USFWS Proposes to Delist the Gray Wolf and Expand Recovery ...

Gray wolf (Canis lupus). (Credit: Gary Kramer/USFWS)

On June 13, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published two proposed rules regarding the threatened and endangered listing status of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), opening a 90-day comment period on both. The first proposal involves delisting the gray wolf by 2014 in the remaining contiguous U.S. in addition to several already delisted populations within the Northern Rocky Mountains (Mont., N.D., S.D., Neb., Kan., Colo., Utah, and Wyo.) and the Great Lakes region (Ill., Ind., Iowa, Mich., Minn., Mo., Ohio, Wis.). Those distinct population segments were delisted in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and have since been managed by the states under USFWS-approved state management plans with five-year monitoring programs by the USFWS. Washington and Oregon also have management plans for the wolves currently recolonizing their states. This proposal would maintain protections for the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), by listing it as an endangered subspecies.

The second proposal would revise the existing nonessential experimental population designation of the Mexican wolf to allow raised wolves to be released throughout the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the Apache and Gila National Forests of east central Arizona and west central New Mexico.

These proposals are based on the best available science and a recent comprehensive review that includes new taxonomic data from Chambers et al. (2012). The USFWS reports that the current gray wolf listing needs to be revised. Now that some populations are considered recovered and have been delisted, the entire C. lupus species can no longer be listed as endangered. Instead, any endangered populations must be listed separately as either endangered subspecies (like the Mexican wolf) or so-called ?distinct population segments.?

According to a USFWS news release, ?there are at least 6,100 gray wolves in the contiguous U.S., with a current estimate of 1,674 in the Northern Rocky Mountains and 4,432 in the Western Great Lakes.? During the 2012 annual year-end survey, the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team counted a minimum of 75 Mexican wolves living in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico, an increase from 58 in 2011.

The USFWS is seeking additional scientific, commercial, and technical information from the public and other interested parties during the comment period for the two proposed rules, prior to the USFWS?s final determination in 2014. Public hearing requests must be made in writing and within 45 days of the date the proposals were published in the Federal Register.

Thus far, more than 10,000 comments have already been submitted to regulations.gov.

Comments may be submitted until 11:59 p.m. on September 11, 2013, online or by mail to:

Public Comments
Processing, Attn: [*please use the appropriate docket number for each species ? see below]
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive
MS 2042?PDM
Arlington, VA 22203

*Please include the correct docket number for comment submissions:
Gray wolf: Docket No. [FWS?HQ?ES?2013?0073]
Mexican wolf: Docket No. [FWS-R2-ES-2013-0056]

?

Sources: Federal Register (June 13, 2013), FWS Gray Wolf Recovery (June 7, 2013), FWS Gray Wolf Recovery Press Release (June 7, 2013), FAQs for Gray Wolf and Delisting (June, 2013), FWS Bulletin (June 13, 2013).

More information: What States Are Saying; Federal Register notices on the gray wolf (or download the PDF) and the Mexican wolf (or download PDF); gray wolf profile page; Information on the Mountain Prairie Region gray wolf, the Midwest Region gray wolf, and the Southwest Region Mexican wolf; USFWS gray wolf Flickr page; USFWS Director Dan Ashe blog on wolves.

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/usfws-proposes-to-delist-the-gray-wolf-and-expand-recovery-efforts-for-mexican-wolf/

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Not Even Not Even? (Unqualified Offerings)

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Wing walker, pilot die in crash at Ohio air show

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) ? A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday at an air show and exploded into flames, killing the pilot and stunt walker instantly, authorities said.

Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed the deaths to The Associated Press.

The crash happened at around 12:45 p.m. at the Vectren Air Show at the Dayton airport. No spectators were injured.

The show has been canceled for the remainder of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday. The names of those killed weren't immediately released, but a video posted on WHIO-TV showing the flight and crash identified the performer as wing walker Jane Wicker. A schedule posted on the event's website also had Wicker scheduled to perform.

The video shows the plane turn upside-down as Wicker sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, exploding into flames as spectators scream.

"All of a sudden I heard screaming and looked up and there was a fireball," spectator Stan Thayer of Wilmington, Ohio, told WHIO.

Another spectator, Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, told the Dayton Daily News that he was watching the flight through binoculars.

"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane," he said. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."

Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. Her full-time job was as a budget analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration, according to her website.

She told WDTN-TV in an interview this week that her signature move was hanging underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sitting on the bottom of the airplane while it's upside-down.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wing-walker-pilot-die-crash-ohio-air-show-191655523.html

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Dear Lillie: Final Tour of our Townhome

Well, seeing how we spent the weekend moving out of our townhouse and tomorrow morning (Monday) will be moving into our new home I thought it would be a fitting time to give a final tour of our old home. When you first walked through our front door we had this tiny little space that kind of functioned as our entry area.

Directly next to the bench was our staicase. You can see the before here and how we very inexpensively made the frames here.


