Procter & Gamble shares are tumbling on the day after UBS downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral." The analyst who made the call says there are better bets if you are looking to invest in consumer packaged goods. Nik Modi, analyst at UBS, weighs i...
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Android's No. 1, apparently, when it comes to No. 1 and No. 2. That's right, a survey of 1,000 Americans by marketing agency 11mark has found that Android users are more likely to pick up their phone while in the loo, to the tune of 87 percent. That's three percentage points higher than our BlackBerry brethren, and 10 percentage points higher than iPhone users.
But it's BlackBerry users who are more likely to do business while doing their business, with 75 percent of them taking a call while answering the call. Us Android folk do so 67 percent of the time, and iPhone users take calls 60 percent of the time.
You can check out the full report at the link below. Bonus points if you do so from your phone on the throne.
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FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2010 file photo, Grand Ole Opry veteran Bill Anderson performs on the circle of wood at the center of the stage in the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. The show is the first to be held in the Opry House since the facility was heavily damaged by floodwaters in May 2010. The circle of wood was taken from the Ryman Auditorium, a former home of the Opry, when the show moved to the present Grand Ole Opry House in 1974. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)
FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2010 file photo, Grand Ole Opry veteran Bill Anderson performs on the circle of wood at the center of the stage in the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. The show is the first to be held in the Opry House since the facility was heavily damaged by floodwaters in May 2010. The circle of wood was taken from the Ryman Auditorium, a former home of the Opry, when the show moved to the present Grand Ole Opry House in 1974. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? It's time for a new stage at Ryman Auditorium, a significant moment in the history of a building known for its significant moments.
Scuffed by the heels of "The King," ''The Queen of Soul" and thousands of singers in cowboy boots, scarred by an uncountable stream of road cases and worn by six decades of music history, the Ryman's oak floorboards have reached the end of a very long, very successful run.
"That stage has had a wonderful life," said Steve Buchanan, senior vice president of media and entertainment for Gaylord Entertainment, owners of the Ryman.
The current stage is just the second in the 120-year history of the "Mother Church" after the original was installed in 1901 for a performance of the Metropolitan Opera. It was laid down in 1951 and has lasted far longer than expected. The stage was refinished during a renovation in 1993-94 and even then officials knew it would be the last resurfacing. Today it's heavily scuffed and scarred, its age easily visible from the Ryman's balcony.
The Ryman is still the building most associated with The Grand Ole Opry, though it moved to the Opry House in 1974, and has hosted a number of significant moments in American culture.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash stood together on those boards and changed music. Cultures clashed there too when the boo birds took on country rockers The Byrds. Today the Ryman is a much sought-after destination point for musicians of all genres and many shows take on a unique aura.
Dylan recently returned, more than 40 years after "Nashville Skyline." Taylor Swift sang there recently with her good friends, The Civil Wars. Even the heaviest of rockers get a little nostalgic, like Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who said it was an honor to get drunk while performing in the building last year.
Keith Urban, making his return from vocal surgery, will be among the last performers on the stage when the Opry plays its final winter date Friday at The Ryman. Dierks Bentley will play the last standalone concert Thursday.
As a young, aspiring performer in Nashville more than a decade ago, Bentley would run his fingers along the building's brickwork late at night as he walked home from performing on Lower Broadway, daydreaming of playing on that stage. He calls it "one of the most precious places in Nashville and in country music to me."
"The significance of that stage and who played there before me will definitely be in the back of my head all night," Bentley said in an email. "As a member of the Grand Ole Opry, I couldn't be any prouder."
That a busy venue needs a new stage is not necessarily news. The stage at the Opry's permanent home, for instance, has been changed multiple times over the years with little comment. But when the Ryman stage is replaced, officials in some sense are altering an icon that is closely watched by sometimes vocal guardians of its cultural significance.
Officials are prepared for questions. They point out the building has gone through many upgrades over the years and that each step was vital to preserving the building. Most recently the roof was replaced in 2009.
"We're not in the business of getting rid of old things just to get rid of them," Ryman general manager Sally Williams said.
They will retain an 18-inch lip of the blonde oak at the front of the stage, similar to the way the Ryman stage was commemorated in a circle of wood at the new Opry House. The rest of the stage will be stored and replaced with a medium brown Brazilian teak that will be far more durable and camera friendly.
Beneath the stage, the original hickory support beams will be kept and reinforced with concrete foundations, crossbeams and joist work that will help triple the stage's load capacity.
Work will begin Feb. 4 and continue seven days a week until Feb. 20, when rising country stars The Band Perry will make its Ryman debut with a sold-out show. Tours will continue throughout the work, allowing members of the public to watch.
Williams says she's gotten no negative feedback as word has spread because everyone understands the importance of the project.
"I think it will be interesting because I think it's obvious we're doing something ensuring that people will be coming here and having those Ryman moments in 120 years," she said.
___
Online:
http://www.ryman.com
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A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That's why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Founder Soup program. It's designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch, not to raise funding but to recruit co-founders. At its first full-scale event on Thursday night I saw an effective model for fostering startups, and several brilliant ideas in health tech and energy (reviewed here) that could turn into successful companies.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eImjvmvIths/
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PARIS ? British actress Kate Winslet is to receive an honorary award next month from organizers of the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.
