CHART: Google Shopping And Product Listing Ads - Business Insider

Google CEO Larry Page hinted to Wall Street on his Q4 2012 earnings call that he was "really excited" about Google's new e-commerce play, Google Shopping.

The new search feature allows retailers to buy search results for people looking for something like "laptops" and display them as products -- a bit like the way Amazon displays its goods.

Google Shopping was a big bet for Google because until September it was free for retailers to list products that were searchable in Google Shopping. The results of that free-for-all were not great, so Google asked clients to pay to be listed.

Google's listings appear ABOVE search listings for the same products on Amazon ? an indicator that the two companies are locked in a war over e-commerce.

We've got data from Marin Software, a big buyer of ads on Google for clients such as Starwood hotels, showing a big boost in spending on "product listing ads," the ad format used by Google Shopping. The new payments appear to be working quite nicely for Google. Adspend on product listing ads increased 600% from January to December among Marin's clients, the company says:

?When Google announced their new enhanced shopping experience and the intent to transition shopping ads from organic results to paid, they took a risk that the move would alienate retailers,? says Matt Lawson, vp/marketing at Marin. ?Google?s decision, however, appears to be paying ... During the fourth quarter of 2012, we saw some retailers allocate as much as 30% of their spend towards PLAs."

This chart shows that advertisers shifted their spending mix after Google asked them to pay for PLAs. Google Shopping ads are now eating into the market share of the traditional text ads that Google is known for, Marin says:

Disclosure: The author owns Google stock.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-google-shopping-and-product-listing-ads-2013-1

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Walk It Off, Champ

The Ravens' Ray Lewis saw a doctor who was not affiliated with the team when he had triceps surgery earlier this season. Can you blame him?

Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

The NFL season ends Sunday, as it always does, with two teams of the walking wounded pounding each other one last time. This year it?s the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers?or if you?re inclined to credit their respective medical teams, it?s MedStar Union Memorial vs. Stanford Hospital & Clinics. The Ravens and 49ers are among the 23 NFL teams with ?official? health care providers. (That figure is a hand count that the league declined to confirm.) These arrangements differ, but the standard deal includes reduced-rate medical care and/or a payment from the hospital to the team in exchange for the medical provider getting to ballyhoo the affiliation in its marketing. ?The halo effect is huge,? Lew Lyon, vice president of the Ravens-affiliated MedStar Sports Medicine, tells me. ?Friends will call me and say, ?Can you get me into see one of the Ravens docs?? And they?re very accessible. They have private practice like other physicians.?

But the opacity of these marketing arrangements should give you pause as you?re weighing whether to drag your balky knee to the local jock docs. For one, by league policy, individual players are free to opt out of any official team arrangement and see another medical provider, as the Ravens? Ray Lewis did this year when he had surgery on his triceps (and when the linebacker allegedly ingested deer-antler spray to aid in his comeback). More fundamentally, fans ought to think through the inherent conflicts of interest at play when a doctor serves both a team and a patient who happens to be that team?s employee.

To a lot of us freelance contractor types, the idea of an employer covering our health care sounds like a Cadillac plan fit for a CEO. But consider the logjam for a physician in this setting. Privacy, confidentiality, speed of recuperation, treatment regimens?all of them stand to suffer when players see a doctor employed by an organization that prefers they return to work ASAP. Then imagine this added conflict: The doctor who just cleared you for duty was so thrilled to have the gig that she paid your employer for the privilege. Now you?re getting closer to the situation many pro athletes face. Put yourself in their cleats for a moment. Would you want to be treated by a doctor who had your employer?s profitability anywhere on her list of concerns? And further, would you be forthcoming about your health problems to someone with a direct pipeline to managers with the power to effectively fire you for poor health?

The expansion Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars signed the first known medical sponsorship deals in the mid-?90s. Since then, health care providers have been cutting deals with teams for the right to advertise themselves as the franchise?s ?official? choice?even paying millions for those marketing rights.

Medical ethics codes expressly forbid conflicts that could place financial gain ahead of patient welfare; the 1,500-year-old Hippocratic Oath protects patients against ?harm and injustice.? Yet it?s standard for teams to sell their affiliations to the highest bidder. After the New York Yankees won the 1999 World Series, the team solicited $1.5 million for its health care marketing rights. Among the hospitals to decline that honor was the Yankees? longtime care provider, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Its executive vice president told the Daily News: ?Even if we were flush, I'm not sure I would do it. I'm not comfortable with that kind of deal, and I don't think it would necessarily be good for the institution." Other doctors have voiced similar concerns. Then-Atlanta Falcons team doctor Andrew Bishop told the New York Times in 2004 that he would resign if the team entered a hospital sponsorship deal: ?It compromises you as a physician. The perception is that if this individual was so eager to do this he's willing to pay to do it, then he's going to do whatever management wants to keep the job he paid for.?

Perhaps no conflict was as glaring as that of the Boston Red Sox when Arthur Pappas, the team?s longtime orthopedic surgeon, was also part-owner. Marty Barrett, a player and a patient, tore his ACL during the 1989 pennant race, and later won a suit against Pappas in which the player claimed that the doctor/owner disclosed to Barrett neither the extent of his injuries nor the time needed for proper recovery. A 1995 Sports Illustrated report on Pappas and other team docs cited a Chicago Bears doctor who botched a knee operation and then tried erasing part of a videotape of the surgery so as not to lose his contract with the team. No less than Bill Walton, Dick Butkus, and Carlton Fisk also believe their injuries worsened when team physicians hustled them back into the lineup. (Pappas was Fisk?s doctor as well.)

In 2002, former Jaguars offensive lineman Jeff Novak won a malpractice suit against Stephen Lucie, who had been the Jaguars? team doctor since the team?s founding. (Lucie?s employer, Jacksonville Orthopaedic Institute, is still the team?s ?exclusive sports medicine partner? after winning its bid for that right.) Novak suffered a bone bruise that the lawsuit claimed Lucie squeezed and scraped at. Novak played hurt, which led to infection, profuse bleeding and, ultimately, his retirement. John Jurkovic, a teammate of Novak?s in Jacksonville, described the health culture that coach Tom Coughlin fostered there: ?[The team trainer] would never intervene on a player's behalf. He was browbeaten. Coughlin controlled him. That's who has no spine. He's a puppet.? Novak said Coughlin was prone to kvetching that injured players were ?sick, lazy and lame.? Far from becoming a pariah, Coughlin has since won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants.

