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63 Brand-New Quotes From Warren Buffett; "More kids are ruined by the behavior of their parents than the size of their inheritance."
63 Brand-New Quotes From Warren Buffett
By Matt Koppenheffer | More Articles | Save For Later
May 12, 2013 | Comments (8)
The tried and true "classic" Warren Buffett quotes are classics because they're great, timeless bits of investing wisdom. But sometimes they can also feel a bit too well worn. Following are 63 brand-new quotes from Buffett, fresh from the May 4 Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A ) (NYSE: BRK-B ) shareholder meeting.
1. On playing table tennis with Ariel Hsing at Borsheims: "If you're courageous you'll show up with your paddle and you'll look like an idiot."
2. "If the market continues as it has in 2013, this will be the first five-year period that Berkshire has underperformed. … It won't be a happy day, but it won't totally discourage us."
3. On what makes ISCAR great: "[They] never stop improving the product, never stop trying to make customers happy."
4. Responding to a shareholder who thanked him for letting attendees in early from the cold and rain: "If we had a company that sold coats, we would have left you out there."
5. On his successor: "It would be rejected like a foreign tissue if we got the wrong person in there." Read more of this post
Filed under Investing Process, Life
Why Low-Risk Innovation Is Costly
Companies are finding it hard to churn out "the next big thing". Instead of the disruptive products, services and business models of yesteryears, innovations coming to market today are typically line extensions.
An Accenture survey of more than 500 executives has found that while one in five (18 percent) respondents rate innovation as their top strategic priority and two-thirds depend strongly on innovation for their long-term strategy success, and more than half feel they have a sluggish innovation process. Companies are seeking to innovate but are increasingly less satisfied with the results. The respondents also have an answer to why this is happening. They are aware that a cautious approach and reduced investment by companies to generate renovation or, at best, incremental innovation is a potentially perilous strategy. By putting formal systems in place to manage innovation, companies can protect themselves from such risks. Enterprises able to successfully innovate at a breakthrough level are far more likely to dominate and prosper in the new markets they create. They can also position themselves to master change.
Last updated: May 17, 2013 10:26 pm
Companies see innovation without results
The vast bulk of corporate innovation initiatives are failing to deliver the results that senior executives expected. Despite increased investment in innovation, only 18 per cent of executives believe their company's innovation efforts deliver a competitive advantage, according to a survey conducted by Accenture and published this week. Read more of this post
Filed under Innovation, Investing Process, Life
What Value Creation Will Look Like in the Future
by Jack Hughes | 9:00 AM May 17, 2013
Organizations have nearly perfected implementing the industrial model of managing work — the effort applied toward completing a task. For individuals, this model ensures that we know what we're supposed to do each day. For organizations, it guarantees predictability and efficiency. The problem with the model is that work is becoming commoditized at an increasing rate, extending beyond manual tasks into knowledge work, as data entry, purchasing, billing, payroll, and similar responsibilities become automated. If your organization draws value from optimizing repetitive work, you'll find that it will be increasingly difficult to extract that value.
The value of products and services today is based more and more on creativity — the innovative ways that they take advantage of new materials, technologies, and processes. Value creation in the past was a function of economies of industrial scale: mass production and the high efficiency of repeatable tasks. Value creation in the future will be based on economies of creativity: mass customization and the high value of bringing a new product or service improvement to market; the ability to find a solution to a vexing customer problem; or, the way a new product or service is sold and delivered. Read more of this post
The 'Believe It or Not' Life of Ripley: The godfather of reality shows and purveyor of freaks empathized with struggling people; he'd been there.
May 17, 2013, 9:17 p.m. ET
The 'Believe It or Not' Life of Ripley
The purveyor of freaks and godfather of reality TV empathized with people on the margins; he'd been there
The man primarily responsible for mainstreaming our voyeuristic tendencies was Robert 'Believe It or Not!' Ripley. In his cartoons and books, on radio and TV, the globe-trotting Ripley tapped into Americans' appetite for the oddly titillating, the unbelievable, the uncomfortable.
By NEAL THOMPSON
America's TV and computer screens are crammed with people doing extreme, dangerous, exotic, bizarre or embarrassing things. They crab-fish or dive for gold in Alaska; they compete in little-girl beauty pageants or run moonshine in the South; they attempt outrageous feats, striving to set records and, above all, get noticed.
Our obsession with peculiar people is nothing new, though, nor did it originate with P.T. Barnum, whose genius was for sideshow spectacle. The man primarily responsible for mainstreaming our voyeuristic tendencies was Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley. In his cartoons and books, on radio and TV, the globe-trotting Ripley tapped into Americans' appetite for the oddly titillating, the unbelievable, the uncomfortable.
Until his death in 1949, at age 59, Ripley was the unrivaled impresario of freaks of the natural world (compare today's "River Monsters"), exposes of popular falsehoods (cue "Mythbusters") and celebrations of charismatic underdogs ("Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"). He gave a platform to every sort of specialist in self-abuse and pseudo-torture: sword swallowers, glass-eaters, contortionists and self-mutilators, from the man who lifted weights with hooks in his eyelids to the one who took a shot in the gut with a cannonball to the one who ate an entire sack of portland cement. During the Depression, as Americans sought affordable means of escape and entertainment in a world before television, Ripley provided both in abundance. In his day, he possessed the combined cultural clout of YouTube, "American Idol" and Monday Night Football. Read more of this post
The Tyranny of the Micromanager: It is notoriously difficult to get rid of a micromanager once he or she holds power. They rule without mercy, turning the minute and the mundane into weapons of war.
The Tyranny of the Micromanager
It is notoriously difficult to get rid of a micromanager once he or she holds power.
By AMANDA FOREMAN
As anyone who has had the misfortune to work for a micromanager knows, success only makes the manager worse. Nor is this observation limited to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
Frederick the Great of Prussia was a notorious micromanager of his generals. During the battle of Zorndorf in 1758, he shunted around his battalions like a boy playing with tin soldiers. Finally, goaded to the point of exasperation by the king's interference, his brilliant cavalry general Friedrich von Seydlitz had the following message relayed to headquarters: "After the battle the king can do what he likes with my head, but during the battle will he please allow me to use it?"
Frederick partially relented, once he made sure that their plans for battle were essentially the same, and Seydlitz went on to achieve a decisive victory against the Russians. But the following year at Kunersdorf, poor Seydlitz was not so lucky, and Frederick insisted on sending his beloved cavalry straight into the waiting guns of the Russian artillery.
It's notoriously difficult to get rid of a micromanager once he or she holds the reins of power. They rule without mercy, turning the minute and the mundane into weapons of war. The trick is to recognize the danger signs early on and take the appropriate preventive measures. Read more of this post
The Book of Kings: A fast-paced, blood-soaked history of the dynasty that transformed England from a loosely-governed patchwork into a powerful nation
The Book of Kings
A fast-paced, blood-soaked history of the dynasty that transformed England from a loosely-governed patchwork into a powerful nation.
By STEPHEN BRUMWELL
In April 1349, as an epidemic of bubonic plague devastated his subjects, King Edward III of England staged a lavish tournament at Windsor Castle. This spectacular festival of jousting culminated in the creation of an exclusive club, the Order of the Garter. Edward was fascinated by stories of the legendary King Arthur. In founding a new order of chivalry, he sought to establish his own Knights of the Round Table, with an expanded Windsor standing in for Camelot.
Yet as Dan Jones amply demonstrates in "The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England," such ostentatious display amid the horrors of the Black Death was justified by harsh personal experience: Edward's father, Edward II, had been deposed and murdered in 1327 because of his failure to win the respect of his war-minded nobles. By inviting them to join his new fraternity, Edward III was not only rallying the military support he needed to pursue a claim to the crown of France—he had invaded the country in 1346 and warred there consistently through 1359—but taking steps to ensure that he would never share his father's dismal fate. Read more of this post
Scientist who beat Nasa to the ozone hole: Joe Farman, physicist and environmental hero, 1930-2013
Scientist who beat Nasa to the ozone hole
By Pilita Clark
Joe Farman was not long out of university when he nearly turned his back on the job that led him to make one of the most important discoveries in environmental science.
The young Cambridge physicist had spotted an advert in New Scientist magazine for a researcher to go to Antarctica. "I sort of blinked at it," he later said, before eventually deciding: "Well if I don't do it now I won't ever do it." That he applied was just as well. Farman, who has died aged 82, became the man who found the hole in the world's ozone layer. Even so, it was not something that happened in the most straightforward way. By 1956 he had begun a life with what is now theBritish Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. "They were just doing curiosity-based research," says Chris Rapley, a former BAS director. This included measuring the ozone in the stratosphere – the bluish-green gas that filters out ultraviolet solar rays, which hasten skin cancers, cataracts and other ills. Read more of this post
Financial Advice, Served Rare; A new wave of private firms that cater to clients' every imaginable financial need are increasingly courting the merely wealthy
Financial Advice, Served Rare
A new wave of private firms that cater to clients' every imaginable financial need are increasingly courting the merely wealthy. Here's what they offer.
By Julie Steinberg, Kelly Greene
You don't have to be a Rockefeller to join a family office.
Family offices are private firms that manage just about everything for the wealthiest families: tax planning, investment management, estate planning, philanthropy, art and wine collections—even the family vacation compound.
Now many family offices are courting the merely rich.
The price of admission is still steep, and having your own personal chief financial officer doesn't come cheap. But the help is worth considering.
Single-family offices gained popularity in the 1800s to manage the burgeoning fortunes of tycoons such as the Rockefellers. The offices offer many of the same services as top-tier private banks and wealth managers but are devoted to a single family. Read more of this post
Researchers at Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities used a 3-D printer to create bionic ears with auditory powers far beyond the natural human endowment. A look at the implications.
All Ears for a Revolution
By DANIEL AKST
The singularity may not be near, but it's getting close enough that you might just hear it coming—if you had the kind of synthetic ears scientists recently developed.
The singularity is a term used by futurists for the merger of human and machine into an infinitely malleable, self-determining species with powers of intelligence that flesh-and-blood-mortals can only dream of. Although superhuman mental powers aren't yet on the horizon, the new ears remind us that our future is very likely bionic.
Human ears are a problem for plastic surgeons. But writing in Nano Letters, researchers at Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities described how they used a standard 3-D printer to create bionic ears with auditory powers far beyond the natural human endowment. The technique lets scientists mimic the structural complexity of the ear while achieving a wider range of audible frequencies through the embedded electronics. They used the printed ear to culture genuine cartilage in vitro from calf cells. Read more of this post
Filed under Health, Life, TMT Trends
Children's Mental Illness Costs $247 Billion, U.S. Says
Mental illness in children costs $247 billion annually, a figure increasing along with the number of kids hospitalized for mood disorders, substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders, according to a U.S. report.
As many as 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17 years old has a mentally illness, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as the most prevalent diagnosis, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of children hospitalized for mood disorders increased 80 percent from 1997 to 2010, the report said, citing a U.S. study from that year.
The CDC report released yesterday draws on a number of U.S. surveys that collect data on children's mental health. The Atlanta-based agency uses the report to mark the prevalence of the disorders and promote public health initiatives to treat and prevent them. Researchers found that suicide, often stemming from mental illness, was the second-leading cause of death in 2010 among adolescents ages 12 to 17.
"Millions of children in the U.S. have mental disorders that affect their overall health and present challenges for their loved ones," Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC, said in a statement. "We are working to both increase our understanding of these disorders, and help scale up programs and strategies to promote children's mental health so that our children grow to lead productive, healthy lives." Read more of this post
Filed under Health, Life
How do you monetize a digital service?
Forget Ads! Here are the Money Making techniques every startup should know.
by Nick De Mey With 2 Comments
How do you monetize a digital service? Why would clients put their money on the table? In fact it doesn't matter if you pick a freemium, subscription, license or any other model if you don't understand the emotional context of your customers. You have to see what drives people to open up their wallet. Just look at other companies. The small nudges and psychological tricks they have in place can often be copied to your own product or service. In order to help you out we've selected 17 remarkable techniques documented with 36 cases.
Filed under TMT Trends
Sweden is leading the world in allowing private companies to run public institutions
May 18th 2013 |From the print edition
SAINT GORAN'S hospital is one of the glories of the Swedish welfare state. It is also a laboratory for applying business principles to the public sector. The hospital is run by a private company, Capio, which in turn is run by a consortium of private-equity funds, including Nordic Capital and Apax Partners. The doctors and nurses are Capio employees, answerable to a boss and a board. Doctors talk enthusiastically about "the Toyota model of production" and "harnessing innovation" to cut costs.
Welcome to health care in post-ideological Sweden. From the patient's point of view, St Goran's is no different from any other public hospital. Treatment is free, after a nominal charge which is universal in Sweden. St Goran's gets nearly all its money from the state. But behind the scenes it has led a revolution in the relationship between government and business. In the mid-1990s St Goran's was slated for closure. Then, in 1999, the Stockholm County Council struck a deal with Capio to take over the day-to-day operation of the hospital. In 2006 Capio was taken over by a group of private-equity firms led by Nordic Capital. Stockholm County Council recently extended Capio's contract until 2021.
St Goran's is now a temple to "lean management"—an idea that was pioneered by Toyota in the 1950s and has since spread from carmaking to services and from Japan to the rest of the world. Britta Wallgren, the hospital's chief executive, says she never heard the term "lean" when she was at medical school (she is an anaesthetist by training). Now she hears it all the time. Read more of this post
Filed under Health
Obamacare Sees Swiss Show Mandatory-Private System Works
Money manager Tim McCarthy has worked in the U.S., Russia and Switzerland, and has seen doctors in all three countries for Hashimoto disease, a condition in which his immune system attacks his thyroid. He has no doubt which health system is best.
"On a price-quality ratio, Switzerland is better," McCarthy said in a phone interview. "It's not cheap, but you get what you pay for."
McCarthy, 46, has lived in Switzerland for about five years, where he oversees more than $1 billion at Valartis Asset Management SA in Geneva. He said he pays about 16,500 Swiss francs ($17,220) a year in insurance premiums for his family of four. Buying private health coverage has been obligatory in Switzerland for all residents since 1996.
As the U.S. moves towards mandatory health insurance, the small alpine nation offers clues about what does and doesn't work, said Valerie Paris, a senior health policy analyst at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, who co-authored a 2011 report on the Swiss health system.
"Everybody has access to a wide benefit package, which is uniform and very popular," Paris said in a telephone interview. "It is a unique system that makes sense." Read more of this post
US energy revolution gathers pace as the Obama administration approved wider exports of liquefied natural gas and international companies committed billions of dollars for new infrastructure.
Last updated: May 17, 2013 9:21 pm
US energy revolution gathers pace
By Ed Crooks in New York, Jonathan Soble in Tokyo and Guy Chazan in London
The growing role of the US in world energy markets was underlined on Friday as the Obama administration approved wider exports of liquefied natural gas and international companies committed billions of dollars for new infrastructure.
The developments were both consequences of the shale revolution in the US, in which improvements in the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", have unlocked new supplies of oil and gas, and raised the prospect that the US will be an increasingly important supplier of energy to the rest of the world.
The Department of Energy on Friday authorised the Freeport LNG project in Texas to export to countries that do not have a trade agreement with the US, including Japan and the members of the EU. It was the first such approval to be granted for two years and only the second ever. Read more of this post
