Stocks sputter on tepid US economic growth

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market sputtered Friday after the U.S. economy didn't grow as much as hoped. Neither did earnings from a handful of big companies.

Economic growth accelerated to a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the government said. But it was below the 3.1 percent forecast by economists.

The shortfall reinforced the perception that the economy is grinding, rather than charging, ahead. Investors have also been troubled by reports in the last month of weaker hiring, slower manufacturing and a drop in factory orders.

"There are some concerns as we head into the summer," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for TD Ameritrade. "In the last three weeks, we've have seen numbers that weren't exactly what you'd love to see."

Corporate earnings this week have also contained worrisome signs. Many companies missed revenue forecasts from financial analysts, even as they reported higher quarterly profits. For example, Goodyear Tire slipped 3.4 percent to $12.49 Friday after revenue fell short of analysts' estimates, hurt by lower global tire sales.

Of the companies that have reported earnings so far, 70 percent have exceeded Wall Street's expectations, compared with a 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. However, 43 percent have missed analysts' revenue estimates.

The S&P 500 index fell three points to 1,583, or 0.2 percent, paring its gain for the week to 1.8 percent.

The Dow, however, was up 11 points, or 0.1 percent, at 14,717, lifted by Chevron's stock. Profit for the U.S. oil company beat expectations of financial analysts in the first quarter, pushing shares up $1.29, or 1 percent, to $119.80 on Friday.

The Dow index is 1.2 percent higher this week.

The Nasdaq composite was down 20 points at 3,269, a decline of 0.6 percent. The index is still 2 percent higher this week.

The tech-heavy index has lagged both the Dow and the S&P 500 this year, but led the way higher this week, boosted by Microsoft. The software giant, which makes up 5.3 percent of the Nasdaq, is on track to record its biggest weekly gain since January last year, after reporting earnings April 19 that beat Wall Street expectations and revealing an aggressive push into the computer tablet market.

Even Apple, the largest stock in the Nasdaq, had a good week, advancing 5.8 percent to $413.20, despite posting a decline in quarterly profit Tuesday. Apple accounts for 7.6 percent of the index's value and the weekly gain was its biggest since November.

Among big names that investors were focusing on Friday, Amazon.com fell 7 percent to $255.20 after the company warned of a possible loss in the current quarter. And in the first quarter, the online retailer reported lower income fell as it continued to spend heavily on the rights to digital content. Expedia fell 11 percent to $58.15 after the online travel company's reported a quarterly loss.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton surged 8 percent to $26.48 its income nearly tripled thanks to a continuing recovery the housing market. The results were handily beat the forecasts of financial analysts who follow the company.

J.C. Penney jumped 8.5 percent to $16.52 after the billionaire financier George Soros disclosed that he had taken a 7.9 percent stake in the struggling company.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.67 percent from 1.71 percent, its lowest rate of the year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-sputter-tepid-us-economic-growth-184133429.html

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Smartphone Satellites to Launch a Space App Race

Smartphones are taking over everywhere?even in space. The PhoneSat project launched on Sunday, when a launch by Orbital Sciences sent three Google-HTC Nexus One smartphones into orbit. Encased in metal boxes (all made of off-the-shelf parts) and equipped with extra-large external lithium ion batteries, the mini satellites are currently orbiting at about 150 miles above the surface of the earth.

Why phones? Jim Cockrell, project manager of PhoneSat, says that the idea started in the hallway conversations of some of his younger engineers.

"They'd say, 'I don't know why satellites have to be so expensive, and not very capable, when the smartphones in our pockets have 10 to 15 times more processing power,'" Cockrell tells PM. "So engineers started testing them to see what they could do, and soon the idea caught on and got funding."

The key to a smartphone's incredible processing capabilities, Cockrell says, is that the research and development process is night and day when compared to that of a satellite. "The thing about traditional satellites," he says, "is that there's a lot of stake?they're very expensive, and once they go up it's hard to repair them if something goes wrong." So every satellite, designed from scratch, goes through extensive tests and becomes expensive very quickly. "Engineers are reluctant to take a risk by putting in a technology that's not tried and true."

But where a satellite can cost several hundreds of millions of dollars, a cellphone costs just several hundred?and risks are easier for developers to stomach. "Vendors of smartphones are continuously improving them, and putting lots of money towards increasing their processing capabilities," Cockrell says. As a result, the average smartphone has much better microprocessing capabilities than a traditional satellite.

Plus, smartphones have the sensors that a satellite needs, including gyroscopes, accelerometers, and GPS receivers. They're also designed to be as durable and inexpensive as possible?attractive qualities in a satellite.

Once the project got the green light from NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program, Cockrell and his team faced a question that keeps many of us awake at night: iOS or Android?

Score one for Google.

"We came to the conclusion that iPhones make good phones," Cockrell says, "but Androids make good satellites." The ease of programming, he says, was the main draw. On an Android phone, it's easy to access raw data from the phone's sensor?exactly what his team needed to do.