Only when health outcomes turn into news are these marketing deals exposed for the morass they are. Weeks before St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart attack during the 2002 season, the team?s official health care provider had published a publicity shot of him with a Washington University doctor as evidence of the hospital?s bona fides. The doctor, George A. Paletta, explained soon after Kile?s death that a normal battery of tests for a 33-year-old athlete wouldn?t have caught the 90 percent blockage in two of Kile?s arteries. ESPN.com found doctors who disagreed, saying Kile?s father?s fatal stroke at 44 should?ve prompted a stress test for the pitcher. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa took the opportunity to advise his players to retain a physician unaffiliated with the team to administer off-season tests, as La Russa himself did.

None of this is meant to impugn every team doctor. But it?s worth noting that there?s a lot at stake here beyond merely keeping players upright. These multiyear contracts include marketing components such as gate sponsorship, in-stadium signage, presence at league health events, training camp sponsorship, training facility sponsorship, athlete and coach endorsements, as well as medical components beyond just caring for players and their families. MedStar, for example, also has the contract to provide medical services at Ravens home games, a setting that MedStar Sports Medicine VP Lew Lyon describes as a war zone, albeit one imagined by Joseph Heller. He recalled one incident in which a woman aspirated on a chicken bone and went into cardiac arrest. The medics got the bone out and got her heart going again. When they tried to move her to a hospital, she threw a fit, saying she?d paid to see the game. ?They didn?t even sell chicken wings at the stadium,? Lyon said. ?She had brought in a bucket under a jersey or something.?

Serving as the official bone-removal crew for dying Ravens fans?now there?s a real endorsement. But if players have reason to prefer doctors of their own hire, why don?t players hire the doctors in the first place? When contacted for this story, an NFL spokesman would say only that the league does not allow marketing contracts that require a team to hire a partner hospital?s doctors exclusively.

It?s time for the NFLPA and other unions to go further, and to insist on hiring players? main sports medicine physicians. Steve P. Calandrillo suggested as much in a 2006 Saint Louis University Law Journal article about sports medicine conflicts of interest; he says malpractice insurance may even be cheaper without the perception of divided loyalties, and that teams could thus shed worker?s comp liability.

Until the players are choosing the doctors, leagues should bar sponsorship deals that let hospitals describe themselves as an ?official? health care provider for this or that team. You don?t assume that all NFL players drink Bud Light or drive GM trucks just because those brands sponsor the league, and no one is harmed if you?re that gullible anyway. Health care is different. Such branding implies that players trust those doctors with the most vital service they can get in a high-risk occupation. The truth is something else. Players may have their own favorite surgeons. Or they may not trust the doctors? competing allegiances to patient health and management?s demands. How could you blame them?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4de121583e12ce9bd4fe1d2ae830295d

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White House petitions: Huge response, headache too

WASHINGTON (AP) ? No, the U.S. will not be building a Death Star. And no, President Barack Obama will not deport CNN's Piers Morgan or let Texas secede.

These are just a few of the wacky notions the White House has been compelled to formally address in recent weeks, part of an effort to put open government into action: the First Amendment right to petition your government, supercharged for the Internet age.

Now, as the Obama administration kicks off its second term, it's upping the threshold for responding to Americans' petitions from 25,000 signatures to 100,000, a reminder that government by the people can sometimes have unintended consequences. In this case, a wildly popular transparency initiative has spawned a headache of the administration's own making.

The idea, announced in 2011, was simple: Engage the public on a range of issues by creating an online platform to petition the White House. Any petition garnering 5,000 signatures within 30 days would get an official review and response, the White House said. Dubbed "We the People," the program was touted as an outgrowth of the "unprecedented level of openness in government" Obama vowed to create in a presidential memorandum issued on his first full day in office in 2009.

The response was overwhelming, and a month later, the Obama administration increased the threshold to 25,000 signatures, calling it "a good problem to have." The White House cautioned at the time that it might not be the last time the rules of the program would be changed.

The petitions continued to flood in, ranging from serious pleas for judicial reform and gay rights to sillier appeals to ban baseball bats and give Vice President Joe Biden his own reality TV show.

Many of them, as Internet phenomena are wont to do, went viral.

"The administration does not support blowing up planets," Paul Shawcross, the science and space chief for Obama's budget office, wrote in response to a petition suggesting construction of a Star Wars-style Death Star start by 2016.

More than 34,000 people appended their name to that petition.

"This petition led millions of Americans to read about the president's efforts to ensure American students have the science and technology education they will need to compete for jobs in the 21st century," said White House spokesman Matt Lehrich, noting that hundreds of thousands clicked links in the response to learn more about Obama's policies.

Some of the petitions that met the 25,000-name threshold, like one requesting the White House beer recipe, offered Obama opportunities for positive publicity on terms the White House could control. Others forced the administration to formally respond to issues it would rather ignore.

When Piers Morgan, a British-born CNN host, delivered a hot-blooded diatribe advocating gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, more than 109,000 people took to the White House website demanding that Morgan be deported. Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, nixed that idea in a response noting that the Second Amendment doesn't trump the First. A list of more than 125,000 names requesting permission for Texas to secede from the union was similarly given a thumbs-down.

The terms of the program give the White House broad latitude to decline to address certain petitions, especially those dealing with law enforcement or local matters ? a provision the White House has invoked at least eight times. A petition to disinvite pop singer Beyonce from performing at Obama's inaugural was removed from the site; the page in its place says the petition violated the terms of participation.

And so it was that the White House, days before the start of Obama's second term, announced it was increasing the threshold a second time, to 100,000 signatures. Figures released by the administration illustrated the astounding interest in the program: almost 9.2 million signatures on more than 141,000 petitions; more than 162 official responses; and two in three signers saying they found the White House response to be helpful.

"Turns out that 'good problem' is only getting better, so we're making another adjustment to ensure we're able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve," wrote Macon Phillips, the White House director of digital strategy.

Whether the petition initiative and the official responses will, in the long run, be deemed an effective use of White House resources remains to be seen. Another unknown is whether signing the petitions, aside from giving impassioned citizens a chance to be heard, has any effect on how Obama governs. Many petitions call for actions that Congress, not the president, would have to take.

The White House says that the petitions frequently have a real impact on policy and that the deluge of visits to the White House website means added opportunities for Obama to engage directly with Americans.