Filed under Macro Trends
China deal ends distraction, but not questions, for Caterpillar
Fri, May 17 2013
By James B. Kelleher
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Caterpillar Inc's (CAT.N: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) deal to cut the purchase price of a Chinese mining-equipment maker it bought last year ends an embarrassing episode that overshadowed the company's effort to expand in China and distracted its executives for months. Now, analysts say, comes the hard part: Proving to investors that ERA Mining Machinery, the Chinese maker of hydraulic roof supports that Caterpillar purchased, really can help penetrate China's huge underground mining market. In January, Caterpillar took a $580 million impairment related to the ERA deal after discovering what it characterized as a "deliberate, multi-year, coordinated accounting misconduct" at Siwei, a subsidiary that handled ERA's principal business. Late on Thursday, Caterpillar said it reached a deal with the former controlling shareholders of ERA to cut $135 million from the $886 million purchase price – a move welcomed by analysts even if the money involved was, in the words of one, "a blip" in the U.S. company's overall finances. "Outside of the reduction in purchase price, the chief benefit of the settlement is to eliminate the management distraction caused by the issue and get on with realizing the potential that led Caterpillar to buy this company in the first place," said Alex Blanton, a senior analyst at Clear Harbor Asset Management in New York. "Whether or not it realizes the potential is another question," he said. Read more of this post
Less guff, more puff: Thanks to new digital tools, marketing is no longer voodoo
WHEN a power cut interrupted this year's Super Bowl, advertisers lit up. "Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now," tweeted Audi, swiftly plugging its own LED-accented car while taking a dig at its rival Mercedes, sponsor of the New Orleans Superdome. Tide, a detergent, came up with: "We can't get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out." But by general consent Oreo won the tweet-off with "Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark." The biscuit baker's reward: 16,000 retweets and 20,000 Facebook likes.
Super Bowl TV commercials are the Broadway spectaculars of the marketing world, broadcast to millions. The blackout banter is more like improv, created on the fly for a select audience. Marketers these days must master both. It is not easy. Lightning reflexes have never been part of a marketer's toolkit. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) "used to deliver big iconic brand ideas on a seasonal basis," says Luke Taylor of DigitasLBi, a digital advertising agency. Some "are outside of their comfort zones".
Nearly 40% of CMOs do not think they have the right people and resources to meet their goals, says an Accenture report entitled "Turbulence for the CMO". Martin Sorrell, the boss of WPP, the world's biggest marketing and advertising group, says that since the 2008 financial crisis marketers have been elbowed aside by finance and procurement chiefs. Dominique Turpin, the head of IMD, a Swiss business school, writes that "the CMO is dead". Read more of this post
Korea still behind in software power; "The biggest issue is the lack of appreciation for intangible assets imbedded in Korean culture"
Korea still behind in software power
State-run program needed to nurture software talent
Korea's competiveness in the global IT industry has to date been from making durable, high quality hardware. Though many use Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3, few would say they've ever used a program made here and if they did, with satisfaction. The local industry has been well aware of the problem, even before big-named brands such as Samsung and LG kicked off abroad. But now that the new administration is pushing for a "creative economy," there have been more visible initiatives for more software.
However, many say there is a fundamental issue that needs resolving. Hiring a bunch of software developers or pouring in money, which many conglomerates have been doing, doesn't touch the heart of the matter, they say. "The biggest issue is the lack of appreciation for intangible assets imbedded in Korean culture," said an executive of an enterprise software developer, requesting anonymity. "Piracy is embarrassingly high compared to other mature markets in the Asia Pacific region." Read more of this post
Intel's Outgoing CEO Says He Passed On A Chance To Get Intel Chips Inside The First iPhone
Kevin McLaughlin | May 17, 2013, 7:48 AM | 2,765 | 2
When Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's first Intel-powered Macs at a January 2006 event in San Francisco, Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a dramatic entrance, emerging onstage from a cloud of smoke wearing a "bunny suit," the protective outfit workers wear in Intel's semiconductor fabrication plants. Otellini didn't often engage in such bizarre pageantry during his 8-year tenure as Intel CEO, which officially ended Thursday. But the Apple Mac deal was a major coup for Intel, and the bunny suit helped Otellini drive that message home. Now, as Otellini heads into retirement, he's talking about an even bigger deal with Apple that he wasn't able to close. When Apple was working on a prototype for the first iPhone, it approached Intel about making the processor for the device. But Intel passed on the opportunity because it didn't make sense financially, Otellini told Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic in an interview published Thursday. "At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn't see it," Otellini told Madrigal. "It wasn't one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought." While Otellini kept Intel on a profitable path, he wasn't able to figure out how to make Intel relevant in smartphones, the majority of which are running ARM chips. Intel is still trying to figure out its mobile strategy, and incoming CEO Brian Krzanich said Thursday that he plans to fix this. Of course, Otellini isn't the only tech executive who didn't anticipate the impact the iPhone would have. Shortly before Apple launched the iPhone, Microsoft Steve Ballmer said it had "no chance" of gaining meaningful market share. Otellini told Madrigal his gut reaction was to pull the trigger on the Apple mobile deal. But he didn't, and so it's likely every time Otellini sees someone using an iPhone, he'll cringe a little bit inside.
Target goes hunting in Silicon Valley, following Wal-Mart
By Alistair Barr
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Target Corp (TGT.N: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Friday it opened a new San Francisco office to track down technology companies that can help the second-largest U.S. retailer grow its online commerce business. Target's Technology Innovation Center is run by David Newman, an executive who spent six years at the online business of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz), which has had a major presence in Silicon Valley for several years. "Partnership is in our DNA and early-stage companies can sense that and are proving to be very willing to partner and co-develop," said Newman. Many retailers are pouring money into new technology to help them catch up with Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O:Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which has become the world's largest retailer by grabbing market share from traditional bricks-and-mortar stores. Mobile commerce, powered by smartphone-wielding shoppers, is a particular focus of retailers because this technology has the potential to revitalize in-store sales. Read more of this post
Coming to terms with China's growth prospects
Yukon Huang
Markets have not been enthused by the numbers coming out of China in recent months. Typical headlines are "China's production indicators disappoint" or "analysts are worried that rapid expansion is faltering". Estimates of China's economic growth this year are slipping from more than 8 per cent to something closer to 7.5 per cent. Those concerned about the country's longer-term growth challenges, however, tend to be more relaxed about near-term outcomes but preoccupied with the new leadership's commitment to reforms. Is there a trade-off between reviving the economy and establishing a sustainable basis for longer-term growth? Unfortunately there is. Beijing has run out of good options to further stimulate the economy as a strategy to buy time until western economies rebound. There are lessons from what happened in the aftermath of China's post Asian financial crisis stimulus more than a decade ago. At that time China responded with a massive programme comparable to its more recent effort in the aftermath of the global financial/fiscal crisis spurred by the economic collapse in the US and Europe. China's confidence in stimulus programmes was unrealistically buoyed by its success in dealing with the Asian crisis which resulted in a soft landing followed by years of sustained and rapid growth. But the lingering consequences of the 2009 stimulus package have not been as benign, with no signs that the resulting high debt levels are moderating and that continued expansionary credit policies are spurring production and real demand. Read more of this post
As cost of living rises, Singaporeans turn to pawnshops; Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Singapore the world's sixth most expensive city to live in.
As cost of living rises, Singaporeans turn to pawnshops
Posted at 05/18/2013 12:31 PM | Updated as of 05/18/2013 12:32 PM
SINGAPORE – Singaporean housewife Siti Khadijah Abdul Rahman accumulated a few thousand dollars' worth of gold accessories over the past two decades, but now a rising cost of living is forcing her to pawn them.
With a stretched household budget that must also cater to school expenses for her two teenaged children, the 49 year-old is pawning her gold to relieve pressure on her security guard husband, who earns Sg$1,500 ($1,211) a month.
"Pawning is better than going to friends or family when you have budget problems," said Abdul Rahman. "When I have money, I will claim it back."
She is one of a rapidly increasing number of people opting to take short-term pawnshop loans to try to keep up with rising prices, in what the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked the world's sixth most expensive city to live in. Read more of this post
American Capital Fights Fed Exit Worry as Investors Flee
Gary Kain built American Capital Agency Corp. (AGNC) into the fastest growing real estate investment trust as the Federal Reserve pushed borrowing costs to record lows. Now he's trying to persuade investors to stay with him as he navigates the central bank's retreat.
American Capital slumped 11 percent since May 2 through yesterday, the worst performance in a Bloomberg index of 34 companies that invest in mortgage bonds, after reporting an 8.6 percent drop in book value from the prior quarter. Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NLY), the only mortgage REIT bigger than American Capital, said its book value, a measure of its assets minus its liabilities, fell 4 percent.
"The issue isn't if the Fed exits, it's a question of whether they exit way earlier than expected," Kain said in a telephone interview. "We feel like positions are in much better shape now than they were in the January-February time frame."
Firms that buy government-backed home-loan bonds are under pressure as investors speculate the Fed will withdraw from buying $40 billion of mortgage securities each month as the economy shows signs of strengthening. American Capital, which increased assets over three years more than 20-fold to $100.5 billion at the end of 2012, plunged the most of mortgage REITs after targeting higher-priced bonds that would benefit from continued Fed intervention. Read more of this post
Europe's EUR 500 Billion Ticking NPLTime Bomb
Tyler Durden on 05/17/2013 20:14 -0400
Europe's non-performing loan problem is such an issue that there is increasing bluster that the ECB may take this garbage on to its balance sheet since policymakers realize that bad debts and non-performing loans (NPLs) reduce the capacity of banks to lend, hindering the monetary policy transmission mechanism. Bad debts consume capital and make banks more risk averse, especially with respect to lending to higher risk borrowers such as SMEs. With Italy (NPLs 13.4%) now following the same dismal trajectory of Spain's bad debts, the situation is rapidly escalating (at an average of around 2.5% increase per year). As we discussed in detail here, the bottom line is that at its core, it is all simply a bad-debt problem, and the more the bad debt, the greater the ultimate liability impairments become, including deposits. As we answered at the time – the real question in Europe is: how much impairment capacity is there in the various European nations before deposits have to be haircut? With Periphery non-performing loans totaling EUR 720bn across the whole of the Euro area in 2012 and EUR 500bn of which were with Peripheral banks, it seems the Cyprus deposit haircut non-template may indeed become the key template. Simply put, the greater the unemployment the more the strain on banks to generate "profits" by any means possible (GGBS?) to cover the capitalization shortfall from NPLs until at some point liability haircuts have to begin…
Non-performing loans as % of total loans across the Euro area; Unemployment rates across Euro area countries
Via JPMorgan: It is not surprising that the periphery is exhibiting a rising pattern in terms of NPL ratios. What is worrying is the speed of increase, at 2.5% per year. Within the periphery, Greece is the outlier with a NPL ratio of 25%, and no signs of abating yet. Ireland follows with a NPL ratio of 19%. Italy (at 13.4%) is above Spain and Portugal (at close to 10%)… The German divergence is making the task of the ECB very difficult both in terms of setting monetary policy for the whole region, but also in terms of dealing with an impaired transmission outside Germany. Draghi clarified in its latest press conference that it is not the ECB's role to clean up banks' balance sheets, meaning that the ECB is unlikely to deal itself with the €500bn large non-performing loan problem in periphery.
Stranded Dad Decries Frankfurt Ban on Night Flights Aiding Dubai; "You can hub through Dubai rather than Heathrow or Frankfurt. There is no curfew in Dubai."
Stranded Dad Decries Frankfurt Ban on Night Flights Aiding Dubai
Shortly after 10 p.m. in Frankfurt, Peter Meany settled into his seat on Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) flight QF6, looking forward to reuniting with his family in Sydney for his son's birthday after a two-week business trip across Europe.
Meany, a 38 year-old fund manager with Qantas frequent-flier status, would miss the party. As the plane crawled to the runway, passengers were surprised to learn that they were five minutes over the last permitted takeoff time and would need to turn back. Frustrated and tired, Meany and his fellow travelers spilled back into the deserted airport building.
"People knew they weren't going to see their families as planned, or wouldn't make their meetings," Meany said. "Bad weather is unavoidable, but I haven't been in a situation like this in 20 years of flying."
Meany is among more than 28,000 passengers who have been left stuck on the outskirts of Germany's financial capital since Frankfurt introduced the night-flight ban in October 2011. While creating a steady stream of involuntary guests for local hotels, the directive has eaten into Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA)'s earnings and encourages long-distance passengers to travel via Dubai, where operations run around the clock. Read more of this post
EU Ban Leaves Buyers Holding 144 Million Homeless Carbon Credits
Companies holding United Nations carbon offsets equivalent to 7 percent of the European Union's annual emissions cap risk losing their investment unless they find a buyer for the credits the bloc banned earlier this year. Power stations and factories in the EU's emissions-trading system still hold 144 million of the UN offsets after surrendering 552 million in the five years through 2012, EU data compiled by Bloomberg show. The bloc banned the use of credits awarded to projects that destroy nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbon-23, two powerful greenhouse gases. The UN's Clean Development Mechanism awards Certified Emission Reductions, or CERs, to projects in developing countries that reduce climate pollution. The projects can sell the offsets to buyers in cap-and-trade markets such as Europe's, who use the credits to cover emissions, or to governments seeking to meet Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. The banned credits, known as grey CERs, will "either end up in the hands of the sovereigns, or they become worthless," Trevor Sikorski, an analyst in London at Energy Aspects Ltd., said by e-mail May 16. "With market prices where they are, one should be able to pick up an issued grey CER spot for 10 euro cents or so."
Purloined Picassos Chased by FBI Art Sleuths for Wealthy; "Stolen art, stolen antiquities move into a legitimate market very easily."
Purloined Picassos Chased by FBI Art Sleuths for Wealthy
Stored inside a laptop at FBI headquarters are photos of thousands of paintings, sculptures and artifacts, works by Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne — international treasures worth millions of dollars each. All are missing.
The computer belongs to Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, a PhD in Near Eastern archeology who leads the agency's art-theft program and considers herself one of the least-likely employees walking through the doors of the J. Edgar Hoover Building headquarters in Washington each morning.
As wealthy investors seek to diversify their assets and Wall Street art enthusiasts like SAC Capital Advisors LP founder Steven Cohen beef up their collections, art crime is a growth industry and an increasingly important target for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Read more of this post
Multiproduct Multinationals and the Quality of Innovation
Sasan Bakhtiari University of New South Wales
Antonio Minniti Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) – Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)
Alireza Naghavi University of Bologna – Department of Economics
Quaderni DSE Working Paper N° 879
This research sheds light on the role of product scope on the innovation activity of multinational multi-product firms. We use patent citation data to break down innovation into two types by measuring the degree to which innovation performed by firms is fundamental and the extent to which the output of the R&D can be spread across different product lines. We focus on two features in multinational production: (i) fundamental innovation is geographically more difficult to transfer abroad to foreign production sites, (ii) learning spillovers can occur from international operations. The results reveal that the second effect is more likely to dominate when a firm is active in more product lines. We argue that a more diversified portfolio of products increases a firm's scope of learning from international operations, thereby enhancing its ability to engage in more fundamental research. In contrast, firms with less product lines that geographically separate production from innovation shift the innovation activities towards more specialized types of innovation.
Filed under Research


