Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/ashton-kutcher-fights-security-guy-at-stagecoach-festival/
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
One year on, France's Hollande says he will weather poll slump
By Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) - France's Francois Hollande said he was undeterred by a first year in power marked by economic slowdown and a record slump in his personal popularity, arguing his 5-year presidency would achieve results over time.
In comments to correspondents from Reuters and Agence France Presse a week before the anniversary of his May 2012 election win over Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande shrugged off polls showing his popularity rating around 25 percent, after the sharpest fall for any president in over half a century.
"I'm aware how serious the situation is. It's a president's duty to stay the course and to look beyond today's squalls. It's called perseverance," Hollande said.
"People can criticize my decisions, think I am on the wrong track or have not taken the right route, but if there is one thing I am sure of it's that I have taken major decisions for France - many more in 10 months than were taken in 10 years."
Hollande, France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand, is squeezed between a business sector clamoring for lower taxes and labor costs, euro zone partners pressing for budget cuts and households hostile to austerity measures.
He said he would persevere with measures to restore growth like corporate tax credits aimed at easing headcount costs and a labor reform set to become law in May.
"It's the president who is held to account, and that's quite legitimate. It's up to me to weigh up what I need to do for the country today. To remain in control by being sure of my ideas."
RALLY THE NATION
After his campaign pledges to revive the flagging industrial sector, end a relentless rise in unemployment and meet deficit-cutting targets, Hollande has had to row back on almost all his economic targets, as factory layoffs continue apace.
While he stands by a goal to turn around unemployment by year-end, few believe he can achieve that. Jobless claims rose for the 23rd straight month in March to an all-time high.
Treading a delicate line as he attempts step-by-step reforms that were not part of his election campaign, Hollande said the country should have faith in him.
"The only thing that counts is the results. I have made promises and I will be judged on them," he said. "My hope is to rally the nation and restore confidence. That will take time, but it's my sole objective."
His economic woes aside, Hollande is also suffering from a perception that since he took power France is losing its voice on European policy. His prime minister said this month that France was losing its leadership role.
Foreign investors are watching closely since the government admitted it would need an extra year to reach a European Union budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of output.
Inside France, where a scandal over an ex-budget minister's secret Swiss bank account has not helped, polls show a slim majority of people would prefer Sarkozy to be president today.
"I realized a long time ago that I would not go far if I let the commentary get to me," Hollande said. "According to what was said about me as a candidate, I had no chance of becoming president."
(Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/one-frances-hollande-says-weather-poll-slump-151749395.html
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Mad Men, Season 6
I was pretty certain the MLK assassination would happen this season. I might have predicted it would occasion an episode about race. Instead, the show went small: A national tragedy became a platform for characters to ponder domestic themes. They turned inward to huddle with kin, fret over family.
Pete Campbell wants to go home when he hears the news, or he wants to utilize the news to strong-arm Trudy into taking him back. But Trudy won?t have it. And so Pete is driven to weirdly declare that the important thing to consider here is the fact that Dr. King had four children.?
Ginsberg hears the radio report while out on a date. And then flees home?though it seems he might soon ditch the odd-couple routine he?s been trapped in with his father. I think the love of a good woman might well soothe Ginsberg?s neuroses. And tidy up his wardrobe. Not the suavest first-date moves from the kid, but sometimes a fellow can evince so little game that it somehow turns into a weird form of game. (Meanwhile, this schoolteacher is fetching times four, and I am firmly in favor of her taking Ginsberg?s virginity.)
For Peggy, an attempt to purchase a house (her agent?s theory: when there?s blood on the streets, buy property) is paired with consternation over what kind of home it might be. When Abe abandons her to cover potential riots in Harlem, Peggy is left standing alone in the lobby of the Ad Club awards show?looking on enviously as Megan is comforted by Don. Later, she fears Abe?s checked out of the home-buying process entirely. But it turns out Abe not only cares, he has very specific requests: No to the UES. Yes to the UWS. Diverse neighborhood, please. And?putting a dazzle in Peggy?s eyes?Abe would like to have kids! I?ve never seen Peggy happier. I am eager to follow her quest to have it all (mom, breadwinner, supporter of starving journalist) as well as her real estate hunt. She?s already missed on a 2BR/1.5BA on York with outdoor space for under $30K. I?m seeing a brownstone in her future.
At the Francis abode, Henry is disenchanted with Mayor Lindsay and ready to strike out on his own as a state senator. Meanwhile, Betty is again bringing the dramz. Her response to a political assassination is to try on cute dresses and nurture her husband?s urge to up his public profile. When Bobby picks at his bedroom wallpaper, she launches into a???Why are you destroying this house?? rant. It can?t be easy for Bobby. People are burning down buildings all over the country, yet he?s the one accused of property destruction.
I?ve sensed brewing?Mad Men?backlash this season. Some whine that the plots are slow. Some argue that the advancing era doesn?t lend itself as well to stylish art direction. But the most common complaint I?ve heard is that Don Draper has failed to progress as a character and is congealing into a grim, awful man. I actually find that a fascinating development?I?m impressed by a show that, steadily over the course of several seasons, manages to turn a sexy pop culture heartthrob into a figure both reviled and pitied. And in this episode, I felt, we saw Don evolve in unexpected ways.
