MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin has added a little more than 62,000 private sector jobs in the first two years of Gov. Scott Walker's term.
A new report released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in 2012 Wisconsin tied with three other states for 31st in job creation.
Total job growth in Wisconsin last year was 1.2 percent. Only 16 states had lower growth.
Democrats are blasting Walker over the latest numbers, saying they are another sign that his policies are not working.
Walker's spokesman had no immediate comment on the report. Walker promised in 2010 to create 250,000 private sector jobs over four years.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) ?
(Updates with UCI fine) By Julien Pretot BASTIA, France, June 29 (Reuters) - Scenes of panic and chaos marked the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday after a team bus became wedged under the finish-line banner. As the peloton was launched at high speed towards the finish with less than 10 kilometres to go, the Orica GreenEdge team bus crossed the line but got stuck beneath the banner. It prompted organisers to move the stage finish three kilometres from the line, a decision they reversed when the bus was freed in time. ...
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With a solemnity reserved for momentous occasions, the Senate passed historic legislation Thursday offering the priceless hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America's shadows. The bill also promises a military-style effort to secure the long-porous border with Mexico.
The bipartisan vote was 68-32 on a measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda. Even so, the bill's prospects are highly uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where conservatives generally oppose citizenship for immigrants living in the country unlawfully.
Spectators in galleries that overlook the Senate floor watched expectantly as senators voted one by one from their desks. Some onlookers erupted in chants of "Yes, we can" after Vice President Joe Biden announced the bill's passage.
After three weeks of debate, there was no doubt about the outcome. Fourteen Republicans joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to support the bill.
In a written statement, Obama coupled praise for the Senate's action with a plea for resolve by supporters as the House works on the issue. "Now is the time when opponents will try their hardest to pull this bipartisan effort apart so they can stop commonsense reform from becoming a reality. We cannot let that happen," said the president, who was traveling in Africa.
After the bill passed, he called Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a leading author of the bill, to offer congratulations.
In the final hours of debate, members of the so-called Gang of 8, the group that drafted the measure, frequently spoke in personal terms while extolling the bill's virtues, rebutting its critics ? and appealing to the House members who turn comes next.
"Do the right thing for America and for your party," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who said his mother emigrated to the United States from Cuba. "Find common ground. Lean away from the extremes. Opt for reason and govern with us."
Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said those seeking legal status after living in the United States illegally must "pass a background check, make good on any tax liability and pay a fee and a fine." There are other requirements before citizenship can be obtained, he noted.
He, too, spoke from personal experience, recalling time he spent as a youth working alongside family members and "undocumented migrant labor, largely from Mexico, who worked harder than we did under conditions much more difficult than we endured."
Since then, he said, "I have harbored a feeling of admiration and respect for those who have come to risk life and limb and sacrifice so much to provide a better life for themselves and their families."
The bill's opponents were unrelenting, if outnumbered.
"We will admit dramatically more people than we ever have in our country's history at a time when unemployment is high and the Congressional Budget Office has told us that average wages will go down for 12 years, that gross national product per capita will decline for 25-plus years, that unemployment will go up," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
"The amnesty will occur, but the enforcement is not going to occur, and the policies for future immigration are not serving the national interest."
In the Senate, at least, the developments marked an end to years of gridlock on immigration. The shift began taking shape quickly after the 2012 presidential election, when numerous Republican leaders concluded the party must show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters who had given Obama more than 70 percent of their support.
Even so, division among Republicans was evident as potential 2016 presidential contenders split. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was one of the Gang of 8, while Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas were opposed to the bill.
The legislation's chief provisions includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration ? some added in a late compromise that swelled Republican support for the bill ? and to check on the legal status of job applicants already living in the United States. At the same time, it offers a 13-year path to citizenship to as many as 11 million immigrants now living in the country unlawfully.
Under the deal brokered last week by Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee and the Gang of 8, the measure requires 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, the completion of 700 miles of fencing and deployment of an array of high-tech devices along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Those living in the country illegally could gain legal status while the border security plan was being implemented, but would not be granted permanent resident green cards or citizenship.
A plan requiring businesses to check on the legal status of prospective employees would be phased in over four years.