The versatile 36-year-old now on French screens in Roman Polanski's clashing-couples film "Carnage" will receive the honorary Cesar at the ceremony on Feb. 24.
France's Academy of Cinematic Arts and Techniques presented nominations for the 37th Cesar Awards ceremony on Friday.
Child-protection drama "Polisse" led with 13 nominations, while silent, black-and-white film "The Artist" garnered 11.
France's National Cinematic Center has said French movie theaters sold 211 million tickets last year ? a 45-year high, and a 4-percent increase from 2010.
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SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Phil Mickelson doesn't lack faith in his game. He just doesn't have an explanation for a shoddy start to his season.
One week after he had to rally to make the cut in his 2012 debut at the Humana Challenge, he didn't come close to making the cut at Torrey Pines, getting the weekend off at his hometown event for the first time in 10 years.
"I've got to let it go and move on," Mickelson said.
The Farmers Insurance Open goes forward Saturday with Kyle Stanley, a 24-year-old with the skills of a rising star, making seven birdies on the South Course to overcome a double bogey for a 4-under 68. That gave him a 130 total and a one-shot lead over Brandt Snedeker, who had a 64 on the easier North Course and is making a habit of getting into contention at Torrey Pines.
Mickelson, meanwhile, headed home to nearby Rancho Santa Fe to do a little work and get ready for the Phoenix Open next week.
What's the problem? He's not sure.
On paper, it was the 11 bunkers he found on the South Course that led to an opening 77 and forced him to go low on the North just to make it to the weekend. Mickelson needed to make a move when he made the turn and headed to the front nine, which starts with three birdie holes. He played them in even par, and his lot was effectively cast.
"I don't feel like there's any one area that I feel about my game," Mickelson said. "It's just that I'm not bringing it from the practice session onto the golf course yet. I'm not sure why that is. But the good news is in my practice sessions, it's been great in every area.
"The scores look like I'm way off," he said. "But it doesn't look far off."
The flip side of that would be Snedeker.
After the Asia Pacific Classic the last week of October, Snedeker flew home Malaysia and had surgery on his hip. He was on crutches for most of the offseason, returned to practice and came back out earlier than he expected at the Humana Challenge, where he went into the final round with a chance to win and settled for a tie for eighth.
One week later, he's in the final group going into the weekend.
"I'm certainly surprised that I played this well this fast," Snedeker said. "Normally, it takes me a while to get the rust off. But my practice at home went really, really well. I was actually chomping at the bit to get out here because I knew I was playing well.
"Hopefully, that can happen through the weekend."
Sang-Moon Bae, a PGA Tour rookie who is No. 34 in the world, had a 67 to match the best score on the South for the second round. That put him two shots behind at 12-under 132, along with Martin Flores, who also had a 67 on the South.
Hunter Mahan shot 65 on the North, while FedEx Cup champion Bill Haas had a 71 on the South. They were three shots behind.
The cut came at 2-under 142, and there will be another cut Saturday because more than 78 players are still around. That group includes Geoff Ogilvy, who birdied his last hole on the North for a 70, and Ernie Els, who was at 3-under 141.
Stanley goes about his work quietly. He prefers boring golf of fairways and greens, though there was a little too much excitement when his 7-iron from the rough jumped on his and went over the green, down the slope and into the hazard. He chipped to 5 feet and missed the putt, taking double bogey, effectively wiping out the two birdies he had made.
He followed that with a bogey from the bunker on the par-3 16th.
"I got off to a good start, and it was tough to take," Stanley said. "But you've just got to be patient out here."
That he was. He had birdie putts on the last 11 holes he played and birdied all the par 5s. As a testament to his length, he hit his tee shot 346 yards on the par-5 ninth, and hit 2-iron from 270 yards.
"Not a very good one," he said, though it left him an up-and-down from the bunker for one last birdie.
Mickelson had said at the start of the week that he expected to win early during the West Coast swing, which he based on how well he was playing casual rounds and how well he felt during practice. For most of the offseason, he spent up to three hours a day on the green he built in his backyard, going back to his blade putter, trying to get feel back in his hands.
"The exciting thing for me is the last two years, I have not felt good on the greens, and I feel better than I have in years," he said. "I'm making a lot more putts than I've made in years. Each round I'm making extra putts that I haven't been making."
It's just not adding up, and Mickelson was more than a little wistful when he gazed at the blue sky and talked about a perfect weekend of weather on a public course along the Pacific bluffs, one of his favorite places to be this time of the year.
"I'd love to be playing," he said. "But I don't have that opportunity."
Instead, he walked off toward the gallery and stood in place for some 20 minutes to sign autographs.
"Last one," he said, and as a dozen or so people groaned, Mickelson added, "I just wanted to be sure I took care of the kids." Just like that, two youngsters came to the front of the wooden railing, and Lefty smiled and kept signing.
What to expect next week in Phoenix?
"I won't know until Thursday," he said.
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It's a very unsettling time because nothing seems to get done in Washington during an election year, according to Mark Olson, Treliant Risk Advisors co-chairman/former Fed governor.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korea staged live-fire drills Thursday from a front-line island shelled by North Korea in 2010, the first such exercise since North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died last month.
Marines at Yeonpyeong Island and nearby Baengnyeong Island fired artillery into waters near the disputed sea border during the two-hour-long drills, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. The drills were routine exercises and there haven't been any suspicious activities by North Korea's military, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
South Korea last held artillery drills at the front-line islands on Dec. 12, five days before Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack, the official said. Similar drills at Yeonpyeong in November 2010 triggered a North Korean artillery bombardment that killed four South Koreans.
