Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/181104448?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Cloth iPhone app creates a photo catalog of your sartorial selections (Appolicious)
Gone are the days of longing for your own digital closet. Cloth is the latest clothing-cataloging app for iPhone and iPod Touch, offering a simple, user-friendly interface for the current on-sale price of 99 cents.
Although I wouldn?t normally spend money on an app of this sort, what I do like about Cloth is that it requires no account or registration to use its service. The app?s premise is basic: Take a photo of your outfit of the day, write yourself a note, and tag the outfit with whatever words you like. You can select a category for the outfit, such as everyday, vacation or work, or tap the ?Love It? button to add the OOTD to your favorites list. Cloth will store your image and notes, as well as filter the outfit into its respective categories for later looks. Cloth also offers built-in sharing to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, as long as you?ve provided your credentials in the in-app settings panel.
There?s a game aspect to Cloth, which provides points and badges for continued use of the app and for sharing outfits across social media. Although I?m sure reward-hungry users will get some satisfaction from becoming a Cloth King or Twitter Tycoon, I see little point in this feature.
I?m also surprised that the Clothapp blog isn?t better built in to the Cloth app itself. When users upload a photo to Cloth, they can opt to send the image to the Cloth blog, which displays all of the user-provided images. You can only access this from the ?Visit Clothapp.com? button in the app?s settings panel, which opens a non-iPhone optimized version of the site. Yes, the point of this app is personal cataloging, but much of the fun of taking the time to photograph your OOTD is in seeing what others are wearing, too.
Cloth makes the claim it?ll ?Unlock your closet.? I?m not entirely convinced fashionistas will flock to the service, but Cloth?s ease of use and smart interface means users will get what they pay for, at the minimum.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
slashgear: Google+ passes 62 million users, adding 625,000 new users daily http://t.co/O94I0MS4 #tech #slashgear
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Will school union contract talks bear fruit?
Three employee unions have agreed to keep talking about contract concessions that could help the Janesville School District balance its 2012-13 budget. Those talks are scheduled to continue in a closed session Thursday.
The teachers union, the Janesville Education Association, is the largest of three unions.
Previously, the school board asked the unions to make pension payments that many state and local government employees started making this year. If all district employees made those payments this school year, the district could have saved about $3.7 million. Those payments would be an estimated 5.8 percent of each worker?s pay this year and 5.9 percent starting next month.
Dave Parr, president of the JEA, has said that in order to get concessions, the school board would have to give up something in return.
Does that bode well for fruitful talks? What could the board give that the unions might accept and would still benefit the district overall?
We?ll share our perspective in our editorial Wednesday.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Avastin disappoints against ovarian cancer (AP)
Avastin, the blockbuster drug that just lost approval for treating breast cancer, now looks disappointing against ovarian cancer, too. Two studies found it did not improve survival for most of these patients and kept their disease from worsening for only a few months, with more side effects.
The Genentech drug won approval in Europe last week for advanced ovarian cancer. But its maker has no immediate plans to seek the same approval in the United States. After talking with the Food and Drug Administration, "we do not believe the data will support approval" although no final decision has been made, said Charlotte Arnold, a spokeswoman for Genentech, part of the Swiss company Roche.
Results of the studies are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
In November, the FDA revoked Avastin's approval for breast cancer because it did not meaningfully extend life and can have serious side effects. Without approval, doctors can prescribe the drug but insurers may not pay. Treatment with it can cost $100,000 a year.
Avastin can still be sold for some colon, lung, kidney and brain cancers. The new research was aimed at adding ovarian cancer to the list.
One study, led by Dr. Robert Burger of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, involved nearly 1,900 women with advanced ovarian cancer given one of three treatment combinations. The time until the disease got worse was a median of 10 months in those given just chemotherapy; adding Avastin improved that by just one to four months for the other two groups.
Survival was similar among the groups, and side effects were higher among those on Avastin ? mostly high blood pressure but also some stomach and gut problems that needed treatment.
In the other study, led by researchers from England, more than 1,500 ovarian cancer patients were given chemo with or without Avastin. The drug kept cancer at bay just one to two months longer than chemo alone did, with more cases of high blood pressure. There was a trend toward improved survival for those on Avastin, but the difference was too small to say the drug was responsible.
Genentech helped pay for the studies and some of the researchers consult for the company.
Dr. Gary Lyman, a Duke University researcher who was on the FDA advisory panel that recommended revoking Avastin's approval for breast cancer, wrote in an email that he agreed with the company's decision not to seek approval for ovarian cancer.
"The situation is very similar" to the results in breast cancer, and approval is unlikely unless a biological marker or test can show which patients might benefit, he wrote.
About 220,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year around the world, and it causes 140,000 deaths. In the United States, the National Cancer Institute estimates 22,000 new cases and 15,000 deaths each year.
___
Online:
Studies: http://www.nejm.org
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Crazy ?Spam? Email About Print Cancellation *Is* Actually From The New York Times
If you're a New York Times subscriber -- or even if you're not -- you may have received that following email this morning, implying that you have cancelled your subscription. Many many people did, it's all over the tweets.? Even though the email was sent from an address that had sent out legitimate emails in the past, "email.newyorktimes.com," it wasn't actually from the New York Times, as some of their more tech hipster reporters and their official Twitter account confirmed, "If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It's not from us.?Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vfOCgeNWV9Q/
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Rapper Nelly Being Sued By American Express For $20,000
Rapper Nelly Being Sued By American Express For $20,000
Rapper Nelly is facing legal woes after failing to pay a large credit card bill. American Express claim the rapper hasn’t pay a bill of [...]