There are three PhoneSats now in orbit: two of the initial model, which cost $3300 to build, and one $7000 PhoneSat 2 Beta that includes a solar charger and the ability to orient itself based on the earth's magnetic field. As this beginning stage of the mission, the three orbiters are just downloading their health and status data (voltage, temperature, and rates of tumble) and some photos of the Earth taken with modified cellphone cameras. "But the sky's the limit," Cockrell says. "We've proven that a smartphone can work in space, and we think you can do a lot with these small, inexpensive satellites that you can't do with a more traditional satellite."

One possible application is studying space weather?the effect of the heliosphere interacting with the upper atmosphere of the planet. With PhoneSats, scientists could take hundreds of measurements over a large geographic area simultaneously, allowing them to observe the phenomenon on a large scale. A traditional satellite could retrieve data from only one point at a time and would cost significantly more to build.

In addition, a PhoneSat is limited only by the imaginations of Android App developers around the world. For mission number one, Cockrell's team is running just a simple app that members designed in-house, he's excited for that to change.

"I can see us having a space app challenge," he says. "There are thousands of programmers who can write for Android. Maybe someone out there can make a killer satellite app that we haven't even envisioned yet. As far as we're concerned, this successful mission is just the beginning."

You can join in by listening for the PhoneSats' signals (every 30 seconds) on the amateur UHF band at 437.425 MHz and reporting what you hear at http://www.phonesat.org/

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/news/smartphone-satellites-to-launch-a-space-app-race-15390902?src=rss

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Australian charged with hacking government site

SYDNEY (AP) ? Australian police have arrested a man they say is affiliated with international hacking collective Lulz Security on a charge of attacking and defacing a government website, officials said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old senior IT worker, whose name was not released, was arrested on Tuesday night at his Sydney office, the Australian Federal Police said. The man, who police say has claimed to be a high-level member of the hacking group, was charged with two counts of unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment, and one count of unauthorized access to, or modification of, restricted data. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in jail.

Lulz Security, or LulzSec, is an offshoot of the hacking group Anonymous. LulzSec was formed in 2011 and quickly grabbed headlines after claiming responsibility for a series of high-profile cyberattacks against the CIA, Sony Pictures, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service and Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency.

Several members of the group have been arrested in recent years, including its reputed leader, known as Sabu. Sabu turned out to be FBI informant Hector Xavier Monsegur, who federal officials said helped them build a case against several other hackers. Two weeks ago, British LulzSec hacker Ryan Ackroyd pleaded guilty to several cyberattacks.

Australian Federal Police Superintendent Brad Marden said the man arrested on Tuesday hacked into an Australian government website and defaced it earlier this month. Marden would not say which website was attacked, but said it did not belong to a federal agency. Police don't believe any sensitive data stored on the site was accessed in the attack, and don't believe anyone else was involved in the hack.

The man, from Gosford ? about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Sydney ? claimed to be the Australian leader of LulzSec, Australian Federal Police Commander Glen McEwen said. But Anonymous Australia appeared to laugh off those claims on Twitter. In response to a follower asking if anyone knew who the man was, the group tweeted: "Nope not part of the usual suspects on any of our chans of communication."

Police began investigating the man two weeks ago after they discovered the government website had been hacked.

"This individual was operating from a position of trust who had access to sensitive information from clients including government agencies," McEwen said. "The AFP believes this man's skill sets and access to this type of information presented a considerable risk for Australian society."

The man was released on bail and ordered to appear in court next month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australian-charged-hacking-government-051700657.html

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Patrick Hughes Directing Expendables 3

He may not have landed The Rock, and he still might be trying to get Jackie Chan on board, but Sylvester Stallone has announced the man who will attempt to wrangle the Expendables for their third time on screen: Red Hill director Patrick Hughes.

The Australian director, who got his start making shorts before segueing into the successful 2010 Western thriller, is Stallone?s choice to carry the mantle first shouldered by Rocky himself and then Simon West for last year?s sequel.

As for what the film will actually be about? Sly isn?t saying yet, though assuming they?re all available, it?ll round up regular cohorts such as Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and possibly Chuck Norris. And you can bet Sly?s been working the phones to lock in some other names besides trying to lure Chan.

According to the man himself, who is busy working on the script, he wants some fresh blood and more humour in the movie, but we?ll just be happy if it?s better than the first two.?

Meanwhile, as Sly suggests above, you can get a look at Hughes? short film Signs below. And after you do, you can check out our casting suggestions for the new Expendables here.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927323/news/1927323/

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House bill shifts funds in health care law

WASHINGTON (AP) ? After dozens of attempts to overturn the new health care law, House Republicans on Wednesday took a different tack, promoting legislation that would come to the rescue of a prominent program in the new law at the expense of another vital element of the law.

The House bill, named the "Helping Sick Americans Now Act," would prop up a faltering program that helps people with pre-existing conditions get insurance, doing so by taking money away from the 2010 law's main prevention fund.

The legislation is likely to be ignored by the Democratic-led Senate and was met by a veto threat from the White House, but it does give Republicans a platform to talk about an aspect of the Affordable Care Act, or "ObamaCare," that has not gone as well as hoped.

The Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan was a stopgap measure intended to help people who have trouble getting private insurance because of a medical condition. This would assist people who have uninsured for at least six months to get coverage at average rates. The program is slated to disappear in 2014 when the consumer protections under the Affordable Care Act take full effect.

The original goal was to reach more than 300,000, but the program's costs were higher than anticipated and in February the administration said it would stop taking new applications. It has enrolled more than 100,000 people.

The GOP bill would extend the program through the end of the year by providing up to $3.6 billion and would eliminate the requirements that applicants be uninsured for six months. The money would come from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which Republicans refer to as a "slush fund" for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius but which the administration says is vital to promoting disease prevention programs and publicizing the new health insurance markets that will open this fall.

"We want to stop ObamaCare and that's why we're going to the fund, the slush fund, that Secretary Sebelius is using for the implementation of the bill," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said.

The White House, in its veto threat statement, says the legislation would effectively eliminate funding for three years for a program that "supports critical investments such as tobacco use reduction and programs to reduce health-care-associated infections and the national burden of chronic disease."

Republicans, said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., are raiding the law's preventive health care fund "even though preventive care reduces costs while keeping Americans healthier."

Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a group that has criticized the Obama administration for using prevention fund dollars to publicize the benefits of the new law, said the prevention account is not being misused as a slush fund as Republicans allege.

"The bulk of the funding in the prevention fund has indeed gone to the original intent of public health and prevention," he said. He said his organization, a nonprofit that focuses on promoting public health strategies to prevent disease, is opposed to the GOP bill, calling it a "foolish trade-off."

Democrats also point out that the Republican bill takes about $800 million more out of the prevention fund than is needed to keep the high-risk insurance plan going. Republicans say that money would go to reducing the deficit. Democrats have suggested sustaining the program through the end of the year through such means as raising tobacco taxes or rolling back oil and gas company tax breaks.

"My bill takes money from a wasteful, duplicative fund, moves it into a program that has bipartisan support and helps pay down the debt," the bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., said after the measure cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week.

But the bill also has its detractors on the right. The conservative Club for Growth on Tuesday urged House lawmakers to vote against the bill and said their votes would be a part of the organization's scorecard that determines conservative credentials. "The proposal would further extend the federal government's role in healthcare," it said, and by eliminating the six-month-wait requirement it "creates the moral hazard of avoiding insurance until it is needed."

__

AP reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-bill-shifts-funds-health-care-law-063352571--finance.html

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Tumblr Updates Its iOS App With More Sharing Features & GIFs That Actually Animate

Tumblr has updated its iOS application for iPhone and iPad with new sharing options and other features – a move which follows yesterday’s launch of Tumblr for Windows Phone. Unfortunately, however, the iOS version didn’t get the fancy new, almost Path-like animations the Android version received earlier this month. So yeah, the Android version is currently the better application. Surprise! Okay, that’s a subjective call, I’ll admit. But I rather like the now-trendy, little, round buttons in the Tumblr Android version, which pop out when you tap the “compose” option. And no, I don’t care if everyone is doing round now. Besides, only hipsters will whine about Tumblr copying Path at this point anyway. As for today’s iOS enhancements, the company touts the release as offering you tools that let you “do more than just reblog.” Specifically, you can share to Twitter and Facebook, save items in Instapaper and Pocket, email posts in a templated format, and more. A couple of new tweaks are included as well, such as a gesture that lets you close photos by flinging them up or down, and the ability to search your Following list, which is now organized and grouped by the first letter of their name. Also ads. Oh, and the absolutely most important feature update ever? GIFs now animate when you scroll. WHEN YOU SCROLL. It’s almost like the real Internet now. This feature only works on iPad 2, 3, 4 and iPad mini, iPod Touch 5th gen., and iPhone 4S and 5 – so, nearly everything but your kid’s old hand-me down iPad, and dad’s iPhone 3GS which he thinks still works just fine, thank you very much. But I don’t think those guys are on Tumblr yet so we’re good. iOS: Android:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/E5lOuuf5Vjk/

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Clenching right fist may give better grip on memory

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Clenching your right hand may help form a stronger memory of an event or action, and clenching your left may help you recollect the memory later, according to research published April 24 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Ruth Propper and colleagues from Montclair State University.

Participants in the research study were split into groups and asked to first memorize, and later recall words from a list of 72 words. There were 4 groups who clenched their hands; One group clenched their right fist for about 90 seconds immediately prior to memorizing the list and then did the same immediately prior to recollecting the words. Another group clenched their left hand prior to both memorizing and recollecting. Two other groups clenched one hand prior to memorizing (either the left or right hand) and the opposite hand prior to recollecting. A control group did not clench their fists at any point.

The group that clenched their right fist when memorizing the list and then clenched the left when recollecting the words performed better than all the other hand clenching groups. This group also did better than the group that did not clench their fists at all, though this difference was not statistically 'significant'.

"The findings suggest that some simple body movements -- by temporarily changing the way the brain functions- can improve memory. Future research will examine whether hand clenching can also improve other forms of cognition, for example verbal or spatial abilities," says Ruth Propper, lead scientist on the study.