I am going to share a lot more living room photos this week as part of the One Room, Three Ways Series so for today will just share one and will come back and update it and add more once I post them. But this is how it last looked:

And here were the last photos I took of the dining room (although I ended up putting the chairs back in the family room):

And the ever-changing dining room chalkboard:

The dining room lead into the kitchen:

And the kitchen opens up to the family room:

And off the kitchen/family room is the back porch:

?When you head upstairs the first bedroom was Lillie's (and recently it became Lola's too once she moved into a "big girl bed").

And then there's Lola's room:

And lastly our room:

Well, that's it! We have made so many memories in this home and it is the only place Lillie and Lola have ever lived so it was sad to say good-bye to it but we are so excited about this next chapter in our lives!

***If you have any questions about where an item is from, paint colors or how something was made be sure to click here for our "Our Home" page that has all sorts of details,? here for our "Tutorials" page, or here for our "FAQ's" page. We don't have our internet hooked up yet at our new house so I will probably get pretty behind on responding to comments.

I'll be back Tuesday Morning with Day 1 of the my One Room, Three Ways!

Source: http://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/final-tour-of-our-townhome.html

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Mandela remains in 'serious but stable' condition: government

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela remains in a "serious but stable" condition in hospital, the government said on Saturday.

Consistent with previous updates from the presidency, the statement shows that the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero's health is little changed since his admission to a Pretoria hospital two weeks ago.

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, was rushed to a Pretoria hospital early on June 8 with a recurring respiratory infection.

The presidency also confirmed that the intensive care ambulance carrying former South African president Nelson Mandela to hospital two weeks ago broke down. Media reports said he was stranded for 40 minutes.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said the former president was transferred to another military ambulance for the remainder of the almost 50 minute journey between Johannesburg and the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria.

"All care was taken to ensure that former president Mandela's medical condition was not compromised by the unforeseen incident," Maharaj said. He would not say how long Mandela's journey to hospital had been delayed by the breakdown.

Doctors attending to Madiba, the clan name by which Mandela is popularly known, were satisfied that he suffered no harm during this period, he said.

Failure to deliver basic services under the African National Congress-led government has sparked violent protests across the country this year and are campaign points for political parties jostling for position ahead of next year's election.

Mandela's history of lung problems dates back to his time at Robben Island prison near Cape Town. He was released in 1990 after 27 years and went on to serve as president from 1994 to 1999.

His hospitalization is the fourth since December.

(Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nelson-mandela-remains-serious-stable-condition-government-092747495.html

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Court documents reveal secret rules allowing NSA to use US data without a warrant

NSA's information gathering practices have been further detailed in court papers revealed by The Guardian. While the agency has continued to reiterate that it doesn't collect its data indiscriminately, the leaked papers detail several loopholes that allow it to gather data from both American and foreign origins without the need for a warrant. If you use data encryption or other privacy tools, your communications are likely to receive extra attention, and the agency can indefinitely keep any information assembled for "crypto-analytic, traffic analysis or signal exploitation purposes" -- in short, if the NSA believes may be relevant in the future.

One reason to hold onto said files could simply be the fact that the data is encrypted and NSA wants to be able to analyze its protection. The security agency can also give the FBI and other government organizations any data if it contains a significant amount of foreign intelligence, or information about a crime that has (or will be) committed. Any data that's "inadvertently acquired" through the NSA's methods -- and could potentially contain details of US citizens -- can be held for up to five years before it has to be deleted. The Guardian's uploaded the leaked papers in full -- hit the source links for more.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Via: The Guardian, Forbes

Source: The Guardian (1), (2)

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Weinstein Co. Shifts Meryl Streep-Julia Roberts 'August: Osage County' to Christmas

By Todd Cunningham

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Weinstein Company on Thursday shifted the release date of one of its main awards hopefuls, "August: Osage County," to Christmas Day. It had been scheduled to debut on November 8.

Christmas is getting crowded. Also set to debut on that day are Universal's Keanu Reeves action drama "47 Ronin," Paramount's Chris Pine-Keira Knightley action thriller "Jack Ryan" and the Fox comedy "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."

The studio also shifted "Grace of Monaco," a biopic starring Nicole Kidman as Hollywood star-turned-princess Grace Kelly, from December 27 to November 27, the day before Thanksgiving.

"August: Osage County" is directed by John Wells and produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The cast includes Meryl Streep playing a pill-popping mother and Julia Roberts as her bitter daughter. Also featured are Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin and Juliette Lewis.

The Tracy Letts play that inspired the film snagged just about every major theatrical prize including the Pulitzer when it debuted on Broadway in 2007.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/weinstein-co-shifts-meryl-streep-julia-roberts-august-211620704.html

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3D map of human brain is the most detailed ever

The folds, creases and intricate internal structures that make up the human brain are being revealed in unprecedented detail. A new three-dimensional map called BigBrain is the most detailed ever constructed, and should lead to a more accurate picture of how the brain's different regions function and interact.

Until now, the precise placement of the neurons that make up our brain circuitry has been difficult to map, largely because the human brain's surface is covered with folds and creases. Slicing a brain exposes only two dimensions, so it is often unclear where and how the cells within these folds are organised in three-dimensional space.