First, there was the remarkable,?Philip Larkin-esque?soliloquy in which Don alludes to his horrific childhood and, thanks to a double dose of?Planet of the Apes?(a movie which hinted at concerns over the kind of world 1960s adults would be handing to their kids), discovers that he actually loves his own son. Don?s feeling pretty good about himself?in a narcissistic way. Then he realizes the father figure in his boy?s life is in fact Henry Francis, a man who may not be important enough to get shot but sure is important to Bobby. We close on some Batman-level brooding, Don on his balcony in the dark night, sirens wailing. Thank goodness "Cat?s in the Cradle"?wasn?t released until 1974, or I fear it might have been our fadeout tune.
How do you two rate the handling of this major historical event we?d been anticipating? Still seemed to treat race rather obliquely. I thought it was interesting that Joan?so socially adept in the past?was given that cringemaking, white guilt moment in which she hugs Dawn, unsolicited.
And what was going on with the tweaked-out insurance guy? At first, I thought?Ethan fromLost?had shown up to make more cryptic pronouncements. But it seems even insurance guys are getting groovy these days, questioning the whole property thing, man.
You maniacs, you blew it up,
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=74dded62df3259f03835354e6dabb5f1
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Friday, April 12, 2013
Tint Gives Businesses An Easy Way To Bring Social Media Feeds ...
Last year, Tim Sae Koo, Nikhil Aitharaju, Eunice Noh and Ryo Chiba launched HypeMarks to give people a less hectic way to consume social media. The startup aggregated tweets, articles, links and more shared by influencers and celebrities on social media accounts and, by grouping those by topic, aimed to give people a snapshot of an industry through the eyes of the people who know it best.
Although the USC grads were able to generate some interest and raise a small round of seed funding from Bill Gross and Idealab, the service never quite took off. Using the social media aggregation technology they?d developed for HypeMarks, they shifted their focus to take a B2B approach to social media aggregation. In December, they launched Tint ? a simple, DIY platform that helps brands aggregate, curate and display social media feeds from multiple networks on their websites, in their mobile apps, Facebook pages and event displays.
In other words, Tint?s platform is designed to help brands create social hubs on top of their digital properties and, in turn, create a deeper level of engagement with their audiences. The idea is that, while there are a number of social media aggregators out there, the average consumer tends to gravitate towards one particular social network and, once there, tends to do their socializing and interacting on that network, rather than switching between them.
Tint allows businesses and brands to connect their social network accounts with their websites, in part to help them promote their products and services through their social feeds, but also to provide their websites with more engaging content. Businesses can link their Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and RSS feeds to their Tint accounts, whereupon the service auto-populates the page from those feeds, serving the social content in a river that is Pinterest-like in design.
Or, perhaps the better analogy is Flipboard, as each piece of content is given a headline, an excerpt and a photo, served in a create-your-own social magazine sort of layout. Users can then personalize their pages by changing fonts, background colors and so on or change the headline, URL and image of each piece of content. Tint also offers a handful of starter templates (on of which is free) in case you want to get started quickly.
After that?s done, you can embed the product on your site, tweaking the code to customize it for your site or page, whether it be WordPress, Tumblr, Weebly or some other. Tint also allows you to choose the dimensions you want the embedded stream to be and the number of cascading columns you want to appear, automatically serving up the embed code. Take that to your blog, page, drop it in, and bingo, bango, bongo, you have a social feed on your website that is automatically updated every time you tweet or post cat pictures to Facebook.
Admittedly, Tint probably sounds a little bit like Rebelmouse, but Sae Koo tells us that there are a few differences: Namely, Tint enables you to display social media feeds from specific hashtags, YouTube channels and Pinterest boards to help keep your users on your website, app or event (and engaged). Plus, he says, Tint wants to be a platform tool and an aggregator, not a publishing CMS ? and one that?s easy to use and takes 10 minutes to set up. The alternatives, he says, are generally expensive, custom solutions that take time to implement and integrate.
While it may not sound earth-shattering, in the four months since launch, Tint has started to build some traction. Over 10,000 brands are actively using Tint on their sites, averaging 2.5 million monthly pageviews and has been doubling revenue and user growth month-over-month. Today, Tint?s clients include Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, a number of NFL and NBA teams, Honda and more, and its 10,000 clients have averaged a 10 to 15 percent increase in traffic, 20 to 30 percent increase in time spent on their site and 12 to 18 percent decrease in bounce rate, the founders tell us.
Next up, Tint will be looking to expand its partnerships with digital agencies, build out its templates and customization options and finish raising its seed round.
Find Tint at home here.
