archive
stringlengths 79
515
| text
stringlengths 1.31k
86.1k
| compression_bin
stringclasses 3
values | density
float64 0
2
| summary
stringlengths 77
3.04k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
http://web.archive.org/web/20160719004406id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/08/03/kathy-bloomgarden-building-teams/? | MPW Insider is an online community where the biggest names in business and beyond answer timely career and leadership questions. Today’s answer for: How do you build a strong team? is written by Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn. Business these days requires a team mentality, as the workplace increasingly depends on collaboration, common goals and embracing shared values. But in order to really drive success, we must move beyond ‘group think’ and focus on how we’re going to establish a killer team that doesn’t shy away from bumps in the road. Hand over the leadership reigns The most unproductive meetings are those where there are too many strongly opinionated leaders, with no one individual willing to take charge, drown out the noise and set a path forward. Often the success of the team is about getting beyond the circular discussions (we’ve all been a part of them!) and taking action. This requires handing over the reigns to someone hungry and not afraid to make quick, hard decisions and keep the team moving. See also: 3 misconceptions about leading a successful team Set aggressive goals I’ve learned that a key reason for employee turnover is boredom. If you put individuals in one position for too long, they will eventually feel ‘stuck’ and are more easily lured by new opportunities, especially the millennial generation. It’s important to work with each person to set aggressive yet realistic goals for growth, and arm employees with a hungry team willing to achieve them. If employees are encouraged to be part of a team that sets tough targets they will fell stimulated, challenged, and part of something important. Empower your teams to own it Once aggressive goals have been established teams need to own what they sign up for. This means driving projects that produce results, giving tough love when necessary and speaking up when there are issues. When each member of the team feels personally invested in the goal they are working to achieve, amazing things are possible. Read all answers to the MPW Insider question: How do you build a strong team? How to build a strong team without micromanaging by Sally Blount, Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Here’s the secret to getting better employees by Julia Hartz, co-founder and president of Eventbrite. | medium | 0.666667 | Once an employee feels 'stuck' in a certain position it's only a matter of time before they are lured elsewhere. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160728052235id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/destinations/europe/france/provence/articles/Richard-Madeleys-Vence-My-Kind-of-Town/ | What do you miss about it when you’re away? The atmosphere – something I can’t quite put my finger on. There’s a sense of the exotic and of danger, with huge walls running around the town. It’s exciting. What is the first thing you do when you arrive? Have a gin and tonic on the terrace of our home nearby. Judy [his wife, the presenter Judy Finnigan] and I have a home located between Vence and the village of Saint-Paul de Vence. So when we arrive home – unless it’s in the morning – we open up the shutters and doors and pour ourselves a G&T with a big slice of lemon to toast being back. Where is the best place to stay? Château Saint-Martin (0033 4 93 58 02 02; chateau-st-martin.com) . It has amazing views towards the Mediterranean as well as a wonderful terrace, spa and a great restaurant. Where are your favourite places for lunch? La Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul (4 93 32 80 02; la-colombe-dor.com) or, within Vence, La Clemenceau (4 93 58 24 70; 22 Place Clemenceau) , a pizza restaurant in the old square. It’s in the heart of the old town and they do the best wood-fired pizzas. The restaurant/bar at La Victoire (4 93 24 15 54; hotel-victoire.com) does nice French brasserie fare, soupe de poisson and home-made pâté. The market stalls in the old town of Vence (Alamy) Le Pigeonnier (4 93 58 03 00; 5-7 Rue du Peyra) , a small, inexpensive restaurant in the old town. I also like Le Saint-Martin at Château Saint-Martin. It’s hard to get a bad portion of anything in Vence. Where would you meet friends for a drink? Henry’s Bar (4 93 58 67 83; 48 Avenue Marcellin Maurel) is a bit of an institution, and is where locals like to congregate. Or there’s K’fé malté (4 93 32 52 36; kfemalte.fr) , an intimate wine bar with artisanal French beers. There’s a little bread shop, just off the roundabout that takes you to Vence, that’s good for a coffee. I don’t think it has a name. Where would you send a first-time visitor? To the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (4 93 58 03 26; vence.fr/la-chapelle-du-rosaire-chef-d) , Matisse’s last great work. I remember going with Judy about five or six years ago and was blown away by it, from the colours of the stained-glass windows to the simple drawings, particularly of the Madonna holding Christ in her arms. It moved me to tears because it spoke so eloquently of maternal love. Also see the galleries in and around Vence, where you can find wonderful, inexpensive art. The Fondation Maeght (4 93 32 81 63; fondation-maeght.com) on the outskirts of Vence has huge sculptures and all sorts of paintings. It has a nice space with green lawns, fountains and a shaded area. Also visit the beautiful Vence Cathedral, which has a real stillness about it. And don’t be afraid to speak French. Even if it’s really bad, people in Vence appreciate it. They won’t be snobby and will correct you in a nice way if you get it wrong. If you’re using Vence as a base to explore further afield, don’t be seduced by St Tropez. I strongly recommend you don’t go near it in the summer, when it can take hours to get in and out, and frankly there’s not much to see. The winding, bougainvillea-lined streets of Vence (Alamy) What should I bring home? Something from the antiques market in the square which is on from time to time and some excellent Provencal rosé in the supermarket. Anywhere that’s not your kind of town? Funchal in Madeira. I went years ago with Judy for our anniversary and found it gloomy and depressing. It rained every day and we got food poisoning. 'The Way You Look Tonight’ by Richard Madeley (Simon and Schuster, £7.99) is out now Reader offer: Explore our range of world-wide escorted tours, cruises, city breaks and holidays. Discover Telegraph Travel Collection (telegraph.co.uk/travelcollection). France holiday booking guide Marseille city break guide Nice city break guide St Tropez travel guide Cannes city break guide Rachel Khoo’s Marseille: My Kind of Town Win one of 40 holidays worth £800,000 Telegraph Travel Awards 2014: vote for your favourite destinations and travel companies for the chance to win one of 40 luxury breaks worth a total of £800,000. Travel Guides app Download the free Telegraph Travel app, featuring expert guides to destinations including Paris, Rome, New York, Venice and Amsterdam Follow Telegraph Travel on Twitter Follow Telegraph Travel on Facebook Follow Telegraph Travel on Pinterest Follow Telegraph Travel on FourSquare | high | 1.375 | Richard Madeley, the television presenter, shares his favourite haunts in the historic market town of Vence, in the south of France |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160805191158id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/08/01/nyregion/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-disappears-from-stores.html | Interest trickled in slowly after the script’s publication was announced in February, Ms. Gannett said, but in the past week, requests for reserved copies nearly doubled. In New York and across the country, so-called Potterheads swarmed bookstores Saturday night and into Sunday morning to celebrate the release, as if they had found the secret winged key that not only let them back into their childhoods but also opened the door to another generation. Judy Stelter, the manager of Book World in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., was expecting a smaller, older audience for the store’s midnight party. Instead, she was greeted by teenagers and young children with their parents, who filled the small store to enjoy cake and chocolate frogs (a treat among wizards). “Look at all the young kids in here,” Ms. Stelter said, standing beside boxes of “Cursed Child.” “They’re in here for a book that’s in print and on paper, not on an electric device. Once they read like that, they’ll read for life.” Many fans happily brought family members who were not old enough — or even born yet — for the celebrations of the original series. In Atlanta, Erin Whitlock, 24, brought her 12-year-old brother Liam to a Barnes & Noble in the Edgewood neighborhood. “He’s as big a fan as I am, and it’s just really cool to be here tonight because he gets to experience what I grew up with,” Ms. Whitlock said, noting that her brother visits Ms. Rowling’s website Pottermore, where she regularly publishes new stories. “The wizarding world doesn’t stop with the books. It goes with your imagination.” JillEllyn Riley, 48, a writer and editor who lives in Cobble Hill, perused the novels at BookCourt with her sons, ages 13 and 19, who did not seem to mind the spectacle of their mother dressed as Sybil Trelawney, a professor at Hogwarts. Ms. Riley said she hosted monthly Harry Potter club meetings in the neighborhood with her younger son. “We came here to BookCourt for Book 7, all of us,” she said. “My 13-year-old was 3, and I knew that later he would read the books and wouldn’t be able to go to the midnight releases, but I knew he’d know he had been there once.” Aubrey Nolan, 25, who planned the evening at BookCourt, said she wanted to keep the activities family friendly. All around her, children sipped cream soda floats they passed off as butterbeer and decorated wands with paint, sequins and string. Others had mug shots taken that resembled the wizards imprisoned at Azkaban. Bookstores around the country embraced the theme, too, with Books of Wonder in Manhattan offering photos with owls (like Harry’s Hedwig) and the Charles Deering Library at Northwestern University outside Chicago refereeing a Quidditch match, a sport played in the series. At the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, nearly 250 people showed up for what was billed as a Hogwarts reunion. And members of the Seattle Shakesbeerience performed the first few scenes from the play with Patrick Lennon — who said the group’s motto is “script in one hand, drink in the other” — as Harry. “I’m in the group that aged along with Harry,” Mr. Lennon, 30, said. “One of the actresses says she’ll probably be crying through it. I might too.” For some, nothing was more important than getting their hands on the newest edition, even if it meant waiting alone or interrupting a vacation. Annie Grandidge and Travis Dicks, tourists from New Castle, Australia, spent two and a half hours in line at the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. And Ashley Johnson, 32, the actress who played Chrissy Seaver in the sitcom “Growing Pains,” recently moved to Brooklyn to work on NBC’s “Blindspot." She showed up at BookCourt by herself, knowing she would easily make friends with other Potter fans. “I was a little angry that I didn’t read these as I was growing up,” Ms. Johnson said. “I found them in my mid-20s and I never got to go wait in line for the original books, so to be a part of that I felt like I needed to go do it. We don’t get to do this with a lot of things with how fast the world moves, and to wait in line for a book at midnight feels really special.” Margaret Piraino, 24, dressed as Nymphadora Tonks, a half-blood witch, complete with rainbow hair and Potter-themed jewelry, attended the BookCourt party with her girlfriend, Laurel Detkin, a fellow Potter enthusiast. But this time was different. “I grew up with Harry Potter and it’s been my entire life, and my dad would go to Barnes & Noble with me every time there was a new release,” Ms. Piraino, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, said. “And this year, my dad died in January and it’s the first time I had to go on my own.” In Seattle, Dylan Blanford, 13, donned a long black robe and a yellow tie as a member of Hufflepuff, one of the four houses at Hogwarts, and said he was jealous that he was not at parties for the previous Harry Potter books. He started reading the books at age 5. “I’m excited because there’s still this little 6-year-old jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry!’ And there’s also this 13-year-old jumping around inside of me going, ‘Harry! Harry! Harry!’” he said. “I’m so excited because it’s not the end, forever, you know?” Correction: July 31, 2016 An earlier version of a photo caption in the accompanying slide show reversed the positions of Katelynn Kenney and Liane Pippin. Ms. Kenney was on the right, not the left. Reporting was contributed by Clay Bolton, Posey Gruener, Emily Palmer, Natalie Pita, Rita Pyrillis and Ryan Schuessler. A version of this article appears in print on August 1, 2016, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Long Lines, Costumes and an Owl Welcome a New ‘Harry Potter’. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | high | 1.870968 | From Brooklyn to Seattle, fans of the book and film series turned out at midnight on Saturday for the release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160817143928id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/finance/businessclub/10615529/The-beauty-of-Dragons-Blood-and-bee-venom.html | Over the past five years, the entrepreneur has rolled out Nip + Fab, which caters to the mass market. The company has doubled its revenues year-on-year and will turn over £15m in the year to March 2014. Part of Rodial’s allure is the brand’s eye-catching product names. “Some of our products sound scary,” admits Ms Hatzistefanis. “We have Snake Serum, Dragon’s Blood and Bee Venom. They are all very safe but we like to play with the names of our ingredients to create a talking point.” Products start at £19 up to £375 for Bee Venom 24 Carat Gold Serum. The company’s love affair with edgy names began with Snake Serum, launched in 2010. “When a snake bites you, it paralyses the muscles,” explains Ms Hatzistefanis. “The main ingredient in our Serum is a synthetic venom, called syn-ake, which performs the same way as viper venom.” Snake Serum was unveiled with great fanfare. Adverts featured a black viper coiling around the products; Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham were rumoured to be fans and sales skyrocketed. “There was the occasional person who didn’t like the product because they hated snakes but, mostly, it caused a lot of excitement,” says Ms Hatzistefanis. “So we thought, 'What shall we do next?’ ” Dragon’s Blood is a bright red resin from a tree native to the Canary Islands and Morocco. The sap has been used for medicinal purposes since the times of the Roman Empire. “It helps to take down redness and irritation and I loved the name,” says Ms Hatzistefanis. The skin plumping products are marketed as an alternative to dermal fillers, the so-called “liquid facelift”. “We added peptides and hyaluronic acid to make it really high tech and now Dragon’s Blood is our bestselling range.” Bee Venom completed the animal-themed range. “Lots of customers were asking for it,” says Ms Hatzistefanis. “We took bee venom and the latest stem cell technology to develop a range for more mature skin.” The business has made other bold moves in recent years. In 2012, the Nip + Fab brand launched a product called Tummy Fix. According to the e-commerce site’s analysis, 40pc of the people buying the product were men. This convinced Ms Hatzistefanis to start researching the market for men’s skincare. “Women in London spend about £1,500 a year on skincare,” she says. “Men in London spend £1,100 – it’s not that far off.” The Nip + Man range launched in May 2013. Products include Manotox, the men’s alternative to Botox, the Bicep Fix and the Ab Fix, with Gemmoslim to battle the bulge. Nip + Man currently represents just 5pc of the company’s turnover, compared with Rodial, which has 55pc, and Nip + Fab with 40pc. “But it’s growing fast,” says Ms Hatzistefanis. There has been one wrinkle in the firm’s growth trajectory, however. “A couple of years ago there was a big issue with a plastic surgeon who talked to a newspaper and said that our products didn’t do what they promised and could be harmful,” says Ms Hatzistefanis. “That was very shocking.” Rodial’s lawyers sent a letter to the surgeon asking him to show evidence to back up his claims. A media storm ensued. “People said that we were threatening the plastic surgeon for expressing his opinion. The media called us bullies. Our integrity as a business was in question. Whenever we tried to clarify things, we couldn’t make it right. It was a really dark time.” It took four months for the situation to blow over. Sales remained stable throughout but Rodial’s relationships with its customer base were sorely tested. Today, the business is thriving. The products remain a firm favourite of celebrity make-up artists for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga, helping to generate positive press for the brand. The company is expanding its presence in department stores such as Harrods by introducing its own beauty counters. TV shopping is another growth area and airport sales are booming. Bestsellers, or “classics”, are a rarity, with customers demanding a continuous stream of new products. “Beauty has become more like fashion,” explains Ms Hatzistefanis. “You used to launch a range and then maybe add one product a season. Now, the customer expects something new every six to eight weeks.” As new lines are introduced, poorly performing products are phased out. This is a “brutal” process, Ms Hatzistefanis admits. A new range called Super Acids, described as an alternative to chemical peels, is due to hit the shops this month, to be followed by a make-up range in September. After 14 years, Ms Hatzistefanis, who owns 100pc of the business with her husband, still enjoys the cut and thrust of the beauty industry. She has no plans to sell up any time soon. “There’s so much you can achieve with a skincare product now,” she says. “Just imagine what we’re going to be able to do in 10 years time.” | high | 0.678571 | The inventor of the bottled facelift is building a world-beating beauty brand, fighting slander and staying one step ahead of the cosmetics giants. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20111103123934id_/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/magazine/06HEIZER.html | ou just don't get it, do you? This is a czarist nation, a fascist state. They control everything. They tap my phone. They'll do anything to stop me. We're the front lines, man, fleas fighting a giant.'' It is a clear, crisp, gorgeous winter afternoon in the high desert in Nevada, and Michael Heizer, who has spent the past 32 years and many millions of mostly other people's dollars constructing ''City'' -- one of the biggest sculptures any modern artist has ever built, one and a quarter miles long and more than a quarter of a mile wide -- is in a state of extreme agitation, even for him. His pique is rising as he maneuvers his truck down a bumpy mountain pass, filling the truck's cabin with cigar smoke. I sense that he's rather enjoying himself. We are driving through Murphy Gap. Pinyon and juniper cluster along the slopes on either side. This narrow, serpentine passage of astonishing beauty cuts through the Golden Gate Range, far from civilization. Aside from Heizer's voice and the truck's engine, there is an endless, empty, engulfing silence. Coal Valley, on the eastern side of the mountain range, is a desolate, flat plain of yellow rabbit brush and silver sage for grazing cattle. To the west, Heizer's valley, Garden Valley, is vast and nearly uninhabited. Size is deceptive out here. ''City'' looks from the edge of the valley like a low-lying bump, barely visible. When you drive just a mile from it, south across the valley, it basically disappears into the brush. But picture a sculpture the size of the Washington Mall, nearly from the steps of the Capitol to the Washington Monument, swallowing many of the museums on either side. That's how big it is. Only once you're inside do you see all the mounds, pits, passageways, plazas, ramps and terraced dirt, most of the sculpture having been dug below ground level, masked from outside by berms. The shapes echo the mountains. ''I'm not selling the view,'' Heizer contradicts when I mention this. ''You can't even see the landscape unless you're standing at the edge of the sculpture.'' True. Even so, the echoes are plain as day. We are maybe 30 miles from Nellis Air Force Base and the military's supersecret Area 51, and more than 100 miles from Yucca Mountain, where the federal government, if all goes as planned, will begin to collect the nation's nuclear waste in 2010. Trains will transport the waste from across the country, through the middle of Atlanta and Chicago and Salt Lake City and Kansas City, to Caliente, a town just north of here. From there, more than 300 miles of track will have to be laid, at a cost of more than $1 billion, to carry the waste the rest of the way. As it is currently conceived, the route will cut across Garden Valley, within ear- and eyeshot of Heizer's sculpture and the ranch right next to it where he lives, a kind of survivalist compound of cinder block and solar panels, an oasis of cottonwoods and wild plum trees in the middle of a wide, empty plain. Having moved long ago to this virtual end of the earth, and having also moved heaven and earth to build in isolation his immense sculpture, Heizer now finds the federal government is plotting, as he sees things, to ruin it and him. Heizer knows it's highly unlikely that he or anyone else will suddenly stop Yucca cold, but he says he's hoping at least to persuade Department of Energy officials at this 11th hour to redirect the tracks next door through Coal Valley and Murphy Gap. Of course he is deeply pessimistic. ''I've always been a pessimist,'' he tells me, ''but now I think things are going to get really, really bad.'' Squinting into a fresh plume of cigar smoke, which rises like a dark cloud around him, he starts imagining first the rail, then wells, then electric power lines invading the valley, while ''sniveling toady'' politicians, as he calls them, do nothing. His soliloquy crescendos, linking defense contractors like Kellogg Brown & Root and Bechtel to the government as a sinister cabal machinating against him -- ''I wouldn't be surprised if they sent out a hit squad to kill me!'' -- when the silence of Murphy Gap is suddenly shattered by a heart-stopping boom. An F-16 buzzes our truck. It looks as if it can't be more than 100 feet overhead, turned sideways to maneuver low through the snaking pass. Then as quickly as it appears, it's gone. Who knows? I think. Even paranoids may be right sometimes. | medium | 1 | Michael Heizer was an art-world hero, but now he's learning that you're never far enough away from things things like mortality and the plans of the U.S. government. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20131120075257id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/19/5-pointz-graffiti-mecca-new-york-painted-white | New York’s international graffiti mecca 5 Pointz was erased overnight when the paintings were buffed over on the orders of the property's owners. The five-story warehouse complex in Queens, which has hosted a curated selection of graffiti since 2002, was a popular gathering place for art fans; its murals were a familiar sight to New York subway passengers as they passed through the Long Island City neighborhood. But in August, city officials granted Jerry and David Wolkoff, who own the building, permission to demolish the site. The surprise overnight whitewash brought condemnation from artists, fans and volunteers who had gathered at the spot on Tuesday, many in tears. “What’s super disrespectful is that the whole thing about 5 Pointz is: it’s legal painting," said 5 Pointz volunteer Rebekah Kennedy. "For someone to come in and wash it away … that's the biggest vandal." She said that before the destruction, volunteers had been working on a way to preserve the art or the building as a landmark. “To just take it away is the biggest 'fuck you' that can happen,” Kennedy said. On Tuesday afternoon, volunteers taped large pieces of white to the walls inside the building’s loading dock center, where halal cart workers were still driving in and out of the yard. People had taken markers to the signs in tribute: “We played by the rules,” read one. Another bore a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, which was delivered 150 years ago, today: “We are met on a great battlefield of that war.” Owner Jerry Wolkoff defended the overnight destruction in an interview with NBC 4 New York. "I can imagine going one piece, one piece, and going through hell, torture to everybody," he said. "So I said, 'Let me do it one time and end this torture one time,’” he said. He compared the action to forcing a child to take medicine. "In the new building we're going to let them come back, and it's going to be similar and better," Wolkoff said, explaining that the new building will have a 60-foot wraparound wall for graffiti. "They're upset with me now, but it's the right thing for both of us.” He later expanded his defence in an interview with New York magazine: "I told the police to be there. The last thing I wanted was any confrontation. I didn't want any of them to be arrested. I have so much respect for them. It's my building, I can paint on it. I would feel terrible if someone got arrested." Comedy writer Joe Garden, who passes the spot on his way to work, called the destruction "an abomination" and said it "really seems spiteful and unnecessary, verging on cruel". Confirmed 5 Pointz graffiti Mecca was painted over last night pic.twitter.com/tweDokQR2Y Painting over 5 Pointz before tearing it down is one of the most artistically and culturally disrespectful moves I've seen in a while. Damn. Danny Simmons, a gallery owner and artist who testified in a lawsuit brought by 5 Pointz representatives, said the building has been “a repository of hip-hop history and a place of beauty and wonder”. Simmons is the older brother of hip-hop mogul Russell, and Joseph, or Rev Run, of Run DMC, and all three were closely tied to the rise of hip-hop culture. Danny Simmons said: “It’s been a major tourist attraction for the city – a place where young and old could go for free and let their imaginations run wild. It was an inspiration to art’s free spirit and spoke volumes to artists like myself about color and form. With the painting over and razing of this building, the arts and NYC has been sorely diminished. It will be missed, but the spirit of art for and by the people lives on.” Artists have been painting on the property since the early 1990s, with permission from the Wolkoffs. But the owners decided in 2010 to demolish the building to make room for two luxury residential towers. 5 Pointz representatives, led by curator Jonathan Cohen, also known as Meres One, had been at odds with the Wolkoffs for several years after an artist was seriously injured in 2009 when an outdoor staircase broke. New York’s building department ordered the largest structure in the complex to close following the incident, but in mid-October the building was still standing. Since the city granted the property owners permission to demolish the building, Meres and fellow curator Marie Cecile Flageul have been fighting a losing battle. With a band of other graffiti artists, 5 Pointz launched a lawsuit against the Wolkoffs, but federal district judge Frederic Block ruled last week in the Wolkoffs' favour. On Saturday, the 5 Pointz crew held what would be the final rally to preserve the building. There were also plans to appeal Block’s decision, and petitions from around the world were submitted in support. The decision to paint over the murals comes just after Banksy held a month-long New York residency in October, which ended with him writing a brief comment on his website to "Save 5 Pointz." | high | 1.36 | Artworks at Queens graffiti site buffed over at the behest of the property owners, who want to pull it down to build luxury condos |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140521142649id_/http://www.people.com/article/andy-dick-removed-dancing-with-the-stars-ballroom-finale | By Kate Coyne and Dahvi Shira 05/21/2014 at 10:00 AM EDT Long before one of the three finalists , another celebrity found himself getting the boot from the ballroom. Season 16 competitor Andy Dick, 48, arrived at the finale with a guest and seemed to be acting erratically, reeking of smoke and exhibiting eyebrow-raising behavior. He was running in and out of the ballroom every five minutes, saying, "I have to pee!" Within the hour, he had lunged at a production staffer's breast. One observer tells PEOPLE that four security guards stepped in quickly and they "told him he had to go, and he said, 'Why? Because I'm drunk?' " Once evicted from the premises, the comedian wasn't seen again for the remainder of the finale. Dick, who has had a very public, longtime alongside partner Sharna Burgess during his seven-week stint on ABC's hit show. A cast mate on Dr. Drew Pinsky's former VH1 docu-series , Dick seemed like a changed man on , dedicating a beautiful Viennese waltz to his daughter, whom he told the audience he reconnected with once he got sober. He added that 2013 was the best year of his life, because he ditched his bad habits. "I'm clenching my jaw because if [the tears] start going, they won't stop," Dick of his then-life-changing experience on the show at the time he was eliminated. "I'll miss that feeling of accomplishment every week. This is just so not what I do. Lasting this long at something that's not me is just so wild." had no comment on Dick's behavior Tuesday night or on his removal from the show, and his agent didn't return a request for comment. | medium | 1 | Four bodyguards had to remove a former fan favorite off the premises on Tuesday night for inappropriate behavior |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140820012955id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2014/07/03/emergence-explores-roots-string-quartet-genre/br3KHGNCas85GuZTrxxcbJ/story.html?p1=Article_InThisSection_Bottom | Even though the forms that have become common musical currency — sonatas, symphonies, concertos — underwent lengthy, complex processes of development, we sometimes talk about them as if their materialization was some discrete, easily pinpointed event. A prime example is the string quartet, which is commonly said to have been “invented” by Franz Joseph Haydn around the middle of the 18th century. In fact, the development of the form unfolded gradually, tentatively and in overlapping phases. An inventive program in the summer series of the Society for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP) is meant to tell at least part of that story. Titled “Birth of the String Quartet,” it includes pieces for two violins, viola, and cello by Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch, and Franz Xaver Richter, three composers in whose work the quartet grows out of its Baroque origins, and ends with a quartet from Haydn’s Opus 1 set. The three performances come courtesy of the aptly named Emergence Quartet: violinists Emily Dahl and Lisa Goddard, violist Zoe Kemmerling, and cellist Emily Davidson. The period-instrument group formed last fall, and gave its first performance earlier this year. It was the brainchild of Davidson, a Baroque cellist who was looking to form a chamber ensemble, and was surprised that there didn’t seem to be a regularly performing quartet in Boston’s thriving early-music scene. “It seemed like a perfect outlet to bring together general classical music fans — almost everybody loves the string quartet — to the period-performance angle and explore this repertoire,” Davidson said in a recent phone interview. “What kind of music [the string quartet] was coming out of, and the first quartets that were on the scene.” The Telemann sonata that opens the program offers a glimpse of the Baroque rhetoric out of which the quartet emerged. Sonatas of this era usually featured a number of solo instruments and a bass line, with figuration that functioned as the harmonic guide for a continuo player (usually on a keyboard). What’s notable about the Telemann piece, Davidson explained, is that there is no continuo part indicated. The cello line simply functions on its own. “That’s a pretty big defining factor, if we start to see stand-alone bass lines, rather than a line with a figured bass above it that’s intended to be played by a chordal instrument,” she said. A sonata by Fasch (1688-1758), by contrast, was actually written with continuo in mind. Yet, Davidson said, “the writing works quite well in the string quartet style,” without accompaniment. And whereas the Telemann is harmonically conventional, Fasch’s writing is unexpectedly adventurous. “It’s very dramatic, very surprising music — Fasch was always sort of pushing the boundaries and writing these outrageous, almost shocking harmonies that were far beyond his time.” A piece by Richter (1709-89) is the first on the concert to use the title “quartet.” Here, another part of the puzzle drops into place: the equality of all four instrumental parts. “Richter really starts playing with the role of each instrument,” Davidson said. “You see a lot of melodies being passed off — where the viola’s usually just playing harmony, we’ll get a moment where it takes over. The cello will often switch off from a bass line role and jump up into the tenor clef, which is an exciting new move.” Given the adventurous writing by these two rather obscure composers, Haydn’s G-major Quartet may seem surprisingly conventional. Its five-movement lineup resembles that of a divertimento, an older form, more than what we think of as a string quartet. The melodic writing centers almost exclusively on the first violin, with the three other instruments in a secondary, accompanying role. None of Haydn’s later innovations are present. And yet, there is an unmistakably idiomatic feel to the music, as though it offered a distant foreshadowing of what was now on the horizon. Asked what she hoped listeners might take from the performances, Davidson hoped it would broaden the idea of what a string quartet can be — both in terms of the repertoire and of the Emergence’s sound. “I think it’s nice to sort of push the years back and hear where those sounds were coming out of, and understand that a quartet can make a number of different aesthetics and create a number of different sound worlds just by the style of writing and the setup of the piece. There’s a lot more variety than we’re aware of.” | medium | 1.090909 | David Weininger speaks with Emily Davidson of the Emergence Quartet about a new program meant to illustrate the roots of the genre, to be performed July 8 through 10 around Boston. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141017030717id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/music/2014/10/11/mitchell-revisits-her-catalog-love-note-fans/9GI6jJfIJ6UfJlQXGReImN/story.html | Anaïs Mitchell wanted to keep it simple. In four years, she has released a trio of thematically rich albums, which in their pure inventiveness and musical diversity form a stunning creative hot streak. She has done this with help from a growing cast of collaborators culled from the world of Americana and contemporary folk. But for her latest effort, she wanted to strip it right back to the source. “When I was coming of musical age, I was really into the coffeehouse scene and Dar Williams and Ani DiFranco, and all those characters were touring solo at the beginning and I would always be disappointed when they finally started having a budget to have drums and bass and stuff,” Mitchell says. “And of course, as soon as I could afford a band, I had one, too. But I always wanted to just make a record of the songs as they were written.” So this month saw the low-key release of “xoa,” which plays as part autobiography and part love letter to Mitchell’s fans. Featuring the artist on guitar and vocals, unaccompanied, it’s composed of newly recorded versions of songs from throughout her career — notably, including some tunes whose lead vocals were sung by guest artists on the original versions — plus a few that haven’t been heard before. Selections like “Our Lady of the Underground,” “Young Man in America,” and “You Are Forgiven,” heard in these unadorned renditions, should act as catnip to Mitchell’s fans. “It really is more of a homespun effort,” she says, “for people who are already familiar with the music.” The sound isn’t entirely dissimilar from her earliest work, but the record stands alone as a purely solo effort. As the Vermont native speaks, she’s in the cafe at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. (Spotting Pete Seeger’s banjo was a highlight, she says.) In the background of the phone call, her 1-year-old daughter contributes a few wordless comments to the conversation. Ramona’s birth, her mom says, helped trigger Mitchell’s current exercise in artistic introspection. It’s a long tour, and after her show at Club Passim in Cambridge on Monday, Mitchell will carry on with more than two-dozen dates in Europe. This is her first extended solo excursion after spending much of last year touring with New York-based musician Jefferson Hamer behind their album of reconfigured English and Scottish folk songs. Before that, she had traveled with a band to focus on material from “Young Man in America,” her darkly ruminative concept album inspired by her father and grandfather. And she’s spent much of her time in the past eight years refining “Hadestown,” her folk-operatic retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, having released a staggeringly good all-star studio incarnation in 2010. (Mitchell was in residence at Dartmouth College this past August, further developing the show in tandem with New York Theatre Workshop.) Mitchell’s last two records were produced by Gary Paczosa, an in-demand, Nashville-based engineer and producer who has worked on a dozen albums with Alison Krauss, plus others by Dolly Parton, Chris Thile, and Gillian Welch. Several artists with whom he was working told him he needed to hear “Hadestown,” Paczosa says. He put the CD on in his studio, planning to listen to one song and then rush out the door to another commitment. “We sat and listened to the entire record. We didn’t move,” he recalls. “I’m rarely that captivated.” Mitchell says she has no particular interest in writing concept albums — sometimes things just work out that way. “I think it just happens that songs come in and they bring along a couple friends, or a couple of cousins,” she says. “And they may all seem to be chipping away at the same block, but it just happens to be the stuff that's going through your heart and your head at that time.” With the most recent addition to the family, she and her husband moved back to Vermont from Brooklyn, where they had spent a few years. She has begun a graduate program in creative writing at Goddard College, pursued remotely through independent study. She’s been listening to a lot of operas and musicals, and wants to sharpen her skills to write another staged production. She says the new album and current tour are part of the process before “moving ahead into the new era.” What does the new era have in store? “Right now it’s that I’m rolling around in a van, and trying to do an MFA program, and trying to jog in the parking lot of the hotel with Ramona in a stroller,” she says. “And I’m trying to go to bed immediately after the gig, rather than having a bohemian evening afterwards.” | medium | 1.28125 | Taking a breather after a series of ambitious albums, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell gets back to low-key basics on her latest album, “xoa.” |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141023162917id_/http://fortune.com:80/2014/10/21/oracle-microsoft-reinvent-data-warehouse/ | Does the world really need yet another data warehouse technology—let alone one that defies convention and flaunts compliance concerns by living outside the “safety” of corporate data centers as part of a public cloud service? Snowflake Computing, a startup in San Mateo, Calif., founded by a team of data experts including two Oracle engineers and helmed by longtime Microsoft MSFT executive Bob Muglia, has raised $26 million to answer that question. Emerging from the shadows this week with backing from investors including Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Wing Ventures, Snowflake’s proposition is simple. It believes its patent-pending SQL relational database technology—built completely from scratch—can accommodate more types of business data than legacy offerings from the likes of Teradata TDC or big data management platforms building on Hadoop. “Customers do have existing solutions, but they’re not satisfied. It’s not like we’re entering a market where people are happy with their current solutions,” Muglia says. Rather than requiring customers to install its technology on site, Snowflake is offering it as a service. Businesses pay for how much data they are storing and by the number of hours it takes to analytics queries against their information. The most direct competitor is Redshift from Amazon Web Services . The company claims its approach costs 90% less than investing in the hardware and software necessary to build on on-site data warehouse. Snowflake was founded two years ago by a team of engineers who between them hold more than 120 patents in databases and data management technologies: Oracle ORCL veterans Benoit Dageville and Thierry Cruanes, and Dutch computer scientist Marcin Zukowski. The whimsical name pays homage to their mutual love of snow sports. Muglia joined as CEO in June, taking over from Sutter Hill director Mike Speiser, who was managing the team while it was in stealth mode. Muglia admits Snowflake won’t appeal to companies that aren’t willing to put their data on cloud servers and storage. Its initial customers hail from the advertising, media, and technology sectors. “Whoever has the biggest dataset can answer the hardest questions,” says James Rooney, senior vice president of media platforms at Accordant Media, one of Snowflake’s beta customers. “Instead of spending an hour waiting for a response, we get it in five minutes with Snowflake. So we can spend more time interpreting the result or whiteboarding harder questions.” Whether Snowflake can melt the hearts of skeptics remains to be seen. Still, if you consider how much data is now being generated in applications and services that live “in the cloud” (as opposed to on-premise corporate data centers) the logic behind its approach could add up quickly. This item first appeared in the Oct. 21 edition of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.Sign up here. | medium | 1.869565 | Emerging from stealth with $26 million in backing, Snowflake Computing is taking on both legacy players and Amazon Web Services. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141124114924id_/http://fortune.com/2014/11/24/finance-minister-oil-slump-sanctions-cost-russia-140-billion-a-year/ | Russia’s Finance Minister said the combined cost of western sanctions and the recent fall in world oil prices to Russia’s economy this year would be a massive $140 billion. “We will lose around $40 billion a year because of sanctions, and around $90-100 billion a year, if we assume a 30% drop in the price of oil,” Anton Siluanov told a conference in Moscow Monday, according to news agency reports. Siluanov’s comments go against the grain of bravado from President Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, both of whom have repeatedly tried to play down the impact of U.S. and E.U. sanctions in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its sponsoring of an armed rebellion in the eastern provinces of Ukraine. They are, however, consistent with Siluanov’s own earlier warnings about the need for Russia to tighten its belt and make big cutbacks in the light of the new economic reality. Siluanov has already warned that the big increase in defense spending earmarked for the next three years is unaffordable. “If you’re talking about the consequences of geopolitics, they are, of course, substantial,” Siluanov said. “But it’s not as critical for the exchange rate and even for the budget as the oil price.” Siluanov’s comments come on the eve of a crucial meeting of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, which will focus on the alarming slide in oil prices since the summer. In a weekend interview with ITAR-TASS, Putin insinuated that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia had conspired to drive up global supply well beyond actual levels of demand, in order to weaken the Russian economy. Somewhat confusingly, he later added that “maybe the Saudis want to ‘kill off’ their competitors” in the U.S. shale oil sector.” Russia isn’t a member of OPEC, but depends on taxes from oil and gas companies for some two-thirds of its budget revenue. A draft for next year’s budget, approved in September, assumes an average oil price of $100 a barrel, while banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase & Co. think it will be nearer $80. Barred from western financial markets, the government will either have to cut spending or raise taxes to keep the deficit down to its projected 0.6% of gross domestic product, or borrow at increasingly expensive rates from domestic savers and institutions. The yield on the government’s 10-year bonds has risen to 10.12% as of Monday from 7.71% at the start of the year, as the ruble has depreciated by 30% against the dollar. Russia’s central bank earlier this month cut its forecast for growth next year to zero, after having to raise interest rates sharply to stop the ruble’s fall. GDP rose by only 0.8% on the year in the third quarter, although that was above economists’ expectations. The ruble has rebounded sharply against the dollar in recent days as the central bank’s actions have started to gain traction and stem a wave of speculation. By mid-day in Moscow, the ruble was at its highest in more than two weeks against the dollar as oil and gas companies converted their export earnings back into rubles ahead of a routine tax payment deadline. | medium | 1.2 | The oil price effect is twice as big as that of sanctions, but Moscow is no longer pretending that sanctions aren't hurting. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150515010245id_/http://fortune.com/2015/05/14/nordstrom-amazon/ | Nordstrom and Amazon.com have a lot more in common than their hometown of Seattle. Just like Amazon, Nordstrom has been spending big on technology, warehouses and expanding into new businesses. And like Amazon, sales have grown rapidly — while its profit shrinks. The upscale department store’s overall revenue rose 9.8% to $3.12 billion for the quarter ending May 2. Comparable sales, which excludes newly opened or closed stores, rose 4.4% from the year-ago period, the strongest among the company’s peers. Yet Nordstrom’s profit fell to $128 million from $140 million while its return on invested capital fell just over one percentage point to 12.2%. Nordstrom has been pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into building up its digital sales, expanding into Canada and planning a beachhead in Manhattan. It’s doubling the size of its Rack outlet chain and acquired e-commerce sites like Trunk Club, as it looks to keep up with shoppers’ quickly changing behavior and avoid the doldrums afflicting many brick-and-mortar retailers. “Our customer strategy is squarely focused on serving customers on their terms and delivering the high level of service they expect from us,” Blake Nordstrom, one of three siblings who are presidents at the retailer and scion of the company’s founding family, said on a conference call with investors. It seems to be working with Nordstrom now getting 20% of sales from e-commerce. That’s well ahead of the 12% share of e-commerce at Macy’s M and comparable to Neiman Marcus, which has a natural advantage thanks to its legacy catalog business. Two years ago, Nordstrom only got 13% of sales online. Nordstrom’s goal is to hit $20 billion in overall sales — bricks and mortar plus online — by 2020, 50% more than 2014 levels. To get there, the department store plans to spend $4.3 billion between now and 2019, or about 5% of sales. The biggest chunk of that, $1.5 billion will be dedicated to technology and warehouses to speed up the delivery of online orders to better compete with Amazon, among others. For example, it is opening a new fulfillment center in Pennsylvania so that online orders can reach the East Coast more quickly. Nordstrom is also spending big on things like updating its mobile shopping app and upgrading tools to better target customers with discount offers. It has added location-based features to it app and recently integrated its loyalty rewards program to make it easier for customers to redeem awards from mobile devices. While Nordstrom’s full-service upscale department store will remain the centerpiece of the company’s business (by 2020, it would still represent 58% of sales, the company told Wall Street analysts on Thursday), it is clear growth will have to come from elsewhere. Its traditional department stores had comparable sales growth of a mere 0.5% in the first quarter. In contrast, Nordstrom.com sales rose 20%. On the discount store front, online sales at Nordstrom Rack and Nordstrom’s flash sales site HauteLook.com, rose 51% to $117 million even as comparable sales at physical Rack stores slipped a bit. Nordstromrack.com launched only a year ago and the company has had to spend money to expand the assortment available on the site. As for international expansion, Nordstrom recently opened its second Canadian store, in Ottawa. Long term, the retailer is planning six stores in Canada and thinks that market can eventually be a $1 billion business. It is also working on its first Manhattan department store, set to open in three years. Wall Street has occasionally dinged Nordstrom for its big spending on new initiatives. But Thursday, after the earnings report, the company’s shares JWN rose despite the profit dip because management showed that the investments are paying off. It’s a similar story at Amazon, although it has taken big spending to a new level by tolerating quarterly losses. That company has been building up its cloud computing business, adding perks to its Prime subscription shipping plan, opening warehouses, and testing online grocery delivery. The result has been an industry leader with sales that rose 15% last quarter, and a loss that investors sometimes grumble about but forgive AMZN . There must be something in the water in Seattle. For more about Amazon, watch this Fortune video: | medium | 1.027778 | The luxury department store chain laid it out its five-year plan for e-commerce and store expansion, showing how its focus is on sales growth -- even if that sacrifices profits. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150525041728id_/http://fortune.com:80/2011/03/23/why-u-s-patents-are-now-less-valuable/ | By Russell L. Parr and George Hovanec , guest contributors A January decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had a sweeping effect: it dropped the value of US patents. Just how much the value has been reduced, overall, is not yet known. Part of the reason we don’t know is because the reduction in value is not going to be equally distributed across every patent. Rather, we know that patents owned by individual inventors, universities and research institutes will be hardest hit. Here, we’ll explain what happened, and why it matters. First, here’s what happened last month. A frequently used method in determining damages for patent infringement, “the 25% Rule of Thumb,” was rejected by the Court in Uniloc USA, Inc. et al. v. Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft was found to infringe Uniloc’s patent for a piece of technology. Expert testimony at trial concerning patent damages had, like many cases through history, relied on the 25% Rule of Thumb to determine damages owed to Uniloc. Microsoft MSFT appealed the decision reached by the jury and the Court rejected the use of the 25% Rule of Thumb. Not just for this particular case — but for forever — even though it has been used in and out of court to determine royalty rates for decades. The 25% rule isn’t just for court cases, however. Patent owners often license the rights to use a patented invention in exchange for royalties. The royalty is usually a percentage rate (royalty rate) applied to the sales earned by using the patent. The “25% Rule” is a typical starting rate that suggests that 25% of the profits earned from using the invention goes to the patent owner while the remaining 75% stays with the licensee. The thinking here is that the licensee has brought other assets to the commercialization of the patented invention. These can include manufacturing expertise, well established brand names and a distribution network. By retaining 75% of the profits, the licensee is allowed to earn a return on its significant contribution. This isn’t all bad though: blind application of the 25% Rule can and does lead to errors. Many other factors must be considered — and usually are thoroughly considered — by most experts. But the rule can be a shortcut in both the good and bad sense of the word. When the licensed invention is central to the success of a product then the rule is a good starting point, such as when the patented invention is the active ingredient in a cancer therapy. But for example, if a design alternative can be inexpensively substituted without infringing the patent, an entirely different analysis is needed. When 25% Rule has been improperly applied, extraordinary damage awards for seemingly minor improvements to a product have been made. It seems the Court has become frustrated by these abuses of the 25% Rule and used the Microsoft/Uniloc case to react. Here’s where things get complicated, and patent values can potentially go down: Companies whose patents are infringed can often find other ways to calculate damages especially against competitors who unfairly used their patents. But individual inventors, universities and research institutes typically cannot commercialize their inventions, and need to recover damages after the infringement has occurred. Without being able to rely on the 25% Rule, inventors, universities and research institutes have lost an important arrow in their quiver. By making the determination of a royalty rate more difficult, it also becomes more difficult and expensive to protect patents from being infringed upon. And that could encourage more infringement to happen. All in all, it just became a lot harder for researchers and inventors to protect themselves in patent fights, especially if big corporations are the ones on the other side of the battle. — Russell L. Parr is President of Intellectual Property Research Associates. George Hovanec is a shareholder in the Intellectual Property Section of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC. | medium | 0.96 | A stunning decision in a Microsoft patent infringement case may have made patent royalties more fair, but also made them much more unpredictable. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150602095706id_/http://fortune.com/2015/06/01/le-mans-an-aston-martin-vantage-gt12-and-me-whats-not-to-love/ | If you were offered the chance to participate in one offensive play in the Super Bowl, knowing full well you’d be utterly outplayed and certainly beat up, would you take it? When it comes to endurance sports-car racing, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the Super Bowl, World Cup and Carnival, all wrapped into one. As the name implies, it takes place over a 24-hour period, and the 8.5-mile course is known for its high speeds and tricky corners. For the hundreds of thousands of fans who attend each year, it’s also a massive party, complete with a carousel within the race track’s grounds. I’m a (very) amateur race-car driver. So when I was offered the chance to participate in this year’s Le Mans festival, which occurs June 13-14, the idea was absurd, terrifying—and tempting. Every year there is a 45-minute exhibition race that takes place just before the start of the official competition. Dozens of cars from a single carmaker race against one another, a warm-up to the real event. This year those cars will be a fleet of Aston Martins, and I’ll be in one of them. My teammate is Andy Palmer, the CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. So, no pressure there, either. The Aston Martin race is open to a variety of prototype and GT cars that have previously raced at Le Mans. Sixty cars, piloted by “gentlemen drivers” — basically amateur drivers with varying degrees of real-world experience — will go wheel to wheel. Palmer and I will share a new Aston Martin Vantage GT12, which looks similar to the road-going Vantage sports car, but gains a big rear wing and a full roll cage. It has a 6-liter V-12 engine with almost 600 horsepower. The car is unbelievably sexy looking, and it’s the real deal. I expect to reach speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. The course itself, called Circuit de la Sarthe, includes miles and miles of two-lane public roads that are closed off once a year for the event. Speeds are incredibly high, and there is little run-off when things go wrong. There will be crashes. A Brit with an easy smile who was previously an executive at the Nissan Motor Company, Palmer is also an amateur. He recently got some endurance-racing practice at the Britcar Dunlop 24-hour race in Silverstone, U.K., along with three teammates. Palmer and I first met at the this year’s New York Auto Show in April, where we talked about Aston Martin’s long racing history and how it continues to evolve with cars like the Vantage GT12 and the Vulcan, shown in the accompanying video. Palmer and I will share racing duties, but the car has only one seat. So, importantly, we had to decide who would start. We did it as gentlemen drivers should: Using rocks, scissors, paper. I won. | low | 2 | When one of the world's most exclusive sports-car makers offers you a seat in its latest racing machine—and at the world's preeminent endurance event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans—you just say yes. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150710121511id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/29/playing-with-fire-margin-debt-most-since-crisis.html | (Read more: Marc Faber: 'In a massive, speculative bubble') The other is that investors are so confident that they're willing to take risk to levels seen just before reckless behavior helped take down the market after it peaked in October 2007. That would be a bad thing. "When the tablecloth gets pulled out from under the place settings, you're going to have a lot of them crash and smash on the floor," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners hedge fund. "That margin's going to get pulled and everyone's going to have to cover. That's when you get really serious corrections." The correction call, however popular it has been, was the worst call of the year. The market has continued to ride modest gains in earnings and the economy and a 33 percent expansion in the Federal Reserve's money-pumping operation to a 27 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 and similar gains in the other major indexes. (Read more: Take cover! Bond market 'hell' could be on the way) While stocks have seen a few mild and brief pullbacks, buyers have come in at every interval to keep things moving. "So far the market has been buoyed by liquidity, has been buoyed by an economy that continues to gain traction, and obviously by a market that at least in the fourth quarter has been underpinned by very positive seasonality," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Annuities. "If there's some event that requires the proverbial margin call, that will see a domino effect begin." It was, after all, essentially either margin calls or the threat of them against Wall Street's largest financial institutions that triggered the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Both came amid what seemed like indestructible bull markets that also were pushed higher by leveraged buying. Margin debt hit a pre-crisis peak of $378.2 billion in June 2007, just a few months before the highs in October, and reached a cycle low of $173.3 billion in February 2009, a month before the market bottom prior to the current bull run. (Read more: Stocks are risky but no bubble yet, says Howard Marks) Investors have utilized not only the nearly $4 trillion in quantitative easing from the Fed to pave the record to record debt but also near-zero interest rates. Leveraged lending—involving little or no collateral and often to lower-quality borrowers—has hit $969 billion in 2013, second only to 2007 all-time and up 29 percent from a year ago, according to Dealogic. "I think it's a sign of a bubble. It's sort of reminiscent of the cliche 'how soon they forget,'" Landesman said. "It's kind of what you would expect to happen in a nearly five-year bull market. People go in and want to get more chips on the table. That's how you end up with more margin debt. Brokerage firms are only too happy to lend it." Indeed, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has by far the largest market share in leveraged lending, with a 14.2 percent market share that would translate to about $68 billion. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are second and third respectively. Landesman said he thinks a market-moving event—perhaps another Washington budget crisis—will be the trigger for a selloff of at least 10 percent. Krosby, though, said credit market behavior in the form of tightening swap spreads indicates signs of stability that likely will not come undone until a central bank move shakes the market. (Read more: Stocks 'very overpriced,' and so what if they are?) Most experts see the Fed beginning to decrease the amount of its $85 billion monthly bond-buying program in March, an event that could send negative market signals if rates start to rise. "At least in terms of the credit market, there's a stability," she said. "But when you have a market that has been distorted by central banks, all it takes is a comment from one of of the central banks providing liquidity of a change in the landscape and then you'll see a barrage of selling." —By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him on Twitter @JeffCoxCNBCcom. | medium | 1 | As investors feel emboldened by the seemingly unstoppable stock market rally, they're borrowing money at record levels to keep things going. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150810120426id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/30/cramer-hot-moneys-bad-bite-on-apple-china.html | The "Mad Money" host has no reason to doubt Apple or its CEO, Tim Cook. Perhaps sales have slowed since the quarter it just reported last week, but Cramer hasn't gotten that read. He could also suggest that the cellphone business has become a zero-sum industry, and Apple has totally crushed its competitor Samsung to take share faster than he's ever seen. But there is one thing that Cramer knows for sure—the companies that have most benefitted from the strength in Apple's phones are hurting right now. Both Qorvo and NXP Semiconductors represent the hottest portion of the semiconductor business, and have chips that go into everything from autos, to the Internet of things and cellphones. And while NXP was loved on Thursday, rising 6 percent, Qorvo took a total nosedive, dropping 14 percent. Cramer could sense the total confusion emanating from Qorvo's conference call on Wednesday, which was widely viewed as a disaster. It portrayed the shortfall as a function of the big infrastructure transition in China, not Apple. Yet, with all of the evidence, Cramer could argue that it wasn't just the infrastructure transition. It's an actual slowdown, which was aggravated by the crash in the Chinese stock market. No one can escape the slowdown, including Apple. So, what is the truth here? "My view is that the hot money made a bet that cellphone sales in China would be going strong. Now the hot money wants out of that bet, including Apple," Cramer said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer Cramer Remix: This is hurting Whole Foods Cramer: Twitter & Yelp blew it! It's their fault Cramer: What's really behind explosive earnings ---------------------------------------------------------- Instead, money is rotating out of cellphones and Apple and into health care, soft goods, oils and possibly industrial stocks. Cramer summed it up in just three letters: ABC—anything but cellphones. By the time investors find out what really when wrong, Cramer suspects the market will have already bottomed and started to go up again. That is exactly why he reiterated to own, not trade Apple, for a bumpy ride ahead. | medium | 1.142857 | Jim Cramer gives his take on China's impact on Apple, and where the big money is really flowing. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150908014225id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/20/do-millennials-earn-less-than-gen-xers-did.html | Are millennials earning less than Gen Xers were at their age? If you compare inflation-adjusted median weekly earnings for Gen Xers in the mid-1990s to earnings for the same age group today, millennials (usually defined as those between 18 and 34 years old) actually come out a little ahead, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But income is only part of the equation. Take into account the financial challenges millennials face and it's easy to understand why so many feel like they aren't making enough, say experts. "Millennials have an uphill climb," said Anthony P. Carnevale, a professor and director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "The economy has increased the demand for skills and millennials are the first generation that has had to deal with that." The cost of getting a job is leaving millennials in the red. Educational requirements for many jobs have increased, and so has college tuition. The average cost of attending undergraduate classes at a four-year private university is now nearly $42,500 per year—triple the price tag in 1990. Even state schools now cost students nearly $19,000 per year on average, a more than 100 percent increase over the last 25 years. Read MoreIs a college degree overvalued? "There's no doubt that more [millennials] are likely to graduate with student debt and the amounts that they owe are greater" than other generations, said senior researcher Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center. On average, student borrowers who graduated this year will owe $35,051, according to Mark Kantrowitz, a student financial aid policy expert and publisher of Edvisors.com—a record high. A lot of millennials also graduated into or after the Great Recession, which was deeper and longer than the recession Gen Xers faced in the 1990s. The 1990-91 recession in America lasted eight months and saw unemployment rise to 7.8 percent. But unemployment reached as high as 10 percent in 2009, just after the Great Recession officially ended. (That downturn officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009.) While earnings of full-time workers are up slightly compared to the 1990s, "On every other indicator–unemployment rate, landing full-time jobs, average hours worked, etc.–there's no doubt that millennials four years into the recovery were worse off than any other generation," said Fry. Based on his studies, Carnevale estimates about 23 percent of millennials are underemployed but projects that will drop down to about 17 percent in the next few years as the economy continues to improve. Still, he adds: "The Great Recession will mark the millennials for the rest of their lives. It affects your earnings trajectory for the rest of your life." There is one silver lining for millennials though: baby boomers. Over the next decade, economists estimate about 30 million job openings will arise from baby boomers retiring. That's good news not just for the underemployed or out-of-work millennials, but for the millions of younger millennials who will soon be entering the workforce. | medium | 1.590909 | Millennials are struggling with the dual burdens of record-high student debt and the lingering effects of the Great Recession. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151003190802id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/24/geopolitics-and-the-oil-price-why-the-disconnect.html | The demand and supply factors that have been bubbling under for two years are now finally hitting the oil markets according to research analysts at Citi, which is damping the connection between Middle East turmoil and financial markets. Read MoreChoking on oversupply, oil could fall another 10 percent "The dynamic that drove oil's rally last decade was robust demand growth meeting consistent disappointments on the supply side. Citi believes those two have now flipped in this decade," head of energy strategy at the group, Seth Kleinman said. The U.S. shale revolution is a key factor hitting both the demand and the supply side, as the spread between oil and gas prices is encouraging a shift from oil to gas in transportation, petrochemicals and other oil demand sectors, he said. "The only clear path to rebalancing the oil markets — absent some new and significant disruption — is for Saudi Arabia and OPEC to start to pull back on production to rein in the inventory builds," he added. So should investors steer clear of the likes of oil majors BP and Total while the downward pressure on oil price looks set to continue at least in the short term? Read MoreOil smuggling, theft, extortion: How ISIS earns $3M a day "A lot of the margins get squeezed – but it's just by how much. We are looking at total costs of production and they are still exceptionally low," global equity strategist at Coutts James Butterfill, told CNBC, who said investors are also being rewarded with a very attractive dividend. "For BP for instance, they (costs of production) are $25 per barrel. At Total they are $56, $57. So there is still a long way to go before these energy companies are not making any money. We own BP, we think these issues (relating to Russia and Macondo) will sort themselves out over the longer term," said Butterfill. | low | 0.482759 | The OPEC basket of 12 crude oils slid to $94.31, the lowest level since July 2012 even as the U.S. confirmed 14 air strikes against ISIS. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151009123852id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/01/the-intellectual-battle-against-isiscommentary.html | If we are to prevent ISIS from teaching us this lesson the hard way, we must acknowledge that we cannot extinguish the fires of fanaticism by force alone. The world must unite behind a holistic drive to discredit the ideology that gives extremists their power, and to restore hope and dignity to those whom they would recruit. Read MoreCost of US campaign against ISIS is roughly $1 billion ISIS certainly can – and will – be defeated militarily by the international coalition that is now assembling and which the UAE is actively supporting. But military containment is only a partial solution. Lasting peace requires three other ingredients: winning the battle of ideas; upgrading weak governance; and supporting grassroots human development. Such a solution must begin with concerted international political will. Not a single politician in North America, Europe, Africa, or Asia can afford to ignore events in the Middle East. A globalized threat requires a globalized response. Everyone will feel the heat, because such flames know no borders; indeed, ISIS has recruited members of at least 80 nationalities. ISIS is a barbaric and brutal organization. It represents neither Islam nor humanity's most basic values. Nonetheless, it has emerged, spread, and resisted those who oppose it. What we are fighting is not just a terrorist organization, but the embodiment of a malicious ideology that must be defeated intellectually. I consider this ideology to be the greatest danger that the world will face in the next decade. Its seeds are growing in Europe, the United States, Asia, and elsewhere. With its twisted religious overtones, this pre-packaged franchise of hate is available for any terrorist group to adopt. It carries the power to mobilize thousands of desperate, vindictive, or angry young people and use them to strike at the foundations of civilization. Read MoreAlbright looks to Turkey for help in war against ISIS The ideology fueling ISIS has much in common with that of Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. What most worries me is that a decade ago, such an ideology was all that Al Qaeda needed to destabilize the world, even from a primitive base in the caves of Afghanistan. Today, under ISIS, adherents have access to technology, finance, a huge land base, and an international jihadist network. Far from being defeated, their ideology of rage and hate has become stricter, more pernicious, and more widespread. The destruction of terrorist groups is not enough to bring lasting peace. We must also strike at the root to deprive their dangerous ideology of the power to rise again among people left vulnerable by an environment of hopelessness and desperation. And, on this note, let us be positive. The solution has three components. The first is to counter malignant ideas with enlightened thinking, open minds, and an attitude of tolerance and acceptance. This approach arises from our Islamic religion, which calls for peace, honors life, values dignity, promotes human development, and directs us to do good to others. Only one thing can stop a suicidal youth who is ready to die for ISIS: a stronger ideology that guides him onto the right path and convinces him that God created us to improve our world, not to destroy it. We can look to our neighbors in Saudi Arabia for their great successes in de-radicalizing many young people through counseling centers and programs. In this battle of minds, it is thinkers and scientists of spiritual and intellectual stature among Muslims who are best placed to lead the charge. Read MoreISIS airstrikes: Who are the US's Arab allies? The second component is support for governments' efforts to create stable institutions that can deliver real services to their people. It should be clear to everyone that the rapid growth of ISIS was fueled by the Syrian and Iraqi governments' failings: the former made war on its own people, and the latter promoted sectarian division. When governments fail to address instability, legitimate grievances, and persistent serious challenges, they create an ideal environment for hateful ideologies to incubate – and for terrorist organizations to fill the vacuum of legitimacy. The final component is to address urgently the black holes in human development that afflict many areas of the Middle East. This is not only an Arab responsibility, but also an international responsibility, because providing grassroots opportunity and a better quality of life for the people of this region is guaranteed to ameliorate our shared problems of instability and conflict. We have a critical need for long-term projects and initiatives to eliminate poverty, improve education and health, build infrastructure, and create economic opportunities. Sustainable development is the most sustainable answer to terrorism. Our region is home to more than 200 million young people. We have the opportunity to inspire them with hope and to direct their energies toward improving their lives and the lives of those around them. If we fail, we will abandon them to emptiness, unemployment, and the malicious ideologies of terrorism. Every day that we take a step toward delivering economic development, creating jobs, and raising standards of living, we undermine the ideologies of fear and hate that feed on hopelessness. We starve terrorist organizations of their reason to exist. I am optimistic, because I know that the people of the Middle East possess a power of hope and a desire for stability and prosperity that are stronger and more enduring than opportunistic and destructive ideas. There is no power stronger than that of hope for a better life. Commentary by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. Follow him on Twitter @hhshkmohd. | medium | 1.34375 | If world leaders want to defeat ISIS, they will have to use more than force; they will have to win the intellectual war, says the ruler of Dubai. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151010181744id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/07/euro-slide-could-take-it-to-parity-with-dollar.html | But an accelerating U.S. economy with the euro zone wallowing in a deflationary, sluggish growth environment has fueled talk about an even lower level for the euro. That talk comes against a backdrop of superlow interest rates in Europe—with German bunds at negative yields up through the five-year. U.S. Treasurys, at the long end of the curve, have seen intense buying since the start of the year, which has driven U.S. yields lower. The 10-year yield was higher Wednesday but still below 2 percent. "I'm just thinking a lot of that is already in the market. Based on current interest rate differentials, it suggests euro-dollar should be trading at 1.25 but we're at 1.18." Sinche said $1.25 should be the top of the euro's range this year. But Chandler is more negative on the euro. "Maybe the Swiss National Bank is the only real buyer of the euro," he said. Chandler said Switzerland's central bank intervened to defend its cap against the euro last month. The SNB increased its reserves by 7 percent in November. Read MoreEurozone economy ended 2014 on low note "I think even in the best of times, Europe's likely to grow at 2 percent. I think the decline in the euro, the decline in interest rates, the decline in oil is going to help put a floor under the European economy," he said. Chandler said the U.S. economy, meanwhile, will help support a rising dollar. "The euro goes down. The U.S. gets better. Just as the euro had an overshoot to the upside, it gets to overshoot to the downside ... I think a lot depends on what happens in the U.S." | low | 0.59375 | Unthinkable even a few weeks ago, but now pros are saying the weakening currency may fall so low it could trade at parity with the dollar—or even lower. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160531070933id_/http://time.com:80/3775882/behind-the-photos-the-attempted-assassination-of-president-reagan-revisited/ | Thirty years ago today, Ron Edmonds was on his second day as White House photographer covering President Ronald Reagan for the Associated Press. Edmonds had photographed much of Reagan’s presidential campaign the year before, and the two knew each other well. That day, Edmonds had been photographing the president giving a speech inside the Washington Hilton Hotel, and after the speech was over, he rushed outside to get a shot of the President waving to the crowd before getting into his limousine. “That day was the first day I was going to cover him where he was President of the United States,” Edmonds says. “I’d photographed him thousands of times getting in and out of a limousine, but never with a Presidential seal.” Edmonds had the camera to his eye when the President started to wave, and as would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr., fired his gun, Edmonds made the famous sequence of three images that would be published around the world. “Sometimes you make your own luck, and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and ready when this happened,” he recalled. “The most important job is to watch the President. I did everything I was supposed to do.” As an AP staff photographer, Edmonds did not own the negatives or the copyright to the photographs he had made. “I have never seen all of the negatives. I couldn’t tell you how many outtakes there are.” So unlike some freelance photographers at the scene, Edmonds did not make much extra money from his employers. “I got a $50 a week merit raise,” he says. Initially, Edmonds was convinced he had upset his employers because he had failed to get a picture of Hinckley. When Edmonds returned to the office, he was told to call the head of the AP, and he assumed the worst. On only the second day of his six-month probation as a new hire, he feared he would be let go. Instead he was told, “You nailed it, kid,” and “We’re lifting your probation — we’re going to keep you.” Edmonds won the Pulitzer Prize for news photography as well as many other awards that year. | low | 1.212766 | On March 30, 1981, AP photographer Ron Edmonds made pictures of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan that would earn him the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. On the 30th anniversary, he talked to LightBox about the story behind the pictures. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160625113101id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/media/mind-your-language/2010/oct/04/new-york-street-signs-capitals | IT'S OFFICIAL: CAPITAL LETTERS CAN BE DANGEROUS. At least, that's what the US federal highway administration believes. According to the New York Post: In New York City, this will mean replacing 250,900 street signs with signs that cap up only the initial letter. So BROADWAY will become Broadway. A new font, Clearview, has been developed for the purpose. Cost: $27.6m (although, to put that figure in perspective, 8,000 signs have to be replaced every year for $110 each through normal wear and tear). Officials argue that the changes will save lives and the city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, also suggested that the new signs might reflect a kinder, gentler New York. "On the internet, writing in all caps means you are shouting," she said. "Our new signs can quiet down, as well." Despite hysterical Daily News coverage that said "several" New Yorkers were "outraged" by the change – it quoted three – the paper's own poll showed that two-thirds of the public is behind the switch from capital letters. It won't surprise regular Guardian readers that I agree with them. The Guardian style guide has long encouraged the gradual move away from capitals. So do other newspapers and websites, although some venerable style guides are still agonising over whether to lowercase internet and world wide web. (Be assured they will do so, perhaps in time for the 22nd century.) In part, the switch from capitals reflects a society that is less deferential than in the days when the Manchester Guardian would write something like this: "The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, Mr LLOYD GEORGE, presented the Naval Estimates to Ministers and Members of the House." Most readers seem comfortable with a less formal style. A grand total of two people complained about our coverage of the pope's, rather than the Pope's, recent visit to the UK. We did receive a letter last week complaining that calling David Cameron the prime minister, not the Prime Minister (a style we have been following for more than a decade) reflected a "lowering of standards", but such complaints are few. We need to be ever-vigilant, however, against the capital offenders. Politicians, civil servants and Estate Agents are three groups that remain intent on drowning us all in this alphabet soup. (Yesterday I was presented with a government statement that said: "On the Chancellor's recommendation the Prime Minister has appointed the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to the Public Expenditure Committee ... ") Capitals do have their uses, of course. As the Urban Dictionary puts it: "Capitalisation is the difference between 'I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse' and 'I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.'" To return to traffic signs. New York's commendable decision is an echo of one taken in the UK 50 years ago, when the brilliant designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, given the task of updating the country's chaotic system of road signs, concluded that "a combination of upper and lowercase letters would be more legible than conventional uppercase lettering". They produced a new font, known as Transport, which they felt would be friendlier and more appealing to British drivers than the stark modernist style used in continental Europe. The classic British road signage that they designed is still in use. | medium | 1.076923 | David Marsh: New York City is right to change the style of its street signs. Good, clear typography DOES NOT NEED TO SHOUT |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160721020022id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/717439/Weddings-abroad.html | The simplest approach is to buy an add-on to your holiday from a tour operator that has a specialist wedding department. The cost - from about £150 to over £2,000 - is determined by location and exotic extras. Options such as mariachi bands, helicopter rides and Balinese dancers send the price rocketing. As a rule, the package includes sorting out the legal administration, organising the bouquet, buttonholes, cake and a Champagne reception. Photography or video recording usually costs extra. Most wedding packages are overseen by a co-ordinator, and can usually be customised, on request. Be wary of "free weddings" tacked on to the cost of a honeymoon package. These can sometimes translate into a swift exchange of vows witnessed by gawking hotel guests - with dodgy photographs, cheap cake and sweet fizzy wine. Before choosing a hotel, check the number of weddings it carries out. Some resorts stage so many that newlyweds can find themselves sharing their special day with rather more people than they had intended. Couples who decide not to bring any relatives may enjoy the cameraderie. But those who want to avoid the risk of a ceremony conducted as the next party is lined up on the lawn would be well advised to select a hotel where weddings are not the main trade. Weddings abroad can be insured, although this is intended to supplement rather than replace travel insurance. Similarly, a ceremony overseas and a reception at home can be covered under one policy. Besides contacting tour operators and tourist boards, you can obtain general advice on the internet. Useful sites include www.confetti.co.uk's travel section and and www.weddingsabroad.com. In Las Vegas just about anything goes. Pick up your licence from the county clerk's office at the courthouse and then, for the most bizarre ceremonies, look up Charlotte Richards, "the wedding queen", an ordained minister who owns the most famous chapels in town. She has officiated at weddings on horseback, while a bride-to-be was in labour, and even on a mountain, where the lovers were supported by ropes. More mundane Vegas choices include drive-in chapels, where the ceremony takes three minutes and you don't even have to turn the engine off, and themed ceremonies such as the "Elvis Experience", complete with a Presley-lookalike serenading the nuptials and a ride in a pink Cadillac. British Airways Holidays (0870 608 2244) has Las Vegas wedding packages from £149 per couple. Flights, transfers and accommodation extra. In Florida, keen divers can mouth, "I do," surrounded by branches of coral and in the company of grouper and angel fish. White taffeta and lace wetsuits might be hard to track down, but a tick on a slate will confirm you as man and wife. Non-divers are taught enough basics to last them for the 20 minutes underwater, while qualified divers need only bring their dive certificates. The cost of the wedding starts at $100 (about £69) payable locally, and the basic diving course costs from £134. Contact Virgin Holidays (01293 744265). Follow in the footsteps of Taylor and Burton and marry in Botswana. Their second wedding took place within the Moorish-style Chobe Game Lodge, in the national park in the north-east of the country. The lodge is famed for its incomparable viewing of elephants, buffalo and antelope. Couples marry on the terrace or while cruising on the Chobe River. The tour operator promises all brides and grooms a "complimentary mini-bar with unlimited supply of drinks". Argo Holidays (020 7331 7095) has three- night all-inclusive wedding packages to Chobe from £2,059 per person. Only a few years ago, the red tape surrounding marrying in Italy, made the Maastricht Treaty sound simple. But now you can leave the to-ing and fro-ing between consulates to a handful of specialists. The choice of venues can be wonderfully romantic - from a Venetian gondola to a sailing boat off Capri, or a Tuscan castle. The Castello Vincigliata near Fiesole, a medieval tower discovered and restored by Lord John Temple Leader in 1840, overlooks Florence. You can exchange vows with an English-speaking Catholic or Anglican priest officiating, enjoy a wedding picnic in an olive grove, or even - if you give enough notice and money - stage a six-course Italian feast with performance by Luciano Pavarotti himself. Weddings Made in Italy (020 7520 0470) can arrange a wedding package here from £1,989 including a priest and a picnic. New to the nuptial scene is Lapland. For skiing couples fancying a touch of synchronised wipe-out, Inghams (020 8780 4433) features weddings on the slopes, followed by a blessing in the parish church of Levi. At £50, the ceremony is something of a bargain - but alcohol in Lapland is far from cheap and unfortunately you can't take your own. Interesting extras include stag or hen sauna-parties, a horse-drawn sleigh ride to church, and - something of a passion-killer perhaps - a honeymoon igloo. A week in Levi costs from £398 per person including half board in a three-star hotel, return flights and transfers. | medium | 0.763158 | If you don't want a traditional ceremony, you can tie the knot on the beach, on safari, or on the sea bed. Judith Woods and Louise Roddon report |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160726164224id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/health/news/11157064/Couples-turning-into-posh-pair-from-Gogglebox-by-drinking-more-at-home.html | The couple concerned, Stephanie and Dom Parker, from Kent, are known for enjoying a glass of something alcoholic on screen – so much so that they once tipped over the sofa. "Even if you haven't seen the show, you'll recognise the type, because some of us seem to be becoming more like them," the Grocer said. The comparison extended to the type of drink consumed, it appeared. The strength of tipples drunk at home had risen from 4.8 per cent to 5.5 per cent over the past year. Sparkling wine was particularly popular, with sales growing almost 15 per cent in a year. Many drinkers had "traded up" from Cava to Prosecco and Champagne, the report found. Fruit ciders, such as pear or raspberry, were more popular, while an increase spirits sales was driven by a rise in popularity of mixing home-made cocktails. In total, households spent £11.6 billion on alcohol for the home in the 12 months to July, the research found, an increase of 3.3 per cent on the year before. Kevin Mucahey of Kantar, which compiled the figures for the Grocer, said the trend could continue. "We've had the World Cup and a good summer, which helped," he said. "But the overall market is still depressed." Half of drinkers, however, said they were trying to moderate, drinking on fewer occasions and having fewer glasses, the Kantar research agency found. This was reflected in the number of drinks served in the home falling, it said, despite the amount spent and consumed rising overall. The report said: "This could suggest we're simply pouring ourselves bigger drinks." | low | 0.857143 | We're drinking more at home and less at the pub, with couples staying in to watch television such as Strictly Come Dancing and Downton Abbey |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160802194020id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2013/08/15/travel/eating-in-iowa-farm-fresh-fried-and-frugal.html | Yet both meals were decidedly Iowan, and dismantled the illusion that in three days of cruising the stateâs two-lane highways I could somehow pithily define its food. Really, the only thing every meal â and I had about five a day â had in common was their prices. That polenta entree, by far the most elegantly presented of my month on the road, was just $13. The sandwich, meanwhile, was $3.60. Iowans may already know where it came from: Canteen Lunch in Ottumwa, a modest meatpacking city of 25,000. Since 1936, the restaurant has sat in a squat, yellow box of a building; it didnât budge when a municipal parking garage was literally built over it. (If you follow a GPS there, youâll find yourself in the garage; otherwise cut down an alley off South Court Street.) The experience at the lunch counter feels very middle school cafeteria: a lunch lady look-alike takes your order and spoons loose ground beef â sloppy joe without the slop â onto a bun, slathers on extras, wraps it and hands it to you. (What, you wanted a plate?) Itâs a signature Iowa lunch, generically known as âa loose meat sandwich.â Here it was simply a Canteen. The Canteen is proof that if an expert combines fat, carbs, sugar and salt in just the right ratio, the result can be worth the calories and ensuing sluggishness. I augmented the coming lethargy by ordering a strawberry malt ($3.95), after being encouraged to do so by the visitors next to me, a couple from Georgia who had come up to Iowa to look at a used RV. (In Ottumwa, that counts as out-of-state tourism.) For that farm dinner, I headed 120 miles west (driving long distances burns calories, right?) to the 400-person town of Orient, or, more accurately, to the Henry A. Wallace Country Life Center (wallace.org) outside it. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Mr. Wallace, who was secretary of agriculture (and then vice president) under Franklin D. Roosevelt, was raised in the main house, now a gift shop; the center, in that reconstructed barn, is part of a nonprofit that promotes âlocal food, sustainable agriculture and civility.â The restaurant, also housed in the barn, is only open on Fridays and some Saturdays. Whatever does not come from the farm itself comes from a producer somewhere in Iowa, I was told by my server, who dutifully provided all the sustainable-locavore-other-buzzword details â almost, but not quite, to the point of parody. Everything was as fresh as the canteen sandwich was processed: a $7 âcheese and relish plateâ had bursting cherry tomatoes, crisp cauliflower lightly marinated in vinegar, pickled beets, and a crumbly local Cheddar, then came the polenta-stuffed zucchini. Outside, farmland stretched to the horizon, inside, my wallet barely stretched at all â I was out $25, including tip. During the rest of my sprint around the state I would continue to Ping-Pong between fatty gluttony and farm freshness. More gluttony: the pork tenderloin sandwich, which has spawned best-in-state competitions and the cleverly named Des Loines blog. Newcomers will laugh at the little bun haplessly trying to cover the enormous tenderloin, pounded into the irregular shapes that often resemble Eastern European nations. For my representative pork tenderloin sandwich, I decided on Goldieâs Ice Cream Shoppe (goldiesicecreamshoppe.com), an ice cream stand turned diner in Prairie City, whose $5.98 version won best of show in 2009 from the Iowa Pork Producers. The staff was gentle to a newcomer, explaining that the conventional toppings were pickle, raw onion, ketchup and mustard. Ketchup and mustard seemed heavy-handed, so I went for just pickles and onions to add a little pop. When the sandwich arrived, I struggled with its size â I had been given only a knife, not a fork. I gave the server a perplexed look. âCut it in half,â she said. I felt, and not for the first time on this trip, like a bumbling foreigner. Back to lean and green: Fairfield, home to the Maharishi University of Management, which calls itself a âhome of consciousness-based education,â has more than its share of vegetarian cafeterias and restaurants. I went to the Golden Dome Market and Cafe, near (but alas, not in) the campusâs two golden domes. The vegetarian buffet ($7.50 a pound) yielded some saag paneer, a bean taco loaded with vegetables, some tasty artichoke lasagna and a piece of fresh peach blueberry pie. Iowaâs farm-fresh side melds with its gluttonous side at the Des Moines Farmers Market (desmoinesfarmersmarket.com), which takes over a chunk of the capitalâs downtown every Saturday morning, May through October. One minute I was dipping pretzel sticks into eight flavors of artisan goat cheese from Reichertâs Dairy Air or enjoying herb lemonade (infused with rosemary, thyme, lemon balm and ginger) from Blue Gate Farm. I followed this up with something called âBreakfast Ice Cream,â offered at a dairy stand for $5: a server put glazed doughnut holes in a bowl, covered them with bacon ice cream and added crumbled bacon and maple syrup. Big mistake. Unlike the Canteen, this unholy combo of sugar, salt and grease did not come to an agreement. I did find a truly harmonious greasy-locavore masterpiece, however, in Iowa City, just what you would expect from a college town in a farm state. Shortâs Burger and Shine (shortsburgerandshine.com) gets its black Angus beef for its long list of burgers from a farm 26 miles outside of town; its buns are baked locally and its 10 taps filled with Iowa craft beers. (Another option: its own bean-based burgers.) At the bar, I ordered a Gravity burger, with caramelized onions, bacon, tame green chili sauce and a swipe of jalapeño flavored cream cheese and buried under a load of fries for $9.49. After sampling several brews, I ended up with a pint of Golden Nugget I.P.A., and wish I could have stayed for more, but solo traveling means you are the permanent designated driver. Indeed, I logged about 800 in-state miles in under four days. But Iowa turned out to be the most pleasant and picturesque of the states Iâve driven through so far: Itâs not dead flat, at least not for long stretches; its gently sloping farmland reads like some sort of fantasy Americana: deep-green soy fields, wavy rows of corn (which I tried not to think of ending up as high fructose corn syrup), picturesque red barns and the occasional old could-be-haunted farmhouses. I did miss the most famous house in Iowa: the âAmerican Gothicâ house in Eldon, where the Pitchfork Pie Stand operates on summer weekends. I had planned a visit, but read on its Web site, TheWorldNeedsMorePie.com, that it would be closed the weekend I was in the state. It was probably for the best: the world may need more pie, but after three days of eating in Iowa, I sure didnât. | high | 1.625 | Whether nibbling on zucchini or gripping a pork tenderloin sandwich, the Frugal Traveler finds a bounty of cheap eats in the state. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160810165025id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/destinations/europe/belgium/bruges/articles/Just-back-Ascension-Day-in-Bruges/ | It was a coincidence that our trip to Bruges coincided with the Procession of the Holy Blood, which happens every year on Ascension Day. The procession dates from the 13th century and commemorates the return from the Second Crusade of the Count of Flanders, who is said to have brought with him some of the blood of Jesus. We knew that the relic would be paraded through the city in the afternoon, but other than that we had no idea what to expect. More than 30,000 people turned up for the procession. We had neglected to reserve a seat in the stands in the main square or a café chair on the pavement, so we peered out over the crowd while standing on a bench. We quickly worked out that the procession involved scenes from the Bible, but without a programme we had to guess which ones they were. Some floats were easy to make sense of (a pharaoh in an elaborate headdress flanked by two pointy golden pillars; a statue of Jesus carried by dozens of Roman soldiers in tiny white shorts), while others were less so (a lounging couple in Arabian dress with a life-size stuffed peacock). There were sheep and donkeys, people waving palm fronds and purple-robed dancers bearing the Star of Bethlehem. It was confusing and colourful and I couldn’t stop watching, even though my legs were cramping and my Bible knowledge is patchy at best. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, actors depicted the arrival of the relic into Bruges in 1150. Numerous knights on horses paraded through the city, followed by a man who discreetly picked up the droppings. Then the bell in the belfry tower began to toll ominously. “The Holy Blood must be coming,” my friend said. People stood silently in reverence as clergymen carrying an elaborate gold reliquary walked by. Whether you believed in the authenticity of the relic or not, it was hard not to get swept up in the pageantry of it all. The procession ended with a man on a castle-shaped float pulled by horses playing an intricate set of bells. Their delicate chime mixed with the heavy, rhythmic tone of the bell from the tower. A strangely beautiful song for a strangely beautiful parade. Your travel writing could earn you £1,000. That's the prize for our Just Back article of the year. The weekly prize is £200 in the currency of your choice from the Post Office. Email your entry of no more than 500 words (with the text in the email itself rather than attached) to [email protected] by midnight on Wednesday, June 13. Click here for more information and full terms and conditions. The Post Office is Britain's largest travel money provider. It offers more than 70 different currencies with 0% commission on all currency and traveller's cheques. Customers can buy selected currencies over the counter at 8,000 branches and all currencies can be ordered for next-day delivery at 11,500 branches nationwide. Orders can also be placed online at www.postoffice.co.uk | medium | 0.961538 | Katie Dickerson wins this week's travel writing competition for her tale of a 'strangely beautiful parade' in the Belgian city of Bruges. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20161011162734id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/11/06/35/berlin-airport-terror-target-german-intel | A Syrian man wanted for allegedly preparing a bombing attack in Germany was apprehended by three of his countrymen, who overpowered him, tied him up in their apartment, and then alerted police. The arrest of Jaber Albakr on Monday night ended a near two-day nationwide search for the 22-year-old that German authorities launched after finding several kilograms of explosives and components hidden inside an apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday. Albakr arrived in Germany amid a flood of 890,000 asylum seekers last year. Saxony criminal police chief Joerg Michaelis says that the three Syrians who captured him recognised the suspect from wanted posters police posted online as part of the manhunt. After taking him to their apartment late Sunday night, two of the Syrians bound and held Albakr while the third brought a photo of Albakr to a local police station, leading to the arrest early Monday, Michaelis said. Prosecutors and police said on Monday they considered Albakr an extremist with likely links to the Islamic State group. Germany's domestic intelligence agency had been watching him since September and alerted Saxony authorities about his alleged possible plot on Friday, authorities said. When police raided the apartment in the city of Chemnitz where he was thought to be staying on Saturday, Albakr was able to flee. Inside the apartment they found 1.5kgs "extremely dangerous explosives'' and components, according to federal prosecutors. Michaelis said at this stage of the investigation "the behaviour and actions of the suspect currently speak for an IS context.'' He didn't elaborate. A security official said there was no indication yet that Albakr was being directed by the Islamic State group, but investigators are still checking evidence. Police said it was not clear when and how the suspect met up with his three countrymen in Leipzig, about 80kms from Chemnitz, or if they already knew him. They would not release any further information about the three Syrians who apprehended Albakr. If the signs of his having an extremist background were substantiated, "the people who gave the tip are of course in danger,'' the police chief said. German prosecutors say they they had no indications that an attack target had been chosen. But Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the domestic intelligence agency, later told ARD public broadcaster their investigations suggest the suspect had "an eye on the Berlin airports'' as potential targets. | medium | 0.9 | Germany intelligence services believe a Syrian suspected of planning an attack had Berlin airport as a possible terror target. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20161230105324id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/29/drones-did-next-flying-robots-will-revolutionise-work/ | An equally novel application is using drones in construction work. “They are just a platform and you can attach things to them, so why not?” says Wisniewski. “They could do small repairs on power lines, or telecoms towers and antennas where there’s not only the risk to humans of working at height but the danger of a shock or powerful electromagnetic radiation.” Insurance could also be a big market for drones. UAVs can assess large-scale damage quickly, but the real benefit could be in before and after comparisons, allowing insurers to assess the true extent of a flood or fire. “The aim is to get insurance companies to build a database of what they insure,” says McClure. “That way afterwards they can compare the data, and can even click down to the single brick level.” Other uses include stock checking, particularly of large items, with one example being rail wagons in goods yards. The speed of drones mean that such bulky items can be monitored much faster than by a human on foot. Security is another area where an eye in the sky can deliver benefits; DPS says that when drones were used to monitor a Polish rail goods yards for stock checking it had the added benefit of slashing thefts by 60pc. However there are obstacles in the way of drones. In the UK operators are limited by aviation regulator the CAA to “line of sight” flight, with similar controls in many other nations. In practice this means that drones cannot fly more than 1500ft from the pilot or at an altitude above 400ft, and operations in built-up areas require special permission. The authority also limits their weight, reducing endurance and the payloads they can carry. | low | 0.571429 | Amazon’s drones might be grabbing the headlines, but right now aerial delivery of orders to your back garden is something of a flight of fancy - at least until legal restrictions are removed. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20121127094918id_/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-20127462/crime-punishment-and-the-shame-of-being-a-madoff/ | When news broke that Bernard Madoff had swindled thousands of people out of billions of dollars, many assumed that his family must have known all along. But Madoff's wife Ruth and son Andrew tell Morley Safer they were blindsided when Madoff finally confessed that he'd been running a giant Ponzi scheme. In their first television interviews, they describe how their once-happy family was completely destroyed. The following script is from "Madoff" which aired on Oct. 30, 2011 Madoff...It is a name that will live in infamy...It's been nearly three years since Bernard Madoff confessed to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme - the largest financial fraud in history. Thousands of trusting clients who felt safe investing with a financial genius were swindled. He hadn't invested a penny. While Madoff is serving 150 years in prison, his family has had to deal with the consequences of his crimes. His wife Ruth, divested of most of her great wealth - and derided by a suspicious world. Their son Mark - dead. Driven to suicide by shame and accusations of guilt. Their other son Andrew isolated - trying to live with the disgrace. 60 Minutes Overtime: Ruth Madoff: Why she's telling her story 60 Minutes Overtime: Sons called in FBI to arrest Bernie Madoff Are they innocent or were they willing partners? For the first time since Bernie Madoff's arrest, his son Andrew and wife Ruth speak out about crime, punishment and the shame of being a Madoff. Morley Safer: It's a tough name to live with. Ruth Madoff: It sure is. Safer: Do you feel the shame? Ruth: Of course I feel the shame. I can barely walk down the street without worrying about people recognizing me. Andrew Madoff: From the very beginning of this whole episode-- I've had absolutely nothing to hide. And I've been eager, I would say almost desperate to speak out publicly and tell people that I'm absolutely not involved. Andrew and Ruth Madoff speak out in the book "Truth and Consequences"- a more or less tell-all arranged by Andrew's fiancee Catherine Hooper. An attempt to separate the family from the father's crimes. Safer: Is it dismaying for you that no matter what you say people aren't going to believe you? Catherine Hooper: I think in many ways it is dismaying, but public opinion has to be something that doesn't matter to us. What matters to us is the truth. Safer: It's really hard for people to believe that you didn't know, that you must have known. Ruth: I can't explain it. I mean I trusted him. Why would it ever occur to me that it wasn't legal? The business was--his reputation was almost legendary. Why would I ever think that there was something sinister going on? It was 1954 when Ruth Alpern met Bernie Madoff in Queens, N.Y. Ruth: I just saw him and I was sort of swept away, I think. She married him at age 18. They had two sons - Mark, then Andrew. Bernie was building up his money management business - a typical middle class family living on Long Island. Ruth: We were both solid parents and valued our family and so proud of our boys. It was a dream, really. Andrew: My father was certainly present as a dad. Safer: Did he emphasize moral values at all? Andrew: I wouldn't say that we sort of explicitly discussed values. But we certainly lived what I felt was a moral life, where there was a clear sense of right and wrong. | medium | 1.5 | Bernie Madoff's wife and son speak publically for first time about the Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands, and their lives since Madoff's arrest and imprisonment |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140902171607id_/http://fortune.com/2013/09/06/heres-how-obama-will-defend-summers-as-fed-pick/ | FORTUNE — Call him the Freddy Krueger of potential presidential nominees. Liberals, feminists, and plain-old targets of his withering dismissiveness may have thought they destroyed Larry Summers’ shot at the Federal Reserve chairmanship. But he’s back — haunting their dreams of seeing stately womanhood at the helm of the nation’s money supply. White House leakers tell the Washington Post that Summers is still in the running to succeed outgoing Ben Bernanke — and, by some accounts, even topping the President’s list. A Summers nomination would shock and defy vocal critics who form the core of Obama’s liberal base and have been pushing Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen. And it’s not just liberal activists: Yellen easily trounced Summers in a Reuters poll of economists asking who should be the next Fed chair. The Post and others say Summers remains in the mix largely because of President Obama’s close relationship with, and regard for, the economic adviser who guided a new and uncertain administration through the early dark days of a massive recession. Summers is a believer in big, bold government action in the face of hard times. “Could the stimulus be too big?” he once said to me. “That’s like asking me if I could lose too much weight.” Obama also owes Summers critical political points. As National Economic Council director, Summers vigorously backed bailing out the auto industry. It was a decision that, in his own words on election day last year, led to a “very different economy in Ohio and a very different economy in Michigan” — and a losing battle in both states, he noted, for Republican nominee Mitt Romney. MORE: Jack Lew: The known unknown at the Treasury If Summers does win the nomination, watch for the White House to counter a powerful storm of criticism with these talking points: – Critics say his support for deregulation in the 1990s — blocking proposals to regulate derivatives and favoring the elimination of Glass-Steagall — contributed to the financial crisis. But Summers was long a vocal critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, arguably far more important contributors to the collapse. As Summers said at a Harvard Kennedy School panel that I moderated earlier this year: “When I hear people talk about public-private partnerships, I reach for my wallet. No one used the term more than Fannie Mae, unless it was Freddie Mac. Massive collaboration, massive disaster.” (Conservative critics could ask where Summers’ suspicions of public-private partnership were hiding when solar company Solyndra was blowing through half a billion dollars of taxpayer money.) – Much speculation has, rightly, centered on what a Summers chairmanship would mean for monetary policy. But a key part of the Fed chair’s job is an ability to foresee crises on the horizon — something all top regulators dropped the ball on pre-2008. So watch for the White House to position Summers as a (rare) seer of dangers to come. In 2006, he worried about the level of risk-taking with these words: “The main thing we have to fear is lack of fear itself.” And in November of 2007, four months before the collapse of Bear Stearns, he called on policy makers to “wake up to the dangers of a deepening crisis.” He added: “Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the subprime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth … Without stronger policy responses than have been observed to date … there is the risk that the adverse impacts will be felt for the rest of this decade and beyond.” MORE: Are we ready for the next meltdown? – To concerns that Summers is too pro-business, expect the President to talk about their shared concerns over a widening income gap and decreasing social mobility for average Americans. Our “level of inequality and social mobility has deteriorated,” Summers told the same Harvard audience earlier this year, calling it “stunning” that the ability of both a rich child and a poor child to go to a good college is smaller than it was 30 years ago. – Feminists not only support an historical appointment of Yellen as the first female Fed chief, but also view Summers as sexist, based on his controversial women-in-science remarks as Harvard President and his clashes with fellow Obama economic adviser Christina Romer (In the Post story, Romer questions Summers’ management skills). To counter that perception, the White House will likely call upon Facebook FB Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who counts Summers as a mentor in a career that put her at his side at the World Bank and the Treasury Department. (Another powerful woman Summers supported in her career: Facebook Global Public Policy vice president Marne Levine). Sandberg, author of the post-feminist best-seller Lean In, has already publicly defended Summers on this score. If the President Obama does tap Summers, the White House will have to mount a defense that gets him to 60 votes in the Senate — and for that, he’s still likely to need support from Republicans. | medium | 1 | He's the potential Federal Reserve nominee that liberals love to hate. So how will President Obama handle the onslaught if he chooses Larry Summers to run the Fed? |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140910225727id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/apr/19/art.artsfeatures | We are in the middle of the most elaborate and complex remembering ritual that Europe has devised in the past 2,000 years: Easter. A four-day solemn liturgy turned into a holiday, where crucifixes jostle pagan eggs and chocolate bunnies. An eclectic, shifting remembering. Our collective memories are welcoming places, and one image, that of Jesus, has absorbed and appropriated elements of other traditions and aspirations in order to shape our communal remembering. There is not much we can say with absolute confidence about the early church, but we can be fairly sure that the first Christians would not have dreamed of making a likeness of Jesus. Not just because there was no record of his appearance that they could have based a likeness on, but more because their Jewish inheritance of a god, worshipped in spirit and in truth but emphatically not represented in art, would have inhibited them (as it later did the Muslims) from any such attempt. For the first two or three Christian centuries the idea of looking on the face of God, even in human form, would have been inconceivable. Yet we now all live in a world where the likeness of Christ is commonplace, a cliche repeated in films and books or borrowed for very different purposes by advertising and politics. The decision to try to show the face of Christ was not just a major theological step, but one of the decisive turning points in European visual and, indeed, political culture. We don't know where it first happened, where an artist first tried to capture the likeness of Jesus, and it is probable that many early attempts have been lost. But the strongest candidate for the oldest, securely datable image of Christ was made not for a church in the eastern Mediterranean or imperial Rome, but for the floor of a dining room in Dorset around the year 360. The face of Christ in Dorset is now in the British Museum's Weston gallery of Roman Britain. Here, you get an extraordinary impression of what life must have been like in this northernmost province of the Roman empire. The last century of Roman rule (c300-400AD) was, in many ways, a golden age. Roman Britain was prosperous, indeed rich. The ruling class built large villas with huge estates and enormous sums of money were spent on ostentatious decoration and spectacular silver tableware. The hoards of silver found, especially in East Anglia, include bowls, plates, spoons and even pepper pots (pepper was so expensive that it was used to pay part of the ransom that Alaric later demanded from Rome). This is a society that seems to have accommodated itself comfortably to paganism and Christianity. The great silver dish found at Mildenhall in Suffolk shows Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, drunkenly cavorting with pliant nymphs in an elegant and very alcoholic dance: some of the spoons found in the same hoard carry Christian symbols. The Dorset dining-room floor mosaic was found in the ruins of a large Roman villa at Hinton St Mary, a small village in the Blackmoor Vale about eight miles from Shaftesbury. It is made mostly of local Dorset materials of black, red or yellowish stone with pieces of ceramic here and there, all set in that greatest of Roman building inventions, cement. In the corners are representations of the four seasons, and there is the usual arrangement of garlands and decorative strips. In the centre of the floor are two roundels. In one, the mythical hero Bellerophon, riding the winged horse Pegasus, overcomes the monster Chimaera. It was a popular image in the Roman world, the hero zapping the forces of evil. In the other roundel, you would have expected to find either Orpheus charming the world with his music, or the wine god Bacchus. But, in Hinton St Mary, it is Christ. In a society that had for centuries been used to seeing its gods, someone had decided that this new god must make an appearance. But here the artist must have had a real problem. There was no prototype, no model, no description. He had to invent Christ in order to show him. How do you represent a god that you have never seen? It is a testing conundrum, theologically and artistically. This artist must have seen and made images of Orpheus and Bacchus in similar mosaic floors. Orpheus would generally be wistful, young and artistic-looking. Bacchus would be energetic and sexy. Each would essentially be distinguished by his attributes: Orpheus would have his lyre, Bacchus a bunch of grapes or something similar. You would know who they were, not because of how they looked, but because of what they held. But this is difficult with Jesus. What is Jesus's physical attribute? He told his disciples that he was the way, the truth and the life, but it is very difficult to show any of these physically. He announced that he was the light of the world, but it is extraordinarily hard to show light in a mosaic. And although he did compare himself to a vine and his followers to branches, the vine was the property of Bacchus and could have led only to confusion. Then there was the question of what general tone his face should carry. Clearly not specifically artistic or pleasure-seeking like Orpheus or Bacchus, but equally, for a Roman public used to seeing their gods as heroes, not looking like a poor suffering man brutally put to death on the gallows. The artist at Hinton St Mary found an ingenious and revealing solution: he looked at a coin. At least we can be fairly certain that is what he did. He seems to have taken a coin of the emperor, or of the man who claimed to be emperor and who had usurped Britain and Gaul in the middle of the fourth century, Magnentius. The emperor is shown as you would expect, robed and severe in the circular field of the coin. On the other side, that particular emperor chose the Christian symbol of the chi rho, the two letters that begin Christ's name in Greek, written as though they were X and P in our alphabet. It was the symbol that Constantine, the first Roman emperor to become a Christian, had taken after his conversion and his victories in 313. It had become the logo of the new religion throughout the western empire. On a coin like this (and one has been found in a a grave near Hinton St Mary), Magnentius shows himself not just as emperor, but as a Christian emperor, heir to Constantine. The artist has simply combined the front and the back of the coin. So, in the mosaic, an imperial bust looks out at us full-face, robed with authority. We know we are looking at a ruler. And to make it clear that we are looking not at a secular ruler, but at the king of kings, the artist has put the chi rho monogram behind his head. You would not recognise this as the face of Christ, for you would never have seen a picture of Christ before. But you would know this was Christ, and Christ the emperor. Jesus has found his attribute, and it is temporal power. In this, perhaps the oldest surviving image of Jesus, and certainly the oldest known in Britain, we already have the fusion - perhaps deliberate confusion - of the authority of God and the authority of Man. In mid-fourth-century England, it is no longer possible to distinguish what should be rendered unto Caesar and what should be rendered unto God, because Caesar claims God's authority on a coin and God looks like Caesar in the mosaic. Yet the artist wanted to show more: that this man was not only lord of life but lord over death. So, he has put a pomegranate either side of Christ's head. For any Dorset diner, this would resemble the myth of Persephone carried off to the underworld by Pluto, rescued by her mother and brought back to the land of the living as a great allegory of the cycle of the seasons, of death and rebirth, of descent into hell and return to the light. By the inclusion of this simple fruit, the artist links Jesus to much older resurrection myths: to Persephone, and to Orpheus, who went to the underworld in search of Eurydice. In each case, the miracle was accomplished by love. This Christ pulls together the hopes of the ancient world, the deepest of all human hopes, that love is stronger than death. The Hinton St Mary mosaic is a striking example of how memories can be manipulated to create new meanings. The association of imperial power that the coin image evokes is so strong that it overwhelms every other aspect of the life and teaching of Jesus, tying the church firmly to the apparatus of the state. It is an irony of history that it should appear in England, for it documents an important early step towards the established church. And the pomegranate associations show that this church was, even then, a broad one: there was no need to cast off the old religion completely before embracing the new. This is both/and, not either/or theology. It is the spiritual equivalent of fusion cuisine. There is no reason to suppose it was any less nourishing. · Neil MacGregor is director of the British Museum. The Hinton St Mary Mosaic can be seen in The Museum of the Mind, Art and Memory in World Cultures at the British Museum, London WC1, until September 7. Details: 020-7323 8000. A version of this article was broadcast on Radio 4's The Human Face of God | high | 1.777778 | How do you create an image of Christ when you've no idea what he looks like? Neil MacGregor believes an ancient mosaic on a dining-room floor in Dorset may provide some answers |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141210234931id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/10/gees-bend-african-american-art-met | Last month, the Souls Grown Deep Foundation made a major gift of 57 artworks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a big score for the New York museum to garner so many gems from the African American south, including work by Nellie Mae Rowe, Thorton Dial, and – the biggest coup – 20 of the Gee’s Bend quilts. If the star works of art of the Harlem Renaissance were Zora Neale Hurston’s novels, James Weldon Johnson’s poetry, and Romare Bearden’s paintings, the stars of the modern interest in southern African American folk art are unquestionably the quilts made by the women of the tiny hamlet of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. This is where a collective of women have become the reason you’ve seen so many quilting patterns in greeting cards, calendars and picture books in the past 10 years. “The Gee’s Bend project has such a compelling story of origins in terms of its rootedness in civil rights,” says Riche Richardson, an associate professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University. A quilter herself whose work has been exhibited in museums, Richardson describes the quilting from Gee’s Bend as historically significant but also “breathtaking in its beauty, scope and composition. As a native Alabamian and artist, I believe that it is crucially important to recognize and honor the genius of Southern art, including its important and unique contribution to the nation’s artistic and cultural heritage.” “The remarkable artists of Gee’s Bend are among those at the vanguard in this sense,” Richardson says. Indeed, despite being made far from traditionally championed urban sites of American design (the town is populated just by a few hundred people, most of whom are descendants of slaves), the quilts are shamelessly modern and hold up with a surprisingly contemporary aesthetic. But they weren’t always heralded, discounted like much of the artwork created by African Americans in the south historically. As the New York Times reported in 2007, the quilts made by the women of Gee’s Bend were largely ignored until, in the late 1990s, William Arnett, “a white champion of self-taught black artists, began a rescue mission, buying dozens of the quilts and ultimately creating one of the biggest surprise hits in the art world’s recent memory.” Arnett went on to form the Souls Deep Foundation, which is giving the collection named after him to the Met. The Foundation’s donation also includes 10 works by Thorton Dial, including Out of the Darkness, the Lord Gave Us Light and African Athlete. Dial grew up in a rural Alabama sharecropping family, worked in manufacturing jobs, and has no formal training as an artist. His work uses elements of found objects, painting and sculpture usually attributed to the likes of artists like Jasper Johns. However, as the magazine Arts Atl wrote in 2012, “found-object assemblage flourished before Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg made the practice famous,” noting that “Rauschenberg grew up looking at African-American yard art, castoffs and discards arranged into provocative displays.” That would be the same kind of work Dial would have grown up around, and was making himself, long before Rauschenberg’s work was hung in the museums or galleries of New York. While the donation to the Met is a gem, it is not without controversy. Arnett was sued in 2007 by some of the quilters whose work he purchased, and while the lawsuit was resolved a year later, the relationship brought up – like so many things in American history – challenging questions about race, opportunism, and control. As the Times quoted Andrew Dietz, the author of a book about Arnett’s relationship with artists whose work is in the Souls Grown Deep donation: “‘When you mix the old South, race, educational and class differences, the subjective value of art, the egos of the art elite and the good old greenback, you’ve got yourself a powder keg ready to blow.” The Souls Grown Deep’s powder keg was diffused, even if the bigger issues of race continue to roil American art and expression. The donation will be curated for a show at the Met in the fall of 2016. | high | 1.090909 | The endowment of 57 works from the South include these hugely influential works from women living in a tiny hamlet in Alabama |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150222041326id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/02/19/candidate-to-lead-fda-has-close-ties-to-big-pharma/ | This article is published in partnership with Time.com. The original version can be found here. Last May, Duke University’s Vice Chancellor for clinical research, Dr. Robert Califf, told an audience of executives that the American system for developing drugs and medical devices was in crisis. Using slides [pdf] developed by Duke’s business school, he said the system was too slow and too expensive, and required disruption and transformation. Towards the end of his talk, he put up a slide that identified a key barrier to change: regulation. Such views are not uncommon in industry, academic research and on Capitol Hill, but they are noteworthy coming from Califf because he could soon be America’s top regulator overseeing the safety and efficacy of the country’s drugs and medical devices. Califf is already set to become deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) next month. Now sources familiar with the process tell TIME he is on President Barack Obama’s short list to run the agency following this month’s announcement that its long-serving commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, will step down in March. The White House declined to comment on pending personnel decisions, but word that Califf is in contention for the top spot at the FDA comes at a key moment. The agency faces potentially dramatic changes this year as Congress prepares to rewrite many of the rules for how drugs and medical devices are reviewed and tested for safety and efficacy. Califf is widely respected in the public and private sectors, but his candidacy is seen by some as a threat to the independence and authority of the FDA, thanks to his views on the need to accelerate change and his deep financial and intellectual ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Califf says his salary is contractually underwritten in part by several large pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co. Inc MRK , Bristol-Myers Squibb BMY , Eli Lilly & Co. LLY and Novartis SA NVSEF . He also receives as much as $100,000 a year in consulting fees from some of those companies, and from others, according to his 2014 conflict of interest disclosure [pdf]. In an interview with TIME, Califf estimates that less than half of his annual income comes from research money provided by the pharmaceutical industry, though he says he is not certain because he doesn’t tend to distinguish between industry and government research funding. He says he is divesting his holdings in two privately-held pharmaceutical companies he helped get off the ground. Califf says such collaboration, not just between industry and academia, but with government, too, is the way of the future. “The greatest progress almost certainly will be made by breaking out of insular knowledge bases and collaborating across the different sectors,” Califf says. He says there is “a tension which cannot be avoided between regulating an industry and creating the conditions where the industry can thrive, and the FDA’s got to do both.” He says it would be “useful to have someone [leading the FDA] who understands how companies operate because you’re interacting with them all the time.” Diana Zuckerman, President of the National Center for Health Research, which advocates for FDA regulatory authority, says such ties “should be of great concern.” Dr. Califf is “a very accomplished, smart physician who’s been an important name in the field,” Zuckerman says, but his “interdependent relationships” raise questions about his “objectivity and distance.” She cites several studies suggesting the medical products industry uses such ties to influence the behavior and decision making of doctors and researchers, even when the scientists don’t realize it. The tension over Califf’s collaboration with industry gets to the heart of the future of the FDA at a pivotal moment. While FDA defenders see the collaboration as a threat to its independence, others see close relationships between government, industry and academia as the model for the future. Califf heads a successful and powerful clinical research program, the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, which brings together industry drug researchers, academic scientists and federal regulators to speed drug development and approval. Califf estimates 50-60% of its $320 million in annual research funding comes from industry. Capitol Hill is considering codifying parts of that collaborative model for the FDA. The powerful Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives recently introduced a draft bill called 21st Century Cures, which would loosen the drug approval and post-market oversight process. Califf says because the bill is still in draft it is too early to pass an overall judgment on it but he says, “I support a lot of the concepts in the bill.” In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee has begun work on its own bill, with committee chairman Lamar Alexander declaring, “It takes too long and costs too much to develop medical products.” In a report paving the way for his legislation, Alexander concluded the FDA has grown too large, has fallen behind scientific innovation and threatens American leadership in biomedical innovation. Reform efforts in the Senate may be aided by the support of liberals like Elizabeth Warren who back looser regulations on the medical device industry. The FDA uses a model for drug testing and oversight largely developed in the early 1960s, with phased trials before drugs and devices are approved for sale to ensure they are safe and effective, and “post-market” studies afterwards to monitor them. Over time, the agency has come to rely on the medical product industry for more than 60% of its budget for post-market monitoring. Accused of regulatory capture by those who see undue industry influence, the FDA has faced attacks from both sides. That means the FDA has few defenders and will rely heavily on its next commissioner to stand up for it in public and on Capitol Hill. “This is a very dangerous time for the agency,” says Zuckerman of the National Center for Health Research, “It’s under fire in a way that is unprecedented in the last 20 years.” Califf’s supporters point out that he is among the ten most cited medical authors in America, and that he has spent his career as a clinician helping patients. Regarding the danger of regulators being “captured” by their interactions with industry, Califf says, “The difference between capture and collaboration towards improving human health is a pretty big difference.” The White House has set no time frame for its decision on Hamburg’s replacement. It has announced the acting commissioner will be Dr. Stephen Ostroff, a scientist and long-time official at the Health and Human Services department, when she steps down in March. | high | 1.384615 | Duke University's Robert Califf is on President Obama's shortlist to succeed Margaret Hamburg. Which makes his conflict of interest disclosures slightly awkward. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150307020916id_/http://www.foxsports.com:80/arizona/story/arizona-cardinals-carson-palmer-knee-injury-ready-for-training-camp-030515 | Updated MAR 05, 2015 5:54p ET TEMPE, Ariz. -- There are three near-certainties with significant injuries to NFL players. Their surgeries will go well. They'll be ahead of schedule in their rehab and they'll be ready to come back, stronger than ever. All have been said of Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, but when he sat at the podium at the team's headquarters on Thursday -- the first time he has done so since his emotional press conference less than 24 hours after suffering a season-ending torn ACL in Week 10 against the St. Louis Rams -- Palmer was refreshingly free of hyperbole. "There's ahead of schedule and then there's professional-athlete ahead of schedule or behind schedule," Palmer said. "That gets kind of blown out of proportion, but I'm going to be ready to rock and roll by the season. I'm definitely going to be ready for (training) camp and shooting to be getting reps in our mandatory mini(camp) and hopefully some of the OTA practices." It's been 116 days since Palmer suffered the injury, but he is walking without any hint of a limp and has been running for two to three weeks. He is doing squats, leg presses, pulling sleds and is pretty close to resuming a normal workout. He said he's in rehab Monday through Friday for about four to five hours, with running and hard agility drills on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, lifting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and throwing every day. "The last month has really been fun against because I'm actually lifting weights and getting ready for 2015," he said. Palmer said the knee injury he suffered in 2005 in Cincinnati -- one he has described as much worse than this one -- helped him know what to expect in this rehab process. "A lot more than I expected," he said. "A lot of things come back to you that you had forgotten about." As anyone would expect, Palmer said it was difficult to watch the team compete in the playoffs without him. He also said he was in a funk for a while and had to apologize to his wife later when he realized all the things that he had missed by being so self-absorbed. "We had a date night," Palmer said. "She brought that up, and I quickly changed the subject." It's unknown how much coach Bruce Arians will allow Palmer to participate in OTAs and minicamp when it really isn't necessary at this point in his career, but it's a safe bet the Cardinals will be conservative and err on the side of caution if there is any doubt about his readiness. While Palmer lamented the loss of Darnell Dockett to the 49ers on Thursday, he also expressed relief that receiver Larry Fitzgerald will be back for two more years. He also anticipates GM Steve Keim being aggressive to improve the roster when free agency begins next week. To that end, Palmer said he agreed to restructure his contract about a month ago to help the team's cap situation and free-agency plans. "They've done a good job since Steve and Bruce have been together," Palmer said. "The sky's the limit. My expectations are very high that we're going to get even better next week." Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter | medium | 1.45 | Cardinals QB Carson Palmer is close to resuming normal workouts and says he will be ready for training camp. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150527232940id_/http://fortune.com/2015/05/27/michael-kors-sales/ | When you’re a red-hot aspirational luxury brand, it’s tempting to capitalize on the moment with aggressive expansion plans and a broader assortment of products to become a so-called “lifestyle” brand. But that strategy eventually and inevitably leads to brand fatigue, as Michael Kors KORS — the brand whose founder rose to cultural ubiquity a few years ago on TV’s Project Runway — is learning the hard way. Its stock was taking a beating on Wednesday morning after the fashion company posted weak financial results. Its shares are down almost 50% from an all-time high of $97.60 a few months ago. Michael Kors reported an unexpected 5.8% decline in stores open a year or more, including a 6.7% drop in North America, its biggest market by far. Analysts had been expecting a North American increase in such comparable sales — a widely accepted measure of a retailer’s health — of 3%, according to Consensus Metrix. The company, long a Wall Street darling, had gotten investors used to seeing 20%+ growth rates in comparable sales since it went public in late 2011. It has been one of the fastest growing brands in recent years, stealing market share away from its handbag rival Coach COH . To ride its wave of popularity, Kors has been on a store-opening rampage, adding 121 new stores in the fiscal year that ended March 28 alone, bringing the total to 526. That represents a 30% increase in just one year, and a doubling in just two years. And that doesn’t even include the spaces it has in department stores like Macy’s M and Nordstrom JWN The comparable sales declines suggest that Kors’ stores are eating into each others’ sales. The Kors strategy contrasts with that of Coach. Seeking to regain the aura of luxury it squandered by having too many new stores and relying too much on outlets, Coach is closing 20% of its North American stores to better focus on locations in key markets and its flagship stores, rather than those in malls. It is also laying off its logo-centric merchandise and focusing on the higher end. Kors, which also sells shoes, eyewear, watches, jewelry and fragrances, has several brands to cater to the high end, the middle market, and discount outlet shoppers, the latter of which could end up cannibalizing its pricier items and damaging its luxury aura. (Again, just look at Coach.) That very omnipresence is starting to damage the Kors brand, experts say. As Rahul Sharma, founder of London-based Neev Capital and a retail expert, put it in a tweet this morning: “If your marketing strategy is largely based around [the] ‘jetset’ loving younger female shopper, remember she can be rather fickle.” And Kors’ problems look set to continue: The company forecast “double-digit” percentage decreases in comparable sales this quarter, suggesting things are getting worse for the company, whose operating profit as a percentage of sales is declining. What’s more, the company’s inventory is up 21.8%, with overall sales rising only 17.8% (Kors’ international push explains much of that growth), suggesting another renewed sales shortfall will mean more sold at clearance, further hurting its profit margins. Analysts for years have been saying Kors should slow its growth. But shares rose five-fold from $20 in its IPO in 2011 to $100 in the past year, making it tempting to push ahead. “The seductive thing about the Kors-type of ‘hot’ trajectory is in the initial delight of consumers,” veteran retail expert Robin Lewis said in an April blog post, referring to how accessible the brand is and how much people want it. Then, “all of a sudden, in a nano-split second, the largely young and trend-fickle consumer base wakes up and realizes the brand is slapped on everything and is being worn by everybody, everywhere. And, crash! Wonderful becomes awful. The brand stands for nothing for anybody – everywhere.” That is something that Kors, like Juicy Couture, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach and countless others before it, is now learning. | medium | 1.592593 | The once red-hot fashion brand reported a surprisingly sharp decline in comparable sales, suggesting its aggressive expansion is hurting Kors' luxury aura. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150824104054id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/25/will-chinas-property-market-unravel-in-2015.html | Beijing recently introduced measures to prop up the housing market – which accounts for 15 percent of China's economy and impacts more than 40 industries – including lower mortgage rates and down-payments for some home buyers and cutting interest rates. Last week, the People's Bank of China unexpectedly eased monetary policy. The central bank lowered its benchmark lending rates by 40 basis points to 5.6 percent and deposit rates by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent. Read MoreWhy China's property slowdown isn't so scary: Goldman Johnson Hu, analyst at CIMB believes the move is an inflection point for the housing market that could drive a sustained sales recovery. "The PBoC's (People's Bank of China) rate cut is a strong catalyst for the China property sector as a) there is room for further cuts in mortgage rates, b) home buyers may see it as a signal of property market stabilization and thus boosting home sales and lowering housing inventory," he said. Read MoreChina's home price decline appears to be easing Historical patterns show that the first rate cuts in a cycle – September 2008 and June 2012 –helped drive a pickup in sales that lasted 1-1.5 years, according to CIMB. Home prices also started to rebound in 1-2 quarters after the first interest rate reduction. Moody's is less optimistic recent easing will halt the decline in prices, however. "High inventory levels will continue to pressure developers' working capital and profit margins, and weaken their pricing power," Moody's said, noting prices will continue to decrease as developers offer promotions and discounts to boost sales and liquidity. Read MoreSigns of a floor in China's property market Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities fell 2.6 percent in October from a year earlier, the second consecutive month showing an annual fall, according to Reuters. Moody's declined to provide specific guidance on price declines. | low | 0.931034 | China's wobbly property market has kept investors on edge, but the country's recent rate cut is expected to bring stability into the sector in 2015. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150909205511id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/30/corporate-america-has-more-to-do-on-lgbt-equality-commentary.html | There has been a lot of progress in recent years. In 2002, when the Human Rights Campaign compiled its first Corporate Equality Index tracking company policies of concern to the LGBT community, only 13 large U.S. employers earned a perfect score — Pacific Gas and Electric Company was one of them. That figure has now climbed to a record 366, out of the 781 companies surveyed. But the push for equality in the workplace includes plenty of unfinished business. For example, just one-third of the Fortune 500 earned a "perfect" 100-point rating. Read MoreOpinion: Gay marriage's big benefit is Social Security While it's hard to believe, there are still places in the U.S. where someone can be fired for being "out" at work. As business leaders, we have a responsibility to end this kind of discrimination. Even where there are legal protections in place, many people still don't feel safe to be who they are at work. They worry they will be thought less of, won't fit in, or will be passed up for promotion. That's not only wrong, it's bad for business. From a human- resources perspective, employee engagement is critical, as it indicates how committed employees are to the success of their company. So it should come as no surprise that, when employees feel they need to cover or hide who they are at work, it undermines their engagement and overall job satisfaction. Companies also compete for talent. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where we're headquartered, the competition can be fierce. We find that millennials in particular, whether LGBT or not, want to work for forward-looking companies with progressive policies. And equality is a threshold issue for them. At PG&E, diversity and inclusion have long been top priorities. It starts with policies and practices. For years, our company has provided full benefits for domestic partners. We were the first utility in to oppose Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot initiative aimed at precluding same-sex marriage. And we were among the first major companies to include LGBT-owned businesses in our supplier-diversity program. Read MoreCorporate America is marching with gay pride But it's also about shaping corporate culture. That takes time and it takes leadership. PG&E is home to one of the nation's oldest LGBT employee-resource groups, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming year. Recently, our executive leaders have been part of the "I'm an Ally" campaign to support LGBT inclusion. And on Sunday, many of them marched side-by-side with employees in this year's San Francisco Pride Parade. That's powerful. We do these things because creating a culture of inclusion makes us a better company. Because we know we're building relationships that produce economic and social value in our communities. Because we believe companies like PG&E have a responsibility to lead by example. We cannot afford to let this historic moment lull us into complacency. It would be easy for Corporate America to assume the job is done. It isn't. There is much more work to do to ensure everyone feels safe being their whole self in the work place. Commentary by Kent Harvey, chief financial officer at PG&E. He was named Outstanding Corporate Leader of the Year by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in 2015. | medium | 1.24 | Corporate America has made progress on inclusiveness, but there's more to do before workforce equality is a reality, says Kent Harvey. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150919220641id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/30/how-to-eliminate-the-race-wealth-gap-commentary.html | A recent study by the Pew Research Center came out with staggering numbers that lent evidence to those crying out for higher wages and wealth equality. Taking into account income, investments, retirement plans, pensions, etc. as of 2013, a white household's wealth was nearly 13 times higher than a minority household's — and that gap is growing! To put this in more tangible terms: From 2010 to 2013, the median wealth of white households increased from $138,600 to $141,900, or increased by 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, the median wealth of black households fell 33.7 percent, from $16,600 in 2010 to $11,000 in 2013. These are numbers I might expect to see in Third World countries, but not in the world's most thriving democracy. When put into the larger societal context, it's no surprise that racial tension exists in midst of this tumultuous economic conditions. Read More Obama to Expand Overtime Pay to Nearly 5 Million Workers What can we do to help close the wealth gap and create equal financial opportunities for minority Americans? We can focus on fair capitalism while investing in improving educational opportunities for our lower-income citizens. Providing free admission to trade schools and community colleges in order to build a more educated workforce is a great way to bridge that gap. With increased education comes more access to middle- and upper-management jobs, which can encourage investment and retirement savings for struggling minorities. A Tennessee initiative (Drive to 55) offers free education to all resident adults at any of its 27 state institutions. This is having positive impacts on the Tennessee economy and even presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has recently proposed a bill titled The College for All Act in an effort to make free education a nation-wide phenomenon. Capitalism is the only solution to our wealth inequalities in America. Fair and just practices of capitalism while maintaining principles of social empowerment don't happen by chance, half-measures or handouts. The byproducts of fair capitalism are competition, accountability and opportunity. Unfortunately, some of our nation's entitlement programs are not allies to capitalism. The problems with many of our welfare programs, which are aimed to assist much of our lower-income citizens, is not the program itself, but rather the lack of capitalistic ideals within them. Read MoreConsumer spending rises most in nearly six years Receiving public assistance should be a safety net that helps people get back on their feet — not a lifestyle. Welfare-recipient programs should include and mandate educational programs and job training. If anyone fails to comply with these government-funded programs, then they should lose some or all of their entitlement. These ideals may come across as a bit harsh, but tax money should be used to empower people if they are physically and mentally able to work. This is accountability. Once this is accomplished, it would hopefully directly lead to people becoming more competitive in the workplace. As long as such a disproportionate number of our minorities are living in poverty, we will continue to see the inequality that provokes acts of discrimination and racism. If we really want to reach a post-racism America, we need to start closing this wealth gap and using fair capitalist ideals to focus on opportunities for EVERY American. This takes a solution based approach that may require states, municipalities, and local governments to redefine their history and design creative solutions. Commentary by Jack Brewer, a former NFL safety who played for the Vikings, Giants, Eagles and Cardinals. He is also the founder and CEO of the Brewer Group. He has a master's degree in sports management from the University of Minnesota. He serves as an ambassador for peace and sport for the United States Federation of Middle East Peace at the United Nations. Follow him on Twitter @JackBrewerBSI. | medium | 1.36 | To solve the race and wealth gap, the country must focus on "fair capitalism," says former NFL safety Jack Brewer. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150920125951id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/10/ecommerce-start-ups-to-watch-vc-commentary.html | More recently, though, we've seen the rise of new commerce models, many of which are not only sustainable in the short term, but also will continue to grow and prosper in the coming years. Their growth is driven largely by the advent of mobile and the proliferation of social media, making it easier to acquire customers than ever before. Users can tell their networks about new companies or products in real time, providing lower customer-acquisition costs if the experience is special or the pain alleviated is substantial. Buyers and sellers are also connected more efficiently than ever before as mobile becomes a magic wand for marketplaces. This not only opens up new markets that weren't previously available, but also allows entrepreneurs to expose opaque ones that had previously been dominated by incumbents. Start-ups have been executing on several models that we find exciting: Membership commerce: These companies offer customers a yearly subscription for a fixed price and in return customers get to shop at heavily discounted prices. In the offline world, this was a model made popular by Costco, but leveraging economies of scale on the Internet allows startups to offer even more heavily discounted prices. Popular companies in the space range from Jet.com, which offers club price savings on a wide catalog of goods competing with Amazon, to Thrive Market, a company that marries healthy and organic products with heavy discounts (think Whole Foods meets Costco). Read MoreSilicon Valley goes after Wall Street in financial services technology Subscription commerce: This category has been around longer than membership commerce, but companies in the space continue to flourish. According to Retention Science, an e-commerce marketing platform, subscription-commerce customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase and have a higher average number of orders in a 12-month period than traditional retailers and flash sale companies. Some companies in the space include Dollar Shave Club and Harrys (razors), Trunk Club (men's clothing), Stich Fix (women's clothing), Birchbox (beauty), Lola (tampons) and Barkbox (products for your dog). By offering a product each month to consumers, there is monthly recurring revenue with this model that makes for a strong business, provided there is value being delivered every month. Direct to consumer: Many of these companies have been born out of the "black box" of traditional industry whereas legacy companies had significant margin due to industry monopolies and other dynamics that kept prices high unless you were willing to sacrifice quality. Warby Parker is the most notable of these companies. Warby's key innovation was the disintermediation of incumbents which gave them the ability to pass the savings to the customer. But others in the space include The Honest Company (bath & body care), Casper (mattresses), Cotopaxi (outdoor gear), Stowaway (cosmetics), Away (luggage), Harrys (razors), Campaign (furniture), Greats (sneakers), Bonobos (clothing), Naja (bras), and Everlane (clothing). Building a brand is not easy task, but modern commerce, social, and media has leveled the playing field for emerging companies. Peer-to-Peer: This model has been around for a long time, beginning with eBay and Craigslist, but both companies have left certain categories open for innovation. By owning the entire stack including logistics, quality control and photography, startups have been able to provide a better customer experience than their predecessors. Poshmark (women's fashion), Move Loot (furniture), Threadflip (women's clothes), The RealReal (luxury), ReBagg (handbags), Slang (sneakers), Grailed (menswear), TrueFacet (watches), 1st Dibs (rare objects), and ThredUP (all fashion) are all companies operating in this space. More recently, this model has also gone further upstream with companies like OpenDoor (homes) and Beepi (cars). eBay still controls much of this market, but time will tell whether or not these companies will take a large portion of the pie. Rental commerce: This category was opened up by Rent the Runway but there are other interesting companies in the space as well. The Black Tux provides tuxedo rentals online, Le Tote offers women's garments and accessories on a monthly basis, and Eleven James provides luxury watch rentals for men. This category can be more limiting, as quality control is more difficult and the use case doesn't span a wide variety of categories; nonetheless, existing companies in the space have seen strong growth and traction. Read More Value retailers to post better earnings: Analyst As you can see, it's an exciting time to be investing in commerce companies. As the barrier to entry for these companies is reduced, more and more interesting companies and models will be born. In the midst of this sea of new companies and models, it can often be difficult to discern which will be winners. One of the key things that we look for when investing in these companies is the potential strength of the brand. The most successful commerce companies have been able to build a strong brand that resonates with their customers. These "lifestyle" brands include the Honest Company, Gilt, and Warby Parker, which all have distinct brand identities. People that shop at the Honest Company care about their children and the environment deeply. Gilt customers are aspirational, wanting to live a more glamorous lifestyle in the mold of GQ. Warby Parker has built glamorous showrooms with more foot traffic than just about any other store with the exception of the Apple Store. Read MoreOut with luxury retail, in with off-price: Analyst Yet, it's important take heed of a recent shift in ecommerce toward opening up select, strategic bricks-and-mortar locations. Rent the Runway, Birchbox, and Warby Parker have all established physical locations in response to requests from their customers. After all, with ecommerce conversion rates no higher than about 5 percent, these companies have found a way to activate the other 95 percent of their traffic. While it is not an effective strategy for all ecommerce retailers, establishing tactical offline channels has proven successful for a handful of the winners. After all, humans are the end users and we don't usually think about offline or online strategy but rather that we want what we want when we want it. Commentary by David Hirsch, co-founder and partner of Metamorphic Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in New York City. Prior to MV, he spent 8 years at Google, where he was on the founding team that launched Google's advertising-monetization strategy. Follow him on Twitter @startupman. David Hirsch, through Metamorphic Ventures, is an investor in Thrive Market, Stowaway Cosmetics, Cotopaxi, Away, Move Loot, ReBagg, and Slang. | high | 1.64 | Here are the handful of e-commerce start-ups that are breaking out with new business models, says VC David Hirsch. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150929022144id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/14/china-firm-insiders-skim-the-cream-off-frothy-stock-market.html | However, Hong added he expects these sales will only slow, not stop, stock price rises, in what's become a frenzied market. China's benchmark stock indexes have surged nearly 150 percent over the past year, beating the rest of the world's major indexes, even as the country's economy slows. Shenzhen's start-up board has more than tripled in the last 12 months and is now trading at earning multiples of 140, meaning at the current level of profitability, investors need to wait 140 years to recoup their investments. Some shareholders are getting impatient. Between June 1 and June 3, Jia Yueting, Chairman and president of Leshi, sold 35 million shares in the internet firm he founded, making 2.5 billion yuan (£257.8 million). Leshi said on May 25 that Jia plans in total to sell up to 148 million shares over the next six months or 8 percent of the company, though he will remain the biggest shareholder after that with a 36.85 percent holding. Read MoreThis could open the door to China's hot market Leshi said that Jia will lend the proceeds of the sale to the company interest free. A spokeswoman declined to say whether the selling was prodded by a view that share prices are too high. It's not just company management who are selling; major cornerstone investors, freed from mandated lock-up periods, are also reducing their stakes. Cornerstone stakeholders slashed 109 billion yuan worth of China-listed shares in May, double the amount sold during the previous month, according to data from Southwest Securities. That doesn't include 3.5 billion yuan worth of banking shares dumped by sovereign investment firm Central Huijin on May 26. The reduction by Huijin, in its holdings in China Construction Bank (CCB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), represents a reversal of strategy by the state investor. Huijin had been buying mainland-listed banking shares since the global financial crisis in 2008, in an apparent support to their share prices. Huijin confirmed in statement that it has sold the shares but did not provide its reasons for doing so. Read MoreChinese farmers hope to harvest bumper stock profits A similar trend was captured by an index compiled by Shenwan Hongyuan Securities that tracks major shareholders' trading activities. The index surged over the past month, to a record high, meaning major shareholders are reducing holdings at unprecedented levels. "It a barometer of how people in the real economy view stock valuations," said Liu Junwei, analyst at Shenwan Hongyuan. "It means at the current level, a correction is very likely". | medium | 0.869565 | Senior executives of listed firms in China have stepped up the pace at which they are selling shares in their own companies. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151010181822id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/07/lawsuit-alleges-dr-dre-swindled-beats-partner.html | Lee once held a 5 percent stake in Beats as part of a partnership between the headphone maker and Monster that ended in 2012. The lawsuit alleges Dre and Iovine orchestrated a "sham" deal with smartphone maker HTC in 2011 that led to the termination of the Monster alliance. The suit alleges the shady maneuvering prompted Lee to pare his stake in Beats to 1.25 percent before selling his remaining holdings for $5.5 million in the autumn of 2013 after being assured by Beats executives that there were no plans to sell the company for at least several years. Beats announced its sale to Apple in May, opening the door for Dre and Iovine to become executives at the iPhone and iPad maker. Had he held on to his 1.25 percent stake, Lee would have received more than $30 million in the Apple deal. His original 5 percent stake would have been worth roughly $150 million. Both Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Iovine, a longtime recording industry executive, reaped the biggest jackpots in the Apple deal, though the precise size of their windfalls hasn't been disclosed. Lee's lawsuit says Dre and Iovine each owned 15 percent stakes in the early stages of the Beats partnership. Apple Inc., which now employs Dre and Iovine, declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Cupertino company isn't named in the complaint. Besides Dre and Iovine, the lawsuit targets HTC America Holding Ltd. and Paul Wachter, a Beats investor and board member. Phone messages seeking comment were left for Dre's attorney and a Beats publicist Tuesday evening. The bitterness seeping through Lee's lawsuit contradicts how Lee described the ending of the Beats partnership in a late 2013 interview with The Associated Press. At that time, Lee called it an "amicable" parting and said he was paid "very generously" in royalties. This isn't the first time that a former Beats partner has lashed out at Dre and Iovine in court. David Hyman, who sold his music streaming service MOG to Beats in 2012, is suing the two men for bad faith. That action, filed shortly before the Apple deal was sealed, is unfolding in Los Angeles Superior Court. Lee appears to be interested in recovering the money that he believes he lost through the alleged misconduct of Dre and Iovine. The lawsuit also depicts Lee as the brains behind the Beats By Dre headphones while casting Dre and Iovine as little more than figureheads. One section of the lawsuit likens Lee to two more famous innovators, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and sound-system pioneer Ray Dolby. | medium | 0.923077 | Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine are being vilified as scam artists in a lawsuit that alleges the duo duped one of their former partners. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160117231513id_/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/aug/05/esther-sabetpour-interview-joanna-moorhead/amp | Esther Sabetpour remembers nothing of the horrific accident that almost killed her, and left her body riven with a patchwork of red, welted scars. The last thing the 31-year-old photographer recalls of that August evening nearly a year ago was that she was dancing with a friend. The next she was waking up in an intensive-care unit. "I was like a mummy – wrapped from head to toe in bandages, unable to move, groggy from the drugs and anaesthetic, and totally confused as to what had happened." As well as multiple fractures to her spine, shoulder, femur and hip, Sabetpour had suffered swelling to her brain. And 32% of her body – mostly her torso and legs – was covered with third- and fourth-degree burns that penetrated right through her skin, sometimes reaching as far as the muscles. "I'd been completely mashed up," she says. Sabetpour lives in London, but the hospital in which she awoke was in Valencia, because she'd been at a Spanish music festival in nearby Benicassim. The hours after the dancing are a blank, although there is a sinister twist in that she was caught on CCTV leaving the dance arena with two men – it was they who, hours later, reported her injured beside a pylon. "All I can imagine is that they spiked my drinks and took me to the wasteland where I was found because they wanted to sexually assault me. And that when they tried to do that, and given the state I was in because they'd drugged me, I climbed the pylon to escape," she says. Spanish police, she believes, have failed properly to investigate the events of that night. "It was a totally surreal experience," she says, "almost like finding yourself in a sci-fi movie, with no idea how you'd got there. But I did realise that, despite everything, I was lucky." She was – later, she discovered from her hospital notes that the doctors hadn't expected her to make it. Sabetpour spent three months in hospital before returning to Britain for yet more gruelling months of treatment. "My legs had the most serious burns, but to treat them they had to take skin from my torso, so that became badly scarred as well. For a long time the pain was all-consuming and I wasn't thinking about how I looked... but then the day came when I could look at myself properly in the mirror, around the time I returned to Britain. I was shocked by the severity of the scarring. The pain had been more than I could ever have imagined, but now it began to sink in how much my injuries had changed the way I looked as well – although I realised how lucky I was that my face and arms were pretty much unscathed." Just a few months before her ill-fated trip, Sabetpour – who juggles wedding photography with art projects – had begun work on a new set of images for an exhibition. Her subject was herself: her naked body. "I'd always been interested in self-image," she says, "in ideas of identity and in the way women see their own bodies, and so often see the shortcomings rather than the beauty." Now, she realised, her horrendous injuries meant she could explore these ideas in a whole new way. "This time, the body I'd be photographing would be scarred and red. Of course, back then, when I thought my body didn't look perfect, it absolutely was. Inevitably I look at those first pictures from before the accident and I think, 'What was I worrying about?' My body was beautiful." She took her first pictures while she was still in a burns unit and took more while she was staying with her father after being discharged. "He went out one day, and I was alone for the first time in months. So I took off my clothes, got out my camera and started to take photographs." She has since taken many more. Her family, she says, understand why she's doing this, and they're pleased she's found something that's helped her recover psychologically and emotionally. Sabetpour also used the shoots to play out the narrative of what happened. "It's very difficult to get over something when you have so many unanswered questions about what actually took place. I'm resigned to the fact that I may never know. But with my photographs I can play out the story. So in some of the images, for example, I'm lying on the ground and the picture is taken from above – and I'm in the position I would have been in when I was found at the foot of the pylon." Her big hope is that, farther down the line, she can work with others who, like her, have been disfigured – and who, like her, might find working with photography a useful tool on the road to recovery. As far as Sabetpour's own long-term prognosis is concerned, things are uncertain: she wears pressure garments 24 hours a day, and has been told that the raised scars, and the reddening, will reduce over time. "But I very much doubt that the most damaged skin will ever return to what you'd call normal texture." If she had her time over, would she still have gone to Benicassim? "It's very difficult to know," she confesses. "I always wanted to do something powerful. And what's happened to my body has given me the chance to do that." • To see more of Esther Sabetpour's work, go to esthersabetpour.com • For help and support in recovering from burn injuries, contact Burn Centre Care. | high | 1.354839 | Last year, an accident left photographer Esther Sabetpour's body covered in fourth-degree burns. Her latest work documents her painful recovery. Joanna Moorhead meets her |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160614065413id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/entertainment/movies/deadpool-snarky-fun-hyperviolence-article-1.2521115 | This is not your father's superhero movie — and it's certainly not for the kiddies, either. Nominally a spinoff of Fox's "X-Men" franchise, "Deadpool" earns its hard-R rating by saturating the audience with raunchy scatological humor and brutal arterial blood spray. The politically incorrect material suits Ryan Reynolds as snugly as Marvel's tight red costume, giving the Canadian actor a chance to work out his mutant power for hurling snarky one-liners. It's buckshot humor that is funny when it lands; cringe-worthy when it doesn't. "Whose b--s did I have to fondle to get my own movie," Deadpool asks the audiences in one of the movie's many foul-mouthed meta gags. Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson, a terminally-ill mercenary who is tricked into undergoing a life-saving procedure to activate his latent healing power, orchestrated by a criminal mastermind (Ed Skrein). The experiment works, but not without leaving Wilson horribly disfigured and out for revenge — especially when the bad guys kidnap the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). And, boy, is that revenge bloody, with enough fetishistic close-ups on bullet-riddled foreheads to make John Woo queasy. There's no sign of the marquee X-Men, including Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, so Deadpool is left to team up with the franchise's D-listers. Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and a Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) are the only members of the supposed super-team to regularly show up — and the absence of the others does not go unnoticed by the protagonist. "It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another ‘X-Men,’" Deadpool deadpans at the camera. It's a clever wink and nudge at the scale of the movie, but legitimately also raises the question of why a movie-goer should shell out for a ticket when "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Captain America: Civil War" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" loom in the coming attractions. Director Tim Miller, a relative rookie, makes the most out of his comic characters and the comic relief, including scene-stealers T.J. Miller and Leslie Uggams. But the movie is very much Reynolds' show — and it's clear at least Deadpool himself is enjoying the ride. | medium | 0.814815 | A superhero with a perverse sense of humor is out for revenge. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll bathe in blood. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160618221455id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/09/22/red-hat-hits-2b-in-revenue/ | Red Hat, the company behind a flavor of the Linux operating system popular with businesses, should hit $2 billion in revenue this year, chief executive Jim Whitehurst told analysts on the company’s second quarter earnings call Monday. But how much of the pie will come from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), OpenShift, or other products running in the cloud is an open question. Some history: Red Hat RHT which sells support and service for RHEL and other software, hit the $1 billion mark in 2012 making it what some called the first billion-dollar open-source company. And now, Red Hat, like every other tech company, is managing a shift in customer workloads from on-premises facilities to cloud deployment where the customer may not own or operate the servers running its workloads. Some of those workloads are flowing to shared public cloud infrastructure run by Amazon AMZN Web Services, Microsoft MSFT , Google GOOG or perhaps another provider. How much of Red Hat’s revenue now comes from cloud is a tricky question: Red Hat itself may not know where a given customer is using RHEL which can run on Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform. Microsoft Azure, the third major public cloud player, does not yet offer RHEL, even though sources close to both vendors say that is something many customers want. The issue here is that Microsoft and Red Hat compete in the server operating systems in the on-premises world where Windows Server and RHEL are top dogs. Asked on the call if RHEL will come to Azure, Whitehurst seemed to indicate this will be a customer-driven decision. “It’s hard for me to talk about a specific provider. We have over 100, we just recently added VMware VMW vCloud Air. So you can imagine Microsoft in the history around it, it’s a different beast. But I hope we can — we expect to and we’ll have our platform running anywhere our customers want to run it.” Clearly it’s in Red Hat’s interest to make RHEL ubiquitous on all the major public cloud platforms. And, on the call, he noted that one reason the company blew by the high-end of its revenue guidelines (by $8 million) was “upside in our public cloud business.” He also hedged that a bit, noting that while some business customers run RHEL on a public cloud, they’re doing so mostly to develop and test new applications and when it’s time to run them in production, they tend to bring them back in house. “We’re not seeing a lot of people saying, hey, ‘I’m taking an existing application and moving it into the cloud.’ It’s more new workloads [being] built to run either permanently or often temporarily in the cloud until they settle down the performance characteristics, and the intention is moving it back in.” That comment illustrates how warily legacy IT companies are eyeing cloud computing. Some view themselves as arms dealers to other cloud providers, providing the software, computing and networking gear to run the cloud infrastructure. Some are building their own clouds to compete with those providres. Some are doing both. Unfortunately for players like Cisco CSCO , Hewlett-Packard HPQ , Oracle ORCL , and IBM IBM the massive public cloud players Amazon and Google are not buying high-end name-brand hardware. Instead, they opt to run tens of thousands of low-cost, easily replaceable commodity boxes and free open-source software that they adapt for their own needs. So, while Amazon and Google run a lot of Linux to power their own clouds, it’s not Red Hat Linux. Whitehurst maintained that Red Hat, nonetheless, is on the right side of history. Speaking on CNBC after the call, he said that the cloud trend favors his company, although that may not be obvious to the casual observer. “It’s hard to break out cloud from mobile. So much of cloud is driven by mobile data. the compute [behind mobile apps is running somewhere else with the presentation layer on your phone. Cloud is an esoteric term but it’s the other side of where your apps are running and the vast majority of cloud requires open source.” He cited a deal Red Hat inked with Samsung last quarter to bring enterprise applications to mobile devices as an example of how Red Hat can play in this new world. Still, Red Hat’s issue is that while open-source software in general, and Linux in particular, is indeed huge in cloud, how much of that Linux is RHEL is a very big question. For more on cloud computing, see the video below. Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology. | medium | 1.25 | Good question. Chief executive officer Jim Whitehurst said use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in public cloud scenarios helped the company beat its earnings estimates, but details were scarce. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160730222857id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/politics/2016/jul/05/len-mccluskey-plays-peacemaker-between-corbyn-and-watson | Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet has agreed to back formal peace negotiations between the warring factions of the Labour party to try to prevent all-out war. Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union, met Corbyn and his deputy leader, Tom Watson, on Tuesday in what some Corbyn loyalists hope will be the first step towards a brokered deal – involving MPs, unions and the party’s national executive committee – that could ensure a dignified exit for the embattled leader. One source involved in the discussions said the process could result in Corbyn stepping aside before a 2020 general election, but that there could be no pre-conditions. “The bottom line is, there can be no gun to Jeremy’s head,” one shadow cabinet source said. The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, or her predecessor, Brendan Barber, are seen as potential chairs for the negotiations, which are aimed at averting an immediate challenge to Corbyn’s leadership and “cooling the temperature”. The role is likened by some senior party figures to that of General John de Chastelain, who oversaw the disarmament process in Northern Ireland. The placing of limits on the power of Corbyn’s close ally John McDonnell to interfere in other shadow ministers’ policy areas is likely to be one element of any deal. “You would have to McDonnell-proof a future shadow cabinet,” one shadow minister said. Related: This Tory chaos won’t last. Labour must take its chance | Polly Toynbee Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, won agreement at Tuesday’s shadow cabinet for a process of formal discussions. He stressed at the meeting that the party should respect Corbyn’s mandate. Corbyn is adamant that he will not step down and believes anyone who wants to challenge his leadership should do so through the proper process. He is understood, however, to be open to listening to concerns about policy making and management of the party. Labour MPs say his position is untenable without the support of the parliamentary party, and they would be unlikely to join any talks without the prospect of Corbyn handing over to another leader before the next general election. Corbyn’s team announced the new lineup for the shadow cabinet on Tuesday, with some members doubling up portfolios to deal with the mass resignations that hit the party after the EU referendum result. Jon Trickett, a close Corbyn ally, will add shadow business secretary to his existing job of campaigns and elections chair; and Dave Anderson will be shadow Northern Ireland and Scotland secretary, after Labour’s one Scottish MP, Ian Murray, resigned. Watson told MPs on Monday that he had informed Corbyn it was not enough to have a mandate from the party membership, which voted overwhelmingly for him nine months ago. Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, is still considering a challenge to Corbyn’s leadership, as is the former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, with the two unable to agree who would be best-placed to beat him. But Burnham and others, including Watson, believe a leadership race would destabilise and risk splitting the party amid bitter recriminations between the leadership team – backed by the grassroots membership – and most of the party’s MPs. Related: For heaven's sake man, go! Ten ways to resign when it's time One shadow cabinet source said Burnham had tried to build support for a more radical deal last week that could have involved the leftwing Norwich South MP Clive Lewis replacing Corbyn, who has lost the confidence of more than 80% of his MPs. Ed Miliband is understood to have pressed Lewis to stand. But the mood changed over the weekend, as the prospect of a snap general election receded, with leading candidates in the Conservative leadership contest saying they would not immediately seek their own mandate from the electorate. McCluskey first held lengthy talks with Watson, who urged Corbyn on Monday to consider his position. The union chief then met Corbyn, whom he has repeatedly backed to stay. Sources said McCluskey’s role was to see whether there could be any common ground between Corbyn and the parliamentary party. Eagle stated publicly on Monday for the first time that she was prepared to break the impasse at the top of Labour by directly challenging Corbyn. | high | 1.863636 | Embattled Labour leader and his team to enter formal negotiations to try to avoid all-out war that could split party |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160806001747id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/08/05/03/34/church-stopped-keeping-problem-priest-list | Roger Herft, Archbishop of the Diocese of Perth, 'berated' a mother when she complained the diocese had not recorded her son's complaint. (AAP) A mother who is an Anglican priest says her church showed no compassion once she reported her son had been abused by a man training to be a priest. The woman, using the pseudonym CKR, said Bruce Hoare, archdeacon in charge of ordinations at Morpeth College near Maitland, laughed when she told him a 28-year-old theology student had given her 13-year-old son a wind-up figurine of a man thrusting his penis into a sheep. And she said Bishop Roger Herft, now Archbishop of Perth, "berated" her when she complained the diocese had not recorded her son's sex assault complaint against the trainee priest. CKR's son CKU also gave evidence at a royal commission on Thursday and said he reported to police in 2002 about being groomed, shown pornography, molested and hounded by Ian Barrack when he lived with his mother at St John's College in Morpeth in 1997. Morpeth College was a seminary where Anglican clergy trained and has been referred to at the commission as "Satan's Playground" because of the high number of pedophile priests who studied there. Barrack was jailed for two years in 2005. CKR said from the time she went to then archdeacon Hoare with the complaint about the offensive toy she was treated badly within the diocese. A file photo of Archbishop Roger Heft. (AAP) She said Hoare, later defrocked for having group sex with a teenage boy, did not seem to find the toy offensive and only changed his demeanour when she expressed her "revulsion at a toy showing an act of bestiality". He told her he would show it to Bishop Herft and later gave her back the toy and told her to return it to Barrack. CKR again went to Mr Hoare when in 2002 CKU disclosed the full extent of the abuse by the trainee priest. She had meetings with Bishop Herft, someone from DoCS and a policeman and assumed the matter would be pursued through the diocesan professional standards process. CKR learned in 2003 from a woman chairing the committee dealing with sex abuse allegations no record of her son's complaint had been made. She was also told that Bruce Hockman, the diocese's business manager, had said at a meeting with Bishop Herft and other senior officials "Oh, we don't have to worry about this case. It's not going to get to court." The diocese later sent her son $2000 as a gift when they heard he was going to travel overseas. CKR took civil action which took years to settle. "Throughout the entire ordeal I have felt that the Church has never acted fairly, compassionately or pastorally", she said. CKR said from the time her ex-husband, also a priest, studied at Morpeth in 1979-1981 there were rumours of sexual activity including that some of the would-be priests preferred young boys. On Monday solicitor Keith Allen, former trustee and member or the diocesan council in Newcastle, will continue evidence he started on Friday. He is being questioned about an apparent conflict of interest where he was advising the diocese and a solicitor making a claim against the diocese. | medium | 1.071429 | An Anglican bishop who denies being told by a child sex abuse victim about an abusive priest will return to the witness stand at a national inquiry. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160812121253id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/08/10/protesters-shoot-at-driver-after-car-hits-man-at-ferguson-vigil/21448648/ | Before you go, we thought you'd like these... Brendan O'Brien and Louise Ireland Aug 10 (Reuters) - Several protesters pulled out guns and fired at a car speeding away after hitting a man at a vigil marking the second anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, local media said. Other protesters tried to block the car to stop the driver from getting away, witnesses told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. SEE ALSO: Trump's gun gaffe prompts Secret Service to respond Ferguson police spokesman Jeff Small told the newspaper that the driver did not appear to have intentionally hit the protester and was cooperating with the authorities. RELATED: Ferguson ethnicity over time Police had found bullet holes in the car but no arrests have been made and no one was shot, he said. The unidentified protester had walked into a busy street during the evening demonstration near where Brown was shot by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9, 2014, the St. Louis Post Dispatch said. RELATED: Photos of Black Lives Matter protests since Ferguson Most iconic photos of Black Lives Matter movement since Ferguson FERGUSON, MO - AUGUST 17: Tear gas rains down on a woman kneeling in the street with her hands in the air after a demonstration over the killing of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Despite the Brown family's continued call for peaceful demonstrations, violent protests have erupted nearly every night in Ferguson since his August 9, death. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) A demonstrator protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY FERGUSON, MO - AUGUST 11: Police force protestors from the business district into nearby neighborhoods on August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets as residents and their supporters protested the shooting by police of an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown who was killed Saturday in this suburban St. Louis community. Yesterday 32 arrests were made after protests turned into rioting and looting in Ferguson. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) ST LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 12: A demonstrator protesting the killings of 18-year-olds Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri Police officer and Vonderrit Myers Jr. by an off duty St. Louis police officer gets help after being maced by police on October 12, 2014 in St Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis area has been struggling to heal since riots erupted in suburban Ferguson following Brown's death. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 3: A demonstrator cries while gathering in Philadelphia to protest the Eric Garner grand jury decision during a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at City Hall December 3, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Organizers called for the demonstration after a grand jury in the Staten Island borough of New York City declined to indict the police officer who used a chokehold on Garner, resulting in his death. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images) FERGUSON, MO - NOVEMBER 25: Police confront demonstrators during a protest on November 25, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Yesterday protesting turned into rioting following the grand jury announcement to not indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown case. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was killed by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, on August 9. At least 12 buildings were torched and more than 50 people were arrested during the night-long rioting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Neal Blair, of Augusta, Ga., stands on the lawn of the Capitol building during a rally to mark the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, on Capitol Hill, on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, in Washington. Thousands of African-Americans crowded on the National Mall Saturday for the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Black Lives Matter supporters embrace after Minneapolis police poured water to extinguish an encampment fire as they continued their protest, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, outside the Fourth Precinct in Minneapolis. The fatal shooting of Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man by a Minneapolis police officer, has pushed racial tensions in the city's small but concentrated minority community to the fore, with the police precinct besieged by a makeshift encampment and many protesters. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) A spray painted message of âBlack Lives Matterâ was painted on a monument to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., Thursday, June 25, 2015. The vandalism comes after a mass shooting in Charleston South Carolina has sparked a nationwide debate on the public display of Confederate imagery. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) FILE - In this March 12, 2015 file photo, police shine a light on a helmet as they investigate the scene where two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Mo. The one year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, which sparked months of nationwide protests and launched the "Black Lives Matter" movement, is on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2014 file photo taken with a long exposure, protesters march in the street as lightning flashes in the distance in Ferguson, Mo. The one year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, which sparked months of nationwide protests and launched the "Black Lives Matter" movement, is on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) A protester has some words with Minneapolis police officers on bikes as a Black Lives Matter protest continued, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, at the Minneapolis Police Department's Fourth Precinct in Minneapolis. It was the fourth day of protests of the killing of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man, by a Minneapolis police officer. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson leaves the Baton Rouge jail in Baton Rouge, La. on Sunday, July 10, 2016. McKesson, three journalists and more than 120 other people were taken into custody in Louisiana over the past two days, authorities said Sunday, after protests over the fatal shooting of an African-American man by two white police officers in Baton Rouge. (AP Photo/Max Becherer) Jamine Clark points to the name of his brother, Jamar Clark, on an upside-down flag bearing names of people killed at the hands of police outside the Minneapolis Police Department's Fourth Precinct, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, in Minneapolis. Black Lives Matter demonstrators have set up an encampment at the precinct which is near the site of the Sunday shooting of Jamar Clark by a Minneapolis police officer. Clark has been taken off life support. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) BLOOMINGTON, MN - DECEMBER 20: Thousands of protesters from the group 'Black Lives Matter' disrupt holiday shoppers on December 20, 2014 at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images) FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2014 file photo, Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James wears a T-shirt reading "I Can't Breathe," during warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets in New York. Celebrities have long played a significant role in social change, from Harry Belafonte marching for civil rights to Muhammad Aliâs anti-war activism. James and other basketball stars made news in 2014 when they wore T-shirts to protest the death of Eric Garner. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) A demonstrator chants during a rally in downtown Manhattan in New York, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014, during the Justice for All rally and march. In the past three weeks, grand juries have decided not to indict officers in the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York and the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The decisions have unleashed demonstrations and questions about police conduct and whether local prosecutors are the best choice for investigating police. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Parents of Michael Brown, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden listen to a speaker during a rally, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, for their son who was killed by police last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting in the middle of a street, following a suspected robbery of a box of cigars from a nearby market, has sparked a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) A police officer stands over activists, demanding justice for the death of Eric Garner, as they stage a 'die-in' during rush hour at Grand Central Terminal in the Manhattan borough of New York on December 3, 2014. A New York City grand jury on Wednesday returned no indictment against a white police officer who used a chokehold on an unarmed black man who died as police tried to arrest him for illegally selling cigarettes, local media reported. The grand jury in the city's borough of Staten Island decided against criminal charges for New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner. The deadly encounter on July 17 was captured on a video that quickly spread over the Internet and helped fuel debates about how U.S. police use force, particularly against minorities. REUTERS/Adrees Latif (UNITED STATES - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY TRANSPORT) A man protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Pastor Charles Burton lies on the driveway at the Ferguson, Mo., police station as a chalk drawing is made as a memorial to Michael Brown, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. Activists planned a day of civil disobedience to protest Brown's shooting in August and a second police shooting in St. Louis last week. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Brown's death sparked months of sometimes violent protests both in Ferguson and across America following subsequent police killings of unarmed black men in several other cities. It also spurred the "Black Lives Matter" movement that has cast a spotlight on long-troubled relations between police and minority residents in many U.S. cities. Ferguson police were not immediately available to comment. RELATED: Poll - Race relations in the US More from AOL.com: Inside the surprising protest scene at the RNC Trump's major economic speech in Detroit repeatedly interrupted by protesters Woman sues police after being blinded by bean bag round | high | 1.538462 | There was a vigil on the second anniversary of Michael Brown's killing where shots were fired after a man was hit with a car. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160818053235id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/08/16/nyregion/from-false-alarm-to-panic-inside-kennedy-airports-chaotic-night.html?_r=0 | “We heard a big celebration,” Mr. Haviland told Fox News shortly after being evacuated. He described hearing something like a loud pop, followed by the sight of a herd of people running his direction. “When you see 80 people come running around the corner,” he said, “and they break a door to get out, you think ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’” He said he saw “people working for the airline taking off their shirts,” and saying, “This is not worth it, I am leaving.” Within minutes, he said, police officers with their guns drawn were shouting, “Show me your hands!” The bomb squad soon arrived, and the area was evacuated. But inside Terminal 8, by the departure gates, many passengers had no idea anything was wrong. Judy Rothman Rofé, who had been visiting her son in Brooklyn and was waiting for an American Airlines flight back to Los Angeles, was waiting by Gate 33. Around 10 p.m., a passenger nearby was checking the internet and told her it seemed their flight was not delayed because of the weather. “There is a shooter at large,” she was told. Still, she said, as the news filtered out, people around her were relatively calm. “It was business as usual in our section of the terminal,” she said. Shortly after 11, she said, “we heard screaming.” It was unclear what set off the wave of panic, but suddenly the eerie calm turned to chaos. Unconfirmed reports of gunfire at Kennedy Airport on Sunday night left travelers panicked as the police worked to evacuate two terminals. “Lots of screaming, crying, mass hysteria,” she said. The gate agents, she said, were nowhere to be found; passengers threw themselves under counters and huddled under chairs. After several minutes, an announcement came over the public address system, ordering passengers to leave their bags, put their hands above their heads and evacuate. As she left, she said, scores of law enforcement officers, weapons drawn, were heading into the terminal. Around the same time, Terminal 1 was also officially evacuated, sending hundreds of people into the street outside the airport, unsure what was happening. The Port Authority said that those were the only two terminals evacuated, but that the panic spread quickly to the rest of the airport. In Terminal 2, where Ms. Rosen was waiting for her San Francisco-bound Delta Air Lines flight, everything seemed normal nearly an hour after the first calls to 911 about a possible gunman. It was around 10:30 p.m. when someone screamed, “Shots!” “Everyone started screaming and yelling,” Ms. Rosen said. “I dove under this desk space like everyone else. “Then this guy came running over,” she added. He was not an airport employee or an official, but he had an urgent warning. She recalled that he shouted: “They’re coming! Let’s go this way!” Not knowing who “they” might be and not wanting to find out, Ms. Rosen and about a dozen others followed the man through a secure door and onto the tarmac, leaving their belongings behind. “There were no announcements, nothing,” she said. All she could hear was an ear-piercing alarm. She waited with about 20 others on the hot, humid tarmac. “I called my sister, freaking out,” she said. “I told her I am on the tarmac, people are saying there are gunshots. I think I am safe. If you see news about this, I am O.K.” The crowd was searching Google and social media when a man — she thought he was a pilot — finally said they should return. “People were like, ‘I don’t want to go back inside,’” she said. Still, when the man opened the door, they found things just as chaotic as when they left. A flood of people were running in a single direction, she said. Out of the terminal. Once again she followed the crowd. There were “just mobs of people,” she said. She spotted a man in a Transportation Security Administration shirt and asked him what was happening. “You probably have a better idea than I do” was his response, she said. Finally, a little after midnight early on Monday, employees were allowed back inside the airport. Passengers were permitted to collect their belongings. It would take time for operations to fully resume. And thousands of passengers still needed to figure out what to do next. There were no trains running. The Van Wyck Expressway leading to the airport was closed. Cabs were just starting to trickle back. Eventually, Ms. Rosen climbed in a cab with several others and made her way to her twin sister’s apartment in the city. As she prepared to set off for the airport again on Monday morning, she was a bit more leery about the procedures that might be in place in the event of an actual emergency. “I understand situations like this are inherently chaotic, but the lack of communication and guidance just compounded an already tumultuous and traumatic experience,” she said. “At least in our terminal, they should have had enough time to get a coordinated plan together. But they didn’t, and that caused a lot of unnecessary panic and heartache.” A version of this article appears in print on August 16, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: False Alarm, Then Panic: Chaos at J.F.K. Airport. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | medium | 1.441176 | Officials said there was no evidence that a report of gunfire at J.F.K. on Sunday night was a deliberate hoax. What followed, they said, was a sign of the times. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20161005014047id_/https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/04/boston-security-firm-finds-some-insulin-pumps-vulnerable-cyberattack/NOf5UzK8fUF3EE5BVCTdfI/story.html | Johnson & Johnson warned consumers Tuesday about security vulnerabilities in an insulin pump after Boston cybersecurity company Rapid7 Inc. discovered the device’s remote control could be hacked by a digital attacker, potentially delivering extra doses of insulin. Reuters, which first reported the security problem, said Johnson & Johnson was able to replicate the problems identified by Rapid7 but was not aware of any attempts to hack into the OneTouch Ping insulin pump system. In a letter to patients, which it also posted online, Johnson & Johnson’s Animas Corp. subsidiary said the likelihood of someone gaining control of the pump “is extremely low.” The vulnerability brings more attention to security questions that accompany an increasing array of medical devices employing digital communications. The US Food and Drug Administration, which has called security threats to medical devices “a growing concern,” is developing cybersecurity guidelines for medical device manufacturers. The problem was uncovered by Rapid7 researcher Jay Radcliffe, himself a diabetic who had used the J&J pump and wanted to know if it had any security vulnerabilities. The device includes a pump that diabetics attach to their body, and a small remote control that displays their blood-glucose levels and controls the pump. Radcliffe said he found that the communications between the remote and the pump were not protected, or encrypted. Rapid7 said it is possible an attacker with the right equipment could pretend to be the remote and send improper signals to the pump. Rapid7 said the vulnerability “can be used to remotely dispense insulin and potentially cause the patient to have a hypoglycemic reaction,” a bout of low blood sugar that can cause confusion, fatigue, blurred vision, and even unconsciousness or death in severe cases. J&J said patients could take some immediate steps if they were worried about the security risk, including disconnecting the pump’s radio-controlled remote glucose meter or programming the pump to limit the amount of insulin it sends into a wearer’s body. Johnson & Johnson also said it had notified the FDA and Department of Homeland Security of the problem. In a blog post about the research, Radcliffe wrote that the episode shows why medical companies, regulators, and security researchers must take the time to track down any problems in devices. “This is not something to be rushed into as there is a patient’s life on the line,” Radcliffe wrote. “We all want the best technology right away, but done in a reckless, haphazard way puts the whole process back for everyone.” Radcliffe said most users were “at limited risk” because the possible attacks were relatively sophisticated and likely would require a hacker to be within a few meters of the patient. He also said that he would allow his children to use the OneTouch Ping pump if they were diabetic. Radcliffe gave credit to Johnson & Johnson for working to address the vulnerability, which he began reporting to the company in April. “They are focused on taking care of the patient and doing what is right,” he wrote. | medium | 1.1 | The findings by a security expert for Boston’s Rapid7 prompted Johnson & Johnson to warn consumers, although it was deemed a low risk for most users. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20161217114611id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/12/16/19/33/rethink-citizenship-refusals-dutton-told | The immigration minister took too long in deciding the citizenship applications of two former Afghan refugees and Peter Dutton must now reconsider his refusals to both men, the Federal Court says. One of the men waited 18 months and the other 23 months, before turning to the Federal Court to argue they'd endured excessive delays in finding out whether their applications had been accepted or rejected. In a landmark ruling handed down on Friday, the court found both men had suffered unreasonable delays, and ordered that the eventual decisions to deny both men citizenship must be quashed and reconsidered. The Hazara men fled persecution in Afghanistan before arriving in Australia by boat in 2010, where both were granted permanent protection visas as refugees. They qualified for Australian citizenship by living in the community for four years before passing citizenship tests. But despite passing their tests in 2014 and 2015 respectively, neither received a citizenship ceremony. The Immigration Department's service standard for processing citizenship applications is 80 days. Justice Mordecai Bromberg said there was no explanation as to why applications by the men, referred to by the initials F and G, sat in a "complex cases" queue while vast numbers of others were processed. "I am not able to exclude the real possibility that for a very substantial period of time, F and G's applications were simply left aside and forgotten," Justice Bromberg said. The court's decision gave hope to thousands of others whose citizenship applications were "put in the bottom drawer" by a department dragging its feet, the Refugee Council of Australia said. "Our government has denied them basic rights to stability and, importantly, family reunion, through slow and targeted decision-making," RCOA acting chief executive Tim O'Connor said. "Today's ruling recognises this injustice and represents a first step towards a resolution for thousands and a chance for them to start to rebuild their lives." | medium | 1.772727 | The immigration minister unreasonably delayed decisions on two citizenship applications and must reconsider both cases, the Federal Court has ruled. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140825043148id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jan/29/scarfe-netanyahu-cartoon-offensive-hurrah | Blood-spattered laments for humanity ... cartoonist Gerald Scarfe in his studio in London. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian I greeted news of Rupert Murdoch's apology for an allegedly antisemitic cartoon by Gerald Scarfe in the Sunday Times with a sigh of deep weariness. But before we get up to our oxters in the guts of my foul craft, let's pick some of the bones out of this latest scandal. Note, first, that Murdoch's apology was to Binyamin Netanyahu personally, as one member of the global elite showing solidarity to another. Remember, also, that Bibi is a favourite posterboy for Murdoch's brand of neo-conservative cheerleading. As to Scarfe's cartoon specifically, it seems to me almost identical to every other blood-spattered pictorial lament for man's inhumanity to man he's knocked out over the past 40 years. Except in this case, because of the subject matter and the timing – on Holocaust memorial day – the trademark Scarfean gore could, if you chose, have wider ramifications. And so it has proved. If, like me and other cartoonists, you've produced cartoons critical of the actions of the state of Israel and then received thousands of emails, most of which read "Fuck off you antisemitic cunt", you tend to get a bit jaded. But over the years I've received similar responses – and worse, including death threats – from Muslims, Catholics, US Republicans, US Democrats, Serbs, atheists and the obese, as well as from supporters of Israel. After a while, the uniformity of the response can tempt you into thinking that this is all contrived and orchestrated, and certainly a lot of it is. But then again, you may know that the standard complaint – "This is the most disgracefully antisemitic cartoon to be published since the closure of Der Stürmer" – can only be made because Julius Streicher's foul Nazi rag regularly published the vilest antisemitic cartoons imaginable, which prepared the ground for and then cheered on the greatest crime in human history. In the long shadow of the Holocaust, perhaps it's just about understandable – if not forgivable – that each time I drew Ariel Sharon, a fat man with a big nose, as being fat and having a big nose, it was therefore considered reasonable for me to be equated with mass murderers. The responses, though, probably have more to do with the nature of the medium than its content. Visual satire is a dark, primitive magic. On top of the universal propensity to laugh at those in power over us, cartoons add something else: the capacity to capture someone's likeness, recreate them through caricature, and thereby take control of them. This is voodoo – though the sharp instrument with which you damage your victim at a distance is a pen. None of this is benign. It's meant to ridicule and demean, and almost all political cartooning is assassination without the blood. But add to that the way we consume this stuff and you get the perfect recipe for offence. In newspapers, cartoons squat like gargoyles on top of the columns, and while you nibble your way through the columnists' prose for several minutes, you swallow the cartoon whole in seconds. The internet has also changed things. British cartoonists find their work being consumed, via the web, by people in nations who haven't had more than 300 years of rude portrayals of the elite. When Steve Bell and I first had our cartoons for the Guardian published online, many Americans would recoil in horror at our depictions of their president. Steve and I got many emails pointing out that Bush was their head of state, deserved some respect, and then asked if we'd ever depict our royal family in the same disgraceful way. At that point, of course, you pull back the curtain on Gillray's depictions of George III shitting on the French fleet. Indeed, in the mid-1780s, the French ambassador warned Versailles that Britain was teetering on the verge of another revolution, 150 years after they'd last cut off their king's head. His evidence? The kiosks stretching down the Strand, all selling satirical prints depicting the royals in the most disrespectful and disgusting ways imaginable. That he was wholly wrong should, perhaps, give the armies of the offended pause, even if other cartoons – like the filth in Der Stürmer – have misused the voodoo. You need, in the end, to apply the simple acid test for satire – as well as journalism: does it comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable? True, the Nazis used cartoons, but so has everyone else, from Stalin's Soviet Union to Iran today. Iran countered the Danish Mohammed cartoons with their own joking about the Holocaust. But that's not satire, because state-sponsored satire is the ultimate oxymoron. And speaking of Nazis, Hitler was a huge fan of the Evening Standard's David Low. The Express cartoonist Carl Giles, then a war cartoonist, was given a Luger as a souvenir by the Commandant of Belsen after its liberation because the man was a huge fan of his cartoons. Of course, after Hitler got into power and Low started, beautifully, to take the piss, Low, along with his cartooning colleagues Illingworth, Vicky and even Heath Robinson, was placed on the Gestapo's deathlist. (In fact, Vicky got it from all directions: a cartoon for Beaverbrook's Evening Standard in the 1950s calling for the abolition of the death penalty so enraged a doctor in Harrow that he wrote to the paper lamenting the fact that Vicky and his family managed to escape from Nazi Germany 25 years earlier.) Which gets us back to Scarfe. As the Israeli paper Haaretz has already observed (arguing the cartoon isn't antisemitic at all), if Scarfe had spent the last 50 years solely offending Israel, his critics might have a point. The fact is, he, like the rest of us, is there to offend everyone. | high | 2 | The supposedly antisemitic cartoon by Gerald Scarfe is no worse than what he – and the rest of us – do every day, writes cartoonist Martin Rowson |