Rapper Nelly Being Sued By American Express For $20,000 Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/12/26/rapper-nelly-being-sued-by-american-express-for-20000/
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Women Beat Men to Jobs as Japans Mancession Spurs Deflation
December 27, 2011, 4:41 AM EST
By Aki Ito and Toru Fujioka
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Three times a week, Seiya Ogawa bikes to an unemployment center in Kadoma, home to Panasonic Corp., looking for work to help pay for his son?s final year at college.
?At this point, I?m willing to take any job,? said the 49-year-old, who assembled electronic circuit boards in what was once a bustling manufacturing suburb of Osaka, Japan?s third- largest city. This month, it?s officially one year since he first signed on at the center, and ?it?s like my humanity?s been stripped from me,? he said.
Ogawa and his son rely on the incomes of his wife and daughter, a social role reversal that is spreading in Japan as factories and building companies fire workers and services that hire mostly women add employees. The new jobs pay lower average wages, making it harder for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to spur consumer spending and pull the world?s third-largest economy out of a decade of deflation. The increasing burden as breadwinners also gives women less incentive to marry and have children early in a country that already has the fastest-aging population in the developed world.
?With Japanese companies increasingly moving abroad and a shrinking population making growth in construction work unlikely, these sectors just can?t absorb male workers the way they used to,? said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. ?Nominal wages are falling and falling as a result. This mancession is far from over.?
National Pride
Japan?s economy is shifting from monozukuri, or making things -- which the nation prides itself on -- to services, especially those catering to the 29 million seniors over age 64. Manufacturing and building industries, where seven out of 10 staff are male, will lose 4 million positions this decade, according to Tokyo-based Works Institute, funded by employment- services provider Recruit Co. Health care, 74 percent female, added people at the fastest pace across all industries in the past three years, growing 16 percent, Labor Ministry data show.
The shift is accelerating, thanks to a near record-high currency that?s wiping out profits at exporters including Panasonic and Sony Corp., giving the government no time to ease the transition. Panasonic forecast its biggest annual loss in a decade this fiscal year, while Sony estimated it will lose 90 billion yen ($1.2 billion).
Panasonic and Sony shares have slumped 45 percent and 53 percent this year, helping pull the benchmark Topix index 20 percent lower. At the same time, Message Co., the nation?s second-biggest operator of nursing homes by number of rooms, has risen 1.6 percent, and Nichii Gakkan Co., operator of the largest number of homes, is up 25 percent.
?Future of Japan?
Services such as nursing and health care are ?the future of Japan,? said Curtis Freeze, founder of Honolulu-based Prospect Asset Management Inc., who is considering adding Message to the $300 million that Prospect manages because its employment policies may reduce staff-turnover costs. Manufacturers ?are in the middle of restructuring, and they?re going to struggle. It?s the smaller services companies that will do most of the hiring.?
Health care, with 19 percent of working women, isn?t the only field to add jobs in the past three years: Education -- another profession where women outnumber men -- as well as research, restaurants and real estate also have grown, even as Japan lost a net 12.1 million positions.
Forty-two percent of people employed in 2010 were women, the highest share since the Labor Ministry made comparable data available in 1973, when the figure was 38.5 percent.
?Really Tough?
?It?s really tough right now,? said Reiko Sato, 31, at the government employment office near her home in Tokyo. ?It?s the end of the year, so there are lots of short-term positions at department stores or restaurants that everyone?s competing to get. It?s easier for the girls, because that?s who the stores want. I just feel bad for the men who have to come here. They probably won?t have something in time for the New Year.?
Manufacturing, where men outnumber women by more than 2-to- 1, is still Japan?s largest employer, accounting for about 16 percent of its 62.5 million workers. In construction, the ratio of men to women is 6-to-1. Since October 2008, the former shrank payrolls by 9 percent and the latter by 11 percent. Meanwhile, the health-care workforce will grow 32 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to Works Institute.
Pay Gap
As a result, one of the developed world?s biggest gender- pay gaps -- second only to South Korea and roughly double the average in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- is narrowing. Women between 30 and 34 earned an average 2.99 million yen last year, 69 percent of the 4.32 million yen for men, according to National Tax Agency data. That?s up from 55 percent in 1978.
The increase may help shift consumer spending toward services women prefer, such as traveling and dining out, and away from durable goods including cars and electronics, said Kyohei Morita, chief Japan economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. HIS Co., Japan?s largest listed travel agency, has risen 4.3 percent this year, to 2,141 yen.
?It?s because I work that I can go on these trips and buy my favorite makeup,? said Ayumi Ohtaki, a 27-year-old call- center operator in Tokyo who earns 240,000 yen a month. While she?s in no hurry to marry, she said she would want to keep her job after her wedding to ensure she could continue to buy the things she wants.
?If the money?s just from my husband, I wouldn?t be able to do anything fun,? she said.
Birth Rate
With women like Ohtaki marrying later and delaying starting a family, and more men struggling to find work, Japan?s falling birth rate is likely to get worse, said Mary Brinton, a sociology professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who studied the lives of young Japanese men shut out of well-paid, full-time work in the 1990s.
The number of babies born in 2010 was 1.07 million, down from 1.19 million in 2000, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
?This so-called mancession is going to cause continuing problems for the marriage rate and birth rate,? she said. ?Many young Japanese men say they want to have a stable job before they consider marrying.?