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Home Mobile Phones / Tablets Motorola
Motorola X Phone will be a "Game-changer" claims Telstra
in Motorola
The one device we're all excited about, the Motorola X Phone is back in news. While we are getting scant details in bits and pieces about the device, the status of the device still eludes us. New reports from a source in Telstra, an Australian telecom/media company claim that the Motorola X Phone is going to be a "game changer".
According to reports, Google has been working on the Motorola X Phone to impart it with software features and capabilities that have never been seen even on a Samsung Galaxy Smartphone or an Apple iPhone.
While we're not quite sure whether the game-changing features would be available for the phone or the upcoming Key lime pie Android OS, reports suggest that this would include the next generation Google Now.
The Motorola X Phone which would be the first to carry the talked about Android 5.0 (Mostly Key lime pie) is scheduled to be launched at the Google I/O developer conference in mid-May. Till the official release we can just speculate how good the Motorola X Phone could be.
Nokia entering tablet market?
Saavn announces Saavn Pro, a premium social music service

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To all our followers, friends, supporters, and even sceptics. We are being inundated with web traffic and are very thankful for the overwhelming responses and interest. Naturally we are ecstatic that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) has given such an emphatic endorsement of our efforts. The five Law Lords reaching a unanimous decision was very pleasing. Regrettably beyond this FACTUAL is prohibited from commenting further. Justice Young was very clear in his instructions at the bail hearing. No one, family, friends, supporters, police, or Crown Law are to say or do anything that could influence a retrial. There is much we would like to say but for now we must be silent. We are very grateful to you all and particularly to those who have been sceptical and are coming to this site for more information. We truly wish we could accommodate your thirst for the facts but must let it play out in the courts.


