Dow Nears 14,000, On Way To 36,000, Obviously: Seven And A Half Things To Know

Science has determined that people need to know 7.5 things per day, on average, about the world of business. You can't argue with science. Lucky for you, The Huffington Post has an email newsletter, delivered first thing every weekday morning, boiling down the day's biggest business news into the 7.5 things you absolutely need to know. And we're giving it away free, because we love you, and also science. Here you go:

Thing One: The Phantom Panic: Dow 36,000, here we come!

When the market opens this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will be less than 50 points away from the nice, round number 14,000, a level it hasn't seen since 2007, when the financial crisis was in its infancy. From there, it'll be just a short climb to its all-time high of 14,164.53. Econo-nerds may argue that we should adjust the Dow for inflation and therefore we're not as close to a record as we think we are, but those people will be ignored because shut up, nerds. After that, it's certainly only a matter of time before James Glassman and Kevin Hassett of "Dow 36,000" fame can finally end their long reign as the clown princes of stock prognostication, along with Donald Luskin.

Whatever number you want to use, the Dow has more than doubled from its crisis low of 6,547.05 in March 2009. And most of that climb has been driven by professional investors -- twice-burned individuals have doggedly shunned stocks throughout the rally, pouring their money into bond mutual funds at a record pace. That pattern has changed lately, writes Tom Lauricella of the Wall Street Journal, as small investors have started to crawl back into stock funds.

This behavioral shift has raised all sorts of talk of a "great rotation" out of bonds and into stocks. While that is good news for the stock market, it is potentially awful news for the bond market. And that bond market, as you may recall from the paragraph above, happens to be where a lot of us have poured our money in recent years. So this fact has naturally led to a panic that the bond market is about to undergo a horrifying collapse, punishing bond investors (including you and me), much as it did in 1994, when Alan Greenspan's Fed abruptly raised interest rates without warning anybody and crushed the bond market.

Adding fuel to these worries, the WSJ's Victoria McGrane and Jon Hilsenrath write about how the Fed might need to be worried that its own massive bond holdings will suffer losses in the near future. The Fed ends a two-day policy meeting today, at which it will likely agree to keep on adding to that stockpile of bonds, in an effort to pump more money into the economy.

Home prices are rising. The euro is at a 14-month high, as European policy makers have figured out a way to stop perpetually blowing the dolphin. And speaking of mammal-sexing, U.S. policy makers have temporarily averted various terrifying cliffs and ceilings.

But that does not necessarily mean that things are so great that we can expect Dow 36,000, or a terrifying bond market collapse, any time soon. There are still plenty of risks to the economy. Europe's problems aren't all solved yet. Fiscal tightening is going to hurt U.S. growth this year. Consumer confidence tumbled last month to its lowest level since November 2011, as people got disgusted with Washington and prepared for smaller paychecks due to the expiring payroll-tax cut.

Do a Google search for "1994 bond market," and the top results are from 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- all years in which people worried about a 1994-style bond-market crash. It didn't happen in those years, and it's not going to happen this year, either. Small investors may be buying stocks again, and that's probably not a bad idea, no matter the risks. But they are also still buying bonds at a healthy clip, Lauricella notes in the WSJ. They have dabbled in stocks before in recent years, only to retreat again.

The key thing to remember is that, given all the risks, the Fed is not going to abruptly raise interest rates as it did in 1994. And though the Fed might lose some money on its massive bond holdings, it almost certainly considers that a small price to pay for keeping the economy afloat.

Thing Two: Crisis Tab Keeps Rising: Meanwhile, it turns out that we are still paying the tab for the previous financial crisis. The latest quarterly report from Christy Romero, the special inspector general for the $600 billion bailout program, points out that taxpayers are still owed about $67 billion, including a nearly $15 billion investment in Ally Financial, which is weighed down by toxic subprime mortgages. Taxpayers are still likely to see a net loss on the bailout of about $60 billion, after already writing down $27 billion in losses. More alarming than all that, Romero writes, the bailout and subsequent regulatory fiddling have done little or nothing to prevent another crisis in the future.

Thing Three: Top Cop Flops, Stops: Steely enforcer of justice Lanny Breuer, who all but admitted to Frontline that he hadn't bothered to investigate charges of fraud that led to the financial crisis, and who flat-out admitted to The New York Times and others that he was too terrified to bring criminal charges against big banks will announce today that he is stepping down from the Justice Department, writes Ben Protess of the New York Times. He will likely return to private law practice, Protess writes, where he can continue to help banks, but get a much bigger paycheck for his efforts. (Fairness break: Justice has lately pushed a smattering of criminal charges, in the easier-to-prosecute Libor scandal.)

Thing Four: Silicon Valley Hearts Visa Plan: President Obama yesterday pushed an immigration-reform plan that included a call for more temporary visas for skilled workers, echoing a bipartisan Senate bill introduced yesterday and a House bill passed in November. This got a cheer from tech companies who claim they don't have enough skilled workers, the Wall Street Journal writes. It will probably get a boo from skilled American workers who claim they don't have enough jobs.

Thing Five: Weaker Watchdog Worries: After fighting and clawing for years against the creation of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, banks are now worried... that the CFPB will be weakened, the Wall Street Journal writes. No, this makes no sense, at least not at first. The CFPB's authority is threatened by a recent court decision that Obama didn't have the authority to make a recess appointment of CFPB chief Richard Cordray. The banks may hate the CFPB, but they apparently hate the uncertainty of knowing whether or not they should care about the CFPB's rules even more.

Thing Six: Boeing Battery Troubles Run Deep: Months before they started catching fire and such, lithium batteries in the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner were a problem, it turns out. Japanese airlines had replaced several of the batteries in planes when their charges weakened unexpectedly, the New York Times writes. They didn't tell regulators about the battery problems because they didn't think they were a risk to passengers.

Thing Seven: Gas Chief Burns Out: Aubrey McClendon, the high-flying chief of natural-gas producer Chesapeake Energy, is finally stepping down after months of pressure from Chesapeake's board, in a notable sign that the natural-gas fracking boom is running out of, um, gas, writes the New York Times. McClendon and the company had borrowed like there was no tomorrow to finance new wells, a strategy that has started to backfire.

Thing Seven And One Half: Why Don't We Do It On The Roof: On this day in 1969 the Beatles performed a concert on the roof of Abbey Road studios in London, in what would be their last public performance. The concert, which was ended by the police, followed quarrelsome recording sessions for the album that would later be released as "Let It Be." Later that year, they would start fresh with "Abbey Road," the last album they recorded together (though the far-less-good "Let It Be" was released in 1970, most of it had been recorded before "Abbey Road").

