Datasets:

LogeshChandran

/

newsroom

like 0

http://www.people.com/article/daniel-craig-cameo-stormtrooper-star-wars-the-force-awakens

http://web.archive.org/web/20151221030328id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/daniel-craig-cameo-stormtrooper-star-wars-the-force-awakens

The Force Awakens : People.com

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Lucasfilm Ltd./Everett; Inset: ChinaFotoPress/Getty 12/18/2015 AT 02:10 PM EST James Bond has gone undercover. has an incognito cameo in the latest movie – but good luck spotting him behind a stormtrooper mask. Multiple unnamed sources confirmed to were filming near each other, and Craig decided to sneak the actor into the film. "He did it for sh--s and grins," a source told of Craig's motives for filming his uncredited cameo. Craig even has a line in the film, and read 's story for a spoiler-y account of his scene.

The Spectre star has a small, uncredited role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

low

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/joy-mangano-inside-closet-hsn-video

http://web.archive.org/web/20151224205011id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/joy-mangano-inside-closet-hsn-video

Video : People.com

By Chancellor Agard and Emily Strohm 12/21/2015 AT 06:45 PM EST If you think HSN superstar 's inventions are inspiring, just wait until you see her organized (and product-filled) closet. , took PEOPLE Now through her home and gave us a peek inside her closet, which is filled with her greatest hits on HSN. "I see the world through product," says Mangano, 59. "If there's a problem can it be solved in a better way? That's just the way I think. I just can't stop thinking that way." Inside her pristine closet, you'll find clothes on her Huggable Hangers, the No.1 best selling product in the history of electronic retailing; her own My Little Steamer neatly tucked away on the side; and a basket of her bleach-safe and cosmetic resistant. But don't try to ask the single mother of three which of her products is her favorite. "There is not an answer to that question," she says, comparing it to being asked which one of her children is her favorite. The Brooklyn-born inventor's Long Island mansion is just as neatly organized as her closet. "This home means my family has a place to come. I always my whole life of having a big welcoming home," she says of her 42,000 sq.-ft. house. It's my space to really kind of chill out and think of more product."

Joy Mangano takes PEOPLE Now inside her incredible closet

medium

low

abstractive

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/kidzania-westfield-london/amp

http://web.archive.org/web/20151224212340id_/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/kidzania-westfield-london/amp

KidZania: the mini-city where children are in charge

‘It’s a game-changer,” says Joel Cadbury, the chocolate heir and former owner of the Groucho Club. This may be something of an understatement. Cadbury is the chairman of KidZania, a £20m mini-city currently being built above the Marks & Spencer in west London’s vast Westfield shopping mall. KidZania will be two-thirds the scale of reality and will consist of a 75,000sq ft role-playing theme park for kids aged four to 14. It will include airport, A&E, police station, sports stadium, theatre, shops, university, bank, sushi and pizza concessions. It will even have its own newspaper, passports and currency. Most strikingly, it will also feature a sort of holding pen for parents. It’s certainly a game-changer for children’s entertainment, but it may also be one for education. Instead of tranquilising kids with video games, or suckering them with rollercoasters in the traditional theme-park manner, KidZania will recreate workplaces such as operating theatres, plane cockpits, radio stations and banks. Children will play at working and will be paid in “KidZos” – above, you would hope, the minimum wage. There are more than 60 roles to choose from, each taking about 25 minutes. Your child could be a refuse collector in the morning, pizza chef over lunch, and surgeon in the afternoon. “Get ready for a better world,” is KidZania’s slogan. In the park, everything works: slacker kids, like broken lightbulbs, are programmatically unacceptable. So the architecture of KidZania isn’t just a simulation of the real world. It’s a preparation for it. Cadbury, who has a touch of the Willy Wonka about him, explains why. Children can learn to fly a BA aeroplane, deliver letters dressed as little DHL drivers and make Innocent smoothies. At the Renault engineering centre, they can learn how to change tyres; at H&M’s academy, they will be taught the rudiments of fashion and design; and at the Dorsett Hotel, they can be managers, front-desk staff or housekeepers. Your child could even become an oompa loompa – sorry, an expert chocolatier – at the Cadbury factory. The promotional material shows a child in a pretend KidZania surgery, apparently anaesthetising a dog on an operating table. (That’s got to be a contravention of something, surely, unless the dog’s stuffed.) “We’re opening children’s eyes to the realities of life,” says Cadbury, who talks glowingly of all the “industry partners” who are being wooed to lend their brands. But why do you need them? “If you have a bank called The Bank, it’s not very authentic,” he says. “You need the real names to authenticate the content.” While KidZania has lots of partners worldwide (including McDonald’s, Waitrose, Epson, Sony, DHL, Walmart, Olay and Mitsubishi), its London outpost has yet to firm up a banking partner. Perhaps a failed one like RBS would be the perfect way to teach kids about banking in the real world. But that probably won’t happen. The most intriguing KidZania simulation involves a pretend burning building. Paramedics will pull a child casualty from a fake blaze, check for a pulse, then stretcher them to a child-sized ambulance that will ferry them to A&E, where little nurses will administer pretend treatment. Meanwhile, child firefighters will put out the blaze, child cops will investigate the incident, and cub reporters from the radio station and the newspaper will go Paxo on those responsible. “The inspiration for KidZania is what children do every day,” says Xavier López Ancona, the creator of KidZania, who is taking me on a tour of the thing that has made him very rich. “Little girls pretend to be mothers or boys simulate driving cars.” When the 50-year-old man described as “the Mexican Walt Disney” was working at General Electric in the 1990s, an old schoolfriend approached him with an idea to launch nurseries focusing on role-playing. That morphed into KidZania and the first park opened in Santa Fe in 1999. Today, 35 million children have visited a KidZania in cities as diverse as Mumbai, Tokyo, Cairo, Istanbul, Lisbon and Seoul. Nine more, including the London one, are in the offing. KidZania hasn’t yet broken into the US, but López hopes to soon. The KidZania parks all have a similar formula. First, parents pay for admission. “The most expensive ticket will be £28,” says Cadbury, “so it’s cheaper than childcare.” Children are then fitted with radio-frequency tags so their whereabouts can be monitored for the four-hour experience. They are then separated from their parents, who can watch from what’s called the Parents’ Clubhouse; or – as is more likely, given that almost all KidZanias have been cunningly built next to malls – go shopping. How refreshing, I say, that in the age of helicopter parenting, children are being separated from cosseting, overbearing adults. “That’s essential,” says Ollie Vigors, Cadbury’s longtime business partner. “The kids are empowered to make their own decisions. Parents are an impediment. I know, as a parent, that I say ‘Don’t do that’ to my children a ridiculous number of times a day. If parents are taken out of the equation, it actually gives children the freedom to play and learn.” The only roles for parents are as spectators: they can watch a play or a football match, or sit in an aeroplane being told by pint-sized cabin crew what to do in case of an emergency, but nothing more. In London, this will be flight BA 2311 (actually the fuselage of a British Airways Airbus that’s already been winched into place). Kids will be welcomed to KidZania with a cheque and the greeting from adult staff: “Have a productive day!” They can cash their cheque at the bank and spend their kidzos on food, go-karting or gifts. They can then earn more by working at different jobs. The children who graduate from the university will earn more. “Just like in the real world,” says López. They can also open a bank account, deposit their cheque, and be issued with a debit card for use at KidZania cash machines. Japanese kids, says López, save more KidZos than their Mexican or Indonesian counterparts. British kids would probably rack up massive debts, I suggest. López laughs: in the happy land of KidZania, debt does not exist. Pity. If it did, kids could train as loan company flunkies, or take turns playing Carol Vorderman in debt-consolidation adverts. Dr Richard Barry, KidZania’s head of education, is keen to stress that the emphasis is on learning through doing: “I believe Einstein hit the proverbial nail on the head when he said, ‘Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.’ I think the experience is a tin opener for further learning.” Barry and the team have been planning KidZania activities with an eye on the national curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage. Have any schools or teachers, I wonder, been put off by KidZania’s capitalist ethos, its consumerism and its echoes of child labour? Not so far, Barry replies. He doesn’t think that will be an issue. “We’re expecting lots of school trips and lots of teachers as well as children to find this inspirational.” But for some, there is a problem. When I tell a fellow parent about KidZania, she emails: “This seems like total capitalist nightmare abomination, and I wouldn’t want my child involved.” Certainly, parts of the press pack do not seem to be directed at parents. I felt queasy at the description of KidZania as a “new and innovative way to build your brand”. So it offers a means, funded by parents, for businesses to sink their claws into what the blurb calls “customers of the future”. Children: not so much little dudes as money-making opportunities. Still, it seems a safe bet that, come next year, this building site in west London will be teeming with children. Cadbury and Vigors expect up to one million children each year, and are already planning to expand their franchise to east London, as well as to Birmingham or Manchester. As a result, millions of British children may be readied for the world of work – and perhaps inculcated with a revulsion for benefit dependency – at Britain’s most ideologically explicit theme park. As I leave, I can’t help thinking that KidZania is what you’d get if work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith was put in charge of Alton Towers. Goodbye white-knuckle ride. Hello nice sensible career-nurturing fun.

A mini-city is being built in Britain with its own airport, hospital, police station, newspaper and currency. But is KidZania just a chance for kids to have some role-playing fun while their parents shop – or a way for big business to get its claws into them early? Stuart Jeffries reports

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.people.com/article/craig-strickland-wife-asks-for-prayers-following-his-disappearance

http://web.archive.org/web/20151231064648id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/craig-strickland-wife-asks-for-prayers-following-his-disappearance

Craig Strickland's Wife Asks For Prayers Following His Disappearance : People.com

12/29/2015 AT 09:35 AM EST Helen Strickland, the wife of country singer Craig Strickland, asked fans to "keep praying" following her husband's in Oklahoma over the weekend. Craig and friend Chase Morland went duck hunting amid winter storm Goliath. After family and friends didn't hear from them, a search party began looking for the pair. Morland's body was discovered, but Craig is still missing. Helen, who was Miss Arkansas USA in 2014, has been regularly posting updates on her Twitter, first writing on Monday that "Craig's dog Sam has been found." She continued, "His boat has been confirmed as being capsized. They are still searching for Craig. Please keep praying." Helen Strickland asked fans to pray for her missing husband Craig's dog Sam has been found. His boat has been confirmed as being capsized. They are still searching for Craig. Please keep praying. A few hours later Helen informed fans that Craig was still missing and the search party had been called off for the night. "It will resume again in the morning with a sonar boat," she wrote. "Still need prayers." Craig is still missing. The search has been called for the night. It will resume again in the morning with a sonar boat. Still need prayers. Morland posted a Tweet about the trip over the weekend, ominously foreshadowing what was to come. "In case we don't come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma. #IntoTheStorm," Morland Craig is one of the lead vocalists for country rock band Backroad Anthem. The group has also been using social media to share updates on the search for the 29-year-old. "The search has been called off for the night, bringing boat with sonar in morning," Craig's father, Randy Strickland, wrote through the band's Facebook. "A friend gave me these words! We are trying to think of a scenario where he is still alive. Hoping against the odds. We can't even stand to think about it. We are devastated. Only God & time can put us back together. Love all!" Helen, however, had the most simple message for her husband as the search restarted. "We love you Craig Michael," she

Craig and his friend went missing during a hunting trip in Oklahoma

high

medium

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/natalie-cole-dies-daughter-nat-king-cole

http://web.archive.org/web/20160102180746id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/natalie-cole-dies-daughter-nat-king-cole

Natalie Cole Dies at 65 : People.com

01/01/2016 AT 12:05 AM EST Iconic R&B and jazz star Natalie Cole has died at the age of 65. The Grammy winner, the daughter of the late jazz legend Nat King Cole and singer Maria Hawkins Cole, died of complications from an ongoing health condition at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Dec. 31, according to the "Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived ... with dignity, strength and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever," read a statement from her son Robert Yancy and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole, the AP reports. The singer, whose hits include "This Will Be," "Unforgettable" and "Inseparable," had canceled several tour dates in late December, as well as a February concert. Reverend Jesse Jackson took to Twitter on New Year's Day to pay tribute to the late singer. #NatalieCole, sister beloved & of substance and sound. May her soul rest in peace. #Inseperable pic.twitter.com/zn7DArSMcG Arsenio Hall recalled opening for Cole when he was an up-and-coming comic. In college, I named my bass guitar Natalie! As a young stand up comic I opened for Natalie Cole. She was all that, in all ways! RIP Cole has suffered through a substantial amount of health problems. In her 2000 autobiography, , she recounted her lifelong battle with substance abuse. In 2009, she after being diagnosed with Hepatitis C in April 2008 and undergoing chemotherapy. When she came out of the life-saving surgery, she learned that her sister Cookie, who had been battling lung cancer, Four months later, Cole mounted a comeback concert, where she told the crowd, "You know, things don't always go the way we want it to. Things happen unexpectedly. You got to take the good with the bad." In 2012, Cole lost her mother, Maria, A nine-time Grammy winner, Cole was one of five children. Her debut album, 1975's "Inseparable" – which included hits "This Will Be" – earned her Grammys for best female R&B vocal performance and best new artist. That same year, Cole was arrested in Toronto, Canada, for heroin possession, which she discussed in her autobiography. , Cole released her first platinum record, , which launched her to superstar status. She entered rehab in 1983. "I've been to hell and back," she . "I have seen the edge. I have seen the dark side of life." Cole said she had begun experimenting with heroin while at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "It takes over your life. It takes over your brain. It takes over your body, and it takes over your soul," she wrote. In 2008, Cole opened up to PEOPLE about her journey. "You shouldn't have regrets. I'd say instead that I've learned a lot of lessons. Yes, I could have handled some things better. But they've also made me who I am today. I like myself so much more than I did even five years ago. I can't think of anything I wish I hadn't done, even with this hepatitis," she Cole is survived by her son, Robert Adam Yancy.

The singer died on Dec. 31 in Los Angeles due to complications from a health issue

high

medium

mixed

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/01/05/advocates-press-baker-release-funds-for-healthy-foods-initiative/eAbSiYKA2a0J4NyTEsraoK/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160106061102id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/01/05/advocates-press-baker-release-funds-for-healthy-foods-initiative/eAbSiYKA2a0J4NyTEsraoK/story.html

Advocates press Baker to release funds for healthy foods initiative

In Springfield’s Mason Square, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the state, the nearest supermarket is two miles — and multiple bus rides — away. Local nonprofits have tried for years to attract a grocery store, but companies have balked at opening in the low-income neighborhood. That’s where community leaders hope the Massachusetts Food Trust comes in. Using a nonprofit developer and money from the fund, they hope to build retail space at low cost, offer it at bargain rents, and reduce the financial risks to entice a supermarket operator to Mason Square. As an added bonus, the project could create as many as 150 jobs in a city and neighborhood that need them. There’s just one catch: the state has yet to release some $2 million authorized by the Legislature in 2014 to get the food trust up and running. The Mason Square supermarket and other food-focused projects around the state are awaiting action from the Baker administration, which last year failed to fund the program — and many other authorized projects — because of state government’s shaky finances. Public health and economic development advocates, looking to increase access to healthier foods while creating jobs in low-income communities, are pressing the administration to release the money later this year. Jon Chase for The Boston Globe Mill City Grow maintains a small urban food plot across the street from its farmers market location. “We know we have the need here in Massachusetts,” said Maddie Ribble, director of policy and communications for the Massachusetts Public Health Association. “We’re trying to make the case to the governor that it could do tremendous good.” The trust would be a fund that offers loans, grants, and technical assistance to new or growing food businesses that show potential to improve access to healthy food. The program was recommended in 2012 by the Grocery Access Task Force, a group of representatives from nonprofits, the food industry, and government agencies. Though Massachusetts is one of the wealthiest states in the country, it has fewer than one supermarket for every 10,000 people, a lower rate than all but two other states, New Jersey and Texas, according to a 2010 report by The Food Trust, a national advocacy group. If funded, the Massachusetts Food Trust would help new businesses to bring healthy food options to underserved areas in an already underserved state, Ribble said. Lower-income neighborhoods in cities like Worcester, Springfield, and Lowell are even less likely to have nearby supermarkets that offer fresh meats, vegetables, and other products. Families in these areas often rely on processed and fast-foods that are high in fat, sodium, and sugar. Research, from institutions including the national Centers for Disease Control, shows lack of access healthy foods can lead to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and related medical issues. “Right now, the unhealthy choice is the easy choice,” said Joe Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations. “It is easy to find a McDonald’s, it is easy to find a convenience store and get a bag of chips.” The Massachusetts Food Trust would also boost local economies, supporters said. In other states, similar programs have attracted an average of $10 in private investment for every $1 of public seed funding, Ribble said. In Pennsylvania, a similar program with $30 million in seed funding has supported nearly 90 new projects and created more than 5,000 jobs since 2004. In New York, the $30 million Healthy Food and Health Communities Fund has created or preserved more than 1,000 jobs since it launched in 2010, said Sajan Philip, senior loan officer for the Low Income Investment Fund, the agency that administers the program. The Massachusetts Food Trust would invest in a range of projects, from traditional supermarkets and farmers markets to food business incubators that give start-ups the space, equipment, and technical guidance to get new, locally made food products off the ground. Food hubs also have great potential, Ribble said. These central facilities aggregate the wares of small farmers and sell the produce to bigger retailers, giving local growers access to new, more profitable markets. In Mason Square, money from the Massachusetts Food Trust would help a nonprofit economic development group Develop Springfield build a retail space that can be leased to a full-service supermarket, said Jessica Collins, executive director of Springfield public health organization Partners for a Healthier Community In Lowell, Mill City Grows, a nonprofit that promotes healthy foods in low-income areas, hopes funding from the Massachusetts Food Trust could allow it to expand its mobile farmers market — a truck loaded with local produce that stops at sites throughout the city. The operation runs five days a week, selling fresh fruits and vegetables at eight locations; with the money to buy an additional van, it could reach 14 regular sites and make school visits, said founding co-director Francey Slater. “I’m really excited about this — the potential it has to really spur growth in the healthy foods sector in Massachusetts,” she said. The money for the Massachusetts Food Trust was authorized as part of a $2.2-billion environmental bond bill. In the complex world of government budgeting, however, authorization is just a first step — once a project is authorized, the governor’s office needs to release the specified funds. Peter Lorenz, spokesman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said his agency and others will develop a capital spending plan over the next few months to determine which projects get funding in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Jon Chase for The Boston Globe Customers lined up last fall to buy fresh produce at the Mill City Grows farmers market booth in Lowell. Though Massachusetts is one of the wealthiest states in the country, it has fewer than one supermarket for every 10,000 people, a lower rate than all but New Jersey and Texas, according to a 2010 report by The Food Trust, a national advocacy group.

The Massachusetts Food Trust aims to bring supermarkets to ‘food deserts’ and create jobs in low income neighborhoods.

high

medium

mixed

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160105-inside-faraday-futures-ffzero1

http://web.archive.org/web/20160108050551id_/http://www.bbc.com:80/autos/story/20160105-inside-faraday-futures-ffzero1

Inside Faraday Future's amazing FFZERO1

Of all the cars that might've come from electric-vehicle startup (and presumed Tesla rival) Faraday Future, a single-seat racecar with 1,000 horsepower may be the most surprising. The company, which is on track to break ground for a billion-dollar factory in North Las Vegas, Nevada, fittingly chose the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show to pull the wraps off the FFZERO1 Concept, a wholly outlandish — but wildly compelling — battery powered hypercar. This isn't the company's first production model, but it is a dazzling showcase of the technology — and the philosophy — that will define Faraday's future offerings. If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

After months of teasing, the billion-dollar US-based startup has finally shared its vision for the future of the electric car: a 1,000-horsepower single-seat racer.

low

low

abstractive

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160108-chinese-gourmands-growing-love-of-cheese

http://web.archive.org/web/20160108115307id_/http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160108-chinese-gourmands-growing-love-of-cheese

Chinese gourmands' growing love of cheese

Ever since Sihan Zhou tried cheese for the first time she’s been captivated by its flavour and texture and on the hunt for more. Her first taste was at the age of seven when she ate a Hawaiian pizza with her family at a recently opened Pizza Hut restaurant in Beijing. The cheese topping was unlike anything else she had eaten and she was instantly hooked. “It’s special because in China we don’t have something like that,” said Zhou, a 20 year old student of math and finance at Wuhan University. “When we go to eat Western food we try to order something that is made of cheese.” While Zhou doesn’t cook often in her dorm in Wuhan, a city in China’s central Hubei province, when she’s home on winter and summer break she likes to explore recipes that incorporate cheese. “Mozzarella is my favourite,” she said, adding that she and her friends love to see the gooey strings when the cheese is hot. The country's bourgeoning wine sales have also helped cheese's popularity. But it's not just China's foodies like Zhou who are discovering the deliciousness that is fromage. There's an increased appetite for dairy products, driven by flourishing international tastes amongst Chinese consumers, many of whom now travel and study abroad. The expansion of Western-style fast-food chains and restaurants has also put cheese on the menu. And, the country's bourgeoning wine sales have helped cheese's popularity as gourmands learn the two pair well together. A slice of the market Cheese sales in China rose by 20% in 2015 to 3.5bn yuan (about $540m), compared with a year earlier, and average unit prices increased 3%, according to market research firm Euromonitor International. Most of China’s cheese is imported from New Zealand and Australia and appetites for packaged cheese — cheddar, Gouda and the like — have grown the fastest. Like Zhou, many Chinese first discover cheese in Western restaurants and then want to experiment with it in their kitchens at home. The country’s younger generation is driving much of the cheese trend. The country’s younger generation is driving much of the cheese trend. Many Asians are lactose-intolerant, but younger, more affluent couples and their children are exposed to — and can afford to try — Western foods, contributing to a slight shift in diet. While those suffering from lactose intolerance have difficulty digesting fresh milk, they can often eat dairy products like cheese and yogurt without discomfort as the fermentation process breaks down the lactose in milk. Children’s cheese products, such as string cheese, which are marketed as high in calcium and protein have also helped boost growth, market researchers say. And, with food scandals eroding trust in some Chinese domestic brands, many consumers have become accustomed to imported milk powder and other items from abroad that they view as safer. Packaged, block cheese accounts for more than 50% of the market. Sliced cheese, for burgers and sandwiches, is the second most popular segment, followed by grated and cream cheese, respectively, according to research firm Mintel Group. More “fragrant” types of cheese, such as Roquefort and Gorgonzola, still remain niche products in China. With so many cheeses being imported, prices for hunks of basic cheddar and Parmesan can add up quickly. A 250g block of Dutch Farms cheddar at a foreign import market costs about 35 yuan ($5.40) in Beijing, while artisanal cheeses can cost upwards of 100 yuan ($15.43). Zhou said she often buys her cheese online, where prices can be nearly 50% less than in the grocery store. To ensure she’s buying a quality product, she purchases from an online seller who has been in business for several years and reads many reviews before making a selection. Liu Yang is one of a handful of domestic cheese makers trying to tap the Chinese marketplace. After learning how to make cheese in France, Liu spotted a gap in the Chinese market. So, he imported equipment from France and started his Beijing-based company, Le Fromager de Pekin, in 2009. When I opened my cheese shop in the beginning about 95% of my clients were foreigners living in Beijing. Today, I have more Chinese customers than foreign customers. His cheeses are gaining traction among Chinese and foreigners alike, who can order online or pick them up in several stores in the capital. Products range from a “Beijing Grey” camembert with black pepper crust to a Tomme, which is a type of cheese made in the French Alps and Switzerland. His cheese is also served at a handful of restaurants in the city. "When I opened my cheese shop in the beginning about 95% of my clients were foreigners living in Beijing," Mr. Liu said. "Today, I have more Chinese customers than foreign customers." While the cheese market in China is expected to continue growing, cheese might be destined to remain a niche product outside of the mainstream Chinese diet. “Cheese is more used to make western-style food, which is not a part of a typical Chinese diet,” Mintel researchers noted in a recent report, adding that cheese isn’t even a mainstream snack and that it’s difficult to change local consumer eating habits. But for Isabella Chen, a public relations staffer in Shanghai, cheese became a daily staple for her when she studied abroad in Marseille in 2013. “I bought one ham and cheese and I was totally shocked that it tasted so great,” she said. Cheese might be destined to remain a niche product outside of the mainstream Chinese diet. Unsurprisingly, when she came back to Shanghai last year she found it difficult to find good cheese unless she went to a fancy restaurant or imported food market. She recently ate at a Spanish restaurant, where a small plate of cheese with only five or six pieces cost 180 yuan (about $28). At home, she only buys cheese when friends come and visit. As for her preference, “I was afraid of blue cheese at the beginning, but now it’s my favourite one,” Chen said. “Some say it’s stinky. I say it’s just a strong, pure flavour and that’s why we love cheese.” To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

The Middle Kingdom is growing hungry for this dairy product. But will the niche ever become mainstream?

high

low

abstractive

http://www.nytimes.com/1862/11/04/news/the-murder-in-the-bowery-arrest-of-the-perpetrator-verdict-of-the-coroner-s-jury.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160108183909id_/http://www.nytimes.com/1862/11/04/news/the-murder-in-the-bowery-arrest-of-the-perpetrator-verdict-of-the-coroner-s-jury.html

The Murder in the Bowery.

drinking and carousing at the public place known as the "One Mile House," kept by PATRICK O'BRIEN, on the corner of the Bowery and Rivington-street; that between 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening the parties became involved in a dispute, during which one WM. C. WHITTLESEY, drew a revolver and fired two shots in quick succession. One of these shots took effect in the right breast of the deceased, killing him almost instantly. As soon as the shots were fired all the parties fled from the house, in every direction. Capt. DAVIS, of the Tenth Precinct, with officers MCCLOUD and MCCORD were promptly on hand, and after a long and diligent search, the accused was found at a disreputable house in Canal-street, near Elizabeth. He was taken to the Station-house and locked up. The coroner's jury rendered the following verdict: "That deceased came to his death by a wound from a pistol at the hands of the prisoner, WM. C. WHITTLESEY." In answer to the usual questions by the Coroner, the prisoner stated that he was 29 years of age, a native of Connecticut, and resided at No. 88 Elizabeth-street. He said the occurrence was entirely accidental on his part, he not having the most remote intention of injuring any one at the time.

Coroner COLLIN held and inquest Saturday, at the Tenth Precinct Station-house, upon the body of the unknown man who was shot in an affray in a public house in the Bowery on Saturday evening, an account of which we published in the Truss of yesterday. There was a large amount of testimony taken, all tending to show that the deceased, the prisoner, and some six or eight other parties were...

low

low

abstractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/01/07/album-review-david-bowie-blackstar/w9Zk4ZAYBWUb2T8O0Ed7YO/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160111165109id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/music/2016/01/07/album-review-david-bowie-blackstar/w9Zk4ZAYBWUb2T8O0Ed7YO/story.html?

Album review: David Bowie, ‘Blackstar’

David Bowie’s wide-ranging “Blackstar” is the rocker’s 25th studio album. David Bowie turns 69 on Jan. 8, and has chosen to celebrate by releasing his 25th studio album, whose title is a small black star and is pronounced “Blackstar.” Ardent fans know better than to have pre-conceived notions about what the British rock icon might be up to. They’ve realized it’s far wiser simply to let Bowie wander where he will, and to follow along and enjoy the ride — whether to inner or outer space, or somewhere right here among us earthlings. And “Blackstar” is indeed a ride: intentionally bumpy and appealingly smooth, cacophonous and melodious, noisy and joyous, quiet and bleak, and touching on just about every mood and sound in between, from jazzy to industrial and electronic. The album is dense and intriguing, neither a straightforward rock record nor so wildly experimental as to be inaccessible. It encourages spending meaningful time to digest all the sounds and ideas at work. And even then, the non-linearity of the lyrics may never fully emerge from the gauzy cloud of moondust obscuring any literal interpretation — and that is totally groovy. Bowie enlisted frequent and longtime lieutenant Tony Visconti to co-produce, and a group of disparate and talented collaborators to help realize his musical intricacies and oddities. Some songs are immediately compelling, like the clattering “Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” and the skittering, rubbery “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” a new version of a cut from his 2014 compilation “Nothing Has Changed.” Others take time to set in, like the epic title track, which transitions from woozy and muffled to spirited and jubilant. Bowie deploys all the weapons in his vocal arsenal, from his brooding low register to a whimsical falsetto, setting a specific mood for each track. The album’s secret weapon is saxophonist Donnie McCaslin, an integral voice in the proceedings whether silken or skronky. Members of McCaslin’s quartet contribute muscularly. Bowie ends the album with the lovely, surging flourish of “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” his voice cresting an elegant wave of synth washes and strings. Maybe he can’t give everything away, but he certainly put his all into “Blackstar.”

Marking his 69th birthday, British art-rock icon David Bowie offers a new album with an enigmatic title and an obstinate refusal to be predictable.

medium

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2010/12/25/apple-tops-amazons-most-gifted-lists/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160118164547id_/http://fortune.com/2010/12/25/apple-tops-amazons-most-gifted-lists/

Apple tops Amazon’s ‘most-gifted’ lists

Cupertino scores a clean sweep in tablets, laptops, desktops and portable music players It looks like another Apple AAPL Christmas on Amazon.com. As of Dec. 25, its products topped the most-gifted items in all the categories in which it competed except television and video products (where Roku reigned supreme). There were some discrepancies, however, between what people wished for and what was purchased for them. Apple TV, for example, was the No. 1 “Most Wished For” product in TV and video and Roku No. 2. And although Macs were the top four most-wished for desktop computers, they took only the top two spots in the Most Gifted and Bestseller lists. The Kindle e-reader still tops Amazon’s AAPL Bestseller in Electronics (all categories) list, as it has all holiday season. [Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Cupertino scores a clean sweep in tablets, laptops, desktops and portable music players It looks like another Apple Christmas on Amazon.com. As of Dec. 25, its products topped the most-gifted items in all the categories in which it competed except television and video products (where Roku reigned supreme). There were some discrepancies, however, between what…

low

high

extractive

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/49ers-Chip-Kelly-smart-funny-and-not-boring-6772339.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20160121015457id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/49ers-Chip-Kelly-smart-funny-and-not-boring-6772339.php

49ers Chip Kelly: smart, funny and not boring

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Chip Kelly is introduced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Chip Kelly is introduced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. 49ers Chip Kelly: smart, funny and not boring There may be trouble ahead, friction in the future. But Day One of the Chip Kelly era began quite well for the 49ers. In a startling contrast to their introduction of Jim Tomsula a year ago, the 49ers introduced a coach who seemed in control and equipped to handle the challenges ahead. Granted, that’s a very low bar to clear (you should be able do better than one of the worst introductions of all time), but it still was reason for optimism. Kelly was, as promised, smart, acerbic and funny. He said all the right things. He’s got a golden retriever - one who commandeered Trent Baalke’s lap during the interview and shed all over the general manager. How can you not love that? He even had a funny explanation for the six day delay between hiring and press conference. He had no clothes with him during the interview and needed to fly home to get a suit (and celebrate his father’s birthday). “Well, I had clothes on,” he said. “Let’s not get weird.” Wednesday’s press conference was Kelly’s showcase - he was not there to be a puppet for Baalke or Jed York. He continued to answer questions when he was directed to finish up. In truth, from first impressions, it appears that Kelly is going to be the smartest guy in the building. Does that mean this will be a success? Not necessarily. He was probably the smartest guy in the Eagles building and that ended poorly. Kelly said he’d learned alot from the first firing of his career, which occurred about three weeks ago. When asked if he was doing a self-evaluation Kelly said, “it’s more of an autopsy.” And, no, he didn’t expect to get fired. “It’s all part of growing up,” he said. But Kelly said many of the same things on Wednesday that he said when he was hired by the Eagles three years ago. Just as the 49ers said many of the same things they were saying on the day they hired Jim Harbaugh in 2011. The parallels between Harbaugh and Kelly are too strong to ignore. Both wowed in the college game. Both were the hottest tickets in coaching when they came to the NFL. Both won big with an inherited roster, though Harbaugh had considerably more success. Both rubbed their bosses the wrong way. And both were fired. “I think there will be a partnership between Chip and Trent,” said York who once promised a smooth partnership between Harbaugh and Baalke. “We’re making sure we build this thing the right way.” Kelly admitted to being a “big Jim Harbaugh fan.” “One thing all coaches know is that we rent, “ Kelly said. “If you go into a situation worrying about if you’re going to be there the next year and year after then you’re probably not going to be.” There’s a lot ahead. Kelly didn’t tip his hand on roster decisions or quarterback preferences. There are decisions to be made, disagreements to be had. But the 49ers are suddenly far more intriguing than they’ve been at any time in the past year, when they were not only a bad football team but a boring one. Kelly has never been accused of being boring. The evidence was there in his introduction. Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @annkillion

In a startling contrast to their introduction of Jim Tomsula a year ago, the 49ers introduced a coach who seemed in control and equipped to handle the challenges ahead. Granted, that’s a very low bar to clear (you should be able do better than one of the worst introductions of all time), but it still was reason for optimism. Wednesday’s press conference was Kelly’s showcase - he was not there to be a puppet for Baalke or Jed York. In truth, from first impressions, it appears that Kelly is going to be the smartest guy in the building. Kelly said he’d learned alot from the first firing of his career, which occurred about three weeks ago. Both were the hottest tickets in coaching when they came to the NFL. Both won big with an inherited roster, though Harbaugh had considerably more success. “I think there will be a partnership between Chip and Trent,” said York who once promised a smooth partnership between Harbaugh and Baalke. Kelly didn’t tip his hand on roster decisions or quarterback preferences. [...] the 49ers are suddenly far more intriguing than they’ve been at any time in the past year, when they were not only a bad football team but a boring one.

low

high

extractive

http://www.people.com/article/nathaniel-marston-mom-remembers-late-one-life-live-star

http://web.archive.org/web/20160124220322id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/nathaniel-marston-mom-remembers-late-one-life-live-star

One Life to Live Star's Mom Remembers Actor : People.com

With his chiseled jaw and easy smile, it's no wonder found fame as Dr. Michael McBain on . But his friends, family and the fans who he'd stop in the middle of New York City's bustling streets to chat with remember him more for the warm way he'd greet them: a bear hug. About 100 mourners gathered during Marston's memorial Saturday in N.Y.C's grand Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, and those who gave eulogies all remembered how he'd envelop everyone he met in his arms. Speaking to PEOPLE in a pew after the service, his mother Elizabeth Jackson explains that after the soap star died, doctors revealed his heart was reversed, resting in the right side of his body because of a rare condition called situs inversus. "So when he was hugging you, it was directly heart-to-heart," she says. "That's why his hugs were so special." Marston died Nov. 11 after spending nearly two weeks hooked up to a ventilator in the hospital and in an Oct. 30 car accident. He was 40 years old but looking for a fresh start in Hollywood after kicking the drug habit that had ground his acting career to a halt. Despite rumors at the time of the wreck, police say Marston was sober that night and likely fell asleep at the wheel. "He struggled, as many of us do, with demons," says Jackson of her son, who moved out to Nevada to live near her after completing rehab in N.Y.C. "He was struggling with drug addiction, and so he went into a treatment program, and he came out to me, and he was doing really good. The moment of redemption for Nat happened just before he died." A single mother, Jackson gave birth to Marston when she was just 16 years old and trying to make it as an actress herself. "It was hard, but he was always the reason I got out of bed in the morning, and he was grateful for every little thing," she tells PEOPLE. "And he was smart beyond comprehension. He had like a 160 IQ, he spoke four languages. He spoke Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English fluently. He had a photographic memory … he was just bright and he was kind and he was a good little boy." Nathaniel Marston and Elizabeth Jackson "I did the best I could do," she continues. "I was a little kid. I was a baby. He was my best friend, he was my pal, he was my buddy. He taught me everything I know about love, responsibility, kindness, compassion, empathy." Born in Connecticut but raised in Hawaii, California and New York, Marston was discovered while working at a Beverly Hills bakery and landed a role on in 1998, earning a Soap Opera Digest Award nod. He joined in 2001 as Al Holden and, following outcry over the character's death, began playing Michael through 2007. , who played Marcie on the show, was an especially electrifying storyline. At the memorial, Brier sang "Hallelujah," his favorite song, as the clergy led a processional of candles. Those who worked with him say his stardom never changed him. One fan wrote to Jackson after her son's death with a heartwarming story from nine years ago. "My wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and it had taken a toll on us, especially my daughter, Kayla. As a distraction getaway I arranged a visit and walk-on role for my daughter on ," he told her. "While there we met Nathaniel, who was so kind to all of us and spoke to Kayla at length about acting. None of the actors knew we were personal friends of the producers. Many of them just looked down on us as 'extras,' but your son was sweet, kind and personable. We have always used him as an example of how you treat someone no matter who they are, to our children." Beloved on set, Marston had two highly publicized brushes with the law. In 1999, he was arrested for attacking an ATM machine in Manhattan. Jackson defends her son, saying he lost his temper because he had a cab waiting outside to take him to a job and the machine ate his card. "He was a generous, kind, sweet, gentle soul who was larger than life – and had a big temper, he got in trouble," she says. "Who doesn't?" Jackson says Marston returned to the bank and apologized – and that's when police took him into custody. "But nobody tells that story," she says. "It doesn't sell newspapers." Then, in 2007, Marston was let go from after a brawl with three taxi drivers. A court found him guilty of resisting arrest in 2010. His mother says she believes the substance abuse began in 2003, when he fell from a roof, smashing his heel and breaking his back. He began taking prescription medications. "I think the hardest thing for Nathaniel was that he didn't know how much he was loved," Jackson says now. "I think because he was an empath that he felt other people's pain, and that caused him pain. ... I think he felt people's spiritual pain, and I think that's where his demons came from." But inside the resplendent cathedral, it was clear how much he is missed – by the crew and costars from his soaps who recalled his humility and friendliness, and by the diehard fans who he invited to annual mixers well after he left their television screens. In 2012, Marston moved to Gerlach, Nevada, after getting clean and found new life in the rural community where Jackson also lives. He decided to give back, spending time with children at the local Gerlach School where there is now a scholarship set up in his name. "He played with them, he signed their homework folders, he taught them how to brush their teeth and floss, he took them swimming," Jackson says of his relationship with the students. "He inspired them to believe that they could do or be anything they wanted because Nat was a famous actor, and he made so little of that all the time." Josh, the father of a pupil named Lokai, wrote a letter to Jacskon about Marston's impact. "Your son was one of the greatest beings that I have had the pleasure and opportunity to know," he said. "Nate always took time for kids, was always patient with them, and simply enjoyed their presence and honored them by playing with them or teaching them every time he had the chance. It is a trait that I truly respect and seek in others whom I wish to surround myself with. For him it was completely natural, and this is true beauty. Your loss is the entire world's loss, but simultaneously we were all blessed to have had the opportunity to feel his presence while he walked this planet." One Christmas, Marston cooked and delivered 100 dinners and handmade cards to everyone in the small town, including the chef at Gerlach's only restaurant. In the winters, Marston fed cows on a nearby ranch, and the day of his accident, he excitedly told his mom about a new labor opportunity in the Smoke Creek Desert. He promised her he'd save money for the both of them and vowed to return to show business and audition for TV. "He was on track, and he was ready to roll," Jackson says. "He was ready to go back to pilot season. He said, 'Mom, I'm gonna buy you a ranch and we're going to raise the most beautiful cattle that you've seen in your life. I finally found something that I love to do beside acting.' " "And he said, 'and we're going to get some foster kids and we're gonna mentor them, and we're gonna pay it forward because Father God has been so good to us,' " she adds, crying. "And he goes, 'I finally get it.' " The day of the crash, Marston was supposed to go to his mom's house for tea. She recalls being angry and worried when he flaked – until the phone rang. "He said, 'Hi Mommy. I'm calling you to tell you that I love you and I know how much it hurts you when I just blow you off.' He said, 'I don't ever want to hurt you again,' " Jackson says, tearing up. "And he said, 'So I'm calling to tell you that I love you and I'm just too tired to come drink tea right now.' And we talked for an hour … and I told him how proud I was. I said, 'You see how this is? Nobody's mad … no hard feelings … I am so proud of you.' I said, 'Nat, you have turned a corner. You've been sober, and you're ready to go back and get your career on track, and I can't wait to see you on Sunday so we can have our family dinner.' " That meal never happened. While driving to help a friend in need, Marston's pickup truck flipped. He was not wearing a seat belt and flew through the windshield, according to Nevada Highway Patrol. He broke his shoulder, ribs and five vertebrae. Jackson actually drove past the wreckage on her way back home through Reno, but without her cell phone, she had no idea her child was the one injured. "I saw all this stuff out in the desert and I thought, that looks like Nat's sleeping bag," she says. "I was like no, and I got home and there were these two calls. It was horrible." Though her first instinct was to suspect her son had relapsed, Jackson says she quickly realized "the rumor mill" was wrong. "He was sober," she says. "The police said he was sober, and I went to talk to the officers before I left to come [to New York], and they were like, 'No, your son was sober.' And they tested him in the hospital. He was sober." At the hospital, Jackson learned her son was dying. He needed a machine to breathe and, even if he recovered, faced life "He wanted to fight," Jackson says, but a surgery to relieve pressure on his brain and procedure to try to stabilize him both failed. Jackson explained the dire circumstances to Marston, who was mentally cogent but could barely talk or move. "I said, 'Listen son, you've got a ventilator in your throat, and that's how you're breathing. I need you to listen to me like you're never listened to me in your life. Do you understand? You know you're in the hospital, right?' And he said, 'Yes.' And I said, 'Honey, how can you go through a windshield and be thrown 100 ft. and not have a mark on your body? You even still have your teeth.' And you know what he did, he went like this," she said, smiling slightly. "I said, 'I'm not lying to you, you've still got those teeth. You're as Hollywood handsome as the day you were born, pal, but I need you to listen to me.' And I told him about the two operations, and tears started streaming down his face." After a fight for power of attorney with Marston's estranged wife – who Jackson says left him after he was fired from in 2007 – and the hospital, she bid him goodbye and honored his wishes by removing the ventilator Nov. 11. Less than 20 minutes later, he was gone. "It was a very sad story," she says, "and I'm grateful I had those two weeks with him, that I could tell him how much I loved him and ask for any forgiveness." During his health crisis, Jackson posted regular updates on his condition to her Facebook page, finding solace in the prayers that poured in. "He touched so many – I had no idea," she says. "I knew he was loved, but he hasn't worked on since 2007 and then all these people took that journey with me on Facebook." The N.Y.C. service was the last of three memorials, all open to fans. Producer Vincent De Paul gave a remembrance during the memorial, recalling how he met Marston on the set of and worked with him on what would be his final project, the 2011 movie Nathaniel Marston (left) and Vincent De Paul "We all mourn the loss of a great actor, friend, and family member," he says in a statement to PEOPLE. "He was always so encouraging to his cast and crew on set. What a liked man who had such a deep and kind compassion to all that he encountered. ... He could memorize his lines so easily within minutes. Everything about him was on a trajectory of a Hollywood star." As for Jackson, she is comforted by her younger son, Ikaika. After posting a Facebook status about a baby boy Marston had fathered, she's reconnecting with her grandchild. ("I'm in contact with him again," she says simply, hoping to protect him.) And the grieving mother believes that the rainbows that have colored the sky throughout her travels since Marston's death are his way of saying he'll always be with her. "We don't have a lot of time on this earth and we never know when our last moments are going to happen. Nathaniel was always kind to people," she says of his legacy. "Take that time to be kind to all the people that you love."

