and have reunited with their families, said Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah. "We don't have any confirmed cases anywhere in the country that we know about," said Nyenswah, who is also the head of Liberia's Ebola Case Management System. He said the 42-day countdown to become free from transmission of the deadly virus started Thursday. The World Health Organization declares that Ebola disease transmission has ended when the country goes through two incubation periods 21 days each without a new case emerging. Local and international health authorities are using gene sequencing to investigate the source of the latest outbreak. "What we know is that it is not a virus that is imported; it is a virus that has been in Liberia," he said, though he warned: "Globally Ebola is not over yet." More than 11,300 people have died during the outbreak, which was first confirmed in March 2014 and has been concentrated in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to WHO. Liberia has recorded more than 4,800 deaths and more than 10,600 cases. Liberia was first declared Ebola-free May 9, but new cases emerged in June resulting in two deaths. WHO declared the country Ebola-free again on Sept. 3. | 7 | 96,747 | health |
A prominent Muslim congregation in San Bernardino county holds a prayer vigil after the shooting rampage that left 14 people dead. | 8 | 96,748 | video |
Germany's lower house of parliament on Friday approved government plans to join the military campaign against Islamic State in Syria. Deborah Lutterbeck reports. | 8 | 96,749 | video |
Beth McGarrity forced a smile as she rejoined a group of moms around the dining room table in a spacious home in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. A few months earlier, in the summer of 2000, she and her husband, Russ, had moved to England from Cincinnati with their two young children for Russ' promotion with Procter & Gamble. Now, they mingled at a barbecue with the families of other expat employees and their friends. Outside, 2-year-old Alyson* tumbled after a soccer ball with the boys in the tree-shaded backyard as Russ and the other dads looked on. Upstairs, 5-year-old Russie* laughed with a group of girls as they sorted through pink dresses and layers of chiffon. Twice, Beth had gone up the big staircase. "Russie, do you want to go outside and play some football?" she'd asked. "No," he had said, looking puzzled the first time; upset the second. "I'm having fun here." Beth put on a brave face for the others around the table, but she had seen their sideways glances. As their conversation picked up again, she felt completely alone. It would have been easier, she thought, if someone had just come out and asked why her son was playing dress-up. Then she could have said what was on her mind: "Because he's having fun. Who cares?" Later, after tucking the kids into bed, Beth and Russ sat down to talk. Whatever was going on with Russie, they agreed, was persistent and real. And while they didn't totally understand it, they knew their love was unconditional. At the same time, they worried for their kind, outgoing oldest child. How would the rest of the world treat him? Challenging Years A decade later, in 2011, the family was back in Cincinnati, Ohio. Beth worked as a home-based data quality specialist for Procter & Gamble, getting up at 5:20 a.m. every weekday, to begin tackling the day's tasks before her teens - now in junior high and high school - awoke. But her husband's frequent travel as an IT manager meant Beth was also tasked with emotionally supporting her oldest child as he navigated his junior year of high school. Adolescence had become increasingly difficult for Russ. And while Beth and Russ Sr. had known for years that he wouldn't be a "typical" male by societal standards, they were unsure of where that would take him. Was he gay? Or perhaps a straight male who loved the female look? They felt reluctant and ill-equipped to define it for him. "I knew what being transgender was," Beth says in retrospect, "but it really wasn't as big of a topic of discussion as it is now." For Russ, the pressure of every school day started with what to wear. Dressing like a stereotypical guy didn't wash for someone who found joy and energy in wearing the latest styles. Over time, he developed an androgynous look: short hair, makeup, skinny jeans, and tops designed for girls. "We support you," Beth and Russ Sr. would say. "But are you sure you want to wear that pink shirt to school today? It might cause you some issues." Most often, the answer was yes. But the outcomes were excruciating. On an "easy" day, Russ would be greeted at school by a football player's taunt: "Hey, fag, you're gay." On bad days, there were interactions with school administrators who didn't seem equipped to understand or support a student who didn't fit expected gender norms. In one case, Russ spilled water on a purse and hurried into the women's restroom with a female friend to empty its contents. When they emerged, a school administrator was waiting. At home that evening, Russ broke down as he said he'd been ordered to the office and threatened with expulsion. To him, it meant that no bathroom would feel right to use at school. "I did not choose this for myself," he wept as his parents listened. "I wish there was a way that I could not be this way." At the same time, he was resolute. "I would rather be hated for who I am," he said, "than loved for who I am not." In public with Russ, Beth experienced his challenges firsthand. When the two shopped their favorite mall together, adults would stop, jaws dropped, as they stared at his Ugg boots and makeup over a shadow of facial hair. "Excuse me," Beth would say, looking them in the eye. "Do you need something?" By then, she had let go of any expectations she'd had for Russ's high school years. That had been the easy part. Now, as Russ missed day after day of school, she became concerned that he wouldn't graduate. She made frequent trips to the school to talk with administrators and to gather missed assignments. Her concerns intensified as Russ fell into depression. Normally social and funny, he spent hours in his room alone, rebuffing her suggestions of counseling. I would rather be hated for who I am," he said, "than loved for who I am not." The Truth Comes Out Meanwhile, low-key Aly seemed to be thriving as a junior high tomboy who loved sports, baggy jeans, and T-shirts. She had good friends and earned good grades. But for years, she had been quietly struggling, desperate to spare her parents any additional worries as they worked to support her brother. It was Russ who finally got her to talk about it. "I heard you like girls," he said one evening when their parents were out with friends. "Is that true?" "Well, it's deeper than that," Aly replied. Quiet and studious, she had been researching gender identity online. Now, just a few weeks shy of her 15th birthday, she sat down with Russ to describe some things she had learned, including the term other teens were using on YouTube for feelings that sounded a lot like hers: transgender - experiencing psychological gender differently from the gender observed at birth. "You need to tell Moot," Russ said, using a nickname he'd coined - a twist on the German word for "Mother." When Beth and Russ Sr. arrived home, they could see the kids upstairs, talking in Russ' room. "Moot," Russ called down. "We've gotta talk." When Beth walked in, the kids were sitting side by side on the bed, laptop computers on their laps. But her mother's instinct kicked in when she saw their faces. "They both looked happy, but nervous," she recalls. Russ spoke first. "Moot," he said, looking at his sister, "Aly has something to say." "It's going to be really hard," Aly said. She paused. "I've had a lot of stuff going on in my head and haven't wanted to tell you, because I knew you were dealing with a lot with Russ. But since we're so close, and you can always tell when something's bothering me, I know I have to tell you now. Moot, I've figured out what's going on with me. I know that I'm transgender. "I've always wanted to be a boy," Aly continued. "I never told you this, but when I was little, I would go to sleep and wish that I'd wake up a boy. Every time we did the wishbone at Thanksgiving and I won, I would wish that I was a boy." Beth was floored. But above all, she wanted to express her unconditional love. "I'll support you no matter what," she said, hugging Aly tightly. As the conversation continued, she learned that Aly wanted to begin transitioning after high school, including surgery to remove her breasts. It was a lot for Beth to absorb, and she knew that even the natural hormones of the teen years could make decision-making difficult. "Why don't you really think about it?" she said. "I want to make sure you know what you are going to go through, because you're really young." As she left the room, Beth heard Russ reassuring his younger sister. "I'm here if you ever want to talk," he said. "You can hang out in my room if you want." Beth went downstairs and poured a big glass of wine for herself and one for Russ Sr. When she got to their room, she closed the door. "Oh my God, I can't believe the conversation I just had with the kids," she said. The two talked into the night. "Are you sure it's not Russ' influence on Aly that's driving this?" he asked at one point. It was hard to be sure. They agreed that waiting, watching, and never wavering in their love would provide their answer. That night, Beth and Russ Sr. had tossed and turned while their youngest slept soundly. "All this weight had been lifted off my shoulders," Aly, now known as Gavin, says, "because I was finally being honest with myself and with Moot." A Difficult Path A month later, Russ came out as transgender, too. "I had just finished work," Beth recalls, "and Russ said to me, 'I have something to tell you, Moot.' So we went outside to our screened-in porch and sat at the table out there." As he struggled for words to describe the anxiety and isolation he'd felt for so many years, Russ began to cry. Beth looked him in the eye. "No matter what you tell me, I'll still love you," she assured him. After their talk that day, he'd agreed to see a counselor, who in turn told him about a new teen center at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Transgender Program. Through doctors and staff there, the McGarritys were able to put their story into context. Though little research exists on transgender Americans, current estimates suggest that 0.3% of the population, or one adult in about every 333, is transgender . The McGarritys learned, for example, that clusters of transgender individuals within families aren't uncommon. They discovered that their kids were not alone in their deep distress over the persistent discomfort they were experiencing in daily life. "Theirs is an issue of gender identity, not sexual orientation," Richard Ryan, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, points out. "It's a way of living, so it's there all the time." In fact, for many transgender Americans, that can lead to tragedy: In a survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equity, 41% of transgender and gender non-conforming adult respondents reported having attempted suicide . The study suggested that negative experiences of anti-transgender bias might be a major factor. Among transgender students who reported having also been harassed or bullied at school (like Russ), the percentage jumped to 50 to 54%. (By comparison, just 4.6% of the overall U.S. population have reported a suicide attempt.) Fortunately, Russ and Aly both had a solid support system at home. The family was also reassured to discover that gender variance isn't learned, isn't chosen, and isn't determined by parenting. "There's no evidence that parenting style or a history of abuse or anything along those lines causes this," Dr. Lee Ann Conrad recalls telling them. "This is not a choice," Sarah Painer, a social worker who works closely with program participants, added. "Nobody would choose a higher risk of murder and a higher risk of suicide." Fears and Hope Beth blinked back tears as she drove one day. For eight months since Aly's revelation, she had kept up a brave front. But inside, she ached over the pain she anticipated for her kids. As transgender children transition to adulthood, they face disproportionate levels of discrimination in employment, housing, and health care. Even more alarming are levels of sexual violence and violent hate crimes experienced by transgender people. As Russ and Aly began to discuss options, including hormone therapy and surgeries, Beth also worried about the judgment a family with two transgender children might draw. She had learned years earlier to focus on friends who could support them, but it hurt when the parents of one of Aly's longtime friends forbade their daughter from hanging out with Aly, citing religious reasons. Beth didn't consider herself a religious person, but during those months, she prayed a lot. "OK, I need some help going through this," she would say as she drove, usually after dropping off Aly at her friend Olivia's house. "I'm really kind of lost right now, and I'm not sure I can handle being the supportive parent I need to be here." It was a song by the hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis that finally nudged her to find the strength she would need for the task ahead. She had heard the popular "Same Love" release on the radio countless times over those difficult months. But that afternoon, the refrain - "I can't change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to" - sparked an insight. "God has chosen me to be the parent of these two kids, she thought. What am I struggling for? It's an honor. I need to step up and get them where they need to be." Moving Forward Beth smiled as she walked alongside her family in the Cincinnati Pride Parade on a mild Saturday in June 2015. Like the dozens of P&G employees around them, she wore a blue T-shirt emblazoned with "Love Has No Labels." So much had changed since Russ and Aly had begun their transitions to Rai and Gavin, affectionately known as G. To Beth's relief, G had not been bullied. Preparing for his sophomore year of high school, the 17-year-old was already planning for college and a career in psychology so he could help smooth the path for other transgender children. Rai, too, had begun talking about college. Beside her, 20-year-old Rai held her head high as she videotaped the experience for 60,000 YouTube channel subscribers. Vlogging as Raiden Quinn, she had logged more than 6.5 million views with