___

Online:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-petitions-huge-response-headache-too-080529604--politics.html

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Published clinical trials shown to be misleading

Comparison of internal and public reports about Pfizer?s drug Neurontin reveals many discrepancies

Comparison of internal and public reports about Pfizer?s drug Neurontin reveals many discrepancies

By Rachel Ehrenberg

Web edition: January 29, 2013

A rare peek into drug company documents reveals troubling differences between publicly available information and materials the company holds close to its chest. In comparing public and private descriptions of drug trials conducted by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, researchers discovered discrepancies including changes in the number of study participants and inconsistent definitions of protocols and analyses. ?

The researchers, led by Kay Dickersin, director of the Center for Clinical Trials at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gained access to internal Pfizer reports after a lawsuit made them available. Dickersin and her colleagues compared the internal documents with 10 publications in peer-reviewed journals about randomized trials of Pfizer?s anti-epilepsy drug gabapentin (brand name Neurontin) that tested its effectiveness for treating other disorders. The results, the researchers say, suggest that the published trials were biased and misleading, even though they read as if standard protocols were followed. That lack of transparency could mean that clinicians prescribe drugs based on incomplete or incorrect information.

We could see all of the biases right in front of us all at once,? says Dickersin, who was an expert witness in the suit, which was brought by a health insurer against Pfizer. Pfizer lost the case in 2010, and a judge ruled it should pay $142 million in damages for violating federal racketeering laws in promoting Neurontin for treating migraines and bipolar disorder.

Pfizer had in 2004 settled a case and paid $430 million in civil fines and criminal penalties for promoting Neurontin for unapproved use.

The study's results, published January 29 in PLOS Medicine, show that publications about drug trials don?t always reflect the research that was conducted, says Lisa Bero of the University of California, San Francisco, an expert in methods to assess bias in scientific publishing ?We know that entire studies don?t get published and that what does get published is more likely to make a drug look favorable,? she says. ?This adds another layer.?

In three of the 10 trials, the numbers of study participants in the published results didn?t match those in the internal documents. In one case, data from 40 percent of the participants were not included in the published trial. Dickersin and her colleagues also tried to directly compare several other aspects of the studies. But they found so many differences in definitions and in the analyses and protocols that the comparisons turned out to be difficult, she says.

?When we tried to draw a flow chart of who dropped out [of a trial], who stayed in ? well, we couldn?t do it,? she says. ?You can?t even judge if they did the right thing if you can?t figure out what they did.?

Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment on the study.

The analysis highlights the need for standard definitions and protocols and greater transparency in reporting clinical trials, says Bero, a longtime advocate of making raw data from clinical trials publicly available. ?You?re kind of held hostage to the paper that you are reading,? she says.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347933/title/Published_clinical_trials_shown_to_be_misleading

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$1.5 billion aid pledged for stricken Syrians

By Sylvia Westall, Reuters

Donor countries have pledged more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians stricken by civil war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday after warning that the conflict had wrought a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

In a pointed message for Syria's leader, Ban told a fund-raising conference in Kuwait that President Bashar Assad bore primary responsibility to stop his country's suffering after nearly two years of conflict that have cost an estimated 60,000 lives.

ITV's John Irvine has returned to the caves of Serjilla in Syria where children and their parents are taking shelter.

"Every day Syrians face unrelenting horrors," Ban told the gathering, adding these included sexual violence and arbitrary killings. Sixty-five people were shot dead execution-style in Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said.

"We cannot go on like this.... He should listen to the voices and cries of so many people," Ban said.

"I appeal to all sides and particularly the Syrian government to stop the killing ... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence."

Ban said the one-day conference had exceeded the target of $1.5 billion in pledges. About $1 billion is earmarked for Syria's neighbors hosting refugees and $500 million for humanitarian aid to Syrians displaced inside the country.

The $500 million would be channeled through U.N. partner agencies in Syria and the entire aid pledge would cover the next six months, Ban said.

But in the Syrian capital Damascus, the thud of artillery drowned out any optimism on the streets. Asked about the aid promises, Damascenes were uninterested or despairing.

"Where's the money going to go to? How does anyone know where it's going? It all seems like talk," said Faten, a grandmother from a middle-class family in the capital.

Another middle-class Damascene, a woman in her 70s who asked not to be named, said the money would not make it to Syrians.

"Tomorrow all that money will get stolen. (The middlemen) steal everything. If they could steal people's souls, they would. I wouldn't count on the money," she said.

The oil-rich Gulf Arab states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each promised $300 million at the meeting. Its 60 participants included Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Tunisia, the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and a number of European countries.

But relief groups say that converting promises into hard cash can take much time, and one of them said on Tuesday that aid now reaching Syria was not being distributed fairly, with almost all of it going to government-controlled areas.

Four million Syrians inside the country need food, shelter and other aid in the midst of a freezing winter, and more than 700,000 more are estimated to have fled to countries nearby.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in all, according to a U.N. estimate, since the conflict began as a peaceful movement for democratic reform and escalated into an armed rebellion after Assad tried to crush the unrest by force.

Rahmed Hagagy, Sami Aboudi, Mahmoud Habboush and Mirna Sleiman contributed to this Reuters report.

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16773849-15-billion-aid-pledged-for-stricken-syrians-un-says?lite

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Bryant Alexander Hairston Faces Charges For Falsely Reporting Gunman At University Of Virginia-Wise

ABINGDON, Va. -- A University of Virginia at Wise student accused of falsely reporting a gunman on campus is facing federal charges.

Bryant Alexander Hairston is charged in a criminal complaint with knowingly making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations. Federal authorities filed the complaint Monday in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

The university's police department charged the 20-year-old Martinsville resident last week with falsely summoning law enforcement officials.

Hairston is accused of calling 911 shortly before 9 p.m. on Jan. 23 and reporting that he had seen a gunman on campus. The call prompted university officials to place the school on lockdown.

There was no telephone listing for Hairston in Wise and Martinsville.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/bryant-alexander-hairston-charges_n_2571032.html

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North Korea Cannibalism Reports Emerge Amid Food Shortage, Famine

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/north-korea-cannibalism-reports-emerge-amid-foot-shortage-famine/

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Get a great deal on your meeting space - Business Management Daily

If you want to get the most for your money when booking meeting or event space, you need to negotiate, says Anthony Coyle-Dowling, director of sales with Zibrant. Don?t just accept the price you?ve always paid for the place you usually use or take the first price you?re quoted at a new location.