Even so, the shift toward more female employees isn?t likely to boost overall consumer spending because the factory jobs being lost paid more than the newly created service positions. Social services and nursing paid an average 229,732 yen a month last year, 63 percent of the 362,340 yen for factory workers and 62 percent of the 373,288 yen earned in construction, according to the labor ministry.
?The reality is that women get paid less,? Morita said.
Global Trend
The trend of women replacing men in Japan?s workforce mirrors a similar shift in other developed nations as companies cut back payrolls. Last year, the average male unemployment rate among the OECD countries was 8.5 percent, compared with 8.1 percent for women, according to the organization?s website. In 2000, the situation was reversed, with 5.8 percent of men jobless and 6.8 percent of female workers.
Japan?s unemployment rate in 2010 was 5.4 percent for men and 4.6 percent for women, a record gap. Joblessness may rise to 7.1 percent for men and 5.9 percent for women by 2020, Works Institute estimates.
That?s a bleak outlook for Ogawa, who lives alongside Kadoma?s rusting, shuttered factories, which once drew laborers from across Japan as they boomed with the Panasonic headquarters they surround. He says the stagnation has changed the attitude of young people in their 20s like his son and daughter, who hoard the money they earn rather than spending it.
?It?s hard to tell them to aim high when I?m struggling to find a job,? Ogawa said. ?I don?t dare talk about my good times when I was their age; they just wouldn?t understand.?
--With assistance from Kanoko Matsuyama and Eleanor Warnock in Tokyo. Editor: Adam Majendie, Melinda Grenier.
To contact the reporters on this story: Aki Ito in Tokyo at aito16@bloomberg.net; Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5665728805
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Obama rakes in campaign cash (Daily Caller)
The re-election campaign of President Obama and the Democratic National Committee are on track to net $60 million for the fourth quarter of the year, Reuters reports.
Obama had already raised roughly $155 million through September in an effort to raise more than $750 million for next November?s election.
?Enthusiasm for the White House?s policies has been steadily increasing and it will keep increasing,? major Democratic fundraiser Steven Cohen told the news service.
According to Cohen, the GOP?s bungled handling of the payroll tax fight is inspiring contributors to give more to Obama?s re-election campaign.
?Among the people who I have talked to, they are seeing a real demonstration of the president?s commitment to stand his ground,? he said.
The campaign had hoped to bring in $55 million last quarter. Instead they raised $70 million, even though last summer?s debt ceiling fight had forced President Obama to stay in Washington and cancel fundraisers in other parts of the country.
The 2012 election is already on its way to becoming the most expensive in history, with Obama expected to raise more than the record $750 million he had in the bank in 2008. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, among the front-runners for the GOP nomination, is expected to raise at least $20 million this quarter.
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Maher reaction to Broncos' loss: 'Jesus just f--ked #TimTebow bad!'
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Kim Jong Il body displayed behind glass, flowers
ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK912 OF DEC. 20, 2011 - In this image made from KRT television, the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is laid in a memorial palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT) TV OUT NORTH KOREA OUT
ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK912 OF DEC. 20, 2011 - In this image made from KRT television, the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is laid in a memorial palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT) TV OUT NORTH KOREA OUT
In this image made from KRT television, Kim Jong Un, center, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's youngest known son and successor, visits the body of senior Kim with top military and Workers' Party officials in a memorial palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT) TV OUT NORTH KOREA OUT
In this image made from KRT television, the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is laid in a memorial palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/KRT) TV OUT NORTH KOREA OUT
People watch a TV screen showing the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. North Korean state television announced Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died on Saturday. The letters on the screen read" Korean Central TV opens Kim Jong-Il's body". AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Condolence wreaths offered by mourners are on display in front of a picture of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at the North Korean custom office in Dandong, China, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il died Saturday of a massive heart attack brought about by overwork and stress, according to the North's media. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea displayed the body of ruler Kim Jong Il in a glass coffin surrounded by red flowers Tuesday, and his young heir was one of the first to pay respects ? a strong indication that a smooth leadership transition was under way.
As the country mourned for a second day with high-level visits to Kim's body at a memorial palace and public gatherings of weeping citizens, state media fed a budding personality cult around his youngest known son and anointed heir, Kim Jong Un, hailing him as a "lighthouse of hope."
Kim's body was wrapped in red cloth and surrounded by blossoms of his namesake flowers, red "kimjongilia." As solemn music played, Kim Jong Un ? believed to be in his late 20s ? entered the hall to view his father's bier, surrounded by military honor guards. He observed a moment of solemn silence, then circled the bier, followed by other officials.
Outside one of the capital's main performance centers, mourners carried wreaths and flowers toward a portrait of Kim Jong Il. Groups were allowed to grieve in front of the portrait for a few minutes at a time.
"We will change today's sorrow into strength and courage and work harder for a powerful and prosperous nation, as our general wanted, under the leadership of the new General Kim Jong Un," U Son Hui, a Pyongyang resident, told The Associated Press.
The announcement Monday of Kim's death over the weekend raised acute concerns in the region over the possibility of a power struggle between the untested son and rivals, in a country pursuing nuclear weapons and known for its unpredictability and secrecy.
But there have been no signs of unrest or discord in Pyongyang's somber streets.