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Calendar Du Jour:

Economic Data:

8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Report for January

8:30 a.m. ET: Fourth-Quarter GDP

2:15 p.m. ET: Federal Reserve policy announcement

Corporate Earnings:

Boeing

ConocoPhillips

Heard On The Tweets:

-- Calendar and tweets rounded up by Alexis Kleinman.

And you can follow us on Twitter, too, if you want, no pressure: @AlexisKleinman and @MarkGongloff

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/seven-and-a-half-things-you-need-to-know_n_2578164.html

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Wild Weather On The Way

By Carol Erickson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? The weather needs a new calendar. It?s acting like April even though we are deep into winter.

This afternoon temperatures reached the upper 60?s in advance of a cold front so strong that it could pull warmth to that level into the area.

Tonight the warm and cold air fight it out, with our area on the receiving end of heavy rain and strong, gusty winds.

A flash flood watch for an inch or more of rain covers Pennsylvania and a high wind warning for gusts between 40 and 60 mph covers New Jersey and Delaware.

Loose objects could become missiles in the wind and the recently frozen ground and waterways could flood from runoff.

By sunrise, it?s a whole other story.

The weather and calendar match, temperatures will fall through the 30?s, the winds will blow to about 45 mph and we await an even colder Friday with a moisture starved clipper system hoping to drop a few snow flurries.

The weekend looks equally cold.

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/01/30/wild-weather-on-the-way/

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Mozambique floods displace nearly 150,000

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Widespread flooding in southern Mozambique has displaced 143,000 people and aid agencies are struggling to get assistance to communities underwater for nearly a week, officials said on Wednesday.

The death toll from the flooding in the lower Limpopo river now stands at 80, Mozambican officials said, while aid groups said supplies of drugs and malaria test kits were running low, raising concerns about the spread of disease.

In the hardest-hit town of Chokwe, 140 km (90 miles) north of Maputo, only six out of 23 medical facilities were working and there were no ambulances, aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

The homeless are being housed in 30 tent cities erected by the government with help from the United Nations.

"The Mozambican government and aid organizations are struggling to respond to the needs," the U.N. said.

The government in the impoverished former Portuguese colony refused to comment on the relief effort, putting a positive gloss on the situation in the badly hit district of Gaza.

"In Gaza, the water is receding considerably. In some places boats cannot even pass because there is not enough water," said Rita Almeida, a spokeswoman for the National Institute of Calamity Management.

At least 12 people have been killed in South Africa and 15,000 crocodiles escaped into the Limpopo, which also flows along southern Zimbabwe, when dams protecting a reptile farm on the banks of the river overflowed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mozambique-floods-displace-nearly-150-000-160623333.html

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A-Rod denies PED use report; MLB investigates

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez takes batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers, in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez takes batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers, in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez prepares to hit in the sixth inning during Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

This undated booking photo provided by the Miami-Dade Police Department, on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013, shows Anthony Bosch. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. The Miami New Times said in a story on Tuesday that it had obtained files through an employee at a recently closed clinic called Biogenesis. The report said that the notes of clinic chief Bosch list the players' names and the substances they received, including human growth hormone and steroids. (AP Photo/Miami-Dade Police Department)

FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2012, file photo, Oakland Athletics starter Bartolo Colon tosses the ball after Chicago White Sox's Gordon Beckham hit a two-run single during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Chicago. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Alex Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. The Miami New Times said in a story Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, that it had obtained files through an employee at a recently closed clinic called Biogenesis. Other players named by the publication as appearing in the records include Colon, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz.(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - In this June 12, 2012, file photo, Texas Rangers' Nelson Cruz breaks his bat while hitting a double during the second inning of their baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Alex Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. The Miami New Times said in a story Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, that it had obtained files through an employee at a recently closed clinic called Biogenesis. Other players named by the publication as appearing in the records include Cruz, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez and Bartolo Colon. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Alex Rodriguez denied a newspaper report that accused him of buying human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing substances from a Miami-area clinic.

The Miami New Times, an alternative weekly, reported Tuesday that it obtained records detailing purchases by Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal from a clinic called Biogenesis, run by Anthony Bosch. The paper also posted copies of what it said were Bosch's handwritten records, obtained through a former Biogenesis employee.

Rodriguez admitted four years ago that he used PEDs from 2001-03. Cabrera, Colon and Grandal were suspended for 50 games each last year by MLB following tests for elevated testosterone.

"We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances," MLB said in a statement. "Only law enforcement officials have the capacity to reach those outside the game who are involved in the distribution of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. ... We are in the midst of an active investigation and are gathering and reviewing information."

A baseball official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements, said Monday that MLB did not have any documentation regarding the allegations. If MLB does obtain evidence, the players could be subject to discipline. First offenses result in a 50-game suspension and second infractions in 100-game penalties. A third violation results in a lifetime ban.

Rodriguez is sidelined for at least the first half of the season after hip surgery Jan. 16. A 50-game suspension would cost him $7.65 million of his $28 million salary.

"The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true," Rodriguez said in a statement issued by a publicist. "He was not Mr. Bosch's patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story ? at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez ? are not legitimate."

Jay Reisinger, a lawyer who has presented Rodriguez in recent years, said the three-time AL MVP had retained Roy Black, an attorney from Rodriguez's hometown of Miami. Black's clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith.

Rodriguez spent years denying he used PEDs before Sports Illustrated reported in February 2009 that he tested positive for two steroids in MLB's anonymous survey while with the Texas Rangers in 2003. Two days later, he admitted in an ESPN interview that he used PEDs over a three-year period. He has denied using PEDs after 2003.

If the new allegations were true, the Yankees would face high hurdles to get out of the final five years of Rodriguez's contract, which call for him to receive $114 million. Because management and the players' union have a joint drug agreement, an arbitrator could determine that any action taken by the team amounted to multiple punishments for the same offense.

The Yankees said "this matter is now in the hands of the commissioner's office" and said they will not comment further until MLB's investigation ends.

Gonzalez posted on his Twitter feed: "I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance provided by him. anything said to the contrary is a lie."

Colon was not issuing a statement, agent Adam Katz said through spokeswoman Lisa Cohen. Sam and Seth Levinson, the agents for Cabrera and Cruz, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Cruz and Gonzalez had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Cruz's team, the Texas Rangers, said it notified MLB last week after being contacted by the New Times.