text:
Wall Street hopes earnings results will revive…
Wall Street hopes earnings results will revive stocks
By Associated Press | Mercury News
PUBLISHED: July 14, 2015 at 12:06 pm | UPDATED: August 17, 2016 at 4:54 am
NEW YORK — After fretting over a Greek bailout, a collapse in Chinese stocks and the timing of an interest rate increase, investors are hoping U.S. corporate earnings will bring more reassuring news this month.
Companies have started to report second-quarter results, and early announcements bode well for investors unnerved by worrisome headlines and a shaky U.S. stock market.
Aluminum company Alcoa, one of the first big companies to report earnings, announced last Wednesday that its earnings edged up from a year ago. A day later, PepsiCo said higher sales from Frito-Lay helped its earnings beat expectations.
"It's going to be refreshing to move away from headlines around Greece, China and Fed rate hikes and get back to the underlying fundamentals that should be driving stock prices," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors.
A lift is just what stock investors need.
Fears about Greece and China have shaken up the market this summer. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged down 0.2 percent from April through June, the index's first losing quarter since December 2012. Last week, the index closed down as much as 4 percent from its all-time high on May 21.
For the year, things aren't so bad. But the S&P 500's 2.4 percent gain so far is small compared to the same period the prior two years. The index surged 17.8 percent through mid-July of 2013 and climbed 6.5 percent over that same stretch last year.
Results have grown every quarter since late 2009, supporting a bull market for U.S. stocks over that time.
For the second quarter, companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report that earnings fell an average of 4.5 percent, according to data provider S&P Capital IQ. Much of that decline, though, is due to lower profits at energy companies, which have been hit by a 50 percent drop in the price of oil over the past year.
Companies also have had a habit of low-balling their earnings forecasts in the past, giving them an easier hurdle to clear when they report final results. As a result, earnings often beat the predictions of Wall Street analysts.
For example, early forecasts for the first quarter of this year showed that companies would report a 3.2 percent decline in earnings. Once all the numbers were tallied, earnings climbed 4.2 percent.
Outside of energy, many companies are in good health, investors say.
"To me the story is underneath the headline numbers," said Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "You still have really good growth in a number of sectors."
Earnings are expected to grow strongly for telecommuncations companies, as well as health care firms.
On Tuesday, JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, said that its second-quarter profit rose 4 percent. Profits increased as the bank continued to trim its expenses.
Johnson & Johnson was another big-name company reporting earnings. The maker of Band-Aids, medical devices and drugs said restrained spending and a sizeable one-time gain helped boost its earnings more than 4 percent in its latest quarter. It also raised its profit forecast for the year despite a negative impact from the strengthening dollar.
As more companies report earnings in the coming weeks, investors see three key issues:
OIL-COLLAPSE IMPACT
The collapse in oil prices has hit energy companies hard. Second-quarter earnings are projected to slump 61 percent from the same period a year earlier, making it by far the worst-performing industry. If energy companies are excluded from the mix, earnings for S&P 500 companies are forecast to rise 3.8 percent.
Many investors are optimistic about companies that rely on consumer spending. That's because hiring has steadily improved this year and there are signs that wages are edging higher. And while the slump in oil has hurt energy producers, it has also lowered gas prices, putting more money into shoppers' pockets.
Earnings for the consumer discretionary sector, which includes Macy's and Amazon, as well as entertainment companies Netflix and CBS, are expected to grow 6.1 percent.
"The consumer has a bit more free cash," said State Street's Arone.
EUROPE'S RESILIENCE
Sure, Greece has been in a drag on stocks in recent weeks. But the European economy was actually showing signs of strength before anxiety soared over Greece possibly leaving the eurozone — the group of 19 countries that share the single euro currency. Europe's economy grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter, its best performance since the second quarter of 2013. Growth in Europe was actually faster than in the U.S.
"The big question is Europe and are U.S. multi-nationals seeing any signs of a durable recovery there," said David Lefkowitz, an executive director and equity strategist at UBS.
Investors will be eager to hear from companies whether the Greek crisis has had an impact on their business in Europe, he said.