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North Korea hints it will soon launch a missile
In this Wednesday, April 10, 2013 photo, North Korean military officers look from a sight-seeing boat sailing on the Yalu River, the China-North Korea border river, near North Korea's town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong. North Korea delivered a fresh round of rhetoric Thursday with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby for a missile launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
In this Wednesday, April 10, 2013 photo, North Korean military officers look from a sight-seeing boat sailing on the Yalu River, the China-North Korea border river, near North Korea's town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong. North Korea delivered a fresh round of rhetoric Thursday with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby for a missile launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
In this Wednesday, April 10, 2013 photo, a North Korean soldier looks as he patrol on the river bank of the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong. North Korea delivered a fresh round of rhetoric Thursday with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby for a missile launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
A flag of the April Spring People's Art Festival hangs on the stage at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, April 11, 2013. The festival opened Thursday to mark late president Kim Il Sung's birthday on April 15, known in North Korea as the Day of the Sun. Portraits in the background show Kim Il Sung, left, and his son Kim Jong Il. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Koreans dance together beneath a mosaic painting of the late leader Kim Il Sung during a mass folk dancing gathering in Pyongyang Thursday, April 11, 2013, to mark the anniversary of the first of many titles of power given to leader Kim Jong Un after the death of his father Kim Jong Il. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
A South Korean army soldier guards at barricaded Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 11, 2013. As the world braced for a provocative missile launch by North Korea, with newscasts worldwide playing up tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the center of the storm was strangely calm. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Hinting at a missile launch, North Korea delivered a fresh round of war rhetoric Thursday with claims it has "powerful striking means" on standby. Seoul and Washington speculated that it is preparing to test-fire a missile designed to be capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.
The latest rhetoric came as new U.S. intelligence was revealed showing North Korea is now probably capable of arming a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.
On the streets of Pyongyang, North Koreans shifted into party mode as they celebrated the anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un's appointment to the country's top party post ? one in a slew of titles collected a year ago in the months after his father Kim Jong Il's death.
But while there was calm in Pyongyang, there was condemnation in London, where foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations slammed North Korea for "aggressive rhetoric" that they warned would only further isolate the impoverished, tightly controlled nation.
North Korea's provocations, including a long-range rocket launch in December and an underground nuclear test in February, "seriously undermine regional stability, jeopardize the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security," the ministers said in a statement.
In the capital of neighboring South Korea, the country's point person on relations with the North, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to engage in dialogue and reverse its decision to pull workers from a joint industrial park just north of their shared border, a move that has brought factories there to a standstill.
"We strongly urge North Korea not to exacerbate the crisis on the Korean Peninsula," Ryoo said.
North Korea probably has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point where it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, but the weapon wouldn't be very reliable, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded. The DIA assessment was revealed Thursday at a public hearing in Washington.
President Barack Obama warned the unpredictable communist regime that his administration would "take all necessary steps" to protect American citizens.
In his first public comments since North Korea escalated its rhetoric, Obama urged the north to end its nuclear threats, saying it was time for the isolated nation "to end the belligerent approach they have taken and to try to lower temperatures."
"Nobody wants to see a conflict on the Korean Peninsula," Obama added, speaking from the Oval Office alongside United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was headed to Seoul on Friday for talks with South Korean officials before heading on to China.
"If anyone has real leverage over the North Koreans, it is China," U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress on Thursday. "And the indications that we have are that China is itself rather frustrated with the behavior and the belligerent rhetoric of ... Kim Jong Un."
In the latest threat from Pyongyang, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a nonmilitary agency that deals with relations with South Korea, said "striking means" have been "put on standby for a launch and the coordinates of targets put into the warheads." It didn't clarify, but the language suggested a missile.
The statement was the latest in a torrent of warlike threats seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea policies, and to show the North Korean people that their young leader is strong enough to stand up to powerful foes.
Referring to Kim Jong Un, Clapper told Congress that "I don't think ... he has much of an endgame other than to somehow elicit recognition," and to turn the nuclear threat into "negotiation and to accommodation and presumably for aid."
Officials in Seoul and Washington say Pyongyang appears to be preparing to test-fire a medium-range missile designed to be capable of reaching Guam. Foreign experts have dubbed the missile the "Musudan" after the northeastern village where North Korea has a launchpad, saying it has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,180 miles).
Such a launch would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity, and mark a major escalation in Pyongyang's standoff with neighboring nations and the United States. North Korea already has been punished by new U.N. sanctions for the rocket launch and nuclear test.
Analysts do not believe North Korea will stage an attack similar to the one that started the Korean War in 1950. But there are concerns that the animosity could spark a skirmish that could escalate into a serious conflict.
"North Korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions ... skating very close to a dangerous line," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Washington on Wednesday. "Their actions and their words have not helped defuse a combustible situation."
Bracing for a launch that officials said could take place at any time, Seoul deployed three naval destroyers, an early warning surveillance aircraft and a land-based radar system, a Defense Ministry official said in Seoul, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department rules. Japan deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors around Tokyo.
But officials in Seoul played down security fears, noting that no foreign government has evacuated its citizens from either Korean capital.
"North Korea has continuously issued provocative threats and made efforts to raise tension on the Korean peninsula ... but the current situation is being managed safely and our and foreign governments have been calmly responding," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters Thursday.
Still, Taiwan urged its citizens Thursday "to suspend travel to South Korea for business, tourism and educational purposes unless it is absolutely necessary."
The Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty, and the U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.
For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have staged annual military drills meant to show the allies' military might. North Korea condemns the drills as rehearsal for an invasion.
In retaliation, North Korea for days barred South Koreans from crossing the border to get to factories in Kaesong where they make everything from shoes to suits using North Korean labor. Citing the tensions, North Korea on Monday pulled its more than 50,000 workers from the Kaesong complex, forcing many factories to stop production and jeopardizing the future of the last joint project between the two Koreas.