Though he struggled with addiction in the past, Nathaniel Marston was sober and ready to re-enter Hollywood when he died from a tragic car wreck

high

medium

abstractive

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/10/latin-america-in-construction-moma-exhibit-review/amp

http://web.archive.org/web/20160124223629id_/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/10/latin-america-in-construction-moma-exhibit-review/amp

Latin America in Construction at MoMA review - a view on utopian dreams realized

Sixty years ago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened a landmark exhibition: Latin American Architecture Since 1945. That survey of the region’s buildings was part of a larger, Rockefeller-backed advocacy of Latin American culture at the museum during the first years of the cold war – but since then, MoMA has never again mounted a full-scale study of the region’s architecture. Now, at last, we have a successor. Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980, a thumping new exhibition four years in the making, features more than 500 objects from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and six other countries – and it confirms that nowhere on the planet witnessed as much experimentation in building arts and urban design. Where the 1955 show relied solely on photographs, this one includes models, films, drawings, blueprints and all sorts of ephemera. Give yourself several hours, or several days, to see it all. Latin Americans flocked to cities in the years after the second world war, and the region’s governments saw urban policy as part of a larger project of national redevelopment. So did the cold war superpowers. The Kennedy administration provided huge aid for housing in Uruguay and Venezuela, while the Soviet Union assisted projects in Cuba, as well as Chile before the 1973 coup d’état. “Cinquenta anos em cinco” – 50 years in five, the slogan of the reforming Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek – could describe whole waves of progress across Latin America: a leap forward in industrialization and urbanization, to accompany a wholesale transformation in national character. In the first gallery here, seven simultaneous film loops feature archival footage of the breakneck modernization of the region’s cities. Mexico City, sprawling to infinity under the soaring Torre Latinoamericana; swinging Havana, thronged by American tourists before the fall of Batista; and above all São Paulo, transformed from a regional capital into the largest city in the hemisphere – these cities, more than anywhere in the United States and western Europe, were the testing grounds for architects’ utopian dreams. Related: Oscar Niemeyer: the man behind the monuments The show blows up our expectations of Latin American architecture, which is too often stereotyped as Bauhaus-on-the-beach. Hulking brutalist projects get their due, in the form of a large-scale model of the Banco de Londres y América del Sur, a concrete temple in Buenos Aires, or else an unrealized Machu Picchu hotel that would have brought the space age to the Peruvian highlands. Other architects turned to folkloric traditions, and fused International Style buildings with decorative schemes derived from pre-Columbian civilizations. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, now the largest university in Latin America, was the work of a team of dozens of architects, notably Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, whose sometimes severe towers of concrete and glass are covered in vibrant murals incorporating both Spanish and Aztec motifs. Like other universities in the region – in Bogotá, in Rio, in Caracas – UNAM was conceived not as a bunch of individual buildings, but as a modernist mini-city in its own right, a laboratory for the grander projects to come. And the grandest of those was Brasília – one of the great achievements of the 20th century, though not the most liveable. The purpose-built Brazilian capital, inaugurated in 1960, rightly sits at the heart of this show, evoked through dozens of sketches, maquettes, construction documentation, aerial photography and contemporary images of the city. Black-and-white photographs of 1960 by Ilsa Hofman abstract the capital’s Praça dos Três Poderes into people-free abstractions of shape and line. But Brasília is not just a symbol; it’s a city of nearly 3 million citizens, who have had to transform the capital’s superblocks for their own purposes. Not all modern architecture in Brazil, or indeed in Latin America, was a state project. Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian-born architect, designer and editor, may be less famous than Oscar Niemeyer and the other modernists who brought Brazilian architecture to the world’s attention, but her unadorned, socially engaged buildings offer a rare model of how the building arts can improve the lives of everyday people. (She is, I might as well tell you, my favorite architect of the 20th century – and a retrospective of her work opens at the Graham Foundation in Chicago later this month.) Bo Bardi’s designs in São Paulo, notably her glass and concrete museum suspended above Avenida Paulista, dominate the presentation here. But even more than Brazilian-born architects, Bo Bardi devoted herself to projects in the poorer north of Brazil. Her Museu de Arte Popular, built in 1963 in Salvador, gave native Brazilian and African-Brazilian culture the attention that the country’s elite routinely denied them. Related: Lina Bo Bardi: buildings shaped by love The region’s modernizing governments of the 1950s and 1960s gave way, as the cold war wore on, to anti-democratic regimes that put paid to utopian dreams of recasting society through architecture. Latin America in Construction is a little too quiet about the dictatorships that arose, usually with American backing, from Chile to Panama, and about how architects and firms that seemed committed to democratic works were more than happy to make their peace with tyrants. Some architects went into exile; Niemeyer, for one, left Brazil for Paris after the coup of 1964. Many others stayed, with mixed fortunes. Bo Bardi turned to theater and interior design, and eventually was able to build her masterwork, the São Paulo community center SESC Pompéia, as the Brazilian military government loosened its grip. Others had little problem with the new regimes, and it shows. Toward the end of the show one comes across a model for a football stadium in Mendoza, Argentina, without much explanatory text. (One of its architects was a young Rafael Viñoly, whose Piketty-tastic 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere, with a $95m penthouse, is rising around the corner from MoMA.) The stadium was built for the 1978 World Cup – a hideous spectacle, complete with match-fixing, put on by a murderous junta and rightly called “the most obvious political manipulation suffered by sport since the Olympic Games of 1936 in Nazi Germany”. Now, it’s hardly uncommon for architects to build for monstrous regimes and then disclaim political responsibility. As the Guardian has reported, the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, designed by Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, and other celebrity architects, are being built by slaves who are dying at a rate so precipitous that the tournament will soon have a higher death toll than 9/11. Yet this show, so happy to celebrate the national ambitions of architecture in the early days, gets very shy regarding the later ones. Why? The torturers are gone; one of their Brazilian victims is now president. Surely it’s not too soon for a full reckoning of who built the torture chambers, or at least the pleasure palaces beside them. I feel slightly uncharitable making this criticism of such an ambitious and important show. But even its title (“in construction”? Still?) and its exhibition design – the galleries’ temporary white walls are unfinished, with steel and wiring exposed – give the impression that the period of utopian building in Latin America is still going on, as opposed to lying decades in the past. All utopias fail, but it’s worth acknowledging not only what these architects built, but whom they built for and what their projects have turned into. Otherwise it is far too easy to equate the grand ambition of Brasília to the grim present of Rio de Janeiro: the most beautiful city in the world, currently in the middle of an awful disfigurement at the hands of the Olympic nomenklatura. Some architects will build for anyone. Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980 is at the Museum of Modern Art, New York to 19 July

Latin America’s rapid modernization in the mid-20th century led the region’s finest architects to push boundaries. This show captures the grandeur of their vision, but unfortunately glosses over the period’s nasty bits

high

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/ellen-page-oscars-diversity-controversy

http://web.archive.org/web/20160126095910id_/http://www.people.com/article/ellen-page-oscars-diversity-controversy

Ellen Page on Oscars Diversity Controversy: 'How Could You Not Feel Angry?'

By Lindsay Kimble and Melody Chiu 01/25/2016 AT 01:00 PM EST extends far beyond just Hollywood. Joining a host of other industry elites who have about the lack of actors of color being considered for an Academy Award, Page tells PEOPLE at the that the issue "means a lot to me as an audience member and as a human being." Page, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 2008 for , designed to address that lack of diversity among its voting body, are "crucial." "It means a lot to me as someone who does this job," she explains, adding, "I think the issue is much more systemic and I hope that's what changes, hearing more diverse stories, but I feel like finally there's some steps going in the right direction." The star, who was at the annual Utah festival to promote her new drama , also issued some suggestions for the continued implementation of positive changes across Hollywood. "There needs to be more diversity behind the camera, and more people getting hired in every aspect of the business, and more support for those stories and more opportunity," she tells PEOPLE. "You look at something like , and how many actresses we were introduced to who we may not otherwise have seen because they had no opportunity." (And the connection is personal for Page, as she shares the screen with "That makes me feel like, how could you not feel angry at that, you know?" Page says. "And I hope that is what is going to continue to happen, and just as an audience member I want to go see more stories from different perspectives. We do this job, sure to entertain, but also to reflect aspects of what it means to be a human." Page also opens up about her own aspirations to get behind the camera – if she can work up the nerve, that is. "I am really liking producing to be honest," she says of her dual role for . "And when I say that, learning to do it and that's something I'm continuing to do – there are things in the pipeline, is that what people say? And I do think about someday directing, but not next week." The eventual venture "scares the s---" out of Page, who says she's continually impressed by directors. "I feel like I'm enjoying learning so much because obviously when you're a producer you're so much involved in post, you're so much involved in different components, and I feel grateful to be learning so much about that right now," she explains. "Maybe in the future, I'd love to direct."

Ellen Page opens up to PEOPLE at the Sundance Film Festival

high

low

abstractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/01/27/emd-serono-has-new-chief-one-month-after-previous-president-departure/u1dnoHdK3c9K9pTTzEZq9N/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160128090258id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/01/27/emd-serono-has-new-chief-one-month-after-previous-president-departure/u1dnoHdK3c9K9pTTzEZq9N/story.html

EMD Serono has a new chief, one month after previous president’s departure

That sure didn’t take long. Merck KGaA has promoted Gary Zieziula to run EMD Serono, the German company’s North American biotech business, just one month after the previous president was recruited away by another drug company. Rockland-based EMD Serono’s top job opened up last month when Ariad Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge hired Paris Panayiotopoulos, EMD Serono’s previous president, to be Ariad’s new chief executive as of Jan. 1. That’s when Ariad’s founder, Harvey Berger, stepped down after facing pressure earlier in the year from activist investors who wanted new leadership at the Cambridge firm. Zieziula, then EMD Serono’s chief commercial officer, was put in charge on an interim basis immediately. On Wednesday, the company confirmed that the “interim” would be dropped from Zieziula’s job description. He joined the company in 2014, and has more than 30 years of experience in the drug industry. Zieziula, who is 61, will report to Simon Sturge, the chief operating officer of Merck’s healthcare business. EMD Serono’s treatments include fertility and multiple sclerosis drugs, and it has been expanding its efforts in oncology in recent years. EMD Serono has roughly 1,200 employees in the US and Canada, most of them in Massachusetts.

Merck KGaA has promoted Gary Zieziula to run EMD Serono, the German company’s North American biotech business based in Rockland, just one month after the previous president was recruited away by another drug company.

low

high

extractive

http://time.com/28166/malaysia-air-malware-hoax-flight-mh370/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160128123628id_/http://time.com/28166/malaysia-air-malware-hoax-flight-mh370/

Missing Malaysian Flight Scam Spreading on Social Media

Don’t believe the web-hype. Fake links promising unsuspecting web surfers “shocking” videos of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 are scams. Video links are spreading on Twitter and Facebook with titles suggesting that the flight was discovered and that handfuls of passengers have been saved, CNET reports. How to spot a bad link? Sample hoax links could include headlines such as these: “Shocking Video: Malaysian Airlines missing flight MH370 found at sea” “Malaysian Airplane MH370 Already Found. Shocking Video Release Today by CNN” “Plane has been spotted somewhere near Bermuda triangle. Shocking videos released today. CNN news” The Facebook links require those who click to complete a survey similar to ones frequently found on the site that request access to profiles. But in this case the information users provide goes to hackers. CBS News reports the company has removed the links; phishing scams and spam violate the sites community standards.

Facebook and Twitter links promising video of the missing plane are bogus

low

medium

abstractive

http://time.com/28625/woman-stabs-husband-worshipping-the-nascar-race/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160128132306id_/http://time.com/28625/woman-stabs-husband-worshipping-the-nascar-race/

Woman Allegedly Stabs Husband for 'Worshipping the NASCAR Race'

A Tennessee woman allegedly crashed a car into a church, called her husband, and then proceeded to stab her husband in the chest with a kitchen knife Sunday. Why? According to police, Stephanie Hamman was angry at her husband for “worshiping the NASCAR race at Bristol.” Hamman was arrested for attempted first-degree murder and felony vandalism. According to police, Hamman said that God wanted her in the church — at which she falsely claimed she was baptized that day. Hamman, who talked to police about her love of pot, reportedly told her husband, “The devil is in me,” before stabbing him. He was in a stable condition as of Monday.

Stephanie Hamman was arrested in Tennessee for attempted first-degree murder and felony vandalism

low

high

mixed

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/11875411/Shells-dividend-gusher-can-survive-a-prolonged-siege.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160201185303id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/11875411/Shells-dividend-gusher-can-survive-a-prolonged-siege.html

Shell's dividend gusher can survive a prolonged siege

Is the Shell CEO on firm ground? There are few companies as financially robust as Shell. Unlike many of the mining finance houses hit hard by the collapse in commodity prices, it is relatively lightly geared, with net debt of less than 13 per cent of equity. What’s more, the money it saved on cutting back on capital spending last year was alone virtually enough to cover the entire cost of the dividend. Shell certainly has the capacity to withstand a prolonged siege of sub-$50 a barrel oil prices, and keep paying the dividend regardless. In this sense, it is probably better placed than any of the other oil majors, all of which are on similar yields. If it does eventually cave, it will almost certainly be the last to do so. Yet there is also only so far you can slash spending to finance the dividend before the company deprives itself of a long term future, and the dividend has to be chopped any way. Gearing looks low, but it would become unbearably high if the "stranded assets" brigade get their way, and for environmental reasons, big fossil fuel producers were forced to leave it in the ground. A consistently low oil price would have much the same effect, making it uneconomic to develop some proven reserves. Think back to Lloyds Bank, which for years paid a dividend many believed to be unaffordable. If nothing else, Lloyds proved that the unsustainable can be sustained an awfully long time before it stops. Then along came the banking crisis, and the rest is history. The dividend was indeed unsustainable. Pension funds can only pray that Shell is different, for as things stand, it accounts for more than 8 per cent of all dividends paid in the UK. Shell is the dividend gusher we can ill afford to lose. To read the rest of Jeremy Warner's column, click here and here

Analysts worry that Shell's dividend, a corner stone of pension fund returns, is under threat.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/ariel-winter-boyfriend-laurent-claude-gaudette-step-out-date-night

http://web.archive.org/web/20160203220120id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/ariel-winter-boyfriend-laurent-claude-gaudette-step-out-date-night

Modern Family Staar and Boyfriend Laurent Claude Gaudette Step Out : People.com

02/01/2016 AT 10:20 AM EST stepped out for date night at celebrity hot spot The Nice Guy in Los Angeles on Sunday. Winter, 18, stunned in high-waisted white shorts, a plunging red top and a black lace bralette that matched her lacy Louboutin pumps. Laurent Claude Gaudette and Ariel Winter Photographer Group / Splash News star and Gaudette have been , though they seemingly split for a brief period in December when Winter . ("Start of a new week, start of a new chapter #dancinglikebeyoncemood," she captioned a photo from 's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" video.) But the couple celebrated Winter's 18th birthday together last week. "Had the pleasure of spending the day with this beautiful and perfect birthday girl," Gaudette wrote on on Thursday. "Happy Birthday, love you!" On Sunday, Gaudette also shared a series of photo booth pictures of the two from Winter's birthday bash.

Ariel Winter and her boyfriend, both 18, are back together after apparently splitting briefly in December

low

low

abstractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-dance/2016/01/28/the-ticket-theater/I4wJztIjKPCCIqdL9PIirJ/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160204194917id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/theater-dance/2016/01/28/the-ticket-theater/I4wJztIjKPCCIqdL9PIirJ/story.html

The Ticket: Theater

VIOLET Boston Conservatory grad Alison McCartan shines as a young North Carolina woman who takes a bus journey across the South in 1964, clinging to the conviction that a TV preacher can heal her disfigured face. Director Paul Daigneault deftly pulls together the disparate pieces of this idiosyncratic musical. Through Feb. 6. SpeakEasy Stage Company at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, www.speakeasystage.com DISGRACED Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-winning drama about a Pakistani-American attorney who has repudiated his Islamic faith plunges right into the choppy currents of contemporary discourse. Akhtar finds tragedy in the dilemma of a man locked in an unwinnable war with himself, his heritage, and the assumptions the wider world makes about him. Through Feb. 7. Huntington Theatre Company in association with Long Wharf Theatre at BU Theatre, Boston. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM Leigh Barrett and Aimee Doherty are the standouts in this fine revue, though the real star is Stephen Sondheim. The nonpareil composer-lyricist is seen frequently in videotaped interviews that offer an illuminating blend of backstage anecdotes, autobiographical insights, and glimpses of his creative process. Through Feb. 21. Lyric Stage Company of Boston. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com DON AUCOIN

A guide to area productions, including “Disgraced,’’ “Violet,’’ and “Sondheim on Sondheim.’’

low

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/lena-dunham-more-modest-with-age-refinery-29

http://web.archive.org/web/20160211090310id_/http://www.people.com/article/lena-dunham-more-modest-with-age-refinery-29

Lena Dunham Says She's Becoming More Modest with Age, Nude Scenes for Girls Are Getting More Difficult

02/10/2016 AT 03:00 PM EST has done more than the occasional nude scene – but says stripping down has actually become difficult as the seasons progress. "When I first started the show, I wasn't in a relationship, no one knew who I was, I was just kind of living for the work. So when I took my clothes off on camera, it was just an extension of that," Dunham, 29, told "It didn't occur to me that in the first season, TV critics and people on the Internet would be seeing this," she continued. "Now, for better or worse, when I take my clothes off, I already can hear the din of the reaction." But it's not just the reactions of others that have made her more wary of taking off her clothes. "Part of getting older for me has actually been feeling more modest," said the actress. "Unfortunately, Hannah Horvath doesn't always allow for that. I hope to reprise some of her nudity in this final season with vigor." Even though she isn't shying away from nude scenes now, Dunham admits she wasn't always confident in her appearance. "I didn't feel pretty in high school, or really, in college," she said. "When I started to become a public figure, part of me expected people would react to me the way boys did in high school and say rude things, but part of me also expected people to be better than that." Dunham recalled seeing the first mean comment calling her body hideous. "Part of me was like, 'I told you so,' and part of me was like, 'I can't believe this is what the adult real world is like.' " Now, the cruel comments don't faze her – for the most part. "At this point, I'm so used to it, I could see, like, 57,000 of those comments and I wouldn't feel a thing," she said. "But even the most confident woman has a day where she feels bloated and insane and she ate three cupcakes that she didn't want. When you top a day like that off with a little Google of yourself, let's just say it's not a pretty situation."

"Now, for better or worse, when I take my clothes off, I already can hear the din of the reaction," said Lena Dunham

medium

high

extractive

http://www.people.com/article/kardashian-jenner-simpson-family-vacation-photo-1994

http://web.archive.org/web/20160211090512id_/http://www.people.com/article/kardashian-jenner-simpson-family-vacation-photo-1994

Kardashian, Jenner, Simpson Family Photo from 1994 : People.com

02/10/2016 AT 05:55 PM EST It's a piece of Kardashian history. Almost 22 years ago, the Kardashian-Jenner clan and the Simpson family jetted off to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for an Easter vacation. While they were there, they snapped this massive family photo, which features a teenage Kim and Kourtney, 10-year-old Khloé and 7-year-old Rob. In it, we also get a glimpse of a very happy Kris being hugged by then-husband Caitlyn (then Bruce) Jenner. The couple had been married for three years when this photo was taken. and his ex-wife Nicole stand side by side. The trip was reportedly a chance for O.J. and Nicole to attempt to reconcile, though during the vacation, Nicole allegedly maintained that she didn't want to get back together with O.J. Two months later, she was murdered, and the "trial of the century" was beginning. Said trial is being revisited the buzzy , with Cuba Gooding Jr. in the role of O.J., and Selma Blair as Nicole's close friend Kris.

Take a step back in time

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/forever-21-plus-size-models-criticized

http://web.archive.org/web/20160212082047id_/http://www.people.com/article/forever-21-plus-size-models-criticized

Forever 21 Plus Criticized For Using 'Average' Size Models : People.com

02/11/2016 AT 01:20 PM EST When Forever 21 launched an Instagram for their plus-size clothing line on Wednesday, the company was met with criticism from their followers. Despite being a "destination for fashion sizes 0X - 3X," some shoppers felt the models featured on the would not actually fall into that size range. "No way is this a plus size girl," one user commented on of woman in high-waisted shorts and a crop top. "She is completely normal shape." "She looks average, not Plus!" wrote another. "You could really consider stop making all average women feel like a whale," wrote one commenter. "That's absolutely normal, there's no 'plus' anything in this picture." Another angry user commented: "Seriously in shocked and disgusted @forever21 this girl is not plus size she is normal if this is plus size then normal must be anorexic." Although users expressed frustration with certain models, a range of body types are featured on the account. And after receiving concern from their customers, the company's vice president of merchandising, Linda Chang, told PEOPLE they removed some of the controversial images and are "working to ensure all of our future posts accurately represent the Forever 21 Plus customer." "As a majority of the content on our social media accounts are user generated by our loyal customers, we encourage them to continue to share their own photos to provide a true representation of our clothing, embracing beauty in all shapes and sizes," Chang said in a statement. Though the company's main account just announced Forever 21 Plus on Instagram on Wednesday, the profile has been posting for three weeks. The photos have included snaps of well-known models like

Shoppers felt the models featured on the Instagram account were not plus size

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/02/14/20/29/trump-gets-bitter-in-republican-debate

http://web.archive.org/web/20160215094414id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/02/14/20/29/trump-gets-bitter-in-republican-debate

Trump shouts insults at Cruz and Bush during Republican debate

Donald Trump during the CBS News Republican debate. (AAP) Donald Trump, his face red with emotion, has lashed out at rivals Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz at the most acrimonious debate to date between Republican presidential candidates, shouting insults and casting aside a pledge to be more measured. The New York billionaire went into Saturday's debate with a head of steam, having won New Hampshire last Tuesday and holding a big lead in polls in South Carolina a week before Republicans vote on February 20. Rather than play it safe, Trump responded to every comment levelled his way, interrupted his opponents at will and called them liars repeatedly in an emotional outburst that could raise more questions about whether he has the temperament to serve in the White House. He made his most blistering attacks against Bush and his brother, former president George W Bush, who has many admirers in the Republican establishment. It was hard to declare a winner in the debate amid the constant volley of insults, not all of them from Trump. Cruz and fellow Senator Marco Rubio also took pointed jabs at each other over illegal immigration. But Trump dominated the debate conservation on Twitter with 40 per cent of the mentions, according to data from the micro-blogging platform. Trump's combative style has set the tone for much of the campaign but in recent days he had pledged to pursue a more measured, positive approach. At the debate, that strategy lasted only through his comments about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was found dead on Saturday. Trump was quickly goaded when Bush criticised Trump's past statements that Russia has a role to play in Syria. Russia, Bush said, is not attacking Islamic State militants but instead helping Syrian President Bashir Assad, who Washington wants to leave power. Trump blasted Bush's brother for launching the Iraq war in 2003 over claims, later proven false, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "A big, fat mistake," said Trump, noting that the September 11, 2001, attacks had also occurred on Bush's watch. "George Bush made a mistake," Trump thundered. "We all make mistakes. But that one was a beauty ... They lied! They said there were weapons of mass destruction. And there were none." Many in the crowd booed Trump and the Republican front-runner dismissed them as "lobbyists and special interests" supporting the former Florida governor. Bush, who has wilted in the past under assault from Trump, stood firm this time. He will campaign with his brother George on Monday in North Charleston, South Carolina. "I'm sick and tired of him going after my family," Bush said. "My dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I'm proud of what he did. "He had the gall to go after my mother," Bush said, reminding the audience that Trump had criticised his 90-year-old mother, Barbara Bush, wife of former president George HW Bush. "My mother is the strongest woman I know." "She should be running," Trump responded. Bush provoked another outburst from Trump by saying the Republican nominee should be someone "who doesn't brag, for example, that he has been bankrupt four times". "That's another lie," Trump said. "I never went bankrupt."

Donald Trump has interrupted his opponents at will and repeatedly called them liars in the most acrimonious Republican hopefuls debate yet.

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/02/18/seth-macfarlane-join-starry-boston-pops-season/Ma4qiwuLS9TxHEGu6pqyMJ/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160220085654id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/02/18/seth-macfarlane-join-starry-boston-pops-season/Ma4qiwuLS9TxHEGu6pqyMJ/story.html

Seth MacFarlane to join starry Boston Pops 2016 season

A half-century celebration for a landmark pop album, the 35th anniversary of a great American popcorn flick, a mix of big debuts and familiar faces, and first-time collaborations with dance stars and puppets: All these and more are coming in the spring 2016 Boston Pops season. Speaking by telephone from California, conductor Keith Lockhart described as a “tug-of-war” the competing imperatives of cultivating new audiences while also pleasing longtime supporters. “You can spend a lot of time looking for audiences that aren’t really going to turn out to be your core audience, in the meantime alienating the people who are your core audience,” he said. “But the synergy in that tug-of-war actually results in some exciting things.” For a vivid example, Lockhart cited Seth MacFarlane, an actor and producer best known for such bawdy fare as “Family Guy” and the “Ted” films, featured on the Pops’ opening night (May 6). “The people who might be turned off to see Seth MacFarlane with the Boston Pops will be pleasantly surprised to find out he sings American Songbook standards — and quite well, too,” Lockhart said. “The people who are big fans of ‘American Dad!’ might actually go, ‘Gee, I thought he was going to do something a lot more off-color.’ ” In addition to previously announced appearances by Brian Wilson marking the 50th anniversary of the Beach Boys LP “Pet Sounds” (June 17-18), notable debuts include Broadway star Sutton Foster (May 26-27) and pop legend Darlene Love (June 11). The orchestra will team up for the first time with alumni from “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” (May 7-8), and with the University of Connecticut’s noted Puppet Arts Program for a kid-friendly mix of light classics (May 21 and 24). Among the popular artists returning this season are singing actor Mandy Patinkin (June 7-8); Tom Scholz, guitarist of the band Boston, in a classic-rock bill ranging from Chuck Berry to U2 (May 10-11); and Pops laureate conductor John Williams leading selections from his Hollywood scores, including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (May 12-13). Lockhart will conduct more music by Williams when the Pops accompanies screenings of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (June 3-4). One more return engagement that Lockhart is particularly excited about: “Pops on Demand” concerts (May 25, June 1 and 14), in which audience members call the tunes, determining what’s played by voting on their mobile devices. “‘Pops on Demand’ was riotously successful — a fact that I haven’t stopped patting myself on the back for ever since,” Lockhart said, laughing. “We’re bringing that back, and hoping to make it a kind of semi-permanent fixture.” Tickets go on sale Feb. 22; 888-266-1200, www.bostonpops.org.

The Boston Pops’ 2016 spring season includes guest appearances by Brian Wilson, Seth MacFarlane, John Williams, and others.

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/02/21/mbta-evaluating-costly-hedges-its-debt/xfqJpv4Duuhc2NJZ0z2raN/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160222092047id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/02/21/mbta-evaluating-costly-hedges-its-debt/xfqJpv4Duuhc2NJZ0z2raN/story.html

MBTA evaluating costly hedges on its debt

The MBTA’s new financial overseers will soon decide whether to stop betting on the direction of interest rates to protect some of its debt, potentially taking a step away from an expensive hedging strategy that proved unnecessary after the financial crisis. In December, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority hired a new advisory firm to review these hedges, called interest rate swaps, replacing a longtime adviser, Swap Financial Group. The MBTA has been paying for what is essentially insurance on a chunk of bonds with payouts that would otherwise rise along with interest rates. It seemed like a prudent move after rates climbed through the late 1990s and as the housing market surged through the mid-2000s. And the transit authority was not alone: Before the crisis in 2008, Wall Street was selling such swaps to everyone from hospitals to Harvard University. But rates fell after the real estate bubble burst and global markets slumped. Rather than saving money, the transit authority spent $55 million extra for swaps from 2000 to 2005, the state auditor said in a 2008 report. Today, the MBTA is spending about $26 million extra per year in interest on swaps for $623 million of debt, records show. The MBTA’s chief administrator, Brian Shortsleeve, appointed by Governor Charlie Baker last summer to help bring its finances in order, said the authority is now considering a change on half of its eight outstanding swaps. “We’re going to do what’s best for the T, and get the best level of interest rates,’’ Shortsleeve said, “and that puts us on the most sustaining fiscal path.” The T has a total of $5.3 billion in outstanding debt, most of which is borrowed at fixed, long-term rates. About 10 percent is variable-rate debt, with swaps layered on them to cap interest payments. Because interest rates have fallen, the cost to get out of all the swaps, if the T wanted to, would be about $121 million, according to a report prepared for the authority. The swaps currently in question were originally executed with Lehman Brothers, then were moved to Deutsche Bank when Lehman failed in 2008, at the start of the global financial meltdown. Now, a drop in Deutsche bank’s own credit rating has triggered an opening for the T to reconsider swaps on $276 million of bonds. The drop in Deutsche Bank’s credit rating is like breaking part of its agreement with the T. It matters because if rates were to rise sharply, Deutsche Bank would need to make payments to the T on the swaps. “It never made sense in the first place for the T to get involved in these financial derivatives,’’ said Iliya Atanasov, a finance fellow with the Pioneer Institute in Boston, a think tank and frequent critic of the transit authority. “It’s more money being drained from the T.” Proponents say the swaps enabled the MBTA to lock in lower rates than it could have at the time on fixed-rate debt. But today, the Deutsche Bank swaps are costing the T about $9 million a year in extra interest. Getting rid of the Deutsche Bank swaps also could also be politically unpopular, costing about $30 million, according to MBTA documents. As recently as September, the MBTA’s former financial executives were recommending continuing the swaps, but moving them to Barclays, according to a document presented to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation at the time. “The team had a preference for Barclays,’’ said Peter Shapiro, managing director for Swap Financial Group of South Orange, N.J., which had been the swap adviser to the MBTA for a decade before being dismissed. The firm still does work the state. Shapiro said relationships often influence such recommendations. But the firm does not “play favorites,’’ he said. “Our philosophy is to encourage competition.” Barclays is the firm that acquired Lehman after it failed, and it’s the employer of Paul Haley, a powerful former Massachusetts state legislator who worked with the MBTA on its debt after he left government in 2001. Shortsleeve’s team has replaced Swap Financial with PFM Swap Advisors of Philadelphia. If the MBTA decides to keep the swaps, at better terms, PFM in a December presentation recommended TD Bank, US Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank as potential new bankers. Andrew Smith, a spokesman for Barclays in New York, declined to comment on the swaps. According to the Commonwealth’s unaudited financial statements for the year ended in June, the Department of Transportation, including the T, has the majority of the outstanding swaps among state entities. To exit all of them today would cost $478 million.

The transit authority has been paying for what is essentially insurance on a chunk of bonds with payouts that would otherwise rise along with interest rates.

medium

high

extractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-flower-arrangement-inspired-by-a-hockney-1409329746

http://web.archive.org/web/20160225070842id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-flower-arrangement-inspired-by-a-hockney-1409329746

A Flower Arrangement Inspired by a Hockney

I ADORE NEARLY everything about Yorkshire, England. Years ago, I spent whole days walking the green-covered Dales, a stretch of hills and valleys where you can roam freely. But before I'd even been to Yorkshire, I was a fan of artist David Hockney, born there in the city of Bradford, in 1937. In my room growing up, I had a poster of his 1981 crayon drawing of his friend and muse, textile artist Celia Birtwell; it's still a favorite. In the late 1990s, Mr. Hockney began making regular trips back to Yorkshire, temporarily... I ADORE NEARLY everything about Yorkshire, England. Years ago, I spent whole days walking the green-covered Dales, a stretch of hills and valleys where you can roam freely. But before I'd even been to Yorkshire, I was a fan of artist David Hockney, born there in the city of Bradford, in 1937. In my room growing up, I had a poster of his 1981 crayon drawing of his friend and muse, textile artist Celia Birtwell; it's still a favorite. In the late 1990s, Mr. Hockney began making regular trips back to Yorkshire, temporarily leaving behind his adopted Los Angeles home where he had spent the better part of his career basking in California light. Seeing his native land with fresh eyes, he began painting it, in watercolor and oil, and drawing it in charcoal and via an iPad app. In 2005, he was working largely en plein-air, in all weather and seasons. Over the last decade, he's produced a collection of impressive works, some of which will appear in an exhibition opening at New York's Pace Gallery on Sept. 5. Earlier this month, as summer's heat became oppressive, I started looking to Mr. Hockney's large-scale Yorkshire landscapes to dream a little about somewhere cooler and greener. As the inspiration for my August arrangement, I settled on his monumental oil painting "Woldgate Woods, 26, 27 & 30 July 2006." Six canvases combined to create a 72-by-144-inch work, it's one in a series of paintings he executed in the exact same spot in different seasons. Just letting my eyes linger on the intense greens of the vegetation in this work seemed to cleanse New York's muggy air, however briefly. For the arrangement, I started with an old, green-glazed pitcher that was collecting dust on my shelf, somewhat nondescript but perfect in its mottledness. Besides, pitchers are great for arranging flowers: A good choice for the novice, their form easily shapes floral designs into satisfyingly open displays. To convey the lushness of the trees in this painting, I massed field pennycress in the pitcher. Though I got mine from a flower market, it can be found along roadsides or in fields in northern parts of the U.S. this time of year. I could have easily left the arrangement like that but, in keeping with Mr. Hockney's painting, I added a hit of the large orange flowers of asclepias 'Beatrix' to represent the glowing patch at its horizon line. Finally, I poked in some mauve astrantia major 'Rubra' from my garden to depict the old country road that had become Mr. Hockney's makeshift open-air studio.

For a late-summer bouquet, floral designer Lindsey Taylor interprets one of David Hockney's multipanel Yorkshire tree paintings.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-flower-arrangement-inspired-by-gerhard-richter-1429288812

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227041537id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-flower-arrangement-inspired-by-gerhard-richter-1429288812

A Flower Arrangement Inspired by Gerhard Richter

APRIL IS OFTEN a time of foggy, gray days and premonitions of rain, as the land—at least here on the East Coast—stirs to life. I happen to love this time of year for what I call its “carwash” effect: The misty landscape, dotted with impressionistic dapples of color, reminds me of the view through wet, soapy glass that you get while driving through a carwash, when everything seems to be just a bit out of focus. The paintings of German-born artist Gerhard Richter have a similar effect, especially the abstract works he... APRIL IS OFTEN a time of foggy, gray days and premonitions of rain, as the land—at least here on the East Coast—stirs to life. I happen to love this time of year for what I call its “carwash” effect: The misty landscape, dotted with impressionistic dapples of color, reminds me of the view through wet, soapy glass that you get while driving through a carwash, when everything seems to be just a bit out of focus. The paintings of German-born artist Gerhard Richter have a similar effect, especially the abstract works he makes using a squeegee. In his 2009 canvas “Bouquet”—one of my favorites and the inspiration for this month’s arrangement—he has painted a small cluster of flowers with a brush, then deliberately obscured it by raking red and green paint across the image, until it resembled a streaked windshield. As I attempted to capture the canvas’s essence and color palette with blooms, I would at times clearly see the flowers he depicted as if it were a straight representation; at others, I would see only the surface abstraction. Like a ghost, the image seemed tangible one moment, gone the next. For the arrangement, I selected three vertical ceramic vessels that were heavy with glaze and had the texture and tones of a gessoed canvas. I like to cluster vessels together before filling them with flowers, nudging them here and there to create a still-life of their own—it’s a refreshing alternative to the no-brainer lone vase. I also took inspiration from Mr. Richter’s squeegee technique and left a certain amount to chance. I couldn’t tell what kind of flowers were hidden in the painting, so I focused on matching its colors using tulips in salmon pink, orange and cherry red. The nearly white, soft pink-colored lilacs offered a foil to the stronger colors while the eucalyptus foliage hinted at the semi-visible stems and approximated the painting’s gray-green tones. For me, the horizontal rhythm of the trio of vases and the repeating flowers brings to mind the ephemeral, sometimes blurry nature of this rainy season, when the windows of your car are streaked, somehow comfortingly, with April showers.

For an April-themed arrangement, floral designer Lindsey Taylor welcomes the rainy season with a riff on Gerhard Richter’s windshield-wiper-ish painting ‘Bouquet.’