Ties between the two Koreas remain frosty with North Korea vowing to retaliate against South Korea over its decision to bar all of its citizens, except for two private delegations, from visiting to pay respects after Kim's death.
The two sides are still technically at war because their conflict in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Tension between the countries sharply rose in 2010 in the wake of North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong and a deadly warship sinking blamed on Pyongyang. North Korea has flatly denied its involvement in the sinking that killed 46 sailors.
South Korean and U.S. troops regularly conduct joint military drills, drawing angry responses from North Korea, which consider them as a rehearsal for a northward invasion.
On Sunday, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency blasted South Korea and the United States over reports they plan a large-scale amphibious drills in March. A KCNA dispatch said the planned drills showed the allies' "wild design to stifle (North Korea) by force of arms."
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Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, look toward moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN as they participate in the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, look toward moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN as they participate in the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talk during a commercial break at the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum participates in the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney accuses Newt Gingrich of calling Spanish a "ghetto language." Close, but not quite.
Gingrich denies doing so and said he merely promoted the use of English, "period." That's even more of a stretch.
The last Republican presidential debate before the GOP Florida primary Thursday brought viewers a blitz of charges and countercharges over immigration, the financial lives of the candidates and more. Here are how some of the claims compare with the facts:
GINGRICH: "It's taken totally out of context.... I did not say it about Spanish. I said in general about all languages. We are better for children to learn English in general, period."
THE FACTS: At issue is Romney's Spanish-language radio ad running in Florida that says Gingrich branded Spanish a ghetto language in a 2007 speech. In the contentious remarks in question, much more came after Gingrich's "period."
In his speech to the National Federation of Republican Women, Gingrich advocated making English the official language, a position he still holds, and added: "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."
He did not explicitly call Spanish a ghetto language. But at the time, the remark was widely taken to mean Spanish, overwhelmingly the main foreign language spoken in the United States and the primary language of many immigrants.
Gingrich recognized as much when, in response to a Hispanic backlash against his remark, he made an online video days after the speech in which he more or less apologized for his choice of words and for producing "a bad feeling within the Latino community."
___
ROMNEY on the same topic: "I doubt that's my ad, but we'll take a look and find out."
THE FACTS: It's his ad.
___
RICK SANTORUM: "You had a president of the United States that held (up) a Colombian free trade agreement. Colombia, who's out there on the front lines working with us against the narco-terrorists, standing up to Chavez in South America ? and what did we do? ... The president of the United States sided with organized labor and the environmental groups and held Colombia hanging out to dry for three years."
THE FACTS: When President Barack Obama took office, he actually tried to revive a free-trade deal with Colombia that had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor but left to languish without congressional approval, just as he tried to make similar progress with South Korean and Panamanian free-trade pacts. He bucked considerable opposition from organized labor and fellow Democrats in doing so.
Obama did hold off on submitting the three deals to Congress as his administration tried to negotiate more palatable terms to Democrats. He finally submitted them in 2011 and Congress approved them in the fall ? with substantial GOP support and a fair amount of Democratic opposition.
___
ROMNEY: "Obamacare takes over health care for the American people."
THE FACTS: Obama's health care overhaul does increase the role of the federal government in the health care system, but even after it is fully implemented in 2019, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says 56 percent of Americans under age 65 will be covered by employer plans, about the same share as today. That's hardly a takeover.
___
ROMNEY: Fannie and Freddie are "offering mortgages again to people who can't possibly repay them. We're creating another housing bubble, which will hurt the American people."
THE FACTS: If there is another housing bubble forming, most homebuilders, mortgage lenders and real estate agents would like to find it. Instead, the housing market remains depressed, with sales low and home prices falling.
Fannie and Freddie don't sell or offer any mortgages. Their function has always been to support the housing market by purchasing mortgages from banks, packaging them into bonds and guaranteeing the bonds against default. This proved costly when the housing bubble burst: The two entities were formally taken over by the government in 2008 and have since cost taxpayers $150 billion.
The two mortgage giants are still functioning under government receivership, and now own or guarantee nearly all new mortgages, because banks are reluctant to make loans without the agencies' support. But banks have significantly toughened their credit standards since the housing bubble and are requiring higher credit scores and bigger down payments. That is causing an increasing number of home sales contracts to fall through as would-be buyers are unable to get mortgage loans.
___
SANTORUM: Criticized the Obama administration for its "abysmal treatment" of allies in Latin America, and said Obama has a "consistent policy of siding with the leftists, siding with the Marxists, siding with those who don't support democracy."
THE FACTS: Obama has not sided with the leading leftists, such as those ruling Cuba and Venezuela, and instead has roundly criticized them.
It's true that Latin America has been on the back burner for much of Obama's tenure, as he concentrated on other parts of the world, including the Middle East. But Obama visited three countries in Latin America last year, and the Panamanian and Colombian trade agreements were part of the biggest round of trade liberalization since the North American Free Trade Agreement and other pacts of that era.
___
ROMNEY: "My investments are not made by me. My investments for the last 10 years have been in a blind trust, managed by a trustee."