To make the new map, Katrin Amunts of the J?lich Research Centre in Germany and her colleagues embedded a 65-year old woman's brain in wax, sliced it into more than 7400 sections each 20 micrometres thick ? one-fifth of the width of a human hair ? and made digital images of the slices, also at a resolution of 20 micrometres.

Reassembling these images into a full 3D model of the brain was no easy task. It required 1000 hours on a supercomputer. But because the images' resolution was so high, the computer was able to determine the 3D shape of each fold correctly, even if the slice had been cut at an angle.

Tour de force

"It's a tour de force that has never been achieved before," says Arthur Toga of the University of California, Los Angeles. The model's resolution is 50 times higher than that of previous maps, allowing it to make out individual cell bodies ? although not all of the projections that connect one cell to another. It bridges a gap, Toga says, between low-resolution images from brain scans of living people and microscopic images of the connections between individual nerve cells.

Amunts's group plans to post BigBrain online as a template for other researchers to use and integrate with other findings. For instance, by superimposing maps of gene activity, it may be possible to work out which cells are performing particular functions.

It may also serve as a useful reference for the BRAIN initiative championed by US president Barack Obama, which aims to map all of the brain's activity. "You can't map function unless you can relate it to structure," says Toga.

Van Wedeen of Harvard University, who has argued that the brain is based on an underlying 3D grid, hopes the map will reveal similarly unexpected patterns and structure. "There's a tremendous amount we still don't know," he says.

Brain training

By making similar maps of further brains, it should also be possible to study natural variability in brain structure, and look for abnormalities linked to specific neurological diseases. Amunts is already well on the way to reconstructing a second brain ? which should go faster now that her group has trail-blazed its method.

Meanwhile, Jacopo Annese of the University of California, San Diego, is in the midst of constructing maps based on fewer, thicker slices, but imaging each with a resolution of just 0.5 micrometres. This should reveal the connections between individual cells.

Annese's group, called The Brain Observatory, recently sliced the brain of a person who had suffered from epilepsy and who had lost his long-term memory after surgery. The team is now constructing digital models of sections from this brain and those from 60 other people, including some who had been living with various psychiatric disorders.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.123538

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Four Senators seek to bar military aid to Syrian rebels

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four senators introduced legislation on Thursday that would bar President Barack Obama from providing military aid to Syria's rebels, saying the administration has provided too little information about what they see as a risky intervention.

The bill would prevent the Department of Defense and U.S. intelligence agencies from using any funds to support military, paramilitary or covert operations in Syria, directly or indirectly.

The bill's sponsors - Democrats Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky - expressed doubts about Washington's ability to ensure weapons will not fall into the wrong hands, and called for debate in Congress before the United States becomes more involved in Syria's civil war.

"The president's unilateral decision to arm Syrian rebels is incredibly disturbing, considering what little we know about whom we are arming," Paul said in a statement.

Other lawmakers argued it was in the U.S. national security interest to get more involved in Syria.

"This is about looking at the possibility of a failed state in which terrorist actors already present within Syria in this fight can launch attacks against our allies, and potentially against the United States," Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.

After months of equivocating, Obama decided a week ago to provide military aid to rebels trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, citing Assad's government's use chemical weapons in the two-year-long conflict.

The administration has since been working to win more support in Congress for the plan. Secretary of State John Kerry, a former senator, has been on Capitol Hill at least twice this week to make the administration's case to lawmakers.

On Tuesday he had a classified briefing for House of Representatives leaders from both parties and committee chairmen.

On Thursday Kerry conducted at least three briefings: one for the House Intelligence Committee, a second for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a third for other senators.

Many members of Congress, particularly in the Republican-controlled House, remain deeply skeptical about plans to arm the rebels, questioning the cost when other programs are being cut and worrying that U.S. weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

Others have been pushing for military aid for months, with some senators in particular denouncing Obama for his failure to intervene in a conflict in which more than 90,000 people have been killed.

Last month the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 in favor of a bill to provide lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. That measure has not yet gone to the full Senate for a vote.

Paul, Murphy and Udall were the three members of the foreign relations panel who voted against that bill.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/four-u-senators-seek-bar-military-aid-syrian-195405238.html

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Snail trail reveals ancient human migration

June 20, 2013 ? Geneticists from The University of Nottingham have used snails to uncover evidence of an ancient human migration from the Pyrenean region of France to Ireland.

Dr Angus Davison, Reader in Evolutionary Genetics at the University, and PhD student Adele Grindon, found that snails in Ireland and the Pyrenees are genetically almost identical, despite being thousands of miles apart. And -- as snails aren't renowned for their speed -- the simplest explanation is that snails hitched a ride with human migrants approximately 8,000 years ago.

The research is published in journal PLOS ONE on 19 June.

From France to Ireland

Dr Davison said: "There is a very clear pattern, which is difficult to explain except by involving humans. If the snails naturally colonised Ireland, you would expect to find some of the same genetic type in other areas of Europe, especially Britain. We just don't find them.