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Home CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY
By Nelson A. King NEW YORK, Dec 31, CMC – The Caribbean diaspora scored many notable achievement sin 2021, with perhaps the most significant being...
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Jul 7, CMC – Heads of government of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, have condemned the assassination of President Jovenel...
Dr Carla Barnett Discusses Some of Her Priorities BELMOPAN, Belize, May 12, CMC – The incoming Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett, says...
CARICOM Foreign Ministers Engage US National Security Adviser
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana - 8 May 2021) Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) engaged with US National Security Advisor, Mr....
Tourist Arrivals in the Caribbean Decline by More Than 65 Percent
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Mar. 15, CMC – Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean fell by 65.5 per cent in 2020, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization...
New Book on Indian Indentureship in Suriname and Guyana
By Dr Kumar Mahabir A new book on Indian indentureship in Suriname and Guyana was launched by Sharmila Ramratan recently (14/3/21). It is entitled 'Is...
Rowley: CARICOM Not Officially Informed of India's Vaccine "Gift"
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Mar 19, CMC – Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Keith Rowley, says no member state had been informed...
Jamaican American Lawyer Becomes First Black Woman to Lead ACLU
NEW YORK, CMC – Jamaican American lawyer and law professor Deborah Archer is the new president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She was...
COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out Among Topics for Discussion When CARICOM Heads Meet
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Feb. 22, CMC – The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines will be among the major matters for deliberation when CARICOM Heads of Government...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, CMC – Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has taken her 8th Oath of Office at the start of the historic...
Economic Prospects for the Caribbean Improving: IMF
Trinidad and Tobago Government Presents TT$53.03 Billion Budget to Parliament
Indian Arrival Celebrated in New York City
Ruling Coalition Unveils 'Very Ambitious' Manifesto with a Pledge to 'Deliver...
Humanitarian Work is at the Core of Religion: MBBF Strives to...
Trinidad and Tobago and India to Explore Areas of Partnership
How Much General Liability Coverage Do You Need?
Caricom Chairman Hails Regional Response to Hurricanes


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Russia Adoption 2011: One Year Anniversary!
One year ago today we first met Leah and all of our lives changed forever! Its hard to believe that it has been that long already, as you can see from the following pics she has changed quite a bit in the last 12 months!
We didn't believe it at the time but its true that looking back now all we can remember are the good times and wonderful moments from our trip to Kazakhstan, all the nasty and stressful ones have thankfully faded away.
Happy Anniversary!!! Can't believe it has been a year. Time flies when you are having fun doesn't it!!
congratulations on your family anniversary. I'm more than two years on and really rememeber the wonders of the ime in Kaz - anything difficult has been swept away from my memory by the explosion in my life that is Daniel!


It is essential, for a successful life style, to seek Knowledge. It is important to want to learn more, to be better.
Thanks Nelson for a lovely advise in this post. This is so true and we all need to learn the things from the time so that we always stay in the market and it is essential for a successful lifestyle.


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Q: How can get rid of the multiply Intents I have 2 activities. And I need pass a lot of variables from one activity to another activity:
val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT1, accoun1)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT2, accoun2)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT3, accoun3)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT4, accoun4)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT5, accoun5)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT6, accoun6)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT7, accoun7)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT8, accoun8)
            intent.putExtra(ACCOUNT9, accoun9)

and so on. How can I make this transfer easier? Maybe is some other ways to pass multiply values from one activity to another activity?

A: I recently had a similar case.
How I solved:
I created an entity that kept all the information for me, that way, I just passed an object between activities, but I had everything I needed inside that object.
Hope this can help.

A: There is a bundleOf function in the Jetpack core-ktx library that works like mapOf.
val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java)
val extras = bundleOf(
    ACCOUNT1 to accoun1,
    ACCOUNT2 to accoun2,
    ACCOUNT3 to accoun3,
    // etc.
)
intent.putExtras(extras)

But that doesn't save much code compared to just using apply unless you use the same bundle of extras in multiple places in your code:
val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java).apply {
    putExtra(ACCOUNT1, accoun1)
    putExtra(ACCOUNT2, accoun2)
    putExtra(ACCOUNT3, accoun3)
    //...
}

You could make a parcelable data class that stores all your values and pass that instead. See instructions here for creating the class easily: https://developer.android.com/kotlin/parcelize
@Parcelize
data class AccountInfo(
    val account1: String,
    val account2: String,
    val account3: String,
    //...
): Parcelable

Then you can put this into your bundles, and you don't have to create a bunch of the same kinds of variables in both activities, because all the variables are inside one class.
val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java).apply {
    putExtra(ACCOUNT_INFO, myAccountInfoInstance)
}

A: if all of your variables has the same type you can add all to list and pass the list to second activity/fragment.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Welcome to "ΚΥΜΑ" Hotel at Moudros of Lemnos.
We promise you unforgettable holidays in Lemnos.
The staff of our hotel will do everything for your best service.
We expect to meet you.
Please, select topic from the list (at the top), to learn more.