Other provisions would expand the number of visas available for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program. In addition, the system of legal immigration that has been in effect for decades would be changed, making family ties less of a factor and elevating the importance of education, job skills and relative youth.
With the details of the Senate bill well-known, House Speaker John Boehner said at a news conference the separate legislation the House considers will have majority support among Republicans. He also said he hopes the bill will be bipartisan, and he encouraged a group of four Democrats and three Republicans trying to forge a compromise to continue their efforts.
He offered no details on how a House bill could be both bipartisan and supported by more than half of his own rank and file, given that most of the bills that have moved through the House Judiciary Committee recently did so on party line votes over the protests of Democrats. None envisions legal status for immigrants now in the country illegally.
Boehner declined to say if there were circumstances under which he could support a pathway to citizenship, but he made clear that securing the border was a priority.
"People have to have confidence that the border is secure before anything else is really going to work. Otherwise, we repeat the mistakes of 1986," he said, referring to the last time Congress overhauled the immigration system.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, also said he favors a bipartisan approach. At the same time, she noted that Democratic principles for immigration include "secure our borders, protect our workers, unite families, a path to legalization and now citizenship for those" without legal status.
While the outcome of the Senate vote was not in doubt, supporters scrambled to maximize the vote and fell short of 70, a level they had talked of reaching. Schumer spoke with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday night as he lobbied ? successfully ? for the vote of the state's Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa, whom the governor appointed to his seat.
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Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
June 27, 2013 ? Scientists have discovered a diverse multitude of microbes colonizing and thriving on flecks of plastic that have polluted the oceans -- a vast new human-made flotilla of microbial communities that they have dubbed the "plastisphere."
In a study recently published online in Environmental Science & Technology, the scientists say the plastisphere represents a novel ecological habitat in the ocean and raises a host of questions: How will it change environmental conditions for marine microbes, favoring some that compete with others? How will it change the overall ocean ecosystem and affect larger organisms? How will it change where microbes, including pathogens, will be transported in the ocean?
The collaborative team of scientists -- Erik Zettler from Sea Education Association (SEA), Tracy Mincer from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and Linda Amaral-Zettler from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), all in Woods Hole, Mass. -- analyzed marine plastic debris that was skimmed with fine-scale nets from the sea surface at several locations in the North Atlantic Ocean during SEA research cruises. Most were millimeter-sized fragments.
"We're not just interested in who's there. We're interested in their function, how they're functioning in this ecosystem, how they're altering this ecosystem, and what's the ultimate fate of these particles in the ocean," says Amaral-Zettler. "Are they sinking to the bottom of the ocean? Are they being ingested? If they're being ingested, what impact does that have?"
Using scanning electron microscopy and gene sequencing techniques, they found at least 1000 different types of bacterial cells on the plastic samples, including many individual species yet to be identified. They included plants, algae, and bacteria that manufacture their own food (autotrophs), animals and bacteria that feed on them (heterotrophs), predators that feed on these, and other organisms that establish synergistic relationships (symbionts). These complex communities exist on plastic bits hardly bigger than the head of a pin, and they have arisen with the explosion of plastics in the oceans in the last 60 years.
"The organisms inhabiting the plastisphere were different from those in surrounding seawater, indicating that plastic debris acts as artificial 'microbial reefs," says Mincer. "They supply a place that selects for and supports distinct microbes to settle and succeed."
These communities are likely different from those that settle on naturally occurring floating material such as feathers, wood, and microalgae, because plastics offer different conditions, including the capacity to last much longer without degrading.
On the other hand, the scientists also found evidence that microbes may play a role in degrading plastics. They saw microscopic cracks and pits in the plastic surfaces that they suspect were made by microbes embedded in them, as well as microbes possibly capable of degrading hydrocarbons.
"When we first saw the 'pit formers' we were very excited, especially when they showed up on multiple pieces of plastic of different types of resins," said Zettler, who added that undergraduate students participating in SEA Semester cruises collected and processed the samples. "Now we have to figure out what they are by [genetically] sequencing them and hopefully getting them into culture so we can do experiments."
The plastic debris also represents a new mode of transportation, acting as rafts that can convey harmful microbes, including disease-causing pathogens and harmful algal species. One plastic sampled they analyzed was dominated by members of the genus Vibrio, which includes bacteria that cause cholera and gastrointestinal maladies.