http://web.archive.org/web/20140920210043id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/gigi-jordan-trial-murder-son-money-trust-fund | 09/20/2014 AT 01:35 PM EDT Four-and-a-half-years after the death of Jude Mirra, his mother, former pharmaceutical executive Gigi Jordan, is on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly giving the 8-year-old enough pills to kill him many times over. On Thursday, Jordan's former financial advisor Patrick Walsh told the jury that his client made a request to transfer money from her son's account at 1:53 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2010. This request was made around the same time Jude, who Jordan says had autism, was dying in a room at the Peninsula Hotel in New York, according to prosecutors. "Hi Pat," Gigi Jordan wrote in an email to Walsh, according to the . "Can you please wire $125,000 to Bruce as requested below?" She wanted the money transferred into one of her business accounts, prosecutors said. "Gigi was an important client. A high-maintenance client," Walsh said. "Many of the requests she would make could be considered unreasonable." Earlier in the trial, Dr. Edward Barbieri, a forensic pharmacologist, told jurors he found extremely high levels of Xanax in the child's blood – 19 times what an adult would take, according to He also said Jude was fed Prozac and another sedative that reduces blood pressure. The sedative was given to him at 20 to 40 times the adult dosage. In total, nine prescription drugs were found in his system, Dr. Barbieri said. Jordan claims she killed Jude to save him from further sexual abuse by his biological father, Emil Tzekov. Tzekov denies the allegations and has never been charged. Prosecutor Matt Bogdanos said in opening arguments that Jordan brought 5,918 pills with her to the hotel. Jordan claims she tried to kill herself after giving her son the drugs. | low | 1.25 | Jordan, who allegedly poisoned her 8-year-old son, Jude, with painkillers and other drugs, says she was protecting him |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141001154401id_/http://fortune.com:80/2014/09/29/former-aig-ceos-trial-against-government-starts/ | Former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg’s case against the U.S. government kicked off Monday for what he believes was an illegal bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. In the case, called Starr International Co. Inc. v. United States, Greenberg is demanding $40 billion from the government. David Boies, who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore after the 2000 presidential election, is the attorney for Greenberg’s Starr International which held an 11% stake in AIG at the time of the bailout. In his opening statement, Boies blasted the U.S. government, claiming it “charged an extortion rate” to AIG for the bailout. “They tried to to demonize AIG and suggest somehow that AIG was a poster child for problems during the financial crisis.” Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer claimed that the government acted within the law on Monday, according to Bloomberg. “It was so big and so entrenched in the world’s economic system that its failure threatened the world’s economy,” he said in his opening statement. “The goal was to save the world from AIG.” The first witness Boies called was Scott Alvarez, the general counsel of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, who testified on the subject of credit terms extended to financial institutions by the government in 2008. Greenberg, who is 89-years-old, left AIG in 2005 after about 40 years due to regulatory pressure. In the lawsuit, Greenberg claims that the terms AIG received from the government destroyed shareholder value. But on Monday, Dintzer denied that charge, pointing to the fact that AIG’s board voted and accepted the terms of the proposal. That included an emergency loan of $85 billion in return for in help for 79.9% stake in the company (that figure ultimately went up to $182 billion in bailout funds). According to a court filing from the government, the law did not require “American taxpayers to rescue AIG and cushion the fall of its shareholders, much less to do so on terms even more favorable to Starr.” The government continues that the loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was necessary to “protect and stabilize the United States government.” The case is expected to take place over six weeks in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. | medium | 1.259259 | Hank Greenberg, the former CEO of AIG, is seeking $25 billion in damages related to the government's bailout of AIG in 2008. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150107071835id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/20/best-exhibitions-at-christmas | All is not quite as it seems in galleries over the festive season and beyond: fossils of mermaids are discovered, blood stains metamorphose into florid enchantments and pop celebrities assume the numinous aura of religious icons. Joan Fontcuberta’s installations at Bradford’s National Media Museum (to 5 Feb) are so meticulously composed they allow us to suspend disbelief in the utterly unbelievable, opening our eyes to the resemblance between a spotlit smear of dust on a car windscreen and a night-sky constellation. At Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery (to 25 Jan), Imran Qureshi infiltrates exquisite miniature paintings with a topical aura of all-pervading political dread. But it’s two big-shot art stars who steal the show over Christmas. The silver-wigged ghost of downtown Manhattan, Andy Warhol, haunts the Merseyside banks at Liverpool’s Tate (to 8 Feb) with silkscreens that appear to prefigure our age of narcissistic selfies; while cult film-maker David Lynch’s paintings at Middlesbrough’s MIMA (to 26 Mar) prove he is indeed a visitor from some dead cool retro-otherworld. The Christmas break presents perhaps the best opportunity to see some of autumn’s top shows without the heavy crowds. It was no surprise that the Rembrandt exhibition (National Gallery, WC2, to 18 Jan) proved to be the year’s standout show. It’s just one masterpiece after another, from the potently probing self-portraits to the conjugal tenderness of The Jewish Bride or his frank, raw nudes. Allen Jones’s paintings and sculpture at the Royal Academy Of Arts (W1, to 25 Jan)are a flamboyant, joyful and, at times, deeply provocative world away. Best known (and derided) for his kinky women-as-furniture sculptures, this survey of his colour-drenched, pop-infused work from the 1960s to now is a chance to reappraise his intriguing output, exploring sex, identity and consumerism with a cast of acrobats, dancers and cross-dressers. The Turner Prize (Tate Britain, SW1, to 4 Jan) is always a talking point, even if 2014’s lineup featured defiantly quieter work than usual. There’s still time to catch the winner Duncan Campbell’s film exploring Marxist economics through the medium of dance, which proved rather po-faced compared to his past zingy documentaries tackling such tantalising figures as the Irish republican political activist Bernadette Devlin. | medium | 1.208333 | Robert Clark and Skye Sherwin suggest the best exhibitions to catch over the Christmas period, from Rembrandt’s nudes to the Turner Prize |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150120072646id_/http://fortune.com:80/2012/09/19/new-internet-lobbying-group-takes-on-big-media/ | FORTUNE — The media industry has been lobbying Washington since before the Silent Film Era. The tech and Internet industries, which are increasingly pitted against Hollywood and the music business (mainly over piracy) have been slower to establish themselves on K Street. That’s been changing in recent years, and today marks the launch of the Internet Association, banding together such companies as Facebook FB , Google GOOG , Amazon AMZN , eBay EBAY and several others to fight for what it calls “a free and innovative Internet.” There are good reasons for the industry’s initial reluctance to plant a foothold in Washington: the commercial Internet was created largely by fast-moving, fast-growing companies often run by technolibertarian types and financed by venture capitalists who by and large felt no need for Washington’s help and no desire to entangle themselves in politics. Unlike many new industries in earlier times, information technology and the Internet grew during a long period of deregulation, and government mostly left those industries alone (with certain notable exceptions.) That’s changing, with government now taking on issues such as intellectual property, antitrust, and taxation. At the same time, Silicon Valley — in particular, the Internet industry — has finally learned that it must counter the media industry’s formidable political power with some power of its own. Intellectual property is the new group’s main concern, at least for the moment. Silicon Valley was spooked by the attempts to pass the Stop Online Privacy Act (or SOPA, in the House) and the Protect IP Act (or PIPA, in the Senate). Those bills were basically shouted down early this year by a public led by various interest groups. But it was considered a near-miss by a Hollywood that seems intent on imposing highly restrictive rules on Internet traffic through its dubious effort to fight piracy. The group calls itself “an umbrella public policy organization dedicated to strengthening and protecting a free and innovative Internet.” The association’s CEO, Michael Beckerman said in a statement that the member companies “are all fierce competitors in the marketplace” that nevertheless “recognize the Internet needs a unified voice in Washington.” The “future of the Internet is at stake,” he said. Beckerman is a former staffer for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Internet and telecommunications policy. The other companies in the group are: AOL AOL , Expedia EXPE , IAC IACI , LinkedIn LNKD , Monster Worldwide LNKD , Rackspace RAX , salesforce.com,TripAdvisor TRIP , Yahoo YHOO and Zynga ZNGA . Notably absent are Apple AAPL and Microsoft MSFT . | medium | 1.6 | In the face of Hollywood's lobbying might, the Internet industry has no choice but to strengthen its own hand in Washington. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150216232509id_/http://fortune.com/2015/02/16/greece-and-the-eurozone-dance-on-the-precipice-snarling-at-each-other/ | Another fraught meeting between Greece and its creditors ended in deadlock Monday, with the Eurozone giving Athens an ultimatum to say by Friday what it will do to keep its bailout deal alive, and Greece continuing to insist that it wants the hated agreement torn up, but failing to present any acceptable alternative. The failure to reach a deal brings both sides closer to the precipice: Greece’s current agreement expires at the end of the month, and putting together a new one will be much more complicated than tweaking the existing one, officials said. However, even without a deal, the horse-trading could theoretically stretch out for weeks or even (if the European Central Bank is willing) until June, when Greece faces the hard deadline of a big debt repayment that it can’t possibly meet without money from somewhere else. Monday’s meeting was short by Brussels’ standards and (seemingly) bad-tempered by anyone’s: Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem and European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici were both visibly exasperated in a joint press conference at the lack of progress in finding the elusive “common ground” that would allow a classic, Euro-style compromise. Dijsselbloem said there had been a “general sense of disappointment” that Greece had been unable to say what it would and wouldn’t be able to do to unlock the remaining €10 billion in the country’s €240 billion bailout agreement. “There was a very strong opinion across the whole Eurogroup that the next step has to come from the Greek authorities,” Dijsselbloem said. His Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis refused to accept that the ball was back in Athens’ court though “We are not playing games,” said the Marxist economics professor (who has made a career out of experiments in Game Theory). But in a clear attempt to divide his opponents, Varoufakis lambasted Dijsselbloem for wrecking the chances of a deal minutes before the meeting started. He said he had been willing to sign “there and then” a draft deal offered by Moscovici foreseing a “four-month intermediate program pending a new contract,” that would have been monitored by the European Commission alone. But he complained that Dijsselbloem had withdrawn “this splendid document” and replaced it with one that insisted on framing a deal in the context of the existing agreement–an agreement that “has failed in the minds of all people who don’t have a vested interest in pretending that it hasn’t failed,” Varoufakis said. Varoufakis had said last week he could accept 70% of the conditions of the current deal but wanted to change 30% of it, including what finance minister Yanis Varoufakis called “clearly recessionary” measures such as taxes on low-income pensioners and further rises in value-added tax. The creditors say they won’t mind if Athens replaces certain items if it can find the money for them, but they refuse to accept any “rolling back” of measures implemented by the previous government. But officials said that Greece’s coalition government hadn’t been able to give any written proposals on what it could and couldn’t do,even after five days of “technical discussions” with Brussels. “The problem is that the technical discussions couldn’t even show where the end of the 70% was, and where was the 30%,” Moscovici said. Dijsselbloem said that for practical purposes, Greece needs to signal in the next couple of days the basis on which it intends to carry on negotiations. Otherwise, countries such as Germany and Finland won’t manage to get it through their respective parliaments before the 28th. | medium | 1 | The ball's in your court, Eurozone tells Athens. Return it by Friday or else. What ball? Athens says. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150619000528id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jun/23/this-weeks-new-exhibitions | Jenny Saville's monumental paintings of flesh in the raw have made her one of Britain's best-known artists. Her women's engorged bellies, swollen breasts and thighs, shouting of anguished self-image in bloody gobs of pigment, have garnered her a public following to rival the approval heaped on her by critics. Although she emerged as an almost fully formed star when Saatchi first exhibited her work in the early 1990s, this is her first big public gallery show in her home country. It traces her development as a painter over the course of two decades, from the famed images of unruly, tormented but defiant female flesh, to recent works that see her striking out in fresh directions. New drawings have taken Leonardo's cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St Ann and St John the Baptist, for inspiration. In place of its vision of stoic motherhood, Saville's images are a hectic whirl of energy. Modern Art Oxford and The Ashmolean Museum Of Art & Archeology, to 26 Sep A film shows three builders erecting scaffolding on a beach. The camera frames the geometric structure set against the shingle and the background horizon. The builders' white T-shirts interweave with the metallic grey of steel rods that frame a grey-blue sea and sky. The Construction Site receives its UK premiere in this show of Wallinger's intriguing work. There's something about the way Wallinger composes apparent futilities with such systematic earnestness that is in itself convincing. Another classic here, titled 10000000000000000, is of exactly 65,536 (the decimal form of the title's binary number) stones on a chess grid, a reflection of a superperfect number. Whether photographing a giant or schoolgirls, Diane Arbus had a genius for revealing her subjects' outre side. The 32 photos here focus on modern tribes, exploring the idea that dressing up or getting into disguise can make you freer to be yourself. It's easy to see her portraits of celebrity lookalikes as an influence on an artist such as Gillian Wearing. There's plenty of strange glamour, from puckish, bare-chested youths in makeup to society dames with matching pillbox hats and elegantly held cigarettes. Arbus probes further, however. Her image of a blind couple, huddled in one another's arms and dwarfed by their bed, or Russian midgets in a sombre living room, speak of tribal tendencies as necessary armour in a tough world. Timothy Taylor, W1, Tue to 17 Aug Stanya Kahn comes from Los Angeles and it shows. Her videos are all self-consciously faked, every emotion and thought acted up and played out. But you're reminded of the camera's ubiquitous presence; the costumes are tatty and the props throwaway. Kahn navigates this slapstick theatre of the absurd with consummate self-deprecating humour. In Lookin' Good, Feelin' Good she roams the streets dressed as a giant foam penis. For It's Cool, I'm Good she explores LA wrapped in bandages like an escaped hospital patient. In true LA style, the words Cool and Good are taken to mean the opposite of their conventional definitions. Madge Gill is one of outsider art's most fascinating figures. A Victorian spiritualist, she began obsessively creating drawings guided by a spirit known as Myrninerest, whose "signature" was often seen in the corner. The repetitive intricacy of her work is tireless: dense squares, cross-hatching and swirling forms, from which spooky, feminine faces peer. Most of Gill's vast output rarely leaves its Newham archive; here Bow Arts redresses the balance with the first of a trio of 10-week shows at the Nunnery. The Nunnery, E3, to 23 Aug A grown man entertains himself in private by stuffing red and blue marker pens up each nostril. He grips two photo-film canisters in his clenched eye sockets and, as a finishing touch, his mouth is gagged by holding a stapler like some kind of robotic beak. If all this weren't loony enough, he takes a photograph of the whole grotesque affair and presents the image as a work of art. This is just one of Erwin Wurm's One Minute Sculptures, a series of photo-artwork-performances that he's been working on assiduously since the late 1990s. Other of the 18 works exhibited here show a prone figure half buried by a suitcase and another figure wearing a cardboard box as a regulation uniform. The surprising thing with Wurm is that such dada daftness doesn't look just tiresomely wacky, like so many drunken pranks. Delightfully, it's somehow very sophisticated cultural mischief. Open Eye Gallery, to 2 Sep Legacy has become the Olympics buzzword, applied before the fact, as if you could reverse time, and projected on to the future. Psychogeographer writer Ian Sinclair and artist-filmmaker Andrew Kötting's latest project sends up the vacuous cultural commissions taking legacy's name in vain to bulldozer so-called wastelands rich with people's history. Exploring the lesser-celebrated side of Britain, last year they took to Blighty's waterways in a swan-shaped pedalo. Their pedal-powered odyssey from Hastings to Hackney is by turns tragi-comic and quietly radical, lit up by folk songs and locals' stories. The results can be seen now in an installation of film, photos and artefacts, to be released in movie form next month. Dilston Grove, SE16, Wed to 29 Jul | high | 1.15 | Jenny Saville | Mark Wallinger | Diane Arbus | Stanya Kahn | Erwin Wurm | Andrew Kötting & Iain Sinclair |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150824120145id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/26/ge-jumps-into-the-fray-of-industrial-internet-.html | GE's Software Center has the look and feel of a start-up on steroids. Based in the Bay Area, its glossy open-workspace building is stocked with food and buzzes with the energy of more than 1,000 software developers and engineers. There, the company develops its IIoT offerings, including an operating software platform called Predix, which caters to machines in a range of industries, helping companies to save billions. One application assesses oil and gas pipelines for environmental risks to prevent possible leaks, while another gathers flight data for GE jet engines in use, plotted out in colorful, easy-to-read dot graphs. There are apps to help freight railroad operators anticipate when trains may be blown over by a strong gust of wind. Meanwhile, low-flying drones keep track of locomotives' inspections. Within the center, researchers use consumer electronics as hardware platforms upon which they build software. Some of the newest projects center around augmented reality, equipping Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and Goldeneye headsets with software to make factory inspections easier and faster. Predix itself functions on laptops, tablets and mobile devices. According to Ruh, this type of increased efficiency has major import for energy companies in general, and oil refineries in particular. "In the energy space, it's quite clear," Ruh said. "If I can get to total efficiency, there's just so much upside in what they have, that small gains are big numbers." The savings can be notable in power generation, as well. One percent more fuel efficiency on a gas turbine fleet can result in upwards of $6 billion in fuel savings per year, according to GE data. Software-connected sensors in turbines on a wind farm can generate between 5 to 10 percent more power, translating into a 20 percent boost in profitability. | low | 0.8 | The industrial Internet is using software to help streamline the lives of businesses. GE is one of the major firms looking to benefit. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150824210702id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/04/06/bad-news-turns-good-for-fed-addicted-stocks.html | The ISM service sector report, while just in line with expectations, was a bright spot after a parade of bad reports—like last week's soft ISM manufacturing data and personal consumption. Those data points were viewed as negative by a stock market that has seen bad economic news as a bad omen for stocks because of the parallel negative impact on corporate earnings, expected to be negative for the first time in six years. The March jobs report of just 126,000 nonfarm payrolls showed across-the-board weakness and raised concerns that the softness could extend beyond the first quarter. Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said it appears the dollar was propping up stocks, as well as the expectation of an easy Fed. Read MoreWeak jobs signals dovish Fed "I can't fully explain how we're 25 points off the lows from Friday. The S&P is less than 2 percent off all-time highs in light of what's going on. The addiction to the Fed just won't end," he said. Dudley said the economy is likely to speed up after the first quarter's sluggish growth of about 1 percent, a view shared by many Wall Street economists. Read MoreThis is when to worry about the stock market: Tom Lee Seen as a proxy for Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Dudley's comments carry more weight than other central bank presidents who have said recently that June was not off the table for the first rate hike. The markets, however, have pegged September or later as a more likely time frame for the Fed to move, particularly after the weak jobs report. The ISM nonmanufacturing survey Monday showed the service sector expanding, but at a slightly slower pace than last month. Both the new orders and employment components rose. The index came in at 56.5 in March compared with 56.9 in February. A reading above 50 signals expansion. The 10 a.m. EDT report was preceded by Markit's service-sector data which showed a sizeable improvement to 59.2 from 57.1, the highest since August. Read MoreWeek Ahead: Fed in focus after weak jobs JPMorgan economists point out that while the two service sector reports went in opposite directions, both look consistent with GDP growth above 2 percent, suggesting the slowdown in the first quarter is temporary. The economists said the reports make it appear the March employment report may also have overstated weakness. JPMorgan has said first-quarter growth was tracking at just 0.6 percent. Treasury yields were at their highs of the day late morning. The 10-year was at 1.90 percent after falling below 1.80 briefly when the jobs number came out Friday. "The fact the service sector indicators were solid is a bit of solace for those expecting the economy to grow at a reasonable clip," said Ian Lyngen, senior Treasury strategist at CRT Capital. "I think it was more an issue of people looking to opportunistically add to equity exposure following the pullback after the NFP (nonfarm payrolls) rather than something new this morning." He said some investors clearly look at weaker data as an excuse for the Fed to stay easy longer, a positive for stocks. O'Rourke said the stock market spring back could be temporary, and stocks could face new headwinds as the week progresses. The weak economic data have been a concern for stock traders, since earnings growth is expected to be negative for the first time in six years. The Dow was up 117 points to 17,880, and the S&P was up 13 at 2,080. A six percent rally in U.S. oil futures also helped lift stocks as the energy sector gained. Other commodities, like gold, also benefited from dollar weakness during the trading day. By late in the day, the dollar reversed course and was trading higher. "I think it's a tape with a lot of people still out. It's noise and the next week or so, we'll see how earnings shape up," said O'Rourke. "This market has largely been driven by policy. ... The risk is if earnings miss, stocks get more expensive not because prices are going up but because earnings are going down. That's what I'm watching. I think it will be hard for the market to make significant headway if earnings are not good because I think the policy peak has passed." | medium | 1.692308 | The promise of an easy Fed, a weaker dollar and service sector data that showed an expanding economy helped lift spirits and stocks Monday. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150906123238id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/26/charts-nikkei-will-continue-to-rally-for-a-while.html | The second feature of the chart is the development of trading bands. Each band is around 1377 index points wide. It is difficult to set the correct place for the trading band lines. We set the first level near 14797 because this captures the majority of support and resistance behaviour between 2013 July and 2014 October. The position of Line 1 is a matter of judgement. The position of the upper line 2 in the trading band is near 16174. The line location is a matter of judgement. The line near 16174 captures the majority of the resistance behaviour between 2013 December and 2014 November. The width of the trading band is projected upwards to give the first breakout target near 17551. The index develops consolidation around this area so this confirms the original trading band calculations are correct. Read MoreWhy the Nikkei rally will carry on The next trade band projection level is near 18,928. This acts as a support and resistance level. Using the same method the ext target is near 20,305. This level is also a long term historical resistance level on the Nikkei. The target for the breakout above 20,305 is near 21,682. The combination of the long term trend line which acts as a support level, and the pattern of trading bands, confirm the continuation of the uptrend in the Nikkei and help to set potential upside targets. The projected target levels are not exact. A weekly chart is used as a guide in setting these targets. The targets are confirmed using a daily chart of the Nikkei. | low | 0.576923 | The Nikkei's relentless bull-run has raised concerns if a correction is on the pipeline. Chart analysis, however, suggests otherwise. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151010185219id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/08/karmazin-i-would-invest-in-this-media-merger.html | The deal that should get done in the media world is a merger of Time Warner and CBS, former CBS CEO Mel Karmazin told CNBC on Tuesday. In fact, he said, he would even invest his own money if such a deal were to materialize. "It just makes sense. What's the reason it wouldn't work?" he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. He said such a combination would have synergy: Time Warner has Warner Bros. Pictures, while CBS has no movie studio. The companies could also fit well together in sports and news. Timer Warner operates Turner Sports and CNN. Leveraging CBS' deal to carry NFL games could also help a combined company in negotiations with cable providers, he added. Read MoreNo 'significant' talks to buy AOL: Verizon CEO Media companies have no choice but to expand in today's business, he said. "If you take a look and you see all the consolidation that's gone on in the advertising agency world, you see that there is so much advertising inventory out there that there is far more supply than demand," he said. "In order to have the position to deal with advertisers, to deal with distributors, you need to be bigger." Two major deals—Comcast Cable's bid to buy Time Warner Cable and AT&T's offer to purchase DirecTV—will likely be approved, said Karmazin, who also held executive positions at Sirius and Viacom.. "It should get done. It's hard to find good reasons to stop it, and I believe at the end of the day it's not anticompetitive. I don't believe that there is any monopoly they're going to have. I don't think it's going to be harmful and I think that the competition doesn't like it," he said. Read More Streaming has put 'fear in the eyes' of old media: Levinsohn On the issue of "unbundling" television content—or offering it outside of traditional cable packages—Karmazin said it offers consumers greater choice, but the vast majority of people will still want the whole slate that cable subscriptions provide. "I don't believe this 'quote' little bundle is going to get a whole lot of people to not have the broadcast networks, to not have CNBC, to not have all of the great content out there," he said, referring to Dish Network's decision to unbundle certain channels, including ESPN. Read MoreDish's Sling TV launches $20, live, over-the-top service | medium | 1.714286 | Former CBS chief Mel Karmazin also says media companies must get bigger in order to deal with advertisers and distributors. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151104143940id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/18/market-milestones-feed-fear-of-bubbles.html | Ablin is a bit more cautious with the S&P's average price-to-earnings ratio over 17. The P/E represents the price of a stock divided by its earnings per share, and that average is usually under 16. "I'm worried about a bubble," he said. "The metrics we track suggest the market is anywhere between 10 and 15 percent overdone if you pull the Fed out of the equation." The market has been flashing plenty of warning signs, and its selloff in the final hour Monday was not a surprise after the series of record-setting sessions last week. For instance, the defensive telecom sector was the best performer Monday, and commodities-driven materials and energy were among the biggest losers. Both sectors rely on global growth. (Read more: After getting crushed, this sector could be golden) "We're in this hot potato market right now, where momentum is driving it," said Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at Lindsey Group. The small cap Russell 2000, off 0.8 percent, and Nasdaq, were again diverging on the downside, a negative sign to some traders who look for growth and small cap sectors to lead the market. Both are up more than 30 percent this year, while the Dow is up 22 percent and the S&P 500 is up 26 percent. "We're due for a rest here," Boockvar said. "There's no question about it, but the bull market doesn't end until interest rates move back to 3 percent. I'm getting more bearish here. Many things are lining up. I think this is the last phase of the bull market." But analysts agree that it's unlikely the stock market would see a pullback of more than several percent until next year—possibly around the time that Congress refocuses on the budget and debt ceiling, or if the Fed signals it will begin to reduce its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program. "The market hasn't cared about a mediocre economy. it hasn't cared about slowing earnings. It hasn't cared about Syria. The only thing I look for to reverse it is when the Fed becomes a factor, or the bond market does it for them," Boockvar said. Another red flag for stocks is that investors have also been taking on record amounts of margin debt. According to NYSE Euronext, margin levels, or the amount borrowed to purchase securities, climbed to a record $401 billion in September. (Read more: Larry Summers and the never-ending bubble economy) Barry Glassman, president and CIO of Glassman Wealth Services, says the individual investors he speaks with are concerned about the market's run. "The biggest challenge that I'm hearing from clients, as well as prospective clients, is they don't know what to do with their cash," he said, adding that they see bonds and stocks as pricey. "They don't want to be the people who plow money into the market at all-time highs. "They are going through what we call financial schizophrenia," Glassman said. "They're going to go through those kinds of challenges, and they're left sitting on the cash. No decision is their decision." One strategy he's recommending is to put some cash into long/short equity funds. "These are strategies that are going long stable, or value companies, and shorting the high fliers," Glassman said. There are plenty in the camp who believe the market can go higher until the Fed removes some of its stimulus, but there are also investors and money managers who expect to continue chasing performance into the year-end, fearful of losing out on potential gains. —By CNBC's Patti Domm. Follow here on Twitter @pattidomm. | medium | 1 | The new records on the stock market are a sign that stocks are getting pricey but not necessarily of a big selloff anytime soon. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160227022422id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-huge-force-for-love-of-god-and-wife-1455923525 | Sometimes, the true meaning of a work of art comes into sharper focus with the passage of time. In retrospect, Gustav Mahler’s grandiose Symphony No. 8 can be viewed as a desperate cry for personal redemption. The Eighth is a mammoth work, calling for an enlarged orchestra, multiple choruses and vocal soloists. He had written it in a flash in 1906, and for the debut in 1910 it quickly earned the label “Symphony of a Thousand.” Despite his objections, the name fit, since it called for 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists,... Sometimes, the true meaning of a work of art comes into sharper focus with the passage of time. In retrospect, Gustav Mahler ’s grandiose Symphony No. 8 can be viewed as a desperate cry for personal redemption. The Eighth is a mammoth work, calling for an enlarged orchestra, multiple choruses and vocal soloists. He had written it in a flash in 1906, and for the debut in 1910 it quickly earned the label “Symphony of a Thousand.” Despite his objections, the name fit, since it called for 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists, three choirs and eight vocal soloists. On Feb. 24 and 25 there will be a rare opportunity to experience the work, when it will be performed in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, under the direction of the brilliant Kent Tritle. The symphony’s premiere was intended to be Mahler’s last conducting appearance in Europe, and he had hopes of a great triumph. “I have never written anything like it,” he told music historian Richard Specht. It was, he said, “something in comparison with which all the rest of my works are no more than introductions.” Beethoven ’s innovation in his Ninth Symphony of incorporating singers with instrumental performers was now to take a giant leap forward with an entire symphonic work in that mode. The performing forces would be breaking new ground in sheer volume. And the underlying textual material would boldly merge seemingly disparate elements, thrusting a stirring ninth-century Christian hymn (“Veni creator spiritus”—“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, Come!”), bedecked in masterly compositional splendor, onto the end of Göethe’s “ Faust ”—philosophically linking an early Christian belief in the power of the holy spirit to Göethe’s vision of salvation through eternal womanhood. In many ways it was Mahler’s deeply personal cry from the heart, a double plea—to both the woman in his life and the Christian world at large. Preparations for the performance did not go well. The piece required Munich’s chorus (which included 350 children) to add large groups from Vienna and Leipzig. Eight vocal soloists were rounded up from Munich, Vienna, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Wiesbaden. Mahler was concerned that the singers would not be able to learn their parts in time. He wrote to Bruno Walter, his friend and assistant at the Vienna Hofoper that he was prepared to “ruthlessly cancel the whole thing.” Mahler’s reputation was already formidable—even his most severe critics must have recognized that he was the best conductor of the day. But he had been under both professional and personal assault on a number of fronts. And he was searching for relief. That meant first, resolving deep divisions with his very unhappy wife, Alma, who had checked into a sanitarium and promptly started an affair with a young architect named Walter Gropius. Mahler famously sought help from Sigmund Freud. The composer’s other source of anguish was the anti-Semitism that constantly gnawed at his doorstep. Even though Mahler converted to Christianity, he was often subject to critical attacks like the one in 1909 by musicologist Rudolf Louis that called Mahler’s music repulsive “because it acts Jewish” and reduces itself to a “frank gratification of common seamstress-like sentimentality.” Might his new symphony help him overcome these personal and professional alienations? Though he lived under Wagner ’s shadow and could indeed write intensely sentimental music forged into disjointed mash-ups, Mahler was a brilliant harmonist whose slithering, sensuous lines explored the nether regions of the musical universe, producing meltingly aching phrases that spoke of yearning as almost no one else could. And the Eighth Symphony, an epic musical journey, is filled with enormous treasures. From the opening, the music stirs: A forceful statement of the hymn is bolstered by the presence of a majestic organ, with its huge resonance creating a staggering sound. It’s a theme that returns again and again to mark transitional points in the drama. Choruses enter, punctuated by cascading strings and brass, all in complex counterpoint. Expressions of heavenly bliss alternate with small instrumental combinations producing playful contrasts of timbre. Happy children’s voices and songs of praise give way to dramatic arias. There are transitions that draw you closer, and fanfares that blast you in your seat—joyful outbursts and dark laments. As the Göethe section begins, the piece becomes mournful, blossoming into a gorgeous love theme before giving rise to long episodes of passionate drama, in a rich tapestry for instruments and voices. The music is ever changing—celebratory, breathless, or solemn as the story unfolds. The work draws to a close touching on the materials and spirit that had come before, ending with moments of hushed beauty and soaring melody. And the “Symphony of a Thousand” did become the immediate success for which Mahler had hoped. But within a year of its performance he was dead at age 50. —Mr. Isacoff’s most recent book is “A Natural History of the Piano” (Knopf/Vintage). | high | 1.821429 | Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 came to be known as the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ because of the vast numbers required to perform it. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160602150056id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2005/03/13/realestate/using-the-backyard-as-a-barnyard.html | Today, the goats -- Princess Leia and Yoda (the third goat, named Surprise, recently died) -- rarely make a sound like the one that unnerved the neighbors. There are no county codes that address allowable pets in Suffolk or Nassau. Most wild animals are prohibited by New York State law, but otherwise, pet ownership regulations are left to individual towns and villages. Many, like Smithtown, for example, have codes for horses and dogs but not for other farm animals. Some say there is greater interest these days in owning animals that were once seen only on farms. "I think there is a trend" toward owning farm animals, said Tabitha Haubold, the animal science program manager for Suffolk County Farm, part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. "There's a conflict of interest with the loss of land," she said, referring to the fast pace of residential development on former farmland. "It's kind of like Long Island is trying to hold onto its heritage." Many pet owners come to see Ms. Haubold at the farm, where she counsels new owners of goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, pigs or chickens, among others, in caring for their animals. With 10 years of experience on the Suffolk educational farm and having grown up with horses in Manorville, Ms. Haubold knows a lot about animals. She herself owns 16 llamas. She shows them professionally and makes yarn from their fiber, she said. There are more than 100 llamas and alpacas, which are smaller, on Long Island, Ms. Haubold estimated, and many more pigs, goats, sheep, chickens and roosters living, often as pets, in residential neighborhoods. One Nassau County woman has two kangaroos, she said, and a Port Jefferson man has four reindeer. A Huntington couple has Shetland sheep, and a West Hills woman has an enormous pig. Complaining neighbors are an issue not only for residential pet owners, but for farmers as well. As luxury developments pop up adjacent to farmland, city folk who move to the country often find adapting difficult. Marsha Kenny moved from Brooklyn to a house that bordered a farm in the town of Southampton in the 1970's. A fire lane ran past her Brooklyn home, but she slept easily through the blaring sirens, traffic and city street noise, Ms. Kenny said. It was the East End farmer's rooster, crowing at the crack of dawn, that interrupted her sleep. "I think a lot of people go through the same experience," Ms. Kenny said. "And some adapt to it." Other farm neighbor complaints have arisen from fertilizer smells, pesticide spraying and the sounds than come from certain farming techniques. "The No. 1 complaint we get against farms is just the noise," said Stephen Frano, code enforcement officer for the Town of Southampton. "A lot of the crop farmers will use an air cannon -- it sounds like a shotgun. They set it off in the middle of the field, and it keeps the crows and birds away from the crops." Since the 1990's, developers have built homes on former small horse farms lost to the Island's soaring housing market. Now, a horse farm in Southampton must sit on at least 10 acres, and ordinances regulate how often manure must be carted away. Farther west, in Medford, Dianne Soja has operated Whispering Pines, a stable where she keeps 20 horses, gives riding lessons and trains horses for equestrian events, for 18 years. Ten years ago, the property she leased was sold to a developer, who then built a residential development. Ms. Soja moved her horses to a property five blocks away. But now, the owner of that property is also selling the land to developers, she said. Ms. Soja has offered to buy it but said another buyer had outbid her. Ms. Soja is not sure what she will do. It seems pointless to move elsewhere on Long Island, she said, with diminishing open space and such high returns for property owners who sell to developers. If Long Island's housing market continues to soar, it is likely that farms and animal owners will face more complaints from neighbors unaccustomed to country life. But suburbanites who want to own farm animals as pets may soften the trend. "I feel there are an increasing number of people who are trying to reconnect to their agricultural roots," Ms. Haubold, the Suffolk County Farm educator, said. "Parents who grew up in a farm-type atmosphere or grew up on Long Island when there were farms want to share that with their kids." Susan Goldstein grew up in nearby Deer Park. Her grandmother owned a chicken farm in East Islip, and her aunt and uncle had goats and chickens. For Ms. Goldstein, living in Suffolk County means having space to keep animals. Besides the goats, the family has two dogs, a cat and two parrots. Her daughter Rachel, 17, likes to feed the goats, and 7-year-old Iliza hopes to join a 4-H club and show the animals when she is older. Gary Goldstein said he understands his neighbor's frustration during the goat weaning. But he said he doesn't complain when a neighbor's barking dog wakes him in the middle of the night. "This is the suburbs," he said at the dining room table in the high-ceilinged house that he renovated himself. "People come out here to be in the country, to have space, to have trees, to have dogs. But if you're going to be in suburbia, you're going to hear barking dogs. If you don't want that, why do you come here?" | low | 1.810811 | Suffolk and Nassau Counties, NY, have no codes that address allowable pets; New York State law bars ownership of most wild animals; all other pet ownership rules are left to towns and villages, which may be facing rise in interest in owning farm animals; complaining neighbors are issue for both residential pet owners and farmers; photo (In the Region/Long Island) (M) |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160612085733id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/17/privacy-shield-hurdles/ | Europe’s privacy regulators are still poring over the new “Privacy Shield” agreement that will keep the transfers of people’s data from the EU to the U.S. legal. But they’re not yet satisfied with what they see. That’s the message that came out of a Thursday hearing in the European Parliament’s civil liberties, justice, and home affairs committee. Many voices at the hearing predictably criticized the deal, such as Max Schrems — the activist whose complaint shot down the old Safe Harbor agreement and plunged the U.S. tech sector into panic over the possibility of losing access to European customers. If the deal doesn’t go through, there’s a strong chance American companies will no longer be able to legally serve European customers if that requires using their data, and multinationals will struggle to legally process information about their European employees. However, the EU regulators themselves—whose opinion is key to whether the deal goes through—also sounded unsure about whether Privacy Shield respects Europeans’ rights in the ways Safe Harbor did not. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the French privacy regulator who is spearheading her EU peers’ efforts, said the watchdogs had identified four key safeguards that Privacy Shield must provide: clear and comprehensible rules, assurances of proportionality in the way U.S. national security access Europeans’ data, independent control mechanisms for that access, and effective ways for Europeans to lodge complaints about how U.S. firms and agencies are treating their data. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. “We feel there is an absence of rules in the Privacy Shield [regarding] data retention,” Falque-Pierrotin said. She also said the regulators had not yet established whether the redress mechanisms in the deal are “really available to EU citizens.” Falque-Pierrotin and the other regulators are due to give their definitive opinion in mid-April. The proportionality issue is really about mass surveillance, which Europe’s top courts are gradually establishing is not proportionate at all, and therefore illegal. Falque-Pierrotin noted that more rulings on this subject are expected in the coming months, and this could have an effect on whether the Privacy Shield deal stays legal. After all, it does still allow a degree of mass surveillance by U.S. authorities, as long as that surveillance is for one of six national-security purposes. What’s more, the EU is currently preparing to roll out new privacy rules. At the moment, the regulators can only assess the legality of the deal under the existing rules, which date back to 1995. As Falque-Pierrotin suggested, the answer may lie in reassessing it a couple of years down the line, which is not what what businesses looking for certainty will want to hear. The view from the U.S. wasn’t terribly upbeat either. Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University professor and head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Privacy Shield represents a “step backwards” for privacy principles. Rotenberg particularly criticized the complexity of the redress mechanism described in the deal, which would see Europeans get new ways to complain in the U.S. But the process would take years to negotiate. He said earlier Safe Harbor’s enforcement process was so complex that he was “hardly surprised” when it turned out the Federal Trade Commission had received a mere four complaints from the E.U. in 15 years. For more on privacy and national security, watch: “This process even more complicated—it adds the Commerce Department as an additional step,” Rotenberg said. “This is not what redress is.” He also said the supposedly independent complaint ombudsman that the U.S. is promising to create would not have any real authority. Schrems, meanwhile, pointed out that companies could put tricky language in their terms and conditions that would effectively kill the protections that are supposed to come from Privacy Shield. This, he complained, would mean the deal doesn’t meet the requirements set out by European courts. “I have no clue how the [European] Commission can ever argue that this is in compliance,” he said. “We need a system that provides real protection [and] we need legal stability for businesses.” | high | 1.318182 | The European Parliament just held a hearing on the new transatlantic Privacy Shield agreement, revealing many problems with the deal. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160617001234id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1977/12/17/archives/thomas-schippers-is-dead-at-47-conductor-of-opera-symphony.html? | Returning to Philadelphia, he studied piano and composition under Olga Samaroff and at her suggestion audited a conducting class at Tanglewood one summtr. At • 18, ‘Mr.• Schippers was one of six finalists out of 40 entrants in a Philadelphia Orchestra conducting competition and as a result had a chance to lead that orchestra briefly. At this point, as Mr. Schippers recalled it later, his father, who had doubts about music as a career for his son, called him back to Kalamazoo. The aspiring musician showed his father a letter offering him a job as organist in the Village Presbyterian Church in New York. The job paid $10 a week, but Mr, Schippers told his father that it paid $5,000 a year, and returned to New York, where he was soon playing the piano for a company of equally youthful hopefuls called the Lemonade Opera, which performed in the basement of the same church in Greenwich Village. One day the conductor quit, and Mr. Schippers took his place. One of the Lemonade Opera's singers went to audition for Mr. Menotti, who was then casting his first full‐length opera, “The Consul,” and Mr. Schippers went along to play the piano for her. Mr. Menotti was more impressed with the pianist than with the singer, and hired him to coach the singers for “The Consul.” Luck once again tapped Mr. Schippers on the shoulder when shortly before the opera's New York premiere, in 1950, the regular conductor fell ill and the young conductor was asked to take his place. “If that isn't luck, what is?” Mr. Schippers later remarked. After conducting for three months in New York, Mr. Schippers was sent to Europe by Mr. Menotti to record the score for a film of “The Medium.” After service in the Army, with a tour of duty in Germany, he returned to the United States, where he found himself in demand. He led the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philharmonic and became a steady conductor at the New York City Opera. When he was chosen to conduct the premiere of Aaron Copland's “The Ter'er Land” there, Mr. Schippers was just 24 years old. The association with Mr. Menotti developed into one of the strongest links in his career. At 22, he conducted the first televised performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” which was destined to become a Christmastime classic, and he soon became known as an authoritative interpreter of many Menotti The Menotti connection, which resulted is their founding of the Spoleto Festival in 1958, continued until 1976, when composer and conductor fell out. Mr. Menotti told an Italian newspaper that Mr. Schippers had become too costly a performer for the festival to afford, a “Marron glace,” bather than a menu staple. Mr. Schippers retorted in another newspaper that big names had become irksome to Mr. Menotti, and that there was nothing more to say but goodbye. His many engagements with the New York Philharmoic included alternating with Leonard Bernstein on the podium during a visit of the orchestra to the Soviet Union. He made his debut at La Scala in 1954 and returned often to the Milan cpera house. It was there in 1962 that he conducted the world premiere of Falla's cantata “Atlnntida.” His debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany came in 1964, in Wieland Wagner's controversial new production of “Die Meistersinger.” Mr. Schippers became a Metropolitan Opera regular after his debut there in 1955, and his assignments outside the standard repertory included the world premiere of Menotti's “The Last Savage,” during the 1963‐64 season. He was also entrusted with the opening production of the Metropolitan Opera House on Sept. 16, 1966: Samuel Barber's “Antony and Cleopatra,” one of the unqualified disasters in the company's history. The trouble was generally attributed to Franco Zeffirelli's staging. of it. At the Metropolitan, Mr. Schippers held the record of having conducted more opening nights than anyone in the last 40 years. During a 1960 Metropolitan performance of “Forza del Destino” that Mr. Sohippers conducted, the baritone Leonard Warren fell dead on the stage. One of Mr. Schippers's greatest Metropolitan triumphs came in 1974, when he conducted a new production of “Boris Godunov” in Mussongsky's original version, a first for the company. In addition to his Cincinnati Symphony post, Mr. Schippers had been engaged as music director of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, and was to have conducted his first concerts with it last October. Last month the Cincinnati orchestra gave Mr. Schippers the title of Conductor Laureate. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and !Mrs. Peter Schippers of Richland, Mich.; a sister, Mrs. John Gideon of Kalamazoo, and a brother, Henry Schippers of KalaI mazoo. We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to [email protected]. A version of this archives appears in print on December 17, 1977, on page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Thomas Schippers Is Dead at 47; Conductor of Opera, Symphony. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | high | 0.888889 | Thomas Schippers, conductor laureate of Cincinnati Symphony Orch, dies in NYC of lung cancer at age 47; career revd; illus (M) |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160617030145id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/08/11/google-alphabet-name-change/ | This week, Google announced that it was reorganizing and changing the name of its company from Google GOOG to Alphabet. On the surface, this is a puzzling move. Why would the company embrace a new, unknown name instead of Google, a brand with remarkable awareness and presence? Many companies have done just the opposite. Blackberry BBRY , for example, abandoned the Research in Motion name. Target TGT dropped Dayton Hudson. A deeper analysis, however, reveals that this is a smart, strategic branding strategy for Google. By embracing the name Alphabet, Google is becoming a pure house of brands. The parent brand, Alphabet, will own a number of different brands, including Google, Android and You Tube. Alphabet apparently won’t be a consumer-facing brand; it will be the corporate parent. CEO Larry Page said in the announcement that “Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies.” This is true, but it might be more important to note that Alphabet is also a collection of great brands. More: Why Google changed its name to Alphabet This is the same structure used by many successful brand-oriented companies. Unilever UN owns hundreds of different brands including Dove, Axe, Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s. United Technologies UTX owns Otis, Pratt & Whitney and Carrier. FCA owns Jeep, Fiat and Chrysler. A house of brands strategy makes enormous sense. One notable benefit is that it creates flexibility. The firm can easily acquire new brands and spin off brands. With the new strategy, Alphabet can add brands to address growth opportunities and spin off or sell brands with less potential. The strategy can also lead to better brand building. A company with a house of brands strategy can have different brands, each with a distinct positioning. For example, one brand can stand for health while another owns indulgence. There is also an important organizational dynamic to the change. With a house of brand strategy, one brand isn’t necessarily more important than the others. Coke is clearly the most important brand at Coke. Target is the most important brand at Target. This is an important symbolic shift for Google. Google matters but now it isn’t the primary brand that matters at the company. Other brands can be important, too. More: Why Wall Street is wrong about Google’s Alphabet name change Google isn’t going away, of course. Instead, this move will make Google a stronger brand, because now people won’t be confusing the product with the company. Google can be Google, the world’s best way to find information. This will make the Google brand tighter and better defined. In many ways, the strategy change opens new opportunities for growth. Alphabet can now build different brands in different segments. If the firm wants to create a technology brand in health, for example, it can, without any connection to Google. The striking thing is how unique Google’s new brand portfolio strategy is in the world of technology. Many of the big technology companies focus on one primary brand, using a branded house strategy, or at least embrace the name of the most important product: Facebook FB is Facebook, Apple AAPL is Apple and Twitter TWTR is Twitter. There are two problems with this branded house approach. The first issue is that the strategy might lead to slower growth, because the firm can’t pursue opportunities that don’t fit with its brand. The second, more significant problem is that it tends to create weak brands. In a bid to be broadly relevant, the company embraces a positioning for that brand that is general and vague. The brand isn’t polarizing but it also doesn’t stand for anything specific. This is a problem. Just look at Hewlett-Packard Company HPQ and Yahoo YHOO , brands that have high awareness but lack a distinct meaning. One could argue that HP would be a much stronger brand if it wasn’t spread across quite so many products and categories. Google’s bold shift won’t lead to an immediate jump in profits. If anything, in the short-run, it will create confusion. It will also be costly; the firm will need to create new signs and establish a digital presence. Longer term, however, the change will open up growth opportunities. Google can be Google. You Tube can be You Tube. And the firm can acquire or create new brands that reach new opportunities in the market. So while Google’s corporate change is unexpected, it is a savvy move. I suspect other technology companies hoping to grow will make a similar shift in the years ahead. Tim Calkins is clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He teaches marketing strategy and biomedical marketing. He is author of the book Defending Your Brand. | high | 1 | Unilever and United Technologies are parent companies over some of America’s most popular brands, and the strategy has helped the companies grow. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160620231625id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-avec-m-levy.html | 308 pp. Random House. $24.95. Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book. It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists for the past 50 years, with stops at Las Vegas to visit a lap-dancing club and a brothel; Beverly Hills; Dealey Plaza in Dallas; Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Graceland; a gun show in Fort Worth; a "partner-swapping club" in San Francisco with a drag queen with mammoth silicone breasts; the Iowa State Fair ("a festival of American kitsch"); Sun City ("gilded apartheid for the old");a stock car race; the Mall of America; Mount Rushmore; a couple of evangelical megachurches; the Mormons of Salt Lake; some Amish; the 2004 national political conventions; Alcatraz -- you get the idea. (For some reason he missed the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the adult video awards, the grave site of Warren G. Harding and the World's Largest Ball of Twine.) You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title. In New Orleans, a young woman takes off her clothes on a balcony as young men throw Mardi Gras beads up at her. We learn that much of the city is below sea level. At the stock car race, Lévy senses that the spectators "both dread and hope for an accident." We learn that Los Angeles has no center and is one of the most polluted cities in the country. "Headed for Virginia, and for Norfolk, which is, if I'm not mistaken, one of the oldest towns in a state that was one of the original 13 in the union," Lévy writes. Yes, indeed. He likes Savannah and gets delirious about Seattle, especially the Space Needle, which represents for him "everything that America has always made me dream of: poetry and modernity, precariousness and technical challenge, lightness of form meshed with a Babel syndrome, city lights, the haunting quality of darkness, tall trees of steel." O.K., fine. The Eiffel Tower is quite the deal, too. But every 10 pages or so, Lévy walks into a wall. About Old Glory, for example. Someone has told him about the rules for proper handling of the flag, and from these (the flag must not be allowed to touch the ground, must be disposed of by burning) he has invented an American flag fetish, a national obsession, a cult of flag worship. Somebody forgot to tell him that to those of us not currently enrolled in the Boy Scouts, these rules aren't a big part of everyday life. He blows a radiator writing about baseball -- "this sport that contributes to establishing people's identities and that has truly become part of their civic and patriotic religion, which is baseball" -- and when, visiting Cooperstown ("this new Nazareth"), he finds out that Commissioner Bud Selig once laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, where Abner Doubleday is also buried, Lévy goes out of his mind. An event important only to Selig and his immediate family becomes, to Lévy, an official proclamation "before the eyes of America and the world" of Abner as "the pope of the national religion . . . that day not just the town but the entire United States joined in a celebration that had the twofold merit of associating the national pastime with the traditional rural values that Fenimore Cooper's town embodies and also with the patriotic grandeur that the name Doubleday bears." Uh, actually not. Negatory on "pope" and "national" and "entire" and "most" and "embodies" and "Doubleday." He worships Woody Allen and Charlie Rose in terms that would make Donald Trump cringe with embarrassment. He admires Warren Beatty, though he sees Beatty at a public event "among these rich and beautiful who, as always in America . . . form a masquerade of the living dead, each one more facelifted and mummified than the next, fierce, a little mutant-looking, inhuman, ultimately disappointing." Lévy is quite comfortable with phrases like "as always in America." Bombast comes naturally to him. Rain falls on the crowd gathered for the dedication of the Clinton library in Little Rock, and to Lévy, it signifies the demise of the Democratic Party. As always with French writers, Lévy is short on the facts, long on conclusions. He has a brief encounter with a young man outside of Montgomery, Ala. ("I listen to him tell me, as if he were justifying himself, about his attachment to this region"), and suddenly sees that the young man has "all the reflexes of Southern culture" and the "studied nonchalance . . . so characteristic of the region." With his X-ray vision, Lévy is able to reach tall conclusions with a single bound. And good Lord, the childlike love of paradox -- America is magnificent but mad, greedy and modest, drunk with materialism and religiosity, puritan and outrageous, facing toward the future and yet obsessed with its memories. Americans' party loyalty is "very strong and very pliable, extremely tenacious and in the end somewhat empty." Existential and yet devoid of all content and direction. The partner-swapping club is both "libertine" and "conventional," "depraved" and "proper." And so the reader is fascinated and exhausted by Lévy's tedious and original thinking: "A strong bond holds America together, but a minimal one. An attachment of great force, but not fiercely resolute. A place of high -- extremely high -- symbolic tension, but a neutral one, a nearly empty one." And what's with the flurries of rhetorical questions? Is this how the French talk or is it something they save for books about America? "What is a Republican? What distinguishes a Republican in the America of today from a Democrat?" Lévy writes, like a student padding out a term paper. "What does this experience tell us?" he writes about the Mall of America. "What do we learn about American civilization from this mausoleum of merchandise, this funeral accumulation of false goods and nondesires in this end-of-the-world setting? What is the effect on the Americans of today of this confined space, this aquarium, where only a semblance of life seems to subsist?" And what is one to make of the series of questions -- 20 in a row -- about Hillary Clinton, in which Lévy implies she is seeking the White House to erase the shame of the Lewinsky affair? Was Lévy aware of the game 20 Questions, commonly played on long car trips in America? Are we to read this passage as a metaphor of American restlessness? Does he understand how irritating this is? Does he? Do you? May I stop now? America is changing, he concludes, but America will endure. "I still don't think there's reason to despair of this country. No matter how many derangements, dysfunctions, driftings there may be . . . no matter how fragmented the political and social space may be; despite this nihilist hypertrophy of petty antiquarian memory; despite this hyperobesity -- increasingly less metaphorical -- of the great social bodies that form the invisible edifice of the country; despite the utter misery of the ghettos . . . I can't manage to convince myself of the collapse, heralded in Europe, of the American model." | high | 0.958333 | Garrison Keillor reviews book American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Levy; photos (M) |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160710130319id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/celebrities-react-alton-sterling-philando-castile-police-shootings | 07/07/2016 AT 01:00 PM EDT Expressing outrage and demanding change, celebrities including are speaking out on social media after two African-American men, , were killed in officer-related shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this week within a 48-hour span. Their deaths – both captured on cell phone video – have many celebrities comparing the incidents to , who also died while interacting with authorities. Castile, 32, was killed in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, during a traffic stop Wednesday. He was shot in front of his girlfriend and her child as he reached for his driver's license, his girlfriend said during an incident that was streamed on . Police are investigating the widely shared Facebook video. Sterling, 37, was shot Tuesday by police outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was selling CDs in the parking lot. A video taken by witnesses shows police telling Sterling to get on the ground, before being tackled by a second officer. One of the officers yells, "He's got a gun! Gun!" before apparently firing his weapon at Sterling. The officers have since been placed on administrative leave and the incident is under Taking to social media Wednesday and Thursday, Legend shared a series of emotional tweets, writing, "We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops." Let's go NRA. I know y'all are for the 2nd amendment. Are you also for equal protection? https://t.co/PaKMcZ7ina We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops. So many people work so hard to find a reason why executing a human being during a routine traffic stop is ok. IT'S NOT OK about racial issues, social justice and cultural appropriation at the BET Awards – also weighed in, presenting a series of points on Castile and Sterling's deaths. 1) In the interest of time, would ye noble patriots please provide a list of infractions punishable by spontaneous public execution? Thanks! 2) Upon receipt of this list, we'll return to our quarters and study up, eager to enjoy freedoms of white mass murders. #LIFEHACK 3) You chumps will NEVER provide this list... We see through you. 's Leslie Odom Jr., urged people to face the reality of the situation. "What's going on?" Hundreds of years. In America. This has been happening for HUNDREDS of years. Cell phones just make it harder to ignore. Watching two different people being murdered on camera by police is no way to wake up. #PhilandoCastile #AntonSterling Listen to how frightened the cop in the #FalconHeights video sounds. Why was he issued a gun? Why was he allowed to be a policeman? HAS. TO. STOP. Devastating. https://t.co/C9Q0YePRMr I can't wake up to another innocent black man gone. Police reform NOW. Please @potus. #blacklivesmatter #howmanymore #PhilandoCastille A photo posted by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on Jul 6, 2016 at 5:50pm PDT #PhilandoCastile had a permit to carry and was complying with police and still got shot! Where's outrage from gun rights advocates? #TeamDl David Grunfeld / NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune We need real criminal justice reform so that people can walk down the street without worrying about whether they'll get harassed or shot. This is so disturbing and wrong. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of #AltonSterling You can't just go on with your day, you must watch this & we must face this continual outrageousness #ALTONSTERLING https://t.co/NqW3aVSZ1j Make sure you hug your loved ones a little tighter this morning. There are so many broken, backwards issues at play here it's numbing to digest. #PhilandoCastile #AltonSterling #blacklivesmatter I can't sleep thinking about if my brother or dad or uncle will be okay tonight. #restless "Something's gotta give... We getting killed everyday," (contains NSFW language). "Us as a people, we have to start getting our voice heard." | high | 1.555556 | Celebrities are speaking out in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile this week |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160713170158id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/are-you-in-loan-modification-hell-join-the-club/ | Last Updated Oct 21, 2010 11:44 AM EDT Are you in loan modification hell? was in loan modification hell, courtesy of her lender, . In a story that's becoming so commonplace it's scary, she filed for bankruptcy to deal with her financial trauma (job loss and impending divorce). Even after months and months of waiting, and after submitting her paperwork three times, she never heard from Wells Fargo about her , was fed up and so Ms. Giguere could question someone face-to-face about her loan modification. Turns out, she was rejected because Wells Fargo said she failed to submit a financial worksheet - a document that Wells Fargo never requested, , senior vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Servicing, admitted under oath. story, Judge Haine says that he and his fellow bankruptcy judges are seeing more people file for bankruptcy to avoid foreclosure. But that isn't helping those who want to get their loans modified. (who asked that I not use her last name because she is continuing to try to negotiate a loan modification with her big box lender), has also been in loan modification hell for the past few months. She contacted me about a month ago, wondering if the "trial period" loan modification she had been offered was real. I told her that lenders only offer trial modifications - and after you've paid on time for three months, that trial modification is supposed to be made permanent. (I've been hearing from a reader who has been in a trial modification for five months and was been told to keep on making more trial loan modification payments because the big box lender is too busy to do make the trial loan mod permanent.) I told Martha to stay in touch with her lender, calling back daily if necessary to prod them into action. After hearing nothing for a month, she started calling her lender only to find out that her loan modification application had been canceled because of incorrect information (not supplied by Martha). They claimed she was no longer living in her property, which Martha says isn't true. I have been in touch with senior-level officials at the who acknowledge that the loan modification program isn't going exactly as planned. They suggest if you're having problems getting your lender to finalize your loan modification, you should contact the Treasury Department directly to complain if your lender is a national lender. You should contact your state banking and finance regulator for a state-chartered institution. If you want your case to get elevated, you'll need to provide them with the following: Be sure to stay in touch with your lender about your loan modification. Call daily or every other day. You need the lender to realize that you're not going to give up and that you expect action. And hopefully, if you're in loan modification hell, you'll find a way out. © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved. | low | 0.85 | UPDATE: New rules regarding HAMP loan modifications went into effect June 1, 2010, including new income requirements. And, the Loan Modification Hell Horror Stories continue. UPDATE 2: Check out my latest post: Loan Modification Hell: New Solutions To Avoid Losing Your Home. UPDATE 3: Let the ... |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160722040353id_/http://mobile.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/17/magazine/the-american-who-accidentally-became-a-chinese-movie-star.html? | Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 Every foreigner living in China has his share of China Stories. Jonathan Kos-Read has more than his share. Here’s one: Not long ago, the 43-year-old American actor received a call with an offer to appear in “Ip Man 3,” the third in a series of biopics about Bruce Lee’s martial-arts master. The role was small, but his agent negotiated what Kos-Read considered an “outrageous” amount of money for it, and the producers agreed. Kos-Read was thrilled until he read the script and noticed another part for a foreign actor — a bigger and better role as a mobster named Frank. This was troubling. Kos-Read, who is known in China only as Cao Cao, is by far the leading foreign actor working in the country today, having appeared in about 100 movies and television programs since his career began in 1999. He is famous throughout the mainland, and his career has been on a steady upward trajectory. Last December he appeared in the action film “Mojin — The Lost Legend,” currently the fifth-highest-grossing movie in Chinese history. Who, Kos-Read wondered, would the producers have cast instead of him? Kos-Read sent panicked texts to the movie’s casting director, but they went unanswered. “I felt threatened,” he told me recently, only half kidding. A few days later, he boarded a plane from Beijing to Shanghai to begin filming. When he showed up to the set, the mystery was solved almost immediately: There, slouching on a stool surrounded by a scrum of people, was the former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson. The retired fighter had been cast, perhaps misguidedly, as Frank. (The Village Voice later described Tyson’s performance in the film as “sadly unimpressive.”) Kos-Read introduced himself and over the next three days developed a bond with Tyson. “He was not at all what I expected,” Kos-Read says. The pair discussed their young daughters, Montessori schools and, inevitably, boxing. They also spoke about self-reinvention, something each man knows quite a bit about. “Ip Man 3” went on to gross $115 million at the box office in China, with more than half of that coming on the opening weekend. China’s booming movie market grew by nearly 50 percent last year and is expected to surpass North America’s as the largest in the world by next year. These days, Hollywood studios hardly greenlight a blockbuster without first asking, “How will this play in China?” The rewards are too vast. “Furious 7,” for example, earned $390 million in China — more than it made in the United States — and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever in the country. And just as Hollywood has begun to crack the market, Chinese cinema has come into its own. In recent years, Chinese studios have started shifting away from the agitprop that defined their cinematic output for generations and are instead focusing on genres that draw viewers to theaters in any country: action, adventure, comedy. In February, a sci-fi comedy called “The Mermaid” became the highest-grossing movie ever in China within 12 days of its release, earning more than $430 million. Increasingly, Chinese cinemagoers are opting to buy tickets for movies made specifically for them — like those in the “Ip Man” series — not those that pander to them or lecture them. It is in this sort of film that Kos-Read has finally had the chance to act, rather than portray a stand-in for Western imperiousness. If the Hollywood studios really want to understand how to succeed in China, Kos-Read’s journey makes for a kind of accidental guide. In January, I met Kos-Read at Beijing Capital International Airport to accompany him on a trip to Yiwu, a trading city in Zhejiang Province, 165 miles from Shanghai. From there we would take a van to Hengdian World Studios, the biggest back lot in the world, where he was filming a new TV series. Kos-Read was tired. He had flown in a few days before from the Bay Area, where his wife and two young daughters live; the actor now splits time between the United States and China, which he has called home for almost two decades. Kos-Read has wavy brown hair, a thick beard streaked with gray and the kind of broad face that looks good on camera. He curses a lot and often wears a look of deep contemplation that borders on exasperation. As we boarded the plane for our 10:30 p.m. flight, he sported a huge calf-length black parka, which he wears on set — Chinese sets are notoriously frigid in the wintertime — and carried a heavy backpack filled mostly with equipment for photography, a personal hobby. The airplane was only half full. Kos-Read lumbered through the center aisle until he reached the last row, where he heaved his backpack onto a seat and plopped down into another as if he were claiming a spot on a long-distance bus. During the two-hour flight, Kos-Read drank a few cans of Yanjing Beer and discussed his role in last year’s “Mojin.” In the film, he plays a lawyer to a cult leader. After the first act, he turns into a zombie. It was by far the biggest project of his career, with by far the biggest stars, and it increased his already-formidable exposure in China by degrees of magnitude. On our plane, a flight attendant recognized him from the film. (In California, by contrast, he is basically anonymous outside of Chinatowns.) Kos-Read was happy for the opportunity to appear in such a large movie but was disappointed with his performance, which he believes was adequate but not excellent. “In a lot of TV shows, you just have to spit out the lines, really. But in a big movie, you’ve really got to be good,” he told me. “In my first big movie, I stepped up into the big leagues and hit a single.” Still, acting in one of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of all time is a long way from where Kos-Read began. Raised in Torrance, Calif., he attended an arts high school, where he got interested in acting. He went on to study film and molecular biology at New York University. There, he took a Mandarin course and became determined to master the language. He moved to Beijing in 1997 and drifted, living for a period in a student dorm and forcing himself to speak nothing but Mandarin for a three-month stretch. “Like everybody else, I arrived and bummed around for two years, not knowing what I was going to do, trying to do a bunch of things, failing,” he says. “Teaching English.” Not long after he arrived, he began dating a Chinese woman named Li Zhiyin, a finance major in college who later became his wife. On one of their early dates, he picked up an English-language listings magazine and saw an ad seeking a foreign actor for a Chinese movie. Kos-Read had never lost his love for performing, and he thought it could be fun to act in China. He auditioned and got the part, which was supposed to pay the equivalent of about $400 for three months of work. In the movie, called “Mei Shi Zhao Shi” (“Looking for Trouble”), Kos-Read plays an American documentary filmmaker following around a group of disillusioned bohemians. He says it took the producers two years to pay him. But two weeks after the movie wrapped, he landed three months of work on a Chinese soap opera. There were only a handful of foreign actors working in China at the time, and Kos-Read quickly realized he offered filmmakers there a rare combination of traits. He spoke good Mandarin, was a decent actor and had a look that many Chinese consider typically “American”: six feet tall, square jaw, blue eyes. He was able to make a living in the industry, but his early roles weren’t great. At that stage of his career, most filmmakers still had limited exposure to foreigners and foreign cultures, and his early parts tended to reflect Chinese stereotypes of Westerners. He rarely played bad guys, because there are very few American villains in Chinese movies (those roles tend to go to the woeful cohort of Japanese actors working in China). Instead, Kos-Read was often typecast as a “dumb guy,” he says. Most frequently, he was an arrogant foreign businessman who falls for a local beauty, only to be spurned as she inevitably makes the virtuous choice to stay with her Chinese suitor. Sometimes he played the foreign friend whose presence onscreen is intended to make the main character seem more worldly; Kos-Read dubbed another stock character “the fool,” an arrogant Westerner whose disdain for China is, by the end of the movie, transformed into admiration. When he was studying Mandarin at N.Y.U., Kos-Read adopted a Chinese moniker, as many language students do. He took his, Cao Cao, from a historical general who is also a central character in one of the country’s most revered classical novels, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” Like a Chinese King Arthur or Davy Crockett, the original Cao Cao exists in fact and fiction and in between. Kos-Read chose the name because it was easy to remember and because he liked that Cao Cao was a wise, self-reliant man. Years later, the decision would prove wise indeed. To his Chinese audience, it showed that the American, despite his loutish onscreen personae, took an interest in their history and culture. Kos-Read acted in film and television for almost a decade before he truly found fame. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he landed his own segment on a Chinese news program called “Sunday.” Dubbed “Cao Cao Lai Le” (“Here Comes Cao Cao”), the weekly reality bit was designed to help increase the show’s ratings and give it a more international flavor by allowing Chinese viewers to experience their country anew through a foreigner’s eyes. The segment eventually devolved into Kos-Read more or less being goofy in front of the camera and enlisting Chinese people to cut loose with him. In one episode, for example, he trains to be a Hooters girl. (In China, the chain is known as “American Owl Restaurant.”) The show was enormously popular, and soon Kos-Read was being recognized on the street. “One of the reasons I liked ‘Cao Cao Lai Le’ — it was me,” he says. “Instead of playing stupid stereotypes on TV and in movies, I could go out and be me. It’s my personal prejudice that I’m more interesting than the characters I play.” In 2009, Kos-Read began writing a column called “Token White Guy” for an expat publication, Talk Magazine, in which he chronicled his on- and off-screen adventures. He wrote about the time an acquaintance enlisted him to act in an ad campaign, Kos-Read’s first. His friend told him the product was “some sort of medicine.” Then, Kos-Read showed up on set and read his line, which was written in English: “Do you want to be thicker, longer and harder? Then be like Cao Cao and use Strong Balls Hormone.” (He dropped the ad.) He wrote about the time he was cast to play an English Jew who falls in love with a prostitute and, riddled with guilt, drops to his knees and prays for forgiveness — from Jesus. And the time a Chinese magazine wrote a multipage, entirely fictitious profile of him, and then emailed him a copy. “Cao Cao Lai Le” ran for about three years before the struggling “Sunday” dropped it (“Sunday” soon went off the air as well), but it led to better roles in film and TV and a long line of travel-show hosting gigs, which took him to virtually every region of China — from the deserts of the west to the grasslands of the north to the hilly metropolis of Chongqing. Hengdian World Studios is sprawling and surreal, covering 8,000 acres and featuring a one-to-one scale model of Beijing’s Forbidden City. “You walk around, and you can’t tell the difference,” Kos-Read told me as we drove past the complex on the way to the set the next morning. Around the lot, different shows were being filmed. Tourists are allowed on set for 199 yuan ($30) per person, and groups of them were huddled around as filming took place. It offered a considerably different experience from the one you might encounter at a Universal Studios theme park. “Instead of ‘Jaws,’ it’s, like, killing Japanese or hanging out with the emperor’s concubines,” Kos-Read said. China’s film industry has long been focused on propaganda-laden historical epics, hence the need for a full-size Forbidden City replica. Even as China became a global superpower in the late 20th century, big-budget Chinese movies were, by and large, treacly, patriotic fare. And though tastes were shifting, the studios used their connections with the government to ensure their own films succeeded. In 2010, for example, the behemoth state-owned studio and distributor China Film Group pulled “Avatar” from 1,628 screens and replaced it with its own film, a Confucius biopic starring Chow Yun Fat. These days, movies and television shows are still often historical in nature, but they’re less overtly nationalistic and more focused on pure entertainment. Kos-Read was in Hengdian to film a period show with the English title “Knight’s Glove.” In it, he plays the British ambassador to China, a close friend of the Chinese lead. The story surrounds a search for a lost treasure, and on this day the crew was filming the pair’s reunion after years spent apart. The scene was filmed at the entrance to a building made to look like the British Embassy. Cheap-looking plastic Union Jacks fluttered outside in the breeze. Inside, the building was numbingly cold, as Kos-Read had warned; there was no insulation or heating. Russian extras in wool military outfits carried fake rifles and shuffled from side to side trying to keep warm. In between shots, Kos-Read donned his parka and applied heating pads called Nuan Baobao (“Warm Little Buddies”) to his stomach, lower back and feet. There was no coffee or tea; at one point some cast and crew members were handed plastic cups of warm water. Because the Chinese government allows only 34 foreign movies to enter the market per year, and the officials’ criteria for selection are mysterious, many American studios have sought to lessen the uncertainty by co-producing films with Chinese firms, thereby sidestepping the import rules (which apply only when a movie’s producers want a share of the box-office receipts, which is to say they apply, effectively, to all major Hollywood films). And yet few co-productions have achieved anything resembling commercial or critical success. Not only have studios struggled to find ways to appeal to both audiences, they’ve also struggled to work well together on set. This is at least in part because of the collision of two vastly different moviemaking cultures. Whereas Hollywood film sets have rather rigid, union-determined rules, Chinese sets are decidedly unsystematic, ad hoc, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants operations. (I once reported on a film whose special-effects guy was also in charge of payroll.) On this set, there were dozens of people, mostly young men, standing around in the cold who didn’t seem to have any job at all. It’s exactly these sorts of differences that have made Chinese-American co-productions so difficult, and those problems follow them to the box office. Hollywood can also stack the deck somewhat by pandering to Chinese audiences, but that comes at a cost: It grants enormous leverage to the Communist Party over how China is portrayed. Chinese censors have forced studios to cut scenes that they believed made China look weak. A 2015 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission offered an enlightening selection of anecdotes: In “Skyfall,” Chinese audiences never saw James Bond kill a Chinese security guard, as he does in the original edit; in “Mission: Impossible III,” censors cut a scene shot in Shanghai that showed garments drying on a clothesline; “Men in Black 3” had a scene removed that showed secret agents using a memory-erasing tool, leading some to speculate that the censors didn’t want to invite the allusion to censorship. Often censors don’t even have to get involved, as studios have begun self-censoring their films to avoid the hassle. “Red Dawn” is perhaps the most infamous case. The 1984 original is about a guerrilla uprising against a Soviet invasion of America; in the 2012 remake, screenwriters updated the movie by casting China as the aggressor. MGM executives realized their error too late, and unwilling to risk offending the censors, they reportedly spent around $1 million in postproduction recasting North Korea as the invader. Despite the breadth of roles he has played in China, Kos-Read is passed over for most co-productions. Hollywood producers want to bring in their own talent, he says. And once, Chinese producers told him that because of the ubiquity with which he appears in Chinese cinema and television, he would make their production seem too local. He has acted in only two East-West movies: a deep-sea epic funded by a Chinese billionaire with a predominantly foreign cast, and a bigfoot movie shot in Shennongjia, a mountainous region in Hubei Province, where there have been hundreds of purported bigfoot sightings. Each film was plagued with on-set dysfunction, and neither has been released. Kos-Read says that the reason most co-productions fail is as much about the chaos on the Chinese side as it is the arrogance on the Hollywood side. “They come here and say, ‘We’re from Hollywood, we know better and whatever it is that you think is the right way to do it, it’s by definition not,’ ” he says. “You come in with an attitude like that, you will have a lot of problems. You will misunderstand the kind of stories they want to see.” And as Chinese filmmakers have figured out what sorts of stories Chinese audiences really want to see, the nature of Kos-Read’s work has changed for the better. Although his part in “Knight’s Glove” wasn’t groundbreaking, he is now often cast in increasingly complex parts. After the morning’s shoot, we drove across the lot to film another scene. In the back of the van, Kos-Read scrolled through photos on his phone of some of the roles he has played over the last two years, each with a distinct facial-hair style. They included: an American engineer who worked on the first locomotive in China; Gen. Douglas MacArthur; an “[expletive] lawyer”; a World War II radio announcer; a hip-hop dancer; a wisdom-dispensing alcoholic barfly; a Mafia boss; an antiquities expert; a sleazy Russian lounge lizard; a cowboy; a bisexual fashion designer; and a French detective. Kos-Read believes the growing variety of roles for foreign actors like him is a result of more Chinese exposure to outsiders. “There are more foreign actors now,” he says. “Chinese know some foreigners. So they write more interesting characters. I’m lucky because I usually get to do the better stuff.” This trend is likely to continue. The money coming from Chinese producers, and the spending power of Chinese audiences, is simply too great to ignore, and anyone venturing to China from Hollywood — whether producer, actor or cameraman — has to learn how to play by Chinese rules. That means adapting stories to the changing desires of film fans, and learning how to cooperate on China’s less regimented movie sets. Hollywood pros may be arrogant, says Jonathan Landreth, editor of the website China Film Insider, who has been covering the Chinese entertainment industry for more than a decade, but “in the melding of minds between China and Hollywood, there’s been a tipping in the balance of power. So much money is driving these productions that the folks in Hollywood have to listen.” In the afternoon, the director of “Knight’s Glove,” a young man with bleached blond hair, recruited me to play an extra in a scene with Kos-Read. I would be a driver. I wondered aloud who was supposed to have played the driver, but no one answered, and instead I was shepherded outside to a wardrobe truck and outfitted in a World War I-era military uniform with a Brodie helmet. As I dressed in the truck, Kos-Read approached with a Chinese crew member and said, “They asked me to make sure you knew that they weren’t actually going to pay you or anything.” I laughed. As absurd as it may seem to be yanked from the sidelines in an instant and thrown in front of the camera, this kind of thing happens with surprising regularity for foreigners in China, and moments like these become the kind of China Stories that keep people like Kos-Read around for so long. We filmed four or five takes of a short scene in the car. I pretended to drive, yanking the steering wheel back and forth with the kind of comical exaggeration you might see in “The Andy Griffith Show.” Two cameras glided on a track and crane outside the car while Kos-Read, sitting in the back, and a young Russian actor, who sat beside me, exchanged a few lines of dialogue. The Russian had until recently been a student in Jinhua, a nearby city, but was now trying his hand at an acting career. Maybe it would have worked out for him had he started a decade and a half ago, like Kos-Read, but his performance didn’t bode well. He struggled with the lines; his English was wooden, the delivery stilted. Kos-Read, on the other hand, naturally eased into character as soon as they started rolling. He said his lines in a British accent, smoothly and barely above a whisper, looking out the window as the camera swept by. Mitch Moxley is a writer based in New York. His articles have appeared in GQ, The Atlantic and The Atavist Magazine. He lived in Beijing for six years. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The New York Times Magazine delivered to your inbox every week. | high | 1.909091 | The journey of Jonathan Kos-Read, better known as Cao Cao, is a good guide for anyone seeking to make it in China’s budding, chaotic film industry. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160723153658id_/http://s.telegraph.co.uk:80/graphics/projects/Africa-in-100-years | Kibera, Africaâs largest urban slum, is based three miles from Nairobiâs city centre - a city that will almost double in size in the next 10 years. Kibera is estimated to house up to one million of its people, most of whom earn less than $1 per day. Lydia - a young woman born and raised in the slum, who asked The Telegraph to withhold her surname - now lives in a house on its border. The social worker, who currently works with American exchange students, remembers how she began to see its limitations. Initially, there was comfort in Kibera's strong sense of community as she grew up in its Laini Saba village. "We took each othersâ problems as our own, regardless of our inability to solve it. Kids required less to be happy. We had no need for expensive toys as we made stuff from whatever was available. I remember I would make dolls from thread and plastic bags." But as you grow up, "you are opened to the other sides of life and interact with other people. Then you begin to realise life has more and in order to have a fulfilling life you need an environment that is conducive for growth." It was dangerous at night due to the lack of lighting, and disease outbreaks were common as government rubbish collectors would not collect waste from the slums. She remembers that "it was easy to escape problems by engaging in drugs, and other substance use and other illegal activities." Increasing urban populations may make the matter worse, driving more people into slum housing. There are several initiatives, both government and community led, to help improve the quality of life for slum dwellers. The Kenyan government is building apartment blocks near Kibera to relocate residents, while projects such as Map Kibera - formed by young Kiberans - aim to open up slum space to the wider community and prevent slums from becoming a "blank spot" for outsiders. There are opportunities to come from such urban poverty. The African Population and Health Research Center has highlighted how residents of slums are younger than average and have higher birthrates. With the greater proportion of working age people that arises from this, there are better chances of economic sustainability. If this is combined with the right government intervention, providing education and health infrastructure, investment in poorer areas can increase, which can higher wages and better housing improvement. There has to be investment in slums, according to the UN, to prevent them from becoming no-go zones of informal development. "Slum upgrading" is a process promoted by its settlement programme, whereby local authorities work with communities to gradually improve living conditions. The UKâs International Development Minister, Justine Greening, has previously said: "Economic development needs to be hand in hand with lifting Africans out of poverty and bad jobs." Lydia agrees. She says poverty-related issues like unemployment and crime will continue as populations rise. According to her experiences of Kibera, she thinks a bottom-up approach is needed. "Lots of people in the slums, especially those that missed education, should be engaged in programs that allow them to get skills that could make them self-dependent or engaged in self-employment, since the current number of available jobs is less than the demand for jobs" | medium | 0.6 | As Africa's population looks set to quadruple over the twenty-first century, The Telegraph digs into the data to reveal the opportunities - and challenges - facing a fast-changing continent |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160724170940id_/http://cooking.nytimes.com:80/guides/5-how-to-make-burgers | Here is the hamburger you get in better taverns and bars, big and juicy, with a thick char that gives way to tender, medium-rare meat. Like all burgers, it’s best cooked in a cast-iron pan, though it also translates well to the grill. The pub- or tavern-style burger has a precooked weight of 6 to 8 ounces; two pounds of beef will yield four burgers. Avoid making patties that are larger than that, as they will be difficult to cook through. Use your hands to gently divide the ground beef into 4 piles about 8 ounces each, then lightly form each into a thick patty, roughly an inch thick and 3 ½ inches in diameter, like flattened meatballs. Take care not to handle the meat too much. Do not pack the meat tightly; the patty should just hold together. Use your thumb to create an indentation in the top of each patty, which will help it cook evenly. Season aggressively with salt and pepper. Add oil or butter to a large cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet and place over medium heat. When you’re ready to cook, turn the heat to high, place the burgers in the skillet with plenty of distance between them and allow them to cook, without moving them, for about 3 minutes. Flip them over and, if using cheese, lay the slices on meat. The burger is done 3 to 4 minutes later for medium-rare. Remove them from the skillet and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving. This is the traditional, griddled hamburger of diners and takeaway spots, smashed thin and cooked crisp on its edges. This style of burger can only be cooked on a flat surface, like a cast-iron pan; do not attempt it on the grill. The diner hamburger weighs around 3 to 4 ounces precooked, roughly an ice-cream-scoop’s worth of meat. Two pounds of beef will yield eight patties, enough for four to eight servings, depending on whether you choose to serve two patties on a single bun (not an outrageous option). Do not form the patties before cooking. Instead, leave the ground meat in a pile in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook. Then gently divide the ground beef into 8 small piles of around 4 ounces each, and even more gently gather them together into orbs that are about 2 inches in height. Add oil or butter to a large cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet and place over medium heat. When you’re ready to transfer the meat to the pan, turn the heat to high. Put half the orbs into the skillet with plenty of distance between them. Quickly, using a stiff metal spatula, press down on each burger, smashing it to form a thin patty that is around 4 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper. Cook without moving until patties have achieved a deep, burnished crust, roughly 90 seconds later. Slide your spatula under the patty, flip it over, add cheese if you’re using it, and cook the hamburger through, approximately a minute or so longer. Remove them to buns, and repeat with remaining burgers. | medium | 1.025 | Anyone can make a good burger, inside on the stovetop or outside on the grill. Making a great one, though, requires a little planning. We’ve assembled all the information and instruction you need. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160808130746id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/sponsored/travel/chengdu-travel/10908535/traditional-chengdu-sichuan-food.html | Cold dishes sprinkled with Sichuan flavours are a good way to start a meal, two popular options are: liángbàn huángguā (diced cucumber covered in chillies and minced garlic) and liángfěn (cold glutinous strips covered in minced garlic and chilli). Some common stir-fried dishes are: qīngjiāo ròu sī (stir-fried pork with green peppers), pào jiāo niúròu (beef with pickled peppers), làzǐ jī (spicy chicken with red chillies), yú xiāng ròu sī (fish-flavoured pork and veggies – actually a very sweet and delicious dish) and tián pí yā (crispy, sweet duck). Other notable dishes include a local night-time favourite, mào cài (meat and vegetables cooked in cauldrons of chilli oil), a delicious vegetable dish, kōngxīncài (water spinach) and another local winner, féicháng fěn (pig intestines in chilli sauce). There are dozens of other dishes that one could order, but this is a good start. Although it’s hard to separate Sichuan cuisine into bite-size categories, there are a few options that deserve their own sections. The hot pot starts with a vat of oil cooked with chilli, Sichuan peppercorn (also known as the infamous “mouth-numbing spice”), star anise, and cinnamon sticks. In the “white”, non-spicy, version of the soup, you’ll find mushrooms, green onions and some Chinese herbs, whereas in the “red” spicy portion, there is just a crimson, bubbling froth of peppers and oil. After the pot starts bubbling, you select several small dishes from about 100 choices. These choices span the gamut of edible things on earth: cow stomach, duck intestines, chicken liver, bacon strips, beef chunks, potato slices, tofu skin, frogs and prawns, bamboo shoots, courgette, fresh river eel and so on. Pop your choices into the pot and make up your sauce while they cook in the cauldron. The sauce is an important part of the meal and people have their own style. You can fill your bowl with any combination of minced garlic, coriander, sesame oil, salt and pepper, soy sauce or vinegar and a few other sauces and spices that are specific to each hot pot restaurant. By the time you have your sauce figured out, the cold cuts and vegetables will be finished and you can fish them out, pop them into your bowl and slurp them down with a beer or a glass of soy milk, whichever helps you deal with the chilies best. At night the barbecue stands come out and perch on corners throughout the city, serving up skewers of meat and veggies until early dawn. Typical choices are sliced lotus root or potato, chicken, pork, and beef kebabs, small fish, tofu, quail's eggs, and cauliflower. But the average barbecue stand has upwards of 30 different options for the hungry night owl. There are always stands around the Sichuan University gates and on busy corners near bars, clubs or parks. Most stands spice their barbecue with chilli peppers, MSG and salt, so be aware of saying this before ordering: “bùyào wèijīng” which means “no MSG please”. For a real culinary and cultural feast, the imperial-style banquets are certainly something to try if you get a group of ten or so people together. Diners are treated to more than two dozen exquisitely presented dishes, evoking the banqueting days of emperors, concubines and eunuchs. At 300 Yuan (£28) or so per person it's not cheap; it's more of an event than a meal, and certainly a memorable experience. Meat eaters are often surprised to meet vegetarians in China – there is a misconception that Chinese cuisine is meat heavy. In fact, most meat dishes use just small portions of meat. Furthermore, Sichuan meat dishes can be altered to suit vegetarians; for example, tofu can be used in exchange for chicken in the world-renowned dish kung pao chicken. There are also more and more vegetarian restaurants around town that serve excellent dishes, as well as Sichuan classics with fake meat. Notable restaurants include Vegetarian Lifestyle and Lotus on the Water. Most local temples also house vegetarian restaurants. Enjoying an authentic Sichuan cuisine in Chengdu costs only about a fifth of the price you’d pay in the UK. Great or what? More from the Telegraph’s Chengdu travel and cuisine channel: Join the China tea set and stew in tradition » Ornate ancient towns and phenomenal national parks » Help save the giant pandas » | high | 0.88 | From spicy hot pots for the adventurous, to tantalising street food or sumptuous banquets, sampling the range of Sichuan cuisine is a must |