With the country in an 11-day period of official mourning, flags were flown at half-staff at all military units, factories, businesses, farms and public buildings. The streets of Pyongyang were quiet, but throngs of people gathered at landmarks honoring Kim.
Kim's bier was decorated by a wreath from Kim Jong Un along with various medals and orders. The body was laid out in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, a mausoleum where the embalmed body of Kim's father ? national founder Kim Il Sung ? has been on display in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.
Kim Jong Il died of a massive heart attack on Saturday caused by overwork and stress, according to the North's media. He was 69 ? though some experts question the official accounts of his birth date and location.
The state funeral for Kim is set for Dec. 28 in Pyongyang, to be followed by a national memorial service the next day, according to the North's state media. North Korean officials say they will not invite foreign delegations and will allow no entertainment during the mourning period.
Since Kim's death the media have stepped up their lavish praise of the son, indicating an effort to strengthen a cult of personality around him similar to that of his father and ? much more strongly ? of Kim Il Sung.
The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday described Kim Jong Un as "a great person born of heaven," a propaganda term previously used only for his father and grandfather. The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, added in an editorial that Kim Jong Un is "the spiritual pillar and the lighthouse of hope" for the military and the people.
It described the twenty-something Kim as "born of Mount Paektu," one of Korea's most cherished sites and Kim Jong Il's official birthplace. On Monday, the North said in a dispatch that the people and the military "have pledged to uphold the leadership of comrade Kim Jong Un" and called him a "great successor" of the country's revolutionary philosophy of juche, or self reliance.
Young Koreans, the North reported, "are burning with the faith and will to remain loyal to Kim Jong Un."
But concerns remain over whether the transition will be a smooth one.
South Korea put its military on high alert, and experts warned that the next few days could be a crucial turning point for the North, which though impoverished by economic mismanagement and repeated famine, has a relatively well-supported, 1.2 million-strong armed forces.
South Korea offered condolences to the North Korean people, but the government said no official delegation will be traveling from Seoul to Pyongyang to pay their respects.
Kim's death could set back efforts by the United States and others to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. Concerns are also high that Kim Jong Un ? being young and largely untested ? may feel he needs to prove himself by precipitating a crisis or displaying his swagger on the international stage.
Kim Jong Il was in power for 17 years after the death of his father, and was groomed for power years before that. Kim Jong Un only emerged as the likely heir over the past year.
North Korea conducted at least one short-range missile test Monday, South Korean officials said. But they saw it as a routine drill.
"The sudden death of Kim Jong Il has plunged the isolated state of North Korea into a period of major uncertainty. There are real concerns that heir-apparent Kim Jong Un has not had sufficient time to form the necessary alliances in the country to consolidate his future as leader of the country," said Sarah McDowall, a senior analyst with U.S.-based consultants IHS.
Some analysts, however, said Kim's death was unlikely to plunge the country into chaos because it already was preparing for a transition. Kim Jong Il indicated a year ago that Kim Jong Un would be his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.
___
Reported from Pyongyang by Associated Press Television News senior video journalist Rafael Wober. AP writers Jean H. Lee, Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim, Sam Kim and Eric Talmadge contributed to this story.
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Android 4.0.2 update now rolling out to GSM Galaxy Nexus
The GSM (international) version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has just received its update to Android 4.0.2, hot on the heels of the Verizon version, which got the update on its launch day. Several GSM Nexus owners are now reporting that they've received the new version of Android, which carries the build number ICL53F.
The update weighs just 8.7MB, and according to the update message contains "important bug fixes", most likely the same fixes detailed in Verizon's latest update statement (excluding the LTE-specific stuff, of course).
To see if your phone is ready to receive the update, head to Settings > About phone > System updates. If it's still telling you you're already up-to-date, you may have to wait a few days before it's your turn to be updated. Don't want to wait? If you're comfortable with unlocking bootloaders and fiddling around with command-line stuff, once the files URL is located you'll be able to download them from Google and use Jerry's clever manual update method.
Now we get ready for Android 4.0.3. Isn't having a Nexus phone grand?
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/NtvaItI6PUE/story01.htm
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Stock market decline takes shine off 2011 IPOs
NEW YORK (AP) ? This was supposed to be the year of the IPO comeback.
Six months into 2011, the market for initial public offerings was stronger than before the recession. The number of companies looking to raise money through new stock offerings was on pace for a decade high. Shares of companies that had gone public earlier in the year, on average, had posted gains.
But after that strong start, the market for new stock offerings fizzled in 2011 as the prospect of a global slowdown and a prolonged European debt crisis battered financial markets. High-profile Internet companies like Groupon, LinkedIn and Zynga ? which went public Friday ? attracted attention. But overall, companies didn't raise as much as they hoped for through IPOs. Main Street investors, who generally don't have access to IPO shares until after they start trading, were likely the biggest losers.
Groupon, the Internet coupon company that debuted in November, rose 31 percent on its first trading day, but has dropped 12 percent since. LinkedIn more than doubled in its debut. While it's still up about 50 percent from its offering price, the stock has lost 30 percent from its first trading day. In June, Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. rose 9 percent. On Friday it closed at $10.55, a 34 percent slide from its IPO price. Stock in technology companies that went public in the past 12 months have fallen 15 percent, according to Renaissance Capital. Some of that stems from broader market declines. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down about 8 percent from the end of June.