THE FACTS: Not all of his investments have been in a blind trust. Romney's personal financial disclosure forms show he owned between $250,001 and $500,000 in the Federated Government Obligation Fund, which contained mutual-fund notes of politically sensitive Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. An addendum to Romney' disclosure forms says that certain assets ? including the federated fund ? were outside the scope of his blind trust.
The investment was not on Romney's 2007 financial form, making it a relatively new one ? just as the housing and financial crises were hitting Americans full force.
___
RON PAUL: Obama "promises to end the wars, but the wars expand."
THE FACTS: By the most obvious measures, the wars are shrinking. Last month, the U.S. pulled its last troops out of Iraq, fulfilling a pledge by Obama to end the war there.
Obama did escalate America's fight in Afghanistan, announcing in December 2009 that he was sending an additional 33,000 troops.
The U.S. and its NATO partners in late 2010 agreed to end the combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. As part of that plan, Obama fulfilled his promise to bring 10,000 troops home from Afghanistan by the end of last year, and is moving ahead with plans to pull an additional 23,000 out by this fall. There are now about 90,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
___
GINGRICH: "We're in a continuous state of war where Obama undermines the Israelis."
ROMNEY: "This president went before the United Nations and castigated Israel for building settlements. He said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip."
THE FACTS: Obama has spoken at length about the plight of the Israelis and has talked about an Israeli girl near Gaza who fears for her life because of the rocket attacks launched by Hamas. In a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Obama said both Israel and Palestine have a right to exist, but the U.S. does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. That's not only the view of his administration; it's long-held U.S. policy. Despite that, the administration sided with Israel by vetoing a U.N. resolution that would have condemned its settlement policy.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Lolita C. Baldor, Jim Drinkard, Christopher S. Rugaber, Jack Gillum and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
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"This is a film made for a guy like me. A guy who wasted, wastes, and will waste hours and hours on movies because they are simply my life and I feel quite sad that I still cannot express through words what I feel when I watch these movies." Michel Hazanavicius' reverence towards the artistry of the era of silent films lashes out a poetic mediation on Hollywood and also on the life of the artists that we adore. "The Artist" jumps over the gimmick form and gives it's content a great value. Filled with emotion and joy, the film succeeds to deliver not only one of the best tributes to our cinema but also one of the sweetest love stories and stories of struggle and dedication. The story is quite ravishing. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a silent-film actor faces the prospect of change, true love, loneliness, disappointment and commitment to the acting world. The hard time of accepting change in the art that made you a great man is understandable. The desire to fight against the current is a theme that lives through this emotional mirage. The power to accept it though, the power to fight for yourself as a human being and for your artistry is the brave resolution a honest man will always come to. Being an actor is not an easy job. You have to deal with your own ego, with your own passion and desire to change the world through your work. You have to give up your pride and surrender to the new. You have to also embrace and remember the past and who you were. You have to deal with eventual financial collapse and work your way to the top again. You have to handle personal frustrations and the frustration of others. It's a messy character that you become in the real life but for an actor... what's the definition of "real life"? The same issues our protagonist must face. Thanks to a great character design and development, George Valentin and his little four-legged friend become truly unforgettable on screen. Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) is the new pair of legs in Hollywood. A breath of fresh air which got acquainted with the acting world thanks to George. She's passionate and has a warm heart but she's dedicated to a life that George does not understand yet. The relationship between these two progresses beautifully by adding salty moments through the vast display of typical but funny situations. Their chemistry is one of the best I've seen in recent years in movies and obviously it works like hell. You cannot hold but to embrace these characters and support them and cheer for them. This movie was made to move audiences by using a technique that has been lost in the archives of natural beauty. However, the film's main purpose is still to pay respects to the classics. You can see that through the elements of both acting and storytelling met in the classic films of Hollywood. The technical execution is also superb giving the film a sense of realism and authenticity. The score composed by Ludovic Bource is simply brilliant. Subtle, full of energy and emotion, and quite varied. The addition of a classic musical masterpiece like the Vertigo theme is the stand out moment. A powerful tool used perfectly in suiting our characters evolution and the most important moments in our story. "The Artist" is brilliant especially in this age and it deserves all the praise and all the nominations and awards in all the categories. Tragic, inspiring, emotional and most of all, melancholic. This movie really shows it's artistry through it's design, it's craft, it's acting, it's tribute to the greatness of cinema but most of all, through it's beautiful story. This is a film made for a guy like me. A guy who wasted, wastes, and will waste hours and hours on movies because they are simply my life and I feel quite sad that I still cannot express through words what I feel when I watch these movies. They complete me. I could go on and on on the importance of this film in today's puzzled world. However, I will not do that and I will only advise you to watch it and can only hope for you to enjoy it as much as I did. Storyline: 9.0 Acting: 10 Technical Execution: 9.3 Replay Value: 9.0 =================== Overall: 9.3
January 23, 2012Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_artist/
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COATESVILLE, New Zealand?? Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing site Megaupload.com who faces a lengthy jail term in the United States if convicted of racketeering, money laundering and Internet piracy, seems to have a mischievous sense of humor.
Shortly after arriving in New Zealand in 2010 and moving into a sprawling luxury estate near Auckland, Dotcom emailed a neighbor who had raised questions about his character, having previously been convicted as a hacker in Germany.
The email was addressed to the local Neighborhood Watch, a community group aimed at stopping crime in the Coatesville area, a nouveau riche community of hobby farms and wealthy city workers.