"There are records of Mesolithic or Stone Age humans eating snails in the Pyrenees, and perhaps even farming them. The highways of the past were rivers and the ocean -- as the river that flanks the Pyrenees was an ancient trade route to the Atlantic, what we're actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride, accidentally or perhaps as food, as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago.

"The results tie in with what we know from human genetics about the human colonisation of Ireland -- the people may have come from somewhere in southern Europe."

The flora and fauna of Ireland

Despite being close geographically, Ireland is home to many plants and animals which aren't found in Britain.

Dr Davison said: "You would think that anything that gets to Ireland would go through Britain, but it has been a longstanding mystery as to why Ireland is so different from Britain. For these snails, at least, the difference may be that they hitched a ride on a passing boat."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/LufOxMAJE5I/130620084633.htm

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Death penalty lawyer Clarke 'humanizes' client and jury

By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When death penalty expert Judy Clarke joined the defense team for the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, she spent months trying to establish a rapport so she could convince him to accept a plea deal that would spare him capital punishment.

Though she and his other lawyers angered Kaczynski when they sought to introduce evidence of his mental illness, he eventually pleaded guilty in 1998 and received a life sentence.

"I think she has a real gift," David Kaczynski, his brother said on Tuesday, a day after Clarke was assigned to the defense team for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. "Even if it's the smallest sliver of common ground, Judy's going to be able to find that. There's no doubt in my mind that Judy saw my brother's humanity despite the terrible things he'd done."

Tsarnaev, 19, is accused of setting off explosives April 15 near the finish line with his older brother, Tamerlan, killing 3 and injuring 264. He was arrested April 19 after a massive manhunt that left his brother dead following a police shootout.

Tsarnaev faces charges of using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property with an explosive device, both of which can carry the death penalty when they cause the death of others. He has not yet entered a plea. U.S. authorities have not said whether they will seek capital punishment.

In court papers asking a judge to appoint Clarke as a public defender, one of Tsarnaev's lawyers, Miriam Conrad, cited a federal law giving defendants in potential capital cases a right to an attorney with experience handling death penalty cases.

Over nearly two decades of representing infamous defendants in capital cases, Clarke, who opposes the death penalty, has built a national reputation for avoiding executions for her clients.

In addition to Kaczynski, Clarke defended Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber, and Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her young sons in 1994. They both were spared the death penalty.

Most recently, Clarke represented Jared Loughner, the 24-year-old charged with killing six and wounding former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a January 2011 mass shooting. Loughner, who faced death, pleaded guilty in August 2012 in a deal that sent him to prison for life.

Colleagues said Clarke is known for her meticulous research into the lives of her clients to find possible mitigating factors, and that she possesses a sharp sense of humor and a folksy style that belies her intense, no-nonsense preparation.

"She humanizes the client. But more importantly, she humanizes the jury, the lawyers, the judges," said Gerald Goldstein, a defense lawyer who has known Clarke for 30 years. "Judy's brilliant at making people reconsider their values ... to reconsider our place in making life or death decisions."

'GENTLE JUDY'

With an unassuming manner, Clarke can come across as "gentle Judy," said a longtime acquaintance, criminal defense lawyer Donald Rehkopf.

"She's not flamboyant or in your face - just the opposite," he said.

Clarke rarely grants media interviews and did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Last week, at a forum at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, Clarke delivered the keynote address, explaining that her job was to convince reluctant clients that opting for prison was better than choosing a death sentence.

"They're looking into the lens of life in prison in a box," she said, according to an Associated Press account. "Our job is to provide them with a reason to live."

Her efforts are not always welcomed by her clients, many of whom suffered from mental illness. Kaczynski tried to have his legal team fired and later unsuccessfully asked an appeals court to throw out his guilty plea, while Loughner spat and lunged at Clarke during a meeting in prison early on in his case, according to court filings.

There is no evidence that Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen and a student at the University of Massachusetts, suffered from psychological problems.

Legal experts have said that defense lawyers could point to Tsarnaev's youth and the possible influence of his older brother as reasons for the government not to seek capital punishment.

Clarke previously ran the San Diego office of the Federal Defenders and served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She is in private practice in San Diego with her husband while continuing to take on public defense work in capital cases.

For Barry Scheck, the co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence to exonerate convicted defendants, Clarke has become the "go-to" public defender for capital cases.

"She has a profoundly developed sense of humanity, aside from being a great lawyer," said Scheck, who has known Clarke for more than 20 years. "That's a powerful combination."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Terry Baynes; editing by Noeleen Walder, Mary Milliken and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-penalty-lawyer-clarke-humanizes-client-jury-001109477.html

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Investors Raid IRAs, 401(k)s ? Raising Broker & Adviser Risk ...

[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

Anyone looking to check the pulse of the American economy might want to check out the status of retirement accounts.? What might be a little known secret might have some serious impacts on the welfare of customers and clients of broker-dealers and investment advisers.? And when their welfare, and well-being is at risk, multiple risks arise for Wall Street firms.? Of course, there's no reason any financial services firms must sit around and wait to see how it all turns out.? There are plenty of PRO-ACTIVE steps that can be taken.