The authors clarify that further work is needed to test whether their results with word lists also extend to memories of visual stimuli like remembering a face, or spatial tasks, such as remembering where keys were placed. Based on previous work, the authors suggest that this effect of hand-clenching on memory may be because clenching a fist activates specific brain regions that are also associated with memory formation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ruth E. Propper, Sean E. McGraw, Tad T. Bruny?, Michael Weiss. Getting a Grip on Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e62474 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062474

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/_QYBoZyfE3E/130424185159.htm

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CinemaCon: Biz Debates Film Variety While Remaining Wary of Shorter Windows

LAS VEGAS ? -An evolving global market has expanded the scope ? and attendance ? of the movie industry?s annual chest-pounding extravaganza, CinemaCon, with plenty of new domestic concerns, such as ratings and product diversity, finding their way into the conversation at this week?s tradeshow.

Still, there was talk devoted to ongoing hot-button issues facing the industry, namely, shortened theatrical windows.

The divisive topic came up during a panel discussion midway through the week-long confab, with Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson defending windows experimentation: ?I believe there is a price point and delivery method where we can add to the pie without in any way incentivizing anyone not going to the movie theater.?

Gerry Lopez, chief executive of AMC, told Variety that discussions between studios and exhibitors about shortened theatrical windows have become more amicable over the past few months, but added ?the dialogue never goes away.?

Attempting to keep the conversation fresh, Chris Dodd, chief executive of the Motion Picture of Assn. of America, and John Fithian, prexy and CEO for the National Assn. of Theater Owners, diverged from the windows issue, shaking their fists at Hollywood?s studios and advocating for a more diverse product slate.

?Just as broad movie choices can drive box office, limited choices can turn the market negative,? Fithian said, blaming the current 12% decline in box office revenue on too many R-rated films. ?Indeed, we were down in the first quarter. But why? Simply put ? not enough choices.?

But for all the focus on needing more diverse fare, the studios? dog-and-pony shows, on the whole, spotlighted the usual clutch of sequels and franchise entries for summer.

Paramount featured well-received clips from ?Star Trek Into Darkness? and ?World War Z,? and screened April 26^th release ?Pain & Gain? in its entirety. The Michael Bay-directed film garnered mixed reactions, at best, with some reported walkouts.

Universal drew enthusiastic responses for ?Fast and Furious 6.? Disney?s ?The Lone Ranger? also went over well, before ?Monsters University? screened in full to positive reactions. Sony, meanwhile, played nearly 45 minutes of footage from its entire 2013 slate, including summer releases ?Grown Ups 2? and ?White House Down? and highly anticipated fall pics ?Captain Phillips? and ?The Monuments Men.?

Buzz for Warner Bros. was strongest with ?Man of Steel? and ?Pacific Rim,? whose helmer Guillermo del Toro showed up to introduce his film on Tuesday, and the following day took part in a three-director discussion with Sam Raimi and Oliver Stone about the social value of moviegoing.

As the newest member of the Colosseum club, Lionsgate rounded out the studio presentations with a diverse show hosted by comedian Kevin Hart. The studio saved for last its most anticipated offering, ?The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.?

The more family-friendly-films discussion segued to a curious spotlight on the movie ratings system, with the MPAA unveiling a revised design and platform for movie ratings called ?Check the Box.? The initiative highlights the reasons for giving specific ratings and includes PSA and poster material to be showcased at theaters.

The importance of the moviegoing experience for all ages was a consistent through line for attendees and panelists.

?The ultimate goal for a filmmaker is to get excited yourself,? del Toro said, praising the communal experience of the cinema. ?Most of us are social freaks. I go to see my movies with 500 of my closest friends. It?s a beautiful thing.?

At one point, Stone was critical of alternative distribution platforms, saying they diminish the moviegoing experience.

?You?ve got to get them in, and you?ve got to keep them in their seats,? Stone said, referring to audiences. ?With technology, they lose that experience ? the spectacle.?

Stone and his counterparts agreed, however, that a global audience creates a space for differing tastes in movies.

?I don?t ever expect to make a movie that is universally liked,? Raimi said.

Del Toro said he is uncompromising in his vision, regardless of audience reception: ?Fuck the audience,? he declared. ?You?re not expecting every movie to become a collective box office hit.?

From a business perspective, Fogelson insisted that if a movie works on one platform (i.e. in the theater), then it should work via alternative distribution methods, as well ? but only with the right model.

?Consumption begets consumption,? Fogelson said. ?I know that if we don?t begin experimenting then we?ll have a real problem as an industry.?

Fox, which screened its product reel Thursday morning devoting the most attention to Christmas release ?The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,? already has been playing with a shortened homevid window domestically for digital high-def titles. The studio said it hopes to follow suit overseas, though most international markets have a strict four-month theatrical window. The? change proposed by Fox Intl. co-prexies Paul Hanneman and Tomas Jegeus would shrink the theatrical-to-homevid window by two weeks overseas.

But as with all industry changes, it won?t happen overnight.

The discussion from CinemaCon seemed to leave room for experimentation, at least. Exhibitors from the U.S. and abroad acknowledged being defensive on the issue, but also recognized the need to grow the revenue pie.