Many companies hedged their bets. Sixty-six companies withdrew plans to raise money through new stock offerings in 2011, a 27 percent rise from the previous year, and the biggest number since the depths of the recession in 2008, according to IPO Investment firm Renaissance Capital. Stocks of many of the companies that took the plunge haven't fared well. About two-thirds of companies that went public this year are trading below their offering price, according to advisory firm IPO Boutique. As a group, IPOs that went public this year lost 13 percent of their value ? the first negative return since 2008.
Some of those themes were apparent this week, the last before the IPO market shuts down for the year in the U.S. Twelve companies had lined up IPOs. If all of them had begun trading, it would have marked the busiest week for IPOs since November 2007. That didn't happen. Three of the companies, information technology services provider FusionStorm Global Inc., industrial materials maker GSE Holding Inc. and chemicals and metals maker Luxfer Holdings PLC, postponed their offerings.
There were some successes. Jive Software Inc., a company that is trying to become a corporate networking version of Facebook, and luxury clothing and accessories company Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. priced higher and sold more shares than expected. Both soared on their first trading day.
And then there were the mixed successes. Zynga Inc., which specializes in making games for social networking website Facebook, raised $1 billion, in the biggest Internet IPO since Google's 2004 launch. The offering price of $10 per share values the company at about $7 billion ? at least $13 billion less than some market watchers predicted back in July when the company filed to go public. The shares fell 50 cents, or 5 percent, to close Friday at $9.50.
Six other companies that debuted this week raised less money than they expected. Stock in two of those companies, oil and gas companies Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. and Sanchez Energy Corp., are already 20 percent and 16 percent below their IPO prices, respectively.
Market watchers expect more big technology deals next year including Facebook, reviews site Yelp and online retailer Gilt Groupe. Of the three, only Yelp has filed to go public. But the global economic uncertainty may force the 200 companies hoping to go public in 2012 to temper their expectations. LinkedIn and Groupon, for example, sold less than 10 percent of their outstanding stock in their IPOs, which is considered a small percentage of overall shares to sale in an offering. The small supply helps create demand.
"If they want to get the company public, they'll do a smaller deal," said Frank Maturo, head of cash equity capital markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The IPO declines and weak stock markets may create an opportunity for investors to buy shares more cheaply as companies and bankers rethink prices for shares.
"People haven't made money in the IPO market, people are skeptical. But deals can get done if they get priced right," said Francis Gaskins, an analyst at IPOdesktop.
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Book Talk: Tales of moments when all changes (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Two songwriters reunite at the request of a former associate, with unusual results. A single woman agrees to be named guardian for her widowed sister's children. Dissatisfied with her job, a teacher seeks out the teacher she idolized as a schoolgirl.
Though the characters change, most of the stories in Alethea Black's debut short story collection, "I Knew You'd Be Lovely" feature people at moments when they stand at crossroads, facing a change in their lives.
Black, who began writing in earnest in 1995, said she likes the short story form, both for its brevity and the fact that it's a "good way to learn writing." The collection grew bit by bit over years, as she wrote first one story and then another.
Q: What's the unifying theme?
A: "There's a unity of voice among them, and that helped it sell and is helping it as a collection, because even though the characters change there's a sensibility that's consistent. I think of it as people finding ways to love each other and themselves in spite of their brokenness. An editor that I worked with said that she thought it was about those moments in life when everything changes. So I think that both of those apply."
Q: Moments in life when everything changes -- could you elaborate a bit on that idea?
A: "I thought that was a good description. The stories do exist at an emotional crossroads. I had a writing teacher at one point who said you should always be asking yourself 'why is this night different from all others?' I've really loved that and always remembered it, and I think that's true. You are showing people when they're making important choices. That's what makes it suspenseful and dramatic and, hopefully, of interest to the reader. This is the day when they make decisions that affected all the other days."
Q: Do remember any specific incidents or ideas that touched off some of the stories?
A: "I have a file that I work from. If something crosses my mind that seems dramatically charged as a situation or a character or even a bit of dialogue that I come across in the world that seems even a little colorful, I'll save to work off of that. One of the stories is about a high school English teacher who looks up her high school English teacher. That's a significant day for her because she became a teacher in part because of his influence, and he has had a very profound influence on her. So meeting him in person many years later is a night that's different from all others for her.
"Then I do enjoy stories where something happens. I have another story where another character is trying to find the perfect gift for her beloved. That alone is a charged exercise, but it is especially charged because she suspects there's another woman. There's another story that takes as its premise the idea that somebody is having premonitions something will happen, so I was immediately setting the stakes high -- for myself and for the character. They knew that something of importance was about to take place in their life but they had no idea what."
Q: How do you actually keep the file?
A: "I have a mini tape recorder that I keep in my purse at all times, and I will take it out often. My friends are patient with me when I do so. That's really where I record ideas and later I'll transcribe them into journals. Now I also rely on this file on my computer but I also have all of the journals going back for years."
Q: You're just constantly aware and on guard for ideas?
A: "I think that as a writer you're always listening and watching as you move through the world and you just can't help it. I do have periods that are more fruitful and productive than others. Sometimes if I'm really in the heat of the story I'll have a hard time turning my brain off and I'll have the tape recorder under my pillow. I'll try to sleep and different ideas about a story will still be popping up. I haven't ever been able to successfully turn it on and off, I'm more just trying to successfully collaborate with it."
Q: What's the appeal of a short story?
A: "The advantage from a writing standpoint is that I think you can hold the whole thing in your mind at once, even perhaps without knowing it. That lets those inevitable turns of phrase or turns of plot come about, and I enjoy that aspect. I think the appeal from a reader's standpoint is that you can have a satisfying narrative in a sitting, you don't have to log a month's worth of hours to have that sense of completion."