So where are we getting the idea that many Americans are not waiting for retirement before they hit their savings?? Well, that would be Wall Street Cheatsheet, which points out that:? Amid stagnant wages and rising expenses, more Americans are raiding their retirement accounts.

And with all the billions in liquidity that the Federal Reserve appears to be pumping into the financial system ? at record levels, no less ? no much of that liquidity is reaching its intended target.? As Americans are getting "tapped out," they are resorting to tapping their retirement accounts ? before their retirement.? Wells Fargo confirms this phenomenon:? a bank survey found that 1 in 5 workers are using their 401k plans for loans.? To date, the average new loan balance jumped 7% from $6,662 to $7,126 in the same period.

"While the increase in loan activity is concerning, we know that loans are not the biggest driver of leakage from retirement savings.? In fact, employees cashing out their 401k's when they leave an employer are a greater concern. Those dollars are often spent whereas with loans the funds are often repaid and stay in the retirement nest egg." ? Laurie Nordquist, director of Wells Fargo Retirement, in a press release.

Wall St. Cheatsheet scratched the surface when it said, "it is generally considered a bad idea to take a loan out from your 401k plan."? Aside from diminished long-term gains or the very real threat of being laid off (at which point entire loan typically becomes due within a few months), what we're looking at is an entire population of sitting ducks.

Ramifications On The Financial Services Industry.? We'll let you in on a little secret ? but you'll have to promise to follow our logic.? If you agree with us so far ? i.e., agree with Wall Street Cheatsheet ? then many customers and clients of broker-dealers and investment advisers are hurting.? If the investor keeps his or her retirement account with your firm, perhaps you've already noticed a significant decline in balances.? But it wouldn't be so apparent if the account or accounts were held, say, at a custodian chosen by the employer.

Anyway, it would be prudent to take the worst case scenario and presume anticipate your customers or clients are having difficulty.? When people are experiencing net outflows, they sorely feel in need of a quick fix.? That need can be filled by investing an individual's remaining funds in speculative securities ? e.g., penny stocks, out-of-the-money options, junk bonds.? If the stars are aligned, any of those can result in a meaningful return.? Of course, it's not uncommon for such securities to become worthless or fall to a fraction of their former value.?

How does that impact those in financial services??

• Suitability, suitability, suitability!
• Investors may try and win it all back all at once.? But should firms let their customers and clients follow their own leads?? It's probably akin to a bartender who serves a last drink to someone who's already reached his or her limit.? If anything happens to that person, the bartender can be held responsible.
• What about the investments that you and your firm have been soliciting.? In your opinion, they were suitable for your customers a couple of months ago ? so why not now?? Well, if they're down on their luck, they no longer have the risk tolerance or investment objective that they had a short while ago.? If you push those securities on customers and they lose, regulators can come after you.?
• And because regulators also are aware that investors are raiding their retirement accounts, they're likely to revise the scope of their examinations, and see if firms like yours have changed the way they do business/

Proactive Strategy. ? First things first, it's essential to learn how your customers and clients are doing.? Every broker and adviser needs to ascertain what changes have occurred in the lives of their customers and clients, and whether the firm's profiles need to be revised.? Managers and supervisors should work closely with their charges and review all findings.?

It probably would be best to design a standard template for all personnel to fill out.? This will ensure consistency of information and facilitate reviews.?

Supervisors should meet or speak with selected customers or clients ? along with the broker or adviser, or separately.? The key is to know whether the brokers and advisers are asking the right questions and clarifying answers where follow-ups are needed.

Benefits of Elevating Customer/Client Contacts.?? Several benefits come to mind.

• Customers and clients will likely appreciate the additional attention and concern.? This not only can strengthen working relationships but it might also provide troubled investors with an ally ? or someone they can turn to for guidance.?
• Regulators will appreciate the care and concern that the firm exhibits for its customers and clients.? And, by retaining copies of the interviews and updates to customer records, as necessary, it's likely that regulators will reduce the scope of testing because they're satisfied that the firm has gone the extra yard to "do the right thing."
• Finally, the risk of suitability arbitrations and lawsuits are significantly reduced because the reviews are documented and presumably subsequent investment decisions are in line with the new findings.

Seriously ? it really is simply prudent/prescient/just good business to be on the crisis-averse side.

For further details, go to [Wall St. Cheatsheet, 4/18/13].

Source: http://www.compliance-insights.com/perspectives/investors-raid-iras-401ks-raising-broker-adviser-risk

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Netflix Earnings 1Q 2013 - Business Insider

Reuters/Stephen Chernin

Actor Kevin Spacey at Netflix's House of Cards premiere.

?

Netflix?announced its first quarter earnings this afternoon.

Revenue was in line with expectations but EPS killed it, and the stock jumped about 20% after-hours.?

We're updating this post as we go, so click for updates.

The big numbers are:

• Revenue: $1.02 billion versus $1.02 billion estimate
• EPS: $0.31 versus $0.20
• Earnings guidance: Sees Q2 EPS $0.23-$0.48 versus expectations of $0.30 EPS

Here's the full outlook for Q2 2013:

Netflix added three million subscribers in the first quarter bringing the total to 36 million.