The New Times report said it obtained notes by Bosch listing the players' names and the substances they received. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professional athletes but they never saw the sports stars in the office.

Rodriguez appears 16 times in the documents it received, the paper said, either as "Alex Rodriguez," ''Alex Rod" or the nickname "Cacique," a pre-Columbian Caribbean chief. The paper said the records list that Rodriguez paid for HGH; testosterone cream; IGF-1, a substance banned by baseball that stimulates insulin production; and GHRP, which releases growth hormones.

Rodriguez's cousin, Yuri Sucart, also is listed as having purchased HGH. Sucart was banned from the Yankees clubhouse, charter flights, bus and other team-related activities by MLB in 2009 after Rodriguez said Sucart obtained and injected PEDs for him.

Also listed among the records, according to the New Times, are tennis player Wayne Odesnik, Cuban boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa and Jimmy Goins, the strength and conditioning coach of the University of Miami baseball team.

Mia Ro, a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami, said she could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation in Bosch or the clinic.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-29-MLB-Drug%20Investigation/id-850bdca282564cb69512f7ff55c8ff71

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How to start a business | Business branding for beginners

By admin on January 29, 2013

Strong ideas are the starting point of any successful business, but if you want to take it further you?ll need to learn how to brand your business. As part of our series on ?How to Start a Business?, ?Joanne Dewberry, Sage Business Expert,?and owner of Charlie Moo?s explains how you can use branding to improve your business.?

Branding isn?t just about having a fabulous logo ? you have to consider every aspect, including yourself.? Ensure you work with colours, styles and themes which you can easily use over the various aspects of your business to provide consistence.? Branding should encompass your whole business, including your ethos, core values and mission statement. Ultimately, when a customer sees your brand, what key things do you want to spring to mind?

The story of Moo

The name ?Charlie Moo?s? developed from my son ? Charlie. We have referred to him as ?Moo? since he was a baby. Obviously, Moo lends itself quite nicely to the cow imagery. My friend came up with the concept of the cow being the letter M and it works on so many levels:

• As a full banner using the whole name or just using the M cow as a stand-alone logo, which does not look out of place and is still distinctly Charlie Moo?s. The style of the M cow also lent itself nicely to being transformed into both my girl cows, Megan and Olive.
• These stand-alone cow images work well as images on cake toppers, my popular range of wrapping paper and other products. For the Royal Wedding in April 2011, I used Charlie and Megan Moo adorned with crowns on a backdrop of the Union Jack. For Easter I have them wearing bunny masks. All quirky, unique and distinct. This enabled me to keep my branding consistent but also topical, seasonal and fresh.
• I also ensure that each bag I make has a label sewn inside it, a swing tag attached to the handle with string made from an image of one of our party bags, and I pop a business card inside too. That way, when each child that leaves a party with one of my handmade fabric bags,? they ? or, more importantly, their parents ? know where the bag came from.

Get professional help

When creating visual materials, you need to take all aspects of the design into consideration; fonts, colours, and how the logo will work alongside your existing designs or packaging.

This is an important aspect of your business so if you?re not a graphic designer then employ someone to help you. Our original logo was designed in the basic MS Paint program and was incredibly square and pixelated. We got a graphic designer on board to smooth it all out and make it more visually appealing, which instantly changed the whole appearance of my website and has since paved the way for Megan and Olive Moo. These high-quality images could then also be easily used on branded items such as wrapping paper and cake toppers.

Ask your audience

Before you spend any money on logos, business cards, leaflets, web design, etc., it is really useful to get other people?s opinions; whether it?s via people you?ve done business with before or through social media such as Twitter. Try to avoid?just?asking family members as they will have a tendency to give a positive appraisal rather than the constructive criticism you need. Developing a brand is not an easy process, but once it is right you?ve then got to reinforce it in everything you say and do. It inevitably encompasses everything about you and what your business does.

Joanne Dewberry

Joanne is passionate about small business and writes a blog JoanneDewberry.co.uk providing small businesses training, advice & networking in areas of social media, marketing and juggling children and a business. She is also the author of small business book ?Crafting a Successful Small Business?, of which this is an extract

Posted in How to start a business, Sage Business Experts |

Source: http://www.sage.co.uk/blog/index.php/2013/01/business-branding-for-beginners/

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Israel reviews contraceptive use for Ethiopian immigrants

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Health Ministry has ordered doctors to review how they prescribe a birth control drug, after accusations it was being used to control the population of Ethiopian immigrants.

Suspicions that Ethiopian women had been coerced into receiving Depo-Provera arose in Israeli media a few years ago and most recently in a TV documentary linking the community's falling birthrate to over-prescription of the injectable contraceptive.

After a civil rights group accused it of racism, the health ministry ordered doctors not to renew Depo-Provera prescriptions unless they were convinced patients understood the ramifications, according to a letter from the ministry posted on the group's website on Monday.

Ministry Director-General Roni Gamzu said the decision did not imply he accepted the allegations by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

In a letter to Gamzu two weeks ago, ACRI said "the sweeping use of Depo-Provera among Ethiopian women raises heavy suspicions that we are talking about a deliberate policy to control and monitor fertility among this community.

"The data ... point to a paternalistic, haughty and racist attitude that limits considerably the freedom of Ethiopian immigrants to choose the birth control that is medically suitable for them."

ACRI said statistics from a major Israeli health provider showed that it had administered Depo-Provera injections to 5,000 women in 2008, 57 percent of whom were Ethiopian.

Israel has denied any policy to curb the birthrate among the 100,000 Ethiopian Jews who have moved to Israel since chief rabbis determined in 1973 that the community had biblical roots.

Some Ethiopian Jews have made it into Israel's parliament and officer ranks in the military, but complaints of discrimination in schooling and housing are common.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved Depo-Provera in 1992, its prolonged use may reduce bone density and that it should only be used for longer than two years if other birth control methods prove inadequate.

The documentary, broadcast on Israeli Educational Television, shows a nurse saying on a hidden camera that Ethiopian women were given Depo-Provera because they "don't understand anything" and would forget to take birth control pills.

Rick Hodes, medical director in Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a non-governmental organization that helps to facilitate immigration to Israel, denied the accusation that women are coerced into receiving the injections before leaving for the Jewish state.

"Injectable drugs have always been the most popular form of birth control in Ethiopia, as well as among women in our program," Hodes wrote on Twitter.

"Our family program is, and always (has) been, purely voluntary."