?We get that if a movie bombs, studios need to flush that movie through ?profit and loss? channels,? AMC?s Lopez said. ?We understand accounting. We get it. But to arbitrarily shrink the window continues to be, I think, a limiting conversation.?

Source: http://variety.com/2013/film/news/cinemacon-industry-mixes-fresh-focus-with-ongoing-concerns-1200386703/

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Malala Yousafzai takes the cover of Time?s ?Most Influential? issue

Malala Yousafzai on the cover of Time magazine (Time.com)

Time magazine released its annual list of the 100 "Most Influential People in the World" on Thursday. Among them: President Barack Obama; first lady Michelle Obama; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old activist who survived a Taliban attack; Miami Heat forward LeBron James; Justin Timberlake; Jay-Z; Beyonc?; Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome; Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge; and Yahoo's chief executive, Marissa Mayer.

The magazine picked people "who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world," and not always for the better: North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un made the list for the second year in a row.

As has become tradition, Time solicited essays about honorees from fellow luminaries. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was on the list last year, wrote about her former boss:

When Barack Obama was first elected, the world saw the realization of the American Dream. Today, they see a leader who delivers?whether it?s ending the war in Iraq, imposing crippling sanctions on Iran or reasserting our role as a Pacific power and building a world with more partners and fewer enemies.

Time also solicited an essay from Sarah Palin on Paul, who in March famously filibustered on the Senate floor to get a response from the White House on its domestic drone program:

Senator Rand Paul is a voice of reason awakening the public to what must be done to restore our prosperity and preserve the blessings of liberty for future generations. ... I sent him some caribou jerky from Alaska to help keep up his strength on the Senate floor. There?s more where that came from for this bold Senator with 20/20 vision willing to take a stand for liberty.

[Related: Inside the Time 100 party: Clinton, Colbert, Lin but no Tebow]

And New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed an essay on the unofficial mayor of hip-hop, Jay-Z:

He?s never forgotten his roots?'Empire State of Mind' was a love song to our city?and as a co-owner of the NBA Nets, he helped bring a major league sports team back to Brooklyn, not far from his old neighborhood. In nearly everything he?s tried, he?s found success. (He even put a ring on Beyonc?.) And in doing so, he?s proved that the American Dream is alive and well.

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who has fought against gun control legislation in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, also made the list. Ted Nugent, who contributed the essay on LaPierre, called the NRA leader "a sledgehammer for truth, logic and freedom."

The Time 100 issue will hit newsstands Friday. The release of the list comes on the same day a tablet-only edition of the magazine focused on the Boston Marathon bombings was published. The special edition includes a chilling cover showing a frightened child with blood-stained hair being carried away from the scene by a Boston police officer after the second explosion.

Click here to see the complete Time 100 list.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/time-100-list-2013-152355281.html

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Gerard Butler Talks Having Fun with Dog Lolita | Celebrity Pets ...

Gerard Butler holds his messenger bag in his hand while heading to an office building on Thursday (April 18) in Century City, Calif.

The 44-year-old Olympus Has Fallen actor recently chatted with Shortlist Magazine about his dog Lolita.

?I know it?s not politically correct to buy a dog from a pet store, but there was this one dog asleep with one eye open and its tongue hanging out. I pulled her out and she started biting the sh-t out me,? Gerard said. ?I was going to leave but I couldn?t stop myself, so I bought her and we immediately started putting cigarettes in her mouth and all that stuff ? not lit, of course ? and I realized you could have lot of fun with a dog. Until she started sh-tting all over the place. I was on a private plane once, and it was like somebody had bathed us in sh-t.?

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Source: http://www.justjared.com/2013/04/18/gerard-butler-talks-having-fun-with-dog-lolita/

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How do we know? The scoop on Home Improvement from the ...

In Education, Everyday Living, Lists on April 19, 2013 at 4:02 am

When faced with a choice, many homeowners decide to improve their homes, rather than to move. They modernize the kitchen, replace the roof, finish the basement, add a bathroom, or make their home more energy efficient. This new ?How Do We Know?? infographic, ?Home Improvements,? (below) uses results from the 2011 American Housing Survey to show the kinds of improvements owners make and the amounts they spend on them. The survey is jointly administered by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and tracks home improvements as well as a large variety of other housing topics.

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Source: http://columbianewsandviews.com/2013/04/19/how-do-we-know-the-scoop-on-home-improvement-from-the-census-bureau/

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Microsoft's latest "Patch Tuesday" update...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/lkTmNGivs0w/

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Competition takes a bite out of Apple

Apple

Apple (AAPL) is set to post its results for the second fiscal quarter on April 23rd and a new report suggests increased competition may have hurt Apple more than usual.?Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha said in a recent note to clients that competition is hurting Apple more than it has in the past, and he sees iPhone sales in the March quarter falling to 38 million units ? though that figure is still up from?35.1 million iPhones in the same quarter last year.?