They say two million of the new subscribers were added to the streaming business in the U.S. alone. This attributed in part to positive reception of the first original series House of Cards. International membership grew by one million.

In all markets Netflix saw growth and improved profits or reduced losses.

In regards to exclusive content and deals with other content providers, Netflix says that, "as we continue to focus on exclusive and curated content, our willingness to pay for non-exclusive, bulk content deals declines."

Netflix shared another interesting fact in its quarterly investor letter relating?to its proprietary series, House of Cards.

The decision to release all 13 episodes of its first original series House of Cards worked in the company's favor.

CEO Reed Hastings wrote in the investor letter that the decision created "enormous media and social buzz, reinforcing our brand attribute of giving consumers completely control over how and when they enjoy their entertainment."

Netflix was widely criticized for its decision to release the entire series at once.?Hastings said, "some investors worried that the House of Cards fans would take advantage of our free?trial, watch the show, and then cancel. However, there was very little free-trial gaming?less than 8,000?people did this? out of millions of free trials in the quarter."

Here's the full investor letter:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-earnings-1q-2013-4

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TomTom makes own-brand GPS sports watches, no Nike swoosh in sight (updated)

When it comes to GPS sport devices, TomTom has decided that it doesn't need to linger under Nike's wing anymore. An update to the Dutch company's website has just revealed a pair of wearables that is meant to bring a whole new level of "simplicity" to exercisers. The TomTom Runner (pictured left) is, unsurprisingly, designed for joggers, while the waterproof Multi-Sport (right) can be used by swimmers and cyclists as well. Both will be available in the summer, and as soon as we know how much the units will cost, we'll fill you in.

Filed under: GPS, Wearables

Comments

Source: TomTom

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/17/tomtom-gps-watch-launch/

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How to change the Home button click speed on iPhone and iPad

If you've got an iPhone or iPad, you're already aware that the Home button is by far the most used physical button since you use it to exit apps, multitask, and more. Depending on how fast you tap the Home button, double and trip clicks may not always register for you or get misread. iOS actually gives you a way to customize the Home button click speed by slowing it down.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on General.
3. Scroll down a ways and now tap on Accessibility.
4. Under the Physical & Motor section, tap on the option for Home-click Speed.
5. Here you can choose between Default, Slow, and Slowest

Since iOS will always register fast taps, the only settings offered are to slow it down. If you find that your iPhone is registering double taps as two single taps, slowing the speed down a bit could prevent this issue from happening.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/C-s92wpOcvc/story01.htm

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2 bodies found in charred Detroit medical facility

DETROIT (AP) ? A man identified by employees as a former maintenance worker opened fire Tuesday inside a Detroit medical facility, sending workers and visitors screaming and rushing for the doors just moments before the building erupted in flames.

Crews digging through the gutted Park Medical Centers building hours after the fire recovered the remains of a man and a woman, Detroit police said Tuesday night in a release.

Authorities did not release the identities of the dead, pending autopsies, but police had been searching for 35-year-old medical assistant Sharita Williams and the fired maintenance worker, who relatives said was her ex-boyfriend.

Williams' mother, Antha Williams-Hill, told The Associated Press that one of her daughter's co-workers told her that the man threatened her daughter inside.

"He said, 'You think I'm playing with you?'" Williams-Hill said. "He told the other girl, 'I think you better get out of here.' The girl left and said she then heard two shots."

Last week, Sharita Williams was granted a personal protection order against the man, according to Wayne County Court records.

Williams-Hill said two days earlier, someone had emailed her sexually explicit photos of her daughter that also were posted on Facebook. The text accompanying the photos read: "How do you like Sharita's new boyfriend?" her mother said.

Dr. Stuart Kirschenbaum, a podiatrist who operated his private practice from the building for about 30 years, said he heard a security guard yell that the gunman "had taken Sharita and is shooting at other people in the building."

Destroyed in the blaze, Kirschenbaum said, was his collection of boxing gloves, personal letters and photos of boxing great Joe Louis. He estimated the memorabilia were worth about $100,000.

Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin, a clinical psychologist, said she was driving in for an appointment Tuesday morning when a member of her staff called with this frantic message: "Kim, the building is on fire. They're shooting."

Dwane Blackmon, Detroit police homicide inspector, declined to identify the maintenance man as the suspect but said everyone else inside except the woman and male suspect appeared to have escaped the blaze.

Investigators were unable to quickly go deep into the one-story building, described by tenants as also having a basement, due to fears of the structure's integrity.

Williams-Hill said she was asked to go to the coroner's office to identify whether the deceased woman was her daughter "because of the condition of the body."

She said her daughter had been dating the married maintenance man for more than a year, but their relationship was rocky and Sharita eventually began seeing someone else and even moved out of the city and into a Detroit suburb to get away. However, he refused to leave her alone, Williams-Hill said.

Police and arson investigators on Tuesday interviewed people who worked in the building and relatives of Sharita Williams and the maintenance man.