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-love-lorne-celebration-of-the-american-songbook-1455318003

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227092307id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-love-lorne-celebration-of-the-american-songbook-1455318003

A Love Lorne Celebration of the American Songbook

It was a big week for honoring media machers in New York. On Wednesday, Harvey Weinstein helped raise over $2 million for Amfar at the annual New York Gala at Cipriani Wall Street, and brought out an impressively starry crowd, including Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay Z, Diane Kruger, Uma Thurman, Heidi Klum and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. The Amfar event, presented by Harry Winston with help from Mac Viva Glam, Moët Hennessy and Fiji Water, was one of the better ones in some time, by all accounts. We were, sadly, unable to attend, thus missing the opportunity to buy a walk-on-role in a new Richard Pryor biopic starring Eddie Murphy and Oprah Winfrey, which sold for $50,000. Meanwhile, Mr. DiCaprio bought, at auction, a Mongolian expedition trip, for $95,000. As if filming “The Revenant” wasn’t enough. On Thursday evening Lorne Michaels was being honored up at Lincoln Center at the annual American Songbook gala. The CAA agent Bryan Lourd was honored at this event two years ago, and it was a pretty damn-good evening, so this one seemed like a can’t-miss. Mr. Lourd was a dinner co-chairman with Adrienne Arsht and, in absentia, Hugh Jackman. Among the guests were Brad and Cassandra Grey, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Diane Sawyer, Tom Lee, Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer, Diana Taylor and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Andy Cohen, Marci Klein, Julia Koch, Tommy Tune, Caryn and Jeff Zucker and Stephen Ross. There was a lot of poking fun at Mr. Michaels because, yes, he is the impresario behind “Saturday Night Live” and employs a lot of comedians, but also in the “What does he have to do with the American Songbook anyway?” sense. Steve Martin particularly focused on this issue by listing a number of little known and purportedly terrible albums Mr. Michaels had recorded in his native Canada, including “Accordions, Accordions, Accordions, Accordions.” (This was a joke, by the way.) The performance was written and directed by Tina Fey and her husband Jeff Richmond. And like any episode of “SNL,” it had its bright patches and spotty ones. “We have some great singers and some others with a lot of personality. See if you can spot the difference,” said Martin Short who sang “As Long As He Needs Me” to his fellow Canadian Mr. Michaels, an anthem of abusive relationships from the British musical “Oliver.” Not all of the songs would be about Mr. Michaels, “but this one is,” said Ms. Fey, just before she and “SNL” castmates Cecily Strong and Kate McKinnon performed Stephen Sondheim’s “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” from his musical “Company.” Jane Krakowski did a duet with Tracy Morgan; Maya Rudolph did her own medley that started with Cole Porter and ended with “Ol’ Man River;” Taran Killam and Kenan Thompson took on the title song to “Guys and Dolls.” On the less comedic front were Broadway stars Audra McDonald, Cheyenne Jackson and Tituss Burgess. But it was Jimmy Fallon who went home with the night, thanks to a rendition of R. Kelly’s “Ignition Remix” accompanied by barbershop singers. Mr. Michaels was quite brief when he accepted his honor, from Fred Armisen, natch, dressed as Mr. Michaels’s “doorman.” Then guests left Alice Tully Hall for a casual, small-plates buffet supper in the lobby. Write to Marshall Heyman at [email protected]

Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon and Fred Armisen celebrate Lorne Michaels at the annual American Songbook gala at Lincoln Center.

medium

high

mixed

http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/11/200841011521973638.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227120850id_/http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/11/200841011521973638.html

Islamic Courts: Somalia deal possible

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told The Associated Press in an interview by telephone from Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, on Wednesday: "Let's talk means let's make peace. "We expect to reach a solution because it is a known fact that if Somalis talk to one another they can make peace."Muslim groups loyal to Aweys have taken up positions on three sides of the only town the internationally backed government controls, prompting fears of renewed civil war and a possible regional war drawing in Somalia's neighbours. Ethiopia has sent advisers to train the government's military, while Ethiopia's rival Eritrea is believed to be supporting Aweys's movement. Two regional organisations have tried to start peace talks. Aweys met on Monday with Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the speaker of the transitional parliament, who flew to Mogadishu after peace talks in Sudan failed to even start. "We are not attacking the Somali government ... Ethiopians are the ones attacking us, we are on defence" Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, senior leader of Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts Aden's initiative, though, wasn't supported by his government. "We are not attacking the Somali government ... Ethiopians are the ones attacking us, we are on defence" Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, senior leader of Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts The international community has expressed support for the transitional government, which controls only Baidoa, 250km northwest of Mogadishu. Aweys's movement has taken control of most of southern Somalia and demanded a new Islamic government. Both Aweys's movement and the government have massed troops outside of Baidoa and there have been reports of skirmishes north of Mogadishu, stoking fears of all-out war. While Ethiopia has acknowledged sending a few hundred troops to help the transitional government, Aweys said there are thousands of Ethiopian soldiers in the country in what he calls an invasion. Ethiopia has accused its longtime rival Eritrea of sending thousands of troops to help the Islamic Courts group attack Ethiopia, something Aweys denies. A confidential UN report obtained by the AP last month said 6,000 to 8,000 Ethiopian soldiers were in Somalia or along their border, and 2,000 Eritrean troops were in Somalia. Eritrea denied having any soldiers Somalia. "Ethiopia has to stop its interference in Somalia," Aweys said. "There are no foreigners among us and we don't need them. We have sufficient Somalis and our troops are Somali citizens." Aweys, who appears on US and UN lists of people with alleged terrorist ties, denied that his troops' continued advance threatened the government. Aweys: "We are preparing for a war because foreign troops are in our country." "We are not attacking the Somali government ... Ethiopians are the ones attacking us, we are on defence."

The most senior leader of Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts has said that a peace deal can be struck for his Horn of Africa country, but only if neighbouring Ethiopia withdraws troops protecting a weak transitional government.

low

low

mixed

http://fortune.com/2012/07/24/the-mysterious-company-that-sold-for-1-billion/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227121600id_/http://fortune.com:80/2012/07/24/the-mysterious-company-that-sold-for-1-billion/

The “mysterious” company that sold for $1 billion

By Richard Nieva, reporter Martin Casado.FORTUNE — On Monday, VMware — the “server virtualization” company which makes software that allows multiple operating systems to run on one machine — announced a $1.05 billion deal to acquire Palo Alto-based startup Nicira. But what is Nicira exactly? If it’s still a mystery to you, that’s perfectly natural. One, its focus is “network virtualization,” a sect of computing infrastructure that is so nascent it’s not even on the radar of many research analysts. (The short answer is, the company produces software that makes data centers less reliant on old-line routers and switches.) And two, its founder Martin Casado is a former intelligence agent, so a certain mystery and mystique comes with the territory. (Fortune profiled the company in April.) In addition to the cash transaction, Nicira will receive about $210 million in equity rewards. While nothing has been officially decided, Martin Casado, Nicira’s cofounder, said he expects to continue his role as technology chief for his team, probably in a software architect role. The Nicira brand will be subsumed by its new parent, and Casado and Co. will be employees under VMware VMW . MORE: He could tell you, but he’d have to kill you The process moved fairly quickly, and had not been in the works for a very long time, says Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which poured $17.7 million into the startup over three rounds of funding. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year. The two biggest advantages the tie-up gives Nicira are credibility and scale, says Horowitz. While the company was founded in 2007, the infant — and for now still largely unproven — company only officially unveiled itself this February, so the high price tag may raise eyebrows. Still, Nicira’s upside may be worth the big bet. “Five years from now, this is going to end up looking like a very cheap deal,” said Horowitz, who also sits on Nicira’s board. “They basically bought an option on the future of networking.” It’s certainly a move that hardware incumbents Cisco JNPR and Juniper Networks JNPR will have to pay attention to. For VMware, it’s deja-vu, says Stephen Herrod, the company’s chief technologist. “It feels very much like the early days of server virtualization,” says Herrod, who was involved with VMware before its founding at Stanford, before he rejoined in 2001. “We could see the tide coming in.”

Nicira is a little company that just scored a big payday.

high

low

abstractive

http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/08/20084916514629953.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227195017id_/http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/08/20084916514629953.html

Turkish jets bomb PKK bases

Military sources in Turkey's southeast told Reuters that two or three warplanes had bombed the Iraqi border region on Wednesday evening after Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) forces were identified in the area. The military sources said that they landed on an uncontrolled part of the border, but would not say if the bombs landed inside Iraq. The action was not significant and it was not clear what damage had been caused, the sources said. A Turkish foreign ministry official declined to confirm the report, which comes after Turkish media reported that F-16 aircraft had attacked PKK positions inside Iraq. Armed clashes have intensified since April, when the Turkish military sent tens of thousands of extra troops to the southeast to reinforce more than 200,000 soldiers already stationed there. George Bush told Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, last month that the US wanted to deal more aggressively with cross-border attacks by PKK rebels. However, diplomats in Ankara say that the government and the armed forces are frustrated at little action on the ground despite mounting casualties in Turkey, which many believe has given the PKK time to regroup. Several thousand PKK separatist fighters are based in the mountains of northern Iraq and Turkey has insisted that it has the right to conduct cross-border operations should Washington and Baghdad fail to crack down on the fighters. Iraq has repeatedly warned Turkey not send troops into its territory. The PKK has denied the reports in a statement: "News that Turkish military forces' F-16 planes bombed south Kurdistan border areas are lies and unfounded."

Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish separatists' bases in the Iraqi border region, in a bid to crackdown on fighters operating in the Kandil mountains after an upsurge in violence in Turkey's southeast.

low

low

abstractive

http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2005/08/200841011321788992.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227211348id_/http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2005/08/200841011321788992.html

Iraq war makes US Army unattractive

The Iraq war marks the first test of the all-volunteer US military during a protracted war, and army officials have conceded that all three components of the army will likely miss their recruiting goals for fiscal 2005, which ends on 30 September. The army, aiming to get 80,000 recruits this year, stood 11% behind its year-to-date goal at the end of July, with just two months left to overcome a shortfall of more than 7000. It has not missed an annual recruiting goal since 1999. The army provides the bulk of ground troops in the Iraq war, in which about 1840 US troops have been killed and nearly 14,000 wounded. It achieved its second-straight monthly goal - sending 8,085 new soldiers into boot camp in July, topping its goal by 9% - after falling short in the previous four months, according to figures released by the Pentagon on Wednesday. Guard and Reserve "We've had some positive momentum, and I can assure you that it makes us feel better to have a couple of good months" Douglas Smith, US Army Recruiting Command The situation was bleaker in the part-time Guard and Reserve, used heavily in Iraq as the Pentagon seeks to maintain troop levels. "We've had some positive momentum, and I can assure you that it makes us feel better to have a couple of good months" Douglas Smith, US Army Recruiting Command "I know our recruiters are going to do what they can to close the gap, but right now it looks like we will miss both active and reserve (goals) at the end of the year," said Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith. The Reserve missed its July recruiting target by 18%, getting 2131 recruits with a goal of 2585, and stood 20% behind its year-to-date target. It had a shortfall of about 4700 recruits toward its 2005 goal of 28,485. The Army National Guard has missed every monthly goal in fiscal 2005 after falling short in 2004 and 2003, the Pentagon said. It missed its July goal by 20% - getting 4,712 recruits with a quota of 2,585 - and was 23% behind its year-to-date target. Recruiting problemsWith two months left, it had a shortfall of more than 11,600 toward an annual goal of 63,002. The army has attributed the recruiting problems to a growing number of families who are wary of military service because of the Iraq war, and an improving economy that is creating more civilian jobs. The Pentagon is looking at new ways to retain military numbers"We've had some positive momentum, and I can assure you that it makes us feel better to have a couple of good months," Smith said, referring to active-duty recruiting in June and July. "The problem is that with the deficit we face for the remainder of the year, it's just a matter of time running out on us." The Pentagon is looking at new ways to retain military numbers The Army has upped the financial incentives for enlistment and added recruiters. Lowering the barLast month the Pentagon asked Congress to raise the maximum age for enlistment in the military to 42. The ceiling now is 35 for active-duty service and 39 for enlisting in the reserves or National Guard with no prior military service. The Marine Corps made its July goal and was 2% ahead year-to-date. While the Air Force hit its targets, the Navy missed its July goal by 1% but remained slightly ahead of its year-to-date quota. Some defence analysts have argued the United States may have to consider resuming the draft, abolished in 1973 during the Vietnam War era, if the military is unable to attract sufficient numbers of recruits. The Pentagon opposes resumption of the draft.

<P>The US Army, hard pressed to attract new soldiers amid the Iraq war, seems doomed to miss its target for the year. </P>

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/06/2008491592210242.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160227225102id_/http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/06/2008491592210242.html

No charges for Rove in CIA leak case

Freeing George Bush's top political adviser from possible indictment on perjury charges allows him to concentrate on Republicans winning the key congressional elections coming up in November. "On June 12, 2006, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove," Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said in a statement. Fitzgerald has gotten an indictment from a federal grand jury against another top White House aide, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In October, Libby was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents and a grand jury during the investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is to go to trial in January. That prompted speculation that Rove could face perjury charges since he also had spoken to reporters in the case. "We believe the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct," Luskin said. The Democratic national chairman, Howard Dean, said the fact Rove will not face indictment "does not excuse his real sin, which is leaking the name of an intelligence operative during a time of war. He doesn't belong in the White House." "So I think this is probably good news for the White House, but it's not very good news for America," Dean told NBC's Today Show. But Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman told CNN this was an example of how Democrats "rush to judgment." "They owe him an apology," Mehlman said of Democratic leaders. Fitzgerald's investigation centers on who blew the cover of CIA officer Valerie Plame after her husband, former US diplomat Joseph Wilson, criticised the Bush administration for manipulating intelligence before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Libby and Rove spoke to reporters about Plame before her identity was made public by newspaper columnist Robert Novak in July 2003. Rove testified to the grand jury five times.

<P>White House aide Karl Rove will not be charged in the CIA leak case, his lawyer said on Tuesday. </P>

low

low

abstractive

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160226-why-dating-at-work-should-terrify-you

http://web.archive.org/web/20160301102958id_/http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160226-why-dating-at-work-should-terrify-you

What happens if your office relationship goes sour?

Office romance is alive and well. Not surprising considering how much time we spend at work these days. Nearly 40% of workers in the US have dated a colleague at some point in their career, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey. And one-third of those relationships end in marriage. In Germany, the numbers are even higher where 60% of workers admit having been involved with a colleague, according to a survey from job portal kalaydo.de. In Japan, the numbers are much lower with only one in three workers having found love at work, according to a survey by global staffing firm Randstad. What happens if your office relationship goes sour? But what happens if your office relationship goes sour? Is dating your gorgeous colleague really worth the risk? And, what if that person is your manager or junior – or even more complicated – married? Are you required to disclose this relationship to the company? For Kelly Finn, principal consultant with Boston-based talent acquisition firm WinterWyman’s Information Technology division, it made sense to keep her budding relationship quiet at first. Finn met her future husband while they were working in different divisions at WinterWyman. "We dated for eight months and didn’t tell anyone at the company," she said in an email. "The relationship was new and we didn’t want to be distracting or the subject of company gossip and drama." But then a company-sponsored trip that both Finn and her future husband were scheduled to attend cropped up. "We knew things were serious and we didn’t want to hide our relationship on the trip, so we called a meeting with the company president and let him know first," said Finn. "We didn’t want him to hear about it through the grapevine." We didn’t want him to hear about it through the grapevine. Finn recommends telling senior management when the time feels right. "Assure them it will not affect your performance at work, and that you will handle the relationship professionally in the office," she said. But not everyone chooses to kiss and tell. One third of workers who have had an office romance kept their relationship a secret at work, according to the CareerBuilder survey. "Whether or not you choose to keep it a secret, it is important to be discreet, professional and treat each other as colleagues at the office, and not as romantic partners," said Chicago-based Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s chief human resources officer, in an email. "Give each other some physical space and respect your fellow employees." Leave it at the door Dating a colleague can be a great experience, according to Elaine Varelas, managing partner with Boston-based Keystone Partners, a career management firm. But you need to be cognisant of where you are. "You have a lot in common and you see each other all the time, but one should remember to keep public displays of affection out of the office," she said in an email, as it can make others uncomfortable and make you appear totally unprofessional. "While work might be the place you met your true love, the business day is the time to work on work — not on your relationship." Rare is the worker who actually reads the company handbook. But if you are about to embark on a relationship with a colleague, this would be the perfect time to take a look at it. That way, you will know if there are any official guidelines on office romance, according to Varelas. "It's crucial to do this before you disclose your relationship to anyone, including human resources," she said. "You'll go into that meeting knowing what issues — if any — you will face." Are both parties mature enough to nurse their heartache in private? And, depending on your company, you might not have the choice to keep it quiet, according to Austin, Texas-based Sharon Schweitzer, founder and chief executive officer of Protocol & Etiquette Worldwide and a former employment lawyer. "It may violate the company’s sexual harassment prevention policy," she said in an email, particularly if one of you is more senior than the other. "You may be required to report that you are dating, and romantically involved. And even though you may not be in the same department or division when you first start dating, positions can change, according to Schweitzer. "Keep in mind that you may be transferred and end up supervising your paramour in a different department," she cautioned. Transferring is one option. "If you fall in love, think seriously about transferring to a different department or even another company," she said. "Don’t damage your own career, that of your mentor and colleagues in the process." Can you handle the fallout? Remaining professional in the workplace is important, according to Dr. Lorraine Tilbury, founder of personal and professional development firm HorsePower International, based in the Loire Valley in France. But this can be challenging if the relationship ends. "You will still have to work together," she said. Ask yourself, "Are both parties mature enough to nurse their heartache in private, remain civil to each other in public and still meet their professional objectives?" Tilbury said that she has known colleagues who were on an emotional roller coaster because of office romance heartbreak – becoming depressed and physically absent because they couldn’t face seeing the person they had broken up with at work. "If the very thought of seeing your ex every day puts you in agony, you may want to avoid the idea of office romance in the first place," she said. If the very thought of seeing your ex every day puts you in agony, you may want to avoid the idea of office romance. For Rachel Sutherland, the risk was worth it after she met her future husband at The Battle Creek Enquirer, a small newspaper in Michigan. "My husband and I were young, but we were very serious about our work and knew going into our relationship that being in a relationship in such a small workplace could have negative implications," she said in an email. "That's why we took so much care to make sure we did it right." But Sutherland said that she would have felt differently had it just been someone to pass the time with. "Break-ups are tough regardless of location," she added. "Having to see your ex while out with friends and at work is tough on you and your colleagues, and has the potential to sabotage your career if you're unable to handle the stress of the situation." To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Dating a colleague? How to be discreet and professional. Yes it is possible.

high

medium

mixed

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/30/afro-modern-tate-liverpool

http://web.archive.org/web/20160304033425id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/30/afro-modern-tate-liverpool

Fred D'Aguiar on Tate Liverpool's Afro Modern

Paul Gilroy has a lot to answer for. Not since Edward Said's Orientalism has a book – Gilroy's The Black Atlantic – generated such intellectual curiosity and exerted so wide an influence over cultural studies and the way we look at the modern, post-colonial world. Edward Said exposed the near-east as largely an invention of the west – a representation of people and places that would facilitate exploitation of a vast region and its diverse occupants in the name of a civilising zeal. He quotes from "Lui", a poem by Victor Hugo written for Napoleon: By the Nile I find him once again.Egypt shines with the fires of hisdawn;His imperial orb rises in theOrient.Victor, enthusiast, bursting withachievements,Prodigious, he stunned the landof prodigies.The old sheikhs venerated theyoung and prudent emir.The people dreaded hisunprecedented arms;Sublime, he appeared to thedazzled tribesLike a Mahomet of the Occident. The images of victor and vanquished aren't hard to see, but more subtle and solicitous of our complicity is the grateful reception by the masses of ­Napoleon and his ersatz divinity. In his groundbreaking book, Gilroy argued for the Atlantic to be reconceived as a "continent in negative", a space in which three land masses with distinct cultural and historical markers – Africa, Europe and the New World – became unified, a new chemistry of humanity. This new, more complex cultural formation was indebted to centuries of brutal slavery, which stitched the three separate histories together. Gilroy's ideas, which have their roots in the work of CLR James and Stuart Hall, throw up telling symbols – the slave ship (for physical pain), the estranging sea (for psychic severance), the subjugated black body (for death and destruction). But, refreshingly, he is mindful of slavery's obverse, its ­unintended consequences, which are renewal and creativity. Instead of Lear's "nothing will come of nothing", for Gilroy, decimated, enslaved peoples summon much out of abject despair. Maps of desolation are ­reimagined as spaces of possibility, the promise of a new life. The curators of Tate Liverpool's big-thinking exhibition Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tanya Barson and Peter Gorschlüter, clearly have Gilroy's triangular past in mind. There's enough material in the show to merit repeated visits. The first of the seven rooms takes on the difficult task of declaring a start date. In this case, it is 1907, the year of Picasso's oil on canvas entitled Bust of a Woman – a ­geometry of broken boxes for a head that morphs as you gaze at it into a body made up of an amalgam of spheres. What's African about it? We know that Picasso studied African art, which begins in realistic representations of figures denoting ritual and worship. These figures are then transformed by a stretching of features and body parts in a way that is akin to states of mind brought about by trance or possession by some deity. In other words, we see the beginnings of cubism in this primitivism, secreted in it and extracted from it by Picasso's eye. Widely accepted as the father of modernism, Picasso drew inspiration and content from ­Africa; he used it as a regenerative tool for a moribund western artistic practice. The exhibition's start date could just as easily have been 1903, the year WEB Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk, in which he declared that the 20th century would be defined by race and not by class. Further – and here Du Bois presaged much artistic practice from the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s and early 30s up to the black arts movement of the mid-60s onwards – he described the double consciousness faced by blacks in white America: they must wear a veil of American-ness acceptable to whites but which hides a blackness not yet approved of by white society. Frantz Fanon took this notion further in his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks. Black artists trained in the west may compromise an African artistic sensibility – a translation is needed into western aesthetic terms before the art can receive any plaudits from western purveyors of taste. So many arguments line up about black being in Afro Modern that text and context vie for attention with image and picture, but ultimately both work in harmony. Politics in art wears not so much a veil here as a series of masks. While many will know of the Harlem renaissance in the 20s or the Négritude movement (which privileged a black experience, including black speech, as a governing principle for black artistic practice) founded in the 30s by Aimé Césaire and others, far fewer will be familiar with the Brazilian Manifesto Antropófago of 1928, which argued that artists should consume European influences before those influences consumed them. Mercifully short-lived, it reduced the arts to consumption, and lacked the subtlety of imaginative give-and-take. Room two is devoted entirely to Maya Deren's footage from the late 40s and early 50s, later edited and released as Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. The black and white film is rich in detail and makes compelling viewing. Haitian music and dancing, the confident commentary asserts, gave rise to jazz and the blues. African voodoo and Catholic rituals come together in a replenished spirituality. Does art contribute to social change? This question is posed not only at Tate Liverpool but by residencies and exhibitions city-wide. There are interviews with artists and films such as Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus from 1959, and the Walker Gallery focuses on the work of Aubrey Williams – an Afro Modern if ever there was one. The question is a vexed one, if only because of the complexity of black engagement with European art traditions. At Tate Liverpool, Isaac Julien's Cast No Shadow, an image in a lightbox of a woman standing at open iron gates with a very blue and enticing sea in the background, appears to replay the departure of slaves at the point of no return found at so many coastal forts in Ghana. Julien's image derives its power in part from its rigidity and stillness, along with an appeal to the group memory of the experience. Looking through the lens of the black arts movement seems as good a way as any to test the predictive and prescriptive nature of the visual arts over the last century in the UK, US, Africa, Caribbean and South America. "Afro Modern" may be too precise a term to contain such multitudes and "black diaspora" too loose. There is a tussle, too, within the arts between furthering art in the direction of experimental art-for-art's-sake, and art engaged with politics since it is only valuable if it is moral in scope. Ellen Gallagher's Bird in Hand works against such a division: a lone figure, who could be male, stands in the middle of a huge canvas, surrounded by roots and hanging flora, sporting a massive afro. The strands of hair suggest a nest of sorts, and the message becomes one of conservation: the person cannot be detached from the natural environment and there is symbiosis in the entanglement. In Frank Bowling's upright rectangular 1968 tri-colour, entitled Who's Afraid of Barney Newman?, two wide bands of red and green sandwich a thin line of yellow. Without knowing the subject there is a molten quality to Bowling's work. He moves efficiently beyond biography to essences steeped in emotional responses to primary colours, which retain their impression of being poured on the canvas and which threaten to spill over the edges at any moment. Bowling is not just modern, he's way past that. A surprising omission from the show are Clement Cooper's exacting photographs of black lineages in Liverpool and elsewhere. His use of natural light and his veneration of the vulnerable black and mixed-race young body are worthy of any exhibition, never mind one devoted to historicising blackness. Also absent is Tam Joseph, a personal favourite for his acerbic mix of word and image. His work deepens any narrative of black ascension invested in the poor and the powerless. Sonia Boyce and Keith Piper display historical imaginations wedded to complex counterculture narratives. And among the most arresting work in the first room are two paintings of Josephine Baker by Paul Colin. He captures her wiry movement and limber flesh unconstrained by mere bones. He makes it clear, too, that her trade has a primitive appeal, her banana and palmleaf skirts barely cover her and reveal more of her than I imagine a peepshow would. She is topless, and her skin is her only covering. She completes a picture of primitive energy and boundless sex appeal, horribly dubbed negrophilia (these were living, breathing subjects), which was supposed to rejuvenate a clapped-out Parisian art world with its vapid futurism. Baker turns out to be a saviour of European modernity, but her dance and trance traps black women in a new prison of the one-dimensional, sexual body. Colin's eye for voyeurism and the black female body as fetish is debunked by Candice Breitz's Ghost Series, where black nudity stands out with white paint and resembles a blazing photographic negative. Her women push back at the viewer, inviting questions about what is depicted and how certain effects are achieved. As emblems of domesticated, quotidian nudity, her women are made resistant to fetishisation. A similar rebellion against outrageous convention emerges in Tracey Rose's photographic self-portrait, Venus Baartman (2001). Rose poses as Sarah Bartmann, or Saartjie Baartman in Afrikaans, a Khoi-San (or Hottentot) woman from Cape Town, South Africa. Brought to England in 1810, Bartmann toured London and Paris as a sideshow nude attraction to prove how black female anatomy, in this instance her large buttocks, differed markedly from white women's features. Bartmann died in London and her private parts were surgically removed and stored. Rose's moving work is an act of empathy and imagined solidarity. It goes well with Carrie Mae Weems's photos of "negroid types", which critiques white scientific attempts to establish black unsuitability for equality with whites. Under these racist terms, black physical characteristics are somehow different, and black people become not-quite-human. That isn't much of a change from the enslaved African female body of the preceding centuries, as Kara Walker charts in her black-and-white short film from 2005 entitled 8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America, A Moving Picture. Shot in silhouette, her work parades draughtsman-like precision with jarring polemic to form a new political aesthetic for an art that is moral as much as it is beautiful. Somehow Gilroy's vision predates Atlantic slavery and plays out in literary and visual imagination from time immemorial, or at least since Aristotle's fourth-century-BC Poetics. Art can never be post-race. Why fly in the face of history, culture, the body and being? • Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic is at Tate Liverpool until 25 April. Tel: 0151 702 7400. Aubrey Williams: Atlantic Fire is at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool until 11 April. Tel: 0151 478 4199.

Fred D'Aguiar salutes Tate Liverpool's Afro Modern, celebrating the power of art to debunk historical stereotypes

high

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/george-clooney-blasts-donald-trump-xenophobic-fascist

http://web.archive.org/web/20160304094114id_/http://www.people.com/article/george-clooney-blasts-donald-trump-xenophobic-fascist

'He's a Xenophobic Fascist' : People.com

George Clooney (left) and Donald Trump Isa Foltin/WireImage; Scott Olson/Getty Images 03/03/2016 AT 04:40 PM EST is not mincing words when it comes to presidential candidate the Republican frontrunner will go down in history as a laughing stock at the , Clooney took a more serious tone while describing Trump in a recent interview with "He's just an opportunist. Now he's a fascist; a xenophobic fascist," he said bluntly. "You can count on Americans to do the right thing after they've exhausted all the other possibilities." Even if Trump were elected, Clooney believes his political proposals would never come to fruition. "The truth of the matter is, in election season, things go crazy, and the loudest voices are the furthest and most extreme," he explained. "So you hear a massively stupid idea, like we're going to ban Muslims from the country. Now, we're not ever going to do that," he said with a shrug. "It says in the Statue of Liberty, bring us your huddled masses. It's not what's going to happen." star will not be voting for the real estate magnate, he did express his support for and hinted at a planned fundraiser for her campaign. "I am a Hillary supporter. I am doing a fundraiser for her," said the actor, who raised $15 million for at an event in 2012. Clooney also noted his admiration for Vermont Senator . "I really love Bernie Sanders, and am really glad he is in the debate," he said. "He is forcing the conversation to things that never get talked about in U.S. politics: disparity between the rich and the poor, which is getting worse and worse every day."

George Clooney accused Donald Trump of being a "xenophobic fascist" in an interview with The Guardian

medium

medium

abstractive

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jun/12/exhibitionist-art-shows-this-week

http://web.archive.org/web/20160306122147id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jun/12/exhibitionist-art-shows-this-week

Exhibitionist: The best art shows to see this week

In 1994, long before chocolate fountains became the kind of thing that people pulled out at dinner parties, Helen Chadwick set gallons of melted chocolate bubbling as part of a piece she called Cacao (it came complete with a pump rising phallically from the centre of the pool). Chadwick is a master of confusing our notions of the horrific with the sensual and desirable, and her most famous work is resurrected in Pot Luck: Food and Art at the New Art Gallery Walsall, a group exhibition exploring consumables. Artists including Damien Hirst, Gayle Chong Kwan and Subodh Gupta bring something to the table. By way of contrast, it's ideas of health and fitness that fill the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh. A double show, Commonweath Suite, presents two newly commissioned films based around the city's Royal Commonwealth pool, built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Henna-Riikka Halonen became fascinated by the building's modernist interior – which reminded her of the set for Vladimir Mayakovsky's Russian constructivist play The Bathhouse, a 1930 satire on state bureaucracy – and co-opted a local diving team to film a restaging. Another artist, Jordan Baseman, has created a documentary work called A Hypnotic Effect. This follows a lifelong gym user, Ian Colquhon, who lost his legs in a fire at the age of 24. Though Colquhon is unable to swim, his description of his watery dreams – and the film's images of light flickering on water – create a moving portrait of both building and man. At the Simon Lee Gallery in London's Mayfair, meanwhile, American artist Sherrie Levine's exhibition contains lovingly decorated childhood relics made into gilded bronzes, as well as a mystifying dog-size skeleton and statues of Hindu household deities. Carefully selected poems from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal are reprinted and framed alongside 24 individually framed, mass-produced postcards of Aspen woodland. Levine is a borrower of sorts, copying the work of others and transforming it according to her own desires. If you do happen to need a tranquil moment in the bustling West End, stop in at David Claerbout's exhibition of new film installations at Hauser & Wirth. In the dark depths of this former bank, you will find a film of a maid quietly cleaning a beautiful modernist house in the darkness, the light slowly creeping in as she finishes and leaves. A beautiful two-screen installation, Riverside (2007-8), follows a boy and a girl treading the same circular path through a valley. You're never quite sure if they'll meet. There are more contemplative London moments at Camden Arts Centre, where you'll find Michael Raedecker's Line-Up, an exquisite exhibition of pallid grey and rain-soaked blue paintings. Back yards, washing lines, cakes and flowers are among Raedecker's subjects; they tremble on the canvas, threatening to dissipate entirely.

Walsall throws a banquet of excess, watery dreams haunt Edinburgh's Collective, and three London galleries offer busy shoppers a tranquil escape

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/03/07/03/30/islamic-state-truck-bomb-kills-60-in-iraq

http://web.archive.org/web/20160307104946id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/03/07/03/30/islamic-state-truck-bomb-kills-60-in-iraq

Suicide attack kills at least 47 in Iraq

A suicide bomber has rammed his explosives-laden fuel truck into a security checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing at least 47 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in an online statement circulated by supporters. It was the third massive bombing in and around Baghdad in a little over a week, and appeared to be part of a campaign by IS to stage attacks deep behind front lines in order to wreak havoc and force the government to overextend its forces. Crowds gathered at the scene, picking through rubble and twisted car parts in search of survivors. Smoke rose from smouldering cars that had been lined up at the main checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city of Hillah, located about 95 kilometres south of Baghdad. "The blast has completely destroyed the checkpoint and its buildings," Falah al-Khafaji, a senior security official in Hillah, said as he stood at the edge of the blast site. "More than 100 cars have been damaged." IS has carried out scores of suicide bombings against security forces and the country's Shiite majority. Hillah is in the country's mainly Shiite south, far from the front lines of the war against IS. Among the dead were 39 civilians, while the rest were members of the security forces. The attacker struck shortly after noon when the checkpoint was crowded with dozens of cars, a police officer said. He added that up to 65 other people were wounded. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information. Iraq has seen a spike in violence in the past month, with suicide attacks claimed by IS killing more than 170 people. The attacks follow a string of advances by Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes, including in the western city of Ramadi, which was declared fully "liberated" by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition officials last month.

Islamic State is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing south of Baghdad after a truck blew up at a police checkpoint, killing at least 60 people.

low

medium

mixed

http://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/30/news/terrible-calamity-mobile-explosion-rebel-ordnance-depot-magazine-three-hundred.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160307204357id_/http://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/30/news/terrible-calamity-mobile-explosion-rebel-ordnance-depot-magazine-three-hundred.html

TERRIBLE CALAMITY AT MOBILE

The Tribune has a special dispatch from NewOrleans, dated the 26th inst., which says: The ordnance depot and magazine at Mobile exploded at 2 o'clock yesterday. The shock was terrific. The city was shaken to its very foundations. Eight squares of buildings were destroyed. Five hundred persons were buried in the ruins. The loss is estimated at eight millions of dollars. The origin of the explosion has not yet been ascertained. MEMPHIS, Saturday, May 27, Via Cairo, Monday, May 29. The Bulletin's New-Orleans special says: "On the morning of the 24th inst. the main Ordnance Department, in Marshall's Warehouse, at Mobile, blew up, with a terrible explosion. About three hundred persons were killed and many wounded. Thousands are buried in the ruins. Eight entire squares of the city were demolished, and about eight thousand bales of cotton destroyed. The steamers Col. Cowles and Kate Dale, with all on board, were entirely destroyed. A great portion of the business centre is badly damaged. The total loss is estimated at three millions. Gen. GRANGER rendered prompt relief to the sufferers. The cause of the explosion is uncertain. The ordnance stores, which were a portion of the munitions of war surrendered by DICK TAYLOR, were in course of removal when it occurred. The entire city is more or less injured by the explosion. Major-Gens. THOMAS and BRANNAN have arrived from Nashville. The railroad between here and Nashville is repaired, and trains are running regularly.

The Tribune has a special dispatch from NewOrleans, dated the 26th inst., which says:

medium

high

extractive

http://www.people.com/article/missouri-woman-dead-cancun-boyfriend-detained

http://web.archive.org/web/20160308105646id_/http://www.people.com/article/missouri-woman-dead-cancun-boyfriend-detained

Boyfriend Detained in Cancun Strangling Death of Missouri Woman

03/07/2016 AT 09:05 AM EST A Missouri woman was found strangled to death last week in a vacation home in Cancun, Mexico, and her boyfriend was later detained at the airport while trying to leave the country, according to reports. Tamra Turpin, 36, of Union, Missouri, was found dead Wednesday in a condo she had rented with her boyfriend, John Loveless, 59, reports the A forensic examination determined she had died of asphyxia by strangulation, the AP said. Loveless was later detained at the Cancun airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Atlanta. He faces a criminal homicide investigation, the AP said. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico confirmed Turpin's death and released this statement: "We offer our sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones on their loss. Our consular staff is providing all possible consular assistance. We are also aware of reports that a U.S. citizen has been arrested in connection with her death." The embassy referred further questions to Mexican authorities. Turpin had gone to Cancun on vacation with Loveless, a local attorney, according to the , which spoke to Turpin's sister, Jodi Mills, and her cousin, Julie Burr. The couple had known each other for about a year and had vacationed together before, the women said. "She was a wonderful, sweet girl," said Mills. "We were in shock," said Burr. "I never expected anything like this." Turpin's mother, Evalena Duncan, was also shocked. "It's very difficult, very difficult," she told "And we're just praying that the truth be known, and [we're] trying to deal with comprehending that she's gone." Duncan added: "Prayers are needed for our family, prayers are needed for the family of [her] companion also." The AP said Loveless was in custody in Playa del Carmen and that he appeared before a judge on Friday but declined to make an official declaration in the case. Turpin's family has set up a to raise money to bring her body back home, which they estimate will cost $8,000.

Tamra Turpin, 36, was found dead last Wednesday of what family members said was asphyxiation

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.cnbc.com/2013/10/23/how-to-avoid-a-corporate-twitter-disaster.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160310104553id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2013/10/23/how-to-avoid-a-corporate-twitter-disaster.html

How to avoid a corporate Twitter disaster

In an effort to boost their relationship with customers, a growing number of companies are putting their executives in the line of fire by hosting highly publicized Q&As. All too often, however, they backfire. U.K. budget airline Ryanair's outspoken CEO, Michael O'Leary, sparked controversy when he took to Twitter on Monday to answer customers' questions using the hashtag #GrillMOL. But his tweets - which included a number of references to the attractiveness of female correspondents – were met with disbelief by some customers. Ryanair's Q&A followed an attempt by British Gas to win customers round on the same day it announced price rises of over 9 percent – a move that surprised a number of Twitter users. So what should companies do to avoid a Twitter Q&A fail? We asked two social media consultants – who have advised several firms on online strategies - for their tips. "Brands are too naïve. The executives need to be warned that just because people within their company treat them with respect, the masses won't," Maz Nadjm, founder of social media consultancy SoMazi, told CNBC. "People on Twitter don't care if you're the boss." British Gas' customer service director Bert Pijls appeared overwhelmed by the quantity of tweets directed his way, as the #AskBG hashtag became a means for numerous customers to vent their anger at the price hikes. But Nadjm – who has over 34,000 followers on Twitter – said that despite the risks, it was important for brands to be "out there." "People are going to discuss companies on social media, so it makes sense for them to be part of that conversation," he said. (Read more: Twitter goes head-to-head with the Bank of England) He stressed that customers did not react well when the Q&A came across like a gimmicky PR stunt. "The CEOs need to genuinely want to engage. They should be prepared to be frank and honest – and admit they have made mistakes." Make sure the CEOs know how to use Twitter It might seem obvious, but the basic functionality of Twitter appeared to have passed Ryanair's O'Leary by before he began his Twitter Q&A. "It's crucial that the whole team involved knows how to use Twitter- they don't have to be experts, but they should know how to use the site," Lynsey Sweales, CEO of social media and online marketing agency SocialB, told CNBC. Similarly, those tweeting on behalf of the company should be aware of the accepted etiquette of Twitter – and avoid being rude, Sweales added. "Executives need to be media-trained for Twitter – just like they would be for other public events. And perhaps an executive shouldn't be put up for Twitter Q&As if they're known to be controversial," she said. O'Leary not only made a number of remarks that some Twitter users deemed sexist, but also swore and tweeted risqué jokes. Sweales stressed that this light-hearted approach was a high-risk strategy: "If someone jokes on Twitter it doesn't come across in the same way as it does face-to-face. It's like email - and it's risky." Despite the controversy, however, Ryanair said it was "delighted" with the attention #GrillMOL had received, adding that it would "certainly look at holding another question and answer session soon." "It was a chance for our passengers to put their questions directly to Michael O'Leary and for him to engage with some of the 81m people we carry annually," the company said in a statement. A joined-up strategy is crucial The decision by British Gas to host a Twitter Q&A on the same day as a price hike surprised both Sweales and Nadjm. "It's phenomenal that they did it on Thursday - of course they were going to get hammered," Nadjm said. (Read more: Twitter quittersdog IPO) But British Gas stood by its decision, saying it was "the right thing to do because we are committed to being open and transparent with our customers at all times." "We also want to make clear rising prices don't have to mean rising bills and there is help available," the company said in a statement. Sweales said that part of British Gas' problem was that it came across as unprepared. "This was not a joined-up strategy – they clearly weren't prepared for the response they got," she said, adding that the company's responses had failed to address some key issues. "Twitter's great, but 140 characters don't make for a great conversation." Not all Twitter Q&As are as fraught as Ryanair's and British Gas's, however. The Bank of England successfully navigated the social media minefield last Friday – despite being asked a range of weird and wonderful questions alongside more serious ones about the U.K.'s economy. "Twitter Q&As provide a great opportunity for organizations to engage with the outside world," Nadjm added. "Especially if the executives actually explain what they're going to do about the issues, rather than avoid the issues."