Victims suffer injustice hiding in the shadows and this crime breeds in secrecy. Justice demands that we pull these negotiations out of the shadows and have a full, fair public debate. It is time the Vitale legislation is posted for a yes or no vote and our Senate leadership is held accountable.
In our B story, Snooki continues to be peeved at Vinny Guadagnino for bringing home other girls and rejecting her advances. Was gross, Snooki says, referring to the girl he slept with the previous night. In Seaside. Once you feel that it gets tighten, you should stop. Then, twist on the opposite way, still in a slow manner. Continue to hold the ball or dumbbell at the chest height.
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text:
10 Free Events Happening This Week, Jan. 13 - Jan. 20
By ARTSLUT
1.) Anime at the Alamo
Tuesday, January 14, 7:30 p.m.
Alamo Drafthouse teams up with Funimation Anime for a free night of anime, a mystery selection of episodes.
Location: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Westlakes
2.) Eclectic Electric Monday
Monday, January 13, 5 – 7 p.m.
Electric and bass guitars, keyboards, and digital drums are on hand to experiment and play. There's a mix of art, poetry, improv, and film available in the Teen Services Department.
Location: Central Library, Teen Services
3.) The Loving Story, a Created Equal Film
Tuesday, January 14, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
The Loving Story, a documentary, tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving. In 1958 Virginia, they were arrested and jailed for their interracial marriage. They took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a landmark civil rights decision, which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The Loving case is now used as precedent in the debate about same-sex marriage in the United States. The film intimately brings to life the Lovings' marriage and the legal battle that followed through interviews and photographs captured for Life magazine.
Location: San Antonio Museum of Art
4.) Nicolette Good & Friends at Liberty Bar
Tuesday, January 14, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Nicolette Good continues her Liberty Bar residency on Tuesday nights in January. She's an indie-folk singer-songwriter, with influences including Sharon Van Etten, Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Neko Case, and Ben Folds. This week's special guest is Colin Gilmore from Austin.
Location: Liberty Bar at the Convent
5.) DreamWeek Arts Mixer
Wednesday, January 15, 6 – 9 p.m.
Blue Star Contemporary Arts and DreamWeek co-host an arts mixer, featuring current exhibitions by Blane de St. Croix, Elizabeth Keithline and Chris Sauter. Activist Jaime Martinez, founder of the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy & Educational Foundation, will be the guest speaker with musical entertainment by Henry Brun and the Latin Playerz Trio.
Wonder Wall: Blane de St. Croix at Blue Star
Continuing the Chris Sauter Pilgrimage at Blue Star and Fli!ght
Location: Blue Star Contemporary Art Center
6.) MLK Jr. Commemorative Lecture: "From the War on Poverty to the War on Poor People. What Would Dr. King Say?"
Thursday, January 16, 7:30 – 9
Economist and author Dr. Julianne Malveaux delivers this year's MLK Jr. Commemorative Lecture. She is the president and CEO of Last Word Productions, Inc., and is the former president of Bennett College for Women. Malveaux's contributions to the public dialogue encompass issues such as domestic violence, race, culture, gender and their economic impacts.
Location: Laurie Auditorium, Trinity University
7.) Free Movie Night: On the Waterfront
Thursday, January 16, 7 p.m.
On the Waterfront is a Marlon Brando classic about union crime. Released in 1954, the film won eight Oscars, including Best Most Picture.
Location: Wonderland of the Americas
8.) The Bar Brawl III at the Mix
Friday, January 17, 10 p.m.
Chris Rhoades, Matt Thomas, and Jeff Saunders make up this Austin-based rockabilly, swing, punk band; influences include Reverend Horton Heat, Social Distortion, and Hank Williams III.
Location: the Mix
9.) Mark and Angela Walley: Creation to Consumption
Friday, January 17, 7 – 10 p.m.
Filmmakers Mark and Angela Walley are having the closing reception for their exhibition Creation to Consumption at Sala Diaz. The gallery space served as a product showroom to demonstrate the WALLEY POS-86, an awkward video camera created by the Walleys to represent a reverse trend in consumer electronics: "Through the use of sculpture, video, and design, Creation to Consumption satirizes the seemingly interminable production and distribution of new retail electronics."
Location & RSVP: Sala Diaz, 517 Stieren
10.) Dreamweek: 1005 Faces Exhibit Party
Saturday, January 18, 6 – 9 p.m.
Photographer Sarah Brooke Lyons set out to showcase the diversity of San Antonio through 1005 portraits of friends and strangers, members of her community. This mixer will bring everyone together for another DreamWeek event.
Location: Southwest School of Art
Tags: the mix, Anime, Mark and Angela Walley, Trinity University, southwest school of art, Sala Diaz, San Antonio Museum of Art, Liberty Bar, Blue Star Arts Complex, San Antonio Public Library, Anime at the Alamo, Nicolette Good, DreamWeek, Marlo Brando, On the Waterfront, 1005 Faces, The Loving Story, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Wonderland of Americas, Bar Brawl III, Video
« San Anto Cultural Arts Unveils Student-Designed Mural In Government Hill | 5 Things You Have to Do This Week »
San Antonio's 10th annual DreamWeek features a tapestry of events
San Antonio Museum of Art and Andrea 'Vocab' Sanderson to host online poetry reading next week
More by ARTSLUT
5 Things You Have To Do This Week
8 Free Events Happening This Week
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Maine's French Quarter Grill Read More
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2009 was Zuma's year
Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has been named the Newsmaker of the Year for 2009 by the National Press Club-Glenrand MIB.
The announcement was made by National Press Club Chairperson, Yusuf Abramjee who said 2009 was "Zuma's year".
"President Zuma was in the news for various reasons throughout 2009. He dominated the centimetre column space in the print media and much of the airwaves in the electronic media," said Abramjee today.
He added that the award was made on the grounds of impact, news value and media attention.
According to Monitoring SA, President Zuma was mentioned no less than 22 300 times in the South African print media, nearly 33 000 times in the broadcast media and over 12 500 times on online media during 2009.
Zuma is the fourth head of state to be named newsmaker of the year. Previous recipients were FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
In 2005, Zuma was named by the press club as Newsmaker of the Year when he was Deputy President of the ANC. At the time, he was in the midst of various legal battles.
"He was on the election campaign trail for months. Then, corruption charges against him were withdrawn, sparking much discussion and debate... It also made international headlines."
"He was subsequently elected President, inaugurated as the Head of State, appointed his cabinet, gave his first state of the nation address and then got down to work.
"During the year, Zuma made surprise visits to areas affected by service delivery, launched the Presidential hotline, announced his choice for the appointment of a new Chief Justice at the National Press Club, appointed a new National Director of Public Prosecutions and National Police Commissioner, made foreign visits, and we can go on and on and on... He was certainly in the news big time," said Abramjee.
He said that his first year as President also saw him engaging the media much more than his predecessors.
Other nominees for the 2009 newsmaker title included ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema, athlete Caster Semenya and former Springbok rugby captain Joost van der Westhuizen.


Will It Be All-In or Long Game for Packers Against Dallas?
When Aaron Rodgers said the Packers needed to be all-in last January, he was surely referring to bolstering the team through roster additions. General manager Ted Thompson obliged that request, with possibly his most active offseason in his time with the team.
As we all know, after the dust settles from the frenzy of activity in the offseason, there are real games to be played. In the world of professional sports in America, the NFL is unique in that its regular season schedule is significantly shorter than the other prominent leagues. Because of that, the importance of a single game on any given team's schedule is amplified.
Entering week five of the 2017 season, Green Bay sits at 3-1, tied with five other teams atop the NFC through one quarter of the year. Funnily enough, based on league tiebreaking procedures, the Packers would enter the playoffs as the NFC's sixth seed if the season ended today. When viewed through that lens, Sunday's clash with the Dallas Cowboys certainly takes on some extra meaning, especially if the Packers plan to make good on their wish of hosting games in the playoffs.
Of course, there's two sides of the coin. A week five loss and a 3-2 start is hardly a devastating blow to a team's playoff chances. Despite the 16-game schedule, teams have plenty of time to make up games lost this early in the season. Heck, we've seen Green Bay recover from much worse, much further down the road.
The biggest conversation piece surrounding the Packers at the moment is the names appearing on their injury report. Most notable among those names: starting tackles David Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga, defensive tackle Mike Daniels, running back Ty Montgomery and wide receiver Davante Adams. All five players were listed as limited participants in Thursday's practice, though Adams technically remains in the concussion protocol after leaving the field on a stretcher just a week ago. Based on those designations, it seems likely they will all enter the weekend as questionable for Sunday's game.
To make a long story short, all five of these key players have the potential to change games at their respective positions and, despite what the team did against Chicago, the Packers are going to need all five of them in order to check off their long-term goals for the season. The question, then, is how Mike McCarthy and his staff will approach the Dallas game from an availability standpoint.
On one hand, it's an intra-conference game against a likely playoff contender. Even though it's only week five, the outcome of this game could have implications down the road, through both head-to-head and overall record tiebreakers. If your best players can play, you play them.
Unless you're worried about what re-aggravation of their injuries could mean for their availability going forward. Traditionally, the Packers would rather play it safe on the injury front. Why rush a guy back if it means he'll be re-injured and miss more time, potentially at a more crucial juncture in the season?
Green Bay may be forced to weigh the best interest of the team against the best interests of their injured stars on Sunday. We'll see whether they push all their chips to the middle of the table, or wait for better cards and play the long game.
Fan friendly comments only: off Comments (9) This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
Yeah, but there are bigger fish to fry than "funnily" ... for example, that having a clear, coherent thought is a pretty important part of writing.
1) Bakh plays. He's had 4 weeks to heal.
2) Bulaga - test it on the field first. Legit game time decision. My rationale is it's turf and a fast track for edge guys. An ankle sprain limits lateral mobility that he needs.
3) DA - if he clears the protocol, he plays. That one is open/shut for me. If not, he waits.
4) Ty - I'd sit him in this one. We have guys who can handle their roles and don't need to risk him missing 4-6 weeks with guys targeting his ribs. Honestly, I'd sit him next week too.
5) Mr Daniels (you call him anything else at your own risk) - he plays. Same as Bakh - had 4 weeks to heal.
I think what he's saying is, there are professional athletes with access to elite training staff, and four weeks should be enough for most non-broken bones injuries to heal. I think these guys milk it too much, and the staff is way too conservative. I'll bet if they inactivated all of them, and took away their game checks, they'd be out there playing a lot sooner?
Milk it too much???? this isn't your Wednesday night beer softball league.
I don't believe these guys are "milking it". Truth is, the season is a long one and coming back a week too early, especially from a soft tissue injury can jeopardize their availability the remainder of the year. This is not the playoffs. They have to be smart about injuries, early in the year. Pretty confident, if they are given the green light by the medical staff, they'll play. This is the Cowboys after all.
Your probably right. The Packers are playing on turf this sunday, and that factors into what the medical staff will allow. It it were me, I sit them, I hate turf. Bad things happen to feet and quads on turf. Still, it's the Cowboys, and putting a pasting on the Cowboys in Jerry world would feel real good despite the risk.
If anyone thinks flackcatcher is wrong about turf and injuries, take a look at the vikings and their turf in the Stapler. Their star rookie RB, Cook, is done for the season after his left foot caught the turf and dragged on it causing him to tear his ACL on that knee. I'm thinking that turf is partly to blame for Bradford's and Teddy B.'s injuries, as well.