"First of all, let me assure you that having a criminal neighbor like me comes with benefits," Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, wrote in the email, which was sent to Reuters by neighbor France Komoroske.
"1. Our newly opened local money laundering facility can help you with your tax fraud optimization. 2. Our network of international insiders can provide you with valuable stock tips. 3. My close personal relations with other (far worse) criminals can help you whenever you have to deal with a nasty neighbor," Dotcom quipped in the email, which Reuters has not been able to corroborate.
Komoroske said the email startled her family.
But Dotcom did try to allay his neighbor's concerns.
"In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and 'We come in peace'," he wrote.
"Fifteen years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading. Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for.
"Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people," he added.
Dotcom then asked his neighbor to choose.
"Now you can make a choice: 1: Call Interpol, the CIA, and the Queen of England and try to get me on the next plane out of New Zealand. 2: Sit back, relax and give me a chance to do good for New Zealand and possibly the neighborhood."
Doctom then invited his neighbor over for coffee, adding "... and don't forget to bring the cocaine (joke). All the best, Kim."
Komoroske said she replied to Dotcom, saying, "We'd love to come over for coffee. How's tomorrow?"
But the invitation was never taken up, after Dotcom demanded Komoroske bring another neighbor, calling the two of them "leaders of the Coatesville Inquisition movement."
Reuters was unable to contact Dotcom, who is in custody, and an email to his lawyer was not answered.
Other neighbors spoken to by Reuters said Doctom lived almost a reclusive life in his rented 30-acre estate, occasionally seen driving on the local winding roads, but getting his entourage to organize any jobs on the property.
A New Zealand judge on Wednesday ordered Dotcom ? who stands 6-feeet, 6-inches tall and weighs more than 285 lbs ? to be held in custody for another month, saying the suspected Internet pirate posed a significant flight risk.
Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, faces a February 22 hearing of an extradition application by the United States.
Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that netted $175 million by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.
His lawyers say his company, megaupload.com, simply offered online storage, and that he will fight extradition.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46129325/ns/technology_and_science-security/
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FILE - This Jan. 8, 2012 file photo shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords waving at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords announced, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)
FILE - This Jan. 8, 2012 file photo shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords waving at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords announced, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)
This video image provided by the Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, walking. Giffords announced Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)
FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2012, file photo Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, left, accompanied by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, reacts after leading the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors one year after the Arizona congresswoman was wounded in a shooting that killed six othersin Tucson, Ariz. Giffords said Sunday Jan, 22, 2012, that she will resign from Congress this week. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago that shook the country.
"I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said on a video posted without prior notice on her Facebook page.
"I'm getting better. Every day my spirit is high," she said. "I have more work to do on my recovery. So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."
Giffords was shot in the head and grievously wounded last January as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Her progress had seemed remarkable, to the point that she was able to walk dramatically into the House chamber last August to cast a vote.
Her shooting prompted an agonizing national debate about super-charged rhetoric in political campaigns, although the man charged in the shooting later turned out to be mentally ill.
In Washington, members of Congress were told to pay more attention to their physical security. Legislation was introduced to ban high-capacity ammunition clips, although it never advanced.
Under state law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer must call a special election to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term, which ends at the end of 2012.
President Barack Obama on Sunday called Giffords "the very best of what public service should be."
"Gabby's cheerful presence will be missed in Washington," Obama said. "But she will remain an inspiration to all whose lives she touched ? myself included. And I'm confident that we haven't seen the last of this extraordinary American."
Vice President Joe Biden said he had spoken with Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, and told him "the most important thing is Gabby's recovery."
"I know that Gabby will continue to make significant contributions to her state and country, and I stand with her in whatever endeavor she decides to pursue," Biden said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he saluted Giffords "for her service and for the courage and perseverance she has shown in the face of tragedy. She will be missed."
In a statement, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that "since the tragic events one year ago, Gabby has been an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of Americans."
Democratic officials had held out hope for months that the congresswoman might recover sufficiently to run for re-election or even become a candidate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jon Kyl.
The shooting on Jan. 8, 2011, left six people dead, a federal judge and a Giffords aide among them. Twelve others were wounded.
A 23-year-old man, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the shooting. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and is being forcibly medicated at a Missouri prison facility in an effort by authorities to make him mentally ready for trial.
In the months since she was shot, Giffords, 41, has been treated in Houston as well as Arizona as she re-learned how to walk and speak.
She made a dramatic appearance on the House floor Aug. 2, when she unexpectedly walked in to vote for an increase in the debt limit. Lawmakers from both parties cheered her presence, and she was enveloped in hugs.
More recently, she participated in an observance of the anniversary of the shooting in Arizona.
In "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," a book released last year that she wrote with her husband, she spoke of how much she wanted to get better, regain what she lost and return to Congress.
She delivers the last chapter in her own voice, saying in a single page of short sentences and phrases that everything she does reminds her of that horrible day and that she was grateful to survive.
"I will get stronger. I will return," she wrote.
Giffords was shot in the left side of the brain, the part that controls speech and communication.
Kelly commanded the space shuttle Endeavour on its last mission in May. She watched the launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Kelly, who became a NASA astronaut in 1996 and made four trips into space aboard the space shuttle, retired in October.