http://web.archive.org/web/20161118132642id_/http://www.thepostgame.com/kate-upton-twitter-defense-verlander-cy-young | Kate Upton is not accepting voting results…for the Cy Young Award. The model is the fiancée of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, winner of the 2011 AL Cy Young Award. Verlander was a finalist for this year's award, but he fell to Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello, a former Tiger. Verlander actually had more first-place votes than Porcello, but lost in total points: Here's the crazy breakdown of the AL Cy Young voting, via @officialBBWAA, Justin Verlander had six more 1st place votes than the winner. pic.twitter.com/xnQBcUnVbC — Big League Stew (@bigleaguestew) November 16, 2016 Upton expressed her distaste for baseball writers with a NSFW Twitter rant: Hey @MLB I thought I was the only person allowed to fuck @JustinVerlander ?! What 2 writers didn't have him on their ballot? — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 He had the majority of 1st place votes and 2 writers didn't have him on their ballots?!! can you pick more out of touch people to vote?@MLB — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 Sorry Rick but you didn't get any 1st place votes? you didn't win. #ByeFelicia @MLB keep up with the times and fire those writers — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 She even dished some attitude to some fans: @WillBrabrook @MLB he got less 1st place votes then justin. Your the only idiot here buddy — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 @Pete_BBS oh your cute... check the stats boo justin won in first place votes — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 @LAPatriot @MLB how many 2nd place votes? huh? he lost to Justin in 1st place votes. If Tampa bay writers weren't paid off... — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 Upton retweeted Verlander's brother, Ben, a Tigers minor leaguer: Are you kidding me? Most first place votes and doesn't win? #SaltyYoungerBrother Explain this.. pic.twitter.com/RpEb4PPrME — Ben Verlander (@Verly32) November 16, 2016 There is a lot to digest here, but one important point: Verlander and Porcello used to be teammates. Porcello pitched with the Tigers from 2009-2014. Verlander was the team's ace, as he has been since his first full season in 2006. On top of that, the NL Cy Young Award winner was Max Scherzer, another former Tiger, who pitched in Detroit from 2010-2014. Scherzer also won the AL Cy Young Award in 2013. Could Upton be extra salty because two former teammates who used to pitch in Verlander's shadow won Cy Young Awards Wednesday? It's certainly something to think about. P.S. For reference, Upton tweeted this about NFL players kneeling in September. -- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook. Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Cy Young, Cy Young Award, Detroit Tigers, Justin Verlander, Kate Upton, Max Scherzer, MLB, model, Pitcher, Rick Porcello, SI Swimsuit Issue, Twitter, Washington Nationals | medium | 1.857143 | Kate Upton raged on Twitter with a NSFW rant after Justin Verlander lost Cy Young Award voting to Rick Porcello. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20130715040228id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/active/recreational-cycling/10170185/Top-10-Strava-tips-and-tricks.html | There have been cases, warn police, of bike thieves targeting specific houses: tipped off to the location of expensive machines by rides logged on sites like Strava. It's better to be safe than sorry, and Strava makes it very easy to be safe. Go to the privacy tab on the settings page and you can create a "privacy zone" around your house, office or favourite lock-up spot. Rides that start or finish in one of those zones will then be clipped so thieves can't work out exactly where your bike lives. The distance and average speed of your rides remain unchanged. 3. Get a little boost One for the unscrupulous, which we don't condone and include here purely for educational purposes... Upload your rides to Digital EPO before logging them on Strava and you can "juice" them to make it appear that you rode faster than you actually did. Bump the average speed up one per cent for a subtle advantage, or go the whole hog and steal all the KOMs in your county - but you're only cheating yourself. It's not wise to keep all your digital eggs in one basket; if Strava ceases to exist you could lose a treasure trove of bragging rights fond memories. Garmin Connect is a great option if you want to diversify. The only problem is that uploading your GPS files to both sites takes twice as long - unless you use Garmin Sync to automatically do half the work. Email signatures are normally functional affairs reserved for job titles, phone numbers and addresses. But wouldn't it be great if you could somehow use yours to show off the fact that you hold the King of the Mountain across the local Tesco car park? VeloViewer will compile a small graphic (see above) concisely listing all of your Strava achievements. Segments can be a great motivator, but that's just one element of Strava. The site also runs regular challenges that last from a single day up to a month. They normally involve running or riding a certain distance, or climbing a certain height. Whatever the challenge, it can be the difference between taking a long weekend lie-in or getting out and putting in some miles. Sometimes GPS computers can have a momentary wobble in the presence of tall buildings or when satellite reception is weak; SNAP (Segment Needs A Polish) helps you to correct those errors. You can drag wayward waypoints in your ride back onto the path you actually took. David Millar came back from a broken collarbone early last year to win stage 12 of the Tour de France. One fan took to Strava to pay tribute, using San Fransisco's grid layout as a guide to virtually etch "Millar Time" across the city. This might not be as easy if you live in the UK with its higgledy-piggledy road networks, but that just adds to the challenge. What is Strava for if not competing mercilessly with friends and colleagues? This tool makes squaring up to one another easy, even if you don't ride together: enter your "athlete number" (which is in the address bar when you view your profile) and that of one or more other riders. It then searches through the archives and finds segments that you've all recorded times for, laying out the results out for all to see. 10. Drop off the grid Perhaps the best Strava tip I can recommend is to take a day off, leave the GPS at home and enjoy a ride at your own pace with nobody peering over your shoulder: sometimes it's nice to take it easy. | low | 0.714286 | Strava has forever changed cycling, for better or worse. The website tracks you via GPS and publicly ranks your best time on "segments" of road along with other users. Now even a short trip to the supermarket has an element of competition. We look at ten of the best tips and tricks to get the most out of it. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20131023071734id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jul/18/graffiti-artist-adidas-banned-olympic | British Transport Police arrested four men as part of a crackdown on alleged graffiti artists before the Olympics. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP When Adidas wanted to create a mural to illustrate the launch of its new football boot last year, it turned to "professional graffiti artist" Darren Cullen for help. Cullen, 38, runs a firm providing spraycan artwork and branding to major international companies, and says he has never painted illegally on a wall or train. But despite having worked with one of the Games's major sponsors, on Tuesday Cullen was arrested by British Transport Police (BTP) and barred from coming within a mile of any Olympic venue, as part of a pre-emptive sweep against a number of alleged graffiti artists before the Olympics. BTP confirmed that four men from Kent, London and Surrey, aged between 18 and 38, had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage, two of whom were also further arrested on suspicion of incitement to commit criminal damage. They were bailed until November under strict conditions restricting their access to rail, tube and tram transport, preventing them from owning spray paint or marker pens, and ordering them not to go near any Olympic venue in London or elsewhere. None has been charged. The arrests were in connection with "a live and ongoing criminal investigation into linked incidents of criminal damage between January 2007 and July 2012", said a BTP spokesman. But Cullen, who says he has never painted illegally and whose firm Graffiti Kings has worked with major blue chip firms including Microsoft and NPower and the Royal Shakespeare Company, said he was not questioned over any alleged incidents of criminal damage. Instead, he said, he was asked about a website he had set up two years ago on behalf of a client, frontline-magazine.co.uk. The website was "all about the history of graffiti", Cullen said, but did not promote it. "I don't condone or promote illegal graffiti," he said. "I always say to young people: 'Don't do it. It's no good for you.'" The arrests come as the Metropolitan police's strategy of halting potential disruptive action in advance of major public events was given high court endorsement. The tactic is a key plank of police planning to ensure the Games are not disrupted. In the high court on Wednesday, Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Openshaw ruled the police did not operate an unlawful policy by carrying out pre-emptive strikes before Prince William's wedding last year. The judges dismissed applications for judicial review from 20 people among scores who were arrested or subjected to searches in the days before and during the wedding. "We find nothing in the various strands of the claimants' case, whether taken individually or cumulatively, to make good the contention that the policing of the royal wedding involved an unlawful policy or practice, with an impermissibly low threshold of tolerance for public protests," said the judges. Human rights activists had argued the case had major implications for the policing of other major events, including the Olympics. In addition to his previous work for Adidas, Cullen said he was in discussions to provide artwork with another major Olympic sponsor and had been commissioned to spraypaint a London taxi to be used by a leading broadcaster at the Games. His computer equipment, phone, iPad and his son's laptop had been confiscated. The four men's bail conditions also forbid them from entering "any railway system, including tubes and trams, or [being] in any train, tram or tube station or in or on any other railway property not open to the public" unless in limited circumstances including attending a written appointment with a solicitor. They are also barred from possessing "any spray paint, marker pens, any grout pen, etching equipment, or unset paint". One graffiti blog claimed that among those arrested, some "had stopped painting graffiti without prior permission over a decade ago … while others haven't touched a spray can at all in many years". It accused police of attempting to "sanitise" London before the Games. | high | 1.952381 | Darren Cullen is also barred from owning paint or using most public transport as part of pre-emptive police crackdown |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141009231712id_/http://fortune.com:80/2013/05/10/the-market-bubble-youve-never-heard-of/ | FORTUNE – Following the collapse of U.S. home prices in 2007, analysts and economists have been eager to spot the next big bubble. There’s been talk of a bond bubble. And as U.S. stocks hover near a five-year high, many have wondered if a bubble is in the works. There have also been worries over the market for student loans in which defaults have recently risen. Then there’s apparently a new bubble that few have ever heard about: America’s farmlands. Thanks to higher crop prices, the costs for farmland nationwide have risen rapidly, particularly across the Midwest’s Corn Belt. Demand for corn soared as the use of ethanol in the U.S. and abroad has risen. Because higher prices for crops means farmers could make more on their land, many are using their growing profits to buy more land. Investment firms have caught on — they’re buying too. The Kansas City Federal Reserve said irrigated cropland in its district rose 30% in 2012, while the Chicago Fed reported a 16% increase. And despite the drought in Iowa last year, farmland prices have nearly doubled since 2009 to an average of $8,296 an acre. Prices in Nebraska have also doubled during the same period. MORE: Stocks are too expensive Analysts and economists have quietly warned of a bubble in farmland since 2011. The latest comes this week — a group of bankers advising the Federal Reserve warned prices aren’t justified and have entered bubble territory, according to records obtained by Bloomberg of meetings of the Federal Advisory Council. As investors shy away from bond markets and search for bigger returns, members say they’ve opted for farmland. They blame the central bank’s super-low interest rate policies. “Agricultural land prices are veering further from what makes sense,” according to minutes of the Feb. 8 gathering of the Federal Advisory Council. “Members believe the run-up in agriculture land prices is a bubble resulting from persistently low interest rates.” True there’s some bubbly behavior going on, but that doesn’t mean the market for farmlands has entered bubble territory, at least according to Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who first warned of a housing bubble back in 2003. The most obvious sign: Nobody has ever really heard about it. Even if prices went belly up, it likely won’t cause nearly the kind of financial havoc that sub-prime loans did onto the housing market and the nation’s financial system. As Shiller wrote in 2011 in Project Syndicate, an online opinion forum featuring leading economists., the market for farmlands isn’t nearly as big as the housing market or stock market, for that matter. Whereas farmland had a total value of $1.8 trillion in 2010, the U.S. stock market’s value was $16.5 trillion, and the housing market was $16.6 trillion. MORE: 20 companies that made the most Plus farmland bubbles are rare, he adds. While prices in the Midwest declined dramatically in the 1980s, Shiller notes that there has only been one farmland bubble in the U.S. during the 20th century, when there was a fear of overpopulation in the 1970s. True, farmland prices could fall if interest rates rise and if crop prices decline in big ways, making it difficult for farmers to repay loans. But unlike America’s latest housing market bubble, which saw the supply of new homes rise rapidly as investors banked on new mortgages, there is no increase in the supply of farmland. Admittedly it’s hard to say if there is indeed a bubble, and if so, when might it pop. Corn futures have been on a steady decline for the past nine months. Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons why farmland is still the “bubble” many have never heard of. | medium | 0.92 | Some economists are worried that farmland prices are nearing bubble territory. How bad can it be if no one's heard of it? |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141013044852id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/music/2014/10/10/zacharias-leads-suave-moody-bso-program/5u9ej4LdAo3hwskKYPpsZL/story.html | The name of German writer Wilhelmine von Chézy might have been lost to history had one play, “Rosamunde,” not provided Schubert with a vehicle for one of his many attempts at success as a composer for the stage. By all accounts the play was a debacle in its 1823 debut, yet it lives on, if only as an afterthought, in Schubert’s incidental music. Bits of the score have popped up over the years on Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, starting in its very first season, in various configurations. Rarely, though, has it been so thoughtfully programmed as by the German conductor and pianist Christian Zacharias in his current BSO series. Skipping the overture, Zacharias opened Thursday’s concert with the first Ballet Music, followed by the second and third Entr’actes. This little suite began with a stern minor-key march, a piece seemingly inapt for a dance episode. As it progressed, the music became slower, dreamier, less immediately tethered to reality. But shadows always lurk nearby in Schubert, and even the third Entr’acte — featuring one of the composer’s simplest and most unaffected melodies — carried hints of unease. Zacharias, who had a score on his music stand all evening yet seemed never to turn a page, led a perfectly shaped performance with gestures that were demonstrative but never exaggerated. He deployed a full complement of strings onstage, including no fewer than nine basses; their prominence heightened the melancholy atmosphere. The rhythms were surprisingly nimble for the ultra-refined sound he achieved. There is conjecture that the first Entr’acte of “Rosamunde” might have been intended as the finale of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, the “Unfinished.” Zacharias, though, put it before the symphony on the second half, creating a tempestuous prelude while also recalling the concert’s opening. Barely had the B-major ending of the Entr’acte faded away before the basses and cellos began the grim, lonely melody that begins the “Unfinished.” In few other Schubert works do darkness and light enact such a pitched struggle, which has made the symphony a kind of emblem of the anguished Romantic imagination. Thursday’s performance was intense and deliberate, painted on an almost Mahlerian scale. It was also slow and in the first movement almost static, robbing some of the climaxes of their power. I wish that the BSO’s glorious wind playing had been able to emerge more clearly from the mass of strings. The Andante, though, was gripping, and its ending has rarely felt so anxious and unresolved. Before intermission, Zacharias led Mozart’s G-major concerto (K.453) from the keyboard. Here was an airier, more precise sound, and Zacharias’s graceful, restrained style was a model of eloquent dialogue with a reduced orchestra. The slow movement, faultlessly paced and gorgeously played, has an unusually somber episode in an otherwise contented musical expanse — proof that, as in Schubert, the shadows are never all that far away. | medium | 1.322581 | The German pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the soloist in an elegant Mozart concerto, and the leader of thoughtful, pensive Schubert accounts. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141025011932id_/http://fortune.com:80/2013/08/19/meet-the-duo-who-created-angies-list/ | When Angela Hicks first met venture capitalist Bill Oesterle in 1994, she was a frumpy, introverted economics major at DePauw University who wore Coke-bottle glasses and showed up for a summer internship interview wrapped in a baggy sweater. Oesterle brought her on as an intern anyway because he thought the quiet youngster had a spine. When she graduated a year later, Oesterle persuaded Hicks to turn down a job at Arthur Andersen to work for him. Her job involved compiling a list of reputable plumbers, electricians and roofers in Columbus. Today, Hicks is a celebrity who is lauded on TV alongside the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor and Condoleezza Rice. Her list — Angie’s List — has morphed into a publicly-traded company with 1,300 employees, more than 2 million members in 200 markets who pay to access reviews of home improvement professionals, mechanics, doctors, and dentists. While Hicks, 40, is the company’s public face, her erstwhile mentor, Oesterle, 47, is its behind-the-scenes CEO. And the company owes its success to the unusually strong bond that the two forged over nearly 20 years working side by side through ups and downs. “I trust Angie implicitly with anything,” says Oesterle. Of his mentorship, Hicks says: “As a young person, I was afraid of my own shadow and had never thought of being an entrepreneur. He taught me that, he taught me to be a manager.” MORE: Ben and Jerry – Ice cream’s sweetest pair The teaching went both ways. In the early days, there was nothing certain about Angie’s List ANGI . Hicks worked around the clock on a card table in a rented 100-square-foot office she shared with an accountant and a builder. Members were slow to join, and Hicks did whatever it took to get the word out: from borrowing Oesterle’s neighbor’s Christmas card mailing list, to selling door to door on weekends, and even sitting on the back of a car during a 4th of July parade to wave at the crowd. With some regularity, she would break down in tears in front of Oesterle, then immediately promise not to quit. By 1998, the company was operating in four markets, and Hicks went off to Harvard Business School. After she graduated, it was Oesterle’s turn to have doubt about the company’s viability. “I said, ‘I don’t care, I’m coming back,’ ” Hicks says. With Oesterle in charge of charting the vision and strategy for the business, Angie’s List began gathering momentum around 2004, raised tens of millions from venture capitalists, and went public in 2011. The company is expected to become cash-flow positive this year, and its stock is trading near an all-time-high. Though Wall Street may have warmed to Angie’s List only recently, thanks to Hicks, the company has been a darling of Main Street for years. On a recent trip, Hicks and Oesterle were eating at LaGuardia Airport while waiting for a plane when a fellow passenger recognized Hicks. “Hi Angie! I love you, Angie,” the man yelled. Then he turned to Oesterle and said: “Who the hell are you?” Oesterle was unperturbed by the slight. “My chest was bursting with pride,” he says. A shorter version of this story appeared in the July 22, 2013 issue of Fortune. | medium | 0.809524 | How Angela Hicks and Bill Oesterle created one of the web's most trusted sites for reviews of local services. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20141227093944id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/music/2014/12/20/with-stille-nacht-schnittke-couched-protest-tradition/UJtywvJv9A1Q4iWxwrNaOJ/story.html? | Sunday, Composer Focus Concerts, a monthly series at the Lilypad in Cambridge, turns its attention to music by Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-98), including Schnittke’s 1978 violin-and-piano version of the familiar carol “Stille Nacht.” The arrangement is hardly orthodox: The violin’s simple, double-stop-harmonized rendition veers into abrasive wrong notes, the piano layers in a deep, distant, dissonantly tolling bell, the duo ticks through the remaining verses like damaged clockwork. Though only a miniature — Schnittke wrote it as a Christmas card for violinist Gidon Kremer — it epitomizes Schnittke’s most prevalent manner: mixing old and new into an intuitively biting stylistic bait-and-switch. Schnittke’s polyvalent style coalesced in the late ’60s and early ’70s. His musical straight man was, frequently, Viennese classicism: Haydn, Mozart. (Schnittke’s journalist father was stationed with the Soviet Army in Vienna after World War II; that musical culture became Schnittke’s touchstone.) But those age-old cues, whether allusions, pastiches, or outright quotations, were subjected to Schnittke’s imaginative musical graffiti: 20th-century modernist tropes transformed into a saboteur’s toolbox. Much of it, certainly, was Schnittke’s way of implicitly protesting the privations of Soviet life, and a power structure that often targeted Schnittke and his increasing celebrity. (This writer once saw the late Ukrainian-born pianist Alexander Slobodyanik deftly characterize Schnittke’s aesthetic by extending his middle finger while casually sliding his hand into his pocket.) But the satire and serious inquiry were thoroughly mixed. Schnittke was, perhaps, interrogating how routines — bureaucratic, political, musical — exert control, and he was pushing back. Comedy and horror, it is often said, are flip sides of the same coin; Schnittke’s horror was surrendering one’s soul to an imposed conformity. We laugh at his provocations because they make us anxious, the way they disrupt expectations comfortably met: a reminder that the desire for comfort can be as insidious as any threat. Schnittke was a late, devout convert to Christianity, but even that, in his eyes, had its pitfalls. “All the formal routine of religious faith — constantly followed every day in a virtuously literal interpretation — has, for logical reasons, lost its value for me,” he said, in an interview with Alexander Ivashkin. (Both musically and spiritually, Schnittke took refuge in direct, immediate experience: “In naivete,”,” he told Ivashkin, “something infinite is preserved.”) As Christmas, that most insistently traditional of holidays, bears down, Schnittke’s acidic take on that silent night serves as a warning of how traditions endanger even as they elevate. Composer Focus Concerts presents music of Alfred Schnittke, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m., at the Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. Tickets $10. | medium | 1.428571 | In his slight, short, and dissonant “Stille Nacht,” the Soviet-era Russian composer Alfred Schnittke used a familiar Christmas carol to express tacit dissent against a stifling system. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150529032335id_/http://www.9news.com.au:80/world/2015/05/27/08/54/silk-road-s-aussie-employee-avoids-jail | Queensland prison counsellor Peter Nash has evaded a lengthy sentence in the US, with a judge deciding he has served enough jail time for his part in the global drug-trafficking website, Silk Road. US District Court judge Thomas Griesa sentenced Nash, 42, to a time-served sentence for his role as the website's moderator. Nash was facing a life sentence when he was arrested by the FBI and Australian authorities in Queensland in December, 2013. Prosecutors had asked for between 10 and 12.5 years' jail. Nash has been in Australian and US jails since his arrest and his lawyers asked for a time-served sentence. "Mr Nash is hardly the sort of predatory large-scale drug trafficker that policy makers had in mind when formulating the severe penalties in whose cross-hairs he now finds himself," Nash's lawyers, Andrew Frisch and Jeremy Sporn, wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Prosecutors admitted Nash played a relatively minor role in Silk Road, had entered guilty pleas to drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering charges and had an impressive history helping people with physical and intellectual disabilities. An undercover operation by US authorities shut Silk Road down on October 2, 2013. "The website was designed to make conducting illegal transactions on the Internet as easy and frictionless as shopping online at mainstream e-commerce websites," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing submission. Nash worked as a senior manager of the Forensic Disability Service in Wacol, Queensland, where he helped intellectually-disabled adults in or facing jail and in his off hours was paid $US1,000 ($A1,293) a week as a Silk Road forum moderator. He didn't sell drugs on the site, but bought cocaine to feed his own addiction. Silk Road, which used digital bitcoins as currency, had $US17.3 million in sales of cocaine, $US8.9 million in heroin and $US8.1 million in sales of methamphetamine. San Francisco-based site creator Ross Ulbricht, known as Dread Pirate Roberts, was convicted in February of seven charges, including conspiring to commit drug trafficking and money laundering, and faces a life sentence. Do you have any news photos or videos? | medium | 0.954545 | A New York judge has sided with Queensland Silk Road website moderator Peter Nash and sentenced him to time already served. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150712111939id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/10/facebook-seeks-music-video-licensing-deals.html | Facebook declined to comment on its video plans, which were first reported in detail by Billboard. But the company directly denied another report from Music Ally, a news site, that said Facebook was working on a streaming service comparable to Apple Music or Spotify. "We have no plans to go into music streaming," a Facebook representative said. Review:No Song Left Unsung, Grateful Dead Plays Its Last ReinventingGoogle for a Mobile World Yahooto Enter Fantasy Sports Market Facebook's plans are said to still be in an early stage. But its talks with record companies highlight the company's eagerness to expand its video offerings and compete more aggressively with YouTube, the online video giant whose most popular content is music videos. Given Facebook's vast size — it has 1.4 billion users around the world — it is one of the few online outlets that could seriously challenge YouTube's dominance, media executives say. Facebook has offered the music labels better revenue-sharing deals than YouTube, according to one of the people briefed on the talks. In another enticement to the labels, Facebook is also promising to police the platform more thoroughly for unauthorized content, this person added. Read MoreTaylor Swift decides to put '1989' album on Apple music Music is just the latest video-related frontier for Facebook. For months, the company has been urging outside publishers like BuzzFeed, Vice, CNN and ESPN to publish original videos directly to its platform, and it has been satisfied with letting those publishers post the clips on sites like YouTube and Vimeo and then link to them on Facebook. It has also encouraged its users to upload their own videos. But by building up its own video platform, Facebook could keep users within its system and also capture more advertising revenue. So far, its strategy seems to be working: Facebook had an estimated 315 billion video views in the first quarter of 2015, according to Ampere Analysis, an independent video analytics firm. If Facebook were able to build a stronger presence for music videos, it would put pressure on YouTube, which is owned by Google and has long had a complex relationship with the music industry. | medium | 1.125 | Facebook has held preliminary discussions with the major record companies, seeking music video licensing deals, according to sources. NYT reports. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150818044648id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/16/gold-steady-as-focus-returns-to-us-rate-hike-view.html | Expectations for a rise in U.S. rates this year, which would lift the opportunity cost of holding gold while boosting the U.S. dollar, pushed the metal to a 5-1/2-year low of $1,077 last month. A rate increase will be dependent on the strength of U.S. data. The dollar briefly retreated and gold strengthened after a report on Monday showed manufacturing activity in New York state plunged in August to its weakest since 2009. "The likelihood of a September hike has dropped to roughly 40 percent from almost 50 percent in the morning," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said. "We expect gold to remain capped before the first rate hike, which we expect for September. Not too far after the first rate hike, gold should start to rise." Minutes from the Fed's July 28-29 meeting to be released on Wednesday will offer clues about its plan to boost rates for the first time since 2006. Read MoreListen up, gold bugs: HSBC predicts a year-end recovery Relief over stability in China's yuan exchange rate helped European stocks bounce back from their worst week in six, though concerns over the implications continued to support gold. "We are of the view that this latest bounce is merely a counter-trend move inside a larger bearish cycle," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst for Forex.com. "Indeed, gold is heading towards some key resistance levels where the metal may resume its long-term bearish trend." A filing showed on Friday that hedge fund Paulson & Co cut its stake in the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund in the second quarter. Hedge funds and money managers cut their net short position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Aug. 11 but short positions remain "crowded", Barclays Capital said in a note. | low | 0.827586 | Gold firmed on Monday, building on its biggest weekly rise in three months, buoyed by weaker-than-expected U.S. data and uncertainty over China. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150824050114id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Jarryd-Hayne-probably-secures-roster-spot-with-6461220.php | Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne tries to break a tackle attempt by Dallas Cowboys' Chris Jones during 1st quarter punt return during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne tries to break a tackle attempt... San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne returns a punt in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne returns a punt in 1st quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne watches scoreboard during 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne watches scoreboard during 4th... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula and Bruce Miller (49) during National Anthem before 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula and Bruce Miller (49)... San Francisco 49ers' Ahmad Brooks leads the team onto the field before 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Ahmad Brooks leads the team onto the field... San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 1st quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 1st quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Patton celebrates after his punt block for a touchdown in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Patton celebrates after his punt block... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead watches 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead watches 4th quarter of 23-6 win... San Francisco 49ers' Anquan Boldin enjoys 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Anquan Boldin enjoys 4th quarter of 23-6 win... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick enjoys himself during 4th quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick enjoys himself during 4th... San Francisco 49ers' Jerome Simpson, Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin watch Quinton Patton's punt block for a touchdown in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jerome Simpson, Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula has words with Vance McDonald in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula has words with Vance... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead and Nick Moody (54) team up to stop Dallas Cowboys' Joseph Randle in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead and Nick Moody (54) team up to... San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald is brought down by Dallas Cowboys' Andrew Gachkar in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald is brought down by Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead is double teamed by Dallas Cowboys in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead is double teamed by Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter... Line judge Catherine Conti works San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys' NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Line judge Catherine Conti works San Francisco 49ers and Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert scrambles as Dallas Cowboys' Randy Gregory in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert scrambles as Dallas Cowboys'... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde stiff arms Dallas Cowboys' Orlando Scandrick in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde stiff arms Dallas Cowboys' Orlando... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde rushes against the Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde rushes against the Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick looks to pass while rolling out against Dallas Cowboys' Jack Crawford in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick looks to pass while rolling... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) team up to sack Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) team up... San Francisco 49ers' Craig Dahl celebrates his 2nd quarter interception against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Craig Dahl celebrates his 2nd quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Quinton Dial after Purcell's 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter against the Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Quinton Dial... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula in 1st quarter against... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter as Dallas Cowboys' Mackenzy Bernadeau fails to make a tackle during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Eric Reid (35) and Quinton Patton (11) after Purcell's 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter against the Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Eric Reid... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter as Dallas Cowboys' Mackenzy Bernadeau fails to make a tackle during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception... San Francisco 49ers' Vernon Davis points to the crowd before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Vernon Davis points to the crowd before... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick (7) and Blaine Gabbert take the field for warm ups before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick (7) and Blaine Gabbert take... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde before playing Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' offensive line prepares to play Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' offensive line prepares to play Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde (28) and Trey Millard take the field to warm up before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde (28) and Trey Millard take the... San Francisco 49ers' Kendall Gaskins (40) and fellow running backs huddle before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Kendall Gaskins (40) and fellow running backs... | low | 0.520408 | The 49ers head coach insisted the running back who had a 53-yard run on his second carry was hardly guaranteed to make the final 53. The former Australian rugby league star had three first-quarter touches, all on punt returns. In the second half, he appeared at running back and had 54 yards on eight carries, including 34-yard gain down the left sideline in which he stiff-armed safety Jeff Heath to the turf near the line of scrimmage. In two preseason games, Hayne is averaging 9.0 yards on 13 carries, 21.6 yards on five punt returns and returned his only kickoff 33 yards. Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman, playing in his first game in 19 months, stopped running back Darren McFadden on a one-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. Leading 16-0 in the fourth quarter, wide receiver Quinton Patton capped the 49ers’ scoring by blocking a punt, recovering the loose ball in the end zone and jumping into the stands to celebrate with the first Levi’s leap. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150912215427id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/15/urban-outfitters-kent-state-massacre-sweatshirt-is-bad.html | The staggering part of this situation comes from how many people at Urban Outfitters had to have poor judgment to get that item to market. Between the design team, the merchandising team, the preproduction (and possibly full-production personnel), the photographers, the Web team and anyone else in the approval process, how did so many people view this item and continue to sign off on it, to the point where it was actually released to the public on its website? Common sense seems to have become quite uncommon and there seems to be a vacuum in many corporations where bad decision-making goes unchecked. The NFL is another recent example where either there are far too many "yes men" unwilling to challenge bad ideas and decisions or a lack of people with the sense to know that they are bad decisions in the first place. Read More Urban Oufitters' blood-spattered sweatshirt stirs outcry Businesses are run by humans and humans make mistakes. In the desire to be socially relevant, sometimes brands make real-time errors. DiGiorno Pizza recently found this out the hard way, when a social media manager jumped on the #WhyIStayed Twitter hashtag with the response "#WhyIStayed You Had Pizza", not realizing the hashtag was from victims of domestic abuse who were sharing their very serious and personal stories. This case was a bona fide mistake, which was quickly caught and authentically apologized for. However, there is a colossal difference between a mistake and a deficiency in leadership of the kind that was demonstrated by Urban Outfitters letting a sweatshirt design making a joke out of a tragedy. Perhaps, as some have suggested, this was a publicity stunt. Bad behavior is often rewarded and/or forgiven in our culture and there's a pervasive belief that being talked about at all trumps the context of why you are being talked about. However, consumers are getting less tolerant of such acts. Moreover, as a company, particularly a publicly traded company, it is important to stand for something and have a mission. What kind of culture do you develop when you think it's OK to sell a "massacre sweatshirt?" What kind of customer are you trying to attract? I can't imagine many consumers or investors want to be associated with the brand that appeals to those who find humor in shootings. Read MoreNo such thing as bad publicity: 10 controversial businesses Since this has happened far too many times recently to count, here's a handy-dandy guide to when your product, service or marketing strategy is not considered fashion, funny or appropriate: Should I Produce this Product or Marketing Campaign? Here's when to say "no": Does it reference a time when people died or make light of victims? Example: Kent State "massacre" sweatshirt (Read about it from USA Today) | medium | 0.782609 | After Urban Outfitters's apparently faux-bloody Kent State sweatshirt, Carole Roth draws the line between humor and bad taste. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150923141223id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/08/how-to-protect-holiday-packages-from-doorstep-thieves.html | Add signature confirmation: For a small fee you can require that someone signs for your package before the delivery person drops it off. It's not foolproof, but it increases the odds of a safe delivery. At FedEx, either the shipper or recipient can make that request. Use premium package control programs: For $5-$10 per request, you can get access to power delivery tools at UPS at FedEx that allow you to reschedule times or specify delivery windows. For a $40 annual fee, UPS My Choice members can make as many requests as they want. FedEx Delivery Manager also has some free options, like a 14-day vacation hold or specifying that you want it delivered to a specific area, like tucked behind a grill or planter. Get it delivered to your local mail facility: All the major carriers will allow you to re-route packages to your local mail office. "These centers can serve as a "mailroom receiving agent" and offer a real street address, secure 24-hour access (at participating locations) and email or text notification when you have a package waiting," said UPS's McGowan. At FedEx, this is free, UPS and USPS charge a fee. UPS also accepts packages from all carriers. Enroll a friend: If you can't be home, have a trusted friend or family member pick up your package and hold onto it. Get presents at work: Have the package mailed to you or your giftee's workplace. Read MorePop-up shops prep for winter sales lift Keep your eyes peeled: "Neighbors protect neighbors by flagging suspicious activity to each other and the police," Sheriff Anthony Wickersham of Macomb County in Michigan told TODAY. If it does get stolen... check your credit card: Many issuers offer theft protection. If your package gets stolen, file a police report immediately and send it to your credit card company. They'll refund your purchase, up to $500 or $1,000, depending on your credit card company's policies. | low | 0.666667 | Police report disturbing incidents of brazen package theft from people's doorsteps. Today show reveals how to protect your holiday packages. TODAY show reports. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150927195719id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/30/cramer-its-up-169-this-year-with-room-to-run.html | Once again, Skechers has crushed the competition with a monster earnings beat. Jim Cramer considers it one of the most well-managed footwear companies, and it has been on an epic multiyear run. Quarter after quarter, somehow it continues to trample Wall Street's expectations and send the stock higher. Read MoreClick here to watch Cramer's interview with Skechers Skechers reported a huge earnings beat on Wednesday night, posting $1.55 a share when the analysts were only looking for $1.01, and higher than expected revenue that increased 36.4 percent, year-over-year. It also posted double-digit increases in all three of its main business channels and 12.9 percent same-store-sales growth in company-owned stores. Additionally, management provided bullish commentary; CEO Robert Greenberg confirmed that the present has never looked as colorful, comfortable and successful due to its product and marketing. To hear more about the quarter, Cramer spoke with Skechers' chief operator and chief finance officer, David Weinberg. "We think comfort rules, and we are working very hard to bring comfort to the game," Weinberg said. Already the No. 1 walking brand in the country, Skechers also became the No. 2 athletic footwear brand in the U.S. in the past year. With its rapid growth in the U.S., Weinberg confirmed that the company is looking to gain more territory worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------- Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer Cramer Remix: This is hurting Whole Foods Cramer: Twitter & Yelp blew it! It's their fault Cramer: What's really behind explosive earnings ---------------------------------------------------------- In fact, even with all of the turmoil recently in China, the Skechers executive says the company has struggled to meet the demand of the buyers in China. "We are a small player there, but it is starting to be very, very big for us, and it will be our biggest market outside of the United States," Weinberg said. He added that the question will not be whether Skechers can meet the demand in China; it will be how big the demand is and how fast it will come. Skechers recently moved to a franchise model, which will allow it to grow with the rapid demand. "We talk about Nike, we talk about Under Armour. This is the best one," Cramer said. | medium | 1.777778 | Jim Cramer speaks to the chief operator of Skechers, fresh off a monster earnings beat, to find out how it continues to run higher. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20150929040404id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/apple-news-service-to-hire-team-of-journalists.html | It is seeking candidates with more than five years of "newsroom experience" able to "recognize original, compelling stories unlikely to be identified by algorithms". Apple declined to comment beyond the job ad. Read MoreFitBit raises IPO price range to $19 per share One publisher that has had negotiations with Apple over the news service said the hiring of journalists was "jaw-dropping" and "a real surprise". Ken Doctor, an analyst with Newsonomics, pointed to other examples of technology companies hiring journalists, such as Flipboard and Yahoo. "Apple hasn't done it so it's a departure but it's not a surprising departure," he said. "To do curated distribution you either use algorithms, like Google News, or you use people." Read More Number of women in tech 'disastrous': Wikipedia founder The launch of the Apple service comes weeks after Facebook unveiled its own deal with a group of publishers to publish some of their content directly through the social network rather than simply hosting it on their own sites. Apple's news recruitment drive is the latest example of a steady uptick in traffic from Fleet Street to Silicon Valley. In the last few years, social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have hired reporters and editors from the likes of News Corp and NBC to help broker relationships between media groups and their distribution platforms. Within the past six months, Snapchat has hired reporters from CNN and tech site The Verge. Read MoreUber has a mobile game to stop drivers getting lost Apple itself has brought on journalists in the past to help select apps and games to be featured on the homepage of its App Store. The launch of Apple News comes as the company tries to introduce more of a human element to its other services. Apple Music, which was unveiled last week, includes personally selected playlists and Beats 1, an international radio station staffed by newly hired DJs—including Zane Lowe, formerly of BBC Radio 1. The publishers participating in Apple News will supply Apple with a few stories each day, which will be served as a stream from an icon on the home screen of connected Apple devices. The publishers will keep any advertising revenue they generate from ads sold around these stories; if they want Apple to sell the ads the iPhone maker will keep a 30 per cent cut of any revenues. Apple's job ad was first reported by 9to5Mac. | medium | 0.727273 | Making a broader push to provide personalized news content, Apple is searching for journalists to run its Apple News service. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151010022232id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/22/texas-independence-must-happencommentary.html | But there is one inescapable truth that is unfolding before the eyes of the world right now. "It" never happens — until "it" does. With Scotland's independence referendum now over, the world has had a wake up call. In a country where 10 years ago, most Scots believed that a vote on independence would never happen in 2014 — it did. Read MoreOp-ed: Shocked by the Scotland vote? You shouldn't be And it's been happening around the world in places where the general consensus was that it would not or could not happen. At the end of the Second World War, there were 54 recognized countries on the globe. At the end of the 20th century, there were 192. And in the 21st century, the number has grown even larger. Attention is now on the number of nations where independence movements have been steadily, and often silently, growing for years. And no place is getting attention like Texas. In Texas, as part of our work with the Texas Nationalist Movement, we've heard "it'll never happen" more times than we can count. But, just like in the rest of the world, it is happening right now. Regardless of the incessant arguments from those opposed to Texas independence that center around "can't" and "won't," Texans are coming to the realization that it "can," it "will" and it "must." Prior to the Scottish referendum becoming major global news, there were more websites, polls, blogs, and discussions dedicated to the issue of Texas independence than about Scottish independence. Read MoreSeparatists around the world draw inspiration from Scotland Texas independence sentiment has been steadily rising over the last decade. This was highlighted in a recent Reuters poll. The question was asked, "Do you support or oppose the idea of your state peacefully withdrawing from the USA and the federal government?" In Texas, the numbers were surprising to some. In a state where the majority of the electorate is comprised of Republicans and Independents, among those groups, 51 percent support the independence of Texas. | medium | 1.869565 | The Scotland vote on independence was a wake-up call for the world, says Texas Nationalist Movement President Daniel Miller. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20151011192159id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/30/chinas-troubles-like-japans-1990s-bust-not-gfc-or-asian-crisis.html | That makes for facile comparisons with 2008, the most recent example of a credit-fuelled bubble. But there was no trigger like U.S. authorities' shock decision to let Lehman Brothers, at the heart of the global banking system, collapse in 2008. "If you look at the extremes in the equity market they are almost comparable with the Lehman days. In those days we had a trigger, a real event, something clearly defined," said Christian Lenk, rate strategist at DZ Bank in Frankfurt, on Tuesday. "What we saw yesterday was ongoing fears about China ... but there was no trigger, so we see a bit of normalisation today." And it was no surprise that China's stock bull run, like its property bubble a year earlier, came to an end, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said this week. The anatomy of the Asian financial crisis was also quite different, as hot money deserted a region with high foreign debt and trade deficits and currencies they couldn't support. Read MoreJapan cautions China against frequent yuan manipulation "There are few similarities to the Asian crisis in 1997 and 1998, which was driven more by large deficits in trade accounts," said John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management in New York. "What we're seeing now is more of a rapid change in sentiment around the world," he said. The comparisons between China now and Japan in the 1990s, however, are striking. Like Japan then, China was trying to cool frothy property and equity markets. Both economies were powered by massive investment, huge trade surpluses and overvalued currencies and were liberalising their financial sectors. China's share of the global economy now is roughly the same as Japan's was in 1990, about 12 percent. Japan's real GDP growth averaged 5 percent in the run-up to the crash, while China's averaged 10 percent over the past decade. Credit growth was explosive in both, and the market crashes were triggered in part by efforts to temper exuberance. Policy response was stop-and-go in both cases, with China seesawing on IPO policies, market liquidity operations and its treatment of shadow banking loans. Chinese policymakers fear falling into the trap of deflation and stagnation that has gripped Japan ever since. "They aren't a single bit interested in Japan's successes. Their biggest interest is in Japan's mistakes," one China-based Japanese source in touch with Chinese regulators told Reuters in March. "Japanese and Chinese economies do share many similarities, so I assume there is quite a lot to learn from our experiences." Global investors will also see some threatening differences. Global growth is weak, and China accounts for two fifths of that. It also accounts for most of the growth of many multinationals. As the largest consumer of commodities, its slowdown is hammering the price of fuel resources and metals, unleashing deflationary pressure across the world. Japan's woes coincided with robust global growth and had fewer international consequences. Read MoreClock ticking for BOJ's Kuroda as inflation stalls "Japan's collapse in the 90s was very much reflected into itself with just some knock-on effect into the rest of Asia," said Adam Slater, lead economist at UK-based Oxford Economics. "The impact of China's slowdown will ... leave us in a very disappointing growth phase for the next year or two for the world as a whole." Some important differences, and lessons learned from Japan's experience, will be welcome to global investors and Chinese policymakers alike. China's stock market is much smaller relative to GDP than Japan's was - 40 percent versus 140 percent - so should have less economic impact. Per capita it is still a middle-income nation with only 55 percent urbanisation, so has plenty of scope for infrastructure spending to support the economy. While Japan was slow to act - monetary easing came too little, too late, fiscal stimulus was withdrawn early - and its capital markets at the mercy of international flows, while China, with tight control of its capital account, has been proactive to a fault. Its frequent monetary interventions and constant regulatory tinkering, whether in the stock or housing markets or in local government lending, are not always effective and sometimes counterproductive, but it rarely fiddles while Beijing burns. | high | 1.521739 | China's troubles are more akin to the abrupt end of Japan's boom in the 1990s than the global financial crisis. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160227174820id_/http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/08/20084109266544423.html | The news comes days after Google forged a separate deal with MTV networks to syndicate content from the music video station to websites and blogs. Under the terms of the deal, Google will pay News Corporation, which owns MySpace, at least $900 million in revenue-sharing payments over nearly four years. News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media unit said it will add Google search boxes to MySpace and other sites with the aim of discouraging people from leaving the website. Fox executives said that the main reason users left the MySpace site was to conduct searches on Google. The new deal would let MySpace users enter search queries directly on the site, allowing it to retain visitors longer and boost its advertising potential, they said. Google in turn will provide search results and keyword advertisements targeted to people's search terms, probably by the end of the year. Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation, said that the deal would probably be the first of several between the two companies. "We're very committed to moving our traditional content on to the web" Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation "We're very committed to moving our traditional content on to the web." MySpace is the second most popular internet site in the US. Worldwide the site has about 100 million users, 90% of whom are US based. Meanwhile, Google's separate deal with MTV Networks would provide videos supported by adverts to website publishers, Google and Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, said in a joint release.  Tom Freston, chief executive officer of Viacom, said the deal would syndicate some of the most popular shows on MTV and enable the company to distribute its content in "a seamless and targeted way".  Tom Freston, chief executive officer of Viacom, said the deal would syndicate some of the most popular shows on MTV and enable the company to distribute its content in "a seamless and targeted way". Both companies said that a test version of the service should be running by the end of August. | low | 0.766667 | Google, the internet search engine, has signed a deal to handle search and advertising facilities for MySpace, the world's largest social networking website. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160528211101id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/03/22/chelsea-handler-naked-selfie-reese-witherspoon-birthday/21331950/ | Before you go, we thought you'd like these... Chelsea Handler just gave her friend Reese Witherspoon a birthday gift she'll surely never forget. Naturally, the comedian took to Instagram on Tuesday to with the actress a happy birthday by sharing a completely nude mirror selfie. Something tells us that Witherspoon, who turned 40 on Tuesday and performed with Keith Urban at her birthday party over the weekend, will greatly appreciate Handler's snap, in which she's wearing knee-high black socks and nothing else. SEE ALSO: Hilarious phone call Miley Cyrus made to a DJ The "Chelsea Does" star has made it her mission over the last year or so to become a fierce advocate for the #FreeTheNipple campaign, so it may come as a surprise to some people that Handler opted to cover her private areas in this shot. Regardless, there's no getting around the fact that the best-selling author's bod looked incredible in the picture, which looks to have been taken in her bathroom. See more photos of Chelsea Handler through the years: Chelsea Handler gives Reese Witherspoon a birthday present she'll never forget Chelsea Handler at Netflix's FYC "Orange is the New Black" Emmy Panel on Monday, August 4, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Alexandra Wyman/Invision for Netflix/AP Images) Get on my level, Sarah Silverman! Check out our #SB49 #ad for @TMobile on their YouTube. NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Chelsea Handler arrives for the 'Late Show with David Letterman' at Ed Sullivan Theater on October 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: (L-R) Actress Mary McCormack, author Arianna Huffington, and comedian Chelsea Handler attend as Arianna Huffington hosts a special lunch at home for Jennifer Aniston to celebrate CAKE on January 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LTLA) LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: (L-R) Comedian Chelsea Handler, author Arianna Huffington and actors Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux attend as Arianna Huffington hosts a special lunch at home for Jennifer Aniston to celebrate CAKE on January 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LTLA) Chelsea Handler arrives at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) Chelsea Handler speaks on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Inglewood, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) Comedian, actress and author Chelsea Handler poses for photos at Book Expo America, Thursday, May 30, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: Actress Sandra Bullock (L) and tv personality Chelsea Handler attend the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: TV personality Chelsea Handler (L) and actress Mary McCormack attend the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 05: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for AFI) AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 30: Chelsea Handler signs copies of her new book 'Uganda Be Kidding Me' at Book People on March 30, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images) GLENDALE, CA - MARCH 11: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chelsea Handler attend an Evening With Chelsea Handler at Alex Theatre on March 11, 2014 in Glendale, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) Chelsea Handler speaks at the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler, Gabourey Sidibe, Gloria Steinem, Amy Schumer, and Kathy Najimy attend the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) FILE - In this May 2, 2013 file photo, Chelsea Handler arrives at "An Unforgettable Evening" benefiting EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund at The Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, Calif. Handler has set the date for ending her E! network comedy-talk show. "Chelsea Lately" will come to a close on Aug. 26, the network said Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File) Chelsea Handler arrives at the "Stand Up For Gus" Benefit at Bootsy Bellows on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler at An Evening with Shameless, on Tuesday, June, 4, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Showtime/AP Images) EXCLUSIVE - Sandra Bullock, Chelsea Handler and President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures Sue Kroll at Sandra Bullock Hands and Footprints Ceremony, on Wednesday, September, 25, 2013 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Warner Bros./AP Images) Chelsea Handler arrives at the LA private screening of "Shameless" at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre on tuesday, June 4, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler arrives at "An Unforgettable Evening" benefiting EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund at The Beverly Wilshire on Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP) Strange: Ellen DeGeneres and Chelsea Handler Have an Awkward Shower Fight http://t.co/OstTX2IAAQ via @mashable http://t.co/HIO0PQl9Fl NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: TV personality Chelsea Handler arrives at 'Late Show with David Letterman' at Ed Sullivan Theater on October 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic) Chelsea Handler hosts the Women in Film Crystal Lucy Awards on Friday June 12, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) Comedian Chelsea Handler arrives at the Chelsea Handler "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" book launch party in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) Chelsea Handler speaks at the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) Host Chelsea Handler is seen backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Comedian Chelsea Handler inside at the Chelsea Handler "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" book launch party in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) Chelsea Handler, a cast member in "This Means War," poses at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. The film opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 17. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Chelsea Handler from the shows "Chelsea Lately" and "After Lately" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall on Monday, April 30, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) Chelsea Handler from the shows "Chelsea Lately" and "After Lately" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall on Monday, April 30, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) Comedian Chelsea Handler, right, and boyfriend hotelier Andre Balazs attend the TIME 100 gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) TV host Chelsea Handler attends the "Stand Up to Cancer" event at the Shrine Auditorium on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 in Los Angeles. The initiative aimed to raise funds to accelerate innovative cancer research by bringing new therapies to patients quickly. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler attends the premiere of "Movie 43" at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) Talk show host Chelsea Handler attends the E! Network 2013 Upfront at the Manhattan Center on Monday April 22, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) Sandra Bullock, left, poses with Chelsea Handler at Bullock's hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 06: (Exclusive Coverage) Dave Grohl and Chelsea Handler at SiriusXM Studio on October 6, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXM) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 05: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for AFI) RIDGEWOOD, NJ - MARCH 08: Chelsea Handler promotes 'Uganda Be Kidding Me!' at Bookends Bookstore on March 8, 2014 in Ridgewood, New Jersey. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage) Chelsea Handler ends her cable run on a high note - in the shower with Ellen! http://t.co/yafutBcDu1 via @decider http://t.co/L7LipNKbkg More from AOL.com: Margot Robbie set to play figure skater Tonya Harding in 'I, Tonya' film Stars react to devastating Brussels terrorist attacks Paul Qui, 'Top Chef' winner, arrested for allegedly assaulting girlfriend | high | 1.95 | Chelsea Handler took to Instagram to wish her pal Reese Witherspoon a happy birthday with a naked mirror selfie. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160528225617id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/03/13/4-million-renters-want-to-buy-can-they.html | The trouble is there is just not that much out there to buy. Home construction is still recovering at a slow pace, and prices for newly built homes are far higher on average than for existing homes.The number of homes for sale is rising slightly but is still well below historical norms across most markets. "Even after a wrenching housing recession, this data shows that the dream of homeownership remains very much alive and well, even in those areas that were hardest hit," Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries said in the report. "But these aspirations must also contend with the current reality, and in many areas, conditions remain difficult for buyers. The market is moving toward more balance between buyers and sellers, but it is a slow and uneven process." Homeownership aspirations among renters were actually highest in some of the hardest hit markets of the housing crash, such as Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas, according to Zillow. That may be because so many renters there are former homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure. They are now seeing these markets recover, as investors bought up the distressed properties, pushing prices higher far faster than anyone expected. These renters are seeing market resilience, and likely want back in. (Read more: What happens to prices when Wall Street is your landlord) Foreclosure activity, in fact, fell 10 percent in February from January and is down 27 percent from a year ago to the lowest total since December 2006, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. (Read more: Foreclosure falls to lowest in 7 years: Report) "Cold weather and a short month certainly contributed to a seasonal drop in foreclosure activity in February, but the reality is that new activity is no longer the biggest threat to the housing market when it comes to foreclosures," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. (Read more: Google to invest $50 million in real estate site Auction.com) The report, however, does note that more than 152,000 properties that are in the foreclosure process but not yet bank-owned have been vacated by their former owners, likely due to the long foreclosure timelines. These so-called "zombie foreclosures" have been in process an average of 1,031 days, according to RealtyTrac. These homes sit untended and are a blight to the neighborhoods around them, often reducing nearby property values. | medium | 0.964286 | A new study says 10 percent of all renters want to buy a home this year, but face considerable hurdles like tight credit and higher prices. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160529002615id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/06/23/zynga-co-founder-more-pot-regulation-needed.html | Seth McConnell | The Denver Post | Getty Images A marijuana themed hat during the 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado, April 19, 2014 "The fact that you can take too much too easily, and everything kind of looks like a candy bar," Bollich told "Squawk Alley," "Almost certainly what we're going to see is more regulation, and that's what's needed." Read MoreUnholy smoke: Pope condemns legalization of pot Bollich has turned his attention from social gaming to cannabis technology as CEO of Surna, a company on a mission to manufacture disruptive technology and equipment for the legal marijuana industry, according to its website. Bollich was one of the featured speakers at a marijuana conference hosted by The ArcView Investor Network in Denver, Colorado—the Mile High City—where more than 200 high-net-worth investors eager to get in on the expanding industry listened to pitches from select entrepreneurs. "At Surna we're really focused on tackling the really big problems," Bollich said, noting climate, power and water as major topics. "We're an engineering firm at the end of the day, so we're going to attack those first." The legal marijuana market value in the United States is projected to grow 68 percent this year to $2.57 billion, according to research by ArcView Group. "Gains will come in the form of increased demand in existing state markets, as well as from new state markets coming online within a five-year horizon," according to the research, which values the five-year national market potential at $10.2 billion. "This was exactly the way it was at Zynga," said Bollich. "It was an evolving industry that we get to be at the ground floor." | low | 1.695652 | Though Zynga co-founder Tom Bollich is out to disrupt the legal marijuana industry, he feels more regulation is needed. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160612133638id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/autos/news/tesla-model-3-shocks-car-world-la-premiere-article-1.2585009 | Just after 8:30 last night in Los Angeles, CEO Elon Musk took to the stage and presented the Tesla Model 3 - the fourth model his company has produced and the hotly anticipated Tesla for the masses. Before beginning his shpiel, he asked how many members of the crowd in attendance were owners of Models S and X. The crowd whooped and applauded. "Thank you for paying for Model 3!" Musk said. Revenue from the two existing models was key to developing a mass-market Tesla, he argued. The crowd didn't dispute it. Instead, they enthusiastically applauded. He was speaking to his base. And like any politician or celebrity with a massive, unwavering following, Musk was cheered on through his short, uninterrupted presentation. This was no April Fools Day joke, despite convenient timing. FOLLOW THE DAILY NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK. 'LIKE' US HERE! We traveled to Los Angeles-based headquarters for the first look at the Model 3, a vehicle that has been developed and such secrecy that no one really knew what it was going to look like, and you people outside the development process knew any details at all. Musk had promised a vehicle that was about the size of an Audi A4, would cost $35,000, and might resemble the Models S and X. Here's what we know.The base Model 3 will have a range of 215 miles per full charge and will come equipped with hardware for Autopilot active driving systems. (Whether the software will make it standard is unclear.) Musk referenced a 0-to-60 figure of 6 seconds for at least one of the Model 3 variants - an interesting reference for such a future-focused company - but didn't talk about top speed. Some Model 3 sedans will be dual-motor and all-wheel drive, just like Models S and X, but it's unclear how many and if they'll be available from launch. Lest you worried about Model 3 not being a rocket ship, Musk put that fear to rest: "At Tesla we don't make slow cars," Musk said. In terms of design, you can draw your own conclusions. From our close-up look, we saw shades of Porsche and Ferrari in the front clip, while the back end was much more normal-looking. The Model 3 is a sedan, not a hatchback, as Musk averred that "half the market wants a sedan and half wants an SUV." Now, he sells a traditional sedan for the first time. The crowd roared when he mentioned that you'll be able to carry a 7-foot surfboard inside, but was quieter when he mentioned that Model 3 has "more cargo capacity of any gasoline powered car of similar dimensions." What did we learn in a quick ride-along loop around a closed course in desolate Hawthorne? The Model 3 prototype actually runs. Two prototypes were in Hawthorne, and one was customer-only. One Tesla representative estimates that as many as 1000 attendees filled the SpaceX building for the event. From the rear perch, which is elevated stadium-style, the view is expansive, thanks to a glass roof and a relatively low belt line. The cabin, which lacks a traditional dashboard feels wide and uncluttered; a digital screen in landscape orientation that juts out of the center is the only sort of instrumentation. It's a visual trick that does the opposite of the tall screen in Models S and X—like the chunky, ovoid steering wheel's shape. The short course began like a Disney World ride, replete with purple flashing lights, potholes, and the chance to show off the car's air suspension at all four corners. (There is some calibration work probably yet to be finished, as it was less than smooth.) We exited the anteroom to the course and made a hard right turn on suing on obstructed stretch of concrete runway. This was, presumably, designed to show off the Model 3's acceleration capability. We had no idea what kind of battery and motors were on the test car, aside from the fact that ours was a dual-mode vehicle. Take-off was fast, but not "rip a hole in your pants" quick. The electric characteristics were still there, but something seemed to be missing. Maybe it was the sense of wonderment that Model S brings about, and that Model X replicates completely. It was clear that this was not a Model 3 P90D. At the end of the very short course, which was surrounded by a fence, we were thankful that the Model 3's brakes were operational. A quick slalom didn't offer much feedback to us about the Model 3's steering, other than its relative smoothness of operation. Our test driver claimed that steel and aluminum were used to compose vehicle, but it was left unclear whether carbon fiber was also used for weight savings. Less clear in their execution were the integration of a third brake light, a super wide B-pillar, a traditional trunk instead of a hatchback, and ultrawide Michelin tires. Regardless of how we felt, having driven both recent Tesla models already, we have a feeling that test drivers of the Model 3 are going to be impressed by the experience. If you've been driving anything in this category that's a gas powered and made in the last decade, the Model 3 is a complete departure. Of course, we'll have to wait for a chance to have a full valuation of the vehicle before rendering any kind of judgment. For a first impression, we surely walked away impressed that Musk and his team have pulled this off in what appears to be record time, but we are still among the skeptics in terms of how all of this will translate to production, when all of the flashing lights are gone and the crowds have dissipated. We left with a lot of questions about how the Model 3 specs will work out. How will Musk get to the magic $35,000 figure, as the tax credits for Tesla will soon run out? Will his company be able to keep up with battery production, assuming full capacity at the Fremont facility—once a Toyota/General Motors cooperation—at 500,000 units? If this had truly been Tesla's first product, and proof of concept of an electric car for everyone, who knows with the reaction would've been. If my tone sounds skeptical about the car that we saw tonight, it's only because I can't believe it's true. What Tesla did with its first major products, the hatchback and the SUV, with startling from the car company that had zero products except for the ill-faded roadster. That $35,000 figure is all speculation at this point. All of the Tesla people I spoke to would not tell me about any suppliers that they've locked down, and I can't imagine it's going to be cheap to build those batteries especially at the in the infancy of the gigafactory. All of this, without any mention of what overproduction might do for Tesla, what commoditization of their product is going to do, and whether anybody will actually qualify for the credits to make this product semi-affordable. But all in all, it was a fabulous night. And a long one too! Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos. | high | 1.409091 | Elon Musk is at it again with the Tesla Model 3, the company's most affordable and revolutionary model yet. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160619090103id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/12/16/vroom-raises-95-million/ | Online used car sales startup Vroom has raised $95 million in equity and is using some of those funds to acquire Texas Auto Direct, a competitor known for developing software that significantly reduces the time it takes to process and recondition used vehicles. Vroom didn’t disclose the acquisition price. Vroom’s success hinges largely on speed. Unlike other online car retailers that create a marketplace for people to sell cars to each other, Vroom handles the entire transaction. The company takes possession of the used car from the seller, reconditions it and then delivers it to the buyer’s door. One of it’s primary goals is to ship cars to customers throughout the U.S. within 48 hours of purchase. Those cars, however, have to be in tiptop condition since Vroom also provides a seven-day money back guarantee, has a no-questions-asked return policy, and a 90-day bumper-to-bumper warranty. The New York-based startup has managed to speed up delivery times by hiring staff and expanding its footprint. The company now has two facilities in Dallas and Houston—where cars are reconditioned and warehoused before they’re sold. Vroom is also opening a new 500,000-square-foot facility in Indianapolis in early 2016. However, the process of reconditioning the cars it buys from consumers has remained a challenge. Vroom CEO Allon Bloch told Fortune that Texas Auto Direct, or TDA, has developed software to turn this highly complicated task—some cars have as much as $1,000 of work put into them before resale—into an efficient, fast process. “The faster you can get the car in shape, the faster you can sell it, and deliver it to customers,” Bloch says. “And you need to do it without cutting corners because otherwise the customer will end up sending the car back. “Texas Direct has developed a workflow that allows you to efficiently route these cars. I don’t think there’s anyone even close in capability of the reconditioning software and services they’ve built.” TDA’s software will shave two to three days off the process, says Bloch, who estimates that about 100 cars are reconditioned each day between the two companies. Houston-based TDA was founded in 2002 by Mike Welch and Richard Williams, two tech entrepreneurs who previously started software company Medianet together. If the deal is approved by regulators, the two brands will co-exist at Vroom’s New York headquarters and operate separately online. Once combined, the company will have 500 employees. The remaining funds from this latest venture round will be used to accelerate growth and expedite delivery, according to Vroom. The company wants to buy more trucks to ship cars. It also plans to open several more reconditioning facilities to better serve customers on the two coasts. In terms of sales and software expertise, TDA is the leader. The company says it has more than $500 million in annual sales. Meanwhile, Vroom hopes to crack $300 million in sales this year. But Vroom has some high-profile backers. This latest equity round brings Vroom’s total venture funding to $168 million—and about $35 million in debt funding—since it launched in 2013. Vroom didn’t name the investors in the Series C round. Catterton, which backed Restoration Hardware and P.F. Chang’s, led the Series B round in July. General Catalyst Partners, T.Rowe Price Associates, Jeffrey Boyd, the chairman and former CEO of The Priceline Group, and Bob Mylod, former CFO of The Priceline Group also invested in the last round. About 15 to 20 wealthy individuals, including former pro football player John Elway and former Autonation and Blockbuster CEO Steve Berrard, invested in Vroom during a Series A round of funding that raised $19 million in equity. Vroom has a number of rivals in the online car sales space, including Beepi, Carvana, and Shift Technologies—each one putting its own spin on white-glove or concierge-style service. Make sure to subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology. | high | 1.954545 | The company is buying Texas Auto Direct using some of the $95 million it raised in its latest funding round. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160621032624id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/07/09/zipcar-for-electric-scooters/ | Down a dingy alley way in San Francisco sits a row of bright red scooters marking the entrance to the headquarters of a transportation experiment. This is where startup Scoot Networks runs its growing fleet of what will soon be close to 400 electric scooters available to Bay Area residents willing to pay a couple bucks to ride them. After three years, $5 million in funding, and various iterations on its scooters and pricing plans, Scoot Networks has started to have a real presence in a city with an almost ridiculous amount of alternative transportation options. San Franciscans can now choose from dozens of new choices for how to traverse the city, from Uber and Lyft to private buses, to various car and bike sharing networks. And that’s not counting traditional public transportation and taxis. Amidst this sea of services, Scoot Networks now has thousands of active users driving its red electric scooters across the city to work or across the neighborhood to the grocery store. The company says its customers collectively drive about 50,000 miles a month. Anecdotally that means if you live or work in San Francisco, odds are you’ve spotted the red scooters zipping by. In Scoot Networks’ office a few blocks south of Market Street, CEO and co-founder Michael Keating shows Fortune a video of a sped-up, birds-eye view of a real day with the scooters overlaid on a map of the city. Because the scooters all get connected to the driver’s smart phone, they’re easy to monitor. Early in the morning, commuters start to pick up the scooters and head downtown. By 9AM there’s dozens of the scooters on the roads as drivers race to work. Around noon a handful of customers take them out for lunch meetings. Meanwhile a few stragglers are playing hooky, driving them around Golden Gate Park and out to the beach. If the grand experiment hasn’t officially concluded, it’s getting closer to success, which wasn’t always the case. The company’s growth early on was slow, given it launched with only a couple dozen scooters and getting new customers to ride a two-wheel vehicle can be more difficult than it sounds. But after winning over that early trickle of users, Scoot Networks has been rapidly expanding across San Francisco, and now has a plan to launch its service in another (as-yet-to-be-named) city down the road. Keating says this week the company added 150 new larger electric scooters with cargo trunks big enough to hold 6 bags of groceries or a stack of 5 pizzas. The new scooters will enable customers to better run errands, like picking up groceries, and will also provide more storage space for a growing group of couriers that use the scooters to deliver goods for San Francisco’s booming on-demand economy. A courier with Instacart could fill the storage space with food to deliver, while a Shyp driver could pop by and pick up your shipping package. When all of these new Scoot “cargo” scooters are rolled out, the company will have close to 400 vehicles available to zoom around the streets. The cargo scooters cost an extra dollar more per half hour compared to the smaller more nimble original scooters. The secret sauce of the entire system is the smart software, mobile app, and user interface that the team built. Customers pay via credit card when they create an account and reserve a scooter, similar to the model Zipcar uses for its vehicles. Customers can opt to pay a monthly subscription for a lower hourly fee, or no subscription for a higher hourly fee. Users plug their smart phone into the dashboard of the scooter to enable it, and to learn how much charge is left on the battery or what’s the best scooter-friendly route to the office. The app lets customers reserve parking spaces, extend their reservation, and connect with Scoot if there’s any trouble. The smart software is the brains, while the electric scooters are the relatively low cost hardware. The original scooters in the network are made by a Chinese company, and have been upgraded to use lithium ion batteries. The new larger cargo scooters are made by a German scooter maker and also use lithium ion batteries. While lithium ion batteries have historically been expensive, the costs of these batteries has been dropping dramatically in recent years. While Tesla was the original company to bet on this trend, there’s many companies that are now building businesses around low cost lithium ion batteries, like Stem and Advanced Microgrid Solutions, who focus on the power grid, and Gogoro, which is building an electric scooter company in Taiwan. Scoot Networks can capitalize on the dropping costs of the batteries, as well as the rise of the bubbly on-demand economy, and the alternative transportation craze in San Francisco. It’s at the intersection of a lot of new movements, many of them dependent on the city’s tech economy. Keating, a Harvard Business School grad, explains Scoot Networks’ place in San Francisco’s alternative transportation world as: “fitting the big open space in the market between slow and cheap at one end, and fast and expensive on the other.” Slow and cheap would be the muni, while fast and expensive would be more akin to Uber. Scoot Networks can get as low as $2 per ride. That’s as cheap as the bus, and cheaper even than Uber and Lyft’s new carpool services Uber Pool and Lyft Line. “We can’t be beaten on price,” says Keating, pointing out that when the customer is driving him or herself, there’s no cost of paying a driver. Price isn’t a big concern, but getting more riders willing to drive a scooter in downtown San Francisco is a bigger concern. It can be a little scary, if you aren’t a regular two-wheel rider. The same barrier exists to getting people on bicycles in the city. But Scoot Network’s scooter doesn’t require a motorcycle license, only goes up to 30 miles an hour and the company offers tutorials for any new users who want it. Now that Scoot Networks has a broad network of scooters around the city, it’s looking to bring in more riders. While much of the world outside of the U.S. is eager to jump on a scooter, Americans have long been slower to embrace the two-wheel rides. To that end, Scoot Networks also plans to roll out other types of vehicles in the future. One of the remaining questions around Scoot Networks is if it would be able to recreate its network in another city, beyond the early adopters of San Francisco. The company is in the process of raising more funding to try to answer that question, and Keating is quiet on what city Scoot Networks would be focused on next. Whatever city the company chooses to expand into, it will be able to bring everything it’s learned over the past three years to a new environment. When I asked Keating what are some of the biggest lessons he’d bring to a new city, he says: “go big and launch big from the get go.” Austin, Portland, Seattle, and other techie cities of the world—watch out. Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology. | high | 1.96 | In a sea of alternative transportation options, San Franciscans are renting bright red electric scooters to traverse the city. Here's why. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160721051758id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2012/01/22/nyregion/for-ronald-l-kuby-sunday-is-for-coffee-and-a-trip-to-jail.html | The perennially ponytailed Ronald L. Kuby, who says he hasn’t had a haircut since 1989, is the counsel of choice for alternative types; five protesters from the Occupy Wall Street encampment retained him after tangling with the New York Police Department. From 1999 to 2007 he was a host of a radio show on WABC-AM with Curtis Sliwa. On Sundays, Mr. Kuby, 55, works a bit but mostly relaxes by cooking, walking or biking, and watching TV. He lives in Chelsea with his wife, Marilyn Vasta, 60, a psychotherapist, and their bichon frisé, Lily; they are sometimes joined by their daughter, Emma, 19, who attends Wesleyan University. The couple also owns a country house in the Poconos. HORIZONTAL VS. VERTICAL My wife and I always talked about how changed our weekends would be after our daughter left for college, but once it happened, we realized our visions were dramatically different. She saw us walking, hiking, riding bikes, going to museums, the theater, the gym. I’d imagined a horizontal horizon: lots of sitting on the couch watching TV, drinking coffee and napping. WILL WAKE FOR COFFEE We get up between 7 and 8; after spending eight years on a morning radio show that had me up at 4:30 a.m., it’s hard to sleep much past sunrise. I cannot function without coffee, so the first challenge of the day is making a cup of coffee before I’ve had a cup of coffee. Marilyn doesn’t make or drink coffee. Then we walk the dog, get the papers and come back home. Our co-op is a fourth-floor walk-up: 62 steps. I’ve counted. DECK GARDENING In decent weather, Marilyn immediately starts gardening when we get back; on the front deck, we grow all sorts of herbs we use for cooking, like parsley, sage, oregano and rosemary. I help out by sitting in the hammock reading the papers, drinking coffee, snacking on cheese, making suggestions; and also I get to move large pots around, and in the winter, I fetch the firewood. OFFICE OR JAIL Marilyn goes to her yoga class at 11, so I either go to the office or head out to Rikers Island to meet with clients; unfortunately, that’s where too many of them reside. Sundays at Rikers is far more relaxed than other days; there’s no waiting, and the security level is somewhat calmer. Otherwise it’s like going to hell, if hell was a lot of steel buildings designed by a 20th-century architect and smelled of disinfectant. I can go there, see who I need to see and be back in a couple of hours. If there’s time to sneak it in, I’ll watch the BBC version of “Battlestar Galactica”; Marilyn will not sit through that. AFTERNOON ACTIVITY We both have bicycles, so we’ll go down to the Battery, grab a sandwich or something and sit on a bench and look at the Statue of Liberty, or go over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We might walk on the High Line — without the bikes or dog. I like matinees, so if it’s not a day for being outside, we’ll see a play or movie. We saw my friend Alan Dershowitz’s daughter make her acting debut Off-Broadway in “A Splintered Soul.” DINNER WITH FRIENDS We make it an early evening and cook a big meal and have friends from the neighborhood over, or friends from out of town. The menu is seasonal, so these days we’re doing soups and mushroom risottos. I’m a big meat guy, so we might have grilled sausage and broccoli rabe, some red wine, and we’re set. HIS AND HER SHOWS After dinner we watch “Walking Dead,” which has more depth than your average zombie movie; it’s a meditation on what it means to be alive and human. That’s my show. And then we watch Marilyn’s, “Masterpiece Classic.” But if our daughter is home, it’s reruns of “Friends,” “Gossip Girl,” “Pretty Little Liars” and “Brothers and Sisters,” which we’ve thoughtfully taped for her. NIGHTCAP That’s seasonal, too. Now it’s a Smuttynose winter brewery ale or a wee tiny nip of Macallan. I get to bed by 11, do the crossword puzzle or read myself to sleep on my Kindle. A version of this article appears in print on January 22, 2012, on page MB2 of the New York edition with the headline: Coffee, Couch Time and a Trip to Jail. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | medium | 1.805556 | The perennially ponytailed defense lawyer Ronald L. Kuby spends his Sundays relaxing on the couch, in the garden or on a bike, but sometimes he slips off to Rikers Island to visit clients. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20160730213947id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/29/10/58/witness-warrant-in-vic-lake-murder-case | A mother accused of murdering three of her children by driving them into a Melbourne lake allegedly said she'd "rather take her own life and that of the kids" than see them live with her lover and his wife. A woman, who cannot be named, claims she overheard Akon Guode make the comments before she drove into a Wyndham Vale lake last year. She also says she saw Guode a few months later and asked her: "Did you really do it?" "She said, yes I did it," the woman said in a statement, tendered in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday. "What I understood that to mean was that she had taken her kids' lives." The witness claims Guode told her she "didn't expect to still be alive". Mother-of-seven Guode is charged with murdering her 1-year-old son, Bol, and twins Hanger and her brother Madit, 4. The 37-year-old is also charged with attempting to murder her 6-year-old daughter Alual, who survived after being pulled from the water on April 8 last year. All four kids were fathered by Joseph Manyang. He and Guode began an affair after she immigrated to Australia from Sudan and Mr Manyang left his wife in 2010. The witness says she overheard Guode claim Mr Manyang's wife was threatening her. "I could see that Akon was stressed and scared," the woman's statement says. "Akon said she would rather take her own life and that of the kids. "She said in a jealous kind of way that she didn't want the kids to go to (Mr Manyang) and the wife, that she wanted herself and the kids to go together, to end it." The woman, who lives interstate, claims she has been pressured by the Sudanese community not to testify. She was arrested on a warrant on Friday after she failed to appear at a video link facility to give evidence. She was eventually cross-examined briefly by Guode's barrister, Julian McMahon, and was bailed to appear again on Wednesday, when her claims will be tested. The court heard the woman suffered some mental health issues. After initially claiming she couldn't remember, she also admitted she had previously been jailed over a serious assault in which a person was stabbed. The woman didn't want to answer questions about herself. "The evidence here, that's what I'm here for. It's not about my personal life," she said. Guode says a dizzy spell caused the lake tragedy and Mr Manyang believes the crash was an accident. | medium | 1.583333 | An arrest warrant has been issued for a witness in the case of a Melbourne mother accused of murdering her three youngest children. |
Subsets and Splits