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-reviews-contraceptive-ethiopian-immigrants-165531609.html

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'Quantum smell' idea gains ground

27 January 2013 Last updated at 19:05 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A controversial theory that the way we smell involves a quantum physics effect has received a boost, following experiments with human subjects.

It challenges the notion that our sense of smell depends only on the shapes of molecules we sniff in the air.

Instead, it suggests that the molecules' vibrations are responsible.

A way to test it is with two molecules of the same shape, but with different vibrations. A report in PLOS ONE shows that humans can distinguish the two.

Tantalisingly, the idea hints at quantum effects occurring in biological systems - an idea that is itself driving a new field of science, as the article Are birds hijacking quantum physics? points out.

But the theory - first put forward by Luca Turin, now of the Fleming Biomedical Research Sciences Centre in Greece - remains contested and divisive.

The idea that molecules' shapes are the only link to their smell is well entrenched, but Dr Turin said there were holes in the idea.

He gave the example of molecules that include sulphur and hydrogen atoms bonded together - they may take a wide range of shapes, but all of them smell of rotten eggs.

"If you look from the [traditional] standpoint... it's really hard to explain," Dr Turin told BBC News.

"If you look from the standpoint of an alternative theory - that what determines the smell of a molecule is the vibrations - the sulphur-hydrogen mystery becomes absolutely clear."

Molecules can be viewed as a collection of atoms on springs, so the atoms can move relative to one another. Energy of just the right frequency - a quantum - can cause the "springs" to vibrate, and in a 1996 paper in Chemical Senses Dr Turin said it was these vibrations that explained smell.

The mechanism, he added, was "inelastic electron tunnelling": in the presence of a specific "smelly" molecule, an electron within a smell receptor in your nose can "jump" - or tunnel - across it and dump a quantum of energy into one of the molecule's bonds - setting the "spring" vibrating.

But the established smell science community has from the start argued that there is little proof of this.

Of horses and unicorns

One way to test the idea was to prepare two molecules of identical shape but with different vibrations - done by replacing a molecule's hydrogen atoms with their heavier cousins called deuterium.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

There are many, many problems with the shape theory of smell - many things it doesn't explain that the vibrational theory does?

End Quote Prof Tim Jacob University of Cardiff

Leslie Vosshall of The Rockefeller University set out in 2004 to disprove Dr Turin's idea with a molecule called acetophenone and its "deuterated" twin.

The work in Nature Neuroscience suggested that human participants could not distinguish between the two, and thus that vibrations played no role in what we smell.

But in 2011, Dr Turin and colleagues published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that fruit flies can distinguish between the heavier and lighter versions of the same molecule.

A repeat of the test with humans in the new paper finds that, as in Prof Vosshall's work, the subjects could not tell the two apart. But the team then developed a brand new, far larger pair of molecules - cyclopentadecanone - with more hydrogen or deuterium bonds to amplify the purported effect.

In double-blind tests, in which neither the experimenter nor the participant knew which sample was which, subjects were able to distinguish between the two versions.

Still, Prof Vosshall believes the vibrational theory to be no more than fanciful.

"I like to think of the vibration theory of olfaction and its proponents as unicorns. The rest of us studying olfaction are horses," she told BBC News.

"The problem is that proving that a unicorn exists or does not exist is impossible. This debate on the vibration theory or the existence of unicorns will never end, but the very important underlying question of why things smell the way they do will continue to be answered by the horses among us."

Tim Jacob, a smell researcher at the University of Cardiff, said the work was "supportive but not conclusive".

"But the fact is that nobody has been able to unequivocally contradict [Dr Turin]," he told BBC News.

"There are many, many problems with the shape theory of smell - many things it doesn't explain that the vibrational theory does."

And although many more scientists are taking the vibrational theory seriously than back in 1996, it remains an extraordinarily polarised debate.

"He's had some peripheral support, but... people don't want to line up behind Luca," Prof Jacob said. "It's scientific suicide."

Columbia University's Richard Axel, whose work on mapping the genes and receptors of our sense of smell garnered the 2004 Nobel prize for physiology, said the kinds of experiments revealed this week would not resolve the debate - only a microscopic look at the receptors in the nose would finally show what is at work.

"Until somebody really sits down and seriously addresses the mechanism and not inferences from the mechanism... it doesn't seem a useful endeavour to use behavioural responses as an argument," he told BBC News.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing off this theory, but I need data and it hasn't been presented."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21150046#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Lucasfilm Kills 3D Star Wars Re-Releases After Realizing It's Horrible and Everyone Hates It

What's worse than the Star Wars prequels? The Star Wars prequels ramrodded in your face with an extra dimension. Lucasfilm was planning on subjecting idiots with loose wallets to re-released 3D Young Anakin, but Disney says no more bullshit. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zUC7iyFyRYE/lucasfilm-kills-3d-star-wars-prequels-after-realizing-its-horrible-and-everyone-hates-it

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Kuwait allocates KD95m to support construction loan beneficiaries ...

Posted by staff reporter
Monday, January 28 - 2013 at 05:56 UAE local time (GMT+4)

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Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/kuwait-allocates-kd95m-support-construction-loan-327255

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Obama Slams Fox News, Rush Limbaugh - Business Insider

In a sit-down interview with?The New Republic released today, President Barack Obama cast blame on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for shaping compromise as a "dirty word."

Obama talked about the recent deal to avert the fiscal cliff, saying he thought House Speaker "genuinely wanted" to come to a deal sooner but felt he was vulnerable to attack from the right.

Here's the relevant excerpt:

I think if you talk privately to Democrats and Republicans, particularly those who have been around for a while, they long for the days when they could socialize and introduce bipartisan legislation and feel productive. So I don't think the issue is whether or not there are people of goodwill in either party that want to get something done. I think what we really have to do is change some of the incentive structures so that people feel liberated to pursue some common ground.

One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates. If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you'll see more of them doing it.

I think John Boehner genuinely wanted to get a deal done, but it was hard to do in part because his caucus is more conservative probably than most Republican leaders are, and partly because he is vulnerable to attack for compromising Republican principles and working with Obama.

Obama said the same thing happens with the far left ? but that "left-leaning media outlets" are more willing to accept compromise. In turn, that's why Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are willing to compromise, Obama said.

Obama also criticized how the media in general shapes partisan gridlock in Washington as a two-party issue. He suggested that it's a handful of conservative Republicans preventing compromise:

[L]et me be clear. There's not a ? there's no equivalence there. In fact, that's one of the biggest problems we've got in how folks report about Washington right now, because I think journalists rightly value the appearance of impartiality and objectivity. And so the default position for reporting is to say, "A plague on both their houses." On almost every issue, it's, "Well, Democrats and Republicans can't agree"?as opposed to looking at why is it that they can't agree. Who exactly is preventing us from agreeing?