In an effort to boost their relationship with customers, a growing number of companies are putting their executives up for Q&As. All too often, however, they backfire.

medium

high

extractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2013/10/23/globe-newswire-showmobile-launches-with-its-first-made-for-mobile-original-program-hitstreak.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160311132130id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2013/10/23/globe-newswire-showmobile-launches-with-its-first-made-for-mobile-original-program-hitstreak.html

ShowMobile Launches With Its First Made-for-Mobile Original Program, "HitStreak"

MIAMI, Oct. 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ShowMobile, an interactive social/mobile storytelling platform, launches today with the release of HitStreak, its first made-for-mobile music-themed scripted original series. ShowMobile's proprietary technology brings video, text messaging and social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) content from the show's cast members into a single intuitive interface, which treats all of it as story. HitStreak showcases ShowMobile's capabilities as an advanced entertainment app, creating experiences that match the consumption habits of the 40 million U.S. mobile-first teens and offering content creators a new format to deliver narratives and engage fans through this new art form. The family friendly show follows four talented YouTube stars as they try to save legendary Miami recording studio "HitStreak" with the help of their fans, friends and phones. The cast, which took four months of auditions to assemble and was hand selected to appeal to the target teen audience, includes Noah (16), Crystal (15), Brian (13), and Mariangeli (10). Chiqui Delgado, actress and host of Univision's ""Mira Quien Baila," joins the cast as a former Latin Pop Star, and Howard Hesseman of "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "Head Of The Class" fame joins as a legendary recording engineer/producer and owner/founder of "HitStreak" Studios. The creator of the HitStreak series and architect of the ShowMobile platform is Grammy-nominated producer Eric Foster White, whose diverse career spans three decades and over 70 million albums sold. Before White's musical vision helped guide aspiring artists including Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys to the forefront of pop music, he toured with legends Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Gloria Estefan. An early adopter of new technologies, White is credited with introducing Pro Tools technology to Jive Records. "Tweens and teens have irreversibly migrated to a mobile-first lifestyle. The art of storytelling must inevitably follow," said White. "To make this possible, we built a massively scalable, multi-channel social/mobile platform and created a new original series which engages and entertains this generation on their terms. It's everything they already do, we've just developed an innovative way to turn it all into story." To drive awareness and create a fun backstory prior to today's premiere episode, the cast of HitStreak has published YouTube videos covering popular songs by today's hit artists, amassing over 4 million views pre-launch. New episodes for Season One will roll out weekly on Wednesdays in the app and on ShowMobile's YouTube page one week later, with story-critical social content and text messages published continuously on the ShowMobile app. HitStreak's first season was written by Dawn DeKeyser ("Ugly Betty," "Samantha Who"). ShowMobile and White are both represented by Paradigm Agency in Los Angeles. Users can earn ShowMobile stars by reading and watching content in the app, which can be redeemed for virtual rewards. From October 23, 2013 to December 9, 2013, fans can use their stars to enter to win a trip to HitStreak Studios in Miami Beach to meet the cast and be an extra in a music video. Each 100 stars redeemed counts as one entry. Alternatively, fans can send a postcard to 407 Lincoln Rd, Suite 503, Miami Beach, FL 33139 (postmarked by December 9, 2013 received by December 16, 2013) to enter. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Data rates may apply. Open to legal U.S. & DC residents 13 to 18. Void outside U.S. and where prohibited. For Official Rules and entry details, including prize description, go to showmobile.com/rules. ShowMobile, a COPPA compliant app, is available on iOS today, with an Android version slated for release in December. To download the app and to learn more, visit ShowMobile.com. CONTACT: MEDIA CONTACTS: Laura Giangiulio Michael and Tess Finkle Metro Public Relations/310-601-3211 [email protected]/ [email protected]: ShowMobile

MIAMI, Oct. 23, 2013-- ShowMobile, an interactive social/mobile storytelling platform, launches today with the release of HitStreak, its first made-for-mobile music-themed scripted original series.

medium

high

extractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/14/stocks-end-nearly-unchanged-ahead-fed-meeting/O5iMlcVpRrmEhvHXYirnrN/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160315142624id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/14/stocks-end-nearly-unchanged-ahead-fed-meeting/O5iMlcVpRrmEhvHXYirnrN/story.html

US stocks end nearly unchanged ahead of Fed meeting

Stocks barely budged Monday. Trading was quiet ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, which is expected to shed light on the possibility of an interest rate increase. US stocks missed out on a global rally that lifted stocks in Europe and Asia; the S&P 500 fell for just the second time this month. Starwood Hotels jumped 7.8 percent after a consortium led by China’s Anbang Insurance Group offered $14 billion for the chain. Last year, Marriott International agreed to buy Starwood for $12.2 billion. Marriott rose $3 percent; it will get $400 million if Starwood backs out of the deal. The news lifted other travel companies. TripAdvisor gained 4.5 percent, while Expedia rose 1.3 percent. C. Patrick Scholes, at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said investors in Expedia and TripAdvisor hope Starwood will be sold to Anbang. He said if Marriott and Starwood combine, they’d have more power to negotiate lower commissions with online travel agencies. ‘‘If there’s no deal, that strength and bargaining power is taken away,’’ he said. Energy and materials stocks fell. The price of US crude lost 3.4 percent after Iran dismissed the idea of a production freeze.

US stocks barely budged Monday, finishing mixed as lower oil prices pulled energy companies down while hotels and travel-related companies rose.

low

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2014/02/27/language-options-for-career-training/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160316122839id_/http://fortune.com:80/2014/02/27/language-options-for-career-training/

Language options for career training

TDIndustries 100 Best Companies to Work For Rank: 82 Headquarters: Dallas Employees: 1,800 Compensation: Project managers average an annual salary of $90,000. Eighteen construction workers took a break in January from job sites around Texas to attend a class at TDIndustries headquarters in Dallas. One of the teachers was Mexican-born Alberto Sandoval, who began at the contracting services company as a plumber’s apprentice in 1998. Sandoval’s lesson plan that day had nothing to do with his expert trade. Instead he was teaching a “servant leadership” management course in his native language, Spanish. As someone who struggled with English earlier in his career and overcame the language gap to climb through the ranks and become a superintendent, Sandoval says TD’s emphasis on active listening and talent development contribute to the company’s success: “When you have respect for people, they’ll respect you. When you earn the respect from a lot of guys, that’s going to take you a long way.” Offering training courses in Spanish is part of a new push to expand advancement opportunities at TD, a firm with $430 million in sales where Hispanic and Latino workers make up 37% of the company’s total workforce. The new course joins the company’s many other training options, which include classes to learn Spanish and English, as well as GED test-prep offerings in both languages — some of the reasons it has been named one of Fortune’s Best Companies every year since the list made its debut in 1998. “We want our young leaders on the front lines to look up and say, ‘Wow, they look like me. I can go there,’ ” says Harold MacDowell, the company’s third CEO since 1946. TD also prides itself on hiring people for life, not as temps on a given project. That boosts performance, productivity, and innovation across the company’s different services, which include engineering, renovations, and maintenance. So even while executing a four-year, $100 million contract for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the company focuses on lining up future projects. “We will reduce our margins to win the right work so our people don’t get laid off,” MacDowell says. The company is 100% employee-owned, which reinforces the long view. About 1,200 people hold all the stock, at $140 a share, and senior management owns less than 20% of the pie. People department manager Jessica Pastor, who helps run TD’s Hispanic resources group, plans to grow that stockholder pool with more outreach to Spanish speakers. “Hopefully, they’ll gain a better understanding of how that investment works and how it pays out for them in the long run,” she says. Aiming for full participation in the company’s ESOP is good business — in any language. This story is from the March 17, 2014 issue of Fortune.

A construction firm levels the playing field for minority workers.

high

low

abstractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/06/30/us-penny-pinching-is-discounting-these-stocks.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160317052941id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/06/30/us-penny-pinching-is-discounting-these-stocks.html

US penny-pinching is discounting these stocks

A 6.3 percent unemployment rate remains higher than where many policymakers would like, but the rate is as low as it's been in more than five years. Though the International Monetary Fund has slashed its growth forecast for the U.S. economy to 2 percent this year, that is still better than the 1.9 percent gain the economy registered last year. "I continue to be bullish on the consumer going forward in the second half of the year and into 2015," said David Bettencourt of ETF Daily News, in an email. "Exceptionally low rates, low inflation and an uptick in jobs will fuel the consumer and the [consumer ETF] XLY. XLY also has a dividend which makes it attractive." The SPDR Discretionary ETF (XLY), the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT), and the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) have all posted declines this year even as the broader market indexes reached record highs. More specialized ETFs betting on consumer spending, such as the PowerShares Dynamic Media Portfolio (PBS) and PowerShares Dynamic Leisure & Entertainment fund (PEJ), have also turned in lackluster performance. The approaches these ETFs take to targeting consumer spending is varied. Read MoreAging stinks—at least profit from it XLY, for instance, has media companies including Walt Disney and Comcast in its top 10 holdings with Home Depot, McDonald's and Priceline.com. Vanguard's VCR also has significant exposure to media companies. The sector accounts for roughly 30 percent of both ETFs. "Some of the media companies—it could be a push to say they are consumer discretionary companies. It's not right or wrong, but some could contest that," said Spencer Bogart, an analyst with ETF.com, though he added that XLY and VCR represent the sector well overall. XLY is among the editors' picks at ETF.com and has a low 16 basis point expense ratio, among the lowest in the sector. VCR, the Vanguard ETF, casts a wider net than its rival, holding many more stocks—385 to XLY's 84. VCR's expense ratio is 14 basis points. Read MoreHow to build your own ETF There are slight sector diversions among the two biggest consumer ETFs. VCR has a 17 percent weighting in hotel and entertainment stocks; XLY reports a 1 percent stake in software and IT service. Both ETFs should do well if consumer confidence continues to slowly, but surely, improve. That hasn't yet happened in anything resembling a straight line. Recent data released by Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan June sentiment index showed an increase to 82.5, up from a preliminary reading of 81.2 and a May reading of 81.9. That was better than expectations, but still below the April level and the year-ago reading. "We are cautiously optimistic (about the future)," said Scott Hoyt, an economist at Moody's Economy.com. "The economy should be positioned to move forward more powerfully," in the second half of the year, he said.

Americans are choosing to save over spend, and that's creating an unwanted discount on these consumer spending-linked investments.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/19/googles-best-and-worst-acquisitions.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160318090839id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/08/19/googles-best-and-worst-acquisitions.html

Google's best and worst acquisitions

Google's C-suite has a lot of money, and it enjoys spending it. Since its IPO 10 years ago, Google has spent at least $23 billion buying 145 companies, according to FactSet. Of all those deals, financial analysts say three stand out as clear winners. The first is YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The price tag seemed high at the time, but YouTube has grown by leaps and bounds. The digital marketing firm eMarketer says YouTube raked in $5.6 billion in gross revenue last year alone. Another success is Android. Andy Rubin sold his company to Google in 2005, and then helped develop the mobile operating system into the global powerhouse it is today. The operating system will run on 80 percent of the smartphones sold this year, according to IDC. Read MoreFive problems Google faces going forward

Since its IPO 10 years ago, Google has spent at least $23 billion in cash on 145 companies. Analysts say three stand out as clear winners.

low

high

extractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/as-pg-sheds-brand-buffett-rejoices-others-lament.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160320044104id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/as-pg-sheds-brand-buffett-rejoices-others-lament.html

As P&G sheds brand, Buffett rejoices others lament

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Duracell batteries hang on a display rack at a supermarket in Princeton, Ill., Nov. 13, 2014. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced it will acquire Duracell from Procter & Gamble in a deal valued around $4.7 billion. The battery maker now joins Heinz, Fruit of the Loom, Benjamin Moore, Geico and other widely recognized names that make up his company's portfolio. Read More 10 top brands Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns Although Buffett's buy may delight some, P&G shareholder Carl Boeckman isn't so happy. He fears that P&G has an agenda. "When you sell off parts of a car you can make money but you don't have a car anymore," Boeckman said on CNBC's "Street Signs," suggesting he's concerned that the divestiture was an early sign of a breakup. Boeckman cited reports that P&G intends to sell up to 100 brands, or about half its brands, over the next two years, a move he finds concerning. "I asked (CEO) Alan Lafley about this and he assured me this isn't a sign of a breakup," Boeckman said. But Boeckman remains skeptical. "They've also sold Folgers coffee, Jif peanut butter, and Pringles potato chips," Boeckman said. "All these brands are making money for their new owners." Boeckman, who holds about 2,000 shares of P&G and has owned P&G stock for decades, worries that shareholders are ultimately going to pay the price for these decisions. Read MoreDuracell trade is sign Buffett is bearish on P&G P&G did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Some shareholders are unhappy about P&G's sale of Duracell to Warren Buffett.

medium

medium

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/james-corden-crashes-fan-house-colin-farrell-demi-lovato

http://web.archive.org/web/20160321073109id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/james-corden-crashes-fan-house-colin-farrell-demi-lovato?

James Corden Crashes Fan's House for Hide and Seek with Demi Lovato and More : People.com

03/17/2016 AT 11:15 AM EDT is thinking out of the box – quite literally. For Wednesday night's episode of – which marked the end of the British comedian's first year as host – he decided that instead of shooting in the CBS studio, he would bring his show "to the people" and film the entire episode in a random person's living room. He packed up his entire crew, and after (and getting turned down by a few residents!), he stumbled into the home of Natalie and her three friends. And of course, to his fans' delight, he also had a few celebrity guests with him: James Corden and his guests To break the ice, Corden, 37, decided a game of hide-and-seek was in order, sending his guests and Natalie off to hide while he counted to 20 in the living room. Sykes, 52, opted for the most clever hiding spot: in plain sight, by taking the seat of the show's bandleader and announcer Reggie Watts at the keyboard, right across from Corden himself. Lovato snuck up a flight of stairs into the attic, Farrell concealed himself in a hallway closet and Natalie chose her own bedroom. Once everyone was hidden, Corden eagerly set out to find them, completely (and hilariously) missing Sykes in the process. He found Natalie first, then ventured upstairs to find pop star Lovato, 23. He then strolled back through the living room and exploded up with laughter upon coming face-to-face with Sykes: "Have you been there the whole time? No way. Shut up! You're joking," he said in disbelief, as Sykes joked: "Little bit racist!" The winner ended up being Farrell, 39, who joked he actually felt like the loser: "It's not as much fun winning! When you win you just feel unloved. You hear all this laughter and you're in a cupboard, [hiding]," he said with a laugh. Watch the clip above to see the entire game unfold. airs weeknights at 12:37 a.m. ET on CBS.

James Corden decided to shoot Wednesday's episode in a random fan's living room

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/04/ukraine-cyberattack-on-communications-mps-phones-blocked.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160322045852id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/04/ukraine-cyberattack-on-communications-mps-phones-blocked.html

Ukraine: Cyberattack on communications, MPs phones blocked

"I know they have the ability to do at least as much damage as they did in Estonia and Georgia," he said. Estonia suffered a 10-day attack on its Internet services in 2007, which caused major disruptions to its financial system, during a spat with Moscow over a Soviet-era war memorial, and Georgia was hit by mass cyberattacks during a brief 2008 war with Russia over its pro-Moscow South Ossetia region. Russian authorities denied direct involvement in both attacks, saying they had no influence over the actions of self-styled patriotic hackers. Much of Ukraine's telecommunications infrastructure was built when it was part of the Soviet Union, along with what is now the Russian Federation, and is particularly vulnerable to penetration by Moscow. "The Russians have the place completely wired," said Jim Lewis, a former U.S. foreign service officer and now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They are right next door and most traffic has to go through Russia. That they haven't done more probably reflects their confidence that they're going to come out ahead and there's nothing anyone can do about it," Lewis said. Cyberwarfare experts say that while Russia certainly has the ability to conduct such campaigns against Ukraine, it has yet to need to use those capabilities. "This would show the Russians acting with more discretion and targeting than recently," said John Bassett, former head of the London and Washington stations of GCHQ, Britain's top secret government communications center. (Read more: Ukraine crisis: Latest news and market reaction) "This wouldn't expose any great depth of their technological capability and they would be keeping the harder stuff back," said Bassett, now associate at Oxford University's Cyber Security Centre. Marty Martin, a former senior operations officer with the CIA, said Moscow would likely only take action to damage Ukraine's Internet and internal communications systems if hostilities broke out. "A lot of times you don't want to shut things down. If you do that, then you don't get your flow of intelligence. You are probably better off monitoring it," Martin said. Experts believe Russia was behind the hacking of a confidential phone conversation between senior U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, which was leaked over YouTube last month. "Russia's strategy is control the narrative, discredit opponents, and coerce," Lewis said.

Some telephone services were severed after Russian forces seized control of airfields in Crimea, but now lawmakers are being targeted, Ukraine says.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/18/with-easter-coming-how-decipher-egg-labels/MOJizHdJSaZC5xDf3dq1QJ/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160323205012id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/18/with-easter-coming-how-decipher-egg-labels/MOJizHdJSaZC5xDf3dq1QJ/story.html

With Easter coming, how to decipher egg labels

Easter, as the song says, is on its way. And when we head to the store this year to buy the necessary eggs for coloring, we will face an unparalleled array of options. As the trend toward sustainable eating has ballooned in recent years, the egg producers have responded with cage-free, free-range, and humane versions of the kitchen staple. For the socially conscious shopper, this sounds like the egg industry is moving in the right direction. But how should a concerned consumer decipher the labels adorning their dozen? What, really, is the difference between cage-free, organic, and humane eggs? Here’s how to tell what you’re really buying. Conventional eggs: The bulk of eggs sold in the United States are produced in this fashion, coming from chickens in cages. Supporters of conventional methods say these confines give the birds shelter and security; opponents argue the cages limit movement and crowd hens in a way that is both cruel and unsanitary. The least expensive eggs, these can cost less than $2 per dozen. Cage-free: To earn this label, eggs must come from chickens that are not confined in cages. These hens are given free access to water and food, and room to move about, though animal advocates note the birds are generally limited to indoor spaces and often crowded in quite tightly. As of September 2015, cage-free hens made up about 8.6 percent of the US egg-laying flock. Cage-free eggs can be priced as low as $2.25 per dozen. Cage-free eggs are not to be confused with those labeled “free-range.” Free-range chickens must also have access to some outdoor space. Organic: To qualify as organic, eggs must come from hens given food grown without pesticides. The chickens must not receive antibiotics or hormones and should have access to the outdoors, though the regulations do not specify the size or quality of the outdoor area. Organic certification generally increases the price of a dozen eggs to more than $4. Certified Humane: To earn this label, eggs must meet a rigorous set of standards developed by nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care. Requirements include a prohibition on animal by-products in feed, clean litter on floors, daily exposure to light and darkness, sufficient space to perch without disturbance, and twice-daily inspections to ensure birds are not sick or injured. Generally, these eggs are priced from $4 to $6 per dozen.

With the trend toward sustainable eating ballooning, egg producers have responded with cage-free, free-range, and humane versions.

medium

high

extractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-disappearing-perk-of-being-a-road-warrior-1422468467

http://web.archive.org/web/20160324155858id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-disappearing-perk-of-being-a-road-warrior-1422468467

A Disappearing Perk of Being a Road Warrior

Philip Rushton wasn’t surprised when the business-class upgrades he’d requested on recent United Airlines flights to Hong Kong and back didn’t come through. After all, frequent fliers are having less and less success landing upgrades these days. What he didn’t expect, though, was no refund of the $1,200 he paid United in advance for the possible upgrade. The miles required for the upgrades were returned to his account, but not the cash “copay’’ of $600 each way. He called to complain and United put through the refund, with an airline supervisor telling him the system had been broken for several years. “What if people forget about the charge and never call?” asked Mr. Rushton, who travels frequently as president of a private-jet consulting and marketing firm. Three times in the past two years, he said, he has failed to get a requested, paid-for upgrade—and received refunds only after calling United to complain. United says only a “small number’’ of customers haven’t received such refunds automatically. The airline says it isn’t sure why but hopes to have the problem fixed this year. Upgrades are one of the most prized perks in travel and a big reason fliers are loyal to particular airlines, hoarding miles to use later to move up to the front of the plane. But as airlines sell more premium seats rather than reward frequent fliers, upgrades increasingly are a source of frustration because they have become so complex, costly and infrequent. United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson says the airline decided in the past week to begin re-evaluating its upgrade process following many complaints, including about its policy of charging people months ahead for upgrades that might not be granted. The goal is to “make the process simpler and friendlier,’’ Mr. Johnson said. Changes could come later this year. Both Delta Air Lines and United acknowledge that their customers are having less success getting upgrades on domestic flights, where they offer complimentary upgrades to elite-level frequent fliers, because the airlines are selling more first-class fares. United says it reduced first-class fares in North America in 2014 to put more paying customers in premium seats. Delta said the percentage of first-class seats filled with paying customers jumped 12% last year. There are other reasons upgrades have gotten rarer. Airline mergers have fused frequent-flier programs, so there is a potentially larger pool of elite-level customers vying for upgrades on any particular flight. Also, more frequent-flier miles are in circulation, and more passengers are willing to spend them on upgrades. Why? Free tickets are even harder to find than in the past, and cramped coach conditions have made upgrades a more-enticing way to use miles, even for occasional travelers. Airlines also now have an arsenal of ways to sell upgrades. Some make the upgrade list available on their mobile phone apps, for example, along with the opportunity to pay to confirm an upgrade—typically $50 to $250 for a domestic flight, more on an overseas international flight—rather than wait for a possible free upgrade. When you see you are No. 22 on the list, you become more willing to pay, and that means the customer at No. 3 may never get upgraded. Matthew Bennett, who publishes the newsletter First Class Flyer, even suggests buying miles from airlines to convert to upgrades, if you don’t have enough. A round-trip business-class upgrade to Europe on Delta costs 50,000 miles, an amount you can often get by signing up for a new credit card or by purchasing the miles for $1,750. A round trip between New York and Paris in mid-February was priced this week at just $1,024 in coach and $7,728 in business class—meaning you could buy the coach ticket, buy the miles and fly business class for almost $5,000 less than the cost of buying a business-class ticket. The strategy doesn’t always work, though. Some flights and some coach fares aren’t eligible for upgrades. Airlines have completely done away with complimentary upgrades on some domestic flights. Delta, United and American all now offer lie-flat business-class beds on New York-to-California flights, giving transcontinental service the same kind of perks found on international flights. With the improvements, though, Delta no longer offer complimentary upgrades on most trans-con flights. United doesn’t offer complimentary upgrades on its ``p.s.’’ premium service flights. Instead, passengers have to buy upgrades with miles, cash or both, just as with overseas flights. American hasn’t changed its policy on upgrades for trans-con flights. And then there’s the practice of selling upgrades far in advance, but not confirming the seat until close to departure. After their merger, United adopted Continental Airlines’ practice of requiring prepayment of upgrades on international flights when customers put in their request, which can be 11 months in advance of a departure. The airline holds on to the money all that time. United’s Mr. Johnson said at the time of the merger, it was a lower priority to reprogram Continental’s “Shares” computer system to match the United policy of charging customers for upgrades only when they were actually confirmed. When a customer doesn’t get an upgrade because seats are filled with either business-class ticketed customers, employees or frequent fliers with higher status, that customer is supposed to get a refund of the upgrade fee. Mr. Johnson says in some cases refunds had to be processed manually because of changes in the original itinerary. In other cases, such as Mr. Rushton’s November trip from Newark, N.J., to Hong Kong and back, United said it isn’t sure why refunds didn’t go through automatically. The airline said it doesn’t believe customers lost out on refunds due to a failure to call and complain—because audits would have uncovered missing refunds. American charges customers for upgrades on international flights when the upgrades are actually confirmed, not when the customer makes the request. Delta collects miles for international upgrades without cash copayments. Some airlines are trying to cash in on the upgrade anxiety at bigger rivals. Virgin America currently offers to match elite-level status that passengers have at other airlines, and it is running a social-media video campaign called “Loyalty Made Me Do It.’’ In one video, a man operates an arcade game with a claw crane, trying to grab toys labeled “seat upgrade’’ and “first-class upgrade.’’ He loses every time. A woman next to him remarks, “It’s almost like it’s designed for you to never win.’’ “It’s the overall frustration with deteriorating benefits and service’’ that Virgin America is trying to capitalize on, spokeswoman Abby Lunardini said. Write to Scott McCartney at [email protected]

It’s Getting Harder and Costing More for Frequent Fliers to Get an Upgrade to First Class

high

medium

mixed

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Will-49ers-Chip-Kelly-Colin-Kaepernick-ever-7044875.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20160325183314id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Will-49ers-Chip-Kelly-Colin-Kaepernick-ever-7044875.php

Will 49ers’ Chip Kelly, Colin Kaepernick ever work together?

Photo: Billy Hurst, Associated Press San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, in St. Louis. The Rams won 27-6. (AP Photo/Billy Hurst) San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, in St. Louis. The Rams won 27-6. (AP Photo/Billy Will 49ers’ Chip Kelly, Colin Kaepernick ever work together? Chip Kelly has a reasonable explanation for Colin Kaepernick’s 2015 nosedive, but it just happens to be inaccurate. In Kelly’s telling, the 49ers’ quarterback struggled because of injuries to his left shoulder, right thumb and left knee, all of which have required surgery since late November. “I think people forget about that,” Kelly said last month at the combine. “… There was something wrong with him.” On Wednesday, at the NFL owners’ meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., Kelly delivered the same message to reporters: “It’s not like his skill set diminished,” Kelly said. “… He didn’t fall off. He got hurt.” The problem with Kelly’s argument: Kaepernick was statistically better last year after his first significant injury. To review: Kaepernick was healthy for the season’s first three games before suffering a shoulder injury that was later revealed to be a torn labrum in Week 4. He tore a thumb ligament in Week 7 and hurt his knee in Week 8, which was his last start before he was benched. In his first three starts, when he was healthy, Kaepernick three two touchdown passes and four interceptions and had a 71.1 passer rating. In his final five starts, he threw four touchdown passes and one interception and had an 83.4 rating. This isn’t news to Kelly, an offensive mind attuned to quarterbacks who realizes Kaepernick’s issues extend beyond physical ailments. So why is Kelly ignoring the truth to woo an unhappy player whose passer rating has declined in each season since his dazzling 2012 debut? Well, Kelly’s situation is similar to what Jim Harbaugh faced when he was hired by the 49ers in 2011: Harbaugh saw potential in Alex Smith, the 2005 No. 1 overall pick, but he also couldn’t be too picky. His other on-the-roster options included David Carr and Troy Smith. Five years later, Kelly’s only other quarterback with starting potential on the current roster is Blaine Gabbert. Harbaugh, of course, persuaded Smith, then a free agent, to re-sign with the 49ers and helped jump-start his languishing career. It’s possible a similar scenario could unfold with Kelly and Kaepernick, who has requested a trade but remains with the 49ers despite spending more than two weeks on the open market. On Thursday, the chances of Kaepernick staying with 49ers might have increased when a potential trade partner — the Browns — signed former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III. With the Browns no longer a trade option, the Broncos are the only other team that has negotiated with the 49ers. However, talks with the Broncos have stalled because they reportedly have placed a fourth-round value on Kaepernick. The 49ers have maintained they are prepared to keep Kaepernick and pay him his $11.9 million base salary, which becomes guaranteed next Friday. Still, it’s premature to say Kelly will get his chance to resurrect Kaepernick’s career. It’s telling that Kelly’s private conversations with Kaepernick — combined with Kelly’s public praising — haven’t persuaded the quarterback to rescind his trade request. It highlights the fact that Kelly faces a more difficult challenge than Harbaugh inherited. In 2011, Smith was disenchanted with the 49ers largely because he thought he’d been undermined and mismanaged by defensive-minded head coaches Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary. Given that, Smith was swayed by the chance to finally play for a head coach with offensive chops. Unlike Smith, Kaepernick’s issues are largely with the 49ers’ still-intact front office, which he believes has undermined him. As a result, Denver general manager John Elway might be waiting on the 49ers to see how they answer this question: Are they really willing to give their biggest salary to the player who might have the biggest problems with the organization? Kelly has said he’s excited to work with Kaepernick, once his body has fully healed. The problem for Kelly: Kaepernick’s bruised feelings could linger. Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Eric_Branch

In Kelly’s telling, the 49ers’ quarterback struggled because of injuries to his left shoulder, right thumb and left knee, all of which have required surgery since late November. On Wednesday, at the NFL owners’ meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., Kelly delivered the same message to reporters: “It’s not like his skill set diminished,” Kelly said. … Kaepernick was healthy for the season’s first three games before suffering a shoulder injury that was later revealed to be a torn labrum in Week 4. In his first three starts, when he was healthy, Kaepernick three two touchdown passes and four interceptions and had a 71.1 passer rating. In his final five starts, he threw four touchdown passes and one interception and had an 83.4 rating. [...] why is Kelly ignoring the truth to woo an unhappy player whose passer rating has declined in each season since his dazzling 2012 debut? Harbaugh, of course, persuaded Smith, then a free agent, to re-sign with the 49ers and helped jump-start his languishing career. On Thursday, the chances of Kaepernick staying with 49ers might have increased when a potential trade partner — the Browns — signed former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III. [...] talks with the Broncos have stalled because they reportedly have placed a fourth-round value on Kaepernick. The 49ers have maintained they are prepared to keep Kaepernick and pay him his $11.9 million base salary, which becomes guaranteed next Friday.

low

high

extractive

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/49ers-season-will-be-part-of-rebuilding-project-7182493.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20160328063219id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/49ers-season-will-be-part-of-rebuilding-project-7182493.php

49ers’ season will be part of rebuilding project

Photo: Darron Cummings, Associated Press 1. Baalke has to say “absolutely” that he wants Kaepernick, because he doesn’t want a malcontent on the team if the 49ers have no other option to retain Kaepernick for the 2016 season. 1. Baalke has to say “absolutely” that he wants Kaepernick, because he doesn’t want a malcontent on the team if the 49ers have no other option to retain Kaepernick for the 2016 season. FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2015, file photo, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) throws a pass in front of Baltimore Ravens strong safety Will Hill (33) during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif. San Francisco general manager Trent Baalke said Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, he expects Kaepernick to be with the 49ers next season. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2015, file photo, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) throws a pass in front of Baltimore Ravens strong safety Will Hill (33) during the first half of an NFL football San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York, Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke smile after Kelly is introduced as the team's new head coach at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York, Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke smile after Kelly is introduced as the team's new head coach at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Chip Kelly responds to questions from reporters after he is introduced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers by general manager Trent Baalke (right) at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. Chip Kelly responds to questions from reporters after he is introduced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers by general manager Trent Baalke (right) at a news conference at Levi's Stadium in Santa 49ers’ season will be part of rebuilding project A year after general manager Trent Baalke memorably declared the 49ers weren’t rebuilding but reloading, he was posed this question in January: What are you doing now? “I don’t think anybody will admit in the National Football League that they are in rebuild mode,” Baalke said. “I think we’ve got a lot of nice young pieces, guys who have a lot of experience, several key veteran guys coming back. We’ve got a lot of ammunition over the next several months to improve this football team via free agency, the draft. So I like where this team is, but we have a lot of work to do.” That’s a wordy answer that could have been chopped from 77 words to two. What Baalke said: We’re rebuilding. It might not be an admission GMs make publicly — tickets must be sold, after all — but Baalke’s inaction since free agency began March 9 has spoken for him. The 49ers are committed to a start-from-scratch youth movement and are buckling up in anticipation of a bumpy 2016. As Baalke noted, the 49ers have a lot of work to do, but they’ve done next to nothing with their $50-plus million in salary-cap space. Their free-agent signings: well-traveled quarterback Thad Lewis and guard Zane Beadles, who is probably a downgrade from his predecessor, Alex Boone, who signed with the Vikings. The 49ers have eschewed patching their roster with veterans at least partly because they thought the best players in a so-so free-agent class were wildly overpriced. However, they also know they aren’t a few big-money players away from competing. And they plan to use 12 draft picks to add to what they consider their best asset: the potential of young players. The team’s youth was what head coach Chip Kelly cited last month when asked for his impressions of the roster he inherited. What did Kelly glean after studying video of a 5-11 season in which the 49ers ranked last in points scored, 29th (of 32 teams) in total defense and had the NFL’s second-worst point difference? “I was impressed with the overall athleticism and youth of the team,” Kelly said. “… I think there’s some really good young talent on the team.” Left unsaid: The 49ers will try to get things done in 2016 with players who haven’t done much in the NFL. Consider the 49ers have three players with more than six career sacks, two wide receivers or tight ends with more than 40 career catches, one player with more than 10 career interceptions, and zero running backs with as many as 900 career rushing yards. Of the 70 players on their roster, 50 have three or fewer seasons of NFL experience. They will try to add several high-impact rookies with their draft picks. Baalke referenced those selections last week when asked about his on-the-sidelines approach to free agency. “We haven’t done much,” Baalke told reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings. “We’re a draft-and-develop team. That’s what we are.” However, the 49ers are in their current position partly because they haven’t drafted and developed well enough. None of their 40 selections since 2012 has been selected to a Pro Bowl (safety Eric Reid went as an alternate in 2013) and Baalke’s draft-and-stash strategy hasn’t worked. From 2012 through ’14, he used five of his 23 picks on players coming off significant knee injuries, spending second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and seventh-round selections on those rehabbing prospects. Last year, two of those players weren’t in the NFL and the remaining three played an average of 103 snaps for the 49ers. In many cases, Baalke’s string of uninspiring drafts has meant the 49ers haven’t been able to adequately replace decorated players. For example, defensive lineman Tank Carradine (second round, 2013) hasn’t filled the Justin Smith void, guard Brandon Thomas (third round, 2014) hasn’t replaced Mike Iupati and tight end Vance McDonald (second round, 2013) hasn’t made anyone forget an in-his-prime Vernon Davis. Baalke did find a solid replacement for Patrick Willis in Chris Borland, but the 2014 third-round pick retired after a stellar rookie season. It’s also clear Carlos Hyde (second round, 2014) is a No. 1 running back, but he already has been sidelined for 11 games, one fewer than his predecessor, Frank Gore, has missed in his 11-year career. The bottom line is Baalke’s recent drafts haven’t been good enough and he can’t afford to whiff in 2016. The 49ers do have 12 picks, but their haul is bottom heavy. They have three of the first 104 picks and nine selections are in the fourth through sixth rounds. Not many general managers consistently mine solid starters in the later rounds and Baalke is no different. Since 2012, he has selected 26 players after the third round, and just two — defensive tackle Quinton Dial and outside linebacker Aaron Lynch — are clear 2016 starters. Such facts help explain why the present outlook is bleak, but there is reason for some optimism. The 49ers will have at least 10 more draft picks in 2017 and will also carry over a small fortune to next year’s salary cap. If that capital is used wisely, a turnaround is possible. But that’s not likely to happen this season. Before a potential revival, there will be rebuilding. Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Eric_Branch A look at the 49ers’ leaders in various categories:

49ers’ season will be part of rebuilding project A year after general manager Trent Baalke memorably declared the 49ers weren’t rebuilding but reloading, he was posed this question in January: “I don’t think anybody will admit in the National Football League that they are in rebuild mode,” Baalke said. The 49ers are committed to a start-from-scratch youth movement and are buckling up in anticipation of a bumpy 2016. The 49ers have eschewed patching their roster with veterans at least partly because they thought the best players in a so-so free-agent class were wildly overpriced. [...] they plan to use 12 draft picks to add to what they consider their best asset: the potential of young players. The team’s youth was what head coach Chip Kelly cited last month when asked for his impressions of the roster he inherited. What did Kelly glean after studying video of a 5-11 season in which the 49ers ranked last in points scored, 29th (of 32 teams) in total defense and had the NFL’s second-worst point difference? The 49ers will try to get things done in 2016 with players who haven’t done much in the NFL. Consider the 49ers have three players with more than six career sacks, two wide receivers or tight ends with more than 40 career catches, one player with more than 10 career interceptions, and zero running backs with as many as 900 career rushing yards. Of the 70 players on their roster, 50 have three or fewer seasons of NFL experience. “We haven’t done much,” Baalke told reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings. None of their 40 selections since 2012 has been selected to a Pro Bowl (safety Eric Reid went as an alternate in 2013) and Baalke’s draft-and-stash strategy hasn’t worked. From 2012 through ’14, he used five of his 23 picks on players coming off significant knee injuries, spending second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and seventh-round selections on those rehabbing prospects. Last year, two of those players weren’t in the NFL and the remaining three played an average of 103 snaps for the 49ers. In many cases, Baalke’s string of uninspiring drafts has meant the 49ers haven’t been able to adequately replace decorated players. [...] defensive lineman Tank Carradine (second round, 2013) hasn’t filled the Justin Smith void, guard Brandon Thomas (third round, 2014) hasn’t replaced Mike Iupati and tight end Vance McDonald (second round, 2013) hasn’t made anyone forget an in-his-prime Vernon Davis. Baalke did find a solid replacement for Patrick Willis in Chris Borland, but the 2014 third-round pick retired after a stellar rookie season. Not many general managers consistently mine solid starters in the later rounds and Baalke is no different. Since 2012, he has selected 26 players after the third round, and just two — defensive tackle Quinton Dial and outside linebacker Aaron Lynch — are clear 2016 starters. The 49ers will have at least 10 more draft picks in 2017 and will also carry over a small fortune to next year’s salary cap. Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

low

high

extractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-taliban-easter-1459117543

http://web.archive.org/web/20160328111338id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/a-taliban-easter-1459117543

A Taliban Easter

March 27, 2016 6:25 p.m. ET There aren’t many Christians left in Pakistan, but that’s still too many for the Taliban. A splinter group of the Pakistani faction of the Islamist terror group claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Christians celebrating in a park in Lahore on Easter Sunday. At least 65 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 300 others were injured as the terrorists targeted a children’s park in Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city. “Members of the Christian community who were celebrating Easter today... There aren’t many Christians left in Pakistan, but that’s still too many for the Taliban. A splinter group of the Pakistani faction of the Islamist terror group claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Christians celebrating in a park in Lahore on Easter Sunday. At least 65 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 300 others were injured as the terrorists targeted a children’s park in Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city. “Members of the Christian community who were celebrating Easter today were our prime target,” said a Taliban spokesman who called NBC News from the safety of an undisclosed location. Islamist attacks on Christians during religious holidays is becoming routine, as the jihadists strive for maximum political impact. While Europe tries to find and break up jihadist networks after last week’s bombing in Brussels, the Pakistan murders are a reminder that the jihadists are killing even more people in Muslim-majority countries. The victims are Muslims and Christians. Mass-casualty terrorism has become an almost daily occurrence, and there’s a danger that the world will become inured to it as a new normal. That is dangerous. A terror group that targets women and children without remorse wouldn’t hesitate to kill tens of thousands, even millions, if it can acquire the means.

A Taliban Easter: The casualties will be worse when jihadists acquire WMD, says a Wall Street Journal editorial.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/06/boring-stocks-that-generate-rd-heatand-profits.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160329091221id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/08/06/boring-stocks-that-generate-rd-heatand-profits.html

Boring stocks that generate R&D heat-and profits

"RQ is NOT about spending. It's about productivity of that spending," said Anne Marie Knott, professor of strategy at Washington University in St. Louis and creator of the Research Quotient (RQ) model for measuring optimal R&D. This year Oshkosh had a higher RQ (a measure of R&D productivity that links R&D spending to corporate revenue growth and market value) than Silicon Valley darlings like Google and Netflix. How did Oshkosh do it? A good place to begin answering this question is with a fire hydrant. "A hose that fits a hydrant in Phoenix will not fit a hydrant in New York City," said Gary Schmiedel, executive vice president of technology at Oshkosh, the market leader in fire truck manufacturing. "It's not exactly high tech, but from a practical standpoint, you have to deal with all those things." The average buyer of a fire truck has about 20,000 options to consider, according to Oshkosh. There are decisions to be made about suspension, ladder height, color and water pumping. Read MoreThe all-time R&D hall of fame: Who got in? Product challenges with many variables require innovation, but the products don't need to be sexy to require advanced R&D thinking. At Dow Chemical, a product as ordinary as exterior house paint is a global innovation challenge. When designing a new paint, Dow needs to take into account the materials that are most commonly used for home exteriors across the regions of the U.S., and the fact that in Saudi Arabia the sand will erode paint, and that in India it pours for months every year. "How can one project attack all of those problems?" said A.N. Sreeram, vice president of research and development at Dow. Not just dealing with but also constantly improving and rethinking all of the variables has made Oshkosh a hotbed for innovation. One of the company's most popular fire truck innovations is Side-Roll Protection: a system of electronic sensors, automatic-tighten seatbelts and side-curtain air bags developed, in part, as a response to a troubling number of firefighter deaths en route to the scene of a fire (since 2004, 62 firefighters have been killed while driving or operating their vehicles, according to the U.S. Fire Administration). You may not expect to hear it from Oshkosh, but Schmiedel said, "If we don't innovate, we die."