Q: What's hard for you in writing and what's easy?
A: "Well, I love first drafts when it's still surprising and exciting for you, and you don't know the jokes and you don't' know the ending. The harder part for me was the editing, where I already knew how things were going to turn out and I knew the jokes. So I had to re-envision editing as creative. I said that you need to go back in and light it on fire again. This situation may be familiar to you, but you can still come up with something exciting within it. It's not quite as sexy to cut a sentence that doesn't belong, that isn't the most exciting part -- making a good cut -- but you can bear in mind that it's going to make the story stronger overall."
(Reporting by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
As government shutdown looms, lawmakers squabbling over policy, not pork
Time was, an 11th-hour omnibus spending bill to avoid a government shutdown was an invitation for members of Congress to push through pork projects. This year the tussle is over policy riders.
In Congresses of yesteryear, the 11th-hour, must-pass omnibus spending bill typically set off a spike in earmarks or member projects to grease the deal, adding billions to federal deficits.
Skip to next paragraphBut the 1,219-page, $1 trillion spending package released by House leaders late Wednesday night is making waves not for its pork projects, but for its member-driven policy riders on issues ranging from travel to Cuba and the funding of abortions to marketing food to children.
The House GOP bill, which was formulated based on ongoing conference negotiations but not yet signed, wraps up the nine remaining annual appropriation bills. Meanwhile, negotiators continue working toward a ?megabus? that could pass the Senate.
It?s these policy riders, not the bottom-line spending, that have been the main sticking point in passing the bills needed to keep the government from shutting down. Like member earmarks, the aim of riders is to force on the White House a policy that the president would not otherwise support, using annual funding as leverage.
Senate Democrats have fought hard to derail most of the policy riders in the ?megabus?,?especially those aiming to curb environmental regulations. But there?s a bumper crop still in the omnibus bill released by House leaders late Wednesday night.
These include:
? Ending $181 million in funding for Department of Energy loan guarantees, including the program that funded Solyndra, the now-bankrupt solar energy company.
? Scuttling a Senate provision requiring energy efficiency regulations for televisions and cable boxes.
??Halting new light-bulb efficiency standards.
??Prohibiting federal or local funding for abortions in the District of Columbia.
??Banning funding for the Federal Trade Commission to report on the marketing of food to children, unless they conduct a cost-benefit analysis.
??A mandate to expedite approval for new offshore energy production.
??A provision barring the Department of Health and Human Services from activities that promote gun control.
But the provision that set off the biggest firestorm is one tightening federal rules regarding family travel and remittances to Cuba. The rider, by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) of Florida, overturns Obama administration policies that allow Cuban-Americans to visit family in Cuba or send remittances without limit. In a return to Bush-era policies, the rider would limit visits to once every three years and remittances to $1,200 annually.
?If this bill passes, what happens to the 300,000 Cuban-Americans who have already left for the holidays and are in Cuba?? says Rep. Jose Serrano (D) of New York.
?Times have changed,? he adds. ?Republicans say that remittances are propping up the government, but it?s more like children getting school supplies.?
House Speaker John Boehner told reporters on Thursday that an omnibus bill will pass in time to avert a government shutdown, after funding for FY 2012 runs out on Friday. ?I am confident that the bill will pass in a bipartisan fashion,? he said.
But House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D) of California cautioned that House Republicans ?won?t be getting any cooperation from us.?
In a close vote on the first fiscal 2012 spending package in November, more than 100 House Republicans refused to vote for the relatively noncontroversial measure on the grounds that it spent too much.
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Storm, floods in south Philippines kill nearly 60
MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed nearly 60 people in the southern Philippines, with many more missing across vast regions, officials said Saturday.
Lemuel Gunda, head of a rescue team in Cagayan de Oro city, told The Associated Press that at least 40 bodies were recovered there.
Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said that at least 15 people were killed in his city alone and that many more were missing.
Those missing included a radio broadcaster who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.
The chief of the national disaster rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that casualties would likely rise.
The floods were triggered by Tropical Storm Washi, which dumped heavy rains over the southern Mindanao region overnight.
Ramos said the dead included at least nine people in a single village in Lanao del Norte province, with floodwaters surging in the middle of the night and quickly reaching rooftops, trapping many residents and causing them to drown.
"Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan city and Cagayan de Oro city," Ramos said, adding that tens of thousands of people sought shelter on high ground.
Back-to-back typhoons in September left more than 100 people dead in the northern Philippines.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
To reform or not to reform legal education?
FORUM
? SEC files to appeal Judge Rakoff's rejection of Citi settlement | Hans Bader on the student loan disaster ?
To reform or not to reform legal education?
According to his recent article, David Segal of the New York Times would seemingly advocate for broad sweeping reform of law school curriculum. The centerpiece of the suggested overhaul would be to replace the emphasis on theoretical-driven coursework with courses emphasizing practical training or "lawyering."
David brings up an example of new associates at a law firm who couldn't answer the question "...when you close a merger, how does the deal get done?" The answer to that question was to draft a certificate of merger which then must be filed with the secretary of state. The author attributes this "deficiency" partially to the experience and focus of law school professors citing a 2010 study which found that the median amount of practical legal experience among law school faculty was only one year, and nearly half of those faculty members never even practiced law.