text:
LesbiAces
Lesbians from near and far welcome!
Your opinion on the butch and femme stereotypes?
This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by Anonymous.
January 27, 2018 at 1:04 am #29337
Just wanted to see how people stood on this. It seems like it's still very common in 2018 in the sapphic community that "every femme needs a butch" and vice versa. Is this true for you? Do you identify as butch or femme or neither?
I am 100% femme and I would love to date another femme since I'm typically more attracted to the girly type, but I've definitely fallen for some girls who were more neither. And I could totally see myself with a butch too! I just tend to gravitate toward people who share my girly interests.
I'm honestly stuck in the middle. I'm 100% tomboy. It sucks im not femme enough and I'm not butch enough.. I've dated both sides… I tend to date people who are more relaxed.. then again I've dated really high maintenance girls.. I always end up regretting that 😒
Kiah
I'm totally with you there, Kelsey. My personal preference is def other Femmes and it always has been. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't think some Futch / Tomboyish girls are super cute!! I think Butch and Femme are extremely important to some people as identifiers but I believe the stereotype is still nothing but a stereotype. In my own community, though its rather small, I see more unions between butchxbutch couples than butchxfemmes. We had our first gay marriage in my city not too long ago after the ban on gay marriage was finally abolished in my country and it was between a lovely butch couple.💖
That said, like many stereotypes I think it does have its harmful impacts. When I was young I used to worry that I wasn't lesbian enough because though I'd never been attracted to men in my life, I was always femme and I could never find myself attracted to very Butch girls, particularly stone Butch women and as a teen I was very heavily under the impression that Lesbian relationships had to be butchxfemme and that was just how it worked. A stupid thing to think but hey, I was 14, haha.
So yeah, I think the stereotype makes it awkward for lesbians sometimes, especially young ones. I think we should just love the type of women we love and thats that. That should be something we all try keep in mind because literally, femme and butch exist and they're often very important to people, but they don't have to exist exclusively as as a pair to each other and the idea is very.. I don't know… False simply put I think.
Plus, there are plenty of people who identify in the middle or simply neither so there should def be more consideration and remembrance toward that and the fact that in general we, and our relationships, are much more diverse and personal than just "femmexbutch" as the be all and end all.
December 22, 2020 at 1:09 am #32161
I don't invest a lot of time worrying about what gets other people through the day. What I am fed up with is the insane number of people who are comfortable asserting you have to be one or the other, the assumption being their view is "normal".
I have been on dates having a conversation about not conforming to stereotypes with the same woman who later expresses irritation that I don't look or act like a Stud, and the assumption being they are the Uberfemme.
Since I was a child, I have never understood why people who are wonderfully complex, interesting, messy, feel the need to oversimply, reduce each other into bite sized samples for easy consumption.
Across the spectrum of sexual orientation and gender expression, even the most socially conservative people are a mixed bag of what can loosely be called masculine and feminine traits.
In my view that is just plain intellectually and emotionally laziness, expressed by people who constantly complaining about being bored while passing up every opportunity to diving in deeper and explore their own nature and that of others.
Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combination
― TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", DIS: "Will You Take My Hand?"
I view the world through a ecological lens, so understanding people in context is my philosophy, my science, my art. In that cultural context the definition of womanhood I was acculturated to came from watching women who were strong, intelligent, educated, capable.
Most of them born between 1900 and 1930, married their best friend, helpmate, partners, women whose husbands listened to their opinions with the same due deference they gave other men. My father's mother was a Louisiana farm girl who put herself through college, left her redneck swamp roots, and moved the hell north first chance she got.
At church Grandma would quietly observe, "I question women who spend more time, talent, and treasure in what goes on their head, than in their head." I mean she was a stunningly beautiful woman, but just had a different set of priorities.
Because of her, I can run like a deer in high heels, hem a dress or pair of pants by hand, change the plugs and oil in my car or motorcycle, milk a cow or goat, drive a straight row with a 1954 John Deere, read compass by day or by the stars.
The only thing that drove my Grandpa and Da crazy was my Grandma and my Mamma taking me out to play like little kids in a thunderstorm. As a child, I seriously thought they were the ones calling the storm because one or the other would point to a leaf turn over on the breeze and say, "Smell the air child. You know what that means, don't you?"
I still love walking in the rain and how it feels on my skin, the smell of the air, the flash of lightning, and counting down the seconds until the thunder's roll, all of that makes the blood sing in my veins. All those women are dead and gone now, but every shower or walk among the tall trees carries their memory.
Clothing, makeup, what skills we learn and development do not make us more or less womanly. I question how the women who shook their fists in the air and chanted "Biology Is Not Destiny", women who sacrificed so much for freedom, are so quick to find another tiny box to fit into.
I am not a femme, lipstick lesbian, stud, or butch, but a rich and complicated woman, from a long line of such women. Either you invest getting to know me or don't waste my time.


DUBLIN, Ireland, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18968 ) has announced the addition of An analysis of biometric technology for automotive security applications to their offering.
Is Biometrics the answer to the rising trends of car-jacking and vehicle key-related crime?
Milton Keynes 17th March 2004 - "Vehicle security development has reached an important milestone. The use of immobiliser systems fitted to new vehicles has caused a change in theft techniques used by car thieves, and has resulted in a significant increase in the number of vehicles stolen using the original vehicle keys. A variety of methods are now being used to obtain the original keys, including deception, fraud, burglary, and direct force."
The increasing use of immobiliser systems has caused a change in theft techniques used by car thieves, resulting in a significant increase in the number of vehicles stolen using the original vehicle keys. The challenge facing the vehicle security industry is how to prevent this theft method. So how can we verify that it is the genuine vehicle owner who is using the vehicle key?
One possible solution to this verification problem is the use of biometric technologies.
This report investigates the application of biometrics within the automotive security industry. Four of the most developed technologies: fingerprint, iris, face and voice recognition, are analysed and compared against key factors such as cost, security, application and customer acceptance.
According to data from insurers in Holland, close to 80% of thefts of cars under 6 years old involved the theft of the car keys. The British Crime Survey 2001 puts this figure at 53% for the UK.
The challenge facing the vehicle security industry is how to prevent these theft methods. Some additional verification of the user is required to ensure that it is the genuine vehicle owner who is using the vehicle key.
One possible solution to this verification problem is the use of biometric technologies and this study investigates their application within the arena of vehicle security.
Who could benefit from buying this report? - Vehicle Manufacturers Can this technology enhance your vehicles? Which type of biometric solution offers the easiest practical implementation and why? What other factors must be considered? - Automotive Suppliers Is biometrics on your product portfolio? Should it be? What are the issues facing automotive manufacturers that you would be expected to have the answers to? - Biometric vendors Have you considered automotive security applications? Do you understand the implications?


Lorell Marin founded L.E.E.P. Forward when she saw a gap in the services for children with special needs aged 3-5 once they aged out of early intervention. Lorell deeply believes in the potential of every child and focuses on the relationship model to support the children, families and therapists of L.E.E.P. Forward. Her eclectic approach holds DIR ® (Developmental Individual-Difference Relationship-Based Therapy) at the center of the program and prioritizes a team approach.
She received her Masters of Science in Teaching from Pace University, Manhattan, N.Y and her Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from Richard Stockton State College, N.J. and Special Education certification through Felician College, NJ. In addition she has been credentialed as a Developmental Therapist in Illinois.
Presenting with Lorell will be Dana Hutchins, Lead Therapist at L.E.E.P. Forward. Dana is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has spent the past three years as a certified teacher in South Carolina. She earned her Bachelors of Science in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010.
While teaching, Dana strengthened her passion to work with children with special needs and their families. This prompted a long awaited move home in order to pursue a Masters degree in Child Development with a focus on special needs children from Erikson Institute. She also has a profectum certification.
In her free time, Dana enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking, and sampling as many of the fantastic restaurants that Chicago has to offer as she possibly can! Dana is thrilled to be a part of the LEEP Forward team and is looking forward to integrating her classroom experiences into her practice at LEEP in order to support each child to reach their highest potential.
How to navigate early childhood nutrition while using whole, sustainable and organic foods that your child will enjoy.
Confronting growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, in addition to a lack of access to healthy food in schools, Jason Weedon was inspired to start Gourmet Gorilla with his wife Danielle, to create a source for healthier, better tasting meals in schools in the Chicagoland area. At the same time, he also identified a lack of a robust local and sustainable food system to support the option of healthier meals. Gourmet Gorilla was created as a way to solve both of these issues.
Jason previously spent 12 years in environmental consulting, and received his MA in geology from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He is a member of the Great Lake Food Hub Network and through his leadership at Gourmet Gorilla, was awarded a 2011 HUFED, USDA grant to bring fresh produce programs to under served areas using schools as hubs. Jason's work centers around helping build healthier bodies and minds in our schools, and creating innovative ways to produce healthier meals and source more sustainable ingredients from our local food system.