Investors seeking steady gains on innovation should look past tech buzz. When R&D productivity is measured, 'boring' stocks often lead.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.9news.com.au/technology/2016/03/31/12/38/indonesias-hobbits-disappeared-earlier-than-thought

http://web.archive.org/web/20160401004457id_/http://www.9news.com.au:80/technology/2016/03/31/12/38/indonesias-hobbits-disappeared-earlier-than-thought

Indonesia's 'hobbits' disappeared earlier than thought: study

Archaeologists in 2012 at the Flores dig site. (AAP) New discoveries at the Indonesian cave site of Liang Bua are changing the way we look at the mysterious Homo floresiensis – known as "hobbits" because of their short stature. We originally believed these hobbits disappeared around 12,000 years ago, but it appears they may have actually died out long before this, around 40,000 years earlier. Research published in Nature today shows they used the cave between 190,000 and 50,000 years ago. The finding, by ourselves and a team of international researchers, puts the disappearance of Homo floresiensis at around the same time that modern humans (Homo sapiens) first spread through the region and reached Australia. But whether these two species of hominin (primates more closely related to modern humans than to living apes) ever interacted, and our ancestors can be blamed for the hobbits' demise, remain open questions until direct evidence is found placing modern humans at the scene. At present, the earliest evidence for modern humans on Flores is just 11,000 years old. An artist's depiction of the so-called 'Hobbit'. (National Geographic/AP Photo) The original discovery of Homo floresiensis was made back in September 2003, in the fading light of an archaeological excavation on the Indonesian island. The skeletal remains of this primitive, small-brained and diminutive hominin were found buried six metres below the ground surface at Liang Bua, an impressive limestone cave in the island’s western highlands. In the same deposits as the remains of this new species were stone artefacts and the remains of pygmy elephant (Stegodon), giant marabou stork, vulture and komodo dragon. Samples of charcoal and sediment were collected for radiocarbon and luminescence dating. The resulting age estimates of just 18,000 years ago for the type specimen – i.e. the specimen that is used to name the species – of the hobbit, known as LB1, sent shock waves through the paleoanthropological community. Fragmentary remains of other individuals were found in layers then thought to be deposited as recently as 12,000 years ago. The tiny hominin presented us with puzzles aplenty. It has an appearance most similar to fossil human species that lived in Africa and Asia between one and three million years ago. So how and when did this species or its ancestors get to this remote island? And how did it apparently manage to survive on Flores for 40,000 years after the first Australians had already passed through this island archipelago? Elsewhere in the world, first contact of a native fauna with modern humans usually ends badly for the endemic animals. Not so, it seemed, with the hardy hobbits. The revision in the last-appearance age for Homo floresiensis is the culmination of eight further years of painstaking excavation and study of the cave deposits at Liang Bua by many of the same researchers involved in the original discovery. The key breakthrough has been the recognition of a major break in the deposit of the sedimentary layers – a “stratigraphic unconformity” – immediately above LB1 as a result of one or more erosional events in the past. As the excavations were extended each year, it became increasingly clear that all of the skeletal remains of Homo floresiensis, and the stone tools made by the hobbits, came from a large remnant pedestal of deposit that accumulated between 190,000 and 50,000 years ago. At the location of LB1, the hobbit-bearing deposits are truncated by a steeply sloping surface, which is capped by sediments that accumulated only in the last 20,000 years. It was those sediments that had been inadvertently dated in the original study. We now know that the stratigraphic sequence at Liang Bua is far more complex than had originally been thought. So, can we be confident in our new interpretation of the stratigraphy and chronology for the home of the hobbit? We think so. By excavating more of the cave deposits in the past decade, we have added many new pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of how the site has formed. This results in a vastly improved picture of what was deposited where, when and how in the cave. We have also used a range of new dating techniques, some of which were not available in 2003. As with technical developments in other fields of science, such as ancient DNA, time has also marched on with improvements to geochronology methods. For example, the bones of LB1 and two other hobbits were dated using the latest uranium-series methods, while the associated sediments were dated using infrared stimulated luminescence procedures that were developed only in 2011. These and other dating techniques, including radiocarbon, thermoluminescence and argon dating, provide a new, more robust chronology for Liang Bua and the prehistoric hominins that used this cave in the past. There are still many chapters of hobbit history to be written. When did the ancestors of Homo floresiensis first arrive on Flores and what did they look like? When did hobbits finally go extinct, and did modern humans play any role in their downfall? Liang Bua still holds many secrets, but a single site can provide only a snapshot in time. So the search is on for more hobbit sites, spanning a wider geographic area, both on Flores and elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago. A decade from now, we hope to have found many more pieces of this prehistoric puzzle in human evolution. Thomas Sutikna, PhD candidate in archaeological science, University of Wollongong; Matthew Tocheri, Canada Research Chair in Human Origins, Lakehead University, and Richard 'Bert' Roberts, ARC Australian Laureate Fellow, University of Wollongong This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

A group of extinct human relatives dubbed "hobbits" disappeared much longer ago than previously thought, archaeologists said yesterday.

high

low

abstractive

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Source-Colin-Kaepernick-will-report-for-49ers-7226770.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20160405080914id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Source-Colin-Kaepernick-will-report-for-49ers-7226770.php

Source: Colin Kaepernick will report for 49ers’ offseason program

Colin Kaepernick (7) walks off the field toward the locker room as the San Francisco 49ers played the Atlanta Falcons at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, November 8, 2015. Colin Kaepernick (7) walks off the field toward the locker room as the San Francisco 49ers played the Atlanta Falcons at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, November 8, 2015. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, in St. Louis. The Rams won 27-6. (AP Photo/Billy Hurst) San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, in St. Louis. The Rams won 27-6. (AP Photo/Billy San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) walks on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) walks on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Ben Colin Kaepernick (7) smiled as the last seconds ticked off for a 49er victory Sunday January 12, 2014. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers 23-10 in Charlotte, North Carolina to advance to the NFC title game against Seattle. Colin Kaepernick (7) smiled as the last seconds ticked off for a 49er victory Sunday January 12, 2014. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers 23-10 in Charlotte, North Carolina to advance to the NFC San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) tries to get away from Atlanta Falcons outside linebacker Stephen Nicholas (54) and defensive tackle Peria Jerry (94) during the first quarter at Candlestick Park on Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) tries to get away from Atlanta Falcons outside linebacker Stephen Nicholas (54) and defensive tackle Peria Jerry (94) during the first quarter at Candlestick 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, (7) warming up before the start of the game as the San Francisco 49ers prepare to take on the St. Louis Rams at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Ca., on Sunday Dec. 1, 2013. 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, (7) warming up before the start of the game as the San Francisco 49ers prepare to take on the St. Louis Rams at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Ca., on Sunday Dec. 1, 2013. Colin Kaepernick completed a short pass to Frank Gore in the second half. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the St. Louis Rams 23-13 at Candlestick Park Sunday December 1, 2013. Colin Kaepernick completed a short pass to Frank Gore in the second half. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the St. Louis Rams 23-13 at Candlestick Park Sunday December 1, 2013. Colin Kaepernick shows off his many tattoos at the 49ers practice facility. Colin Kaepernick shows off his many tattoos at the 49ers practice facility. Colin Kaepernick (7) congratulates Vernon Davis in the endzone after his touchdown. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the St. Louis Rams 23-13 at Candlestick Park Sunday December 1, 2013. Colin Kaepernick (7) congratulates Vernon Davis in the endzone after his touchdown. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the St. Louis Rams 23-13 at Candlestick Park Sunday December 1, 2013. Seattle's Ricardo Lockette, (left) and 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick, exchange uniforns at the end of the game, as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 19-17, at Candlestick Park on Sunday Dec. 8, 2013, in San Francisco, Ca. Seattle's Ricardo Lockette, (left) and 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick, exchange uniforns at the end of the game, as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 19-17, at Candlestick Park on Sunday San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, (7) reacts after further review of a catch by the 49ers Vernon Davis, was ruled a touchdown, during the second quarter as the San Francisco 49ers take on the Carolina Panthers in the NFC divisional playoffs in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday Jan. 12, 2014, at Bank of America stadium. San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, (7) reacts after further review of a catch by the 49ers Vernon Davis, was ruled a touchdown, during the second quarter as the San Francisco 49ers take on the Carolina Panthers Colin Kaepernick (7) ran over the goal line for a touchdown early in the third quarter Sunday January 12, 2014. Luke Kuechly (59) tried to defend. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers 23-10 in Charlotte, North Carolina to advance to the NFC title game against Seattle. Colin Kaepernick (7) ran over the goal line for a touchdown early in the third quarter Sunday January 12, 2014. Luke Kuechly (59) tried to defend. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers 23-10 in Colin Kaepernick (7) took off for a first down run in the second half Sunday January 19, 2014. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 to win the NFC championship and a trip to the Super Bowl at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Colin Kaepernick (7) took off for a first down run in the second half Sunday January 19, 2014. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 to win the NFC championship and a trip to the Super San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) walks off the field after the 49ers defeated the Atlanta Falcons at Candlestick Park on Monday December 23, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. It is the last home game the 49ers will have at Candlestick Park before the stadium is demolished. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) walks off the field after the 49ers defeated the Atlanta Falcons at Candlestick Park on Monday December 23, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. It is the last 49ers qb Colin Kaepernick The San Francisco 49ers play the Jacksonville Jaguars in game two, of the NFL International Series at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, October 27. 27/10/13, photo: Sean Ryan /NFL 49ers qb Colin Kaepernick The San Francisco 49ers play the Jacksonville Jaguars in game two, of the NFL International Series at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, October 27. 27/10/13, photo: Sean Ryan Quarterback Colin Kaepernick puts on his helmet on Nov. 19, 2012, the day of his first NFL start. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick puts on his helmet on Nov. 19, 2012, the day of his first NFL start. Kaepernick relaxing at home in Turlock with his 100-pound pet tortoise Sammy. Kaepernick relaxing at home in Turlock with his 100-pound pet tortoise Sammy. Colin Kaepernick celebrates a touchdown with Alex Boone and Joe Staley during a game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on September 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Colin Kaepernick celebrates a touchdown with Alex Boone and Joe Staley during a game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on September 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. From his college days: Kaepernick of the Nevada Wolf Pack looks to pass against the UNLV Rebels in the third quarter of their game at Sam Boyd Stadium October 2, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. From his college days: Kaepernick of the Nevada Wolf Pack looks to pass against the UNLV Rebels in the third quarter of their game at Sam Boyd Stadium October 2, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Colin Kaepernick was congratulated by the Dolphins Cameron Wake at the end of the game. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 27-13 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif. Sunday December 9, 2012. Colin Kaepernick was congratulated by the Dolphins Cameron Wake at the end of the game. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 27-13 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif. Sunday December 9, Kaepernick, seen here when he was a pitcher for the Pitman High School baseball team. He once threw a seven-inning no-hitter while sick with pneumonia. Kaepernick, seen here when he was a pitcher for the Pitman High School baseball team. He once threw a seven-inning no-hitter while sick with pneumonia. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a gain in the second quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Chicago Bears at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday November 19, 2012. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a gain in the second quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Chicago Bears at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday November 19, 2012. Little Colin's now-famous fourth grade essay in which he proclaimed he planned on someday playing for the San Francisco 49ers. Little Colin's now-famous fourth grade essay in which he proclaimed he planned on someday playing for the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) celebrates with coach Jim Harbaugh after a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday January 12, 2013. San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) celebrates with coach Jim Harbaugh after a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Kaepernick in San Francisco: the college QB looks to pass the ball against Boston College during the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park on January 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Kaepernick in San Francisco: the college QB looks to pass the ball against Boston College during the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park on January 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Colin Kaepernick #10 of the Nevada Wolf Pack throws the ball against Boston College during the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park on January 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Colin Kaepernick #10 of the Nevada Wolf Pack throws the ball against Boston College during the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park on January 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Kaepernick "Kaepernicks" after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers. Kaepernick "Kaepernicks" after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers. Colin Kaepernick calls out to his teammates at the line of scrimmage during the first half of the Seahawks and 49ers game Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA. Colin Kaepernick calls out to his teammates at the line of scrimmage during the first half of the Seahawks and 49ers game Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA. Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick celebrate after scoring a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome on November 25, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick celebrate after scoring a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome on November 25, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks at an NFL football media availability in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. The 49ers will face the Falcons in the NFC championship game on Sunday. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick speaks at an NFL football media availability in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. The 49ers will face the Falcons in the NFC championship game on Colin Kaepernick shares a light moment with Michael Crabtree and Carlos Rogers. Colin Kaepernick shares a light moment with Michael Crabtree and Carlos Rogers. Kap walks off the field after defeating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Candlestick Park. Kap walks off the field after defeating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Candlestick Park. Kaepernick tries to leap away from St. Louis Rams outside linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar and defensive end William Hayes, right, during the first quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in St. Louis. Kaepernick tries to leap away from St. Louis Rams outside linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar and defensive end William Hayes, right, during the first quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in St. Louis. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stands on the sideline in Seattle. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stands on the sideline in Seattle. More tattoos, mostly of the religious variety. More tattoos, mostly of the religious variety. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick warms up prior to an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 23, 2012. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick warms up prior to an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 23, 2012. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others gather for prayer following the San Francisco 49ers game against the Miami Dolphins at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday December 9, 2012. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others gather for prayer following the San Francisco 49ers game against the Miami Dolphins at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday December 9, 2012. Kaepernick runs in for a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Candlestick. Kaepernick runs in for a touchdown in the third quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Candlestick. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick runs in a touchdown in the first quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday January 12, 2013. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick runs in a touchdown in the first quarter of the San Francisco 49ers game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., Kap celebrates at the end of his first postseason start: a resounding victory over the Packers. Kap celebrates at the end of his first postseason start: a resounding victory over the Packers. Colin Kaepernick scrambles in the fourth quarter under pressure from Israel Idonije. The San Francisco 49ers played the Chicago Bears on November 19 and won 32-7. Colin Kaepernick scrambles in the fourth quarter under pressure from Israel Idonije. The San Francisco 49ers played the Chicago Bears on November 19 and won 32-7. Remember these guys? San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Jeremiah Masoli, Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick and McLeod Bethel-Thompson practice during training camp in Santa Clara, Calif., back in 2011. Remember these guys? San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Jeremiah Masoli, Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick and McLeod Bethel-Thompson practice during training camp in Santa Clara, Calif., back in 2011. Kaepernick calls the play against the New Orleans Saints at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. Kaepernick calls the play against the New Orleans Saints at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. Kaepernick throws against the Arizona Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday December 30, 2012. Kaepernick throws against the Arizona Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday December 30, 2012. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) is tackled by Green Bay Packers free safety M.D. Jennings (43) and outside linebacker Erik Walden (93) during the second quarter of an NFC divisional playoff NFL football game in San Francisco, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) is tackled by Green Bay Packers free safety M.D. Jennings (43) and outside linebacker Erik Walden (93) during the second quarter of an NFC divisional playoff Kap warms up before his first NFL start. The 49ers beat the Chicago Bears 32-7. Kap warms up before his first NFL start. The 49ers beat the Chicago Bears 32-7.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick will report for the opening of the 49ers’ offseason workout program today in Santa Clara, a source said. Denver, which is just $1.62 million under the cap, wants the 49ers to pay $4.9 million of his 2016 base salary, ESPN reported. Kaepernick, who has had surgeries on his shoulder, thumb and knee in the past five months, has not been medically cleared to participate in workouts, a source said. The first two weeks of the offseason program consist of strength and conditioning, with no on-field sessions with coaches allowed until April 18. Kaepernick last returned to the Bay Area on March 17 to have a checkup with team doctors, but he didn’t meet with Kelly or general manager Trent Baalke during his brief visit.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/18/the-alibaba-billionaires.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160407223105id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/18/the-alibaba-billionaires.html

The Alibaba billionaires

Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Images Alibaba Group's founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, waves as he arrives for a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Hong Kong. A few could still net hundreds of millions of dollars. But none—at least according to the filing—will join the 10-figure club. That's surprising given that Alibaba is the largest IPO ever. And it stands in contrast to Facebook, where the 11 top executives and officers below Mark Zuckerberg owned 13 percent of the company and several became billionaires. Read MoreMeet Simon Xie: Alibaba's unassuming No. 2 Of course, some shareholders of Yahoo and Softbank, which hold big positions Alibaba, could become indirectly rich. Masayoshi Son owns around 20 percent of Softbank, which owns 34 percent of Alibaba—so his share of the Alibaba IPO would theoretically be worth more than $10 billion. Yet Alibaba's IPO riches will be notably top heavy, even by tech standards. Twitter's IPO had four big shareholders—DickCostolo, Evan Williams, Peter Fenton and Jack Dorsey—who each had more than 1.6 percent of the company. All executive officers and directors as a group held 25.5 percent. Read MoreWorld's billionaire population hits record high GoPro's IPO wealth went well beyond its founder, Nicholas Woodman, who became a billionaire with the IPO. The other 11 officers or directors held nearly a quarter of the company.

Alibaba's IPO will unleash a flood of wealth for Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, but unlike some other tech IPOs, the big money isn't being spread around the company.

low

low

abstractive

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/15/sig-buchmayr-killed-in-crash.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160408224332id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1964/01/15/sig-buchmayr-killed-in-crash.html?

Sig Buchmayr Killed in Crash

HOPEWELL JUNCTION, N. Y., Jan. 14 (AP)—Sig Buchmayr, owner of a chain of ski and sporting goods shops, was killed today in an automo­bile accident. A woman in the car who also died in the crash was identified as Mrs. Irmfried Ferentzi, 42 years old, of Man­chester, Vt. Sig Buchmayr Killed in Crash; Operated Chain of 5 Ski Shops Mr. Buchmayr, of New York and Manchester, apparently was returning to New York. Both victims wore ski clothes, and there were two pairs of skiis in the car. The police said Mrs. Ferentzi was driving the car, which left the Taconic Parkway near this Dutchess County community and struck a tree. Ski shops bearing Mr. Buch­mayr's name are at 18 East 53d Street, at the Cross County Center in Yonkers, at Essex A native of Hof Gastein in the Austrian Alps, Mr. Buch­mayr came to the United States in 1929 and established, at Peckett's on Sugar Hill in Franconia, N. H., one of the first ski schools in this coun­try. After teaching there for eight years he went to Ver­mont, to Suicide Six at Wood­stock and then to Mount Snow in Manchester. “Eventually I had to give up teaching,” he once said. “In 1942 my wife Sally blessed me with triplet sons. I knew I never could support them with a ski teacher's salary.” At one time Mr. Buchmayr also operated shops at Lake Placid, N. Y., and Manchester. As a competitive skiier he won some Class A events. This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to [email protected]

Ferentzi, (Mrs) Irmfried

high

low

abstractive

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2016/04/04/big-and-small-photographs-from-jacobi-model-decordova/tBy4IJQ8fhXeDiq3X6QYoI/story.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160411121457id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/theater-art/2016/04/04/big-and-small-photographs-from-jacobi-model-decordova/tBy4IJQ8fhXeDiq3X6QYoI/story.html

Big and small: photographs from Jacobi, Model at deCordova

Rick Mansfield jr. of Ancho Lisette Model’s “Coney Island Bather” at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Lotte Jacobi’s “Lil Dagover With Her Shih Tzu, Berlin.” LINCOLN — “Lotte Jacobi, Lisette Model: Urban Camera” is small in size. It runs through Sept. 11 at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The show consists of just 34 black-and-white photographs: 22 by Jacobi, 12 by Model. Yet size matters here — or sizes do — almost as much as the images’ unfailing interest and consistent quality. That’s because curator Helen Lewandowski has arranged the show as a kind of dimensional duet. All but one of the Jacobis are a jewel-like 3½ inches by 5½ inches (or vice versa), which makes the Models, all of which are 20 inches by 16 inches (or vice versa), seem garguantuan. Gargantuanism, even if only comparative, is fitting. So many of Model’s best pictures revel in the grotesque. It comes as no surprise that one of her students was Diane Arbus. If a Coney Island bather were any fleshier the sand beneath her feet might give way. The figure in “Woman With Veil, San Francisco” resembles a dolled-up prune. A Riviera sunbather has a look that’s so lizardy and louche it’s more hilarious than menacing. The fact that he’s wearing a three-piece suit simply adds to the overall oddity. Model (1901-1983) and Jacobi (1896-1990) were contemporaries. Both hailed from Mitteleuropa (Vienna and Berlin, respectively) and immigrated to the United States in the ’30s. Model was largely self-taught. Jacobi came from a long line of photographers. The family studio, Atelier Jacobi, dated to the 1840s. That difference in background may have something to do with the relative rawness of Model’s work — she’s a sensibility more than a style — and the finesse, even elegance of Jacobi’s. She’s the reverse. Jacobi’s best known for her portraits of Weimar Era performers, such as the actors Peter Lorre and Franz Lederer, and singer-actress Lotte Lenya. They strike an arresting balance between persona and personality. Those aren’t in the show, but ones that are underscore Jacobi’s skill as a portraitist. If there’s such a thing as fierce serenity, that’s what she captures in the artist Käthe Kollwitz. The comedian Karl Valentin mugs for the camera so violently it’s as if he’s auditioning for Model. A very different sort of portrait — since it’s not one, per se — shows the actress Lil Dagover with her dog. They sit in the front seat of a car. She looks at the lens. He stares straight ahead. Her pale face and white coat (is it ermine?) contrast marvelously with the canine’s dark silhouette beside her. Jacobi’s Berlin period generally gets more attention than her time in America. More than half of the photographs at the deCordova belong to the latter. Who knew that the poet May Sarton sat for her, in 1970? Or that the Gardner Museum commissioned her to photograph the museum, in 1965? She was as good at documenting famous buildings in the States as she’d been with famous faces in Berlin. A moodily atmospheric study of Rockefeller Center, from 1950, manages to combine spookiness and elegance. It also chimes with a Model photograph of Rockefeller Center, taken five years earlier. Arthur C. Danto, that most intellectually probing of art critics, once noted that “Reality is the photographer’s greatest collaborator.” Photographic abstractions are like duets attempting to go solo. The half-dozen examples here of Jacobi’s “photogenics,” as a friend called them, are an exception to that rule. “Untitled” (1948) could be a Kandinsky canvas drained of color. “Homage to Brancusi” (1950) recalls a two-dimensional version of the sculptor’s “Bird in Space.” In a sense, it chimes with Model’s Coney Island bather — which is sculptural, all right, albeit in an altogether different way. LOTTE JACOBI, LISETTE MODEL: Urban Camera At deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, through Sept. 11, 781-259-8355, www.decordova.org

Photographs by Lotte Jacobi and Lisette Model are on display at the deCordova museum.

high

medium

mixed

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/02/social-media-maven-warren-buffetts-tweeting-advice.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160417044516id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/02/social-media-maven-warren-buffetts-tweeting-advice.html

Social media maven Warren Buffett's tweeting advice

He does have a Twitter account. It was created less than a year ago to help promote an editorial he wrote for Fortune on why he's "bullish" on women. Today, @WarrenBuffett has 804,000 followers and only five tweets. That's the joke behind a humorous video from the college Buffett attended more than 60 years ago, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In it, Buffett ("The Oracle") is seen wearing a bright red jacket (the school's color) while hand-checking a massive pile of NCAA brackets in front of him. As he happily finds an error, ("Ha! Another loser"), a bright red desk telephone rings. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman asks about "today's projections." Buffett: Yesterday's troll market really hurt us. But, cats. Cats are up slightly today. I'd go with cats. Perlman: Kittens, right? Buffett: Sure, always kittens. Perlman says, "Of course, thanks" and taps out his tweet on a phone: "Saw a kitten today. It was cute. Smiley face." It's one of a series of "Harvey's Perls of Knowledge" videos from the university with a running joke highlighting the chancellor's own cluelessness about technology and pop culture. (An Omaha World-Herald headline dryly noted that "UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman making less sense than ever on Twitter.") The video points to a new "Perls of Knowledge" website that asks users to join "Social Squadron Team Alpha+" and hints at future high-profile members to be named in the coming days who have given Perlman social media advice, enabling him to write his own tweets. In previous videos, Perlman demonstrates he doesn't know what YOLO means (and doesn't like it when he finds out), pointedly declines to do the "Harlem Shake" with the school's mascot and tells students concerned about a zombie apocalypse that it won't happen "on my watch" as he miraculously grows a tough-guy Chuck Norris-style mustache. His "Dairy Store" video has almost 80,000 views and would be difficult to describe with words. A link on the new site takes you to the Undergraduate Office of Admissions webpage, which seems to be the point of the whole thing. The Berkshire-owned Omaha World-Herald quotes Steve Smith, a media relations coordinator for the school, as saying, "UNL is a serious research institute. But I think this shows that we don't always have to take ourselves so seriously."

In a video created by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Warren Buffett gives the school's chancellor some good advice on writing tweets.

medium

low

mixed

http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/elijah-brown-leads-new-mexico-past-new-mexico-state-121615

http://web.archive.org/web/20160422063746id_/http://www.foxsports.com:80/arizona/story/elijah-brown-leads-new-mexico-past-new-mexico-state-121615

Elijah Brown leads New Mexico past New Mexico State

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Even though New Mexico took a lead into halftime Wednesday night against rival New Mexico State, it sure it didn't seem that way to Lobos coach Craig Neal. "Our guys are in the locker room like they're getting beat," Neal said after the Aggies scored the final five points of the half to pull within 38-32. "But that's a sign of a team with high expectations for themselves." Those expectations were pretty much met as New Mexico (7-2) pulled away for a 79-61 victory but it was how the Lobos reacted by scoring three straight buckets to open the second half that Neal appreciated. "Any time you can come out and get that run going, when you're up six and you can push it out, that's important because it's a momentum swing," he said. Elijah Brown did a bit of everything for New Mexico with 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Tim Williams added 18 points and seven boards and Cullen Neal had 13 points and a career-high nine assists. Pascal Siakam had 21 for the Aggies (5-5). But Ian Baker, who is second on the team in scoring, left midway through the first half following a head injury. After running into a screen at midcourt, he lay motionless for about 10 minutes before slowly getting up and walking to the bench. New Mexico State spokesman Bill Powers said Baker is under the concussion protocol. Baker's loss was a key to the game, said Aggies coach Marvin Menzies. "He's one of our two backcourt guys," he said. "It's one of those deals where we were not going to be able to compete at our highest levels without our highest guys." Sparked by three straight 3-pointers early, Lobos used a 10-1 run that put them up 16-9 early. The Aggies never got closer than five points the rest of the game. During that opening stretch of the second half, Siakam picked up his third and fourth fouls. New Mexico State particularly struggled from the line, going 13-for-29, and also missed all seven 3-point attempts. Other playing with some grit, the Lobos didn't particularly have a great game, coach Neal said. "I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way, but I feel really good that you can win with the margin that we won on and be disappointed on how we played," he said. "I don't think we played sharp. I don't think we played with a lot of energy. I thought we were stagnant. That's what happens with a young team, with a team that's trying to find their way." TIP-INS: New Mexico improved to 6-0 at home this season. The Lobos have held their last five opponents to less than 30-percent on 3-pointers. New Mexico has won 15 of 17 meetings between the schools. With a block, Siakam moved into New Mexico State's career top 10 in the category. Before Wednesday, the Aggies season on 3-pointers was the two they hit in their last outing against Wyoming. UP NEXT: New Mexico is home Saturday against Rice at 6 p.m., and New Mexico State travels UTEP on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Brown totals 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists to lead Lobos to 79-61 win.

medium

high

mixed

http://fortune.com/2000/04/03/what-does-donald-trump-really-want/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160427043436id_/http://fortune.com/2000/04/03/what-does-donald-trump-really-want/

Donald Trump wasted no time in being Donald Trump. “I’ve brought some things for you,” he said, handing me a sheaf of papers as he boarded his private 727. These included some glossy brochures and a copy of New York Construction News, which, it seemed, had named Trump owner and developer of the year for 1999. “Owner and developer of the year,” he pointed out with his uncommonly stubby fingers, “which is unusual.” It was early January, and the plane was headed for Minnesota, where Trump was to meet with Governor Jesse Ventura to discuss running for President on the Reform Party ticket. Onboard were a handful of journalists, Trump’s son Donny Jr., and his political adviser, Roger Stone, a former Nixon and Reagan handler who favors three-piece pinstriped suits and a pocket watch. Also onboard were some gold-plated sinks, a double bed, and gilt-framed works of art with signatures like “Renoir.” Nobody I asked seemed to know if they were real, or to care. “We’ve done internal polls that have been amazing,” Trump was saying, ensconced in a red-velvet seat while Stone sat nearby in his Jay Gatsby getup. “If I feel I could win—win—then I’d run. I think I have a good chance.” He explained why. “Hey, I’ve got my name on half the major buildings in New York,” he said. “I went to the Wharton School of Finance, which is the No. 1 school. I’m intelligent. Some people would say I’m very, very, very intelligent.” Plus, he had written three best-selling books. “Not bestsellers,” Trump clarified. “No. 1 bestsellers.” Another thought occurred to him: “You know I am the highest-paid speaker in the country?” Trump had inked a deal with Tony Robbins, the frighteningly upbeat motivational speaker, by which Robbins would pay Trump $1 million to give ten speeches at his seminars around the country. Crucially, Trump had timed his political stops to coincide with Robbins’ seminars, so that he was “making a lot of money” on those campaign stops. “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” Trump said, adding that “there’s no way a good businessman” would have blown the kind of money Steve Forbes had. I wondered whether Trump was proposing his own special version of campaign finance reform here. I also wondered where he was planning to come up with the $100 million he was promising to spend if nominated, considering that his cash flow seemed much more precarious than he claimed. Trump is contemplating taking out a mortgage on his Palm Beach palace, Mar-a-Lago.Greg Miller for Fortune But talk turned to Trump’s women, prompting a reporter from the New York Post to ask whether he found Monica Lewinsky attractive. Trump screwed up his face and stuck his tongue out slightly, as if to gag. “There’s a John F. Kennedy-type charisma that’s very hard to put your finger on,” Stone told me later on, when I asked him to describe Trump the politician. “He’s probably the best speaker on the circuit.” Once on the ground in Minneapolis, Trump was greeted on the frozen tarmac by a passel of Reform Party officials, who whisked him off by limousine to the hotel conference center. After the Jesse Ventura action figures went on sale in the lobby, and not long after Ventura insisted he once saw Muhammad Ali levitate—no kidding, levitate!—off somebody’s kitchen floor, Trump took the stage to address an audience of Ventura backers. Though he dispensed with his usual critiques of Pat Buchanan (“a Hitler lover”), Bill Bradley (“a total disaster”), George W. Bush (“no Einstein”), Fidel Castro (“a bad guy”), North Korea (“run by some very bad people”), and Russia (“totally mixed up”), Trump did tell an unflattering joke about his second wife, Marla Maples, and crescendoed from a story about Jay Leno to the oblique observation that he’d count on people’s support “if I decide to do the thing that I very well might decide to do.” This, it turned out, was the applause line. “It was awfully disjointed,” one of Ventura’s people worried afterward. “Does he speak better than that?” But by then Trump had already headed out the door, past the “Trump 2000” posters, for a weekend of golf at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach estate. At age 53, a good decade and a half after he came to national prominence, Donald Trump is possibly the most famous businessman in America. According to the Gallup Organization, fully 98% of Americans know who he is. Bill Gates and Ross Perot also score in the high 90s. None of the other grandees of American business—not Jack Welch, not Warren Buffett, not Steve Jobs, not Ted Turner—even come close. This embarrassing state of affairs might be likened to the time when Betty Crocker polled as the second-most-admired woman in America (behind Eleanor Roosevelt, who had the advantage of being a real person) or when kids voted Hulk Hogan their favorite athlete a few years back. For Donald Trump is to business what professional wrestling is to sports: part of it, certainly, but also a cartoonish parody of it. Which is why Fortune decided it was necessary to investigate and uncover, once and for all, why it is we feel compelled to write about Donald Trump in the first place. The most impressive aspect of Trump’s celebrity, to begin with, is not its grandeur but its durability. Not only has he far outlasted the decade that produced him, but—unlike other products of the 1980s who’ve managed to stay in the limelight through self-reinvention a la Michael Milken—Trump has done it without any discernible personal growth. Like a cryogenically frozen Austin Powers, he stands as an almost perfectly preserved specimen of the era, an unreconstructed hedonist who persists in calling the plantings on his new golf course the “Rolls-Royce of oak trees.” That changelessness, no doubt, is partly to account for his appeal. In an age when wealth is paper, assets move electronically, and moguls wear jeans, Trump’s mandarin tastes and almost sensual love of money can seem a refreshing throwback. “I, personally, like feeling the asset,” he said during a stop in Silicon Valley. “With the dot-com, it’s nothing that you see so easily.” “When I don’t put my name on it,” Trump explains, “nobody knows that I own it.”Greg Miller for Fortune It’s one of the paradoxes of Trump that this aura of exclusivity goes over best with some of the most excluded elements of society. In an 800-person survey conducted by Democratic pollster Rob Schroth, Trump scored a 67% favorable rating among blacks (vs. 21% unfavorable), 62% among Hispanics, and 66% among whites earning under $25,000, substantially higher than either Al Gore or Bill Bradley in each category. Real estate agents say Trump is also big among immigrants, many of whom flock to his buildings. Admiring rap artists have recorded odes like “Black Trump” and “Trump Change.” “I think people say, ‘If I won the lottery, that’s how I’d want to live,’ ” says Roger Stone. “The plane, the boat, the estate in Florida, the beautiful girls—our polling showed that people identified with it.” Trump is, in short, a workingman’s plutocrat: a nonbusinessman’s idea of what a businessman should be. (Supporters standing in line at a Trump Tower book signing included a Greenwich Village artist who was “attracted to the power of myth in our society,” an Orthodox rabbi who “heard he loves the Jews,” and a soccer mom who noted, optimistically, that “he’s never been indicted.”) Among Trump’s theoretical peers, which is to say other rich business people, the situation is different. When Fortune asked several thousand of them to rank 469 companies for its 1999 list of Most Admired Companies, they put Trump’s casino company dead last. More specifically, they ranked it worst in quality of management, use of corporate assets, employee talent, long-term investment value, and social responsibility. Trump tries to shrug off such opinions, noting in his new book, The America We Deserve, “Rich people who don’t know me never like me. Rich people who know me like me.” But deep down, the disrespect clearly rankles. “I was a little surprised Fortune hadn’t done a cover on me in the last year and a half, because I’m the biggest developer in New York,” he said on the plane. “Now I’m getting a story not because I’m the biggest real estate developer but because I’m running for President. There’s something about that that I don’t really like.” Did he mean he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a businessman? “I don’t think anybody knows how big my business is,” Trump replied. “People would rather talk about my social life than the fact that I’m building a 90-story building next to the U.N….They cover me for all sorts of wrong reasons.” For more on Donald Trump, watch this Fortune video: Right or wrong, his presidential dalliance had generated coverage and then some; Trump recounted how Don King, the furious-haired boxing promoter, called up to declare, “This is the single greatest promotion I have ever seen!” It was widely presumed, of course, that Trump’s political noodlings were just that: a promotion, a cynical ploy to sell books and condos—politics as the continuation of salesmanship by other means, if you will. But after spending time with Trump over several weeks, I became convinced otherwise. The man seriously wanted to seek the American presidency—to win, as he put it, “the whole megillah.” If that sounds far-fetched, it may be because you haven’t yet grasped the governing principles of the Trumpian universe. Consider, for instance, his beef with America’s trade representatives: It’s that they have low name recognition. “Who are these people?” Trump sputtered at one point. “Nobody’s ever heard of them!” As for candidates who had made less money than he: “They’re losers. Who the hell wants to have a person like this for President?” More famous, more money: To those who objected that he had no obvious qualifications for politics other than a Bob Dole-like tendency to refer to himself in the third person, Trump offered the vaguely articulated but firmly held notion that he was, like, the top guy, and therefore worthy of the nation’s top office. He even noted at several points that he was good at sports in high school. “Because I’ve been successful, make money, get headlines, and have authored bestselling books,” he wrote in his new book, “I have a better chance to make my ideas public than do people who are less well known.” Just so. But it all raised the question: Just how successful a businessman is he? A couple of weeks after the Minnesota trip I was sitting in the Trump Tower offices of the Trump Organization, surrounded by magazine covers featuring Donald Trump and flanked by two of Trump’s lieutenants. In front of me sat Donald Trump. He was wearing a blue suit, cuff links, and one of his famous red ties; his hair, as usual, seemed to be levitating slightly above his skull in a baroque swirl. “People liked the speech,” Trump began. “You even liked it, I heard. Did you like my speech?” I mumbled something polite, then turned the conversation to the task at hand: figuring out what Trump’s empire actually consisted of. Easier said than done. Trump delights in the sort of elaborate shell games and impenetrably complex deals that frustrate the most conscientious efforts to assess a person’s true worth. “It’s always good to do things nice and complicated,” he once told an interviewer, “so that nobody can figure it out.” That difficulty is compounded by Trump’s astonishing ability to prevaricate. No one’s saying Trump ought to be held to the same standards of truthfulness as everyone else; he is, after all, Donald Trump. But when Trump says he owns 10% of the Plaza hotel, understand that what he actually means is that he has the right to 10% of the profit if it’s ever sold. When he says he’s building a “90-story building” next to the U.N., he means a 72-story building that has extra-high ceilings. And when he says his casino company is the “largest employer in the state of New Jersey,” he actually means to say it is the eighth-largest. The predictable result is the steady stream of articles debunking Trump’s exaggerated claims—particularly his oft-repeated assertion that he’s worth $5 billion. Trump and his aides are so used to their veracity being questioned that they went to almost laughable lengths to assure me they weren’t lying, as when Abe Wallach, Trump’s finance man, produced a letter from a company offering $120 million for a piece of Trump property. “This is not concocted,” Wallach told me, though I’d never suggested such a thing. “This is real.” And to assure me that Trump had received many, many offers on his building at 40 Wall Street, Wallach summoned his assistant Diane to tell me about a recent call from a potential buyer, “just so you know I’m not making this up.” “What did he want to know?” Wallach asked Diane. “If it was for sale,” Diane responded. Turning to me, Wallach added, “This is unrehearsed.” That bit of office theater complete, Wallach pulled out the partnership agreements for several of Trump’s properties so that I could check, among other things, whether Trump’s ownership stakes in them were in fact what he said they were. But here’s the weird thing about Donald Trump: Try as he might to be a figure of ridiculous fun, lie as he might about things large and small, Trump appears to be an enormously skilled developer. Associates describe an unfailing knack for spotting and ferreting out waste; a memory like a Zip drive; a grasp of byzantine zoning laws so detailed that he routinely requires the city to close loopholes only he had the wherewithal (many would say gall) to exploit. There’s Trump walking the construction sites every day, yelling that the concrete is the wrong kind, that the marble isn’t flat enough, that the ceiling should be ripped out and redone. “He can look at a type of window glass and tell you what type it is and its energy-efficiency rating,” says a former employee. Then, too, Trump brings the sheer power of his persona to bear. He negotiates with subcontractors himself instead of relying on a purchasing department and isn’t opposed to using his celebrity to better the terms. To seal one deal, Trump agreed to call the subcontractor’s mother and wish her a happy birthday. “He has this ability to relate to the doorman, to the guy who’s carrying the iron or steel, and make that guy feel good and important,” says Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack. And while Trump’s lifestyle hasn’t changed much since the 1980s, his dealmaking approach has. Chary of the sort of leverage that pushed him close to bankruptcy in the early 1990s, he refrains from putting up large sums, instead partnering with financial backers—General Electric’s pension fund among them—that want to tap the power of his name and retain him as a sort of jungle guide. (Yes, people do pay more to live in Trump buildings: The Corcoran Group, a New York real estate agency, estimates his condos command an 80% premium.) In one extreme instance, developers paid Trump a flat $5 million licensing fee for the right to brand a Trump Tower in Seoul. Trump’s rivals seize on such deals to label him a mere front man for financial interests—a brand slapped on buildings he doesn’t own—which in turn sends Trump into paroxysms of outrage. “I own at least 50% of everything I do,” he says, not quite accurately. “I’m the biggest developer in the hottest city in the world.” In truth, Trump’s strategy resembles less a Potemkin village than a fast-expanding game of SimCity, which is to say he has a lot of big projects in the works. On Manhattan’s East Side, he and partner Daewoo are erecting Trump World Tower, the “90-story” colossus that is going to cast a shadow on the United Nations and block Walter Cronkite’s view. Over on the West Side, he and a group of Hong Kong investors are two buildings into an 18-building residential project along the Hudson River, the creatively titled Trump Place, which will fill up Manhattan’s last big parcel of undeveloped land. Condo sales from both are benefiting from the hottest real estate market anyone can remember. As for the three trophy properties Trump calls “my other children”—Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, and the General Motors Building, which he purchased in 1998 with insurance company Conseco—he has lately succeeded in jacking up rents. Trump hits the links at his new Palm Beach golf club.Greg Miller for Fortune Trump’s partners seem pleased. “We were never projecting the numbers that he’s producing routinely now,” says Conseco executive vice president Ngaire Cuneo. “His attention to detail and to what potential tenants will want has been uncanny,” adds CEO Steve Hilbert. “The results have been stunning for us at Conseco.” Colony Capital’s Barrack, who hired Trump to convert the Mayfair Regent Hotel into condos, has similar words: “Bottom line is, the project came in under budget, four months ahead of schedule, and at sales prices that were 40% above what we had pro forma’d. We didn’t have one work stoppage, not one strike, not one city red tag. Everything was perfect.” Even former New York mayor Ed Koch, a Trump hater if there ever was one, told me he is a great builder. If only Trump were content to leave it at that. For the rest of the story is much darker. Nowhere are Trump’s self-defeating tendencies more evident than with his casino company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, which he took public in 1995 under the monogram ticker symbol DJT. It was Trump’s salvation at the time, raising $140 million that he used to pay off creditors. “Without the casino company, Donald would not be alive today,” one of his employees says. The stock climbed to $34—then headed straight for the toilet. These days it’s hovering somewhere above $3, and Trump’s 42% stake in the company has shriveled from more than half-a-billion dollars to $53 million. Surprisingly, the underlying assets are in good shape. Trump’s three New Jersey casinos command nearly a third of all gaming revenues in Atlantic City, a slow-growing market that has nonetheless withstood challenges from Connecticut’s new megacasinos. All are well-run operations with top-drawer management; the New Jersey Casino Control Commission says they all have clean records. The flagship Taj Mahal, an onion-domed complex with some 4,500 slot machines, throws off nearly $100 million in cash annually; the smaller Trump Marina has almost doubled its own cash flow to $53 million in three years. Add in Trump Plaza and a riverboat outside Gary, Ind., and the company generates more than $240 million in cash a year. “Donald is not blowing smoke when he says there is a lot of money in that business,” says Barrack. A cash cow it may be, but most of the cash goes toward the care and feeding of another beast: the $1.8 billion in high-yield debt that has saddled the company almost since its inception. The debt servicing eats up $216 million of the cash flow, leaving the company precious little capital to reinvest in its properties and even less in the way of earnings for shareholders. The company lost $134 million after depreciation and special items in 1999, and S&P recently lowered Trump’s bond rating from junk to junkier. But most disquieting is Trump’s tendency to use the casino company as his own personal piggy bank. It’s not just the $5 million bonus he drew one year, or the fact that the pilots of his personal 727 are on the casino company’s payroll. In 1996 he sold Trump Marina (then called Trump’s Castle) to the company for what many shareholders considered too rich a price. Trump insists it was a “good deal.” Yet he further angered investors in 1998 when he had the already cash-strapped company lend him $26 million to pay off a personal loan from Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Trump denies misusing company funds and says he’ll repay the $26 million when it comes due May 15. Two sources close to Trump say that to raise the money, he is trying to mortgage Mar-a-Lago. Trump confirms that he is considering a $25 million to $30 million mortgage on that property, but insists he has the money to meet the obligation. “Our cash flow has been tremendous,” Trump says. He is sensitive on this point: Trump had his lawyer send a letter threatening to sue Fortune and me, saying, “It is our information that the article will contain false and misleading material concerning, among other things, the net worth and cash flow of The Trump Organization and/or Mr. Trump.” During one of our telephone discussions (which Trump later admitted he had begun taping), Trump said he would “sue the ass off of Fortune” if I were to “disparage [his] cash flow.” But one of Trump’s senior executives confirmed that Trump is seeking a mortgage on Mar-a-Lago, and possibly on Trump Tower, to pay back the $26 million. Meanwhile, a shareholder has sued for breach of fiduciary duty. And as if all this weren’t enough to undermine Trump’s Street cred, the company was accused of overstating last year’s third-quarter results when it failed to disclose that $17 million in revenues came from a one-time event. A couple of people close to Trump and otherwise sympathetic to him suggested to me that he’s unfit to be running a public company. Given that the low stock price seems partly a function of Wall Street’s allergic response to Trump’s flamboyance—analysts call it “the Donald factor”—the obvious solution would be for Trump to remove himself from management. One industry executive estimates that step alone would bring a 30% bump in the stock. But Trump has chosen the opposite tack: Having paid little attention to the casinos for several years, he’s promising to become more involved with them than ever. He says he’ll even join investor conference calls. “When I get involved in something, it gets hot,” he says, stabbing the air with his index finger for emphasis. “Watch what I do to that company. Just watch.” Mary MacLeod Trump, Donald’s mother. Her husband, Fred, was a developer too.Greg Miller for Fortune Trump has started by firing Taj Mahal President Rudy Prieto the day before Christmas Eve. He may soon be searching for a new CEO too: Recent word is that the highly capable Nick Ribis, tired of having his hands tied by restrictive debt covenants and his stock options several million dollars underwater, is on his way out. And in February, Trump settled his five-year feud with Mirage Resorts’ now former boss Steve Wynn—a feud that had Trump flinging lawsuits to stop Mirage from entering Atlantic City, Wynn countersuing for restraint of trade, both men throwing around words like “imbecile,” and a Mirage operative allegedly wearing a “modified jockstrap” equipped with listening devices. The settlement should save Trump $3.5 million a year in legal fees. Now it appears Trump will attempt to deleverage the company by unloading one of the casinos within the next six months; the Indiana riverboat seems the likely candidate. If that doesn’t goose the stock price, well, there are already internal discussions about taking the company private. Another puzzling aspect of Trump’s public image is that even though he runs two companies that together employ 22,000 people, one never gets the sense of an organization underneath him. Indeed, one could easily come to the conclusion that he’s not only a sole proprietor but a sole employee. But in fact Trump has assembled an extremely loyal crew within his 50-person corporate office: CFO Allen Weisselberg began working for Trump’s father in 1973; Nick Ribis began as Trump’s lawyer in 1977. Both current and former employees describe Trump as a loyal if not especially well-paying boss, citing stories of birthdays remembered, of sick relatives visited in the hospital. Yet some of them bristle at the popular perception of Trump as a one-man show. “He’s got a very good team. It’s not just a show front,” says Abe Wallach. “This is a professionally run real estate organization.” His point is perhaps blunted by the I <3 DONALD TRUMP bumper sticker on his office wall, but then theirs is a complex relationship. Around 1990, when Trump’s empire seemed on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, Wallach—then a senior vice president at New York real estate firm First Capital Management but a stranger to Donald—began speculating to the press about Trump’s fate, telling the Washington Post that people would soon be saying “Donald who?” On the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, he said of Trump, “If your ego is as large as his is and you just buy everything in sight, part of the blame has to squarely rest in your own lap.” Never one to sit idly by and take that sort of treatment, Trump decided he wouldn’t. According to one account, Wallach opened his door one day to find himself served with a $250 million lawsuit. When Trump and Wallach got in touch to discuss the situation, the story goes, they ended up hitting it off, and Trump eventually hired Wallach instead of suing him. Trump says he never threatened litigation but confirms the rest of the story. Wallach at first denied it altogether, saying he met Trump in a cordial fashion through Trump’s father, then admitted it was all true. Whatever. Oddly enough for a man who all but lives in the media, Trump has no public relations machinery to speak of. In a day when even petty tycoons insulate themselves with platoons of spokespeople and media consultants, he relies only on his longtime assistant Norma Foederer and returns most reporters’ calls personally, making him one of the most accessible businessmen anywhere. Sometimes overbearingly accessible: When Fortune once assembled a list of billionaires, Trump called so many times to haggle over his net worth that an intern was assigned to field his calls. And while Trump can spend workaholically long hours at the office, sleeping only four hours a night and consuming as many as eight newspapers a day, one wonders how much of that time is spent calling celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio or simply turning the media wheels. During one of my stops at his office he handed me a thick care package of clippings that included the same New York Construction News honor and an article naming him the second-best self-promoter of all time, behind only Muhammad Ali, an act that presumably put him on a still more select list of people who have self-publicized their own abilities as a self-publicist. All the while, Trump takes pains to maintain a pretense of exclusive access, at one point summoning Foederer into his office so that she could show me the stack of requests for interviews (59 last week alone!). “Half of the press corps in the country is upset that they’re not on this plane,” Trump assured me on the way to see Ventura, which may not have been entirely untrue: Given the alternatives of covering Steve Forbes’ robodork routine in New Hampshire or living it up on Air Trump, political reporters seemed all in favor of the latter. A portrait of Trump made in 1989 hangs in one of Mar-a-Lago’ s 118 rooms.Greg Miller for Fortune It occurred to me, though, that for a guy who seems to value “loyalty” so much, Trump’s media-soaked life must feel like a series of betrayals, as journalist after journalist chooses to accept his advances and then turns on him. While at first blush Trump can come off as a thick-skinned believer in the adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, that doesn’t quite hit the mark: Like a true publicity-holic, Trump repeatedly indulges in publicity and then rails against the consequences. “A lot of reporters are scum,” he told me, denouncing “that little moron” from such-and-such financial publication and the “piece of shit” from another. Recently, he threatened to sue George after the magazine seemed to suggest that he had filed for personal bankruptcy in the early ’90s. This got me thinking that the cause of his behavior perhaps wasn’t so much egotistical as medical. I even called a psychiatrist to get his clinical assessment of Trump. (He suggested an overmastering need to escape the shadow of his father, Fred, a successful outer-borough developer who died last year and whom Trump rarely mentions.) But the real puzzler is what, exactly, Donald Trump wants. As we walked through the half-gutted lobby of the General Motors Building, Trump insisted he most wanted to be respected as a builder. “The thing I do best is I build,” he said. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, Trump is a great promoter.’ I don’t think I’m even a good promoter. You build a great product, it becomes successful.” He paused to touch some tiny bronze fixtures. “See, these were all corroded—they looked disgusting,” he said. “Now it’s great, right?” But even while Trump complains he’d like to be covered “more in business and less in social,” he can’t seem to help himself. In the end, one is simply humbled before the awesome insularity of his logic. “I own a lot of things that I don’t have my name on,” he explained at one point. “But when I don’t put my name on it, nobody knows that I own it. That’s one of the reasons I like putting my name on things.” Outside the General Motors Building, Trump and I paused by his limo for a few seconds to stare up at the huge trump lettering on the facade. “See how understated that is?” he said in a rare outburst of irony. A foreign-sounding woman on the street recognized him. “Are you going to be a President?” she asked. “Absolutely,” said Trump. “No doubt about it.” Three weeks later (after Fortune had flown with him to St. Louis for some final politicking and, yes, a Tony Robbins speech) Trump announced he wasn’t running. The proximate cause was the Reform Party meeting that ended with red-faced delegates screaming and jostling one another for microphones, and Jesse Ventura’s subsequent secession from the “dysfunctional” party. Privately, I wondered if Trump had begun to doubt his own constitutional capability for certain political rituals, notably the concession speech. But the final nail in the coffin was John McCain’s surprise surge in the polls. Roger Stone felt robbed: “He’s running on Trump’s message.” As I was finishing up the story, Trump called me nearly every day, unsolicited, to offer tidbits of information, including details of the “very successful” tennis tournament he’d hosted over the weekend. (He and a partner had beaten Michael Milken and John Lloyd in the finals.) He deluged me with faxes about recent triumphs, had friends and associates call me to serve as character witnesses of sorts. “One more thing,” he said one time just before hanging up. “Did you know that New York Construction News named Donald Trump the developer and owner of the year?” A version of this article was originally published in the April 3, 2000 issue of Fortune.