her edgy humor and genuine commentary on life as a transgender woman. (Part of that process was undergoing a painful facial feminization surgery.) Rai's boyfriend, Joey, waved a rainbow flag as he walked alongside her. "Can we do this every day?" he joked. Just ahead of them, Russ, Sr., walked beside G and his friend Olivia. Cheers rose into the summer sky. Both Rai and G express their gratitude for parents who loved them unconditionally. "Even in the years when Moot didn't know what was going on, before I came out," G says, "I knew that all she cared about, at the end of the day, was me and Rai being happy." Had Beth known what she knows now, she would have sought hormone therapy for her children sooner. "Having them transition before puberty would have prevented G from having to go through the top [chest] surgery he's going to have to do next summer," she says, "and Rai wouldn't have had to do the facial feminization and the breast augmentation surgery that she will be doing soon." "People ask me what I've lost," Beth continues, "but I don't feel that I've lost anything. I have my son and daughter the way they should be." Russ chuckles as he recalls the years when he and Beth were starting their family and hoping for a boy and a girl. "As it so happened," he says, "we did have one of each - just in a different order than we originally thought." "It's like Christmas every morning now," Beth adds. "I can see the happiness on Rai and G's faces." People ask me what I've lost, but I don't feel that I've lost anything. I have my son and daughter the way they should be." Like many mothers, she feels a mix of pride and relief - multiplied by about a thousand - over her children's transition into the adults she had always known they could be. "I feel like my kids are at a place now where I can sit back and take a deep breath," she says. "They're happy. And every minute we spend with them, I feel, is a gift. "You can't ask for any more than that." *With the family's permission, the name and gender which they used at the time was used in the article for clarity. If you or someone you love has questions about gender identity, ask with your health care provider for information or the name of a professional who will be able to help. You can also learn more through the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network or the Family Acceptance Project . | 4 | 96,750 | lifestyle |
No dieting, no trainer, no major sacrifices her d&e plan is something everyone can do. When looking to lose weight, there are endless carb-reducing diets , workout classes , trainers, and expert-approved fitness books out there that can help you reach your goals. But mom-of-two Joanna Boyles is living proof that you don't really need any of it. In fact, she was able to drop 45 pounds and score an amazing six pack sans a gym membership or expensive spinning classes. "I read a fitness article one time that made it sound like if you want to get results you have to have a top-of-the-line certified trainer and pay a little extra for the better gym," she told Redbook. "I read that and thought, 'that's just dumb. watch me do it all by myself'...Now, I'm right where I want to be," she says. The struggle with Joanna's weight really began when she put on 25 pounds after embracing a not-so-healthy college lifestyle: a.k.a. eating too many carbs via instant mac and cheese, skipping the gym for study sessions, and hitting up happy hour a few times a week with her friends. After graduating, she continued to gain weight. Before she knew it, Joanna got married, pregnant, and put on another 25-30 pounds from yo-yo dieting and indulging in pasta, burgers, Hot Pockets, chocolate, and pizza every week. As a result, Joanna says she felt more sluggish and got sick with colds more often than ever before. Though she shed 20 pounds by the start of 2012 by going on 30-minute runs after her second pregnancy, she still wasn't happy with her results. "I always liked the really lean physique look and running and cardio didn't give me that," she says. It wasn't until 2013 that she picked up a fitness magazine and got truly inspired by the transformation articles. "The stories were so cool and amazing. Afterwards, I went to bodybuilding.com and read even more," she says. "So many women overcame such crazy obstacles that I found it so motivating and helpful. I thought, if they could do it with all the challenges, what was stopping me? " Through further Internet research, Joanna learned the importance of eating a diet high in complex carbs and protein to get the arms, abs, and legs she wanted. So, for breakfast she started eating scrambled egg whites with a pinch of cheese, two pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana slices on top; a salad with tuna, onions, carrots, and avocado for lunch; salmon, broccoli and quinoa for dinner; and protein bars in between. For exercise, Joanna knew she couldn't afford a gym or personal trainer, even though she had read online about incorporating both weight-training and cardio into your routine for a lean body. So, Joanna tracked down yard sales to pick up some dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands, and then copied a few simple movements she found online. That, combined with 30-minute runs a few times a week, really made a difference. "I would do dumbbell flies in my living room, some simple squats, and step ups using the couch," she explains. "I just used what I had available to me." But before she could really enjoy all her hard work paying off, Joanna says she had to overcome the biggest hurdle: herself. There were times where I was like, 'why am I even doing this?' but deep down I knew I wanted to feel that energy again that I had in high school. I knew I was getting sick way more than I should have and that wasn't who I am. "There were times where I was like, why am I even doing this ? But deep down I knew I wanted to feel that energy again that I had in high school. I knew I was getting sick way more than I should have and that wasn't who I am. I thought, I'm a motivated, driven person and I want my kids to be that way too. I have to be a good example. I was really dissatisfied and wanted my kids to have a good role model to look up to, which kept me going." With the fitness stories and her five-year-old son, Tucker, and four-year-old daughter, Peyton, in mind, Joanna eventually got the hang of eating right and saying 'no' to her vices. Her weight fluctuated from year-to-year, but since she started changing her diet and exercising at home nearly three years ago, Joanna has lost around 45 pounds. Now, she leads her own fitness class with a few friends at her local church, where she teaches other women how to do fat-burning interval training and exercise on a low budget. She also tries to squeeze in a workout here and there while her kids are off at preschool and kindergarten for valuable "me" time. Joanna's number one piece of advice? If food is now your mortal enemy, don't automatically jump to calorie-counting or a fad diet: Instead, take it one veggie at a time and your palette, she says, will eventually adjust. As for cookies, chocolate, and pasta, she believes these are okay to have, so long as you focus on eating veggies, lean protein, and complex carbs 80 percent of the time. "It had to be a change of mindset for me. You have to think, 'will eating this really make me feel better? Is it worth it?' If so, then go for it, but it's learning to be honest with yourself that is the key." | 7 | 96,751 | health |
U.S. Secretary of State Kerry says the only solution to the refugee crisis is ending the war in Syria, which he says will be difficult while Bashar al-Assad remains in power. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). | 8 | 96,752 | video |
The Men's World Team Squash Championship in Cairo from December 12-18 has been called off for security reasons, the sports' international federation confirmed on Friday. Egyptian Squash Federation president Assem Khalifa requested the postponement because "some teams did not wish to attend the championship". "We request this postponement with a heavy heart as Cairo is a safe city," said Khalifa. England, France, Germany, the United States and Canada took the decision earlier this week not to attend the tournament. On Friday, assailants attacked a Cairo nightclub with petrol bombs, killing at least 16 people in the ensuing blaze. While there was no indication of any jihadist link, the arson comes with Egyptian security forces on heightened alert following a series of attacks including in Cairo. | 1 | 96,753 | sports |
Talk about a quick turn of events. Watch as a high school team in Tennessee pulls off an awesome and unlikely game-winning buzzer-beater | 1 | 96,754 | sports |
Thirty-somethings would love to receive a gift that's practical, pretty, and useful in some way. We rounded up the best gifts for your friends in their 30s. 30 Affordable Gifts For Women in Their 30s Your 20s are over, but that doesn't mean that life is! Thirty-somethings would love to receive a gift that's practical, pretty, and useful in some way. We rounded up the best gifts for your friends in their 30s. Coasters Give this celestial coaster set ($40) to spruce up any home. Floral iPhone Case Fancify phones with a Rifle Paper Co. iPhone case ($36). Bath Salts There's really nothing as indulgent as a hot bath. This set of Chakra bath salts ($22) features seven colorful varieties of shea butter aromas. Magnetic Photo Holder This magnetic cable photo holder ($10) is a great way to add a cute accent to any wall. Wine Stoppers Chic wine stoppers ($24-$49) fit snugly into bottles and help preserve wine after opening. Sparkly Earrings These Kate Spade glitter stud earrings ($32) add sparkle to any ensemble. Trinket Dish This monogrammed trinket dish ($22) is the perfect place to stash all kinds of jewelry. Salts of the World This set of six test tubes filled with salt ($40) is perfect for the adventurous foodie. The salt comes from all over the world, including a black, flaky salt from the islands of Cyprus and pink salts from Pakistan and Australia. Iridescent Jar Candle You can never go wrong with a cute iridescent jar candle ($28) gift. Cocktails Recipe Book The hostess with the mostest will appreciate this cocktail book ($23) that's full of delicious handcrafted drink and cocktail recipes. Cord Organizer Your organized friends will love this rose-colored cord organizer ($28) that has a zipper pocket and four spots to keep cords untangled. Calming Lavender Heat Pillow De-stress with a lavender heat pillow ($35). Agate Bookends This simple bookend ($24-$44) is perfect for the bookworm who is into modern decor. Colorful Measuring Spoons These colorful measuring spoons ($16) will bring cheer to any kitchen. 2017 Planner Every organized person can use a yearly planner, and this gold-striped 12-month planner ($40) is especially adorable. Elephant Tea Mug This elephant tea mug ($16) has a special compartment to put your tea bag once you've finished brewing! Cheese Knives These stainless steel cheese knives ($15) will be a great gift for anyone who loves cheese (and really, who doesn't?). Paperweight A wine-lover's paperweight ($32) will make your friend smile (and take a sip). Mason Jars Get your friend who loves to host parties a set of four custom-engraved mason jar drinking glasses ($30). Colorful Scarf Stay warm and cozy with a colorful scarf ($45). Hidden Animal Mug These hidden animal mugs ($25) are adorable down to the last drop. Hydrating Body Oil Herbivore Botanicals Citrine Body Oil ($26-$44) will leave skin feeling rejuvenated. Wine Soaps Great soaps should be in every woman's arsenal. These all-natural wine soaps ($28, set of 4) will soothe skin - and they are beautiful to look at, too! Herbal Slippers Anyone would love to treat their feet to these aromatherapy slippers ($30), which are infused with healing herbs. Beautyblender This might just become her favorite makeup tool. Beautyblender ($40) will give you a "flawless makeup finish." Hanging Planters These hanging planters ($24) aren't just cute; they're practical, too. Since the planters are hung from the ceiling, they save space in your home. Happiness Journal This 52 Lists For Happiness Journal ($17) is a great way to start off the year on a happy note. Reusable Water Bottle Give a Swell reusable water bottle ($35), a stainless steel bottle that's great for keeping drinks cool or hot for hours. Moccasin Slippers Walk around the house in style with comfy moccasin slippers ($45). Handmade Lotions These handmade lotions ($28 for set of 4) will keep her hands moisturized throughout the day. | 4 | 96,755 | lifestyle |
BUFFALO, N.Y. A 116-year-old snow record has fallen in Buffalo. This time, it's for lack of snow. The city had yet to see its first measurable snowfall by Friday, breaking the record for latest first snow set on Dec. 3, 1899. The wait will continue, National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Mitchell said. There's no snow in the forecast until at least mid-December. "This record is going to most likely be shattered," Mitchell said. The start of the winter season couldn't be more different from last year, when some areas of Buffalo and its suburbs saw an unheard of 7 feet of snow in November during what's now called the "Snowvember" storm. "I'm out of the house!" Robert Ross said Friday while contemplating the difference between last year and now. As he walked his dog, Ralph, along dry pavement in Cazenovia Park, he said he wouldn't miss the snow if it continued to hold off, except maybe on Christmas Eve. "And two days later that would be the end of it. That would be perfect," Ross said. That's not expected to happen. Although the El Nino weather pattern, when the waters of the Pacific Ocean get warmer than usual, has been keeping the eastern part of the country mild, it is forecast to weaken later in the season. "We will get our cold shot," Mitchell said. During an average season, Buffalo gets its first measurable snow, considered a tenth of an inch or more, on Nov. 8 and sees about 93 inches through the winter. Friday was a relatively chilly 40 degrees heading into a weekend that promised highs in the 50s. But with just grass and fallen leaves under foot as they fished at Tifft Nature Preserve, 13-year-old Tyler Waterman and his father, Ken, were thrilled with the conditions. An abundance of snow days last year shortened Tyler's summer vacation. "I'm loving it. I hope it stays this way," Ken Waterman said. "Last winter was so brutal. My heat bill is next to nothing so far this year. Getting around is easy, there's no accidents to speak of." At the Streets Department garage, a dozen snowplows sat idle next to an untouched mountain of road salt. And at the Canalside ice rink, the only snowflakes were in the form of sparkling holiday decorations. But "it's still early," said Ken Osika, who stopped by to skate. "I'm sure it'll come." | 5 | 96,756 | news |