Discouraged South Korean managers continued leaving Kaesong, packing their cars with goods and belongings.
In Pyongyang, however, there was no sense of turmoil. Across the city, workers were rolling out sod and planting trees in preparation for a series of April holidays.
Students from Kim Chaek University of Science and Technology put on suits and traditional dresses to dance in the plaza next to the Arch of Triumph to mark Kim Jong Un's appointment as first secretary of the Workers' Party a year ago.
Another key appointment falls on Saturday, and flower show and art performances are scheduled in the lead-up to the nation's biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, father of the country's second leader, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather of the current leader.
No military parade or mass events are expected over the coming week, but North Korea historically uses major holidays to show off its military power, and analysts say Pyongyang could well mark the occasion with a provocative missile launch.
"However tense the situation is, we will mark the Day of the Sun in a significant way," Kim Kwang Chon, a Pyongyang citizen, told The Associated Press, referring to the April 15 birthday. "We will celebrate the Day of the Sun even if war breaks out tomorrow."
During last year's celebrations, North Korea failed in an attempt to send a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket. The U.S. and its allies criticized the launch as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.
The subsequent launch in December was successful, and that was followed by the country's third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12, possibly taking the regime closer to mastering the technology for mounting an atomic weapon on a long-range missile.
___
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Kimberly Dozier and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP's Korea bureau chief on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Understanding the life of lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles
Apr. 10, 2013 ? Scientists today answered a question that worries millions of owners and potential owners of electric and hybrid vehicles using lithium-ion batteries: How long before the battery pack dies, leaving a sticker-shock bill for a fresh pack or a car ready for the junk heap? Their answer, presented here at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held in New Orleans this week, may surprise skeptics.
"The battery pack could be used during a quite reasonable period of time ranging from 5 to 20 years depending on many factors," said Mikael G. Cugnet, Ph.D., who spoke on the topic. "That's good news when you consider that some estimates put the average life expectancy of a new car at about eight years."
Cugnet explained that the lifespan depends mainly on the battery's temperature, state of charge and charge protocol. Battery performance begins to suffer as soon as the temperature climbs above 86 degrees Fahrenheit. "The higher the temperature, the lower the battery service life," he said. "A temperature above 86 degrees F affects the battery pack performance instantly and even permanently if it lasts many months like in Middle East countries."
Cugnet also recommended that electric vehicle (EV) owners pay attention to how much their battery is charged, another factor in a battery's longevity. He reported that a fully-charged battery is more vulnerable to losing power at temperatures above 86 degrees F.
To test the limits of lithium-ion EV batteries, Cugnet's team reconstructed the experience of a typical EV battery in the laboratory. Using data gleaned from a real five-mile trip in an EV, they put EV battery packs and cells through simulated lifetimes of driving with cycles of draining and recharging. The researchers considered a battery to be beyond its useful lifespan when it had lost 20 percent of its full power.
The question of longevity matters to EV owners and manufacturers alike. The cost of the lithium-ion batteries that power these vehicles remains high, and an EV can cost twice as much as a gas or diesel equivalent. Customers want to make sure they get their money's worth, and manufacturers are eager to demonstrate that EVs are economical.
One obvious saving is the cost of fuel over a car's lifetime, but EV makers are also pushing so-called "second life" uses for batteries that could make them valuable even after they've lost too much power to be useful in cars. These applications could include backup power for computers and medical equipment, or electrical grid storage, which would go hand-in-hand with renewable power like wind or solar to keep electricity flowing even when environmental conditions aren't right. Another option is recycling a battery's components to make new batteries.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Does Your Retirement Plan Have Staying Power? Stansberry's Doc ...
Does Your Retirement Plan Have Staying Power? Stansberry?s Doc Eifrig Has Some Advice
Peter Byrne of The Energy Report (4/9/13)
What is the best way to juice up your portfolio for a rich retirement? Natural gas and uranium are here to stay, says Stansberry Research?s resident medical doctor and retirement investment guru, David Eifrig. In this The Energy Report interview, Eifrig shares tips to maintain your financial health?but get plenty of rest and exercise so you can enjoy those golden years.
The Energy Report: David, you?ve had successful careers on Wall Street and in the medical profession. Why are you now focused on helping people to prepare for retirement?
David Eifrig: The vocation to help others came out of my natural aversion to authority; I don?t really like institutions. At heart, I am an anarchist, a Libertarian, a freedom-lover. This mindset inspires me to teach people about how to live self sufficiently. I?m naturally enthusiastic about combining the important issues of finance and personal health, so I thought, why not share my insights with others?
I am a lifelong bargain hunter. And I am evidence-based when it comes to evaluating both medical and financial issues. Porter Stansberry heard about my background in biotechnology, medicine and finance. And he convinced me that reaching out in a newsletter is a more effective way of communicating than seeing one person at a time in a clinic. The Retirement Millionaire combines all of my knowledge and various interests about retirement.
TER: You?ve written that we?re entering a new stage of profitability for investing in stocks. Please explain how economic indicators support this prediction.