[More from BGR: New startup looks to kill off patent trolls]

Moving forward,?Garcha thinks competition will become an even bigger factor in Apple?s fiscal third quarter following the launch of Samsung?s (005930) Galaxy S4, shipments of which are expected to top 10 million in the phone?s first month of availability.?For the June quarter, the analyst estimates that Apple will sell 31 million smartphones, up from?26 million in the year-ago quarter.

[More from BGR: New free app brings Samsung?s ?Smart Pause? functionality to iPhone]

In line with a number of earlier reports, Garcha expects Apple to debut new iPhone models this summer and anticipation leading up to that announcement will put additional pressure on June-quarter sales. Following the next-generation launches, however, the analyst sees new carrier deals helping Apple in the coming years.

?Beyond the near term, we believe carrier expansion could add a further 65mn units to iPhone volumes, the timing of which is hard to predict but likelihood remains high,? Garcha wrote. ?Apple may have a narrower lead on the hardware than in the past; however, it still retains an ecosystem advantage.?

Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating on Apple shares with a $600 price target.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/competition-takes-bite-apple-154524691.html

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Mail Pilot for iPhone and iPad review: turn your inbox into a productivity powerhouse

There are lots of alternative mail clients available in the App Store and Mail Pilot for iPhone and iPad is the newest addition. While the workflow concepts are simliar to that of apps like Mailbox, the overall interface and design is rather different. Not to mention, Mail Pilot supports an array of clients including both Gmail and iCloud.

I backed Mail Pilot in its infancy stages last summer when it started out as a Kickstarter project. It was a great idea and I'm excited to finally give it the review treatment and find out whether or not it really was worth the wait.

The first thing you'll be asked to do after downloading Mail Pilot to your iPhone or iPad is to sign into all of your accounts. The main difference between Mail Pilot and Mailbox is that there isn't support for only Gmail. Mail Pilot actually supports all mainstream IMAP email servers. This means you can add your iCloud account, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail (including Google apps), or any other modern IMAP account. I've strayed away from apps like Mailbox because it supports only Gmail, which leaves me toggling between two mail clients in order to access all my accounts within iOS. Not really a valid solution in my book so I'm excited at the prospect of having a secondary option for an all in one alternative.

Syncing my accounts was super simple and only took a few minutes. After that I was able to view all my inboxes in one place or separate them via the pullout menu on the left hand side. Here you can easily access all your incomplete items, dates & lists, items you've set aside, completed items, and sent messages. You can also drill down and view things on a per account basis right another the main menu. For most users, you'll probably spend most of your time in the unified view since it makes quickly accessing and marking messages much easier.

Mail Pilot for iPhone and iPad uses a series of gestures and taps in order to interact with messages. Tapping on any message will open that thread. You can easily view all messages attached to it as well as reply or forward in a single tap. There's a small carrot in the bottom right hand corner of each message. Tapping on this will display a submenu containing message actions. You can either file it away for an exact date, add it to a list, save it for an undetermined amount of time with the generic save for later option, or delete it. If you add it to an exact date with the calendar icon, it will automatically appear back in your inbox on the date you have specified. If you choose the general save for later date, it'll show up under that tab in the bottom navigation for you to deal with at your convenience.

The good

• Support for almost every IMAP account which will keep everything in sync between devices and other mail clients
• Intuitive gesture controls that just make sense
• Folder syncing is super fast
• No reservation line, which means you can get access right now

The bad

• No push notifications (yet)
• Price point may be a little higher than what some are willing to spend for something iOS technically already does

The bottom line

Considering Mail Pilot took so long to come to fruition, other third party mail clients made appearances and will ultimately make the competition even tougher. The high price point may be enough to turn off some users while others will automatically choose it over other options since it supports a plethora of IMAP account types, not just Gmail. The lack of push notifications is a letdown but leaving the default mail sound for the native Mail app on somewhat solves the problem.

Overall, Mail Pilot is off to a great start and if they can overcome some small issues such as lack of push notifications, they could easily become a fan favorite when it comes to alternative mail apps for iPhone and iPad.

• $14.99 - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LVUgwL87Nb8/story01.htm

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Deal of the Day: Samsung Desktop Cradle for Galaxy Note

The April 11 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Samsung Desktop Cradle for Galaxy Note. Ideal for the home or workplace, the desktop cradle allows you to carry on with daily activities while keeping the power of the Galaxy Note close at hand. Even while the handset charges, you can watch videos, listen to music via the built-in 3.5 mm stereo audio port, or run Android applications.

The Samsung Desktop Cradle is available for just $26.00, 48% off today only. Backed by our 60-day return policy and fast shipping.

Never miss a deal. Sign up for Daily Deal alerts

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/tQMt8htq_kc/story01.htm

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Tax haven data leak names names, raises questions

PARIS (AP) ? It's a data leak involving tens of thousands of offshore bank accounts, naming dozens of prominent figures around the world. And new details are being released by the day ? raising the prospect that accounts based on promises of secrecy and tax shelter could someday offer neither.

Among those named include a top campaign official in France, the ex-wife of pardoned oil trader Marc Rich, Azerbaijan's ruling family, the daughter of Imelda Marcos and the late Baron Elie de Rothschild. The widespread use of offshore accounts among the wealthy is widely known ? even Mitt Romney acknowledged stashing some of his millions in investments in the Cayman Islands.