Florida Panthers veteran forward Jaromir Jagr appears a bit fixated on his age of late. After saying he was "too old" to compete in the new 3-on-3 format for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, the 43-year-old went to the well once again after he was denied on a point-blank opportunity in Florida's 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday . Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau skated in on a 2-on-1 rush with Jagr before the latter attempted to swat a loose puck into the open net. Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne used his paddle to thwart the backhanded bid by Jagr, who took to Twitter to take a jab at himself for failing to score his ninth goal of the season and 731st career. fans-this is another reason why you shouldn't vote for me for All-Star game.Old and no good :))) thanks God we won https://t.co/7d2bFG7i1J Jaromir Jagr (@68Jagr) December 4, 2015 Old and no good? Perhaps many would beg to differ. | 1 | 96,757 | sports |
The number of new diabetes cases in adults has steadily decreased for the first time in decades, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week . Cases dropped from 1.7 million in 2009 to 1.4 million in 2014. Despite these strides, experts say the nation's diabetes rates still pose a substantial public health threat. What's more, the data may not reveal the full picture for some high-risk groups including black and Hispanic communities, according to the lead researcher for the finding. "This has been really encouraging, but we do need to recognize that those rates are still 60 percent higher than what they were in the '80s," Dr. Edward Gregg, chief of the epidemiology and statistics branch at the CDC, told The Huffington Post. "Even though we're seeing a reduction, we had such a large increase that we're still at such a high level." According to the CDC, the number of new cases has more than tripled since 1980. In 1991, for example, there were only 573,000 adult diabetes cases. Gregg believes decrease in new cases for adults could be a result of people getting more exercise and eating healthier, along with a general increase of awareness of the diabetes epidemic. Physical activity has increased over the past six years, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "In parallel with these decreases we've seen in the last six years, it appears that obesity levels plateaued and peaked," Gregg said. "Physical inactivity are declining, people are getting more active. That's what we think is happening." The decrease in new cases appeared to most significantly reflect reductions for young, white adult males, Gregg explained. But due to a smaller sample size of high risk communities, researchers can't confidently say the decrease -- while evident -- is similarly statistically significant for older adults and black and hispanic communities, he added. "Part of that is a function of the amount of data that is available," he said. "We don't have enough cases to actually be as confident." That's significant, because some 13.2 percent of blacks and 12.8 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. have been diagnosed with diabetes -- nearly double the 7.6 percent rate for whites, according to the 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report. Asian groups saw a 9 percent rate of diabetes and Native Americans saw a rate of 15.9 percent. Overall, about 29.1 million Americans, both adults and children, have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. The prevalence of obesity -- a driver of Type 2 diabetes -- was cited as 34.9 percent or 78.6 million of adults in the U.S, according to the CDC. Gregg said that while there's been improvement, more education, awareness and healthy food options in communities of high poverty can help fight the diabetes epidemic. | 7 | 96,758 | health |
It's official: The Buick Envision crossover is coming to American dealerships. Already revealed in China, the stylish five-passenger crossover will launch in the U.S. in 2016. Though Buick says the Envision was engineered and developed in the U.S., even models sold here will be produced in Yantai, China. That will make the Envision only the second Chinese-built car to be sold in the U.S., alongside the Volvo S60 Inscription. The design of the 2016 Buick Envision doesn't deviate too far from the Chinese model, with the expected modern Buick design cues like a waterfall front grille, swept-back headlights, large chrome 19-inch wheels, and LED running lights. Much smaller than the three-row Enclave, the 2016 Buick Envision has a somewhat sporty shape, with flared front fenders, a shoulder line that runs through the car's door handles, and a roof spoiler above the sloped rear window. At 183.7 inches long on a 107.9-inch wheelbase, the Envision fits perfectly between the small Encore crossover (168.4 inches long) and the three-row Enclave (201.9). With high-strength steels and an aluminum hood, the Envision tips the scales at 4,047 lb. Mechanically, the 2016 Buick Envision employs a 2.0-liter turbo-four engine good for 252 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque, with a six-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. Active front grille shutters help reduce aerodynamic drag for better fuel economy. The front suspension uses the anti-torque-steer HiPer Strut design found on cars like the Buick Regal GS, and the AWD system is the same twin-clutch design as offered in the 2017 Buick LaCro sse and 2017 Cadillac XT5 . The inside of the 2016 Buick Envision is typical Buick fare, with grained plastic trim pieces, wood inserts, a fully-digital instrument cluster behind a three-spoke steering wheel, and a large touchscreen infotainment system atop the center stack. The second row of seats slides fore and aft, and folds with a 60/40 split to increase trunk space. Cargo room measures 26.9 cubic feet with the seats up and 57.3 with them folded. As befits a car that Buick intends to take on luxury models like the Acura RDX , Audi Q5 , and Lincoln MKC , the Envision comes standard with plentiful high-end equipment: Active noise cancellation, lane-keep assist, remote start, power front seats, heated front and rear seats, cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, and a Bose sound system. Options include 4G LTE wireless connectivity, a 360-degree camera system, self-park, and a panoramic sunroof. Crossover models -- the Encore and Enclave -- already account for more than half of all U.S. Buick sales, and adding a midsize model should allow Buick to lure in shoppers who find the Encore too cramped and the Enclave too large. Expect more specifics on the 2016 Buick Envision, including pricing and fuel economy figures, early next year. Source: Buick | 9 | 96,759 | autos |
Take some laps on the Milestone SX with Wil Hahn, Justin Bogle and Cole Seely. | 1 | 96,760 | sports |
Picking the right bottle at the store is a daunting task. What's the difference between older and newer wines? If you like a wine from one region, will others from the same region taste the same? Why is everything in French? Turns out, you can learn a lot about a wine from its label. Let Cedric Nicaise, Wine Director at Eleven Madison Park, explain. | 8 | 96,761 | video |
Robert Loggia mostly played tough guys over his six-decade film career, with one big exception. | 8 | 96,762 | video |
Back in June, the FDA announced a long-awaited ban on trans fats those controversial lab-made fats that are shown to decrease "good" HDL cholesterol, increase "bad" LDL cholesterol, and up your risk for heart disease and diabetes. Now, food companies have until June 2018 to boot trans fats from their products. But the ingredient they're using to replace trans fats might be just as harmful. Meet interesterified fat (IF), an industrially produced ingredient that will likely show up in more and more products now that the FDA's trans-fat deadline is looming. It's made by combining stearic acid (a naturally occurring saturated fat that's found in chocolate, among other foods) with vegetable oils, like palm oil or soybean oil . This process rearranges the fat's molecular structure, making it more shelf-stable (and thus perfect for processed foods). The problem? There's very little research on the heath effects of IF, and the research that is out there is not super encouraging. In one 2007 study that included 30 human volunteers, IF was shown to raise "bad" cholesterol, lower "good" cholesterol, and even raise fasting blood sugar by 20%. And a more recent trial in rodents found that when mothers eat a diet that replaces trans fat with IF, their male offspring are predisposed to obesity. (Check out these myths about fat .) But wait, there's more: Because manufacturers aren't required to mention interesterification in the ingredients list (just like you won't find the words "trans fat" in an ingredients list now; you have to know to look for "partially hydrogenated"), it's hard to know whether or not a food even contains IF in the first place. Thanks a lot, food industry. Thanks. A. Lot. Luckily, there are ways to avoid IF, says Alexandra Caspero, RD, a Missouri-based nutritionist and author of the blog Delish Knowledge . First, she says, it's a good idea to cut back on processed foods. (Read more about their dangers here .) Then, keep an eye out for ingredients like palm oil, palm kernel oil, and fully hydrogenated oils: These usually (but not always) indicate that fats in the product have been interesterified. "Definitive research is definitely needed, but my gut is to avoid or limit these fats until more is known," Caspero says. And other nutrition authorities agree: We really don't have enough data on these fats to make a ruling on them just yet. For now, it's probably better to stay on the safe side. | 7 | 96,763 | health |
Researchers at the University of Bath have invented a bandage that changes color when it detects infections. Do they come in blue? | 7 | 96,764 | health |
A change in the weather pattern across India later in the new week will bring a much-needed dry spell to flood-weary Chennai and the potential for rain across central and northern India. A shifting area of high pressure will finally allow drier air to push into southern India later in the new week, ending the dry days with poor air quality in northern and central India. The high will suppress the tropical moisture out of Chennai, putting a lid on shower and thunderstorm activity, giving flood waters a chance to recede and the ground to dry out. "After that, the heavy rain threat should be over for this winter around Chennai," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said. However, not all of southern India will dry out. The moisture from the Bay of Bengal will still stream over far-southern India, allowing the stormy weather to persist. The shifting high will also open the door for moisture from the Arabian Sea to get pulled northward ahead from a pair of storm systems arriving from the Middle East. That should allow showers to spread into Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. While the rainfall will be welcome with central India now in the dry season, AccuWeather meteorologists will be monitoring the potential for any flooding downpours to be produced. This includes around Mumbai. Rain and mountain snow is also expected to develop in far-northern India and may spread down to New Delhi. 'Worst Rain in 100 Years' Batters Chennai, India Even if little rain falls around New Delhi, the storm system should sweep away the current haze and smog and improve air quality. On average, New Delhi experiences one day of measurable rain in December. For Mumbai, rainfall in December is not typical. Since the turn of the century, there have only been three Decembers when Mumbai has recorded rainfall. | 5 | 96,765 | news |
OPEC abandoned all pretense this week of acting as a cartel. It's now every member for itself. At a chaotic meeting Friday in Vienna that was expected to last four hours but expanded to nearly seven, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries tossed aside the idea of limiting production to control prices. Instead, it went all in for the one-year-old Saudi Arabia-led policy of pumping, pumping, pumping until rivals -- external, such as Russia and U.S. shale drillers, as well as internal -- are squeezed out of market share. "Lots of people said that OPEC was dead; OPEC itself just confirmed it," Jamie Webster, a Washington-based oil analyst for IHS Inc., said in Vienna. OPEC has set a production target almost without interruption since 1982, though member countries often ignored it and pumped well above it. The ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, in place since 2011 and now abandoned as too rigid, is no exception. OPEC output has outstripped it for 18 consecutive months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Now the organization says it will keep pumping as much as it does now -- about 31.5 million barrels a day -- effectively endorsing limitless output. The oversupply has sent the price of Brent, a global oil benchmark, to a six-year low, triggering the worst slump in the energy sector since the 2008 world financial crisis. It's cut the profits of major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc in half while crude-rich countries such as Mexico and Russia have watched their currencies plunge and their coffers shrink. On Friday, there was no talk of even setting a production target that member countries could then disregard. 'It's Ceilingless' "Effectively, it's ceilingless," said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. "Everyone does whatever they want." Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the Nigerian minister, reinforced the message, saying the market shouldn't worry about the "semantics" of targets or real production. "We aren't going to go back to a cartel and work against the customers -- that time has passed," said United Arab Emirates Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei. Most of the market "doesn't have any ceiling," Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told reporters. "Americans don't have any ceiling. Russians don't have any ceiling. Why should OPEC have a ceiling?" The prospect of OPEC, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of the world's oil production, taking U.S. TV personality Sarah Palin's advice to "drill, baby, drill" sent crude prices further downward. The U.S. benchmark dropped 5.7 percent between 8:14 a.m. and 9:06 a.m. New York time on Friday, hovering around $40 a barrel the rest of the session. On June 30, 2014, the price was $105.37 a barrel. The oversupply is likely to continue in the new year. Iran, for years under sanctions related to its nuclear program, has promised to lift its production to as much as 4 million barrels a day by the end of 2016, up from about 3.3 million barrels a day currently. Acrimonious End The meeting on Friday at times looked as if it might be headed to an acrimonious end, similar to a gathering in June 2011 when OPEC was unable to agree on policy and ministers openly attacked each other. At the time, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he personally had had one of his "worst-ever" meetings. No official would go that far to describe this conference, yet when ministers and delegates left the OPEC building, near the iconic Vienna State Opera house, they were speechless and grim. Within an hour, some of the them, including representatives of Saudi Arabia and Iran, were heading to the airport. Al-Naimi said he was traveling to Paris to take part in climate-change talks. Delegates from Venezuela, which pushed hard to cut the old ceiling by about five percent, would only say OPEC "didn't decide anything," a sign of the deep frustration with the new policies in the cash-strapped South American country. Officials nonetheless did their best to conceal any division. Asked what arguments, if any, went on inside the small meeting room where OPEC ministers seclude themselves without the presence of aides, Iran's Zanganeh simply said, "There were discussions." That was most likely polite understatement, as Iran's rival, Saudi Arabia, carried the day. This time around, OPEC didn't look like the group that American diplomat Henry Kissinger once described as able to blackmail national economies and whole industries. Instead, it looked like they might have spent the last few days bullying each other. --With assistance from Angelina Rascouet, Golnar Motevalli, Laura Hurst, Wael Mahdi and Julian Lee. To contact the reporters on this story: Javier Blas in London at [email protected]; Grant Smith in London at [email protected]; Nayla Razzouk in Dubai at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [email protected] Bob Ivry, Stuart Wallace --- Watch: OPEC paralyzed, utterly powerless: Pro | 3 | 96,766 | finance |
Meccano Meccanoid G15 KS: A DIY Robot You Can Talk To Robots are pretty cute. Just like babies. Jonathon Kambouris Babies learn by touching things, testing them out, playing around, and watching what adults do. But robots learn only when developers write some lines of code, or when someone manually models a desired movement on the robot. So computer scientists at the University of Washington paired up with the university's developmental psychologists to make teaching baby bots a little more like teaching baby humans. The team published their approach in PLOS One this past month. "They are the best learners on the planet why not design robots that learn as effortlessly as a child?" The team of researchers built computer algorithms based on infant research studies and then put them to the test with robots. There are two prongs to testing this idea: a gaze-based experiment done with a computer simulation, and an experiment that has an actual robot imitate a human. In the gaze scenario, a simulated robot is taught the mechanics of how its head moves, and watches a human move its head. The robot then uses its new knowledge to move its head too, so it's looking in the same direction as the human. In another test, the robot is taught about blindfolds, and how they make it impossible to see. With that newfound knowledge, the robot decides to not look in the direction where a blindfolded human is "gazing." In the imitation experiment, the robot would watch a human pick something up from a table, and understanding what the goal was, would either mimic the human exactly, or find an easier way to pick up the object. These two different experiments are basic, but the team plans to find a way to teach robots about more complicated tasks as well. "Babies learn through their own play and by watching others," says Andrew Meltzoff, psychology professor and collaborator on this research, in the press release . "They are the best learners on the planet why not design robots that learn as effortlessly as a child?" Well, the dystopian pessimists out there might have a few reasons, but until then, baby robots sounds pretty darn cute. | 5 | 96,767 | news |
A new immersive theater experience takes fans of "The Walking Dead" inside the show. Alicia Powell reports. | 8 | 96,768 | video |
Virginia has hired Brigham Young's Bronco Mendenhall as its new football coach, the school announced Friday . Mendenhall, 49, who replaces Mike London, was 99-42 in his 11 seasons as head coach at BYU to rank 12th in total wins among all FBS teams during that time. He was 6-4 in bowl games with the Cougars. "Bronco Mendenhall's teams have consistently won at a high level and he's demonstrated the ability to create a strategic vision to build a program and then implement his plan to be successful," Cavaliers athletics director Craig Littlepage said in a statement. "His emphasis on the overall development of student athletes and a commitment to academic achievement is in line with our goals of Uncompromised Excellence. We're excited to begin a new era of Virginia football and support Bronco and his staff." The Cavaliers finished 4-8 (3-5 in the ACC) this season and were 27-46 during London's six years at the helm. "Professionally and personally I seek to embrace the highest standards in college sports, on and off the field, and I love the high standards both academically and athletically at Virginia," Mendenhall said in a statement." I am excited to not only help provide the continual growth and development of the student athletes academically but also reestablish Virginia as a consistent winner with a fiercely competitive and winning product on the football field. "BYU has played the pivotal role in my professional and personal life and I will be forever indebted to the outstanding young men and exceptional people I have had the opportunity to work with at BYU. My success at BYU was possible because these great people chose the phenomenal, unique and faith-based experience available at BYU." | 1 | 96,769 | sports |
A spurned lover critically wounded his former flame and killed her new beau before fatally shooting himself Thursday in Brooklyn all with the estranged couple's children just feet away, police said. After the last ear-shattering shot echoed through the East Flatbush block, killer Jerry Paterson, 39, and his ex's new boyfriend, Joseph Kennely, 44, were both suffering bullet wounds to the head, cop sources said. The ex-girlfriend suffered a graze wound to her neck. The former couple had agreed to meet at E. 91 St. and Clarkson Ave. to hand off their two young children a 5-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son around 5 p.m., police said. But the exchange turned ugly when Paterson flew into a rage after spotting the 33-year-old mother of his children in a nearby car with her new love and began pumping bullets through their windshield, cops said. "I just heard about seven gunshots," said 19-year-old witness Michaela Bascombe. "I heard people yelling outside. They were just screaming. I didn't know who was screaming." Stepping away from the black bullet-riddled vehicle, the crazed gunman walked toward his own car, with the two terrified kids inside. He turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger. Emergency responders rushed all three of the wounded from the scene of the carnage, but neither of the men could be saved. They both died at Brookdale University Hospital. The woman was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital, cops said. The children were not physically harmed. Friends of the victims said the breakup was old news, but the "jealous" Paterson couldn't take the rejection. "They had broke up a long time, but he just couldn't move on," said Judith Bristol, who spoke through tears as she bought a candle to place at the scene of the crime. "So he decided to end their lives. She can't have him, nobody else could have her." Kennely went by the nickname "Rhyno" and had two teenage kids, family said. He would "give his heart up for anybody," shocked friend Aron McCloud said shortly after the attack. Police were investigating the killing early Friday. | 5 | 96,770 | news |
TUCSON, Ariz. A jury convicted an Arizona couple Friday of kidnapping and child abuse charges for imprisoning their three daughters, monitoring them through video feeds and forcing them to urinate and defecate in their closets. The jury found Fernando and Sophia Richter guilty on three counts each of kidnapping and child abuse. Fernando Richter was also convicted of two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The jury is now deliberating the addition of aggravating circumstances to all of the charges, which could increase the length of sentences. Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang has not yet set a sentencing date. The girls testified to having been physically abused, taken out of school and held captive for several months before the two younger girls escaped through a window in November 2013. Police rescued the oldest girl, who was held in a different room. They were 12, 13 and 17 at the time. The Associated Press does not generally name minors who authorities say are victims of crimes. All three testified in the trial that began over two weeks ago. They described months of abuse and bizarre rules imposed by their parents. The girls were forced to wake up at 2 a.m. every day to march in place, sometimes for so long that their legs ached, they said. They said they were fed rancid food and forced to overeat or face punishment. The youngest said Fernando Richter made her recite the dictionary at all hours and beat her if she mispronounced words. She described being moved around from bedroom to hallway to closet before her parents let her live in a room with her older sister. The oldest said she was not allowed to leave her bed, had to listen to a loud radio at all hours and hadn't seen her sisters in months when she was rescued. Authorities say the abuse began in a house in Catalina in nearby Pinal County, where the Richters face separate criminal charges. They pleaded not guilty in both cases. The defense said prosecutors didn't have enough evidence and that the girls were free to roam about the house. Sophia Richter testified in court on Tuesday that the girls were free to leave their rooms and were fed properly. She denied all of the accusations against her, including that she force fed the girls a rancid pasta-type meal. She wept in court after the verdicts were read. Her husband did not show emotion. "They had fruit daily, they had snacks daily. They were never without. I always had fruit for them," she said. Attorneys for the Richters were under an order to not speak about the case. The Richters moved to a Tucson house about four months before the girls escaped. Police officers who testified described a house that smelled so bad of urine and feces they had to open all the windows to conduct their investigation. The girls said they were rarely allowed bathroom breaks, forcing them to urinate and defecate in their bedroom closets. The oldest sister described the plastic water jugs they were given as moldy and the meals they were fed twice a day as rancid. "It was nasty. Gagging nasty," she testified. "We would have to lick our plates if we wanted them clean and if not my mom would just throw more food on it if I didn't lick it." | 5 | 96,771 | news |
Green Bay Packers running backs Eddie Lacy and Alonzo Harris both missed curfew on Wednesday night in Detroit before their game against the Lions, ESPN's Rob Demovsky reports . Despite two consecutive 100-yard games, Lacy saw limited action in Thursday's comeback win, playing just 19 snaps and carrying the ball five times for four yards. He caught one pass for a loss of three yards in the second quarter, and went without a touch in the second half. Harris was cut before kickoff. Coach Mike McCarty called Lacy's demotion "an internal football decision that was made," and didn't rule out the possibility that the move could have been disciplinary. "Could be. But those things we don't discuss in here anyway," he said. "It's something that we handled internally, and that was the outcome." The team worked out former Broncos running back Montee Ball, a second-round pick in the 2013 draft, on Friday. - Kenny Ducey | 1 | 96,772 | sports |
Take a look at how Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson puts in time at the gym during the offseason. | 1 | 96,773 | sports |
Scott Weiland's wife Jamie is insisting her husband was clean when he died in his sleep at the age of 48. TMZ is reporting that according to Jamie, the Stone Temple Pilot front man hasn't been doing any drugs for years, only drinking socially, but one source says drugs were found on the tour bus. Jamie insists they weren't her husbands, but several musicians have told TMZ that they were alarmed over the last 4 days, saying Scott had been deep into crack cocaine. We'll keep you posted on this developing story. | 8 | 96,774 | video |