The girl and the car, obviously. Respect, maybe. And he could definitely use a mortgage—soon.

high

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/kaley-cuoco-karl-cook-new-photo

http://web.archive.org/web/20160504143701id_/http://www.people.com/article/kaley-cuoco-karl-cook-new-photo

Kaley Cuoco with Karl Cook in New Photo : People.com

05/02/2016 AT 08:15 PM EDT actress, 30, and her new beau, professional equestrian Karl Cook, were photographed kissing over a gas pump on Sunday. "She's really happy," a source tells PEOPLE of the budding romance. Karl Cook and Kaley Cuoco The smooch is just the latest PDA between the two – over the past month, Cuoco has showing the couple in various states of affection. From sweet selfies and playful shots to cuddling on the beach, the actress seems to be enjoying her new relationship following her last September from her husband of almost two years, Ryan Sweeting. As for why they click, Cuoco and Cook, whose father Scott has a reported net worth of around $2 billion, obviously have bonded over their love of horses. Kaley Cuoco and Karl Cook Cook, 25, is a Grand Prix winner while the actress has enjoyed riding for years and has several horses of her own.

The actress and the pro equestrian took their romance public in April

low

low

abstractive

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/05/04/01/59/protesters-mock-cruz-ahead-of-crucial-indiana-primary

http://web.archive.org/web/20160504160623id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/05/04/01/59/protesters-mock-cruz-ahead-of-crucial-indiana-primary

Protesters mock Cruz ahead of crucial Indiana primary

A protester has found a peaceful — albeit childish — way to make his point known in the US, pulling his hand away from Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz as the candidate went to shake it. Mr Cruz was on the hustings in Indiana where he is fighting to prevent rival Donald Trump from wrapping up the Republican nomination, Gawker reports. But if the reception he received is a harbinger of things to come, the Texas senator looks set for another humiliating defeat. Surrounded by a large crowd of Trump supporters at an event in Bloomington, Mr Cruz may have been taken aback when a man in the audience stuck out his arm and asked to shake his hand. Mr Cruz duly thrust his arm in the man's direction only to see him quickly pull back and do the hair sweeping move as he yelled "too slow Joe", before yelling that the senator looked like a "fish monster". Ted Cruz speaks to reporters in Indiana. (AAP) Voters went to the ballots overnight and the polls point to another Mr Trump victory. "We have to put him away tomorrow folks," Mr Trump told a crowd in South Bend on the eve of the vote. "The biggie is going to be in Indiana — because if we win Indiana it's over with, folks, it's over with. And then we focus on Hillary Clinton." Donald Trump gives a victory speech in Trump Tower, Manhattan. (AAP) Mr Cruz was counting on Indiana acting as a Trump firewall, blocking him from receiving the 1237 delegates necessary to secure the nomination at the Republican convention in Cleveland in July. Mathematically eliminated from winning outright, Mr Cruz's goal is to snatch victory on a second ballot, when most delegates become free to vote for whomever they choose -- but which will only be held if Mr Trump falls short of a majority. Mr Trump has so far amassed 1002 delegates, according to CNN's tally. He needs just under half of the 502 in play in the remaining 10 contests to lock in the nomination.

A protester has found a peaceful — albeit childish — way to make his point known in the US, pulling his hand away from Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz as the candidate went to shake it.

low

high

extractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/advisers-add-investment-committees-to-smooth-operations-1462359602

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505040019id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/advisers-add-investment-committees-to-smooth-operations-1462359602

Advisers Add Investment Committees to Smooth Operations

As advisers continue to break away from the largest securities firms and registered investment advisory firms become larger, more of these independent RIAs are setting up investment committees. These committees may help advisers formalize their investment decision-making process, set guidelines for how investments are screened and decide which securities the firm should or shouldn’t invest in. If managed well, committees can make firms more efficient. But there are mistakes to avoid with these committees. Below, practice-management coaches and investment professionals weigh in on four of them and what advisers should do instead: The mistake: Not having a formal process Without a formal process for making policies and weighing specific securities, investment-committee meetings may drag on, and committee members may be left wondering their purpose. Time can be wasted if members come to meetings unprepared, says Scott Welch, chief investment officer of Dynasty Financial Partners, a New York-based company whose services to independent firms include helping them set up investment committees. Develop a policy manual that states the purpose of the committee, how often it will meet, what decisions the committee will make and a process for periodically reviewing past decisions, says Mr. Welch. The manual won't only create an organizational “memory” but also a road map for the continuing running of the committee after the initial excitement settles into a routine, he says. Distribute a formal agenda ahead of each meeting so members can prepare, he says. “A primary purpose of investment committees is to drive discipline and consistency through the portfolio-management function,” he says. So any investment in a client portfolio that the adviser has discretion or control over should be reviewed and approved by the committee. To do otherwise negates the reason the adviser established the committee in the first place, he says. The mistake: Insisting on agreement The biggest mistake investment committees make is managing to consensus, says George Tamer, managing director of strategic relationships at TD Ameritrade Institutional, a unit of brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. “Committees often will reach a bad decision just to get 100% agreement,” says Mr. Tamer, who is based in Fort Worth, Texas. Everyone on the committee should have a say, but everyone doesn’t have to agree, he says. Some firms may want to have decisions made by majority vote. But Mr. Tamer suggests there should be a chair who is responsible for making the decision, should there be disagreement within the committee. Typically, the chair is the head of the company, but if the chief executive doesn’t have an investment management background, it could be the chief investment officer, he says. The mistake: Approving too many products that work for too few clients John Anderson, managing director of practice-management solutions at SEI Advisor Network, a unit of SEI Investments Co. , has seen committees where a few advisers are eager to adopt a new product even if it may not work well in many client portfolios. Too many one-off situations from an investment committee can lead to confusion and inconsistency throughout the firm and thus affect the brand of the firm, he says. “By chasing every shiny object that a few advisers are keen to adopt for a single client or two, the investment committee can create a compliance and due-diligence nightmare to monitor,” he says. The committee should set a high bar for approving investments that are likely to make sense only for a limited number of clients. If there is another product already on the list that is similar, the committee might plan to monitor the two together for some time before adding the second one, Mr. Anderson, in Oaks, Pa., says. Also, “think about adding a noninvestment person, maybe a financial planner, into the mix,” says Mr. Anderson. This person can help the committee avoid “group think” and help the committee consider other issues that may impact how the investment will perform in client portfolios, such as taxes, he says. The mistake: Weighing too many options When an investment committee has to sort through countless investment choices, it can seem overwhelming. Members may not have time to thoroughly research the options, which could cause them to overlook key risks. Firms might assign each person on the committee a particular industry or sector to research, says TD Ameritrade’s Mr. Tamer. “It helps when you break up the work,” he says. How many securities to discuss depends on the agenda, he says. For example, some meetings may be sector discussions that touch on up to 30 individual stocks. The following meeting might involve drilling down into a list of five stocks, or even as few as two or three, when the committee could make a buy-or-sell decision, he says. Write to Veronica Dagher at [email protected]

Here are tips for advisory firms to get the most value from these groups and mistakes to avoid.

high

low

abstractive

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/11-missing-after-cargo-ship-sinks-near-hong-kong-1399271286

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505225247id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/11-missing-after-cargo-ship-sinks-near-hong-kong-1399271286

11 Missing After Cargo Ship Sinks Near Hong Kong

HONG KONG—Rescuers have expanded their search Monday for the 11 crew members missing after their cargo ship collided with a large container vessel and sank just off the southeastern edge of Hong Kong in the overnight hours. Floating debris from the sunken dry-bulk ship, including life jackets, were spotted near the point of collision in Chinese territorial waters south of Hong Kong, according to the Guangdong Maritime Safety... HONG KONG—Rescuers have expanded their search Monday for the 11 crew members missing after their cargo ship collided with a large container vessel and sank just off the southeastern edge of Hong Kong in the overnight hours. Floating debris from the sunken dry-bulk ship, including life jackets, were spotted near the point of collision in Chinese territorial waters south of Hong Kong, according to the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration, which is spearheading search-and-rescue efforts. The agency said the search, which also involves vessels from Hong Kong's marine police and fire departments, remains under way, but rescuers have so far made no progress in locating the missing people. Fishing boats earlier Monday rescued one injured crew member from the sunken cargo ship, a Hong Kong police spokeswoman said. The survivor told authorities there were 11 others aboard the ship. The cause of the collision, which took place at around 2:30 a.m. local time Monday, is under investigation, though authorities said the rescue mission remains their priority. Authorities have identified the sunken ship as the 97-meter-long Zhong Xing 2, which had a crew of 12 and was transporting cement to the southern city of Haikou from northeastern Hebei province before the collision, according to Hong Kong's marine department. Zhong Xing 2 collided with the Marshall Islands-registered container ship MOL Motivator, which was sailing from Hong Kong to a nearby Shenzhen port. Chinese marine officials said the MOL Motivator also participated in search-and-rescue efforts, without elaborating. The MOL Motivator, built in 2011 and is 302 meters long, suffered "very minor" damage and is able to sail on its own power, according to the ship's Japan-based operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. , the world's 10th- largest container shipping company. The ship was on its way from Hong Kong to the neighboring Chinese port of Yantian. The waters around Hong Kong contain some of the world's busiest shipping routes, with cargo and passenger vessels crisscrossing the channels to outlying islands and mainland China. Many ships travel near Hong Kong to reach neighboring Pearl River Delta, southern China's industrial hub. Heavy shipping traffic has contributed to more accidents involving injuries or deaths in recent years. According to data from the city's Marine Department, 171 people were injured or killed in shipping accidents in or near Hong Kong waters last year. That is down from 232 in 2012, but up from 78 people 2010. Still, experts say Hong Kong remains one of the world's safest maritime hubs given tough regulations on ship maintenance and port management. Write to Joanne Chiu at [email protected]

Rescuers have expanded their search on Monday for the 11 crew members missing after their cargo ship collided with a large container vessel and sank just off the southeastern edge of Hong Kong in the overnight hours.

low

high

extractive

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/18/heres-what-changed-in-the-new-fed-statement.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160506172515id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/18/heres-what-changed-in-the-new-fed-statement.html

Here's what changed in the new Fed statement

This is a comparison of Wednesday's FOMC statement with the one issued after the Fed's previous policy-making meeting on Jan. 28. Text removed from the January statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle. Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined. Black text appears in both statements.

This is a comparison of today's FOMC statement with the one issued after the Fed's previous policy-making meeting on Jan. 28.

low

high

extractive

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/16/bellevue-south-gains-approval.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160507053608id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1964/07/16/bellevue-south-gains-approval.html?

BELLEVUE SOUTH GAINS APPROVAL

The City Planning Commis­sion approved the $60 million Bellevue South urban renewal plan yesterday. The plan calls for the revital­ization of seven blocks just west of Bellevue Hospital, bounded by 23d and 30th Streets and First and Second Avenues. The vote came during a pub­lic meeting at City Hall at which such varied matters as parking lots and garages, street changes, new housing projects and zoning rules were discussed. The Bellevue South proposal calls for the bulldozing of most of the seven‐block site, except for institutional buildings and some residences. About 2,200 low and middle‐income apart­ments will be built along with additions to the institutional complex around Bellevus Hos­pital Yesterday's approval fol­lowed a lengthy public hearing on June 17 at which residents and business owners opposed the city's plan, while city of­ficials, civic groups and repre­sentatives of the hospital com­plex supported it. The hospitals are hoping that new housing will help ease their problems of chronic staff shortages. The urban renewal designa­tion still requires the approval of the Board of Estimate, which also must hold a public hearing. In other matters, the Plann­ing Commission took the first public move toward plugging what it considers a loophole in its zoning regulations regard­ing parking lots and garages. A public hearing was set for Aug. 12 on amendments that would establish controls over parking facilities ostensibly built to serve the apartment houses or commercial buildings. The zoning resolution terms this ac­cessory parking. Regular commercial parking garages and lots can be con­structed only under permit from the commission, insuring that the traffic flow, the area and other matters will be considered. Accessory parking facilities for fewer than 150 cars need no permit. And sometimes, the planners say, they are over­built and, in effect, become com­mercial garages serving the community. The proposed amendments would require per­mits for accessory parking, among other things. Commissioner Harold Sirns, whose Department of Buildings enforces the zoning laws, il­lustrated the situation with an anecdote. He told of the man whose application for a parking garage permit was denied. He then leased a rooming house and pro­ceeded to construct a 150‐car garage as an accessory to the structure. On investigation it was found that only two of his roomers had cars. In otner action yesterday, the commission approved amend­ments to the Park Row Exten­sion urban‐renewal plan. These would close a small part of Park Street between Baxter and Mul­berry Streets to add to Columbus Park, and would increase the number of dwelling units in the middle‐income Chatham Towers development from 223 to 240. Arguments were also heard on acquiring a strip of land be­tween 39th and Roosevelt Ave­nues in Flushing, Queens, for a pedestrian way to a large municipal parking lot near Main Street. This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to [email protected]

City Planning Comm sets pub hearing on proposed amendments giving it control over accessory parking facilities

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/jerry-sandusky-five-things-know-sex-abuse-case

http://web.archive.org/web/20160507140613id_/http://www.people.com/article/jerry-sandusky-five-things-know-sex-abuse-case

5 Things to Know About the Sex Abuse Case : People.com

05/06/2016 AT 02:20 PM EDT that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was aware that assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing boys as early as 1976 have sparked many questions. Here are five things to know about the allegations. Joe Paterno allegedly was made aware of the sexual abuse allegations against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky as early as 1976. A Pennsylvania court order, released Thursday and obtained by PEOPLE, also states that the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association Insurance claimed other "Penn State agents" witnessed four cases of inappropriate conduct by Sandusky towards children between 1976 and 1988. Prior to these allegations, the earliest known incidents involving Sandusky were in 1994. Penn State is embroiled in a dispute with its insurance carriers over the $60 million-plus it is on the hook for in Sandusky-related civil settlements. Penn State had hoped to see some of those funds reimbursed through various insurance coverages, but one of the college's primary carriers, the aforementioned PMAI, has pushed back. , "The key legal issue for purposes of whether Penn State has a right to collect on its insurance policy with PMA is whether Penn State expected or intended the bodily injuries that Sandusky inflicted upon his many victims." Judge Gary Glazer is charged with assessing whether Penn State trustees or shareholders knew about Sandusky's conduct. Glazer ruled that because there was no evidence that the allegations went any higher than Paterno, the university's executives and higher-ups weren't made aware of them and therefore could not be expected to provide PMAI with any warning. Many of the aspects of the case are still pending. The 1976 incident has not been corroborated. McCann writes that it's unlikely it will ever be known whether the allegation is true or false because the record containing the transcript of the deposition referenced by Glazer is sealed. Also, the victim who made the allegation against Paterno may have reached a confidential settlement with Penn State. A statement about the allegations from the Paterno family said, "Joe Paterno's reputation has once again been smeared with an unsubstantiated, forty-year-old allegation. In response to this allegation and the subsequent media hype, the Paterno family is demanding a full public review of the facts." The statement continued, "The reckless, all-out rush to accept accusations as legitimate without a full fair review of the facts, cannot be allowed to happen again. Fighting shadows and rumors on issues that are this significant is a disservice to everyone who cares about the truth." of 45 of 48 charges stemming from the allegations he molested 10 boys at Penn State and elsewhere, to 30 to 60 years in prison. Last year, he launched an effort on the grounds that his rights were violated in the original trial and that his lawyers were ineffective. while his lawyers continue their efforts.

New court documents cast doubt that Penn State coach Joe Paterno may only have heard about Jerry Sandusky's abuse in 1994

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.people.com/article/egyptair-flight-missing-body-part-seat-wreckage

http://web.archive.org/web/20160521172824id_/http://www.people.com/article/egyptair-flight-missing-body-part-seat-wreckage

Debris, Passengers' Belongings Found From Missing EgyptAir Flight

05/20/2016 AT 10:40 AM EDT Egyptian officials have found human remains, passengers' personal belongings and other debris from the Egyptian authorities spotted the body part, two seats and suitcases from Airbus 320 about 180 miles from the Egyptian city of Alexandria as they scoured the Mediterranean Sea for the 66-passenger plane, Greece's defense minister Panos Kammenos said at a press conference, according to the The passenger plane was traveling from Paris to Cairo early Thursday morning when it swerved abruptly and vanished from traffic control radar. near the Greek island of Karpathos belonged to the plane, but retracted the statement in a Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images Egyptian army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir confirmed the new findings to , saying that the military is certain that the body part, belongings and debris come from MS804. He added that all wreckage will be taken to Egypt for investigation, NBC reports. Relatives of passengers on a vanished EgyptAir flight grieve as they leave the in-flight service building where they were held at Cairo International Airport in Egypt. The European Space Agency also on Friday that a satellite spotted a potential oil slick from the missing plane in the same area where the aircraft disappeared. However, the agency noted that there is "no guarantee" that the slick is from the missing plane. While no cause for the plane's disappearance has been determined, Egyptian officials said that a to have been the cause than a technical issue. #Sentinel1 spots potential oil slick from missing #EgyptAir flight #MS804 https://t.co/esKOvco0DG pic.twitter.com/g5I2ab3JgG "We do not deny there is a possibility of terrorism or deny the possibility of technical fault," Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi previously said at a Cairo news conference. "The possibility of having different action aboard, of having a terror attack, is higher than having a technical problem." No terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for the plane's disappearance.

An official said all wreckage found from EgyptAir flight will be taken back to Egypt

medium

medium

mixed

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/episode-guide/season-41/donald-trump-with-sia/1687

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523030422id_/http://www.nbc.com:80/saturday-night-live/episode-guide/season-41/donald-trump-with-sia/1687

Donald Trump with Sia

Donald Trump hosts for the second time alongside musical guest Sia, also making her second appearance. Sketches include MSNBC Forum Cold Open, Donald Trump Monologue, Bad Girls, Live Tweeting, Hotline Bling Parody and Weekend Update: Drunk Uncle on Donald Trump. Martin O'Malley (Taran Killam), Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon) and Bernie Sanders (Larry David) answer questions from moderator Rachel Maddow (Cecily Strong) at the MSNBC Democratic candidates forum. Donald Trump is joined by Taran Killam as Donald Trump and Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump. Plus, Larry David makes a surprise appearance. With Donald Trump as president, peace has been restored in Syria, Mexico pays to build the wall and Omarosa (Sasheer Zamata) and Ivanka Trump are members of the cabinet. From not paying for lemonade to leaving ice cream in the bread aisle, bad girls (Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer, Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon) do it well. When he can't appear in a sketch, Donald Trump instead live-tweets it and rates its stars, Taran Killam, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson and Vanessa Bayer. Drake (Jay Pharoah) defends his "Hotline Bling" dance moves, pointing out that dads (Beck Bennett), teachers (Taran Killam), tax guys (Donald Trump) and Ed Grimley (Martin Short) all dance like him. Musical guest Sia performs "Alive." Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, including Jeb Bush's new campaign slogan, Ben Carson claiming the pyramids were built by Joseph to store grain, the New York Mets' World Series loss and a Taco Bell executive getting fired after assaulting an Uber driver. Weekend Update: Leslie Jones on Gender Roles Leslie Jones discusses how changing gender roles have led men to become man bitches. Weekend Update: Drunk Uncle on Donald Trump Drunk Uncle (Bobby Moynihan) explains why Donald Trump is going to make America grapes again. Gene Breads (Donald Trump) thinks his solo is unfairly short just because he plays the laser harp. Music producer Skay-C Steve (Donald Trump) interrupts the Crockers' family dinner to get Mr. Crocker (Beck Bennett) to record a song. Donald Trump runs into Toots and the Maytals (Kenan Thompson, Jay Pharoah), the musical guest from the last time he hosted SNL. Musical guest Sia performs "Bird Set Free." The former porn stars (Vanessa Bayer, Cecily Strong) campaign for Donald Trump and get a visit from Ronald McDonald McTrump (Bobby Moynihan).

Donald Trump hosts Saturday Night Live with musical guest Sia.

high

medium

mixed

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/03/18/snowstorm-to-kick-off-spring-in-northeastern-us/21330212/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523044557id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/03/18/snowstorm-to-kick-off-spring-in-northeastern-us/21330212/

Snowstorm to kick off spring in northeastern US

By Alex Sosnowski for AccuWeather A snowstorm will affect part of the Northeast from Sunday into early Monday with the greatest amount of snow and wintry weather occurring across New England. Following a southward push of arctic air, a storm will move northeastward later this weekend. It will track close enough to the coast to bring some snow to parts of the mid-Atlantic and a heavy snowfall with increasing wind in southern, central and eastern New England. SEE ALSO: Mitt Romney reveals which 2016 candidate he's voting for The storm will cause travel delays later this weekend in the mid-Atlantic. Impact from the storm may continue into Monday in New England, in the form of disruptions to daily activities. The greatest amount of snow will be on non-paved surfaces for this storm. Whether or not snow falls at a heavy enough rate to cause slippery roads in the Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and New York City corridors is questionable, since the snow will be wet. RELATED: Photos from Winter Storm Jonas Snowstorm to kick off spring in northeastern US Snow is cleared along a street in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in the wake of a storm that dumped heavy snow along the East Coast. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Steven Campbell of Dallas Texas digs out his car as area residents dig out from a massive snowstorm in Richmond, Va., Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016. Campbell said it was the most snow he had seen in his lifetime and was regretful that he parked on a corner that got his car trapped by packed snow. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Crews work to remove the snow from I-395 Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 in Washington. Millions of Americans were preparing to dig themselves out Sunday after a mammoth blizzard with hurricane-force winds and record-setting snowfall brought much of the East Coast to an icy standstill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Shawn Covelly knocks snow off his awning, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in Towson, Md. Millions of Americans were preparing to dig themselves out Sunday after a mammoth blizzard with hurricane-force winds and record-setting snowfall brought much of the East Coast to an icy standstill. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) Johna McVey, of Falmouth, Mass., shovels out her car in front of her home Sunday, Jan. 24, 2015, in Falmouth. A massive winter storm buried much of the U.S. East Coast in a foot or more of snow Saturday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) A man makes his way through the snow, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 in the Georgetown area of Washington. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) A massive winter storm system pummeled the eastern United States in late January 2016, with two low-pressure systems merging into a potent nor’easter that dropped heavy snow from Virginia to New England. By late afternoon on Jan. 23, snowfall totals were approaching records in several states, and hurricane-force winds were battering the coastlines and leading to serious flooding. The storm was expected to continue through the morning of Jan. 24. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this image of the storm system at 2:15 a.m. EST on Jan. 23. It was composed through the use of the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects faint light signals such as city lights, moonlight, airglow, and auroras. In the image, the clouds are lit from above by the nearly full Moon and from below by the lights of the heavily populated East Coast. The city lights are blurred in places by cloud cover. Harrison Feind of Boulder, Colo., takes a selfie with a snowman in front of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) A man uses cross country skies as he goes down M Street NW in the snow, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 in the Georgetown area of Washington. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Headstones are nearly covered by snow at Arlington National Cemetery, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 in Arlington, Va. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 23: A woman walks in strong winds and heavy snow fall in Central Park on January 23, 2016 in New York City. A major Nor'easter is hitting much of the East Coast and parts of the South as forecasts warn of up to two feet of snow in some areas. (Photo by Astrid Riecken/Getty Images) A woman walks along Broad Street through a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) TOPSHOT - A man use a skiing on a snow covered street in Manhattan in New York on January 23, 2016. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on January 23, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. US news reports said at least eight people had died by late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday. / AFP / KENA BETANCUR (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images) Bella Fraker, 10, of Atlanta, stands high on a snow pile as she poses for a family photo in New York's Times Square Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, as a large winter storm rolls up the East Coast. Fraker was in New York for auditions. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) TOPSHOT - A pedestrian walks in the center of a snow-covered residential street in Washington, DC on January 23, 2016. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on January 23, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) A woman pulls the hood of her coat over her head as she steps out into the snow in Lower Manhattan, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in New York. Millions of Americans awoke to heavy snow outside their doorsteps as a mammoth winter storm crawled up the East Coast. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) Pedestrians walk in New York, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A massive winter storm buried much of the U.S. East Coast in a foot or more of snow by Saturday, shutting down transit in major cities, stranding drivers on snowbound highways, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Gary Utley, 27, of Alexandria, snowboards behind a Jeep driven by his friend, as snow falls, in Alexandria, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Tyler Ridge, left, Evan Oakes, and Stephen Biggs, relax in a snow fort in the median of Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A massive winter storm buried much of the U.S. East Coast in a foot or more of snow by Saturday, shutting down transit in major cities, stranding drivers on snowbound highways, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) A van drives through a flooded street as ice and snow prevent drainage Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Atlantic City, N.J. Most of the state was facing a blizzard warning from Friday evening until Sunday that called for up to 24 inches of snow, with the deepest accumulations in the central part of the state. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) A person plows snow off a bridge at a ferry terminal during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during a major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) A commuter walks into the Hoboken PATH train station during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Hoboken, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during the major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Scott Kelly ‏(@StationCDRKelly): Massive #snowstorm blanketing #EastCoast clearly visible from @Space_Station! Stay safe! #blizzard2016 #YearInSpace A motorist shovels snow to free up a vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Port Reading, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during a major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) TOPSHOT - A man lays in a pile of snow in Times Square on January 23, 2016 in New York. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on January 23, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. US news reports said at least eight people had died by late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday. / AFP / Don EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) People walk on a snow-covered intersection during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during a major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 23: Waves crash on the beach on January 23, 2016 in Cape May, New Jersey. A major snowstorm is upon the East Coast this weekend with some areas expected to receive over a foot of snow. (Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 22: Nuns from the Fraternite Notre-Dame in Chicago, Illinois are covered in newly fallen snow as they walk along Constitution Avenue while snow begins to accumulate January 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. A major snowstorm is forecasted for the East Coast this weekend with some areas expected to receive up to 1-2 feet of snow. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Christian Jimenez, 7, of Towson, Md., walks through snow to get to a convenience store in Towson, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. One in seven Americans will get at least half a foot of snow outside their homes when this weekend's big storm has finished delivering blizzards, gale-force winds, whiteout conditions and flooding to much of the eastern United States. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) Snow covers cars parked in Washington on January 23, 2016. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on Saturday, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. US news reports said at least eight people had died by late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday. / AFP / Mladen ANTONOV (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images) Jessica Ourisman, a travel advisor from Baltimore, looks up at the buildings around the New York Stock Exchange while touring lower Manhattan with a group of other advisors during a snow storm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) Heavy snow falls in New York's Upper West Side, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, as a large winter storm rolls up the East Coast. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Dan Rafalin, left, lifts his daughter, Delila Rafalin, 5, while playing in heavy snowfall with their family on Independence Mall, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) TOPSHOT - A man pushing a snow plough during a snowstorm January 22, 2016 in New York. / AFP / FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT (Photo credit should read FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images) A man walks on snow covered Thomas Circle in Washington on January 23, 2016. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on Saturday, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. US news reports said at least eight people had died by late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday. / AFP / Mladen ANTONOV (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images) A girl shovels snow during a winter storm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 22: A snowplow cleans up snow on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the U.S. Capitol January 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. A winter snowstorm is forecasted for the East Coast this weekend with prediction of up to 30 inches of snow for the DC area. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) TOPSHOT - The White House is seen during a snowstorm in Washington January 22, 2016. Thousands of flights were cancelled and supermarket shelves were left bare Friday as millions of Americans hunkered down for a winter storm expected to dump historic amounts of snow in the eastern United States. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) A grocery store employee collects shopping carts from a parking lot during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during the major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) A boy crashes while sledding down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Sean Jackson and Gina Del Tatto push their child, Hayes Jackson, in a stroller as heavy snow falls in New York's Upper West Side, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, as a large winter storm rolls up the East Coast. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) A man walks by Federal Hall National Memorial during a snow storm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in New York. Millions of Americans awoke to heavy snow outside their doorsteps as a mammoth winter storm crawled up the East Coast. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) Michelle Navarre Cleary pulls a bag as she walks on K Street in Washington on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, as snow continues to fall. With long lead time from forecasters and stern warnings from authorities, tens of millions of residents from northern Georgia to New Jersey shuttered themselves inside to wait out a mammoth storm that made travel treacherous and could dump 2 feet or more of snow in some areas. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) A masked man walks on King Street as snow falls in Alexandria, Va., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation's capital and its largest city. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) A tractor trailer rig drives during a snowstorm along the Atlantic City Expressway, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016, near Atlantic City. Most of the state was facing a blizzard warning from Friday evening until Sunday that called for up to 24 inches of snow, with the deepest accumulations in the central part of the state. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) TOPSHOT - People cross 15ht Street during a snowstorm in Washington January 22, 2016. Thousands of flights were cancelled and supermarket shelves were left bare Friday as millions of Americans hunkered down for a winter storm expected to dump historic amounts of snow in the eastern United States. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) A vehicle crosses a snow-covered road near the Holland Tunnel during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Jersey City, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during a major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Coastal flooding from a winter snowstorm inundates houses along W. 7th Avenue, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in North Wildwood, N.J. (AP Photo/Robb Nunzio) A Homeless covers from the snow in Central park on January 23, 2016 in New York. A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US on Saturday, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter -- warning the worst is yet to come. US news reports said at least eight people had died by late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday. / AFP / KENA BETANCUR (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images) A man walks past a restaurant during a snowstorm January 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Thousands of flights were cancelled and supermarket shelves were left bare Friday as millions of Americans hunkered down for a winter storm expected to dump historic amounts of snow in the eastern United States. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) A person walks on a snow-covered path at Pier A Park during a snowstorm, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Hoboken, N.J. Towns across the state are hunkering down during a major snowstorm that hit overnight. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 22: Vehicles move along Interstate 40 as an overhead sign indicates 'Winter Weather Warning In Effect' during a winter storm on January 22, 2016 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A major snowstorm is forecasted for the East Coast this weekend with some areas getting a possible one to two feet of snow. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) Since the storm will not be at its peak intensity while affecting most of the mid-Atlantic, the snow will struggle to accumulate in some locations. Some of it will melt as it falls. However, pockets of moderate snow accumulation can occur. Warm road surface temperatures, some daytime snowfall and even rain mixed in for a time will be factors from Virginia to New Jersey. Energy from the strong March sun will cut snowfall rates during the daylight hours. During the daytime in March, the rate of snow must be heavy to overcome the warm ground and solar effects. SEE ALSO: MSNBC host suggests Sen. Elizabeth Warren is vying to be Clinton's vice president "Elevation and rural versus urban areas will play a role in the mid-Atlantic," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek. "Hilly areas over the countryside could receive exponentially more snow than in the heart of large urban areas along Interstate-95, typical of March snowstorms." Motorists should still exercise caution, especially on bridges, overpasses, secondary roads and rural roads in higher elevation areas. Even where snow failed to accumulate much during the day, some major highways could get slippery at night. Since the storm will strengthen by the time it reaches New England, where most of the snow will occur during Sunday night, snowfall will begin to ramp up on a more regional basis. "The best setup for a nor'easter with heavy snow and wind will be in New England," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. SEE ALSO: Relative of inmate who attacked Fogle warns 'he would do it again' Many areas in southeastern New England will receive a moderate to heavy snow fall, on the order of 6 inches or perhaps more, which spans Sunday night into Monday morning. Locally heavy snow is possible on central and eastern Long Island as well. How much snow falls will depend on how strong the storm becomes. The Monday morning commute could be quite wintry in much of New England. The storm may generate enough of a breeze to cause some blowing and drifting snow in New England. It may also cling to and weigh down some tree limbs. A few sporadic power outages are possible as a result. No worse than minor coastal flooding and beach erosion can occur at times of high tide along the eastern coast of New England and perhaps in parts of northern New Jersey and along the north shore of Long Island during Sunday night. In the wake of the storm chilly weather will linger in the Northeast on Monday and into Tuesday. Warmer air will return at midweek and cause any remaining snow to melt. More from AccuWeather: Late-March frost could spoil early-spring planting attempts in eastern US US spring forecast: March snow to threaten Northeast 17-year cicadas to swarm eastern US this spring

It will track close enough to the coast to bring some snow to parts of the mid-Atlantic and a heavy snowfall.

high

high

extractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/02/google-synergyse-apps-work/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523044645id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/02/google-synergyse-apps-work/

Google Buys Business Technology Startup Synergyse

Google has a new virtual trainer that will teach customers how to use their Google Apps for Work products. The search giant said on Monday that it bought a small startup called Synergyse, which developed training software for Google Apps users in 2013 that keeps them up to date about new features and gives directions about how to use products. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Given the enthusiasm that exists for Synergyse already, we want to extend this service to all of our customers,” Google said in a blog post. “That is why we’re happy to announce Synergyse will be joining Google, and we intend to make the product available as an integral part of the Google Apps offering later this year.” Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Current Synergyse customers will still have access to the service while Google goog integrates it into its own technology. For now, customers will need to download a Chrome extension if they want to use Synergyse’s training technology. Customers of Synergyse’s training services can view, listen, or watch video, audio, or written tutorials about how to use Google Apps products, like Google Docs and Google Slides. Synergyse claims that its service has been used by over 4,000,000 people and 3,000 organizations, according to a Synergyse blog post about the deal. For more about Google, watch: The startup previously charged customers for its software, but it will now be offering it for free as part of Google, Synergyse said. The acquisition is another example of Google making a big push into being a business technology provider. In November, the search giant hired enterprise technology veteran and VMware vmw founder Diane Greene to head its cloud unit, which includes its Google Apps business.