Read the whole interview at TNR >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-fox-news-rush-limbaugh-2013-1

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Unlocking Your Phone Is Now Illegal, But What Does That Mean For You?

All the salacious headlines are (mostly) true -- as of today, you can't unlock a carrier-subsidized smartphone on your own before the contract associated with it runs out without technically running afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Granted, I'd wager that the number of people who faithfully stick to their multi-year wireless contracts far exceeds the number of people who would unlock their phones and bail, but this is still a damned lousy turn of events for all you proponents of phone freedom out there (myself included). But how did this actually happen?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2-qGdpMzTn8/

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California Intends to Declare BPA a Reproductive Health Hazard

California today is announcing its intent to declare bisphenol A a reproductive hazard. Under a state law known as Proposition 65, items that contain a certain level of BPA would need warning signs for consumers. Pictured: California's Sacramento State Capitol Image: Flickr/Franco Folini

California today is announcing its intent to declare bisphenol A a reproductive hazard.

Under a state law known as Prop. 65, warning signs would be required for consumer items that contain a certain high level of BPA. BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, and also is found in liners of food and beverage cans and some thermal receipts.

Scientists say BPA is an estrogen-like substance that can alter reproductive hormones. California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said it based its decision to list BPA as a Prop. 65 chemical on a 2008 report by the National Toxicology Program.

?"Bisphenol A meets the criteria for listing as known to the State to cause reproductive toxicity (developmental endpoint) under Proposition 65, based on findings of NTP [the National Toxicology Program]," according to the state agency.

"OEHHA is relying on the NTP?s conclusion in the report that there is clear evidence of adverse developmental effects in laboratory animals at 'high' levels of exposure," according to the state's decision.

The decision was based on laboratory tests by scientists that have shown effects on the body weight and reproductive development of the pups of pregnant rats and mice exposed to high levels of BPA.

The state agency is proposing to set an acceptable level of exposure that is considered fairly high, 290 micrograms per day. As a result, Sarah Janssen of the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote on her blog that the decision ?is not likely to trigger any warning labels on canned food or beverages.? The same is probably true for receipts and most other consumer products.

"However," she added, "a listing alone is quite significant and makes official what parents have known for years ? BPA is harmful and should be avoided."

Plastics and chemical manufacturers say the compound, which has been used in polycarbonate plastic for 50 years, is safe at levels people are exposed to

The intent of the law, passed by voters in 1986, is to require manufacturers to warn consumers whenever a chemical is used that has been linked to cancer or reproductive effects. In some cases, companies decide to avoid using the compound rather than put up warning signs in stores or other public places.

BPA already has been banned from baby bottles, and removed from most hard-shell water bottles. It also has been replaced with another chemical in most thermal receipts, although that chemical, known as BPS, also has been linked to estrogen-like effects.

The state agency will accept public comments for one month before making a final decision listing BPA.

This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0b7cea1657e01f480b127129949a4586

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The Keys To Developing A Home-Based Business | Internet ...

Between Internet articles to paid programs and news programs, there is so much information about having a home business. Do not pay for every resource you find. Review this piece to determine what is fact and fiction when it comes to home businesses.

One great way to increase your business income is to join an affiliate program. An affiliate business can be profitable and cheap to start. Have a look around and investigate which ones would be most beneficial to your line of work.

Do not try to mix your home business with housework. Don?t mix client time on the telephone with ironing time or doing laundry while crunching numbers. All of these distractions can force mistakes, so keep the two activities separate.

Look for ways that your family (especially your kids) can get some involvement with your business. For instance, perhaps you have a relative who is skilled in web design. Or, if your spouse is a great in the kitchen, maybe he or she can cater a networking event for local businesses. Children can help to put fliers in envelopes, place stamps on them and maybe even file simple things alphabetically.

One of the best things to do when setting up a home based business is to get a PO Box for your business mail. Never give out your home address online. This is particularly important if you also have family living at your address.

Come up with a name for your business that has meaning. Even if you haven?t planned a business site, buy the domain name. Registering a domain name is inexpensive and prevents someone else from taking the name you want. While deciding on whether you want a full web site, post a one-page site that provides your business name and contact information.

Knowing exactly what your target audiences wants and needs is important. Look for product buying trends or new skills that others are talking about.

Find out what your business?s niche is. Work hard to clearly identify those persons and business who will gain from your services. When you follow through, you?ll see selling is a lot easier. Ask people that you know and trust their opinions on your site. Ask people for referrals. It is a good idea to go to industry trade shows and find good contacts.

A home business should have a website just like the big boys. You must have a web presence to get business today. Always ensure your domain name has relevancy to your business and the organization of your content is well organized.

Self-promoting is the key to gaining exposure and building your home business up. When you own a business, you need to be able to speak about how great your business is and what it can do for others. You need to be sure your customers or clients feel your products and business provide excellent value. Successful self-promotion is what leads to big profits in the business world.

Try to offer incentives, which can build your credibility to your customers. The reputation that your customers build among their friends and family can generate a lot of unexpected revenue and traffic, but you must reward them to keep the energy in motion. These also encourage current customers to stay loyal to you.

Understand your potential customer base before beginning a business. Even if you?re knowledgeable about the service or product you offer, knowing the market beforehand can help you make effective sales and marketing strategies that will bring in customers. When it comes to designing your business website, it will help to know how your targeted customers prefer to shop online. This allows you to design with them in mind.

Remember to account for your office space on your taxes. Those taxes can really hit new businesses, but many don?t realize that it?s possible to write off office space. You can also deduct a portion of your mortgage, utilities, or other bills when you file your taxes.

Avail yourself to as many educational opportunities as you can. You can stay within your tight budget by finding inexpensive training with a local class in basic business near by. The more you learn, the better.

This article will help you see that the ?experts? on infomercials don?t really know where it?s at. There is really no difference between a business at home, and one that is out; knowledge will always be the main key to success!

Be sure to visit our friends at SIVA Marketing.

Source: http://internetmarketingforcash.com/?p=2060

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Halliburton beats estimates on higher international business ...

Halliburton Co., the world?s second- largest oilfield-services provider, reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts? estimates as customers around the world boosted spending at the end of the year. Shares rose the most in more than a year.