The NYT article explained:
Law schools know all about the tough conditions that await graduates, and many have added or expanded programs that provide practical training through legal clinics. But almost all the cachet in legal academia goes to professors who produce law review articles, which gobbles up huge amounts of time and tuition money. The essential how-tos of daily practice are a subject that many in the faculty know nothing about -- by design. One 2010 study of hiring at top-tier law schools since 2000 found that the median amount of practical experience was one year, and that nearly half of faculty members had never practiced law for a single day. If medical schools took the same approach, they'd be filled with professors who had never set foot in a hospital.
In both a commentary piece and podcast (approx. 41:00 minute mark) on ricochet.com, Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and visiting scholar with the Manhattan Institute, defended traditional theoretical teaching, arguing that in many practice areas and work environments "the only way to be successful as a lawyer is to know [a] large amount of material that the Times would think irrelevant."
Professor Epstein also disagreed with UC Berkley School of Law Professor John Yoo's assessment in his own commentary (which also mostly disagreed with the NYT piece) on the subject, that:
First year law students mainly focus on classic common law cases-in contract, torts, property, and criminal law, among others-in subjects that have not changed in decades. These are cases where judges have the power to "make the law" and the main method is using human reason to arrive at a correct result. The world, however, is increasingly dominated by statutes and regulations, where careful reading of texts passed by legislatures and administrative agencies is just as important as reasoning one's way to the "right" answer. Lectures on bargaining theory and negotiation could help in classes on contracts and on criminal law. Moreover, economics should become a more important feature in many classes, as it already has become in legal scholarship.
Epstein in his rebuttal stated:
These courses have evolved enormously over the 43 years that I have taught. The types of cases we teach have migrated from traffic accidents to mass torts, from simple contracts of sales to large cooperative arrangements and the like. The tools from law and economics, legal history and comparative law have reshaped the discourse. The constant need to show how statutes influence the formation and enforcement of contracts also takes a larger amount of time. These courses have been cut back, and that may be strictly necessary with the larger statutory courses. But it is also deceptive. One cannot teach environmental law without knowing the common law of nuisance well, and one cannot teach securities law without knowing about common law rules of misrepresentation and fiduciary duty.Some put more emphasis and blame on student behavior. Commentary featured on Above the Law bluntly concluded:
Maybe law is the red-headed stepchild of American professional schools because law attracts the weakest applicants. Medical schools attract people committed to years of rigorous training, long hours, and low pay. Even business schools at least attract "bros" who are not afraid of "math."Posted by Isaac Gorodetski at 8:15 AMWho does law school attract? Everybody else.
Tags:john yoo , law school , legal education , richard epstein
categories: Miscellaneous |
Source: http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2011/12/to-reform-or-not-to-reform-legal-education.php
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South Africa gallows site becomes museum, memorial (AP)
PRETORIA, South Africa ? Martha Mahlangu can't bear to visit the prison where her son, an anti-apartheid guerrilla, was hanged. But she says it's important that other South Africans see the gallows the government opened as a monument Thursday.
The new memorial recreates the place where political prisoners like Solomon Mahlangu climbed the stairs to face their executions, never struggling and sometimes even singing anti-apartheid songs.
Martha Mahlangu, an 87-year-old former maid, hopes visitors to the gallows will contemplate her son's sacrifice.
"Solomon only thought of freedom, to free the black man," she said in an interview in her Pretoria home. "He never thought of himself, only about seeing the black man free."
Her voice faltered when she tried speak about being invited to take part in a series of events this week at the gallows at Pretoria Central Prison. She sat on her porch in a neighborhood set aside for blacks under apartheid that today remains predominantly black and poor.
She said she was instead sending her eldest son and a nephew to Thursday's inauguration by President Jacob Zuma of the gallows and the death row block housing it as a national memorial and museum.
She also sent her son and nephew to a traditional ceremony Wednesday during which relatives of those hanged offered prayers and burned incense in remembrance.
Zuma toured the building Thursday morning at the start of the ceremony to open the site, accompanied by several Cabinet ministers and George Bizos, a prominent campaigner against the death penalty who was also former President Nelson Mandela's lawyer.
The anti-apartheid militants who were executed "were terrorists or trouble makers to the authorities then," Zuma said in a speech after his tour Thursday. "But to their people and families, they were freedom fighters who wanted to see a free, democratic and nonsexist South Africa."
Death row was in a low, brick building with imposing oak doors just outside the main block of Pretoria Central Prison. The gallows were abandoned after the death penalty was abolished in 1995.
On Thursday, a sign on a freshly painted wall along a hallway leading to the gallows told visitors some 3,500 South Africans were hanged over the last century. "Of these," it said, "130 were patriots whose only crime was fighting oppression."
Not all those hanged were executed in Pretoria, but many of the most prominent were.
South Africa's highest court ruled in 1995 that the death penalty was a cruel, inhuman and degrading violation of the country's post-apartheid constitution. Executions had been on hold since 1989, as a debate raged that touched on the executions of anti-apartheid militants and on whether there could be a fair or just way of deciding who would be hanged.
Solomon Mahlangu was among the class of 1976, young South Africans radicalized by a student uprising in Soweto that year that was met by a brutal police crackdown. He was 20 when he left South Africa to train in Mozambique and Angola with Umkhonto we Sizwe, or "Spear of the Nation," the armed wing of the African National Congress, which celebrates its 50th anniversary Friday.