Startup provides training services for Google's Apps for Work products.

medium

medium

mixed

http://fortune.com/2016/05/20/americans-credit-card-debt-is-set-to-hit-1-trillion-this-year/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523051642id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/20/americans-credit-card-debt-is-set-to-hit-1-trillion-this-year/

Here's a Sign That Americans Are Getting Over the Financial Crisis

Here’s another sign that consumers are ready to shake off the heavy saving habits ingrained by financial crisis. Based on data from the Federal Reserve, outstanding credit card debt is set to hit $1 trillion in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s a level not seen since its all-time high of $1.02 trillion in July 2008, on the eve of the crisis. Back then, Americans’ personal savings rate was 4.4%. That number went as high as 11% in December 2012 and is currently 5.4%. In March, the total level of outstanding credit card debt rose to $951.6 billion. That stems in part from the steadier economy and improving job market, leading consumers to think they have more to spend. Even auto loans are on the rise, while consumer sentiment has rebounded. But there’s another side to the story. Rising credit card balances can also attributed to how banks are trying to do business in a low interest-rate environment that squeezes their profits. Banks have been aggressively seeking more business via rewards points, and, troublingly, subprime borrowers. According to data from Equifax, lenders issued 10.6 million credit cards to subprime borrowers in 2015, up 25% from the year prior. It’s also the highest level since 2007. Moreover, actual spending in the U.S. is still a mixed bag. Retail sales climbed to their highest level in over a year in April, though, as the Journal reported, there were signs that consumers were pulling back on nonessentials. The U.S.’s personal saving rate is also still hovering above pre-recession levels. Either way, credit card companies will try to keep their profits up in a low-interest-rate environment.

As they save less

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/17/resume-skills-tips/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523072134id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/17/resume-skills-tips/

Job Skills to Leave Off Your Resume

Ever wonder why you didn’t hear back on that dream job? It could be that you were fishing with the wrong bait — which is to say, your résumé was filled with skills that didn’t impress. Three out of four full-time employed workers are open to or actively searching for a new job opportunity, CareerBuilder reported in March, which means open positions are still scarce and competition is fierce. One in four people said they received no response from more than 75% of the applications they submitted to potential employers, according to the same CareerBuilder survey of more than 5,000 U.S. workers. So in today’s market, it pays to know which skills are doing you a disservice. And it turns out, there actually are a number of skills most people should leave off their résumés completely — because they tend to correlate with lower pay across the board, even when you hold constant factors like age, experience, job title, and location, according to a new analysis from MONEY and compensation data and software company PayScale.com. Read More: 25 Career Skills That Deliver the Biggest Salary Boost The analysis focused on skills that workers defined as being the most critical to their job — and then, within that set, identified those that showed the greatest negative correlation with compensation. Among the “top” 25 listed below, more than half are very general job functions, points out Lydia Frank, PayScale’s editorial director. Filing, for instance — the skill with the greatest negative correlation to pay — is such a common function that it won’t set you apart, she says: “It’s implied knowledge.” Indeed, she adds, many of the skills that made the list are basic job functions employers already expect you to know. “Nobody in this day and age should be listing Microsoft Office on their résumé if they’re going for any job where you have to use a computer,” Frank says. “Instead, you really want to call out things that the employer is looking for or things that differentiate you.” On the other hand, some of the more specific skills on the list — such as competency with the Delphi programming language — suggest that workers had fallen behind the times, Frank says. Demand for specific software skills tends to ebb and flow, she adds. “If that’s the pinnacle of a job applicant’s knowledge and they don’t know newer technologies, it may make [the applicant] seem weaker,” she says. If you’re trying to reshape your résumé for a job search, one easy tactic is to declutter the skills section. Hiring managers look at a résumé for 6.5 seconds, on average, says Ryan Kahn, found of The Hired Group and host of MTV’s Hired series — so your résumé needs to grab their attention immediately, with relevant information. Before applying, compare your résumé against a given job description. For each skill you’ve listed, Kahn says, ask yourself: Is this a skill set they’re looking for? “If it’s not, then you should take it off because otherwise, these extra words are going to clutter up your résumé and make it harder for a hiring manager to see the skills that do make you very qualified for the position,” Kahn says. Read More: The Career Skills Most Likely to Win You a Promotion Fine tune your phrasing, too, rewriting your résumé to highlight key experience and skills requirements in the job posting. “You want to match the lingo you see in the job descriptions,” says career coach Kristina Leonardi. The following were the 25 skills that correlated with the largest negative pay gap in the MONEY/PayScale analysis. To see full coverage of MONEY’s Best Career Skills 2016, click here.

Want to boast about your 'online research' skills? Big mistake.

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/03/21/barack-obama-tim-cook-cuba-apple-new-ground/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523200553id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/21/barack-obama-tim-cook-cuba-apple-new-ground/

Barack Obama and Apple's Tim Cook Try to Break New Ground This Week

It’s a busy week in the world of power and leadership. Four events will be especially revealing: -Obama in Cuba and Argentina. The president’s historic visit to Cuba, begun on Sunday, will rightly get more attention than his stop in Argentina afterward. But it may be instructive to watch closely the tone of his speeches, activities, and interactions with the leaders of each nation, as signals of how America regards them. What a contrast. Cuban President Raul Castro has shown no inclination to reform his failing economy, which produces per capita GDP that’s a small fraction of most of his Caribbean neighbors’, or to loosen his brutal dictatorship, which receives the lowest possible rating in the latest freedom ranking by Freedom in the World. Argentina’s new president, Mauricio Macri, is taking the helm of another pathetic economy but steering in a radically different direction, courting business, removing currency controls, accepting a drastic devaluation of the currency as a necessary start to recovery, and taking first steps toward freer trade; he’s also chilling the country’s formerly friendly relations with Venezuela and Iran. When Obama’s trip is over, what will the world conclude about his feelings toward each leader? Sign up for Power Sheet, Fortune’s daily morning newsletter on leaders and leadership. -Tim Cook’s strategy for Apple’s future. He will introduce new products on Monday, and while they’ll undoubtedly be cool and maybe even surprising, the real issue for the company is whether they’ll noticeably move the needle on revenue and profit. Apple aapl is still the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, and value is based entirely on expectations of future growth. Some analysts believe Apple’s 2016 revenue may be less than last year’s, the first such decline in over a decade. Will Cook show them anything that changes their expectations? And if not, will Apple’s valuation trend downward long-term? -Mitch McConnell’s leadership of the Merrick Garland Supreme Court battle. The Senate majority leader was definitive on the Sunday morning talk shows: This Senate will not consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee at any time, period. Other GOP senators, including powerful ones, are breaking ranks. Orrin Hatch of Utah last week said that if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders were to win the election, he’d be open to considering Garland in the lame duck session. Mark Kirk of Illinois went further, saying flatly that his fellow Republicans should “just man up and cast a vote.” The Senate has now gone home for a two-week recess. If senators hear from constituents that they think McConnell is wrong—a substantial possibility, according to polling—will they try to change his mind? Will some oppose him publicly? And what will he do if, as summer turns to fall, his position seems to be damaging the Republican presidential nominee, whoever he may be? -Trump vs. Cruz in Arizona and Utah. The numbers of delegates aren’t big, but at this point each one counts. The big question will be whether the anyone-but-Trump movement—and in these two states, Cruz is the only realistic alternative—is gaining steam. Polls predict Trump wins Arizona, Cruz wins Utah.

Obama's visit to Cuba and Cook's latest product announcements are forays into high stakes territory.

medium

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/03/18/porsche-ceo-share-price/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160523205211id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/18/porsche-ceo-share-price/

Porsche Managers Cleared of Manipulating Share Price

A German court has acquitted the former CEO and CFO of sports car maker Porsche poahy of manipulating the company’s share price during its takeover battle with Volkswagen vlkay , dealing a serious blow to a seven-year battle for compensation by U.S. hedge funds. Hedge funds such as Elliott Management Corp and D.E. Shaw are still looking for up to €5 billion ($5.6 billion) in damages in civil suits against Porsche, which is now only a holding company that owns a majority stake in the VW group. They had hoped that a criminal conviction would bolster their case. Instead, Judge Frank Maurer of the Stuttgart Regional Court ruled that Wendelin Wiedeking and Holger Härter, who had been CEO and CFO of Porsche respectively in 2008, had no case to answer. They had argued that their stake-building was defensive, designed to stop a competitor from taking over VW. The plaintiffs had argued that Wedeking and Härter had misled investors by repeatedly insisting that they had no plans to take over Volkswagen, despite amassing a stake of 74.1% in the company through a combination of direct stock ownership and a much bigger position in options on the underlying shares. When Porsche disclosed the size of its interest, hedge funds who had shorted VW stock had to cover their short positions to avoid the risk of massive losses, causing VW’s share price to spike by 500% in two days. Porsche then sold some of its options, at a massive profit. “There was no secret plan to take over VW,” Bloomberg quoted Maurer as saying. “From no viewpoint of the facts could we have rationally come a conviction.” The takeover was one of the most controversial episodes in the history of VW, at least until the explosion of the Dieselgate scandal in September (click here to read Fortune’s in-depth investigation). At the time, Volkswagen’s chairman, Ferdinand Piēch (who was also a shareholder in Porsche), was openly advocating a combination of the two companies, and many believe he had egged Wedeking on to scare the much larger VW into accepting a merger. However, Piëch changed tack after VW’s powerful labor unions resisted a takeover. Porsche’s financing for its bid evaporated during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, leaving it heavily indebted and causing its share price to collapse. Piëch and CEO Martin Winterkorn then led a takeover of Porsche by VW instead.

Verdict is a blow to hedge funds seeking billions in damages

high

low

abstractive

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/books/10Book.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524002405id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2006/03/10/books/10Book.html?

'American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn,' by Ted Steinberg

A couple of years ago, a homeowner in Seattle decided to take extreme action against the moles that had turned his lawn into a complex network of raised grassy veins. He poured gasoline into the mole holes, tossed a match and incinerated his yard. Many of the approximately 60 million Americans with lawns can understand the feeling. A well-tended yard is not only personal territory, to be defended unto death, but also a work of art. Like a painting, it has form and color. Like a child, it is alive. No wonder feelings run high, and the lawn, as a canvas for personal expression, engages the suburban American male at the deepest possible level. Americans like Jerry Tucker, who turned his yard into a replica of the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club. The often-crazed love affair between Americans and their lawns is Ted Steinberg's subject in "American Green." Mr. Steinberg, an environmental historian at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, likens this relationship, and the insane pursuit of lawn perfection, to obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he may very well be right. That would at least explain the behavior of a homeowner who clips her entire front yard with a pair of hand shears, or Richard Widmark's reaction on waking up in the hospital after a severe lawn mower accident in 1990. "The question I asked the doctors was not 'Will I ever act again?' " he later recalled, "but 'Will I ever mow again?' " How did a plant species ill suited to the United States, and the patrician taste for a rolling expanse of green take root from the shores of the Atlantic to the desiccated terrain of Southern California? The short answer is that it didn't, not until after the Civil War. Although Washington and Jefferson had lawns, most citizens did not have the hired labor needed to cut a field of grass with scythes. Average homeowners either raised vegetables in their yards or left them alone. If weeds sprouted, fine. If not, that was fine, too. Toward the end of the 19th century, suburbs appeared on the American scene, along with the sprinkler, greatly improved lawn mowers, new ideas about landscaping and a shorter work week. A researcher investigating the psychology of suburbanites in 1948 observed shrewdly that the American work ethic coexisted uneasily with free time, and that "intense care of the lawn is an excellent resolution of this tension." At least until the moles arrive. Mr. Steinberg cannot decide whether he is writing a cultural history, an environmental exposé or a series of Dave Barry columns. As cultural history, "American Green" is relentlessly superficial, a grab bag of airy generalizations and decrepit clichés about the cold war and the conformist 1950's. As environmental exposé, it is confused and poorly explained. It is impossible, reading Mr. Steinberg on lawn-care products, to assess risks. At times, it sounds as if any homeowner spreading the standard lawn fertilizers and herbicides might as well take out a gun and shoot his family. A few pages later, the environmental threat seems trivial. Sometimes, he simply punts. Building a case against power mowers, which Mr. Steinberg regards as unsafe at any speed, he introduces the story of a "lawn professional" who lost the fingers on both hands while trying to keep a wayward mower from rolling into a lake. This might be a damning piece of evidence if Mr. Steinberg did not then add, sheepishly, that "perhaps this is a suburban legend." Half-serious, intellectually incoherent, "American Green" shambles along like this, scattering bits and pieces of history, sociology and consumer advice as it goes. There are just enough fascinating bits to keep the pages turning. It is gratifying to learn that grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. An observer looking down at his own lawn sees brown dirt along with green grass blades, but only grass blades next door, because of the angle of vision. It is useful to focus on one of the pet claims of the lawn-care industry, that a lawn 50 feet square produces enough oxygen to satisfy the respiratory needs of a family of four. This is probably true, but, as Mr. Steinberg points out, superfluous, since there is no oxygen shortage on Earth. Mr. Steinberg does make the case fairly convincingly that the pursuit of the perfect lawn cannot be explained without golf, which has played on the homeowner's weak sense of self-esteem by rubbing his face in fantasy images. Perfection at Augusta requires a team of specialists and a multimillion-dollar investment in infrastructure. The average golf green gets more pampering and primping than Heidi Klum's cheekbones, but that is the lawn that suburbanites want. Companies like Scotts have convinced them that to achieve it, they need to follow a regimen of constant seeding, watering, fertilizing and herbiciding. The future looks troubled for the American lawn. Some homeowners have given up entirely, paving over their yards to create more parking space. Others are embracing the native-plant movement and turning their lawns into miniature prairies and meadows. Nellie Shriver, of the Fruitarian Network, stopped mowing for moral reasons. "It is impossible to mow the grass without harming it," she said. "We believe grass has some sort of consciousness, that it has feelings." Even more alarming, for the lawn-care industry, is the kind of post-lawn sensibility exhibited by an Atlanta real estate broker. "When something bores me, I get rid of it," she said. "Lawns bore me."

Ted Steinberg compares Americans' often-crazed pursuit of lawn perfection to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

high

high

mixed

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/03/14/get-kate-middletons-affordable-spring-dress-for-even-less/21327612/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524100030id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/03/14/get-kate-middletons-affordable-spring-dress-for-even-less/21327612/?

Get Kate Middleton's affordable spring dress for even less

Before you go, we thought you'd like these... Kate Middleton has given us quite the surprise, as she's stepped away from her signature style. And we'll give you a hint: this dress ISN'T for the birds! But The Duchess' cute spring dress is already sold out. So here, we're bringing you Kate's cheerful look... for EVEN less! You can buy the dress for yourself here, for just $23.90! See photos of Kate's other great style moments in the gallery below: Get Kate Middleton's affordable spring dress for even less The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Barlby Primary School to officially name The Clore Art Room, wearing a coat by British label Madderson London. Photo by Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images Duchess Kate attended an event for The Fostering Network to celebrate the work of foster carers, wearing a brown animal print Hobbs dress. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge leaves after visiting the new Kensington Leisure Centre, wearing a pale blue Seraphine coat. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Kate arrived in Portsmouth as Royal Patron of the 1851 Trust, wearing a white coat by MaxMara. Photo by CHRIS ISON/AFP/Getty Images She wore this sweet sailboat-patterned dress under her coat, by Somerset by Alice Temperley, during the visit to Portsmouth. Photo by Christopher Pledger/WPA Pool/Getty Images When Kate visited the Emma Bridgewater Factory, she wore a blue MaxMara coat. Kate's pretty floral dress, worn to Cape Hill Children's Centre, is by maternity designer Seraphine. Photo by Eddie Mulholland - WPA Pool/Getty Images Kate attended the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, wearing an Alexander McQueen coat, fascinator by Jane Taylor and her Prada shoes and clutch. The Duchess of Cambridge chose to recycle her dalmatian print Hobbs coat for a visit to the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery. Photo by Suzanne Plunkett - WPA Pool/Getty Images This pretty cream coat Kate wore to visit the set of Downton Abbey is a piece by Jojo Maman Bebe. The Duchess opted for a navy coat by Beulah London with matching navy accessories for a Service of Commemoration to mark the end of combat operations in Afghanistan. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Duchess Kate attended the St Patrick's Day Parade at Mons Barracks wearing a brown coat by Catherine Walker. For a visit to the Brookhill Children's Centre in Woolwich, Kate wore a polka-dotted ASOS dress and a coat made by a private dressmaker. Photo by Alex Lentati - WPA Pool/Getty Images The Duchess was glowing in a hot pink Mulberry coat as she visited the Stephen Lawrence Centre. To debut her newborn daughter, Princess Charlotte, to the world, the Duchess wore a pale yellow Jenny Packham shift dress. Photo by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images Kate, seen from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour, looked lovely in Catherine Walker for her first public appearance since the birth of her daughter. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Kate was in stripes and jeans for a casual day at the polo with Prince George. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images The Duchess looked elegant in Alexander McQueen as she held Princess Charlotte of Cambridge on the little princess's christening day. Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool /Getty Images Duchess Kate dazzled in a red L.K. Bennett dress as she and William attended a match at Wimbledon. It was a casual day -- calling for skinny jeans and her Sebago boat shoes as Kate attended an America's Cup World Series event. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Kate looked lovely in a Ralph Lauren shirtdress at the Anna Freud Centre. Photo by Chris Jackson - WPA Pool /Getty Images Kate wore a major pop of color to the Rugby World Cup 2015 Opening Ceremony in this Reiss coat. Kate made a surprise visit to the Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust at HMP Send, wearing an elegant gray peplum dress by The Fold. Photo by Andrew Matthews - WPA Pool/Getty Images Duchess Kate attended an event hosted by Mind at Harrow College to mark World Mental Health Day with William, wearing a patterned dress by Tory Burch. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images The Duchess looked stunning in a red Jenny Packham gown and a tiara for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace with the President of China. Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool /Getty Images Kate and William took on a day of engagements in Scotland, with the Duchess wearing another gorgeous blue coat this time by Christopher Kane. Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images When Kate attended The Charities Forum for a screening of Shaun The Sheep, she wore a knee-length dress by Tabitha Webb. The royals -- Harry, William and Kate -- attended the Royal World Premiere of 'Spectre' dressed to the nines. Kate looked stunning in a sheer gown by Jenny Packham. Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images Kate recycled an Orla Kiely dress for a visit to Chance UK's Early Intervention Program. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images The Duchess chose a bold floral-printed gown by Erdem for the 100 Women In Hedge Funds Gala Dinner in aid of The Art Room. It was Dolce and Gabbana for the Annual Festival of Remembrance. Photo by Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attend the annual Remembrance Sunday Service, Kate wearing a patchwork black coat by Alexander McQueen. When Kate attended the Fostering Excellence Awards, she wore a new designer for her wardrobe: Saloni. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Kate recycled one of our favorite looks for the Place2Be Headteacher Conference, a dress by Matthew Williamson. Kate recycled one of her Reiss coats for a visit to the Men's Shed movement during her time in North Wales. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge watch children on a zip-wire as they visit the Towers Residential Outdoor Education Centre, wearing casual outfits as they prep to go Abseiling. Photo by Chris Jackson-WPA Pool/Getty Images Kate looked every bit the Princess as she attended the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace, wearing an ice blue Alexander McQueen lace gown and Princess Diana's favorite tiara, the Cambridge Lover's Knot. Photo by Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images The Duchess wore L.K. Bennett separates for the ICAP charity day where she and William haggled with donors to raise money for charity. Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images Kate wore an amazing coat by Reiss during an official visit to the Action on Addiction Centre. Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images She also recycled this lovely Emilia Wickstead pleated dress, worn under the houndstooth Reiss coat. Kate got into the Christmas spirit with her red Alexander McQueen dress for the Anna Freud Centre Family School Christmas Party. Kate wore another festive outfit for the Queen's annual Christmas Lunch, during which she also received the honor of taking on one of Prince Philip's patronages. She is now the Honorary Air Commandant of the RAF Air Cadets. Photo by Stefan Rousseau /WPA Pool / Getty Images A handout photo provided by Kensington Palace shows Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Photo by Chris Jelf /Kensington Palace via Getty Images More in fashion: You can now shop Kate Middleton's actual wardrobe The shoes to wear now, based on spring 2016 trends Celebrity maternity style 101

While the Duchess of Cambridge normally sports rather expensive clothing, her latest cute dress is very budget friendly!

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2015/10/14/lionsgate-making-john-wick-vr-game/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524130000id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/10/14/lionsgate-making-john-wick-vr-game/

Why Lionsgate is making a ‘John Wick’ VR game

Studio Lionsgate has partnered with Starbreeze VR and developer Grab to launch a John Wick VR shooter game for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR in spring 2016. Peter Levin, president of interactive ventures and games at Lionsgate, says Lionsgate is very focused on VR, having worked with Samsung Gear VR on a “shattered reality” VR experience for Divergent in 2014. “We want to help define this new form of content by bringing marquee brands and premium storytelling into an immersive environment,” Levin says. “We think VR will serve to deepen the relationship between games and Hollywood. Consumers need a reason to invest in a headset, which is why we believe that premium content will be an important factor in motivating early adoption.” In the 2014 film, Keanu Reeves plays John Wick, a retired hitman who seeks revenge after assassins kill his Beagle puppy. The $20 million action movie earned $78 million at the box office and Lionsgate LGF greenlit a sequel for a September 2016 release. WEVR has developed a short interactive demo of the John Wick VR game that is currently on the HTC Vive World Tour truck. Both the demo and the game were made using Unreal Engine 4 technology. MORE: The Walking Dead invade virtual reality “Virtual reality represents an entirely new form of storytelling and we are very focused on adapting John Wick in a way that leverages all that this medium has to offer,” says Basil Iwanyk, CEO of Thunder Road Pictures, the company that produced John Wick. When asked if actor Reeves, who was an integral part of The Matrix video games in the past, would be featured in the VR game, Iwanyk said, “We are working on several ideas that we think will really add to the game experience, but since we’re in development, I am not able to say more than that right now.” “Lionsgate is innovative in that it looks for meaningful ways to extend its IP beyond the screen and, as a filmmaker, it’s great to work with a studio that gives our production team the opportunity to further explore and expand this universe while engaging fans in a new and different way,” Iwanyk says. Clifton Dawson, CEO of research firm Greenlight VR, expects global VR head-mounted display sales to exceed $140M in 2016 HMD sales, largely driven by low-cost HMDs in China, which have been selling since late 2014. “We see the availability of popular Hollywood licenses such as John Wick and Adventure Time in VR content as particularly important to the near-term growth and sustainability of the industry,” Dawson says. “That’s because in the absence of an ad-supported revenue models, we think compelling titles will encourage consumers to purchase hardware and directly pay for content. We believe that major Hollywood trademarks will eventually be in VR, since companies with large asset portfolios, such as Sony, Disney, and Fox, are major stakeholders in the industry.” Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology. For more Fortune coverage of virtual reality, watch this video:

Lionsgate is developing a VR first-person shooter set between the events of 'John Wick' and 'John Wick 2'.

medium

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/03/15/what-kind-of-boss-would-you-be/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524141031id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/15/what-kind-of-boss-would-you-be/

Quiz: What Kind of Boss Would You Be?

Would you a make a good boss? What kinds of perks and benefits programs would you offer to employees? When Great Place to Work surveys thousands of workers whose companies vie for a spot on our best workplaces lists, we ask them to rate their employers on a variety of topics: credibility of leadership and management, overall job satisfaction, and workplace camaraderie, for starters. We also ask questions about opportunities for advancement, pay and benefit programs, hiring practices, methods of communication, training, recognition programs, and diversity efforts. The companies that appear on our annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For excel in most, if not all of these areas. Take the quiz above to see what others value—and learn what kind of boss you’d be. Who knows? Some day you just might be running the company. To see the full list of this year’s best employers in the U.S., visit fortune.com/best-companies, where you can also find job searching tips, career advice, and secrets from recruiters on how to get hired.

Answer these 10 questions to find out.

medium

low

abstractive

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/magazine/the-writing-cure.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524154605id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2004/04/18/magazine/the-writing-cure.html

The New York Times

Bregman, the energetic and popular chief of hospital services for family medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, is in charge of shepherding a half-dozen interns and residents through an intensive monthlong rotation in internal medicine. Every other Friday morning, instead of the usual case conference, Bregman and another colleague of Charon's, Craig Irvine, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy, gather with the students over Greek deli coffee and oatmeal to read literature or poetry and write. The Friday I visited, they read a Sharon Olds poem, ''The Death of Marilyn Monroe,'' written from the point of view of the ambulance drivers who removed her corpse. Then they took 10 minutes to write a poem about an incident in the hospital that broke through their own professional veneers. The poems themselves said little. They tend to resemble song lyrics (Mariah Carey, not Bob Dylan) more than poetry. They consisted of lines like ''She knew. . . . /She cried/I cried'' (about telling a young married woman she is H.I.V. positive) or ''I sweat and scream and laugh and cry with her inside'' (about struggling to thread an IV line into the vein of a little girl). Yet the experience of hearing the poems read aloud was powerful, as the clichés turned into opportunities for discussing the kind of disturbing undercurrents of experiences that usually go unvoiced in the course of medical training. The young married woman who turned out to be H.I.V. positive was one of Jill Groves's first real patients, Groves told the group; she had ordered the test routinely, along with many others, when the woman had a minor gynecological problem and was shocked by the result. Before the follow-up visit, several days passed during which Groves harbored the terrible information within herself. As she was brushing her teeth at night, she felt the burden of knowing something that would irreversibly alter someone else's life. When the time came, she held the woman, and they both cried for a long time. ''I didn't do much,'' she said. ''It sounds like you did a great deal,'' Craig Irvine responded. Bregman nodded encouragingly. Although Bregman clearly has a good rapport with his students, he hadn't known that Jill Groves spent time crying with the patient; his focus is necessarily on making sure she knows how to treat H.I.V. A class like this provides the only scheduled opportunity to deal solely with empathy. Currently, psychiatry is the only field in medicine in which doctors are routinely encouraged to write about and examine the personal feelings they have about patients as part of their professional work. Yet medical students are so flooded by feelings that they have no time to examine or process that a significant proportion are thought to be suffering, literally, from post-traumatic stress disorder. It was in response to the lack of structures for reflection that Charon, in 1993, came up with a writing exercise she called ''keeping a parallel chart.'' A parallel chart is a personal notebook in which the doctor writes his or her own feelings about the patient -- the ghost, as it were, of the patient's actual medical chart. For example, a doctor might write in the official hospital chart that the patient is a 57-year-old man with congenital heart disease, adding that he is ''pleasant'' (the common medical euphemism that signals to other health care staff members that the patient is compliant). In the doctor's parallel chart, however, she could write that the patient reminds her of her dominating ex-boyfriend and that she finds herself becoming infuriated at the way he peers at her through his horn-rimmed glasses. Ordinarily, you would think such reflections belong in a diary and -- if shared at all -- would be confided only to a friend or a therapist. But by giving these reflective writings the term ''parallel charts'' and asking students to read them aloud, Charon puts the charts in a clinical context. ''This isn't for troubled students -- it's part of professional training,'' she says. Charon's vision of the value of a parallel chart differs from Bregman's. Charon feels that to describe this work as therapeutic is to ''pathologize,'' or trivialize, it, as if students were engaging in a support group rather than writing literary prose. ''Parallel charts are not for students' emotional benefit but to help them take better care of the patient,'' she says crisply, as if the latter did not stem from the former. Charon analyzes the parallel charts using the principles of a formalist literary theory known as narratology, which focuses on the structural elements of stories. Charon teaches students to analyze the elements of contingency (chance), intersubjectivity (the relationship of writer to subject and reader), genre and diction in their parallel charts. It is easy to see why narratology would appeal to physicians; it offers a set of defined and specialized-sounding terms to decode the opaque body of the text. Students came in with bits of writing that Charon helped them realize were actually obituaries, poems, dramas or epistolaries. ''Students may be used to writing, but they have yet to experience the marvelous discovery that you can write more than you know,'' she told me. ''We're hoping to let them get the news from what they write -- to gain access to that exquisite knowledge that is only accessible through writing.'' Students said things to her like, ''How interesting -- I didn't know I thought of my patient as a crocus.'' In 1999, Charon tried to prove the efficacy of parallel-chart writing. She obtained a foundation grant for a project she titled ''The Parallel Chart: Developing Empathy, Reflection and Courage in Physicians.'' The project was designed, she says, to show how the parallel chart can help students ''summon up the courage and insight to interact effectively with sick and dying patients.'' She took 100 third-year medical students (two-thirds of that year's class at Columbia) and randomly assigned half to keep parallel charts and discuss their writing one day a week for an hour, over the course of five weeks. The study is still being analyzed and has not yet been accepted for publication, but some intriguing initial results have emerged. The psychological testing revealed no differences between the control and the trial groups. So-called ''levels of empathy'' declined in both groups, and skill in ''coping with death'' improved -- characteristic results for medical students. However, the students in the trial group rated themselves higher in several important areas: their abilities to break bad news and to support critically ill and dying patients. Sixty percent of students said that the parallel chart helped them to improve their relationships with, and understand their feelings toward, their patients. Half volunteered that it had helped them to recognize or deepen their empathy. Most impressive, more than 80 percent of students said the sessions were therapeutic, cathartic or beneficial to their training -- a finding that seems to contradict Charon's belief that the parallel chart is not intended to be ''therapeutic'' or for ''students' emotional benefit.'' Chapter 3: The Uses of Literature, or Medical Students Treat Ivan Ilyich The program in narrative medicine on the ninth floor of the old Columbia Presbyterian Hospital building is known as the cool, fun place to visit (a cause of some small resentment among much-less-fun places like radiation and pain management). Charon's welcoming exuberance draws students, reporters and visiting faculty members from other medical schools looking to import her methods -- or just to talk to her. A remarkable number of distinguished speakers also come and go. Students are privileged to hear Susan Sontag -- last fall's annual writer-in-residence -- critique the pernicious use of metaphor in illness and to hear the writer Richard McCann use metaphor to extraordinary effect in his essay ''The Resurrectionist,'' about his own liver transplant. A parallel-chart-writing lunchtime group for the oncology ward provides an opportunity for staff members to write about their struggles in treating critically ill patients, demonstrating that parallel chart writing can be valuable for staff members as well as for medical students. When narrative medicine strays too far from medicine, however, it seems to lose its footing. In January, Charon experimented with a new elective called ''Narrative Medicine Immersion Month'' for fourth-year students, which involves reading canonical literature that is not focused on medicine and writing poetry and fiction about anything that inspires them -- little of which has to do with doctoring. Charon says she finds it ''boring'' and ''limiting'' to teach solely the medically related literature that medical humanities programs do. And since she says she believes studying narrative teaches skills and ''increases empathy and imagination'' generally, medical content is irrelevant. But are empathy and imagination general things? Watching a sleepy class of students stumble through ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' before a disappointed teacher did not, for me, so much call into question their competence at caring for the dying as function as a reminder that the interior monologue of the stylized Christian allegory is a world away from the I.C.U. (When Charon left the class, I asked for a show of hands: 3 of the 15 students liked the book ''O.K,'' but none of them liked it ''a lot.'' ''What do you like about it?'' they asked me curiously.) Jerome Groopman -- who is involved in a pilot writing program at Harvard that requires no reading of literature -- says that it is ''unclear how much impact reading narratives has on teaching medical students. It's not a given that the skill set to write or analyze a literary piece is the same skill set as being an effective physician.'' Groopman says that he knows ''tremendous doctors who speak to both the minds and hearts of their patients based on the language they learned through hard lessons at the bedside, yet do not have a literary sensibility and may not read literature at all. They may watch ESPN sports. Narrative medicine presents it as a truism that because a character's emotions are revealed in literature, reading literature would make one sensitive to patients. Yet this may not occur.'' Of course, reading or writing literature is an exercise in empathy and the imagination empathy requires: the ability to inhabit another's perspective. But that kind of empathy may not be so easily extracted from literature. It is one thing to mourn the death of a fictional soldier in Algiers -- especially when the death is wrapped in touching tropes and stitched up in rhyme. It is another matter to care for an actual patient, who -- bereft of an author's linguistic brilliance to render his story beautiful and fascinating -- instead presents himself as a lump of flesh on a table: inarticulate, smelly and carping of a cramp. You have only to think of the stories of Nazi commandants humming Wagner and weeping over Goethe in the death camps to realize that studying the humanities does not necessarily make you any more humane than studying finance makes you care about the poor. The more you think about the differences between literature and life, or an encounter with a real patient versus an encounter with a fictional one, the greater they become. As Joanne Alonso Byars, a second-year medical student at the University of Florida at Gainesville, who is active in its narrative-medicine program, points out, ''The author gives you all the necessary details so the character doesn't, you know, have a kidney condition or whatever that might not come out if you don't ask the right question.'' The reason that a literary text lends itself to analysis is that it is a frozen, finished form. A patient encounter, on the other hand, is evolving: the narrative changes with the conversation. Moreover, there is no objectively true reading of a literary text; their truths reside only in the slippery world of words. Clinical narratives, on the other hand, can be either accurate or inaccurate (and subject to malpractice!). None of these theoretical problems appear, in fact, to be problems for Charon in her own practice. Observing her for several days in a clinic in the hospital that serves the local low-income, mostly minority population, I was struck by the dynamic nature of the interaction. Far from sitting silently and absorbing patients' stories, as she described herself in the anecdote of the Dominican man, Charon was an active questioner. The patients volunteered little -- they were shy and sick -- but Charon led them to tell her what she needed to know by giving positive verbal and nonverbal feedback when they did. She did not dwell on anything, but elicited and responded to personal sorrows one minute and asked about smoking habits the next -- with no sense of disjuncture. The patients -- who, after all, had trekked to the hospital not to have their narratives analyzed, but to get better -- seemed to leave the brief 10- and 15-minute appointments with good care. Chapter 4: The Fate of Narrative Medicine At the University of Texas at San Antonio, Abraham Verghese (an occasional contributor to this magazine), heads a program in which he teaches his students what he describes as ''literature at the bedside,'' without ''the theoretical gloss.'' He says that he sees the value of his course as providing informal opportunities for conversation and emotional exchange. ''It probably could be a knitting circle and accomplish the same thing,'' he says cheerfully. ''But I'm glad that it's literature.'' Speaking at a conference on narrative medicine in Gainesville, in February, Verghese ruffled the feathers of the narrative-medicine community by asserting that the focus of such programs should be works of literature that examine the doctor-patient experience. In contrast to Charon, Verghese says he believes that medical content is crucial and that the value of reading other literature in groups is not to teach narrative competence but simply to provide a ''much needed support group'' for isolated, overwhelmed medical students. Verghese teaches works like W. Somerset Maugham's ''Of Human Bondage,'' which was part of his own inspiration for going into medicine. He says that he conceives of his own books (''My Own Country'' and ''The Tennis Partner'') as an attempt at writing that ''will call others to medicine.'' After he spoke, Charon and others stood up and made critical comments and everyone agreed that his ideas were ''dated,'' ''old-fashioned'' and ''passé.'' ''Seems like I said the emperor has no clothes,'' he told me ruefully. Verghese has been surprised at how successful Charon has been at copywriting, so to speak, the idea of storytelling in medicine, ''as if this is a new invention.'' When Verghese submitted an essay to the Annals of Internal Medicine exploring some of his own ideas about the relationship between doctoring and storytelling, the anonymous readers commented that he had failed to cite the narrative-medicine movement. Even though Verghese said he had not, in fact, been influenced by Charon and her followers but was drawing upon his experience as a physician and writer, he duly added citations. There are also ways to use creative writing in medical schools in which the value of the prose is simply utilitarian -- a tool to learn medicine, without literary aspirations. The pilot program that was begun at Harvard Medical School this fall, which Groopman advises, does not call itself narrative medicine, though it may represent a direction toward which narrative medicine evolves. Nancy E. Oriol, the associate dean for student affairs at Harvard Medical School, and other faculty members decided to experiment with a no-credit elective in which first-year students were assigned to faculty mentors, who would then match them with one of the mentor's patients, whom the students would follow for a year. In the course of the year, the students would produce ''a case book'' in which they would write a chapter about every aspect of the patient's disease. One chapter might be devoted to the genetics of the disease (which the student would research by contacting experts), another to its treatment options, another to the patient's familial situation and so forth. Since the project was not offered for credit, Oriol expected that few first-year students would volunteer for the extra work. So she was overwhelmed when 126 students -- 85 percent of the incoming class -- showed up for the first meeting. Even more startling was the response from faculty members: almost 300 of them were eager to become mentors. ''It's not only students but also physicians who find the structure of contemporary hospital life unsatisfying,'' Groopman told me after addressing the opening meeting of the project. ''They're all looking for more meaningful relationships.'' Although Groopman himself is a distinguished writer, he said that ''we're not looking to produce doctors who can write a sonnet instead of reading a cardiogram -- can you imagine?'' He shook his head at the thought. ''We're using writing as a technique to learn medicine. It doesn't matter whether the final product has any literary merit whatsoever.'' Oriol told me, ''I'll be equally thrilled if the student writes a 200-page, dry, clear encyclopedic book or if he writes a beautiful piece.'' Like many well-intentioned humanistic trends, narrative medicine may eventually fizzle out. At the moment, though, replete with cash and cachet, it represents a bright hope for restoring ancient virtues to medicine that everyone agrees are in scarce supply. The invention of the parallel chart seems most likely to be an enduring, valuable contribution. A number of medical schools have narrative medicine programs they explicitly model after Charon's, while others have incorporated some form of reflective writing in their practices or are adapting narrative-medicine practices in their own way. At some schools, for instance, students write pieces in which they try to imagine the life of the cadaver they dissect. At Vanderbilt University, Dr. A. Scott Pearson, a surgeon who directs the new narrative-medicine program, asks medical students on rounds to interview patients and find out some personal information that is relevant to their medical treatment and add it to their charts -- like the desire for prayer in the operating room or a personal reason such makes them unwilling to undergo surgery. Pearson's program also teaches literature, but he seems far less confident of the purpose of that study. When I asked him what he thought the relationship between listening to a patient and examining a literary character really is, he looked at me as if it were a trick question. ''What does Rita think?'' he asked uneasily. When I demurred, he said, ''Well, what do you think?'' Arthur Frank, a sociologist at the University of Calgary, has one of the broadest and most persuasive visions of narrative medicine. He says that he would like to see its focus shifted away from literature and toward nonfiction writing about medicine, like anthropology, ethnography and sociology. ''Literary narratology represents the particular interests of the person running the program at Columbia,'' he says tactfully. ''Not that I'm criticizing it.'' However, in England, he points out, narrative medicine -- including a recently published guide for primary care physicians -- typically does not include the study of literature at all. As a patient who suffered from a couple of critical illnesses (which he writes about in his classic ''At the Will of the Body''), Frank says that narrative medicine should encourage not only physicians' but also patients' narratives -- known as pathographies. ''What would it be like for ill people to tell their stories and for doctors to read them?'' he asks. He says he is interested not simply in a parallel chart but in a three-part chart in which the patients as well as the physicians get to write about themselves and report on their sense of the process. ''For me, that would be the beginning of a narrative-medicine program,'' he says. Frank's vision of how a lost sense of story could be restored to medicine is both lucid and profound. ''At the simplest level, narrative medicine means I take seriously that life really is a story,'' he says. ''When a doctor tells you, 'You are sick,' he's not just diagnosing; he is initiating a new chapter in the story of your life.'' Thus, he says, a physician practicing narrative-based medicine must be conscious of being a character in the story of the patient's life and taking responsibility for the part he or she chooses to play. In Frank's new book, ''The Renewal of Generosity,'' he examines clinical situations in which health care workers who do bring a sense of narrative to bear have transformative effects. ''The physician has a unique role,'' Frank says. ''She is invested with a particular potential for witnessing suffering -- a charismatic authority.'' Is charismatic authority the central component of a healing encounter? What, precisely, is its relation to narrative? He sighs. ''I've been trying to define the medical encounter and its relationship to healing for the past 15 years or so. If you or I could define it, I think there's a Nobel Prize in there.''