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? Tornadoes were spotted in Arkansas as storms moved through parts of the South and Midwest late Sunday and early Monday, prompting reports of damaged homes and tornado warnings in some areas.
The National Weather Service says it's received reports of damage to homes and other buildings in Alabama.
In Arkansas, there were possible tornadoes in Arkansas, Dallas, Lonoke, Prairie and Cleveland counties Sunday night. The storms also brought hail and strong winds as they moved through parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Mississippi.
Tornado warnings were in effect for parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama early Monday.
National Weather Service forecaster Marlene Mickelson in Memphis, Tenn., told The Associated Press the Memphis area had some damage from winds that reached 60 to 70 mph.
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CHICUREO, Chile ? Felicita Pinto arrived early at the gates of the luxurious community where she labors as a maid, but the minibus to her employer's home was late. So she decided to walk six blocks to work, on streets lined with broad lawns and imposing homes.
Security guards quickly chased her down and forced the 57-year-old widow back to the gate. Pinto's employer protested, as he had before, against the community bylaws that forbid servants to move at will.
Pinto's simple stroll helped set off national soul-searching over discrimination and mistreatment of domestic workers across Chile, where leaders ache to be accepted as representing an enlightened, developed nation. Local news media heard of the case and outrage followed when another homeowner in the El Algarrobal II development sought to justify the restrictions.
"Can you imagine what it would be like here if all the maids were walking outside, all the workers walking in the street and their children on bicycles?" neighbor Ines Perez told a local television channel.
Her comments prompted such a wave of insults and threats that Perez was forced to close her Facebook page.
Discrimination toward domestic workers is among the more entrenched social ills in Latin America and beyond. In luxury complexes just south of Peru's capital, maids can't swim in the ocean until their employers have left the water. In Mexico City, some luxury restaurants prohibit maids from sitting down to eat and some high-rises force workers to take the service elevators.
In today's Chile, however, human rights activists are challenging low pay, long hours and discrimination that afflict domestic workers. And so Pinto's decision to skip the bus has lit debate on social networks and has filled newspaper pages and radio and TV broadcasts with commentary. Thousands signed on to an Internet campaign against the subdivision's protocols, and about 20 people demonstrated in front of the gates on Saturday, some dressed as zombies in maid uniforms.
Pinto said the rules are humiliating.
"I feel just as if was a prisoner, a delinquent, a thief," Pinto told the Associated Press, describing several encounters with the guards.
Other workers are complaining as well.
Shortly before Pinto's rebellion became public, a nanny who works nearby in the Brisas de Chicureo Golf Club wasn't allowed to enter a pool with the 3-year-old girl she watches because she wasn't wearing the traditional maid's apron that all domestic workers are required to wear on the property. Chile's domestic workers union sued, and an appellate court on Jan. 5 granted an injunction suspending the uniform rule.
Edith Alonso, a maid in a nearby gated community, was among those protesting Saturday. She said she has got a good position now, but with a previous employer, "I suffered hunger, they counted every piece of fruit and bread, they made special food for themselves and forgot about the maid."
The administration of El Algarrobal II did not respond to requests from the AP for comment, but in an email to Pinto's employer, British shipping executive Bruce Taylor, it argued that maids, nannies, waiters, gardeners, construction workers and pool cleaners must ride the minibus to keep them from "committing robberies or providing information relevant to the privacy of other neighbors on their way to the house where they say they work."
There are more than 250 luxury homes in the complex, one of many gated communities in Chicureo, which 15 years ago was a bucolic rural town just north of the capital. Now, Chicureo has expensive private schools, a private health clinic and a walled-off toll highway that links it to other wealthy suburbs without exits to surrounding poor- and middle-class neighborhoods.
It's not easy to reach the town using public transportation, so the gated communities provide a refuge of sorts from the turmoil, traffic and crime that Chileans in other parts of the sprawling capital suffer. Still, as many as 700 workers a day enter El Algarrobal II. And until this month, each paid the equivalent of 60 cents each way for the minibus ride.
News about Pinto's complaints prompted the administration to suspend the fees.
Pinto's latest act of civil disobedience in December wasn't her first. Taylor said that several months earlier, she and his gardener, Claudio Marquez, refused to wait for the minibus and began to walk, "but the guards shoved her into a security vehicle, and kicked Claudio, who decided to quit" rather than submit, Taylor told the AP. Before that, still another gardener had been beaten by the guards and forced into a vehicle, he said in court papers.
Taylor has sued to overturn the bylaw against letting servants walk in the community, but judges have turned him down, saying the administrators have not acted illegally or arbitrarily, and that the rules were supported by a majority of the residents.
"The justice system didn't want to rule on the heart of the matter, the discrimination, and so other home owners here feel like they can do whatever they want," Taylor said.
And so Taylor has committed his own act of civil disobedience: He went to a notary and ceded part of his property to his maid ? it's a lovely corner surrounded with fruit trees where he's building a lake for swans ? to support his argument that Pinto should be allowed to walk freely in the streets.
While Taylor has lost in court, guards in recent weeks have allowed Pinto to walk to work, though others remain forbidden and she fears her exception will disappear once attention dies down.
The Chilean labor rights group Justa Causa ? "Just Cause" ? has now joined Pinto's cause. The group's lawyer, Nicolas Pavez, said Saturday that its last appeal has been turned down in the courts. Now it plans to accuse Chile before the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights of violating anti-discrimination treaties.