DE: One of the main economic indicators of economic resurgence is the cheapness of bank financing. Interest rates between the banks?the Fed funds rate?is super-duper low. Banks access funds at cheap rates and pay savers next to nothing. Banks charge 6?7% for loans and the interest rate spreads make them rich. As the banks do more lending, the loans generate more business activity, and that means more money flows into the economy at all levels.
TER: Do you think there?s any danger of excess inventory in energy commodities?
DE: I recently published a chart showing that crude oil inventories in the U.S. are at record highs. But I do not see that phenomenon as creating excess inventory. We are emerging from economic winter. People are starting to fly more and drive more and use more energy. Chinese and European consumers are slowly coming out of hibernation, too. I am not saying that energy demand is going to go crazy, but there are positive signs of pickup. Energy supplies are building up, in part, because we have made huge technological advances. We suck gas, gas liquids and oil out of the ground more than ever, cheapening it. And energy use correlates nicely with cheaper energy as well as with economic growth. U.S., manufacturers are talking about building new plants for the first time in twenty years.
TER: Stansberry Research recommends several strong buys in energy stocks. Can you talk about why these investments are good candidates for a retirement portfolio?
DE: For retirement capital allocation, I like Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:NYSE), which is a classic leader in the oil and gas industry, as are Chevron Corp. (CVX:NYSE), Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS.A:NYSE; RDS.B:NYSE) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY:NYSE). For decades, these companies have seen business cycles come and go; they have seen political unrest in countries that they do business in. They will keep grinding away, doing business and making returns on their capital, and supporting a nominal amount of income through dividends. It just makes sense to be there with them in the long term. Particularly, if one is worried about the ecological side?that the industry could cut back on fracking?then it makes sense to be in companies that are stable.
TER: Do you think fracking is in danger of being downsized in the U.S.?
DE: The only good science that I?ve seen on that issue concerns the risk of earthquakes. Companies will want to be more careful around fault lines, but that will not stop fracking.
TER: Is the U.S. poised to become a major gas exporter to the international energy market?
DE: My understanding is that natural gas will increasingly be exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The international spreads on liquid gas are incredible. It sells for about $17 per million British thermal units ($17/MMBtu) worldwide, and about $4/MMBtu in the U.S. For example, a gas company called Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG:NYSE.MKT) is transforming itself from a gas importer to a gas exporter by reversing the direction of flow in pipes connected to the export terminals. It?s waiting on governmental permits to commence operations. There is a similar effort being made to do the same thing with crude oil.
TER: How do the junior energy explorers stack up against the large-cap companies?
DE: When the Keystone pipeline and other pipelines from oil-producing regions are in place, the stuff is going to remain relatively cheap. Of course, if it gets too cheap, the companies will close down their wells, because they won?t be able to make a profit. But then, with reduced supply, the prices will start going back up, and the companies will put the wells back online. There is plenty of breathing space in this cycle for the juniors.
TER: In a retirement portfolio, what is a reasonable balance between holding large-cap and small-cap energy stocks?
DE: With 20% of a retirement portfolio in the energy sector, it makes sense to hold about 5% in junior energy explorers, and the rest in the larger caps, both domestic and international. With 5% in the juniors, I suggest holding two or three positions, unless one is confident enough to bet it all on one stock.
TER: What?s the best way to hedge against inflation in a retirement portfolio?
DE: Sticking with the energy theme: If price inflation rises, the large caps will feel the pressure, because they are close to the consumer level. Vertical integration from drill head to retail pump is an important way to reduce the impact of inflation and keep margins sound.
As an inflation hedge, Stansberry likes TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protection Securities). TIPS are priced off the government?s Consumer Price Index (CPI). Some people don?t believe that the CPI numbers are exact or worthwhile, but I find them to be useful economic indicators. It all depends on the individual investor?s level of comfort with fixed income, bond yields and wherever securities are at in a given moment. As interest rates start to climb, it makes sense to buy floating-rate income funds?the short-term loans that banks and companies make to institutions. They deliver a little bit of increased interest.
The question really is, of course, where do you think price inflation is going to set in? If it?s going to happen on the food front, then you can buy integrated food companies, such as General Mills or Tyson Chicken, corporations with pricing power. Similarly, a company like McDonald?s, which is close to the consumer, can keep up with inflation through pricing.
Technology tends to not be a very good investment sector in inflationary times because its pricing power is based on who has created the hottest new thing. And if your product is not the latest, greatest and hottest, forget it.
TER: Will energy prices maintain at current low levels, or is inflation going to hit?
DE: There will not be much inflation in the energy sector, because the supply and infrastructure are firmly in place. Look at Pennsylvania, where companies capped producing wells because the price of natural gas dropped to $2/Mcf. Then, it shot back up to $4! If a company can cap a well and then uncap it and make a profit at $3?4, swell. There is going to be a lot of supply emerging if gas goes to $5?6, and then that will drive the cost down again, and the cycle will repeat.
U.S. railroads are talking about converting train engines to natural gas. Wal-Mart is converting its trucks to natural gas. These engines are going off conventional fuel oil because natural gas is really, really cheap. I do not feel like there?s going to be runaway inflation on the energy front, because the iron law of supply and demand fluctuates around a market balance.
TER: Is there room for alternative energy investments in a retirement portfolio?