• Start with research. Review your spending and usage patterns for places you?ve booked in the past. Then identify mistakes that may have cost you money and build a list of preferred suppliers with prearranged rates, terms and conditions.
• Establish priorities. Think about how your space needs will change in the coming year and consider how those changes will affect your requirements for locations, room sizes, Wi-Fi, parking and quality of venues.
• Consider a variety of locations. Don?t dismiss properties you?ve rejected in the past. Be aware they are frequently updated and keen to attract new business. New venues may also be eager to establish a client base.
• Think of ways to save. Venues value volume, so if you can do a variety of events at one location you?ll get a better price. If you can get a good deal that fits your needs, you can benefit in other ways from establishing an ongoing relationship.
• Add accommodations. Taking a block of rooms in addition to meeting space can add additional savings.
• Mention added-value items. These include Wi-Fi, parking, food and drink.
• Look at cancellation contingencies. You want to secure good cancellation terms from the start.
• Discuss AV and other equipment. These can add a lot to your bill, so take them into account in negotiations.
• Think about your full spend. Don?t just try to get the best rate on bits and pieces of your booking, think about the package as a whole.
• Go back and forth with offers. Be fair, but go back and forth to get the best deal you can negotiate. Don?t be afraid to go back after the deal is set if you get an offer of better terms elsewhere.

Online resource: Download our Meeting Planning Checklist.

? Adapted from ?Negotiation, negotiation, negotiation,? Anthony Coyle-Dowling, Executive Secretary.

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Best friends influence when teenagers have first drink

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Chances are the only thing you remember about your first swig of alcohol is how bad the stuff tasted. What you didn't know is the person who gave you that first drink and when you had it says a lot about your predisposition to imbibe later in life.

A national study by a University of Iowa-led team has found that adolescents who get their first drink from a friend are more likely to drink sooner in life, which past studies show makes them more prone to abusing alcohol when they get older. The finding is intended to help specialists predict when adolescents are likely to first consume alcohol, with the aim of heading off problem drinking at the pass.

"When you start drinking, even with kids who come from alcoholic families, they don't get their first drinks from their family," says Samuel Kuperman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the UI. "They get their first drinks from their friends. They have to be able to get it. If they have friends who have alcohol, then it's easier for them to have that first drink."

The basis for the study, published this month in the journal Pediatrics, is compelling: One-third of eighth graders in the United States report they've tried alcohol, according to a 2011 study of 20,000 teenagers conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institutes of Health. By 10th grade, more than half say they've had a first drink, and that percentage shoots to 70 percent by their senior year.

"There's something driving kids to drink," explains Kuperman, corresponding author on the paper. "Maybe it's the coolness factor or some mystique about it. So, we're trying to educate kids about the risks associated with drinking and give them alternatives."

Kuperman and his team built their formula from two longstanding measures of adolescent drinking behavior -- the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics and Alcoholism and the Achenbach Youth Self Report. From those measures of nearly two-dozen variables and a review of the literature, the UI-led team found five to be the most important predictors: two separate measures of disruptive behavior, a family history of alcohol dependence, a measure of poor social skills, and whether most best friends drink alcohol.

The researchers then looked at how the five variables worked in concert. Surprisingly, a best friend who drank and had access to alcohol was the most important predictor. In fact, adolescents whose best friend used alcohol were twice as likely to have a first drink, the researchers found. Moreover, if considered independently of the other variables, teenagers whose best friends drank are three times as likely to begin drinking themselves, the study found, underscoring the sway that friends have in adolescents' drinking behavior.

"Family history doesn't necessarily drive the age of first drink," notes Kuperman, who has studied teen drinking for more than a decade. "It's access. At that age (14 or 15), access trumps all. As they get older, then family history plays a larger role."

The current study drew from a pool of 820 adolescents at six sites across the country. The participants were 14 to 17 years old, with a median age of 15.5, nearly identical to the typical age of an adolescent's first drink found in previous studies. More than eight in 10 respondents came from what the researchers deemed high-risk families, but more than half of the teenagers had no alcohol-dependent parents. Tellingly, among those adolescents who reported having had drunk alcohol, nearly four in ten said their best friends also drank.

The result underscores previous findings that teenagers who have their first drink before 15 years of age are more likely to abuse alcohol or become dependent. It also supports the screening questions selected in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the American Academy of Pediatrics initiative to identify and help youth at risk for alcohol use, the researchers write.

Kuperman, whose faculty appointment is in the Carver College of Medicine, says he hopes to use the study to delve into the genetics underpinning alcoholism, chiefly tracking adolescents who use alcohol and see whether they have genes that match up with their parents if they also are problem drinkers.

"We're trying to separate out those who experiment with alcohol to those who go on to problematic drinking," he says.

Contributing authors include John Kramer from the UI; Grace Chan and Victor Hesselbrock, University of Connecticut Health Center; Leah Wetherill, Indiana University School of Medicine; Kathleen Bucholz, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; Danielle Dick, Virginia Commonwealth University; Bernice Porjesz and Madhavi Rangaswamy, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn; and Marc Schuckit (principal investigator on the grant), University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

The National Institutes of Health (grant number: 5 U10 AA008401), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the study.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa. The original article was written by Richard C. Lewis.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. S. Kuperman, G. Chan, J. R. Kramer, L. Wetherill, K. K. Bucholz, D. Dick, V. Hesselbrock, B. Porjesz, M. Rangaswamy, M. Schuckit. A Model to Determine the Likely Age of an Adolescent's First Drink of Alcohol. PEDIATRICS, 2013; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-0880

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/BlqvBqU0MNw/130128133136.htm

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Daimler, Ford, Renault-Nissan Form Fuel-Cell Supergroup

The 2011 B-Class F-Cell by Mercedes-Benz.

These days automakers are teaming up to develop the next wave of zero-emission tech: hydrogen fuel cells, which generate power by combining hydrogen gas with oxygen. Just last Thursday, Toyota and BMW finalized their alliance to co-develop a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) powertrain?cell, hydrogen, tank, motor, and battery?aiming for completion by 2020. Today, Daimler AG, Ford, and Renault-Nissan penned an agreement to do the same thing, but with a more ambitious 2017 completion date.