Meanwhile, other maids are coming forward, and Justa Causa is preparing lawsuits for them as well, Pavez said.
Marta Lagos, who directs the international Latinobarometro survey, said "Chile is an extremely tolerant country in terms of diversity. But having solidarity with your equals is one thing, and another is tolerance toward people who are different. This country is segmented, segregated: there are workers, the poor, and the rich, and each one of these segments is seen as bad by the other."
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Follow Eva Vergara on Twitter at http://twitter.com/evergaraap
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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning enters the practice field after leaving momentarily during NFL football practice, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. Manning missed part of the practice session with a stomach illness. The Giants travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers in the NFC championship game. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning enters the practice field after leaving momentarily during NFL football practice, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. Manning missed part of the practice session with a stomach illness. The Giants travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers in the NFC championship game. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning tosses a football during NFL football practice, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. Manning missed part of practice session with a stomach illness. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) ? New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was back at practice Thursday after missing part of Wednesday's workout with "a stomach bug."
Neither Manning nor coach Tom Coughlin was immediately available to say how Manning felt or to discuss his status for Sunday's NFC title game against the 49ers in San Francisco.
Manning's inclusion on the Giants' injury report Wednesday marked for the first time this season that he missed any work.
The Giants seemingly were not concerned about Manning's illness. Guard and close friend Chris Snee said Manning is the one person of the team who could afford to miss a workout.
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Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stands with his wife Callista as they greet audience members at the end of the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stands with his wife Callista as they greet audience members at the end of the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, participate in the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is seen during a commercial break at the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney perpetuated one unsubstantiated claim, about his record at Bain Capital, and more or less corrected himself on another, about President Barack Obama's health care law, in the latest Republican presidential debate.
His rivals flubbed history, Newt Gingrich blaming a Democratic president for a jobless rate he never had, and Ron Paul painting an idyllic picture of life before Medicare that did not reflect deprivations of that time.
A look at some of the claims in the debate Thursday night and how they compare with the facts:
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ROMNEY: "We started a number of businesses; four in particular created 120,000 jobs, as of today. We started them years ago. They've grown ? grown well beyond the time I was there to 120,000 people that have been employed by those enterprises. ... Those that have been documented to have lost jobs, lost about 10,000 jobs. So (120,000 less 10,000) means that we created something over 100,000 jobs."
THE FACTS: Romney now has acknowledged the negative side of the ledger from his years with Bain Capital, but hardly laid out the full story. His claim to have created more than 100,000 jobs in the private sector as a venture capitalist remains unsupported.
Romney mentioned four successful investments in companies that now employ some 120,000 people, having grown since he was involved in them a decade or ago or longer. From that, he subtracted the number of jobs that he said are known to have been lost at certain other companies.
What's missing is anything close to a complete list of winners and losers ? and the bottom line on jobs. Bain under Romney invested in scores of private companies that don't have the obligation of big publicly traded corporations to disclose finances. Romney acknowledged that he was using current employment figures for the four companies, not the number of jobs they had when he left Bain Capital, yet took credit for them in his analysis.
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GINGRICH: "Under Jimmy Carter, we had the wrong laws, the wrong regulations, the wrong leadership, and we killed jobs. We had inflation. We went to 10.8 percent unemployment. Under Ronald Reagan, we had the right job ? the right laws, the right regulators, the right leadership. We created 16 million new jobs."
FACT CHECK: Sure, inflation was bad and gas lines long, but under Carter's presidency unemployment never topped 7.8 percent. The unemployment rate did reach 10.8 percent, but not until November 1982, nearly two years into Reagan's first term.
Most economists attribute the jobless increase to a sharp rise in interest rates engineered by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker in an ultimately successful effort to choke off inflation. Unemployment began to fall in 1983 and dropped to 7.2 percent in November 1984, when Reagan easily won re-election.
The economy did add 16 million jobs during Reagan's 1981-1989 presidency. Gingrich's assertion that "we created" them may have left the impression that he was a key figure in that growth. Although Gingrich was first elected to the House in 1978, his first Republican leadership position, as minority whip, began when Reagan left office, in 1989.
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PAUL: "I had the privilege of practicing medicine in the early '60s, before we had any government (health care). It worked rather well, and there was nobody on the street suffering with no medical care. But Medicare and Medicaid came in and it just expanded."
THE FACTS: Before Medicare was created in the mid-1960s, only about half of the elderly had private insurance for hospital care, and they were facing rising costs for those policies on their fixed incomes. Medicare was hugely contentious at the time, seen by many doctors as a socialist takeover, but few argued that the status quo could be maintained.
A Health, Education and Welfare Department report to Congress in 1959, during the Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower, took no position on what the federal government should do but stated "a larger proportion of the aged than of other persons must turn to public assistance for payment of their medical bills or rely on 'free' care from hospitals and physicians."
Paul advocates a return to an era when doctors would treat the needy for free. But even in the old days, charity came with a cost. Research from the pre-Medicare era shows that the cost of free care was transferred to paying customers and the insurance industry.
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ROMNEY: "I could have stayed in Detroit, like him, and gotten pulled up in the car company. I went off on my own. I didn't inherit money from my parents. What I have, I earned. I worked hard, the American way."