ICYMI: Sandra Bullock adopts, Yolanda Foster to divorce and more celeb news for Nov. 29 - Dec. 4 The past week in celebrity news saw the sad, in the terms of a few high-profile splits and one death, and the happy, in terms of a few babies. Sandra Bullock pulled off the biggest surprise of all when she announced via People magazine that has added to her brood by adopting a 3-year-old girl , named Laila. Rumors swirled in October that Sandy was adopting, but she shot those down. Turns out, they were right on point. "When I look at Laila, there's no doubt in my mind that she was supposed to be here," Sandra said. "I can tell you absolutely, the exact right children came to me at the exact right time." Married! ...And they said it wouldn't last! Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy are married . The couple of three years had a very private ceremony for about 50 guests. Little is known, however, according to news reports, the wedding reception featured "bowls and bowls filled with cigarettes, and everyone smoked the whole night." The marriage is already up in smoke. Ended Engagement An unhappy ending. Courteney Cox and her fiance, Johnny McDaid, split and called off their engagement . The two apparently fought to save the relationship (even going to counseling) but differing "lifestyle" choices were too much bear: She likes to be social. Johnny is more of a homebody. R.I.P. Scott Weiland, the former Stone Temple Pilots frontman, was found dead on his tour bus on Dec. 3. The cause of death is unknown. Scott and his band The Wildabouts were scheduled to perform on the day that his body was discovered. During his celebrated career, Scott also sang for Velvet Revolver. R.I.P. Scott. Split! Poof, it's over! Yolanda Foster and David Foster have called it quits after four years of marriage. In a statement, the couple said, "Sadly we have decided to go our separate ways. We've shared 9 beautiful and joyous years together. During that time we experienced love, friendship and the inevitable challenges that come with managing a marriage, careers, blended families and health issues." The two don't have children together. Sex Split Olivia Culpo threw a penalty flag on Tim Tebow for not scoring. The beauty queen dumped the former NFLer over a lack of sex , it was reported. Olivia apparently couldn't take the celibacy anymore and called audible on the two-month relationship. Baby Bliss Like! Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg welcomed a baby girl who they named Max. The social media savvy couple announced the news on Facebook, naturally, and they already penned her a heartwarming letter to tell her about the world she was born into. They also said they plan to give away 99% of their Facebook shares, a mere $45 billion. Not a bad chunk of change. New Couple? Age ain't nothing but a number. "Two and a Half Men" star Holland Taylor revealed that she is in a serious relationship with another woman and admitted that there is a large age gap. The lady love is believed to be "American Horror Story" actress Sarah Paulson. Holland is 72; Sarah is 40. The heart wants what it wants. Unearthed social media snaps also showed the duo enjoying an intimate candlelit dinner back in January. Tumultuous Week Sinead O'Connor is in a hospital bed, pleading with her family to visit her after a suicide attempt . The Irish singer penned a lengthy, bizarre, heartbreaking message on Facebook, writing, "Please why are you doing these things to me?? I need you. I need your love. I can't manage what's being done to me." The message came just a few days after she attempted to overdose, telling her family they were "dead to me." Super Gig The National Football League turned to a British band to play the halftime show at America's biggest event, the Super Bowl. Coldplay has been tabbed to play the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. Bruno Mars and Beyonce could also join them on stage. Stork News Josh Hartnett and Tamsin Egerton are now hearing the pitter patter of little feet after welcoming their first child . Little is known about the baby, including the gender, but we known that the baby was born in London. Congrats guys! | 6 | 96,775 | entertainment |
We like his style. | 8 | 96,776 | video |
Floyd Mayweather Instagrammed a photo of his pet tiger, and PETA is not too happy with the 49-0 boxer. | 1 | 96,777 | sports |
When it comes to her beauty routine, we believe it's every woman's right nay, responsibility to experiment. How else are you supposed to find what works best for you (and what really, really doesn't)? Curiosity about primping can lead to the discovery of wonderful things. Hey, if we hadn't picked up that cranberry lipstick in the drugstore aisle in junior high, we might never have known the joy that is red lips. And, that, dear reader, would have been a crime. With this in mind, we've drawn up the ultimate beauty bucket list: twenty-one things every girl needs to try. Now, we're not saying everything on this list is going to work or be ideal for everyone. In fact, there are likely going to be a few things that are totally wrong for you. But, it's the experience of trying something new that we think is important how it makes you feel and what you learn from it. Keep reading for the trends, looks, products, and treatments you've got to try at least once in your life. No matter your budget, base makeup is almost always the most expensive part of your cosmetics bag. It also happens to be one of the hardest products to pick out. So, rather than waste time and money, identify a brand you love, and then go to the store or counter and have a professional find the perfect one for you. If your skin tone isn't accurately represented by conventional foundation offerings, it's worth your while to seek out a custom foundation-matching service, like the one at Elizabeth Arden's Red Door Spa Union Square location. An attendant will use a high-tech device to take a "swatch" of your skin color, and a machine will use that to blend pigments to create an exact match. It may be a bit pricey, but in the long run, it will save you money, time, and frustration. First things first: Liquid liner should not scare or intimidate you. It's makeup. So, let's quit with the excuses and finally learn how to do it properly, okay? There are about a billion tutorials and articles out there telling you how to use it. Set aside some time and test them out. Not every trick is going to be right for you, so try a few until you find the one you're comfortable with. Then, practice, practice, practice no one in history has picked up a liquid liner and instantly drawn a perfectly symmetrical cat-eye their first time. We've written more than a few articles professing our dedication to and admiration for red lipstick. That's because nothing makes us feel more confident, sexy, and all-around awesome than a stellar scarlet on our pout. It's the LBD of makeup. But, not every red is going to be right for you. Are you a red-orange kind of girl, a blue-toned diva, or more of a deep cranberry? Only one way to find out: Test 'em all. You can read all those articles about undertones this, and pigments that, but the best way to meet your red soulmate is to try a bunch of different ones and see which stands out (in a good way). You wouldn't buy a staple wardrobe piece without trying it on first, right? Again, it may seem like an investment at the outset, but once you discover that go-to shade, it will all be worth it. Unless you are an unbelievably lucky individual, you've had a bad haircut experience. But, not everyone can say they've gotten a true superstar chop the one that gets you all of the compliments. Finding that cut can be a bit of a white whale. If it were easy, we'd all have one but if you do your research and find a stylist you trust (more on that later), it is possible. If you're lucky, you'll be one of the small percentage of people which includes Alexa Chung, Zooey Deschanel, and Jane Birkin who look baller with bangs. If not, well, at least you'll be able to chime in next time all of your friends start complaining about how awful of an idea bangs are. A good hairstylist is so much more than the person who does your hair they are your confidant, your ally, and sometimes even your therapist . Finding one who understands you as a person is one of the most beneficial things you could do. If you've already found them, then congrats to you. Hold on tight, and thank your lucky stars you have someone you can rely on to make you feel amazing. For those of you still on the hunt, start off by doing some research, reading up on buzzed-about salons and stylists in your area (here are some of our favorites in NYC , L.A. , San Francisco , and Chicago ) and asking people whose hair you really like where they get it done. Once you've identified the pros you want to check out, go in for a consultation, which most salons offer for free. In our experience, meeting with a stylist is a great way to gauge whether they will understand your hair, your needs, and your style. It also allows you to articulate what you're looking for and communicate what you expect from the relationship. Of course, nothing's ever a guarantee until you get the actual haircut, but doing your homework will put you one step further on the path toward finding hair bliss. Nothing will make you feel more like a beauty badass than being able to effortlessly twist your hair into an intricate fishtail braid. Like many primping techniques, it takes practice to master, but once you do, you will feel pretty confident about your styling skills. Fortunately, we live in an age when the knowledge and skills are at your fingertips. Thanks, YouTube! We all aspire to great skin. As much as we'd like to believe that there's some lotion or potion out there holding the secret to a flawless visage, the truth is that it's a combination of care, problem-solving, an ironclad routine, and a little bit of professional knowledge that will get you the skin of your dreams. With that in mind, we can't recommend the services of an experienced aesthetician enough. Sure, a dermatologist is going to be key in helping you troubleshoot medical issues like rosacea or acne, but it's an aesthetician who will teach you the proper methods to care for your skin. Even if you can't afford to go regularly, book an appointment with a well-regarded pro at least once in your life to learn the fundamentals everything from your skin type to your problem areas, to the right mix of products you need to use and the best way to apply them. It should be something that makes you feel like a million bucks. Now, it doesn't have to cost a million bucks just a bit more than you might normally spend on a beauty product. Whether it's lipstick, mascara, nail polish, or moisturizer, let it be a fancy-lady buy that makes you feel good whenever you see its pretty packaging or apply it. What a difference good brows can make their transformative powers know no bounds. Which is why finding a pro you can trust and who understands the intricacies of a great arch is priceless. Whether you're in need of waxing, threading, tweezing, or even tinting , find yourself an expert who will do everything they can to make sure your brows are always on fleek. Or, if you're more of a "variety is the spice of life" kind of girl, then build yourself up a perfume wardrobe. Having a go-to fragrance one you can rely on when you want to feel a certain way or create a specific mood is an easy way to feel like a super classy dame. And, who doesn't love that feeling? Yes, it's a hair brush. And, yes, it costs an arm and a leg. But, a billion hairstylists can't be wrong and seriously, they all swear by this thing. We're in no way saying blonde is the ideal shade, or that everyone should always be blonde. But, something happens when those with darker hair take the plunge a shift in the way they see themselves and others see them. The same is true for blondes who go, well, any other color. That feeling of transformation is one we think every girl should experience at least once in her life. Just be sure to get yourself a really good hair mask your locks are going to need it after all that bleach. Once you do, getting ready will never be easier or more enjoyable. Challenge your go-to beauty professionals and best friends to streamline your routine because ain't nobody got time for unnecessary steps. You should know your face and hair like, well, the back of your hand. Whether it's pastel, super bright, or some other off-the-wall hue, it should scare the crap out of you and take you out of your makeup comfort zone. You'll learn to love it, promise. As much as we'd like to pretend weekly blowouts are a necessary living expense, those DreamDry visits really add up. Save the dry-bar jaunts for special occasions and learn how to make good use of that gadget gathering dust under your sink. We've talked to what feels like thousands of makeup artists over the years, and the one thing they all agree on is the power of curled eyelashes. Nothing makes your eyes look more awake and open. The secret to mastering the perfect, pain-free curl? Practice, patience, and a great curler . On those mornings when we wake up to spot a tiny volcano taking up residence on our chin, it's imperative to have a tried-and-true spot-erasing potion on hand that can take out that bad boy, and fast. Find that magic bullet and keep it within easy reach it will make those mornings a whole lot less stressful. If nothing else, do this just so you know that if you ever wanted to go (somewhat) bare-faced , you could. Teach yourself how to do facial massage. From what we've seen, facial massage really is the secret to supermodel skin: It seems like every girl with a gorgeous complexion swears by it. It's so much easier to work with your hair instead of against it. Learn everything you can about how to work with it, enhance it, and celebrate it. | 4 | 96,778 | lifestyle |
Get into the holiday spirit with these cute mason jar lid snowman ornaments! | 4 | 96,779 | lifestyle |
The Cardinals lost a free agent to their rival. No, not that free agent. It was John Lackey. In Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs , the Cardinals sent salty bulldog John Lackey to the mound. He pitched a gem, striking out five batters, walking just one and allowing only two hits in 7 1/3 innings as the Cardinals won their first, and what turned out to be only, game of the division series. Lackey came back on short rest in Game 4, but was not at his best as the Cubs clinched the series. The impression Lackey made in Game 1, as well as the solid season he had with the Cardinals was enough for the Cubs to sign Lackey to a two-year deal worth $32 million to $34 milllion, per Ken Rosenthal. The Cardinals had Lackey's services for a year and a half, acquiring him at the trading deadline in 2014 for Joe Kelly and Allen Craig . That trade will go down as one of John Mozeliak's best as Allen Craig has yet to regain his hitting stroke with millions left to go on his long-term deal while Lackey pitched a year and a half for just a few million dollars. After this season, the Cardinals made Lackey a qualifying offer of $15.8 million. Lackey rejected that offer believing he could do better on the free agent market. Those beliefs came to fruition as the Cubs have guaranteed him two years at roughly the same cost. As a result of the qualifying offer and Lackey signing elsewhere, the Cardinals have secured a draft pick in the supplemental round of next season's draft. The Cubs will part with their first round pick for signing Lackey, although they are likely to receive a supplemental pick of their own if Dexter Fowler departs. Discussing the Lackey rumors last week, I thought that he might sign quickly given his age and the qualifying offer attached. I also noted Lackey is not the type of player a team usually gives up a first round pick to sign. John Lackey, likely seeking a shorter term contract between two and three years, is not typically the type of player that teams would be willing to give up an unprotected first round pick. Signing Lackey might signal a team's intentions to sign another, bigger free agent, although it could also mean they are simply willing to give up a pick because they have a compensatory pick to make up for the loss of the first rounder. This could also be a signal that the Cubs are planning on signing another, bigger free agent (please not Jason Heyward ) as Lackey is not typically the type of player teams give up first round picks to sign. Whether the Cubs could pull of the double and sign the St. Louis Cardinals biggest free agent remains questionable as the Cubs apparently were not financially able to go after David Price at the levels his contract reached. #Cubs president Theo Epstein on #RedSox getting David Price for $217 million: "Right now, we just couldn't compete at that level." Patrick Mooney (@CSNMooney) December 4, 2015 While I would not have advocated signing Lackey to a multi-year deal given his age and the fact that the Cardinals defense and ballpark might have hidden some of his potential decline, the Cubs definitely needed to bolster their rotation and John Lackey does just that for next season. The Cubs just made themselves better for next season without spending too much money to do it. For the Cardinals, presumably they return their focus to signing the best free agent on the market in Jason Heyward. | 1 | 96,780 | sports |