Melanie Thernstrom article on narrative medicine, wl

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/gap-amazon-sales/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524192416id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/18/gap-amazon-sales/?

Gap Would Consider Using Amazon to Help Fix Its Sales Problem

Gap Inc. gps is looking at every option available to help it shake off its long sales funk. For the retailer, whose three main brands—Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy—have struggled mightily for months, that includes considering third-party marketplaces, such as Amazon.com amzn . “To not be considering Amazon and others would be, in my view, delusional around the customer’s behavior,” CEO Art Peck said Tuesday at the company’s annual investor meeting in San Francisco. “We are always considering all of the opportunities beyond our traditional mix of channels and stores. And Amazon is certainly one, and there are others out there as well.” It’s easy to see the allure of Amazon: Cowen & Co has forecast the online marketplace will surpass Macy’s m as the top U.S. seller of apparel next year. Gap is one of the largest retailers online, selling $2.5 billion worth of clothes in the last year, for 16% percent of sales, according to eMarketer. But its prolonged slump is forcing the largest specialty apparel U.S. retailer to consider all sorts of moves to reignite growth. The company is already working to change its production to be quicker and nimbler so it can jump on fashion changes. Declining mall traffic, market losses to fast-fashion chains like H&M and Uniqlo, and stellar results from discounter TJX’s T.J. Maxx tjx have all hurt Gap. Comparable sales in April fell for their 13th straight month, and shares are down more than 55% from a 52-week high. To be fair, Gap is not alone in its sales woes. Everyone from Target tgt and Kohl’s kss to J.C. Penney jcp and Nordstrom jwn have hit a rough patch this spring.

All options are on the table.

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/san-francisco-warnings-soda-ads/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524192421id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/18/san-francisco-warnings-soda-ads/?

Big Soda Loses Fight to Stop San Francisco's Sugar Warning Labels Law

Big Soda has reportedly failed to stop a new San Francisco law requiring ads for sugary drinks to display warnings about the products’ possible negative health effects. San Francisco passed the ordinance targeting sugary drinks last summer—and the beverage industry immediately pounced. But federal District Judge Edward Chen ruled against drink makers’ request to halt the law’s implementation on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports, dismissing arguments that warning labels would present a threat to the industry’s free speech rights or excessively burden beverage companies. The request for a preliminary injunction was brought forward by trade group the American Beverage Association, and then joined by allies the California Retailers Association and the California State Outdoor Advertising Association. Click here to subscribe to our new Brainstorm Health Daily newsletter. With the complaint dismissed, the first-of-its-kind San Francisco law is slated to go into effect on July 25. Ads for drinks with added sugars, including billboards, will have to say, “WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. This is a message from the City and County of San Francisco.” The beverage industry has come under fire in recent years as public health advocates have turned their focus to additives such as sweeteners, including through proposed soda and sugar taxes. There is some debate about whether or not the taxes curb both sugary drink consumption and obesity, but recent evidence has shown Mexico’s new soda tax to be more effective than expected. While beverage makers have fought such taxes and proposed FDA changes to nutritional labeling requirements, Big Three soda companies Coca-Cola ko , PepsiCo pep , and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group dps pledged in 2014 to cut public calorie consumption from drinks by 20% by 2025.

Ads will have to change.

high

medium

mixed

http://fortune.com/2015/07/20/boeing-fire-lithium-batteries/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524220257id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/07/20/boeing-fire-lithium-batteries/

Boeing Warns Airlines About Lithium Battery Fire Hazard

Boeing has warned all passenger airliners that including bulk shipments of lithium-ion batteries in their cargo could cause fires that destroy airplanes. The U.S. Federal Aviation Agency has also confirmed this word of caution, adding in their own statement that tests “conducted on the transport of lithium batteries has indicated that it presents a risk,” according to a report by the Associated Press. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are used in cellphones, laptops and many other electronic devices. They are also often flown in the cargo of international airlines. Now, in a guidance sent by Boeing, airlines have been urged to refrain from carrying shipments of the batteries “until safer methods of packaging and transport are established and implemented,” Boeing BA spokesman Doug Alder told the AP in an e-mail. Tests conducted by the FAA over the past year have shown that inflammable gases such as hydrogen are emitted when the batteries short-circuit. They can then cause explosions when ignited, and cause fires that are hard to extinguish. After one such test, the FAA concluded that the “cargo liner is vulnerable to penetration by molten lithium.” Observers will note that the infamous Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane that went missing last year carried a shipment of 5,400 pounds worth of lithium-ion batteries, as detailed in investigations. That plane, which still has yet to be found, was a Boeing 777 airliner carrying 293 passengers and crew members.

Could a battery explosion have brought down MH370?

medium

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/19/trump-supreme-court-pick-mocked-him-on-twitter/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160524224916id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/19/trump-supreme-court-pick-mocked-him-on-twitter/

Trump Supreme Court Pick Mocked Him on Twitter

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An avid Twitter user, Donald Trump has attracted more than his fair share of trolls. Now, he may be ready to name one of them to the Supreme Court. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett is on the list of 11 potential high court justices the presumptive Republican nominee plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia if he’s elected to the White House. The Republican Willett has a reputation as a strong conservative with an ironic sense of humor, and his Twitter presence is so pronounced that Texas’ Legislature last year named him honorary “Tweeter Laureate.” One problem, though: Willett has repeatedly used Twitter — and his famously biting wit — to mock Trump. Last summer, Willett used his Twitter account, @JusticeWillett, to take a swipe at Trump’s conservatism, tweeting: “Can’t wait till Trump rips off his face Mission Impossible-style & reveals a laughing Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg is famously liberal. Willett has poked fun at Trump’s plan to build a wall the length of the U.S.-Mexico border and stick Mexico with the bill: “We’ll rebuild the Death Star. It’ll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it.” And he laughed about the controversy over Trump University: “Low-energy Trump University has never made it to #MarchMadness. Or even to the #NIT. Sad!” Willett was also fond of using props to reinforce his displeasure with Trump, like a weeping religious icon over the message “Trump to ‘the evangelicals’ __ ‘I’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to them.'” Willett added a postscript to that message: “Happy Easter everyone!” He also gleefully tweeted a chart featuring the separation of the three branches of government after a February Republican debate, when Trump mistakenly spoke about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito “signing” a bill. Willett even used an unflattering haiku to scoff at whom Trump might name to the Supreme Court — which could be himself, as it turns out. Mobbed by reporters Wednesday when he showed up at a Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s book signing in Austin just as news of Trump’s high court short list was breaking, Willett giggled at the attention. He said he was “exercising judicial restraint” by not commenting and left. Meanwhile, Willett began trending on certain corners of Twitter, as word of his past Trump criticism on social media spread. Willett was appointed to Texas’ highest civil court in August 2005 by then-Gov. Rick Perry, who ran for president against Trump and was also one of his harshest critics — but now says he’s changed his mind. Willett won re-election to six-year terms in 2006 and 2012. “I’m the most avid judicial tweeter in America, which is like being the tallest Munchkin in Oz,” Willett told The Associated Press last year, after the state Legislature saluted his social media prowess. Willett sometimes tweets 10-plus times per day, but insisted then that he is ever-cautious, careful not to discuss issues that could come before his court. That same restraint might have served him well when it came to Trump’s potential Supreme Court.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett has repeatedly used Twitter to mock Trump.

high

high

mixed

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/business/business-as-car-dealers-women-are-scarce-but-successful.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20160525013406id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2003/01/12/business/business-as-car-dealers-women-are-scarce-but-successful.html?

Business - As Car Dealers, Women Are Scarce but Successful - NYTimes.com

ROCHESTER— FOR Kitty Van Bortel, the owner of Van Bortel Subaru and Van Bortel Ford in Victor, N.Y., 2002 was a tad disappointing. After three years of taking the prize as the top-selling franchise of Subaru of America Inc., Ms. Van Bortel came in second. Even so, sales at her Subaru dealership held steady at about $43 million, and she lost the top spot by a mere 17 cars. Not bad, especially considering how difficult it has been for women to break into the retail car business. The National Automobile Dealers Association has never officially called its training academy ''the Dealer Sons' School,'' but that's how women of a certain age remember it. Although women now buy 50 percent of all cars and are on a path to buying even more, the number of women selling cars has risen only slightly. Dealership owners, like Ms. Van Bortel, are even scarcer. Women hold about 7 percent of all jobs in dealerships, up from 3.5 percent in 1990, according to CNW Marketing Research. But while women account for 60 percent of the office staff, they fill only 7.1 percent of the general manager roles and 4.9 percent of the ownership positions, numbers that haven't changed much in the last decade. Acknowledging the importance of women in the marketplace, automakers have long been rethinking how they design vehicles. Many cars displayed this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, for example, are marketed to appeal to women. But automakers' efforts to raise the number of dealers who are women have proved inadequate. Of General Motors' 7,400 dealerships, 226, or 3 percent, are owned by women. At Ford Motor, women own 278, or 5 percent, of the 5,165 dealerships. It's much the same for other automakers. The retail car business, like many others, has long been a father-son story. Sons took over dealerships as their fathers retired or died, and showrooms and service bays looked much the same for a century, with few women or members of minorities. Then, if sometimes only by circumstance, a few women started inheriting dealerships from their fathers or, increasingly, from their husbands, and it appeared that time was finally marching on. But only some women have advanced in the auto dealer business beyond that -- by ascending to management jobs that put them in the line of succession to run a dealership, or by coming up with the money to buy one. The major automakers have offered programs in recent years to recruit minority dealers, and they have now extended those efforts to women as well. In January 2001, G.M. became the first automaker to create a dealer development program for women. Some other companies, like Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. -- which counts 33, or 2 percent, of its 1,406 dealerships as owned by women -- offer only financial assistance, and only to candidates with extensive experience in the car business. G.M. and Ford, meanwhile, make loans and pay for intensive training and internships through the dealer association's academy. Women who own dealerships tend to do well, and several manufacturers report that franchises owned by women are at or near the top in overall sales volume. Some dealers and industry analysts have an explanation for that. ''The reason women become so successful is we're interested in treating women right when they come in,'' said Ms. Van Bortel, 48. ''I don't mean to sound stereotypical, but women have so much more empathy for customers.'' She has research on her side. CNW says 39 percent of women would rather deal with women in the car showroom, compared with 10 percent of men who prefer to buy cars from other men. On the flip side, 13 percent of women prefer to deal with men, and 11 percent of men want to deal with women. The rest are indifferent about the sales representative's sex. Do dealer development programs bring more women into the business? The interest appears to be there. Patricia J. Roberts, general director of the retail program for women at G.M., said the company has been swamped with requests. ''The shower started and it has not stopped,'' Ms. Roberts said. About 1,200 women have requested information, including some just out of college. She said a ''couple hundred'' have applied. Success stories, however, are scarce. Few ownership opportunities exist, so most dealer programs train a handful of women a year. G.M.'s program, which takes about a year to complete, has 21 women in the pipeline. Ten are waiting for a location to open up, and the others have almost completed the training. But none have gotten dealerships. And it isn't clear when they might, partly because ownership requires substantial investment and, often, relocation. When a dealership does come up for sale, it is likely that another large dealership will buy it. Cliff Banks, associate editor of Ward's Dealer Business, a trade publication in Detroit, said that there were 15,000 owners for the 21,800 dealerships in the country, a ratio that is narrowing as cnsolidation grows. Elsie MacMillan, 55, who owns Sierra Toyota in Sierra Vista, Ariz., parlayed more than three decades of experience into her own Toyota franchise, but only after spending six years in four states doing consulting work and looking for a dealership to buy. Ms. MacMillan, who financed the dealership through Toyota's dealer development program, said she could have bought it outright if necessary, ''but that would have required every nickel and dime that I had saved.''

FOR Kitty Van Bortel, the owner of Van Bortel Subaru and Van Bortel Ford in Victor, N.Y., 2002 was a tad disappointing. After three years of taking the prize as the top-selling franchise of Subaru of America Inc., Ms. Van Bortel came in second. Even so, sales at her Subaru dealership held steady at about $43 million, and she lost the top spot by a mere 17 cars.

low

high

extractive

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/11/19/ex-subway-pitchman-sentenced-on-child-sex-charges/21269058/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160525034221id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2015/11/19/ex-subway-pitchman-sentenced-on-child-sex-charges/21269058/

Ex-Subway pitchman sentenced to 15-1/2 years on child sex charges

(Reuters) -- Former Subway sandwich chain pitchman Jared Fogle on Thursday was sentenced to 15-1/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and sex charges. Fogle, who became famous after losing weight on a diet that included sandwiches from the fast-food chain, agreed in August to a deal with prosecutors under which he would plead guilty to charges of child pornography and traveling for illicit paid sex with minors. Photos from the Jared Fogle scandal: Ex-Subway pitchman sentenced to 15-1/2 years on child sex charges Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle arrives at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. Fogle is due to formally plead guilty and be sentenced on charges of trading child pornography and paying for sex with minors. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle arrives at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. Fogle is due to formally plead guilty and be sentenced on charges of trading child pornography and paying for sex with minors. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle leaves the Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015 following a hearing on child-pornography charges. Fogle agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography in a case that destroyed his career at the sandwich-shop chain and could send him to prison for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle leaves the Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015 following a hearing on child-pornography charges. Fogle agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography in a case that destroyed his career at the sandwich-shop chain and could send him to prison for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) INDIANAPOLIS, IN - AUGUST 19: Senior Litigation Counsel, Steven DeBrota, explains the charges against Subway Pitchman, Jared Fogle, during a press conference on August 19, 2015 at the United States Attorneys Office in Indianapolis, Indiana. Fogle was part of a Federal Investigation which included a raid of his home in July 2015. (Photo by Ron Hoskins/Getty Images) Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle leaves the Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015 following a hearing on child-pornography charges. Fogle agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography in a case that destroyed his career at the sandwich-shop chain and could send him to prison for more than a decade. (AP Photo/AJ Mast) INDIANAPOLIS, IN - AUGUST 19: Jared Fogle (R) gets into a car in front of the courthouse on August 19, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Fogle was part of a Federal Investigation which included a raid of his home in July 2015. (Photo by Joey Foley/Getty Images) US Attorney Josh Minkler, center, Indianapolis Police chief Richard Hite, left, and Assistant US Attorney Steven D. DeBrota discuss the child pornography case against former Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle following his hearing in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. Fogle agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography in a case that destroyed his career at the sandwich-shop chain and could send him to prison for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. FBI Special agent Wendy Osborne said that the FBI was conducting an investigation in the Zionsville area but wouldn't confirm it involved Fogle. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. FBI Special agent Wendy Osborne said Tuesday that the FBI was conducting an investigation in the Zionsville area but wouldn't confirm it involved Fogle. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Federal authorities walk out of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. FBI Special agent Wendy Osborne said Tuesday that the FBI was conducting an investigation in the Zionsville area but wouldn't confirm it involved Fogle. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Federal authorities walk outside of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Federal authorities walk outside of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. FBI Special agent Wendy Osborne said Tuesday that the FBI was conducting an investigation in the Zionsville area but wouldn't confirm it involved Fogle. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Federal authorities walk outside of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Federal authorities walk outside of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. FBI Special agent Wendy Osborne said Tuesday that the FBI was conducting an investigation in the Zionsville area but wouldn't confirm it involved Fogle. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) Federal authorities walk outside of the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) Fogle agreed in court on Thursday to avoid pornography, get sexual disorder treatment and will be a registered sex offender. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt also sentenced him to a lifetime of supervision and a $175,000 fine. Pratt went beyond what either side wanted: prosecutors had sought a 12-1/2 year sentence, while Fogle's attorneys had asked for five years. "The defendant was obsessed with child pornography and sex with minors," Pratt said. Fogle was remanded to the custody of a U.S. Marshall, and Pratt recommend he go to a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado. Dr. John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist testifying for the defense at the sentencing hearing, said Fogle was mostly attracted to older female teenagers 16 and 17 years old, not prepubescent children. Prosecutors countered the testimony by reading a text from Fogle in which he said he wanted younger prostitutes, "the younger the better." Bradford also said Fogle has an alcohol problem, and had a compulsive eating disorder that moved into "hypersexuality" after he lost weight. "He traded a horrible food addiction for a horrible sex addiction," said defense attorney Jeremy Margolis. Fogle spent at least $12,000 a year or more on prostitutes, and had a number of extramarital affairs, prosecutors said. Fogle cried during his statement before sentencing, saying his wife and children would never get over this. "You gave your wife $7 million, she'll be okay," Pratt responded. Fogle's wife filed for divorce, according to media reports. Fogle said he now acknowledges that the minors involved had been gravely harmed. Subway fired Fogle when reports of the plea agreement emerged. He has already begun to pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 victims who are minors. The prosecutors' sentencing recommendation left the door open for further charges against Fogle if other evidence emerges. Authorities have so far identified 12 victims of child pornography in Indiana, along with two teenage victims of child prostitution in New York, according to court documents. Fogle obtained and viewed child pornography given to him by his co-conspirator, Russell Taylor, which included homemade material involving victims in Indiana, prosecutors said. Fogle has stated that he was sexually attracted to children as young as eight years old, the government said. He will now not be able to work or volunteer with unsupervized minors, and will be able to see his own children only with agreement by all involved. More from AOL.com: Boy hailed as hero after rescuing dad Jennifer Lawrence tells Jimmy Fallon about the time she thought she met Elizabeth Taylor Suspected mastermind behind Paris attacks killed

Former Subway sandwich spokesman Jared Fogle on Thursday is scheduled to be sentenced to prison after he officially pleads guilty to child pornography.

high

medium

mixed

http://fortune.com/2015/06/17/heroes-of-the-fortune-500-2015/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160525095924id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/06/17/heroes-of-the-fortune-500-2015/

The 2015 Heroes of the Fortune 500

During the day, Harry Behrens works as a line technician for Comcast CMCSA , maintaining main cables lines and fixing outages. But when he gets home to his farmhouse in rural New Jersey, he plants and cares for the ten acres of produce that he distributes to the hungry in surrounding towns. In Jacksonville, Fla., Mike DelPizzo comes home from his quality assurance job at AT&T T to a workshop in his garage—where he churns out wooden urns to give families of deceased veterans who can’t afford more than the cardboard box in which they receive the ashes. Toni Bazon-Forsberg, an environmental coordinator for Exelon EXC , travels the country with her comfort dog, Shami, using her vacation time to deploy in the aftermath of traumatic events like the elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn. Each of them has dedicated his or her life to the service of others—but they’re also committed employees of some of the largest corporations in America, the Fortune 500. For the second year in a row, we’ve set out to evaluate the nation’s biggest companies with a metric that isn’t disclosed in their SEC filings: heart. And sure enough, in the ranks of the nation’s biggest companies, we found it. We discovered extraordinary employees—from ground-floor receptionists to top-floor executives—who have committed acts of remarkable kindness and service, putting their time and well-being second to the needs of others. We call them the Heroes of the 500. This year’s group of 55 individuals represents 46 corporations, and their humanitarianism cuts across an impressive array of interests: They serve veterans, children with cancer, refugees, and sick pets. They respond in emergencies to save lives—and in one case, an entire town. Often, their employers have lent support: donating goods and money, offering flexible work schedules, rallying colleagues, and, in some cases, allowing these employees to make philanthropy their day jobs. It’s easy to forget that Fortune 500 companies are composed of millions of people around the world. But it’s those employees who give humanity to the numbers we so celebrate. Check out our Heroes of the 500 list here.

These days, it’s easy to get wrapped up in our jobs, our phones, and our own small lives. Who has time to rise above the daily grind? Here are the stories of 55 Fortune 500 employees whose remarkable acts of goodness and charity will inspire you.

low

low

abstractive

http://www.tmz.com/2011/11/15/bombshell-mcgee-kat-von-d-jesse-james/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160525222748id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2011/11/15/bombshell-mcgee-kat-von-d-jesse-james/

Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee to Kat Von D: TOLDJA SO!

-- hours after Kat claimed with 19 women -- telling TMZ, she warned Kat days after ... the relationship would never last. back in January, days after Jesse proposed to Kat ... and Bombshell told us, "I would be surprised if they made it to the altar." Watch the clip -- you can cut the schadenfreude with a knife.

Michelle "Bombshell" McGee unloaded on Kat Von D -- hours after Kat claimed Jesse James cheated on her with 19 women -- telling TMZ, she warned Kat days…

low

low

mixed

http://fortune.com/2015/07/22/apple-watch-revised-sales/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160525223248id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/07/22/apple-watch-revised-sales/

How many watches did Apple really sell?

Tim Cook won’t say how many Watches Apple sold last quarter. But he did the next best thing. He dropped enough hints in the conference call Tuesday for analysts to make some educated guesses. A few even showed their math (see below). Watch sales may have exceeded Apple’s internal expectations, as both Cook and CFO Luka Maestri insist, but they did not exceed Wall Street’s. The last time we checked, the average estimate was about 4 million. We gathered a dozen revised estimates this morning and got a new average: 2.53 million. “It’s hard to spin an estimated 2.2M Watch shipments in the June quarter positively,” writes Katy Huberty, using her own set of numbers, “given it missed our 3M estimate.” Below: The new spreadsheet. (Note many “before” estimates are not included.) Cook told analysts yesterday that the Watch in its first 9 weeks outperformed both the original iPhone and the first iPad. And if he said it, I’m sure it’s true. But it’s also true that the iPhone started more or less from zero. Apple is selling Watches into a installed base of hundreds of millions of iPhone users. (See the Mike Wehner’s A moment in Apple Watch history in the DailyDot for good perspective on this.) Meanwhile, as promised, here’s Gene Munster doing the math: “Apple’s Other revenue category grew $874m y/y, and Tim Cook mentioned that more than 100% of the absolute growth came from the Watch. Additionally, Cook noted that the Apple Watch sell-through was higher than the original iPad through its first nine weeks. We believe this implies Watch units of around 2.5 million with $500 ASPs and Other revenue ex-Watch down in the mid-30% range.” And Pacific Crest’s Andy Hargreaves: “Based on reported data in the other products category and Tim Cook’s commentary that Apple Watch unit sell-through was “higher than comparable launch periods” (meaning the first nine weeks) of the iPhone or iPad, we estimate Apple sold 2.80 million Apple Watches in FQ3. We arrive at this estimate by adjusting the iPad launch of 3.27 million units for 14 extra days of potential sales (iPad debuted on April 3 versus the April 17 debut of Apple Watch). This unit estimate implies an ASP of ~$450, which is well below our estimate of $775 and suggests a dramatically higher mix of Sport units and precious few sales of Edition units.” Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple AAPL coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.

A lot fewer than everybody expected. Except maybe Apple.

high

low

abstractive

http://time.com/123030/maya-angelou-best-books/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526135947id_/http://time.com:80/123030/maya-angelou-best-books/

The Acclaimed Poet's Most Beloved Works

Maya Angelou, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, was known for many things throughout her life: her wisdom, her acting, her indefatigable civil rights activism. But more than anything else, Angelou was famous for her writing. Both a prolific poet and memorist, Angelou penned more than two dozens books and collections throughout her life (including two cookbooks). Despite the scale of her oeuvre, much of her work deals with reoccuring themes: love, heartbreak, family, race and feminism. Her books were critically-acclaimed and adored by many readers; here are some of the most notable works. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) The first of seven autobiographical works, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Angelou’s most famous and critically acclaimed book. The story spans much of her childhood, following young Maya and her older brother as they bounce from their parents’ home to their grandmother’s and back again. Throughout the memoir, Angelou struggles not only with feelings of chronic displacement but also her experiences with racism, molestation and rape. Nominated for the National Book Award and named one of the All-TIME Best 100 Non-Fiction works (by this writer), Caged Bird was a revolutionary account of what it meant to be young, female and black in America. Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie (1971) Angelou’s first collected work of poetry, Just Give was written largely before her first memoir was published, with many of the poems originating as song lyrics. (Angelou worked as a nightclub singer in her twenties.) The book is divided into two sections: Where Love Is a Scream of Anguish features poems about love, while Just Before the World Ends features poems about surviving as an African-American in a white society. The collection became a best-seller and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. The Heart of a Woman (1981) For her fourth memoir, Angelou recounts her life from the years 1957 to 1962, where she leaves California with her son, Guy, to move to New York. She finds herself amongst other black artists and writers, reading her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and taking part in the civil rights movement. She also recounts falling in love with a South African freedom fighter, which led her to travel to London and Cairo, though ultimately the memoir isn’t about relationships — it’s about “a voyage into the self.” The book was praised by critics and — 16 years after it was first published — Oprah Winfrey selected Heart as an Oprah’s Book Club selection, which put it on the best-sellers list. Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) The first of three essay collections, Wouldn’t Take Nothing is a collection of autobiographical pieces and homilies that Angelou was reportedly encouraged to write by her friend Oprah Winfrey. Together with her second collection of essays, Even the Stars Look Lonesome, which was published four years later, the essay collections were dubbed “Angelou’s wisdom books” in the New Yorker by Hilton Als. Mom & Me & Mom (2013) What would become Angelou’s final book was both her seventh memoir and the only work where she focuses on her relationship with her mother. Mom recounts much of the material found in Angelou’s earlier memoirs, but hones in on her mother’s role in the events of her life. Chronicling her mother’s abandonment of Angelou as a young child, the memoir also covers their reunion and reconciliation. The book ends with the death of her mother, along with Angelou’s final words to her: “You were a terrible mother of small children, but there has never been anyone greater than you as a mother of a young adult.”

The poet and author died on Wednesday at the age of 86

high

medium

mixed

http://time.com/3593482/sids-baby-monitors/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526151807id_/http://time.com:80/3593482/sids-baby-monitors/

Smart Baby Monitors and Wearables Don’t Prevent SIDS

Parents often rely on home monitoring products to protect babies from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), an unexplained death that can happen to seemingly healthy babies, often during sleep. But they shouldn’t, argues a new editorial report in the journal The BMJ. David King, author of the piece and clinical lecturer in pediatrics at the University of Sheffield, wrote that smart baby monitors and infant wearables provide a false sense of security to parents who use the products to keep their babies safe. Take Owlet, King says, a U.S. company that raised $1.85 million in April 2014 for a smart sock that could measure babies’ vital signs. Other companies like Rest Devices and Sproutling have advertised similarly smart clothing for monitoring babies’ vitals. The problem, King argues, is that while the companies don’t outright claim that their products reduce the risk of SIDS, parents’ fears of the disorder are responsible for spurring the industry’s growth. In August, Sproutling co-founder and CEO Chris Bruce told TIME the product was developed out of his own need to incessantly check on his baby to make sure she was still breathing. “I’d get nervous,” he said. “I tried to listen at the door and I didn’t want to wake her up…So I sneak in, I try and listen if she’s breathing, and I end up putting my hand on her and waking her up.” King writes that devices can be helpful in some circumstances. “Home monitoring may be justified in some situations, such as for preterm infants or infants who need oxygen,” he says. “But in these cases parents and other caregivers should be trained in observation techniques, operation of the monitor, and infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation.” These monitoring products do not require premarket approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and King argues that despite the fact that the companies disclose that they are not medical devices, there’s not enough information ensuring parents really know that. He argues that the advertising for these products is confusing. In the report, King writes: Owlet states on its website that the device “alerts you if something appears wrong with your baby’s heart rate or the amount of oxygen in his/her body.” Rest Devices claims that its product allows parents to see their “baby’s breathing patterns, in real-time.” Sproutling says that it will let you know “if your baby is sleeping soundly or if something is wrong.” No published data support any of these claims, and because the devices are being sold as consumer rather than medical devices such data are not required. Ideally, manufacturers would be required to undertake observational studies or randomized trials to support any claims they make concerning the utility and efficacy of wearable devices in infants—even if they are categorized as consumer devices. The American Academy of Pediatrics has already said that home cardiorespiratory monitors shouldn’t be used to reduce SIDS risk. In response to King’s report, the founder of Owlet Kurt Workman says in a statement sent to TIME: “I have hundreds of comments from Owlet testers and none of them focus on SIDS. They just want to know if something is wrong. That’s what pulse oximetry does in hospitals and in homes worldwide. Parents simply want something that can monitor their child pro-actively (something that video and sound can’t do). As parents we’re tired of monitors that only serve a purpose when we’re awake. We want something that can let us rest easier. That’s the purpose of Owlet and for many parents it is worth the expense.” Rest Devices, the company behind the Mimo Smart Baby Monitor, also responded to TIME: Mimo was never designed to be a medical device. It’s worth noting that our founding team did clinically validate our sensors when doing early-stage development of adult respiratory diagnostic devices, and we continued to use that knowledge base once we transitioned to baby and family products. We do communicate to our customers in several different forms that our product is a baby monitor, not a medical device. It’s on our website, it’s on our packaging, it’s in our support tools—including the setup booklet that helps a parent get up and running. Owlet says nearly 3,000 people have pre-ordered their product and that their technology is more advanced than the research King mentions in his piece. “The bigger point is that technology has progressed and we can now fit a pulse oximeter, accelerometer and even temperature sensors comfortably on a baby’s foot without any cords,” says Workman, adding that the company is creating a product that they will submit to the FDA as a medical device to take home from the neonatal intensive care unit. “Some professionals have the notion that the less parents know the better, we feel the opposite,” he says. “We also feel that they have the right to know more about their child.” King says medical professionals should not recommended the products to ease parents’ fears, but should instead recommend methods long known to work, like positioning a child on its back to sleep. But in our new age of tracking ourselves, why not keep tabs on the vitals of our dependent kin? Smart monitoring devices won’t hurt as an extra way for parents to track their children—as long as they’re well aware that doing so won’t alert them to SIDS in their babies. Sproutling did not respond to requests for comment at publication.

New "smart" products to monitor babies shouldn't quell parents' fears about SIDS

high

low

abstractive

http://time.com/3013299/america-approval/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526162001id_/http://time.com:80/3013299/america-approval/

Approval for United States Around the World Map

Russians’ disapproval for the United States has hit new lows, according to the latest figures released by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. In 2013, 51 percent of Russians said they had a favorable view of the United States–the fourth straight year that a majority of those polled gave the U.S. a thumbs up. This year, with discord rising between American and Russian leaders, Russian approval of the U.S. plummeted 28 percentage points. The following interactive allows you to compare any two different years back to 2002 to see how global opinion has changed. Not every country was polled every year. Note: Clicking on the green hyperlinks updates the interactive map in the article. Following Barack Obama’s election in 2008, many countries saw spikes in favorability toward the United States in 2009, and in many cases those bumps in approval have since waned. Germany greeted the new White House administration with a 33 point bump in approval, for example, but has since dropped 13 points to a 51 percent favorability rating. France and China, meanwhile, has bucked the trend, with growing support for the U.S. since last year.

A lot has changed in the world's opinion of America since 2013. See TIME's interactive map

low

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/05/24/the-occupy-movement-comes-of-age/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526170715id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/24/the-occupy-movement-comes-of-age/

The Occupy Movement Comes of Age

In late 2011, the Occupy movement was front and center. Americans, especially young people, were protesting in numbers that had scarcely been seen since the Vietnam War era. The movement, which started in lower Manhattan but spread to cities all over the U.S. and the world, was considered a potentially seminal political moment. Along with protesters in the Arab world, Time (Fortune’s sister publication) named “The Protester” as its “Person of the Year” in 2011. But following a series of police actions on Occupy encampments — most notably the dispersal of protesters from lower Manhattan’s Zucotti Park — the movement mostly fizzled. Micah White, one of the co-creators of the Occupy Movement, has admitted it was in may ways a failure. But the spirit of Occupy lives on. On Tuesday in Washington, a group called Take on Wall Street announced that it was launching a new campaign focused on limiting the power the financial sector exerts over the political process and the economy—very similar goals to the Occupy movement. Unlike Occupy, though, which was almost entirely a grassroots movement, Take on Wall Street has institutional and financial heft behind it. Groups like The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers are both involved, reports The Washington Post. Take on Wall Street isn’t strictly a protest movement. “We are going to make this an issue in congressional races. No one will be able to run from this,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, to the Post. Turning to elections could be a prudent move. The success of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary race and, to a lesser extent, Donald Trump suggests that Occupy’s fundamental message—that the financial and political system is rigged in favor of the 1%—has gained ground over the past five years. Indeed, Bill Ayers, the 1960s radical best known for his involvement in the Weather Underground, told Fortune that he believes the current surge of populist politics goes right back to Zucotti Park. “Bernie Sanders would not be where he is without Occupy,” Ayers says. Some of the grassroots supporters behind Sanders’ bid for the presidential nomination have ties to Occupy. Winnie Wong, co-founder of online activist group People for Bernie, was in Zucotti Park for the entirety of the encampment, according to a Bloomberg story from earlier this year. Stan Williams was an Occupier before he founded African-Americans for Bernie, reports The Guardian. The Occupy-influenced left still has lot of hurdles to jump over—Bernie Sanders may have done surprisingly well in the primaries, but he is still on track to lose the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton. But, much like the Tea Party on the right, the progressive left seems poised to throw its weight around within the Democratic Party.

A group called Take on Wall Street is launching a campaign focused on limiting the power of banks.

medium

high

mixed

http://time.com/4006546/baby-animals-travel/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526171954id_/http://time.com:80/4006546/baby-animals-travel/

These Are the Best Places to See Baby Animals

In Kaikoura, New Zealand, a forest trail begins along a crystal-clear stream that feeds into the Pacific Ocean. Are those dogs barking? Splash! What was that big, black creature that just swam by? Ten minutes into your hike, the mystery is revealed: hundreds of baby fur seals are having an unsupervised pool party. These pups are leaping, twirling, and diving into the freshwater pool fed by a raging waterfall. Just as uplifting? Baby leatherback turtles hatching on the shores of Trinidad. Or a baby giraffe taking its first wobbly steps in Kenya. Or an alligator emerging from its shell in Louisiana. For the animal lovers and wildlife photographers, spring and summer are the prime times to observe rambunctious youngsters and their fiercely protective mamas, whether out in nature or in a preserve. You can book a trip to cuddle a koala in Queensland, spot rare cave chicks in Cook Islands, or peek in on the world’s teeniest primates in Peru. Read on. “I kissed a giraffe, and I think I liked it”—that could be the theme song of the Giraffe Centre, a conservation center on the outskirts of Nairobi that breeds and protects endangered Rothschild’s giraffe subspecies. From the viewing platform, put a pellet between your lips, lean out, and smooch. One of the giraffes from the tower roaming the 120-acre refuge will gently lick your face to retrieve the snack. Want more quality time with mothers and baby giraffes? Stay at nearby Giraffe Manor, where you can feed them from the dining room or your room’s window. Leatherbacks are the world’s largest turtle, weighing up to 1,000 pounds and reaching eight feet long, and they’re also the oldest species of their kind, outliving dinosaurs. From March to August, approximately 6,000 leatherbacks journey to the shores of Trinidad and Tobago to nest. You can spot them along Matura, Manzanilla, and Grand Riviere beaches in Trinidad and Turtle Beach and Englishman’s Bay in Tobago (although contact the Forestry Division first for a permit). Or enlist a guide from conservation groups and eco-tour operators like Save Our Sea Turtles and Nature Seekers. Lucky visitors get to witness a birth, or see the one-inch hatchlings scramble into the ocean. Six hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, the Churchill region of Manitoba is by far the most accessible place to spot polar bears. They gather along the headlands overlooking Hudson Bay each fall in anticipation of the water icing over—though that wait is getting longer, as the local climate warms. Churchill Wild offers a weeklong “Mothers & Cubs” safari at its Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge, overlooking Hudson Bay. Sightings are never guaranteed, but there have been years in which they’ve had a 100 percent success rate. From April to October, hundreds of native fur pups clamber upstream (yes, they really hike up rocks) to play in a freshwater pool fed by a raging waterfall. It’s like a seal daycare, as they happily splish-splash around while waiting for their mothers to return with dinner. The seals are used to being around humans and may even come right up and stick their nose on your camera lens. Take the easy 10-minute Ohau Stream trail located off the South Island’s Highway 1 to witness this natural marvel. It’s free, with no security and no guardrails. Peru’s Cocha Salvador Lake is the place to witness the teeniest primates on the planet. Pygmy monkeys have babies so little (newborns weigh about half an ounce) that two can cling to a human’s finger. Founder Josh Cohen of Wild Planet Adventures recommends visiting during peak birthing seasons: May and June or November through January. Guides are specially trained to locate troops among the quassia trees and even have a special call to draw them out. One of the world’s largest Atlantic bottlenose dolphin populations clusters just off the shores of Fort Myers. Spot calves in the spring, playfully leaping and twirling in the waters within their family pods. Take a dolphin cruise with Adventure in Paradise, or for an up-close encounter, go kayaking with Good Time Charters. Dolphin calves are very curious and often swim near the kayaks to say hello. Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort, in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department, has devoted 64 acres to the care of orphaned baby orangutans—an endangered species found only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Twice a day, they come out to play and snack on fresh fruit. Watch from a platform amid the jungle as they leap overhead, swing on obstacle courses, and monkey around with the caretaker. With up to 400 full-time feathery residents, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve has the world’s largest concentration of bald eagles. You can spot eaglets in early May or late June during hatching season or during September’s fledgling season (when they begin to try out their wings and fly). The preserve is free and open to the public; head to the Chilkat River between mile markers 18 and 24 on Haines Highway to see America’s emblematic bird. If you prefer a guide, choose from offerings that include Chilkat Guide’s rafting trip and Alaska Nature Tour’s “Valley of the Eagle” walking excursion. As the locals say, Lucky Bay is so beautiful (with its white sands and turquoise waters) that even the kangaroos love it. Their adorable offspring, a.k.a. joeys, can be spotted year round, but opportunities are best during summer—November through January—when they come to drink from a nearby fresh spring in early morning or late afternoon. With roughly 3,500 Kodiak brown bears (a grizzly subspecies) in the area, the odds of spotting a furry youngster here are in your favor. Especially in August, according to Edward Ward, general manager of the Kodiak Brown Bear Center. That’s when the cubs are “acting just like toddlers” and getting swatted around by their protective mothers. The Brown Bear Center on Karluk Lake in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge offers the island’s only overnight viewing tour, along with accommodations. Read the full list here. This article originally appeared on Travel + Leisure More from Travel + Leisure:

Head to these hiking trails, beaches, and wildlife refuges for the opportunity to meet baby koalas, tiny turtles, and other cute baby animals

high

low

abstractive

http://fortune.com/2016/04/21/google-cloud-business-earnings/

http://web.archive.org/web/20160526195606id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/04/21/google-cloud-business-earnings/?

Google Cloud: Why Alphabet Is Pouring Money Into Storage

In its first quarter earnings call Thursday, Internet giant Alphabet touted an increased investment in the cloud computing business owned by its subsidiary, Google. The company’s offerings are currently third place in that market, behind Amazon amzn Web Services and Microsoft msft Azure. Justin Post, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, asked why Alphabet GOOG is ramping up its investment in the cloud now, when it has been a growth area for its competitors area for years. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined three points of inflection: 1. Google’s data centers are finally ready to scale. “We’ve always been doing cloud, it’s just that we were consuming it all internally at Google,” Pichai said. “But as we have grown really mature in terms of data center investments—and how we can do this at scale—we have definitely crossed over to the other side, where we can thoughtfully serve external customers.” 2. Google’s artificial intelligence is finally good enough. “We have been investing in machine learning and AI for years, but I think we are at an exceptionally interesting tipping point where these technologies are really taking off.” said Pichai “That is very, very applicable to businesses as well, so thoughtfully doing that externally, we view as a big differentiator we have over others.” In November 2015, Alphabet acquired Bebop, a stealthy startup founded by Diane Green, co-founder and former CEO of VMware VMW , for $380 million. (Green also sits on Alphabet’s board of directors.) Green became senior vice president of Google’s enterprise business, which includes its cloud investments. “I wanted to scale our efforts thoughtfully when it is set up with a great leader who understands this business deeply,” Pichai said. How Amazon Took Over the Cloud Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat addressed the potential return on Google’s investment in its cloud business. “One thing that’s really powerful here is we’re benefiting from our heritage, from our differentiated strength, [and] the scale of our infrastructure—those are investments we’ve made over many years that give us efficiency,” she said. “We have robust security—again, we invested over many years.”

It's a combination of tipping points.

high

low

abstractive