DE: Without heavy government subsidies, the alternatives do not work. The conversion of sunlight to electricity is expensive; the places where it?s really windy are usually far away from where most people live, so it is not cost efficient to transmit that energy. The maintenance cost for alternative energy infrastructure is also very expensive.
TER: The price of the solar technology has been plummeting, yet many solar firms are going bankrupt. Why?
DE: No one is buying solar because it doesn?t work that cheaply?so those firms go bankrupt. That?s the nature of capitalism. Of course, one hears stories about people buying solar chips or panels really, really cheaply, and throwing them on their house, or buying them from Wal-Mart because they?ve been dumped on the market by a Chinese company. People are jerry-rigging them on top of their houses and trying to make solar financially viable. But on a large-scale commercial level, the payback on solar is a long time, especially considering how thirsty Americans are for instant gratification.
TER: Do you think fossil fuels are here to stay?
DE: Fossil fuels are here to stay, absolutely. In practical terms, there is an almost unlimited supply. Saudi Arabia and the Middle East have not started fracking yet, so, think of the amount of stuff they will pull out of the ground when they start fracking. There are plenty of conventional fossil fuels. And, of course, there is uranium for nuclear energy. If you want to make everyone happy, don?t build a nuclear power plant on the edge of the ocean in a fault zone! But, if you build nuclear power plants safely, as the Chinese are doing, then we will enjoy very cheap, very safe, and very clean energy for a long, long time.
TER: As a medical doctor, do you have a position on radiation fears?
DE: The fears are overblown. Obviously, you do not want to live near or downwind of a nuclear power plant. We are close to developing technology and drugs to protect people after radiation poisoning. They are probably just three or four years away, so that will be exciting.
TER: Do you have any personal healthcare strategies that enable people to live long enough to enjoy a happy retirement?
DE: It goes without saying?your mama used to tell you this, your daddy used to tell you, too: Make sure you get sleep. Sleep is one of the most important things a person can do for health. I talk to people all the time who say ?oh, I can?t sleep? and you ask them about ?sleep hygiene? and the room they sleep in has the TV on, the iPad, the phone, lights streaming from the streetlamp, or the door is open to hear if the baby wakes up in the middle of the night. Stuff like that really affects your sleep. Turn the lights off, get the room as dark as you can! Lack of sleep and heart disease are related!
Walking 18-20 minutes a day sounds simple, it sounds easy, but a lot of people don?t even do that. If you can?t get out for a walk, do what I do: Throw down a big beach towel on the floor and stretch for 15-20 minutes. Exercise affects the joints and the body and secretes chemicals that keep your immune system strong. So those are the two most important items: sleep and movement. And have a happy retirement!
TER: Thanks for the advice, Doc.
DE: You are welcome.
David Eifrig Jr. holds an MBA from Kellogg and has worked in arbitrage and trading groups with major Wall Street investment banks (Goldman Sachs). In 1995, he retired from the ?Street,? went to UNC-Chapel Hill for medical school, and became an ophthalmologist. Now, in his latest ?retirement,? he joined Stansberry & Associates full time to share with readers his experiences and ideas. He edits Stansberry?s Retirement Millionaire, a monthly letter showing readers how to live a millionaire lifestyle on less than you?d imagine possible. He travels around the U.S. looking for bargains, deals, and great investment ideas. He also writes Retirement Trader, a bi-monthly advisory that explains simple techniques to make large, but very safe gains in the stock and bond markets. Porter Stansberry loves having ?Doc? on the team.
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The Real Budget Action Won't Come Until Tonight's Dinner With the GOP
Contrary to popular belief, the real budget action on Wednesday won?t begin until the early evening, when 12 Republican senators are scheduled to arrive at the White House for a private dinner with the president.
By then, the White House?s Office of Management and Budget will have released the hundreds of pages of the president?s budget proposal. Congressional Republicans will have united and mobilized to attack it by saying it does not go far enough to tame the long-term debt. And, pundits will have spent hours debating the budget?s overarching themes on the endless loop of cable TV.
Yet this predictable sequence of events is not likely to matter in the coming months. Nor will the president?s actual budget blueprint. Instead, the most important fiscal development of the week will hinge on the success of the president?s dinner with a handful of Republican senators, organized by Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.
This so-called charm offensive is the key to any budget deal this spring, even a small one, and will determine the Republicans? receptiveness to the president?s offer in his budget to cut Social Security benefits and slash billions from Medicare. ?This is an offer, not a starting point for negotiations,? stressed one senior administration official, roughly 24 hours before the White House was to release its fiscal year 2014 budget.
If Wednesday?s bipartisan dinner goes well, as the last dinner with Republican senators did, then the path to a budget compromise this spring and early summer becomes clear: through the Senate. The White House is slowly trying to woo enough Senate Republicans to move a budget deal through the chamber and then pressure House Republicans to act?similar to the script used during the fiscal-cliff deal.
Already, there are a few, small reasons for optimism. Republican senators seem pleased that the president is willing to cut roughly $230 billion in government benefits, including Social Security, by changing the cost-of-living calculations for benefits. ??Chained CPI,? means-testing, and age adjustment, I think, will save these programs from bankruptcy and avoid us becoming Greece,? said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who attended the previous private dinner with the president.
?In return, I would raise revenue by flattening the tax code, paying down debt, and lowering some rates,? he added.