Aaron Hernandez is back in the news. The former New England Patriots tight end has been found with a homemade knife in his prison cell at Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass., according to FOX25. The type of knife also is known as a "shank." The report, which came out Friday, doesn't include when the knife was found, but it does say Hernandez was put in a "segregation unit" following the incident. Hernandez was found guilty in April of first-degree murder in the June 2013 shooting of Odin Lloyd. He currently is serving a life sentence. | 1 | 96,781 | sports |
In his first publicly available comments about the police investigation of a rape accusation against former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, Tallahassee police officer Scott Angulo says there were missteps in the case. Angulo was deposed Oct. 22 in connection with a federal Title IX lawsuit Erica Kinsman filed against Florida State University. She has alleged that the school's response to her alleged assault was deliberately indifferent and denied her of educational opportunities protected under the law. In the 199-page deposition, released to USA TODAY Sports on Friday, Angulo noted there were investigative shortcomings but says at the time of the investigation in early 2013 that he did not know who Winston was or his status as a prized recruit for the Seminoles. Angulo was assigned to the case after Kinsman reported to FSU police immediately following the alleged assault at Winston's apartment at Legacy Suites in December 2012. She identified Winston as her alleged assailant after recognizing him in a new class at the start of the semester in January 2013. Angulo moved the case to open/inactive a month later, and it stayed there until a reporter sought TPD records in November of that year. Though previous shortcomings in the investigation have been reported, first by the New York Times in April 2014 , Angulo says there were more steps he could have taken in the month between Kinsman's initial report and when she identified him. Angulo said in the days after Kinsman reported her alleged assault, he drove around the area for hours and identified Legacy Suites as the likely location she had recalled. At that time, she had not identified Winston as her alleged attacker. "Did it cross your mind to ask the manager whether or not he knew somebody at Legacy Suites that matched the physical description?" asked John Clune, one of Kinsman's attorney. "No, sir," Angulo replied. Angulo said he did not try to speak to Clayton Fallis, the FSUPD officer who was the first to respond. He said he tried to track down the cab driver who drove Winston, Kinsman and two other football players from the bar to Winston's apartment, but it was "sporadic at best" to identify cabs by GPS and that use of FSU cards "didn't help any." After that, the cab company sent out an email to see if anyone recalled anything. Angulo acknowledged not trying to get surveillance video from Potbelly's, saying that it "absolutely" should have been done. "I relied on other people's information that Potbelly's does not record," Angulo said. "And that is they all knew, I made that mistake. If they do record." Angulo did not seek to interview eyewitnesses from the bar, including Potbelly's employees, who could potentially identify who Kinsman left with that night. That included Chris Casher, Winston's roommate, Clune contended. Kinsman identified him to Angulo, saying that she had spoken with a freshman football player named Chris that night. "At the time I really didn't think he would be that significant because she said that she know who he was and hadn't thing (sic) seen him since she left him at the bar," Angulo said. Asked how difficult it would have been to identify a freshman football player named Chris and interview him, Angulo replied, "It wouldn't have been hard at all." After Kinsman identified Winston to the TPD, investigator Paul Osborn, who was assisting with the investigation in January 2013 while Angulo was recovering from knee surgery, first tried to contact Winston by phone. TPD next heard from Tim Jansen, Winston's attorney, who said he would not make his client available for questioning. State attorney Willie Meggs has since criticized the decision to call ahead rather than trying to speak to Winston without advanced notice. "I would have rather gone to him," Angulo said. "But it's not uncommon either so…" In early 2013, Angulo did not seek a warrant for phone records from Winston, Casher or Ronald Darby, another football player with them that night. He did seek one from Kinsman to try to recover a message on her phone telling her to go outside in the hopes that would lead to a suspect. That message wasn't recovered. Angulo refuted a statement from Patricia Carroll, Kinsman's aunt and her attorney at the time of the investigation in 2013, that he had told her "Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable." Of that January 2013 conversation, Angulo said, "I don't recall ever saying that. It was her concerns that her life would be made miserable, and she was concerned that it would go public, and that's the reasons she said the family hired her or was having her contact me basically." The state attorney's office took over the investigation in November 2013 after the report became publicly known. DNA collected from Kinsman's shorts matched Winston's, but Jansen said the sexual encounter was consensual. Meggs announced on December 2013 that Winston, who now plays for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, would not be charged. He was also found not responsible of violating FSU's code of conduct following a hearing in December 2014. Angulo was asked to testify in that hearing but said in the deposition that his superiors told him not to. Since the case concluded, Angulo left TPD's special victims unit. In the deposition, he estimated handling three or four sexual assault investigations per month during the two years he was a detective in that department. He guessed five or six went to trial. In January 2014, Angulo moved to property crimes and in March of this year he moved to emergency vehicle operations coordinator with the department. Asked how Carroll's statement about him affected him, Angulo said, "… A lot. I enjoyed some of what I was doing in SVU; I enjoyed the ICAC part, Internet crimes against children, I was very good at it, I think exceptionally good at it. But that comes with staying SVU and I felt like the publicity of all of this, if a victim saw me and recalled my name, that it would she would not trust me. She would I could not be as effective to her because she would not open up to me because of all of this. So I made the hard decision and asked to go back to property and crimes." | 1 | 96,782 | sports |
All reports indicated Zack Greinke was going to make a decision regarding his free agency by the end of the week. He made good on that. But one thing Greinke did that caught us all off guard was choose the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that really hadn't been considered a contender for his services. Yet the D-Backs pulled off a stunner with one of their biggest signings in franchise history. Greinke agreed to a six-year deal with the Diamondbacks, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman first reported. The deal is pending a physical. Greinke, 32, finished second in NL Cy Young award voting last season. He went 19-3 with the Dodgers and combined with Clayton Kershaw to give the Los Angeles squad a powerful 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation the past three seasons. Greinke gets to remain in the NL West a division with which he is familiar and he'll be able to continue to hit, which is something he enjoys. He also must feel strongly about the future of the Diamondbacks as they have some good young talent like Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock. According to Heyman, the Dodgers offered Greinke a five-year deal worth $31 million annually. | 1 | 96,783 | sports |
âWhat even is mincemeat, and why would we want to put it in a pie?â | 8 | 96,784 | video |
Welcome to December, Foolish readers. It seems appropriate to start the month's first week in review with a link to our Top Stock Picks for December , which is a collation of our writers' favourite ideas to buy right now. Elsewhere in the market, trading was characterised by several massive falls, and a couple of premature exits from the S&P/ASX 100 and S&P/ASX 200 indices. The ASX 200 ended the week down 1.1%. Here's what you need to know about: Dick Smith Holdings Ltd 's (ASX: DSH) share price collapsed more than 50% in a single day on Monday after a surprise $60m write-down on inventory and the disturbing announcement that management could not guarantee the company would hit its previous profit guidance. Following the write-down, Dick Smith is expected to sell millions of dollars of goods at below cost prices, which Gerry Harvey, of Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX: HVN) characterised as 'bad news'. Dick Smith shares also experienced a disastrous exit from the ASX 200 index yesterday, following its quarterly rebalance (shares will actually exit the index on 18 December). This could lead to even more selling pressure as fund managers get out of the stock. Slater & Gordon Limited (ASX: SGH) shares enjoyed a relatively peaceful week after last week's 50% decline, ending the week up 65% (although still down on last week). The fall in its share price saw the stock dropped from the ASX 100, although its share price recovery was enough to keep it in the ASX 200. Where its share price will go from here is unknown, although as I wrote here the law firm looks unlikely to go broke even if 2016 cash flow falls short of management's guidance. Spotless Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SPO) was yet another stock to experience a major decline, ending the week down 43% after it reported that profit growth has slowed as a result of tighter economic conditions and tender decisions being delayed or deferred. Shares now trade below the price they were offered at in May 2014. At least part of the fall seems to be investor nervousness regarding the group's financials, similar to that experienced by holders of Dick Smith and Slater & Gordon. Like Dick Smith, Spotless Group is also a recent private equity IPO and investors are worried it could struggle in a similar way. BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) subsidiary Samarco received a $7.2 billion lawsuit (50% owned by BHP and 50% by Vale SA) from the Brazilian government for costs related to environmental contamination, clean-up, and compensation after the recent dam collapse. The eventual cost to BHP is unknown - and the miner may well settle out of court for a lesser fee - but half of $7.2bn isn't an insignificant expense. With those problems and commodity prices still weakening (hurting profitability), BHP looks too expensive to buy right now, despite trading at its lowest prices since 2005. Last but not least, staff analyst Mike King wrote an educational article during the week on why Return On Equity (ROE) is a dud valuation which readers may find informative. | 3 | 96,785 | finance |
Rams receiver Stedman Bailey sent a thank you on Twitter Friday evening, with an update on his recovery from being shot in the head last week. Bailey has reportedly been recovering, and his tweet affirmed that stance, calling the events "a miracle." "To my entire Rams family, especially my teammates, fans & peers I thank you so much for your continued prayers & support," Bailey wrote. "My recovery has been nothing short of a miracle (a work of GOD) and I can only give GOD the praise, glory and honor for which he is doing in my life at this time." Bailey, who was shot in the head last week in South Florida, had " extensive surgery on [the] two bullets," and "was in a medical-induced coma to have [the] swelling in [his] brain go down." At the time of the shooting, Bailey was in a car with Antwan Reeves and three other passengers, two of which were young relatives. Reeves has life-threatening injuries after shielding the children from bullets. He was taken into surgery upon arriving at the hospital. pic.twitter.com/5qYP2t6VNs STEDMAN BAILEY SR (@iamSB3) December 4, 2015 Bailey was a third-round selection of the Rams in 2013, and has caught 59 passes for 843 yards and two touchdowns in three years with the team. He is currently serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL substance abuse policy. | 1 | 96,786 | sports |
Pitt Running Back James Conner receives get well wishes from ACC Football Championship coaches, Dabo Swinney and Larry Fedora. | 1 | 96,787 | sports |