Excluding discontinued operations, the Houston-based company earned 63 cents a share, 2 cents higher than the average of 33 analysts? estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales climbed 3.2 percent to $7.3 billion, which was more than the average of 24 analysts? estimates.

Halliburton, which generated 56 percent of its sales in North America last year, is increasing its international operations to take advantage of increased oil-company spending globally.

?Across the board they did better than expected,? Stephen Gengaro, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. in New York, who rates the shares a buy and owns none, said today in a telephone interview. ?We expected declines in North America. They just didn?t decline as much as expected.?

Halliburton rose 4.5 percent to $39.51 at 11:32 a.m. in New York, after climbing as much as 6.5 percent, the biggest intraday rise since Dec. 20, 2011.

Explorers and producers around the world are expected to boost spending another 5.5 percent this year to a record $645 billion, Jim Crandell, an analyst at Dahlman Rose & Co., wrote earlier this month in a note to investors.

Global Margins

Operating profit margin outside the U.S. and Canada should average in the ?upper teens? this year, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dave Lesar told analysts and investors today on a conference call. The margin was 17.6 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations.

In North America, where operating profit margin fell to 12.4 percent, the U.S. land margin is projected to have hit bottom in the fourth quarter, Lesar said.

Net income dropped to $669 million, or 72 cents a share, from $906 million, or 98 cents, a year earlier, Halliburton said in a statement today.

While North American operating income declined, the company?s region that includes the Middle East and Asia reported income that rose 43 percent to $243 million.

?Home Run?

?They really hit a home run there,? said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis, who rates the shares a hold and owns none.

The shares have 23 buy and 12 hold ratings from analysts.

Schlumberger Ltd., the world?s largest oilfield services provider, reported Jan. 18 fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts? estimates as drilling in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico increased.

Bloomberg News

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/25/halliburton-beats-estimates-on-higher-international-business/

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Russian police detain 20 at gay rally

MOSCOW (AP) ? Police say 20 gay rights campaigners and militant Orthodox Christian activists have been detained near Russia's parliament during a protest against planned anti-gay legislation.

Russia's Parliament is to consider a federal law that makes public events and dissemination of information on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community to minors punishable by fines of up to $16,000.

Many, including Russia's dominant Orthodox church, have hailed the law saying it will boost Russia's dwindling birth rates.

Three dozen LGBT rights campaigners gathered Friday near the State Duma in Moscow to protest the law, while militant Orthodox activists started assaulting and pelting them with eggs. Police intervened, but mostly detained the LGBT campaigners.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but homophobia remains high in the country.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-police-detain-20-gay-rally-135844232.html

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Nokia returns to profit but sales keep dropping

FILE - In this April 12, 2012, file photo, the window of Nokia's flagship store displays an advertisement of the new Nokia Lumia mobile phone in Helsinki on Thursday, April, 19, 2012 . Nokia Corp. reported a fourth-quarter net profit of ?202 million ($270 million) Thursday Jan. 23, 2013 compared to a net loss of more than $1 billion a year earlier but revenue in the period fell 20 percent to ?8 billion from a year earlier. (AP Photo/LEHTIKUVA / Markku Ulander, File) FINLAND OUT

FILE - In this April 12, 2012, file photo, the window of Nokia's flagship store displays an advertisement of the new Nokia Lumia mobile phone in Helsinki on Thursday, April, 19, 2012 . Nokia Corp. reported a fourth-quarter net profit of ?202 million ($270 million) Thursday Jan. 23, 2013 compared to a net loss of more than $1 billion a year earlier but revenue in the period fell 20 percent to ?8 billion from a year earlier. (AP Photo/LEHTIKUVA / Markku Ulander, File) FINLAND OUT

HELSINKI (AP) ? Struggling Nokia Corp. turned a fourth-quarter net profit of ?202 million ($270 million) compared with a loss of $1 billion a year earlier, but revenue fell 20 percent as it failed to make gains in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

The Finnish company said Thursday that revenue dropped to ?8 billion ($10.6 billion) from ?10 billion as smartphone sales plunged 55 percent, and it gave a grim outlook, saying it would not pay a dividend for 2012 to save money.

Although the company swung into profit after a spell of six consecutive quarterly losses, markets were not convinced. Its share price plunged, closing down more than 5 percent at ?3.30 on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Nokia said it sold 15.9 million smartphones in the period, down from 19.6 million a year earlier, including 4.4 million flagship Lumia phones. In comparison, rival Apple Inc. sold almost 48 million iPhones.

The former No. 1 cellphone maker said it expects operating margins in the first quarter to be "approximately negative 2 percent, plus or minus four percentage points," citing increased competition and lower-than-expected demand for its Lumia handsets and cheaper Asha models, which have been popular in emerging markets.

The news of the dividend and sales figures came almost two weeks after Nokia had pre-released some results and announced that its handset business had returned an underlying profit.

Neil Mawston, a technology expert from Strategy Analytics in Boston, said Nokia's global smartphone market share had fallen to a record low of about 3 percent.

"Nokia is on a recovery curve at the moment," Mawston said. "In terms of volumes, they really need to improve. They regained profit, the next step is to regain market share."

The company saw a backslide in the world's largest devices market, China, where it sold only 4.6 million handsets in the quarter ? a drop of some 70 percent from a year earlier with sales revenue there plunging almost 80 percent.

Nokia, formerly the world's top cellphone maker, had hoped to stem the decline in smartphones through a partnership with technology giant Microsoft Corp. in 2011 in a major shift of strategy, with Windows Phone software becoming the main platform for its smartphones.

But the firm's performance in North America ? the frontline of the smartphone market ? continued to be a disappointment. Shipments there grew 40 percent on the year, but to a mere 700,000 devices.

In all, Nokia sold 45 million cellphones in the fourth quarter, 15 percent fewer than in 2011.

CEO Stephen Elop said he was encouraged that the company had reached "underlying profitability" and strengthened its financial position but cautioned that more cutbacks could be expected.

"We remain focused on moving through our transition, which includes continuing to improve our product competitiveness, accelerate the way we operate and manage our costs effectively," Elop said.

Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila conceded that the company had not been able to meet demand for its top range Lumia phones at the end of the last year caused by a shortage of components, and it remained unclear if those problems would persist.

A positive note in Nokia's report was the performance of its network operations, Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint-venture with Germany's Siemens AG. It had been lossmaking for years, but now showed signs of improvement, mainly because of restructuring measures including substantial job cuts.

Elop said the division "drove record profitability" during the quarter, with operating profit surging to ?251 million from ?67 million the previous year as revenue grew 5 percent to ?4 billion.