From a practical standpoint, the two alliances are merely methods to cut R&D cost and speed production by splitting the bill and the burden between two or three companies, each of which would produce their own distinctive car on top of the new fuel cell powertrain. But ideologically, they signal the start of a collective shift within the industry to a new alternative source of power: moving away from the lithium-ion battery and toward the hydrogen fuel cell. "We are convinced that fuel cell vehicles will play a central role for zero-emission mobility in the future," said Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, in a release.

The industry has flirted with FCEVs in the past. Most famous is Honda's FCX Clarity unveiled in 2008. More recently we saw Mercedes-Benz's 2011 B-Class F-Cell. There's a good reason the auto industry is so interested: According to one Department of Energy study, hydrogen fuel cells have much higher energy densities than lithium-ion batteries, giving them increased range and lower overall weight, not to mention that they emit nothing but water from the tailpipe.

While developing a cost-efficient, production-ready system will be no easy task for automakers, an even greater challenge will be establishing the infrastructure to support fuel cell-powered cars. According to Department of Energy data, only 10 publicly owned hydrogen fueling stations currently exist in the U.S.?eight of which reside in Southern California.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/daimler-ford-renault-nissan-form-fuel-cell-research-supergroup-15031695?src=rss

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Federal website hijacked to avenge activist

17 hrs.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON???The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The FBI is investigating.

The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch (http://www.ussc.gov), was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."

The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.

Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors. Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online, and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.

The FBI's Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the agency's?Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, said in a statement that "we were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation. We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another person's or government agency's network."

Hours after the hijacking, pages on the USSC.gov website were available only sporadically.

This report was updated by NBC News.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/anonymous-hijacks-federal-website-protest-activist-aaron-swartzs-death-1C8125283

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Diaz Reus & Targ Law Firm Hires Associate Attorney Ahmand Johnson

Johnson will concentrate his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports for the Miami, Florida based full-service itnernational law firm.

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) January 24, 2013

Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP, has hired Associate Attorney Ahmand Johnson, announces Global Managing Partner Michael Diaz, Jr. Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP is a full-service international law firm focusing on trade, customs, financial, commercial and corporate transactions, sports and entertainment, tax, immigration, business and corporate litigation, and arbitration matters.

Johnson focuses his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports. Prior to joining Diaz, Reus & Targ, he worked with a major Florida law firm handling business litigation, intellectual property and sports and entertainment matters. He gained significant entertainment industry experience at a Los Angeles-based entertainment law firm while attending UCLA School of Law. A National Football League Player Association (NFLPA) Certified Contract Advisor, Johnson co-founded a professional sports management company while in law school.

Johnson?s lecture for the Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts and Sports Section entitled ?Attorneys vs. Agents in the Representation of Professional Athletes? is featured as a Continuing Legal Education course. He received the 2009 Young Lawyer Award from the Broward County Legal Aid Service for his pro-bono work in collecting a record judgment on behalf of the organization. Johnson, a varsity football and track and field athlete at Brown University, was a member of 1999 Ivy League Football Championship team.

About Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP

Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP represents dealmakers around the world with a focus on emerging markets. With experienced lawyers in the U. S., Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the firm is uniquely suited to handle a wide range of complex commercial, business, and financial transactions across international borders. Diaz Reus lawyers have experience in government relations, trade, compliance, customs, tax, and immigration, as well as internal and government investigations, complex litigation, and arbitration matters. Diaz Reus operates offices in Miami, Florida; Caracas, Venezuela; Shanghai, China; Dubai, U.A.E.; Iraq; Frankfurt, Germany; Bogota, Colombia; Panama, Republic of Panama; Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and an affiliate office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For more information, visit http://www.diazreus.com or http://www.jdsupra.com/profile/diazreus.

BAY PROBY
PROBY & ASSOCIATES
(305) 251-3671
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diaz-reus-targ-law-firm-hires-associate-attorney-081044470.html

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Relationships: When Loyalty to a Deceased Spouse Keeps Your ...

In today's Sunday New York Times Modern Love section, there's an article by Eve Pell about her relationship with her husband (see link below). ?According to Ms. Pell, they?began when she was in her 70s and he was in his 80s. ?One of the things that she mentions is that when they were dating, her then-boyfriend was hesitant about making a commitment to their relationship because he still felt loyal to his deceased wife, who had died several years before.

Understanding the Emotional Dilemma For Someone Whose Spouse Died
Reading this article brought to mind how common this experience is. ?Rather than getting competitive with a deceased spouse, Ms. Pell, who sounds like a wise woman, understood her boyfriend's emotional dilemma and let him know.

Instead of feeling like his love for his deceased spouse meant more to him than his love for her, she spoke to him about it with a lot of empathy. ?She acknowledged that she understood, respected his feelings for his former spouse, and reframed the issue as there being enough room in his heart for both of them. ?According to Ms. Pell, her boyfriend appreciated this and, eventually, they got married.

Working Through the Loss of a Deceased Spouse
There are times when people haven't worked through the loss of a deceased spouse and it keeps them stuck. ?Each situation is different. ?But reading Ms. Pell's article reminded me of how conflicted a person can feel with a new love, especially when the former relationship ended because of a death.

People, who are widowed, who are still in love with their deceased spouse, often feel that it's an act of disloyalty to begin a relationship with someone new. ?Their spouse might be gone, but their feelings are still very much alive. ?They might feel confused and not know how to reconcile the fact that they can fall in love with someone new while still loving their former spouse. ?If the new love gets jealous and makes emotional demands too soon, it can create an even bigger conflict and ruin an otherwise good new relationship.

Reframing the Love and Loyalty Dilemma
Like Ms. Pell, it's often better to take an empathetic step back, try to understand your romantic partner's emotional dilemma and talk to him about it. ?When the dilemma is reframed as there being room for both the deceased spouse and the new partner, it can reduce a lot of tension and offer options that your partner might not have seen before. ?Your partner doesn't need to completely bury his feelings for his deceased spouse, which wouldn't be possible anyway. ?It's really not an either/or question. ?He can still honor the feelings he feels for her and make room for you.

For simplicity's sake and not wanting to continually say "he or she," I'm writing about this as the man having the deceased wife and the woman being the new love in his life. ?But, naturally, it could be the other way around too--with the woman who has a deceased husband and a new boyfriend.

Whether you're the person who is struggling with the loyalty dilemma or you're the new love, there are no rules as to how long the process takes. ?Every situation is different.

Some people, who have lost a spouse, never get over it, and they're unable to make a commitment to a new relationship. ?For other people, this issue works itself out with understanding on both sides. ?Sometimes, the person who is widowed needs help in individual therapy to work it out. ?Other times, it helps for both people to come into couples counseling to negotiate this problem.