Republicans also seem open to the president?s broad budget ideas of cutting roughly $400 billion in health care entitlement programs, closing loopholes, and overhauling the corporate tax code in a revenue-neutral way, though the two parties disagree on the details.
Congressional Democrats and labor unions strongly dislike the idea of chained CPI because they say it would hurt low-income people at a time when multinational corporations often pay low effective tax rates. The White House has said that it will introduce measures to protect the ?vulnerable,? including low-income veterans and older senior citizens, from the chained CPI cuts, but those details will not arrive until the official budget release.
Wednesday?s round of the charm offensive brings into the fold 12 more GOP senators, including Utah?s Orrin Hatch, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, who would help to oversee any overhaul of the tax code.
Meanwhile, much of what the president will propose in his budget on Wednesday is a repeat of previous ideas, like instituting a minimum tax on millionaires, known as the ?Buffett Rule,? or by capping tax deductions at 28 percent (excluding charitable deductions) for families with household incomes above $250,000. Such moves would raise $580 billion, senior administration officials say?money that will go toward undoing sequestration and reducing the deficit.
New policies such as universal prekindergarten would be paid for through new or higher taxes, say senior administration officials. Overall, the president?s plan would reduce the deficit by $1.8 billion over the next decade and bring the deficit to 1.7 percent of gross domestic product by the year 2023.
What Wednesday?s fiscal blueprint release shows is a president who wants to appear ready to cut a budget deal at any time this spring ahead of the next debt-ceiling fight.
By incorporating the Social Security cuts in his budget, the president is formalizing the final offer he made to House Speaker John Boehner during the fiscal-cliff talks and extending that olive branch to new people?in this case, Senate Republicans. The next few months will determine if they will accept it and, in turn, potentially realize some structural changes to Social Security that have long been anathema to Democrats.
Either way, the White House continues to quietly work the Senate. Since the first dinner, one lawmaker said that he has met with the White House chief of staff in his Hill office.
?We had a very good meeting,? said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. ?Again, there are no concrete steps. I don?t think I know enough yet [about the president?s budget] to make a comment.?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/real-budget-action-wont-come-until-tonights-dinner-073416079--politics.html
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Cuban-American politicians decry Beyonce Cuba trip
MIAMI (AP) ? Two Cuban-American congressional representatives from Florida have written the Treasury Department asking for information on Beyonce and Jay-Z's trip to Cuba.
U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart say they want information on the type of license the R&B power couple received to travel to the communist island.
U.S. citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba for mere tourism, though they can get a license for academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange visits.
The artists marked their fifth wedding anniversary in Havana last week.
The Congress members say they represent a community that includes former political prisoners. Both support Washington's 51-year embargo against the island.
The Treasury Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Review: Sony MDR-1RBT Bluetooth Headphones
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/review-sony-mdr-1rbt-bluetooth-headphones/
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Must-have apps for the 2013 baseball season
The boys of summer are back - here's how to best follow Major League Baseball on your Android smartphone
The 2013 Major League Baseball season is upon us. The first game was played Sunday night and the remainder of the games started Monday afternoon. It’s the beginning of a long season, but one beloved by so many across the country. It remains America’s pastime and provides an incredible activity for many to do during the spring and summer.
Whether you want to follow your favorite team or every team because of fantasy baseball, we’ve got some must have apps for you. Check them out, let us know what you think, and most importantly, play ball!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/kB6n-HjSQKY/story01.htm
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In the UK, a DIY approach to mental health help
LONDON (AP) ? After crocheting a colorful blanket, Joan Ferguson snuggled up under it one night and proudly thought: "This is one groovy blanket. I'm brilliant."
Ferguson, 53, who struggles with low self-esteem, said it was the first time she had ever praised herself. She attributed the breakthrough in part to free self-help classes on mental health run by Britain's government-funded medical system.
With a long wait to see a psychologist, the British government is turning to the classroom to treat people with mild-to-moderate mental health problems with a mix of PowerPoint presentations and group exercises.
Ferguson's class of about 10 people, which meets once a week in east London, is led by two "psychological wellbeing practitioners." The instructors are trained for a year on how to help people change their behavior or thinking but they aren't fully fledged psychologists.
While some dismiss the approach as do-it-yourself therapy, experts say there is convincing evidence that people with conditions like depression and anxiety can be successfully treated without ever seeing a psychologist or a psychiatrist.
The strategy was adopted after Britain's independent health watchdog ruled that classes and self-help books are cost-effective. Treating people with mental health problems this way could get them back to work quicker and save the U.K. an estimated 700 million pounds in lost tax revenue over four years, a previous study found.
The government is aiming to use the classes to treat least 15 percent of the more than 6 million who need treatment for anxiety or depression. In 2011, only about 5 percent got some kind of therapy; about half were treated in classes or settings such as telephone sessions or computer therapy.
Those with more serious problems, like schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder, are usually offered traditional psychotherapy.
The self-help classes have a recovery rate of about 46 percent, slightly lower than the 50 to 60 percent recovery rates for those who get personal psychological counseling, according to statistics from the department of health.
The British Psychological Society, a professional group, helped design the training received by the class instructors. The society's David Murphy, however, said the classes might not be a fit for everyone.