A state lottery or state lootery?
The Christian ethic in those days was that you earned what you received in monetary wages and did so by the sweat of your brow. "Winning" at gambling would mean you were taking someone else's money that you did not earn and thus, you were a thief.
My, how times and Christian ethics have changed.
In the 1830s, evangelicals led the way in opposing state-sponsored gambling. From 1844 to 1859, 10 new state constitutions contained lottery bans. By 1890, lotteries were banned in every state except Delaware and Louisiana. Today, however, evangelicals including Southern Baptists are often leading the way in reinstituting state-run lotteries.
From the 1800s to our recent history, government-run gambling was not only recognized as immoral but was banned in every state. All this began to change in 1964 when the state of New Hampshire, a state without an income tax, instituted a state lottery.
Over the next 50-plus years, 43 states including three U.S. territories have instituted state-run gambling operations to pay for government programs, most often under the guise of funding public education.
Given my research on this issue, these lotteries are nothing less than predatory gambling that, in the end, exploits our poorest citizens.
Studies have proven that to make enough money to pay for the lottery and to bring in additional revenue, the state needs to rely on the poor to spend a disproportionate share of their income on lottery tickets.
All too often, what began as a well-intentioned way to provide funding for worthy projects, especially public education, becomes just another source of revenue for a voracious state treasury.
And now we have the additional Keno gambling program, a system that's often diverted for new purposes through legislative and bureaucratic chicanery.
A study by the Opinion Research Corporation for the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association found that 38 percent of people making less than $25,000 a year believed the lottery was the answer to their accumulating wealth.
Tragically, many of our poorest citizens believe this exploitive advertising. They take the bait, believing this is the only solution to their financial problems. That any state government would establish predatory gambling is disturbing. Yet states make it worse by promoting the lottery as a way for those with limited resources to secure their financial future.
From this writer's perspective, any politician who is not aware that a state-sponsored lottery is a regressive tax on the poor simply has not done his or her homework. For those who call themselves Christian, to support this form of plundering the poor only compounds this tragic system.


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Published on November 5th, 2017 | by Subhash Nair
Major Car Brands Work Together To Create Charging Stations Across Europe
BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche today announced joint venture IONITY that will develop and implement a High-Power Charging (HPC) network for electric vehicles across Europe.
Launching approximately 400 HPC stations by 2020, IONITY will make long-distance journeys easier and marks an important step for electric vehicles. Based in Munich, Germany, the joint venture is led by Chief Executive Officer Michael Hajesch and Chief Operating Officer Marcus Groll, with a growing team, set to number 50 by the start of 2018.
A total of 20 stations will be opened to the public this year, located on major roads in Germany, Norway and Austria, at intervals of 120 km, through partnerships with "Tank & Rast", " Circle K" and "OMV". Through 2018, the network will expand to more than 100 stations, each one enabling multiple customers, driving different manufacturer cars, to charge their vehicles simultaneously.
With a capacity of up to 350 kW per charging point, the network will use the European charging standard Combined Charging System to significantly reduce charging times compared to existing systems. The brand-agnostic approach and Europe-wide distribution is expected to help make electrified vehicles more appealing.
Choosing the best locations takes into account potential integration with existing charging technologies and IONITY is negotiating with existing infrastructure initiatives, including those supported by the participating companies as well as political institutions. The investment underlines the commitment that the participating manufacturers are making in electric vehicles and relies on international co-operation across the industry.
The founding partners, BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group, have equal shares in the joint venture, while other automotive manufacturers are invited to help expand the network.
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.


A black dyed tussar silk dupatta decorated with red kantha-embroidered floral patterns. The attractive kantha embroidery forms a stunning contrast with the dashing black dupatta. The fine, textured fabric and intricate embroidery add to its charm. Drape it over a black kurta to form a gorgeous outfit.


Blood & Nuts Toast is a super-easy, healthy breakfast or lunch. Blood Orange season is leaving and won't be back until November! They pack a sweet, intense, vitamin-C, potassium and antioxidant punch that compliments the earthy, savory, protein and acidophilus-teeming nut cheese, and the dense, artisan bread.
The directions are simple: Toast the bread, put a slice of nut-cheese and a sliver of orange on top! Viola! Simple enough for a child, yet sophisticated enough for a discerning palate.
Some of my favorite breads right now are the yeast-free Men's Bread & the Hemp Bread from French Meadow Bakery. French meadow also makes delicious vegan carrot cake, and other products.
I got my organic Blood Oranges at the 4th. St. Food Coop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. If you're outside of New York, check you local farmer's market, coop, or grocery store. Blood oranges are a mutation of the sweet orange, and contain a pigment typically found in other fruits and flowers, but not usually in citrus.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under food, green, Health, organic, recipes, vegan, vegetarian.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
What an amazing looking concoction! I love blood oranges when they are in season.
I love this! I'm addicted to Dr. Cow but have only used it on flax crackers so far.
look at that photo! you're the artiest.
truly fitting. Do you find that many folks in your social circles dig this delightful treat?


Cape Town, South Africa: formed in 2006, Bulletscript developed into something of a staple for the Cape Town metalhead. However, the band fell silent a year ago following Ian Watson's departure as vocalist when he moved on to pursue his career as a touring sound engineer.
Recently, Bulletscript unveiled its latest member with this stunning photograph; none other than Brett Bruton, formerly from All Guns Full Ammo. With the unveiling come a few gig date announcements.
Of course, any band which experiences a member change can expect certain shifts in the undercurrents of creativity. Many will be locked into a certain style following previously released material; others will flourish in new directions. For the band members it remains a question of attitude and, for these guys, the attitude speaks of: opportunity.
To date, Brett will be Bulletscript's fifth vocalist. No doubt, he has some big shoes to fill. Former vocalists include Warren Alexander (also The Summer Underground), Joel Jardim (also Azrail), George Schoombee (also Sacraphyx) and of course, Ian Watson. Whilst Bulletscript was Ian's first frontman role, the stalwart musician played guitar and provided backing vocals for legendary rock act, Lithium during the 90s.
Nonetheless, Brett enjoys his own credential as the ultra-expressive, unhinged-looking vocalist for All Guns Full Ammo. Now he will lend his magic to the Bulletscript camp and has embraced personal growth as a vocalist.


text:
Details could delay vote on legal pot
Monday, May 13, 2019 7:11 AM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Disagreements over the details of proposals to legalize recreational marijuana for adults in New York could prevent a vote on the measure this year.
Despite broad support for legalization among many lawmakers, negotiations have yet to resolve several big questions, including whether the state would expunge the criminal records of people with past pot convictions.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top lawmakers had hoped to reach agreement on a legalization bill before the Legislature adjourns for the year next month.
Legalization advocates say lawmakers have had enough time and are urging lawmakers to vote soon.
A similar story is playing out in next door New Jersey. There, legalization proposals have struggled to gain traction despite support from top officials including the governor.


The tones were sepia, but Sylvia would have bet all of last year's investment returns that the man's eyes were a turquoise blue. Beneath the edges of his army side cap, she could see his coarse hair, cut short. Thin lips stretched around a toothy smile. He also bore the familiar sliver of a white scar across his chin.
Sitting on uncut grass with his hands resting on his knees, he didn't seem concerned about dirtying his olive-green service coat or matching slacks. Crow's feet made the man look old, but something about that face reminded Sylvia the lines had more to do with the hard quality of his years than their number.
"Oh," Sylvia said, barely able to peel her eyes away from the photograph. "I'm fine, Clara." She managed a gracious smile, but based on her assistant's reaction, Sylvia didn't have a doubt in her mind that she came across as anything other than needing help. She must have been staring slack-jawed at the same spot for minutes.
She'd begun to doubt it would ever happen, to the point that she'd mostly forgotten. What sort of cosmic fate allowed this picture to wind up at an antique shop that Sylvia had passed many times but had only entered today on a whim? How long had it been here, waiting for her?
Clara started to turn away.
Her assistant paused while Sylvia opened the door of the glass curio cabinet and reached past the Hummel figurines and marble ashtrays. Her wrinkled hands shook slightly as she took hold of the dusty, twelve-by-fifteen picture frame leaning against the back of the cabinet. As she held it close to her face, she felt herself getting lost in the image once again.
"Do you like that frame?" Clara asked.
"Yes," Sylvia replied without hesitation. "I want to purchase this." The price tag made mention of 1918, Tiffany & Co. sterling silver, and $1,495.
Clara grabbed the frame and Sylvia reluctantly let go.
"No, just that," Sylvia replied.
Clara narrowed her eyebrows and nodded. "Yes, of course. No problem." She stepped away with the frame. Relieved, Sylvia closed her eyes and put a hand on the corner of the cabinet to maintain her balance. She pictured the man in the photo, trying to count the years in which she had last thought of him. Trying to remember every moment together before he left for France.
Very nicely done, Phillip. I enjoyed this story!