Nokia, which has been struggling to cut costs by ?1.6 billion by the end of this year, announced 10,000 job cuts in June and closed down research and development facilities globally as well as its main manufacturing plant in Salo, Finland ? the company's last assembly plant in Europe.

At the end of 2012, Nokia employed a total of 98,000 people ? down from 130,000 a year earlier.

________

Associated Press writer Jari Tanner contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-24-Finland-Nokia-Earns/id-e52a7409e8064b1fb05c3e5a3aef2d34

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NASA testing vintage engine from Apollo 11 rocket

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) ? A vintage rocket engine built to blast the first U.S. lunar mission into Earth's orbit more than 40 years ago is again rumbling across the Southern landscape.

The engine, known to NASA engineers as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time. The flight went off without a hitch, but no thanks to the engine ? it was grounded because of a glitch during a test in Mississippi and later sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it sat for years.

Now, young engineers who weren't even born when Armstrong took his one small step are using the bell-shaped motor in tests to determine if technology from Apollo's reliable Saturn V design can be improved for the next generation of U.S. missions back to the moon and beyond by the 2020s.

They're learning to work with technical systems and propellants not used since before the start of the space shuttle program, which first launched in 1981.

Nick Case, 27, and other engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Thursday completed a series of 11 test-firings of the F-6049's gas generator, a jet-like rocket which produces 30,000 pounds of thrust and was used as a starter for the engine. They are trying to see whether a second-generation version of the Apollo engine could produce even more thrust and be operated with a throttle for deep-space exploration.

There are no plans to send the old engine into space, but it could become a template for a new generation of motors incorporating parts of its design.

In NASA-speak, the old 18-foot-tall motor is called an F-1 engine. During moon missions, five of them were arranged at the base of the 363-foot-tall Saturn V system and fired together to power the rocket off the ground toward Earth orbit.

Thursday's test used one part of the engine, the gas generator, which powers the machinery to pump propellant into the main rocket chamber. It doesn't produce the massive orange flame or clouds of smoke like that of a whole F-1, but the sound was deafening as engineers fired the mechanism in an outdoor test stand on a cool, sunny afternoon.

The device produced a plume that resembled a blow torch the size of two buses and set fire to a grassy area, which was quickly extinguished.

"It's not small," Case said. "It's pretty beefy on its own."

And just like during the Apollo days, people in north Alabama heard rockets thundering in the distance during tests at Marshall.

"My wife and daughter were in our front yard and she said they could hear it, which was pretty cool," Case said after an earlier test. "We live about 15 miles away."

A single F-1 engine can produce 1.5 million pounds of thrust using a fuel composed of liquid oxygen and refined kerosene, which was not used in the space shuttle.

The tests were conducted at Marshall in a project conducted with Dynetics Inc. and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which are studying NASA's possibilities for deep-space missions years from now. The space agency plans to use commercial launches to reach low Earth orbit; larger rockets are required to escape the planet's gravity.

R.H. Coates, an engineer who works with Case in Marshall's liquid propulsion office, said young engineers can learn a lot from the work done by predecessors using slide-rules in the 1960s, but no one wants to simply rebuild the old Saturn V engine.

"This wouldn't be your daddy's F-1," Coates said. "We'd use new materials and try to simplify it, update it."

Case started at Marshall as a high school intern in 2002 and has been working there since graduating from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2008. He said today's technology allows things that weren't possible during the 1960s, but he has been impressed by what he learned taking apart the unused Apollo 11 engine.

Engine No. F-6049 didn't fit properly on the Apollo 11 rocket, but it is invaluable now as a testing tool. Coates said a total of 85 F-1 engines were used on 17 Apollo flights without a single failure.

About a dozen F-1 engines remain in Huntsville, home of NASA's main propulsion center, and others are located elsewhere. Most are on display; Case said engineers used engine No. F-6049 for the tests because it was the most complete.

"It is really an excellent booster," he said. "The guys in Apollo had it right."

___

Online:

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html

___

Follow Reeves at: http://twitter.com/Jay_Reeves

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-testing-vintage-engine-apollo-11-rocket-222445500.html

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Kerry tackles questions on Iran, Syria, Hagel

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sits before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four as he seeks confirmation as U.S. secretary of state, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerry, who is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval, is President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who is stepping down after four years as America's top diplomat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sits before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four as he seeks confirmation as U.S. secretary of state, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerry, who is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval, is President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who is stepping down after four years as America's top diplomat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sits before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four as he seeks confirmation as U.S. secretary of state, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerry, who is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval, is President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who is stepping down after four years as America's top diplomat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., right, is greeted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, prior to testifying before his confirmation hearing before the committee to replace Clinton. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. is at left. Kerry is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., second from right, and his wife Teresa Heinz, right, watch as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, flanked by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left , and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, reacts during the start of his Kerry's confirmation hearing to replace Clinton, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, before the committee's confirmation hearing to become the next top diplomat, replacing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sen. John Kerry, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of state, collected pledges of support Thursday and testified at his confirmation hearing that U.S. foreign policy should be defined by a helping hand as well as military strength.

The Massachusetts Democrat discussed Iran, Syria, climate change and a variety of issues with members of the Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing that recalled an unusual American life ? son of a diplomat, Navy lieutenant who volunteered for Vietnam, anti-war protester, five-term senator, unsuccessful nominee for president, and Obama's unofficial envoy.

The nearly four-hour hearing also provided an odd juxtaposition as Kerry, a member of the panel for 28 years and its chairman for the last four, sat alone in the witness chair. At one point, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the incoming chairman who presided, mistakenly referred to Kerry as "Mr. Secretary."

The current secretary, Hillary Rodham Clinton, introduced Kerry, calling him "the right choice." She is stepping down after four years.

The committee is expected to approve Kerry's nomination early next week, and a full Senate vote could occur before the month is out.

"American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone," Kerry said in outlining his views. "We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role we have had to play since Sept. 11, a role that was thrust upon us."

Kerry spoke out strongly for dealing with climate change, providing food and energy security and humanitarian assistance. He also spoke of robust foreign aid, but he insisted that the country must get its fiscal house in order to lead in the world.

"More than ever, foreign policy is economic policy," said Kerry, who described himself as a "recovering member of the supercommittee." That bipartisan panel failed in 2011 in its mandate to come up with a deficit-cutting plan.

Faced with Iran's nuclear program, Kerry said the United State will do what it must to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but he also signaled that diplomacy remains a viable option.