THE FACTS: It's true there's no evidence Romney's wealthy family gave him a trust fund, or helped him secure a job at Bain Capital, where he would ultimately make his fortune. But it's not entirely the case that his success is wholly the result of his own hard work.
Romney's father, George, was an automobile industry CEO and a Michigan governor. He paid for Mitt to attend the Cranbrook School, a private boarding school in the Detroit area. The education didn't hurt Romney's ability to get into Harvard, where he earned law and business degrees in 1975.
While Romney appears to have gotten a job at Bain out of college on his own, the Boston Globe book "The Real Romney" reports that Romney's parents helped him and his wife buy their first home when he was in his early 20s.
On Thursday night, the Romney campaign did not dispute the finding that Romney's parents helped pay for that house, in the Boston suburb of Belmont.
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ROMNEY: "The executive order is a beginning process. It's one thing, but it doesn't completely eliminate Obamacare. ... We have to go after a complete repeal. And that's going to have to have to happen with a House and a Senate, hopefully, that are Republican."
THE FACTS: With that statement, Romney essentially corrected his repeated suggestions in early debates and speeches that he would eliminate President Barack Obama's health care law with a stroke of the pen on his first day in office ? a power no president has.
In one variation of the claim, he had vowed in a Sept. 7 debate that on Day One, he would sign an executive order "granting a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states." This, despite the fact that the law lays out an onerous process for letting individual states off the hook from its requirements, and that process cannot begin until 2017.
Now he acknowledges the political reality that a Republican president would need Republican control of Congress to have a strong shot at repealing the law.
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Associated Press writers Steve Peoples, Jim Drinkard, and Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.
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If you've been following recent Motorola Xoom developments, you'll know that the first "Google Experience" tablet has just been updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Alongside the update, Carphone Warehouse, one of the main sellers of Xooms in the UK, has cut the price of the Wifi-only model to £249.99. This is a £50 drop from the earlier RRP of £299.99, and the latest in a long line of Xoom price drops which has seen the tablet gradually fall from the July price of £399.
It might not be as sleek as the Galaxy Tab 10.1, or as fast as the ASUS Transformer Prime, but £250 for a 10-inch, dual-core ICS tablet isn't a bad deal at all if you ask us. UK readers, would you be tempted to drop £250 on a Xoom at this point? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Source: Carphone Warehouse; via: Eurodroid
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MADRID: Investors snapped up eurozone debt Tuesday despite a slew of sovereign downgrades, pouring money into the region?s bailout fund as well as into Spanish and Greek paper.
Buyers lined up for the debt auctions, showing a new appetite for risk since the European Central Bank loaned nearly half-a-trillion euros at a rock-bottom rate to the region?s banks last month.
Standard & Poor?s downgrades of nine European nations? sovereign ratings Friday including Spain?s and Greece?s, and its decision to remove the eurozone bailout fund?s AAA rating Monday, failed to dissuade investors.
?It was expected because it is all to do with the ECB?s three-year long-term refinancing operation,? said Edward Hugh, an independent economist based in Barcelona.
The three-year loans from the Frankfurt-based central bank, carrying a 1-percent interest rate, allowed the banks to buy up sovereign bonds and pocket the higher returns, he said.
They also enabled the banks to refinance their own borrowing.
But the ECB operation was not likely to free up credit in the system, Hugh said, because the banks were using the money to avoid writing off existing bad loans instead of lending to new businesses. ?That?s what is freezing the whole thing up,? he added.
In the meantime, with the ECB money in the banks? pockets, the debt auctions passed off smoothly.
Demand outstripped supply by more than three-to-one in first-ever auction of six-month debt by the European Financial Stability Facility, the backstop for eurozone sovereigns in case of collapse.
Germany?s Bundesbank, which organized the auction, said it received 4.6 billion euros? ($5.9 billion) worth of bids for 1.5 billion euros of six-month bonds, at an average yield of 0.2664 percent.
Standard and Poor?s downgraded the EFSF Monday by one notch to AA+ but said it would restore its top AAA ranking if the fund obtains additional guarantees.
Spain?s borrowing costs plummeted in an auction of 12- and 16-month paper, allowing it to raise 4.88 billion euros with demand outstripping supply by more than three times.
Spain?s new right-leaning Popular Party government, which took power last month after beating the Socialists in Nov. 20 elections, is battling to regain the confidence of the markets after overshooting its deficit target in 2011.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to meet the 2012 goal of reducing the deficit to 4.4 percent of GDP, even if that means he must find a way to lop an estimated 40 billion euros off the budget.
Even Greece ? whose debt negotiations with private creditors are at the heart of market concerns over the eurozone?s sovereign debt outlook ? said demand outstripped supply by three times in a short-term debt sale.
The country managed to raise 1.625 billion euros in three-month debt ? well above the original target of 1.25 billion euros ? as the rate eased to 4.64 percent from 4.68 percent.
Bailed out in May 2010 by the EU and International Monetary Fund and in the process of nailing down a second rescue plan, Greece faces tough talks with private creditors Wednesday to wipe 100 billion euros off its total debt of around 350 billion euros.
But other data showed strains lying beneath the surface in the eurozone.
Banks in the 17-nation bloc parked a record 502 billion euros in poorly remunerated overnight deposits with the ECB, latest figures showed, suggesting they were unwilling to risk lending that money to each other at more favorable rates.
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