One of Solomon Mahlangu's trio got away. Another, the only one accused of firing a gun, was so badly beaten in custody he was judged unfit to stand trial. Prosecutors did not dispute that Solomon Mahlangu never fired a gun, but he was convicted of sharing his comrade's deadly purpose.
He was hanged on April 6, 1979. The next day, his mother was brought to Pretoria Central and shown her son's plain wooden coffin. She remembers thinking it looked very small.
The gallows was destroyed in a smelter after the death penalty was abolished. Visitors to the site will see a replica: Seven nooses dangling from iron loops over a trap door.
A prison employee who said he had been a death row guard helped ensure the new museum's details are correct, down to the thickness of the ropes. He refused to give his name, saying he feared reprisals from South Africans who might consider him a murderer. But he said he was just doing a job.
David Kutumela, a 56-year-old anti-apartheid activist who like Solomon Mahlangu began his fight after the 1976 uprisings, helped campaign to create the gallows memorial. He and other activists visited the gallows often as it was transformed into a museum.
"Walking up those 52 steps, we all think, `It might have been us instead of Solomon,'" he said.
Kutumela said the museum is for South Africans as young as or younger than he and Solomon Mahlangu were when they became militants. He said he worries today's children "don't even understand how this freedom came about."
In another sign of how far South Africa has come, the top spokeswoman for the prison department is an ANC veteran who trained as a teenager in the same Angolan camp where Solomon Mahlangu became a guerrilla.
Sibongile Promise Khumalo has a hug for everyone she meets, including the white guards at Pretoria Central who once escorted ANC fighters to their deaths.
Khumalo said she embraced the museum project, speaking with the families of those hanged instead of delegating the emotional job.
"I cried with those people," Khumalo said. "We were reopening wounds for them."
She said the goal was to offer closure to the families, and to society a chance to confront the wounds of the past and then move on.
"I know South Africans are forgiving," she said. "We need to help each other carry out this journey of remembrance."
____
Online:
Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Obama prods GOP on payroll tax cut (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama accepted a move by Senate Democrats to scale back his Social Security payroll tax cut extension on Monday, then prodded Republicans to support it despite a requirement for the very wealthy to pay more taxes.
Obama also called on lawmakers to renew a program of extended unemployment benefits due to expire on Dec. 31. He said the checks, which kick in after six months of joblessness, are "the last line of defense between hardship and catastrophe" for some victims of the recession and a painfully slow recovery.
The president made his remarks at the White House as Republicans and Democrats in Congress said a holiday-season package was beginning to come into focus that could cost $180 billion or more over a decade. Elements include not only the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit renewals, but also a provision to avert a threatened 27 percent reduction in fees to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
While there are differences over the details of the three principal components ? many Republicans are reluctant to extend the tax cut ? there is at least as much disagreement among senior lawmakers in the two political parties over ways to cover the cost so deficits don't rise.
House Republicans are drafting legislation to extend an existing pay freeze for federal workers as partial payment for the tax cut and unemployment benefits. Other cost-savers are expected to include a proposal Obama advanced earlier this year to raise pension costs for federal employees, officials said. The bill may also include another presidential recommendation, this one for a surcharge on Medigap policies purchased by future Medicare recipients.
Officials said that to offset the two-year, $38 billion price tag of the Medicare provision, House Republicans want to cut funds from the year-old health care legislation that stands as Obama's signature domestic policy accomplishment. Some Democrats want instead to count defense funds approved but unspent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ? a proposal that many GOP lawmakers deem an accounting gimmick.
The Medicare proposal enjoys strong popularity among lawmakers in both parties. House Republican leaders signaled last week they intend to include it in the overall package as a sweetener for members of the party's rank and file who are unhappy at the prospect of extending the payroll tax cut.
GOP critics say there is no evidence that the current tax cut has helped create jobs, and also say they fear the impact of a renewal on the deficit and on the fund that pays Social Security benefits. A majority of Republican senators voted last week against a plan backed by their own leadership to extend the cut.
But Obama noted House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said that the renewal would help the economy, and said the party's Senate leaders had made similar comments.
"I couldn't agree more. And I hope that the rest of their Republican colleagues come around and join Democrats to pass these tax cuts and put money back into the pockets of working Americans," the president said.
Obama also added, "I know many Republicans have sworn an oath never to raise taxes as long as they live. How could it be that the only time there's a catch is when it comes to raising taxes on middle-class families? How can you fight tooth-and-nail to protect high-end tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and yet barely lift a finger to prevent taxes going up for 160 million Americans who really need the help?"
He spoke as Senate Democrats unveiled revisions that cut the cost of the administration's proposal by one-third, to an estimated $179 billion. As rewritten, it deepens the current Social Security payroll tax cut and extends it until the end of 2012, but jettisons Obama's request to give businesses relief at the same time.
Republicans were critical despite the changes.
"Frankly, the only thing bipartisan about this latest political gambit is opposition to the permanent tax hike on small businesses to pay for temporary one-year tax policy," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. Republicans often refer to the proposal as a tax increase on small business owners in hopes of recasting Democratic claims that it would fall on "millionaires and billionaires."
Advanced by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., the revised proposal also scales back the surtax on seven-figure earners that Democrats had originally proposed to cover the bill's entire cost, from 3.25 percent to 1.9 percent.
Also included are higher fees for consumers whose mortgages are from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as a GOP proposal from last week to make sure millionaires don't receive unemployment benefits or food stamps.
___
Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.
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