"Some people are wary about going to a class instead of seeing a psychologist," said Murphy, who isn't involved with the program.
The classes often require more effort by the individual than working with a psychologist, he said.
"For the (self-help) classes to be effective, the onus is on the patient to change what they're doing in between sessions," Murphy said.
Some American experts weren't sure the approach would work in the United States.
"The expectations of treatment are very different in the U.S.," said Michael Otto, a professor of psychology at Boston University who has studied self-help approaches. "People think, 'if I'm going to be paying for care, I want to get the treatment I want and that's often personal therapy."
Otto said the downside to such self-help programs is that people who don't get better might just give up.
Instructor Nabila El-Zanaty said the classes aren't meant to be like group therapy.
"It's more like psychological education," she said, after leading a session that taught participants how to spot negative thoughts about themselves.
She said patients must be monitored closely in case they need more intensive help. At the start of every class, they fill in a survey about their recent behavior, including whether they have hurt themselves or had suicidal thoughts.
El-Zanaty said she's been surprised by how much the participants are willing to share in class. She said one woman who cried during every session and talked about suicide attempts was referred to personalized therapy.
Most courses run about eight to 12 weeks. El-Zanaty said they check in with participants a month after the classes end. After three months, they can apply to do another course if they still need help.
Ferguson and her classmates in El-Zanaty's course realize it's up to them to make sure the classes work.
"They only give us the tools," she said. "I know if I don't practice the techniques, it will be back to square one."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-diy-approach-mental-health-help-111149485.html
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Monday, April 1, 2013
GERD label makes parents more likely to want medicine
By Genevra Pittman
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Telling the parents of babies who spit up and cry frequently that their child has gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, makes them more likely to want medicine - even if they're also told it isn't likely to help much, a new study suggests.
Most babies who spit up don't have an acid reflux problem, researchers said, just a not-quite-developed upper stomach valve.
Still, an increasing number of those kids are being labeled as having GERD - even though a definitive diagnosis normally requires an invasive test.
"Roughly 50 percent of babies during the first six months are spitting up enough to bother their parents," said Dr. William Carey from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who wrote a commentary published Monday with the new study.
"I never offered medication for a kid who was just spitting up and gaining weight well and happy," he told Reuters Health. "I could confidently tell the mother, ?Look, it's going to be a nuisance until about six months, and then it's gradually going to get better.' It's an irritating variation of normal."
For their study, Laura Scherer from the University of Missouri in Columbia and her colleagues handed out surveys to 175 parents with a hypothetical scenario: their one-month-old infant was spitting up and crying a lot.
The researchers asked parents what they would do if the doctor diagnosed their child with GERD versus if the condition wasn't labeled, as well as what they would do if the doctor told them the medication to treat the condition was ineffective - as research suggests it is - or didn't say anything about its efficacy.
Survey participants were more likely to want medication if their hypothetical infant was given a GERD diagnosis. Even when parents were told the medicine probably wouldn't work, they rated their interest in treatment at about 2.5 out of 5.
However, with no disease label and with information about the medicine's lack of efficacy, parents rated their desire to treat below 1.5 out of 5, the researchers reported in Pediatrics.
"It shows how these kinds of labels can influence how people respond to symptoms," Scherer told Reuters Health. "Words can make an otherwise normal process seem like something that requires medical intervention."
She said current guidelines say the case of an irritable infant who cries and spits up frequently should probably not be treated as GERD - but that if doctors rule everything else out, they can try a two-week course of acid-reducing medication.
That caveat could further confuse doctors and parents into thinking medicine is likely to help, Scherer said.
"It's really becoming pretty clear that GERD in infants is overdiagnosed and overtreated. One reason for this could be that doctors' use of this GERD label could unintentionally increase people's (desire) for medications," she said.
Carey compared what's happening with GERD symptoms to the rising number of very active kids being diagnosed with and treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
"Parents need to know that there are some annoying or insignificant variations of normal which one really needs to just put up with and not treat as a disease," he said.
"Be darn sure that there is an abnormality before treating it as such."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/jsoh2P Pediatrics, online April 1, 2013.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gerd-label-makes-parents-more-likely-want-medicine-041403187.html
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Russ Kick's staggering "The Graphic Canon" - Entertaining Views ...
?? ? The adaptors and artists do not slavishly illustrate everything that happens in each work.? Instead, here are two approaches, among many imaginative, beautiful, and intellectually engaging versions, that are extremely memorable.? Rick Geary takes on The Book of Revelation and, by being visually realized, it makes complete sense in terms of its system of symbols and the overall narrative.? I remember friends in college saying that St. John must have been on something when writing this book, but it?s very persuasive when seen.? Molly Crabapple crystallizes the sexual politics and the theatricality of the upper crust, decadent world of Choderlos de Laclos? Dangerous Liaisons in just three images ? yes, three.? ?
?? ? It?s not too early to save October 12 for Books by the Banks at the Duke Convention Center this year.? There were many wonderful authors willing to share their expertise and sign their books this past October.? The Kids section was pretty exhaustive so it?s a nice, cheap choice for a family day in downtown Cincinnati.
Source: http://entertainingviewsfromcinti.blogspot.com/2013/03/russ-kicks-staggering-graphic-canon.html
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