Either way, I found Ms. Pell's approach to this common dilemma to be a mature and refreshing approach. ?Thank you, Ms. Pell, for a heart warming article.

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

To find out ?more about me, visit my web site: ?Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (212) 726-1006.

The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap--Modern Love, NY Times?by Eve Pell (1/27/13)

photo credit: tommie m via photopin cc

Source: http://psychotherapist-nyc.blogspot.com/2013/01/relationships-when-loyalty-to-deceased.html

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Saudi prince calls for Syrian rebels to be armed

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - A senior member of Saudi Arabia's monarchy called on Friday for Syrian rebels to be given anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to "level the playing field" in their battle against President Bashar al-Assad.

"What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance. This is not getting through," said Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of the Saudi foreign minister.

Insurgents in Syria have seized territory in the north of the country and control suburbs to the east and south of the capital, but Assad's air power and continued army strength have limited their advances 22 months into the conflict.

"I'm not in government so I don't have to be diplomatic. I assume we're sending weapons and if we were not sending weapons it would be terrible mistake on our part," the Saudi prince said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"You have to level the playing field. Most of the weapons the rebels have come from captured Syrian stocks and defectors bringing their weapons," he said.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started nearly two years ago with mainly peaceful protests but has mushroomed into a civil war that has driven half a million people from the country and displaced many more.

King Abdullah of Jordan, which has taken in some 300,000 Syrian refugees, 20,000 of them in the last week, told the Davos meeting that anyone who thought Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was going to fall within weeks did not understand the complex situation and the balance of forces.

One major problem was that radical al Qaeda forces had established themselves in Syria for the last year and were receiving money and equipment from abroad, he said.

NEW TALIBAN IN SYRIA?

Noting that Jordanian forces were still fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan alongside NATO troops, he said: "The new Taliban we are going to have to deal with will be in Syria."

Even in the most optimistic scenario, it would take at least three years to "clean them up" after the fall of the Assad government, the monarch said.

He called for major powers to craft "a real and inclusive transition plan" for Syria, saying the army must be preserved intact to form the backbone of any new system and avoid the anarchy that prevailed in Iraq after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.

The United Nations should stockpile food and emergency supplies in Jordan to be moved into areas of Syria controlled by the opposition to prevent more people leaving.

Syria has accused Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, the United States and France of funding and arming the rebels, something they have all denied. But U.N. diplomats say that weapons are clearly reaching the rebels via Gulf Arab states and Turkey.

Saudi Arabia has called in the past for the rebels to be armed, but diplomats say that Western countries are reluctant to allow sophisticated weapons into the country, fearing they would fall into the hands of increasingly powerful Islamist forces.

The United States has designated one Islamist group in Syria - the Nusra Front - as a terrorist organization and expressed concern about the growing Islamist militant strength in Syria.

But the Saudi prince said foreign powers should have enough information on the many rebel brigades to ensure weapons only reached specific groups.

"Leveling the plain militarily should go hand in hand with a diplomatic initiative ... You can select the good guys and give them these means and build their credibility," he said.

"Now they don't have the means, and the extremists have the means and are getting the prestige."

(Reporting by Paul Taylor; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-prince-calls-syrian-rebels-armed-140944304.html

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Canceled Soaps ?All My Children? And ?One Life To Live? Coming Back From The Dead On Hulu, iTunes

It's no "Arrested Development," but Hulu is today announcing that it, too, is bringing TV programs back from the dead. (Coming back from the dead - hey, that sounds like a soap plot!). Hulu has now signed a deal with media production Prospect Park to air the previously canceled soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" on Hulu and Hulu Plus, where they're air in addition to Apple's iTunes.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HpRAX3m-94o/

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Priebus easily re-elected RNC chairman, vows inclusiveness (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/279537983?client_source=feed&format=rss

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How did $300 get billed to unused phone?

By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

Despite years of investigations, congressional hearings and promises from the telecommunications industry, phone bill ?cramming? -- ?the addition of usually?small third-party charges without a subscriber's consent --?remains a major consumer headache.

Brett Strauss can attest to that. He purchased an AT&T cellphone for his business that wasn't used for months, but somehow accrued more than $300 in charges for unwanted third-party services that were crammed onto his bill during that period.?

Both AT&T and the third-party firm behind the charges, Los Angeles-based GoLiveMobile, said that they require a strict sign-up process they call "double opt-in," meaning consumers must twice confirm they authorize a charge to their service.

But Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T, confirmed Strauss? phone had been dormant when the charges appeared. How those charges ended up on his bill remains a mystery.

---

Strauss said he has about 12 phones for his employees, and this one wasn?t needed. "The phone has sat in a drawer all this time having never been used," he said. "This makes the cramming issue all the more interesting. How do you cram an unused phone?"

To most consumers, cramming is a mystery. The root of the problems dates back to the original breakup of the AT&T telephone monopoly in the 1980s, which required the telephone giant to allow third-parties to use their equipment and offer alternative services, such as long distance.? Rogue operators quickly learned they could trick AT&T and other phone providers into signing up consumers for services they didn?t want, and ?cram? these onto their bills. Cramming has since been a thorn in the side of consumers, first targeting those with land-lines, when tack-on services like unnecessary voice mail were often snuck onto bills. It has seen resurgence in the age of cellphones and smartphones, as crammed charges are easily intermingled with legitimate third-party fees, creating even more consumer confusion.

The charges may be small -- usually $9.99 or less at a time -- but they add up to big money. A report issued by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.,? in 2011 found that consumers lose $2 billion annually to unwanted third-party phone charges, and big telecom firms earned $650 million from 2006-2011 as their cut from companies that crammed consumers.?

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules aimed at curbing cramming, but the agency stopped short of banning the practice.

Arguments about cramming often devolve into a he-said, she-said affair, with telecom firms saying consumers agreed to the charge and consumers denying they did so.?

That's why the Strauss case is interesting.? AT&T doesn't disagree with his contention that the phone was unused, yet it still maintains that it requires third-party firms to utilize a double-opt in process. How could that be?

"We do require the double opt-in process I described to you, but that's not to say it's impossible for a customer to get, say, a text message from a third party that does not follow this process," said Siegel, the AT&T spokesman.