The project was funded by a National Science Foundation Collaborative grant, a NSF TUES grant, and a Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health Pilot award.
June 28, 2013 ? A Loyola University Medical Center study suggests that a procedure to treat acid reflux could help prevent chronic rejection in lung transplant patients.
The study also found that certain proteins found in lung fluid can help predict whether a patient's transplanted lung is more likely to fail.
Results are published in the July 2013 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Authors are P. Marco Fisichella, MD, FACS (first author), Christopher S. Davis, MD, MPH; Erin Lowery, MD, MS; Luis Ramirez, BS; Richard L. Gamelli, MD, FACS and Elizabeth J. Kovacs, PhD.
Lung transplant patients have the worst survivals of all solid organ transplant recipients. A major reason is bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), a condition in which scar tissue forms around small airways in the lungs. BOS results from chronic rejection of the transplanted lung, and affects about half of lung transplant patients within five years.
Following lung transplantation, patients undergo a procedure every few months to inspect the airways. The procedure, called a bronchoscopy, removes fluid from the lung.
Loyola researchers analysed various biomarkers taken from lung fluid during bronchoscopies. Researchers found that, in patients examined 6 to 12 months after transplant, concentrations of certain biomarkers could predict the likelihood of BOS 30 months after transplant. For example, patients with high concentrations of the biomarker myeloperoxidase and low concentrations of the biomarker ?-1 antitrypsin were more likely to develop BOS.
The study also found that patients who aspirate (inhale fluid into the lungs) show evidence of a more active immune system. In a condition called acid reflux, gastric contents back up from the stomach into the esophagus and can be inhaled into the lungs. The gastric contents irritate the lungs, triggering the immune system to ramp up and begin rejecting the transplanted lung. As evidence of this, patients who aspirate showed higher levels of neutrophils (a type of immune system white blood cell) and the immune system biomarker interleukin-8 (IL-8).
A minimally invasive procedure called laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery can treat acid reflux. The surgeon reinforces the valve between the esophagus and stomach by wrapping the upper portion of the stomach around the lowest portion of the esophagus. The 90-minute procedure requires five small incisions. Patients typically go home the next day, and take about one week to recover, Fisichella said.
Researchers wrote that their findings "justify the surgical prevention of aspiration and argue for the refinement of antirejection regimens."
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) ? A judge on Thursday denied bail for former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a friend.
Hernandez's lawyer argued that Hernandez is not a risk to flee and the case against him is circumstantial.
But a prosecutor said the evidence is "overwhelming." A search of a condo leased by Hernandez turned up an ammunition clip matching the caliber of casings found at the scene of the killing of Odin Lloyd, the prosecutor said.
Lloyd's body was discovered by a jogger in a remote area of an industrial park not far from Hernandez's home 10 days ago. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors called Lloyd's killing an execution-style shooting orchestrated by Hernandez because his friend talked to the wrong people at a nightclub. Hernandez could face life in prison, if convicted.
Hernandez was cut from the NFL team less than two hours after he was arrested and led from his North Attleborough home in handcuffs, and nine days after Lloyd's body was discovered. The 2011 Pro Bowl selection had signed a five-year contract last summer with the Patriots worth $40 million.
Another man, Carlos Ortiz, 27, was arrested Wednesday in Hernandez's hometown of Bristol, Conn., as part of the murder investigation, New Britain State's Attorney Brian Preleski said Thursday. Ortiz was charged as a fugitive from justice and waived extradition to Massachusetts. Prison records show he is being held on $1.5 million bail at a Hartford jail.
Ortiz's public defender, Alfonzo Sirica, declined to comment about the case.
In the meantime, police have been searching a third-floor unit in a condo complex in Franklin, Mass., that Hernandez had visited in recent weeks, according to the unit's next-door neighbor.
Condo resident Carol Bailey said that starting Wednesday and continuing Thursday, police removed items from the modest, two-bedroom rental unit and asked her questions about its occupants. She said a new tenant told her in May that he was moving in with his cousin, and she realized later that the second man he had referred to that way was the Patriots player.
"I thought, 'This is Aaron Hernandez. He's renting a place here so he can have some peace and quiet,'" the retiree said Thursday.