Blackmon could not confirm whether the two had been in a relationship.

__

Associated Press writers Mike Householder and Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-bodies-found-burned-detroit-medical-facility-012714807.html

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Obama unveils $3.77 trillion spending plan (Washington Post)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/298041061?client_source=feed&format=rss

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FBI investigating recording of McConnell talks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) ? Campaign aides to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed using actress Ashley Judd's past bouts with depression against her if she had decided to challenge him in his re-election bid next year, according to a secret recording posted by a magazine.

Mother Jones released a recording Tuesday along with an article about a private meeting in which the aides discussed opposition research into potential Democratic challengers. Aides talked and laughed on the recording about Judd's political positions, religious beliefs and past bouts of depression.

The FBI is looking into how the recording was made after the McConnell campaign accused opponents of engaging in "Watergate-era tactics." The magazine reported that the recording was provided last week by a source who requested anonymity.

"She's clearly ? this sounds extreme ? but she is emotionally unbalanced," a McConnell aide said of Judd during a February meeting at the Louisville campaign headquarters. "I mean it's been documented ... she's suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the '90s."

Judd spokeswoman Cara Tripicchio criticized the McConnell campaign for considering making depression a campaign issue.

"This is yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington DC," Tripicchio said in a statement. "We expected nothing less from Mitch McConnell and his camp than to take a personal struggle such as depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter."

Judd has been open about her bouts with depression. She spoke to the American Counseling Association's national convention in Cincinnati in March, telling more than 3,000 counselors from across the country about her experiences.

McConnell was asked several times at a news conference Tuesday about the propriety of attacking Judd over depression. He did not directly answer, but repeatedly brought up an incident last month, when Progress Kentucky tweeted an insensitive remark about his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

"As you know, my wife's ethnicity was attacked by a left-wing group in Kentucky and apparently they also bugged my headquarters," he said. "So I think that pretty well sums up the way the political left is operating in Kentucky."

The McConnell campaign asked the FBI to look into whether the Louisville office was bugged.

"I can confirm that Sen. McConnell's office did contact us and we are looking into the matter," FBI spokeswoman Mary Trotman said.

McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton alleged in an email to supporters that "liberals and their media allies" were "wire-tapping our field office to spy on us." Benton used the issue as a fundraising appeal, asking supporters to send donations "to help us spread the truth."

"We've always said the left would stop at nothing to attack Senator McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond," Benton said in a statement.

On the recording posted on Mother Jones' website, McConnell began the meeting by telling aides the campaign had entered "the Whac-A-Mole period" and explained that means "when anybody sticks their head up, do them out."

The magazine reported the aides huddled on Feb. 2 in a private meeting to discuss potential Democratic opponents, including Judd and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Grimes, a rising star within the Kentucky Democratic Party, hasn't ruled herself out as a challenger.

An unidentified aide said Judd had made a public statement as a Tennessee delegate to the national convention about her support of President Barack Obama, an unpopular political figure in Kentucky. The aide said that statement could be used against her. He also said the statement raised another issue: that Judd is a resident of Tennessee, not Kentucky.

In another instance, the aide played a recording of Judd talking about her religious beliefs: "I still choose the God of my understanding as the God of my childhood. I have to expand my God concept from time to time, and you know particularly I enjoy native faith practices, and have a very nature-based God concept. I'd like to think I'm like St. Francis in that way. Brother Donkey, Sister Bird."

The campaign aides then laugh loudly.

An unidentified man then says "the people at Southeast Christian would take to the streets with pitchforks," referring to an evangelical megachurch in Louisville.

In the discussion of Grimes, the aide said she had endorsed Obama.

"She was too smart to use his name in a sentence," the aide said. "But she says, 'my support of our party and our nominee is well known, and it's no secret I'll be in North Carolina to support our nominee and the party.'"

The aide charged that Grimes has "a very sort of self-centered, sort of egotistical aspect" and that "she'll frequently use herself in the third person."

Grimes was unavailable for comment, a spokeswoman said.

It wasn't the first time that Mother Jones has written about recordings from private meetings.

The magazine was the first to report about Republican Mitt Romney's comments to donors paying $50,000 apiece to attend a private reception that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government, see themselves as victims and believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.

Romney's critics used the video to argue that he was out of touch with average Americans during the last presidential campaign.

Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Dan Logsdon said the recording is telling about McConnell.

"I certainly do not know anything about how this may have happened," Logsdon said. "However, it's clear that this is the McConnell we all know: leading a negative, nasty campaign determined to lash out at his opponents since he doesn't have any accomplishments to point to."