The double-opt in process, as Siegel described it, involves a consumer texting a service to sign up, then receiving an initial acknowledgement text with a PIN code that must be sent back to the firm before billing is initiated.

"It's not possible for (third-party firms) to magically appear and to start to bill you," he said. "Someone had to order (services) in some way, even if was just by accident."

He added that AT&T is very strict about which third-party firms it allows into its system.

"The only way we will agree to have third-party billing with a company is if they agree to use this double opt-in process," he said. "Ultimately, since this appears on our bill, we need to deal with it."

For its part, GoLiveMobile said in an email that it would not comment on Strauss' situation, but that it follows strict sign-up procedures.

?While we do not comment on individual customer cases, GoLive! has procedures and policies that exceed industry best practices, including in keeping with guidelines of the Mobile Marketing Association, its cell carrier partners, and various third-party auditing firms focused on consumer protection," said the statement, which the author asked be attributed to a company spokesperson. "Any and all customers must go through a double opt-in feature, where customers must be in physical possession of their mobile device and accept the industry-approved terms and conditions of the program, including all relevant charges and fees twice before any program is activated."

Strauss said none of that happened. He hadn't heard of GoLiveMobile until he found a series of charges on his cellphone bill for a service named MoZoot, which is provided by GoLiveMobile. MoZoot lets users ask questions and get answers via text message.?

"I never once contacted these folks as Google does just fine answering my questions," Strauss said.

There are numerous other complaints about MoZoot published by consumers online.?

The FCC said in 2011 that as many as 20 million U.S. consumers are hit annually by cramming. Crammers rely on consumers not scanning their bills diligently and not noticing the small charges they insert for many months ? if at all. If they do notice them, they are often stuck in a Catch-22 -- the telecom carrier will refer them to the third-party firm to request a credit. The third-party firm will often refuse to give credit for more than 30 or 60 days.

To its credit, AT&T refunded all Strauss' money -- a total of $318 -- directly after he called to complain.?

In its statement to NBC News, GoLiveMobile said it has a liberal refund policy.

"While the industry standard is to grant a refund for a maximum of 60-90 days, we go above and beyond this policy to grant refunds for the complete lifetime of any sign-up," it said.?

Strauss was also given the chance to lock his cellphone account against any future third-party charges. He wondered why such a block wasn't enabled in the first place.

"Why does AT&T only install the security (block) after you complain, even though they know clearly that this is a big problem?" he said.

The new FCC rules require that firms give consumers the opportunity to block their phones against third-party charges, but they do not require firms to set the block by default, and most don't.

"There is a very high demand from our customers for third-party billing,? said AT&T?s Siegel. ? That's not a surprise given the growth in apps, music downloads, and so on. This is something that our customers really want, because it's convenient."

AT&T also sends regular, helpful text messages to consumers warning them that they are being billed for a third-party service and including a link to challenge the bill if necessary at http://att.com/mobilepurchases .? In fact, one such warning led Strauss to check his bill more closely and discover the GoLiveMobile charges.

"That's the larger issue," Siegel said. "You need to check your bills carefully and if you see (an unwanted) charge get in touch with us right away."

* Follow Bob Sullivan on?Facebook.

* Follow Bob Sullivan on?Twitter.

More from Red Tape Chronicles:

Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/24/16683219-telecom-firms-dont-know-how-crammed-charges-were-billed-to-unused-phone?lite

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The New American Home: Wright-Inspired 'Party Pavilion ...

By Robbie Whelan

Each year at the National Association of Home Builders? big trade show, a group of home-product suppliers teams up with a builder to sponsor the construction of the ?New American Home,? showcasing the latest builders have to offer American consumers. Or as the NAHB puts it, to offer ?a collection of ideas for the industry to take away?in large pieces, or bit-by bit?and put into millions of homes across the country each year?innovative products?for the future of home building.?

The results have been varied. In 2012, Developments reported that the New American Home was shrinking, while in 2010, true to the spirit of that year, the New American Home fell into foreclosure and was sold at auction before it could be finished. But generally speaking, the project has resulted in fairly tame architecture. Builders have occasionally experimented with new materials, but stuck mostly to the ranch house and villa styles that are comfortable for most Americans.

This year is different. Blue Heron, a Las Vegas developer, has built a New American Home?that hardly resembles the typical American home at all. Sprawling at nearly 7,000 square feet, the home features a subterranean courtyard, thousands of square feet of artificial water features, massive concrete-like overhangs, metal hand rails, faux-travertine floors and dozens of glass walls. The home has a price tag of about $4 million.

?The whole concept from the very beginning was this totally different style: the desert contemporary aesthetic,? says Tyler Jones, Blue Heron?s co-founder and chief executive. ?We?ve bet our whole company on some of the trends we?re showing here.?

Mr. Jones, 35, started Blue Heron in 2004 with his father, a custom home builder, after studying architecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He says after he moved back to Las Vegas, he quickly grew tired of the city?s ?quasi-Mediterranean, Tuscan style with red tile roofs and brown stucco everywhere.?

Since 2005, Blue Heron has sold some 100 homes in Las Vegas, often to design enthusiasts who care more about the home?s horizontal aluminum louvers than about the fact that the home does not have a traditional, family-friendly set-up.

The most obvious point of reference for this year?s New American Home is Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect behind Fallingwater, a western Pennsylvania house perched over a waterfall, jutting out from a hillside full of boulders into the middle of a stream. Wright used the natural terrain as a guide, working within its confines to build what he called ?organic architecture.? Blue Heron has tried to update that idea here, using water features and a sand-hued color palette to give the home a contemplative feel, and a mix of materials including stone, pebble-filled gabion walls and Resista, a wood-like paneling made from reused rice husks.

Developments asked three people?the project?s architect, a luxury custom home builder and the architect of the New American Home from a decade ago?to review photos, plans, and video tours of this year?s house and report their thoughts. Here are some excerpts from their emailed responses:

Michael Gardner, Blue Heron?s in-house architect, designed the space, and said he drew inspiration from Wright?s work in Los Angeles and at Taliesen West, the late architect?s winter home and school in the Arizona desert.

There?s some inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright and Asian architecture with tapered edges?It?s a warm contemporary feeling. A very modern take, a use of glass. The big broad overhangs are a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired element?The client is a professional of some sort who has a high powered, maybe stressful, all-day kind of job where they?re going all day and coming home to a kind of calm, Zen-like, relaxing type environment. It?s definitely not set up for families. It?s for a professional single, or a married couple that?s very social.