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins this year on December 6. Let's take a look at some of the joyous celebrations from past years. The Jewish festival of lights Hanukkah begins on Dec. 6 this year. The festival and feast will continue for eight days until Dec.14. People around the world celebrate the holiday with a series of rituals and the lighting of the menorah. Let's take a look at some joyous Hanukkah moments of celebrations from past years. Warsaw, Poland The Jewish festival of light is an eight-day commemoration of the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to put statues of Greek gods in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. (Pictured) Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger rises in a crane towards a large menorah. Bnei Brak, Israel Small amounts of money are traditionally given to children on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Hanukkah, which means "dedication" and is also referred to as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by foreign forces. (Pictured) Jews stand in line as they wait for their rabbi to give them coins. New York, United States Scribe Samuel Wolfman writes a Torah (religious text of Judaism) at Congregation Chasam Sopher in New York City. High school students from Hebrew Academy of Nassau County received a lesson in the art of writing a Torah as part of their Hannukah celebrations. Wolfman says it takes him about one year to write a single Torah. Washington, United States Rabbi Levi Shemtov, second from left, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), lights the U.S. National Hanukkah Menorah in front of the White House with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, second from right, and Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, right, national director of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Tel Aviv, Israel Newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia light candles for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah during a welcoming ceremony for them at Ben Gurion International airport. Berlin, Germany People pass an illuminated menorah in front of the Jewish Museum. London, England Crowd members join in for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Trafalgar Square. Tel Aviv, Israel The lights are turned on for a giant menorah at the Reading Power Station. Budapest, Hungary Members of Hungary's Jewish community gather to celebrate Hanukkah and to light the first candle on the menorah. Jerusalem, Israel A boy from the Krois family lights candles for the Jewish holiday at his house. Washington, D.C, United States U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the annual lighting of the National Hanukkah Menorah on the Ellipse. Jerusalem, Israel A Jewish man lights a candle. Ashdod, Israel A Jewish woman prays after lighting candles on the third night of Hanukkah. Jerusalem, Israel An ultra-Orthodox Jew stands near a window behind candles lit for the holiday of Hanukkah in the Mea Shearim neighborhood. Warsaw, Poland The candles of an 8-meter (26-foot) menorah burn in celebration of Hanukkah in front of Warsaw's landmark Palace of Culture, a symbol of Poland's communist past. Berlin, Germany Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, left, German actress Veronica Ferres, center, and former U.S ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy, right, light a giant Hanukkah Menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Tel Aviv, Israel Visitors walk next to a giant Menorah display made for the festival of Hanukkah by an organization promoting coexistence between religious and secular Jews. Mumbai, India Rabbi Chanoch Gechtman lights a Menorah during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights in front of the Taj Mahal hotel. Jerusalem, Israel A Jewish couple lights a candle on the sixth night of the holiday of Hanukkah. Warsaw, Poland Rabbi Shalom Ber Stambler, right, lights a candle on a large menorah in downtown as former Knesset Speaker Shewah Weiss looks on as they celebrate the Jewish festival of lights Hanukkah. Jerusalem, Israel A Jewish man lights candles for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Budapest, Hungary Torch-bearers attend a Hanukkah event at Heroes' Square. Berlin, Germany Members of Berlin's Jewish community light sparklers in front of the menorah at the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin, Germany Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, right, and Rabbi Segal Shmoel install a giant Hanukkah Menorah at the Pariser Platz in front of the Brandeburg Gate. Washington, United States Lainey Schmitter, third from left, lights a Menorah as U.S. President Barack Obama, second from left, first lady Michelle Obama, right, and Lainey's mother Drew look on during a Hanukkah reception at the Grand Foyer of the White House. Tehran, Iran Jewish men pray during Hanukkah celebrations at the Yousefabad Synagogue. Mumbai, India A Jewish woman distributes sweets near a Menorah in front of the Gateway of India monument during Hanukkah. Berlin, Germany The first flames of a giant Hanukkah Menorah in front of a Christmas tree at the Brandenburg Gate. Washington, United States People stand for a song at the end of the lighting of the National Hanukkah Menorah during an event sponsored by the American Friends of Lubavitch marking the second night of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. Yangon, Myanmar Local followers and visitors gather for a Hanukkah celebration at the Jewish Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue. Tel Aviv, Israel An ultra-Orthodox Jewish family light candles during the last day of Hanukkah. Tel Aviv, Israel People gather by a lit menorah on the sixth day of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday. | 5 | 96,788 | news |
A star of Orange is the New Black is facing legal trouble. According to the Associated Press, Dascha Polanco, 33, who plays inmate Dayanara Diaz on the Netflix prison series, and has a supporting role in David O. Russell's upcoming movie, Joy , is facing assault charges after she was accused of punching and scratching a teenage girl. The alleged attack stems from July 29, according to court papers filed by the district attorney's office. Michelle Cardona, 17, says Polanco punched her several times, pulled her hair and scratched her inside Polanco's upper Manhattan apartment. Polanco has a different side of the story. "The woman lives in her neighborhood and is often in her building with others even though she doesn't live there. As a result of a confrontation, the woman went to the police claiming she was assaulted," Gerald Lefcourt, Polanco's attorney, tells USA TODAY in a statement. The lawyer says Cardona then tried to extort the TV star. "She then called Ms. Polanco asking for money to withdraw the charges," the statement continued. "That call was taped and given to the police. Since this is an extortion scheme the case will eventually be dismissed." Polanco was arraigned Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court. Meanwhile, Polanco celebrated her birthday in New York on Thursday night, and didn't seem too worried about the charges. "I'm a warrior! The truth is set to come.... Good always prevails," she wrote. Her court date is Jan. 28. Contributing: The Associated Press | 6 | 96,789 | entertainment |
Your body's defense mechanisms are stronger than scientists previously suspected. A new Danish study suggests an unfamiliar layer of defense begins its work even before your first immune response becomes active. The newly discovered mechanism protects you with little fanfare or fuss, and occurs within the cells of your mucous membrane the moist tissues lining your nose, mouth, lungs, and urinary and digestive tracts. In other words, your immune system begins its fight at the point where viruses normally get in. "This can help to explain how we can be constantly exposed to the viruses and bacteria that always surround us, without activating the entire immune system every time," said Dr. Soren Riis Paludan, professor of biomedicine at Aarhus University, in a press release . Paludan's lab is focused on understanding "how the immune system recognizes virus infections, and how this leads to an immune response against infection," according to his website . The team is searching for new knowledge of the immune system and how it functions, particularly how it interacts with viruses and influences the ways they develop into full-blown infections. A Virus, the Ultimate Parasite Viruses are essentially vampiric. Though considered non-living, these microscopic organisms contain genes and so might be said to occupy the space between life and death. While they cannot sustain themselves or reproduce on their own, they are able to take over a host cell and inject their DNA into its works. Thereafter, the derelict cell begins to reproduce the virus instead of itself. Viruses are difficult to detect, yet according to Paludan's lab, our innate immune system uses pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to identify these microscopic enemies. Once a virus is recognized, the immune system can activate its own antiviral workers, including interferon. Fevers, aches, and flu-like symptoms are the signs indicating your body has recognized an infection and begun to create interferon to fight it. For many years, researchers and doctors have assumed interferon was your body's earliest response to viruses and bacteria. However, in their current study, Paludan and his team questioned this assumption. Conducting experiments, they witnessed how a separate immune response activated each time the body's mucous membranes were disrupted. (To mount a full-blown infection, a virus or bacterium first gains a foothold in the epithelial cells of the mucous membrane.) Yet, an annate antiviral pathway within the epithelial surface was able to recognize an invader and quickly produce a substance to neutralize it. This process appeared to occur continuously and only when it failed, could an infection establish itself inside the body. At that point, interferon would be triggered and sickness, complete with sniffles and aches, would begin. Conducting experiments on mice, the researchers explored this first response further. Through a series of studies, they showed how rodents lacking this first defense mechanism would become ill if exposed to a herpes virus, while normal mice (with this mechanism intact) remained healthy. The lab's work alters our understanding of the immune system, says Paludan, who added, "We do not yet know the precise significance of this mechanism, but it may explain why some people become more ill from viral infections such as influenza than others. The same may apply to other viral infections that are initiated on mucous membranes such as HIV and herpes." He and his colleagues plan to map each and every molecule involved in this immune response. Looking ahead, Paludan says on his website, such work "could have implications for future development of improved vaccines, antiviral therapeutics, and diagnostic tools." Source: Iversen MB, Reinert LS, Thomsen MK, et al. An innate antiviral pathway acting before interferons at epithelial surfaces. Nature Immunology. 2015. | 4 | 96,790 | lifestyle |
The recent surge in U.S. oil and gas production has also brought a boom in jobs and wages for oilfield workers. Now, as production pulls back, major oil regions are likely to see those economic windfalls fade as well. To gauge the impact, CNBC looked at seven major U.S. oil-producing regions for which both production and county-level employment data is available. The results show that the energy boom in the seven regions examined has propelled job creation and wages far above the national averages. Between 2007 and March of this year (the latest data available), the total level of private employment in the 248 counties in our analysis rose by 5.6 percent more than twice the national gain of 2.7 percent. Much of the hiring, of course, came in the natural resources and mining sector, which posted job gains of 52 percent. The oil hiring boom also brought a big boost in local wages that far outpaced the national average. Between 2007 and March of 2015, oilfield workers in the seven fields in our analysis saw their average wage rise by 48 percent to $1,120. The average national paycheck is $857 a week. The Bakken field in North Dakota stands out for its wage and job growth, largely because it's among the newest fields and because the region had the smallest workforce when production started ramping up a decade ago. Total employment more than doubled to 131,000 in the Bakken counties we analyzed, but that was still far below employment in larger, more established fields such as the Permian Basin in Texas or the sprawling Marcellus in Pennsylvania. Wages also posted the biggest gains in the Bakken; for all private sector workers, wages jumped 81 percent, to $1,055. For those working in the natural resources sector, wages more than doubled to $1,467 a week. Now, as a crash in oil prices has many oil producers cutting back on new drilling, many boomtown counties face the prospect of a painful oil bust. That said, many of the production gains in those counties have come from improved methods and technologies that generate more output per worker. Most other regions, though, saw more modest increases in jobs and wages and therefore face less risk of an oil economy hangover. While oilfield layoffs are expected in many counties, those workers who remain will likely continue to generate increasing production. That's because of an ongoing increase in the amount of oil and natural gas being produced by advances in horizontal drilling. Oil producers once were limited to drilling vertical holes in the ground that let them access pockets of oil and gas, but newer rigs are designed to drill sideways, tapping once unreachable reserves spread out like icing in a layer cake. Individual wells, once abandoned as uneconomical, are enjoying a second life, even as oil prices have fallen in half. The increase output can be seen in the amount of oil and gas being produced for each rig in use. The biggest gains in oil production per rig have come from the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Niobrara fields. Natural gas production is up sharply in the Marcellus, Utica and Eagle Ford fields. --- Watch: Expect continued oil slide: Pro | 3 | 96,791 | finance |