___

Associated Press writers Jim Abrams and Donna Cassata in Washington and Brett Barrouquere in Louisville contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-investigating-recording-mcconnell-talks-190453229--election.html

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NASA gives planet-hunting TESS space telescope go-ahead for 2017 launch

NASA's Kepler space telescope hasn't exactly been a slouch when it comes to planet hunting, but that effort will soon be getting a considerable boost courtesy of a new mission selected by NASA as part of its Explorer program. Dubbed the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS), this new space telescope will one-up Kepler with the ability to perform an all-sky survey (an area 400 times larger than previous missions) to search for transiting exoplanets, with an eye towards planets comparable to Earth in size. TESS was developed by an MIT-led team, and will be placed in what they describe as a new "Goldilocks" orbit, allowing it to travel close enough to the Earth every two weeks for a high-speed data downlink while still remaining safely beyond the harmful radiation belts. It's now set for launch in 2017, when it will be joined by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an addition to the International Space Station also selected as part of the Explorer program last week that will use a process called X-ray timing to study neutron stars.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Via: New Scientist

Source: NASA, MIT

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/wrhgPxCE_ZY/

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Anne Hathaway To Reunite With Christopher Nolan For 'Interstellar'

Actress follows Oscar win for 'Les Misérables' with a leading role in her first science-fiction film.
By Todd Gilchrist

Anne Hathaway
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705277/anne-hathaway-christopher-nolan-interstellar.jhtml

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From strip clubs to theaters, Google Glass won't be welcome everywhere

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 5 hrs.

Google's futuristic Glass headgear will be available before year's end. The device may well be the final step before human-machine interaction moves under our skin ? but its wearers may trigger some undesired social reactions from friends and family members, and it may not go over too well at your local watering hole, either. In fact, judging from our early look, Google Glass won't be welcome in lots of places.

Google Glass consists of a small display situated on a frame that resembles eyeglasses. It is connected to a camera, microphone and bone-conducting speaker. Glass pairs with your smartphone wirelessly using Bluetooth, but also can use Wi-Fi to access the Internet. You can use your voice or your finger to get it to take photos, record video, initiate video or voice chats, send messages, search Google and translate words or phrases. Google's being a bit coy about the ship date for this groundbreaking wearable computer. However, while qualifying early adopters are paying $1,500 a pop for the privilege of owning it first, we're told that it will become more widely available by year's end ? with a slightly more affordable price tag.

One of the reasons Glass will find itself unwelcome in places is because its camera lives at the wearer's eye level. It takes photos or record videos without a red blinking light telling others it's happening. Anywhere cameras and other recording devices are unwelcome, the same would most certainly go for Google Glass.

For starters, you can forget about taking Glass to Las Vegas.

"We've been dealing with the cellphone videoing and the picture taking over the years and we are quick to make sure that that doesn't happen in the club," Peter Feinstein, managing partner of Sapphire Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas, told NBC News, explaining that hosts check in any electronics a patron brings that could be used for filming.

"As the sale of [Google Glass] spreads, there'll be more people using them and wanting to use them at places such as a gentlemen's club," Feinstein explained. "If we see those in the club, we would do the same thing that we do to people who bring cameras into the club."

And if somebody refuses to doff his or her headset? "If they don't want to check it, we'd be happy to give them a limo ride back to their hotel," Feinstein says.

Casinos are another place where surreptitious recording equipment won't be welcome.

"Picture-taking is frowned upon, and security officers on duty ask individuals not to take pictures for the privacy of others in the casino," a spokesperson for MGM Resorts said. "This new product is nothing new in terms of a challenge for us, because for so many years, the very tiniest of portable lipstick and pinpoint cameras have been around."

She added that "resort security officers are trained to monitor for, and detect, anything that they suspect might be a filming device, and will ask the patron to discontinue shooting photos or filming."

We spoke to several other casinos and adult entertainment establishments ? in and out of Las Vegas ? and found a general consensus: You are welcome, but your Google Glass must stay outside.

How about movie theaters?

"No recording devices (cameras, video recorders, sound recorders, etc.) are permitted to be used within any Regal Entertainment Group facility," the admittance procedures for the Regal Entertainment Group plainly state.

While a spokesperson for the group ? as well as one for AMC Theaters ? looked into the particular methods that may be used for dealing with Glass, no definitive answer was available.

We encountered a lot of that as we made calls for this piece: From the TSA to Bank of America, spokespeople were not yet ready to speak to the particulars of Google Glass, but reiterated general statements about protecting the privacy and personal information of staff and customers alike.

And while businesses and agencies have an interest in controlling what goes on within their boundaries, a whole other area of Google Glass concern has to do with what happens in public places, where people of all ages congregate.

"My immediate concern for [Google Glass] was from a sexual predator view point," Drew Donofrio, a private investigator who previously ran a computer crimes unit for 12 years at the Bergen County, N.J., police department, told NBC News. "Locker rooms, bathrooms, playgrounds ... all [Glass] requires is a line of sight."

"You can look innocent enough in line of sight, when you're not holding up a camcorder," Donofrio explained. "When you have this type of technology, it looks innocuous."

We reached out to parks and recreation departments across the country to see if they would treat Glass any differently than existing recording devices. Like others, park management was not ready to make any official calls. Many did say that they will monitor the gadget's development and adjust policies if necessary in the future.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to herFacebook posts or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a73b0e2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Cstrip0Eclubs0Etheaters0Egoogle0Eglass0Ewont0Ebe0Ewelcome0Eeverywhere0E1B9231620A/story01.htm

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