But this week's leak, orchestrated by a Washington-based group called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, appeared to be the broadest in what has been a steady stream of information emerging about hidden money in recent years amid a wave of anger targeting the super-rich in an age of austerity.

The leak allegedly involved records from 10 tax havens, where the world's wealthy have long stashed funds. It uncovered a shadow network of empty holding companies and names essentially rented out to fill out boards of non-existent corporations, including a British couple listed as active in more than 2,000 entities, according to The Guardian newspaper, which participated in the global undertaking.

The project started with the receipt of a hard drive by an Australian journalist, Gerard Ryle, who took the data with him when he joined the consortium, according to the project's website. The group, a project of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, has said the hard drive arrived in the mail.

"We know the data is valid. We know who originally produced the data and we've done massive crosschecks to make sure what we're getting is accurate and isn't corrupted," said Michael Hudson, a senior editor on the project.

Rudolf Elmer, who once ran the Caribbean operations of the Swiss bank Julius Baer and turned whistleblower after he was dismissed in 2002, told The Associated Press that he considers the data to be authentic.

"This comprehensive information is like a torch that will probably set off a wildfire and bring to light a lot more about secretive tax havens," he said.

The secret bank accounts of the rich and powerful have recently come under a crush of whistle-blowing scrutiny.

France's former budget minister, Jerome Cahuzac, was forced to resign last month after a French investigative website unrelated to the latest leak revealed that he held offshore accounts ? a particularly damaging scandal because he was spearheading a campaign against tax evasion. In 2010, a Greek journalist published a list of about 2,000 people holding undeclared Swiss bank accounts, disclosures that triggered a firestorm of outrage as Greeks were forced to swallow brutal austerity measures.

In November, an HSBC insider leaked a list of more than 8,000 customers with accounts based in Britain's tiny Jersey Island, drawing an immediate tax investigation from Britain's revenue and customs service. Two years before that, a former HSBC employee stole account details for 24,000 clients. Germany, eager to learn about its own tax cheats, promptly offered to buy the information.

"This just shows what we all know, which is that for decades we have seen the emergence of globalization on the one hand and governments that were unable to coordinate and cooperate on the other hand," Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax policy for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said Friday.

There is nothing inherently illegal about opening bank accounts overseas, but it's well known that the wealthy use them to avoid higher taxes at home ? a practice that Saint-Amans said was quickly falling afoul of governments desperate for revenue, especially those suffering in the European financial crisis.

Britain has an outsized share of offshore territories, which include the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands, whose 4? square miles (12 square kilometers) are saturated with current and former British company directors, according to The Guardian.

"Britain has this network of satellite tax havens around the world that have been acting as feeders," said Nicholas Shaxon, author of the book "Treasure Islands."

Shaxon said he was encouraged by the succession of whistleblowing employees over the years, and described the latest leak as the most significant to date.

"I hope this has created a new willingness among players who are inside the system to say, 'Hang on, maybe this isn't such a good thing,'" Shaxon said.

French President Francois Hollande, who has promised to clean up France's finances, has had a particularly bad week when it comes to news about tax havens. No sooner had Cahuzac acknowledged lying about his offshore accounts than news emerged in the newspaper Le Monde that his former campaign treasurer, Jean-Jacque Augier, was a shareholder in two firms in the Cayman Islands, through a holding company.

Augier said he did nothing wrong. Cahuzac was felled by a recording of him talking about his accounts that was leaked to French website Mediapart.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists consortium promised Friday to continue publishing details in coming weeks. Hudson, the senior editor, said the goal was to shed light on an industry that has thrived on secrecy.

"It becomes a question of not necessarily right or wrong, but it is a question of how our world works and how some folks who have the wherewithal to use havens get a degree of secrecy and tax benefits that average folks don't have access to," he said.

Tim Ridley, former chairman of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, warned against any satisfaction people may get from seeing the private banking information of the wealthy splashed across the Internet.

"Whatever may happen with offshore accounts today with everybody smiling about it could happen to onshore accounts in London or New York tomorrow," Ridley said. "Normally people are entitled to information about their financial affairs or their medical affairs to be private."

Ridley said there remained entirely legitimate reasons to set up accounts offshore, even for individuals, especially those from volatile countries: "Unstable governments have a habit of taking people's money in unjustified circumstances."

Shaxon was less concerned about the rights of wealthy individuals holding secret bank accounts.

"I don't think we should be worried about the sensitivities of the poor banker and poor criminals whose criminal activities are being exposed," he said. "If there are people who are doing nothing wrong and their information is being exposed, then it's collateral. It's a price to be paid."

Both Ridley and Shaxon ? coming from entirely opposite perspectives ? agreed that the disclosures dented the world of offshore banking, but were hardly a fatal blow.

And experts say it will take years for current efforts against secrecy to fully take hold.

"It is ultimately public pressure that is going to make a difference here," Shaxon said.