Tanner Luster is chief executive of Luster Custom Homes in Scottsdale, Ariz., where his company is currently building homes at Sterling at Silverleaf, a luxury new-home community with a focus on sustainable features.

I like how the home uses technology in a way that isn?t intimidating, but provides the convenience a ?smart house? should offer. My clients are usually a little hesitant at first when discussing the inclusion of home controls. We help educate them about user friendly systems that are as easy to operate as their iPads. Once they see it, they love it?

The home also excels in energy efficiency by providing the best return on investment to the homeowner with high efficiency HVAC systems, LED lighting and spray foam insulation. By far, energy efficient elements and building specifications are the most in-demand requests we receive from clients?

From a building and budget perspective, it would be a challenge to re-create all of the features and elements on a mass scale due to the substantial cost. However, the fundamentals of the home are spot-on when it comes to what American home buyers are looking for today.

Melanie S. Taylor, of Melanie Taylor Architecture and Gardens, an architect based in New Haven, Conn., has designed seven different custom homes for magazines and builder shows. In 2002, she designed the New American Home for the NAHB?s International Builders? Show in Atlanta.

The New American Home for 2013 echoes Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright?s masterpiece that dramatically appears to float above the waterfall that flows through its sylvan site. Like a precious and ostentatiously displayed commodity, water is hoarded within TNAH 2013 even as the house modestly sinks into its setting, a golf course within the Nevada desert. While Fallingwater gestures outwards, embracing the surrounding woodland like a reverent lover, TNAH 2013 looks inward to its overriding element, a huge, man-made holding pond and the heavy forms of the house look as if they were designed by a defense contractor?

As per builders? and market demands, designs for show homes have gotten progressively larger since the 1980s. Nonetheless, both the size and the design of TNAH 2013 are unusual for a residence. Any building where such a high proportion of space is dedicated to water and entertainment is intrinsically nonresidential. This house functions better as a party pavilion than as a safe and comfortable home for children or the elderly?

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2013/01/24/the-new-american-home-wright-inspired-party-pavilion/

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Newcastle Society of Antiquities celebrates 200th birthday - Today's ...

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Source: http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2013/01/24/newcastle-society-of-antiquities-celebrates-200th-birthday-61634-32665619/

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Weak growth, inflation delays Bank of Canada rate rise

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada held its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent on Wednesday, but it revised its guidance dramatically to say that excess capacity in the economy, soft inflation and stabilizing household debt have combined to push any rate increase further away than previously thought.

Governor Mark Carney has been the most hawkish central banker in the Group of Seven (G7) major industrial economies for several months, but he has steadily been watering down his guidance on the need to start raising rates.

"While some modest withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will likely be required over time, consistent with achieving the 2 percent inflation target, the more muted inflation outlook and the beginnings of a more constructive evolution of imbalances in the household sector suggest that the timing of any such withdrawal is less imminent than previously anticipated," the bank said.

In October and December it said: "Over time, some modest withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will likely be required, consistent with achieving the 2 percent inflation target."

The Canadian dollar swiftly moved lower and bonds rose.

Carney, set to head the Bank of England in July, was the first in the G7 to raise rates following the global financial crisis. Refraining from further tightening since mid-2010, he began signaling in April the need to start raising rates, but has had to dampen expectations repeatedly.

"The Bank of Canada has made (policy) about as soft as they could, while still maintaining that tightening bias," said Mark Chandler, head of fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

RATE CUT?

Desjardins economic strategist Jimmy Jean commented: "The market might interpret this as a prelude to rate cuts."

Carney told a news conference that, while he would not categorically rule out anything, including lower rates, the bank's projections include a gradual reduction in monetary stimulus between now and the end of 2014.

"So the direction is clear, the timing has shifted. The timing of that expectation has shifted for the reasons that ... the bank's governing council has stated," he said, alluding to excess capacity, muted inflation and improvements in the households sector.

"So all those factors together push back the need for any potential adjustment, any potential tightening, but that is still the ultimate direction."

One factor that will help Canada, the bank said, will be the end to temporary disruptions in energy output and an expected reduction in the deep discount faced by Western Canadian crude.

That said, the bank does not expect the economy to hit full capacity until the second half of 2014, not the end of 2013 as it forecast in its October Monetary Policy Report.

This is causing a substantially lower inflation profile. Total inflation is expected in the near term to remain around 1 percent, the bottom of the target range of 1 to 3 percent. For the first time since 2009, the bank projects inflation to be below that band in the first quarter. It said total and core inflation should return to its 2 percent target in the second half of next year, not the end of this year as it once thought.

Overnight index swaps, which trade based on expectations for the central bank's key policy rate, showed that after the announcement traders saw less than a 25 percent chance of a rate increase in late 2013.

The Canadian dollar fell below parity with the U.S. dollar briefly after the bank's statement, dropping to C$1.0005, or 99.95 U.S. cents, from C$0.9930, or $1.0070, beforehand. It was the weakest since November 19.

A Reuters poll of Canada's 12 primary dealers on Wednesday found the median forecast is for the next rate hike to be in the first quarter of 2014. Two dealers pushed back their targets; others said their forecast was under review.

The bank said the economy likely grew by only 1 percent, annualized, in the fourth quarter of last year versus initial expectations of 2.5 percent growth.

It also forecast a weak start to 2013, but said growth will gather momentum throughout the year as business investment and exports strengthen and temporary energy sector disruptions end. Annual growth in 2013 should be 1.9 percent, compared with the previous 2.2 percent forecast, it said.

Dizzying household credit growth and a hot housing market have been a top concern of both Carney and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, but the bank's language on Wednesday signaled the belief that the situation was getting under control.

The bank expects household credit growth to moderate further and the debt-to-income ratio to stabilize near current levels. It painted a mixed picture of the housing market itself, with residential investment seen declining from historically high levels, but home building still higher than demographic demand.

It said it still saw over building and "stretched" valuations in some segments, despite softening house prices.

Carney said the immediacy of the possible need for higher rates to curb the housing sector was reduced.

However, the bank does list potential housing resurgence as one of three upside risks.

"It's been a 10-year build-up, and it's too early to declare success," said Senior Deputy Governor Tiff Macklem, a possible successor to Carney.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren.; Editing by Grant McCool, Peter Galloway and Andre Grenon; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bank-canada-delays-rate-hike-due-weak-growth-151408217--sector.html

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