"I repeat here today: Our policy is not containment. It is prevention, and the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance," Kerry said.

The senator said he was hopeful that the U.S. and other nations could make progress on the diplomatic front, but that Tehran needs to relent and agree to intrusive inspections.

"If their program is peaceful, they can prove it," he said.

In an unexpected exchange, Kerry found himself defending Obama's pick of Republican Chuck Hagel to be the next defense secretary against GOP criticism.

Sen. Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the panel, expressed concerns about Hagel's support for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons, a major issue for the Tennessee lawmaker and his home state. The Y-12 nuclear facility is located near Oak Ridge, Tenn., and any cuts or delays in modernization to the nuclear arsenal would have an impact on local jobs.

"I know Chuck Hagel. And I think he is a strong, patriotic former senator, and he will be a strong secretary of defense," Kerry said.

The Massachusetts senator urged lawmakers to be realistic, arguing that an 80 percent cut is an aspiration that would be unlikely in the current climate.

On Syria, Kerry was asked about his outreach to President Bashar Assad, now an international pariah after months of civil war and unending violence against his citizens.

Kerry said there was a moment where Syria reached out to the West but that the moment has long passed.

"History caught up to us. That never happened. And it's now moot, because he has made a set of judgments that are inexcusable, that are reprehensible, and I think is not long for remaining as the head of state in Syria," the senator said. "I think the time is ticking."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a fierce critic of Obama's policy on Syria, said the status quo is unacceptable with the United Nations estimating that 60,000 have been killed and the heavy influx of refugees in Jordan and Turkey.

After a recent visit to the refugee camps, McCain warned that Syrians frustrated with the U.S. response will be a recruitment target for extremists.

"We can do a lot more without putting American boots on the ground," McCain said. "Otherwise, we will be judged harshly by history."

Kerry said it was imperative to continue discussions with Russia and others in dealing with Syria but that "I don't have optimism."

Menendez noted that Kerry, if confirmed, would be the first senator on the panel in a century to ascend to the Cabinet post. President William McKinley appointed Ohio Sen. John Sherman secretary of state.

The job of the nation's top diplomat would be the realization of a dream for the 69-year-old Kerry, whom Obama passed over in 2008 when he chose Clinton. When Joe Biden became vice president, Kerry replaced the former Delaware senator as chairman of the committee.

Obama nominated Kerry after Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, removed her name from consideration following criticism from Republicans over her initial comments about the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Corker told Kerry, "You've almost lived your entire life for this moment."

The Vietnam War, a long, bitter conflict that took its toll on a generation of draft-age American men, played a prominent role at the hearing.

In his testimony, Kerry alluded to his controversial moment before the committee some 42 years ago, when the decorated Vietnam veteran testified about his opposition to the war and famously asked, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

"Today I can't help but recognize that the world itself then was in many ways simpler, divided as it was along bi-polar, Cold War antagonisms," Kerry said. "Today's world is more complicated than anything we have experienced."

McCain, who also introduced Kerry, said their friendship took root with their work on a committee seeking to resolve the status of POWs and missing in action from Vietnam as well as efforts to ensure normal U.S. relations with Vietnam during President Bill Clinton's administration.

"Helping to establish a relationship with Vietnam that serves American interests and values, rather than one that remained mired in mutual resentment and bitterness, is one of my proudest accomplishments as a senator, and I expect it is one of John's as well," McCain said.

The hearing is the first of three for Obama's national security nominees, and the least controversial. Hagel will face tough questions about his past statements on Israel, Iran, nuclear weapons and defense spending at his confirmation hearing next Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. John Brennan, the president's choice for CIA director, will be quizzed about White House national security leaks and the use of unmanned drones at his hearing next month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-24-Kerry%20Nomination/id-1c84daace3e343bfbde486cc0ec6cdf1

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Survey: Global movie spending up 2.1 pct in 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Global spending on movies rose 2.1 percent last year to $62.4 billion, helped by increased theater attendance in China and growth in emerging markets as spending on discs continued to fall.

That's according to research firm IHS, which released the results Monday.

Spending on movie theater tickets grew 7 percent to $33.4 billion, while rental or purchase of discs fell 3 percent to $23.7 billion. IHS says spending on digital delivery of home movies showed "strong growth," rising to $4.9 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-22-Global-Movie%20Spending/id-06063c40f7fb40df9127c65091c48b0d

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IBHS to Present Science of Building High Performance Homes at ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? January 22, 2012 ? (RealEstateRama) ? The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is partnering with the National Institute for Building Science (NIBS) to teach a unique class about the science of building high performance homes at the 2013 International Builders Show in Las Vegas.

The IBHS presentation will focus on a number of advancements in building science research, including how full scale testing is revealing hidden vulnerabilities of roof systems and multi-layer wall systems. Vulnerabilities of multi-layer wall systems were highlighted during testing at the IBHS Research Center and?published in a recent report?co-authored by IBHS, the NAHB Research Center, the Foam Sheathing Committee and the Vinyl Siding Institute.

?We will focus on how building science is making it possible to build homes that can perform better in today?s ever-changing environment,? said IBHS? Fred Malik, a former home builder who now heads the Institute?s FORTIFIED Program.

?We want people to understand that how they choose to make a home sustainable may negatively impact its resilience and durability.?Sustainable homes are terrific, but they won?t be very green if they end up as debris in a landfill following a natural disaster,? explained Malik.

?Building science and the research IBHS is doing are making it possible for builders and homeowners to make informed decisions to improve the performance of their homes on a daily basis as well as under extreme weather conditions.?

The class will be held Wednesday, January 23, from 10:30 a.m. ? noon in South 220 and attendees are eligible for 1.5 CE credit from the American Institute of Architects.

IBHS is a leading national expert on preparing for, and repairing and rebuilding structures after, a catastrophe to make them more disaster-resistant. To arrange an interview with IBHS, contact Joseph King at 813-675-1045/813-442-2845, "> or via direct message on Twitter @jsalking.

Follow IBHS on Twitter at @DisasterSafety and on Facebook.

# # #

About the IBHS

IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific research and communications organization supported by the property insurance industry. The organization works to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other risks on residential and commercial property by conducting building science research and advocating improvedconstruction, maintenance and preparedness practices.

Contact:

Joseph King (813) 675-1045 | Email: "> | Twitter: disastersafety

Tagged as: Builders' Show, IBHS, show

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Source: http://www.realestaterama.com/2013/01/22/ibhs-to-present-science-of-building-high-performance-homes-at-international-builders-show-ID018245.html

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