Over its lengthy history in NASCAR's top series, a No. 10 car has been raced by a whopping 114 different drivers. Only four of those drivers have gone to Victory Lane, however, while only two -- Ricky Rudd and Derrike Cope -- have triumphed multiple times. The most successful driver of the No. 10 was Chesapeake, Virginia native Ricky Rudd, who won six times between 1994 and 1998 as owner/driver of No. 10 Tide-sponsored car. It was one of Cope's two victories that stands as by far the greatest by a No. 10 car in NASCAR, however. That win, of course, came in the 1990 Daytona 500 -- a race dominated by Dale Earnhardt, who lost the lead to Cope with less than half a lap to go when The Intimidator's famed black No. 3 Goodwrench-sponsored Chevrolet slowed with a cut tire. Cope, who would go on to capture his second and final top series NASCAR win later that season at Dover, celebrated a victory that today remains arguably the biggest upset in NASCAR history. While the No. 10 has been around since NASCAR's inaugural season of 1949 when it was campaigned in three races -- two by Fred Johnson, one by John Riggi -- the number never adorned the side a NASCAR premier series winner's car until Greg Sacks pulled into Victory Lane for the first and final time of his career in the July 1985 race at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 10 car's most recent win came courtesy of Johnny Benson Jr. at Rockingham Speedway on Nov. 3, 2002. Danica Patrick, the current driver of the No. 10, has made all 118 of her top series NASCAR starts with the number, with the first coming at the 2012 Daytona 500. Her best finish with the number is sixth, which came at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend 2014. Here's a look at the No. 10: Starts: 1,242 Wins: 10 Wins by driver: Ricky Rudd, 6; Derrike Cope, 2; Greg Sacks, 1; Johnny Benson Jr., 1 Top fives: 67 Top 10s: 218 Poles: 9 Average start: 21.6 Average finish: 21.78 Drivers: 114 All stats provided by driveraverages.com. | 1 | 96,792 | sports |
Oklahoma State men's basketball manager Jared Dickey is the master of the towel trick shot. | 1 | 96,793 | sports |
UNC's Larry Fedora talks to ACC Digital Network host Jeff Fischel about what the phrase "Got your back" means to the team, and why the Heels would be deserving of a spot in the College Football Playoff should they beat Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. | 1 | 96,794 | sports |
Adriana Lima slams the rumors that she's dating Justin Bieber. In fact, the Victoria's Secret model slammed Justin altogether with the reason why she would never date the pop star. | 6 | 96,795 | entertainment |
Kate Middleton's style is one that we love to copy, we love to watch for it, and now, you're going to love this, we can finally shop her chic dresses for ourselves. Find out here. | 8 | 96,796 | video |
Despite losing 35 pounds this year and adopting a healthy lifestyle, Khloe Kardashian leaves many wondering how on earth she stays so healthy! The health junkies kitchen is full of well, junk! | 6 | 96,797 | entertainment |
Getting into debt is easy and the numbers prove it. Eight out of 10 Americans have debt, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts. And the total amount of household debt in America is nearly $12 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's most recent report on household debt and credit. There are plenty of ways people fall into debt. The hard part can be getting out of debt . especially if you don't recognize or resist admitting how you racked up debt. Here are seven reasons you might have fallen into debt, and how to avoid being stuck with it forever. Related: Should You Ever Pay Your Significant Other's Debt? 1. You Believe Debt Is Part of Life One of the biggest reasons people get stuck in debt is because they believe that debt is just a part of life, said Debbi King, owner of the personal finance coaching firm The ABC's of Personal Finance . In fact, the Pew study found that 7 people out of 10 said debt is a necessity in their lives. "However, debt is a result of wanting or needing something that you don't have the cash to buy at the moment," King said. King said that if you are determined to get rid of debt, you can rid yourself of these wants." You have to not want debt so bad that you refuse to use it no matter what," she said. You also need to give yourself a wake-up call by keeping close tabs on your spending to see how much you're relying on debt to maintain your lifestyle. "You may be using your credit card more than you realize," said Bruce McClary, spokesman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). Once you figure out how much you owe, make a plan to pay off the debt. Having a goal of getting out of debt might give you the motivation you need to stop relying on it. 2. You Use Credit to Cover Emergencies Many people assume they will never fall deeply into debt, said Matt Cosgriff, a certified financial planner with Lifewise , a financial planning service based in Minneapolis. "But it can happen so easily if you aren't financially prepared," he added. For example, if you don't have cash reserves to cover unexpected expenses, you might have to rely on credit cards. You will end up paying more than the original cost of the emergency if you do not pay off the balance quickly because of the interest your card charges. Plus, you might not be able to build savings to cover future emergencies if your money is going toward paying off debt. You can avoid this situation by creating an emergency fund, Cosgriff said. Ideally, you should save enough to cover up to six months' worth of expenses. If necessary, start by setting aside a little each month, then increase the amount when you can. And make sure you have adequate insurance to cover catastrophic events, such as a medical emergency or automobile accident. 3. You Are Overwhelmed by Student Loans Student loan debt has reached $1.19 trillion, and payments on more than 11 percent of this student loan debt are at least 90 days late, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "So many people right now are burdened with student loan debt," McClary said. If your student loan debt is unmanageable, McClary recommends talking to a certified student loan counselor to identify your options, such as income-based repayment or loan consolidation. You can visit Studentloanhelp.org to find an NFCC member that will offer student loan counseling at little or no cost. To avoid racking up student loan debt, McClary recommends that parents and students look for sources of free money for college, such as grants and scholarships. And families should weigh the costs of the schools their child wants to attend against the child's earning potential after graduation. That will help the family determine whether the child will be able to pay off student loans. FinAid.org has a calculator to help you figure out how much debt you can afford based on the estimated starting salary for your major. Related: 5 Easy Ways to Pay Off Debt Before the Holiday Season 4. You Make Only Minimum Payments It's hard to eliminate debt if you're only paying the minimum you owe. In fact, McClary said it can become unmanageable if your balance continues to grow while you're paying the minimum amount required. For example, if you have a $5,000 balance on a card with a 17 percent rate and make a minimum monthly payment of 3 percent of your balance, it will take you 189 months or nearly 14 years to pay off your debt. Meanwhile, you will pay more than $4,000 in interest, according to Navy Federal Credit Union's minimum payment calculator. Simply increasing the amount you pay can make a big difference. For example, you can cut the payoff time and interest in half by boosting your monthly payment to 5 percent of your balance. 5. You Allow Expenses to Rise With Income Andy Brantner, a certified financial planner and investment blogger at Start Investing Online , knows financial discipline does not come easy. "It's hard not to buy a better car or a bigger house when you get a raise," he said. "But failing to keep your expenses steady when your income goes up creates a vicious cycle." It can be especially dangerous if you are still carrying debt from the days when you were earning less, and now are taking on more loans to help pay for that bigger house or better car. Your debt will balloon, leaving you unable to pay if off despite the bigger paycheck. To avoid this, identify goals and review your spending to see if it's in line with your priorities. If it's not, here is how to create a spending plan that will align your expenditures with your values. 6. You Go Overboard During the Holidays Nearly half of those surveyed recently by credit reporting agency Experian said they plan to rely on credit to cover the cost of some of their holiday spending. That can lead to starting off the new year in debt. If you don't pay it off quickly and turn to credit again every holiday season, your debt will mount. "It's really important at this time of year for people who might have a weakness to find support," McClary said. Find a credit counselor through NFCC.org or look for a workshop to get support for building a habit of savings rather than spending, he said. McClary also recommended avoiding spending time around others who have a tendency to overspend and "getting in situations where you'll be melting the plastic at the register. Lock up the credit cards this time of year." Related: 12 Influential Experts Give Their Top Money Tip for 2016 7. You Use Payday Loans If you get a payday loan to cover an emergency, it doesn't mean you will get stuck in debt forever. After all, most of these short-term loans typically have to be paid back within 14 days. But most people who get payday loans use them to cover everyday expenses, according to a report by Pew. And they often take advantage of rollover features that allow them to extend the amount of time they have to pay off the loans. Because the interest rates on these loans are so high APRs of 391 percent to 521 percent, according to the Center for Responsible Lending the debt can mount quickly. If you roll over a typical payday loan of $325 eight times, you'll owe $468 in interest and have to repay a total of $793, according to the center. Do that often enough, and you will be stuck in debt forever. Make a plan to quickly pay off any payday loans you might have, even if it means getting a second job. Then take steps to improve your credit so you can qualify for lower-rate conventional loans going forward. This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : 7 Reasons You'll Be in Debt Forever --- Watch: Solving Puerto Rico's $70 Billion Debt Problem | 3 | 96,798 | finance |
Zack Greinke's no-brainer decision just exacerbated a massive off-season headache for a dozen or so teams. Greinke's Friday night was probably better than yours he accepted a six-year, $206.5 million contract offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks that will give him the highest average annual salary, $34.2 million, in major league history. As glorious as that must have been for Greinke along with wife Emily, 4-month-old son Bode and even Bode's unborn grandchildren - it was also a pretty great night for Johnny Cueto. Over in Japan, Kenta Maeda might have polished off a late breakfast Saturday morning and grinned at his good fortune. And suddenly, life's looking pretty grand for Mike Leake, Jeff Samardzija and even Ian Kennedy. See, while Greinke got Zuckerberg-rich, his decision to join the Diamondbacks left a gaggle of pitching-hungry perennial contenders grasping at what's left of the free agent pitching market. It was a deep and glorious class, but now the top three options Greinke, David Price (to the Red Sox, for $217 million) and Jordan Zimmermann (a Detroit Tiger for a relatively economical $110 million) are off the board. John Lackey, everyone's favorite Plan B, is also gone, to the Chicago Cubs. Thought you might sneak Marco Estrada or J.A. Happ under the radar and into your rotation? Nope all signed and accounted for. Meanwhile, three National League powers the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals have whiffed on filling glaring rotation needs. And an analysis of the remaining market and the depth charts around the major leagues shows a lot more potential job openings than there are surefire arms to fill them. Let's assume the Giants and Cardinals add two starting pitchers to fortify rotations decimated by retirement, injury or defections. The Dodgers most definitely will spend big for one starter. The Pirates, Royals, Rangers and Cubs are all 2015 playoff teams one arm shy of ensuring their viability in 2016. The Diamondbacks didn't sign Greinke to finish fourth they need another starter. The Nationals, Orioles, Mariners and Padres are too thin on the back end and also want to win. In Miami, Philadelphia and Atlanta, rebuilding or re-tooling is the watchword, but those clubs certainly need a veteran to solidify young, thin rotations. Now add it up: That's 17 major league rotation jobs most of them crucial slots on teams with a lot at stake. And that's discounting several clubs the Rockies, White Sox, Indians, Astros and Athletics who may get antsy and decide to upgrade their pitching by spending some of the nearly $10 billion in revenue flowing through this industry. Now, let's look at the consensus top 10 starters remaining on the market: Thins out pretty quickly, eh? And you know what that means the top half-dozen or so names on that list are sure to command contracts a year or two longer and probably tens of millions of dollars richer than even the wisest pundits could have imagined. Oh, sure, some teams can and will fill rotation needs through trades. Shelby Miller, Ivan Nova and James Shields are among the names floating about. Yet teams remain loathe to deal starting pitching depth as much as other clubs are reluctant to trade away young, cheap talent. So, as the off-season goes on, negatives surrounding a free agent look a lot more palatable. Cueto's swoon after a July trade to Kansas City and Samardzija's disastrous one season in Chicago suddenly seem like aberrations. Maeda who will also require a $20 million posting fee looks like a reasonable gamble. Further on down the market, the likes of Colby Lewis, Alfredo Simon and Aaron Harang may find more guaranteed cash coming their way than they could have imagined. Even Mat Latos, who had a most forgettable walk year while churning through three teams with a 4.95 ERA, could find a soft landing in this market. Put it this way: No GM wants to be the guy packing his radar gun to Tim Lincecum's January workout, hoping that the 31-year-old coming off hip surgery might take his money. So, to avoid that scenario, they're going to have to open the checkbook, scratch an extra zero or two and buy some certainty. Blame Greinke. And blame the Diamondbacks for disrupting a winter in which there seemed to be plenty of arms to go around. Now, it's a race to procure the best ones available likely at an exorbitant cost. | 1 | 96,799 | sports |
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