___

Follow Lori Hinnant at: https://twitter.com/lhinnant

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tax-haven-data-leak-names-names-raises-questions-172346691--finance.html

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Graduate glut spells underused skills and dissatisfaction for many

Apr. 4, 2013 ? Graduates are taking up jobs that don't fully use their skills and as a result are causing high turnover for employers, claims new research published today in the journal Human Relations, published by SAGE. The findings raise questions about today's high throughput in university education.

Policy makers in many developed and developing countries envisioned high-value economies supported in part by a highly-skilled and well-paid workforce. As a result, many nations have increased higher education (HE) access, assuming that employers will be able to use this larger bank of skills effectively. However, the number of skilled jobs has not matched the rising number of skilled workers, so that today's higher qualifications no longer guarantee graduates higher earnings, or further opportunities to use and develop knowledge and skills. Many graduates are now employed in 'intermediate' level jobs previously not regarded as graduate jobs.

Belgin Okay-Somerville from the University of Aberdeen and Dora Scholarios from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, have identified five areas where emerging (intermediately skilled) graduate occupations diverge from traditional graduate occupations:

1. "Graduateness" -- the extent to which skills associated with graduate jobs are used in emerging occupations;
2. How closely a graduate's skills match those required of the job;
3. Job content, in particular job control and opportunity for skill development;
4. Job security; and
5. Pay.

Together these indicators give a benchmark of job quality, which Okay-Somerville and Scholarios examined in a sample drawn from the 2006 UK Skills Survey. Of a sample of 7787 employees, 379 met the criteria for the study. These employees worked in managerial, professional or associate professional occupations, and had 5-15 years' post-degree work experience.

The new, emerging graduate occupations offered inferior skills utilization, job content, job security and pay. Not surprisingly these lower quality jobs, marked out by less opportunity for skill use and job control, led to graduates with lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment. No matter what the occupation, job content was the most important factor for satisfaction, commitment and well-being.

There is now an abundance of evidence that a substantial minority of graduates start their careers in non-graduate low-skill, low-pay occupations. Employment in emerging occupations may imply a step up, but does not compare with traditional graduate roles.

"Generally, the findings challenge the equating of job quality with wages at the economic policy-making level, and the high-skills, high-wages agenda, which has been prominent in the UK," says Okay-Somerville. "Acceptance of intermediately skilled jobs as 'graduate occupations' without interventions designed to make better use of graduates' skills may result in 'good jobs going bad' in the graduate labor market."

The authors say their research supports an emphasis on demand-side employer-based policies aimed at job design and work organization, and offers a picture of how graduates themselves perceive various elements of job quality. Active dialogue between employer practice and skills policies should help to create 'good' graduate jobs, and to make 'bad' graduate jobs better.

This research forms part of a Human Relations special issue on job quality which features articles on what is meant by job quality and why it matters to individuals, firms and to national wellbeing, drawing on contributions from international scholars and research.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by SAGE Publications, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. B. Okay-Somerville, D. Scholarios. Shades of grey: Understanding job quality in emerging graduate occupations. Human Relations, 2013; 66 (4): 555 DOI: 10.1177/0018726712465094

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/1mRKDOnPtyM/130404122236.htm

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BlackBerry Gets A Helping Hand From Canada With A $256M Loan For Telefonica To Buy BB Devices And Services

BlackBerry last week posted better than expected quarterly results, but it's not out of the woods yet. Now Canada is stepping in to help. Today, Export Development Canada, the Canadian export credit agency, announced that it has provided a ?200 million ($256 million) working capital facility to Telefonica, one of the world's biggest mobile operators, to procure BlackBerry smartphones, services and solutions for its global footprint, which covers 315.7 million subscribers across 24 countries.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QOFsxZ4Bflo/

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PC, tablet, phone shipments to hit 2.4B in 2013

NEW YORK (AP) ? Research firm Gartner says it expects worldwide PC, tablet and mobile phone shipments to reach 2.4 billion units this year, up 9 percent from 2012.

Gartner Inc. said Thursday that device shipments should continue to grow, hitting more than 2.9 billion in 2017. But the mix of devices is shifting away from PCs.

Gartner expects desktop and notebook PC shipments to continue to decline as people move toward more portable devices like tablets and "ultramobile" electronics that fall somewhere between a laptop and a tablet, such as the MacBook Air.

The research firm says that tablet shipments will likely reach 197 million units this year, up nearly 70 percent from 116 million in 2012.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-04-US-TEC-Gartner-Shipments/id-86afcdb100734fe89e1622cf22572ab9

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Service sector growth weakest in seven months

Reuters ? ? ? 6 hrs.

The pace of growth in the vast U.S. services sector slowed in March to the lowest level in seven months as new orders and employment measures pulled back, an industry report showed on Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index fell to 54.4 last month from 56 in February, falling short of economists' forecasts for 55.8. It was the weakest reading since August.

(Click here to track the U.S. stock market reaction to this economic report.)

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

The forward-looking new orders index slipped to 54.6 from 58.2, while employment dropped to its lowest level since November at 53.3 from 57.2.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a4b8b2e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ceconomywatch0Cservice0Esector0Egrowth0Eweakest0Eseven0Emonths0E1C9196195/story01.htm

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