The Ledgewood Condominiums resident said she didn't see the two men often, but Hernandez always had a hoodie pulled up when she saw him.
"I think all of us who recognized who it was didn't want to invade his privacy," she said of neighbors.
Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player with the Boston Bandits, had known Hernandez for about a year and was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, the mother of Hernandez's 8-month-old baby, Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Bill McCauley said.
On June 14, Lloyd went with Hernandez to the Boston nightclub Rumor. McCauley said Hernandez was upset Lloyd had talked to people there with whom Hernandez had trouble. He did not elaborate.
Two days later, McCauley said, Hernandez texted two unidentified friends and asked them to hurry to Massachusetts from Connecticut. At 9:05 p.m., a few minutes after the first message to his friends, Hernandez texted Lloyd to tell him he wanted to get together, McCauley said.
Later, surveillance footage from Hernandez's home showed his friends arrive and go inside. Hernandez, holding a gun, then told someone in the house he was upset and couldn't trust anyone anymore, the prosecutor said.
At 1:12 a.m. June 17, the three left in Hernandez's rented silver Nissan Altima, McCauley said. Cell towers tracked their movements to a gas station off the highway. There, he said, Hernandez bought blue Bubblicious gum.
At 2:32 a.m., they arrived outside Lloyd's home in Boston and texted him that they were there. McCauley said Lloyd's sister saw him get into Hernandez's car.
From there, surveillance cameras captured images of what the prosecutor said was Hernandez driving the silver Altima through Boston. As they drove back toward North Attleborough, Hernandez told Lloyd he was upset about what happened at the club and didn't trust him, McCauley said. That was when Lloyd began sending texts to his sister.
Surveillance video showed the car entering the industrial park and at 3:23 a.m. driving down a gravel road near where Lloyd's body was found. Four minutes later, McCauley said, the car emerged. During that period, employees working an overnight shift nearby heard several gunshots, McCauley said.
McCauley said Lloyd was shot multiple times, including twice from above as he was lying on the ground. He said five .45-caliber casings were found at the scene.
Authorities did not say who fired the shots or identify the two others with Hernandez.
At 3:29 a.m., surveillance at Hernandez's house showed him arriving and walking through the house with a gun in his hand, McCauley said.
His friend is also seen holding a gun, and neither weapon has been found, McCauley said.
Then, the surveillance system stopped recording, and footage was missing from the six to eight hours after the slaying, he said.
The afternoon of June 17, the prosecutor said, Hernandez returned the rental car, offering the attendant a piece of blue Bubblicious gum when he dropped it off. While cleaning the car, the attendant found a piece of blue Bubblicious gum and a shell casing, which he threw away. Police later searched the trash bin and found the gum and the casing. The prosecutor said it was tested and matched the casings found where Lloyd was killed.
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Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy in Boston contributed to this report.
Microsoft is adding native support for 3D printers to Windows 8.1. That means you don't have to jump through any hoops to 3D print an item?if your computer is hooked up to a 3D printer, you can just hit print.
The Acer Aspire R7-571-6858 might be the first desktop replacement laptop for the all-in-one desktop generation. Featuring an adjustable easel-style stand/hinge combination, it's the first laptop I've seen with a fully adjustable monitor, and more closely resembles a desktop than a laptop, with a flipping, folding, floating display design that is certainly unique. While this new design will turn heads and may hint at the shape of things to come, the overall design is dragged down by the decision to swap the touchpad and keyboard, resulting in a design that is awkward at best.
Design
With so many ultrabooks on the market, it's refreshing to see a full-bodied desktop replacement in the labs. The Aspire R7 is by no means svelte, measuring 1.1 by 14.8 by 10.0 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.22 pounds. The construction blends lightweight plastic on the lid and chassis with a metal hinge.
The most prominent feature on the Aspire R7 is the unique combination hinge and display stand, which Acer calls the "Ezel" hinge. Much like the multi-mode Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, the Aspire R7 uses the Ezel hinge to offer four different usage modes: Notebook Mode, Ezel Mode, Pad Mode, and Display Mode. In each mode, the 15.6-inch display flips and folds to present the 1,920-by-1,080 touch display at the most comfortable angle. As desk-bound systems go, it's one of the most comfortable implementations of touch that we've used.
Notebook mode is the closest of the four to a regular clamshell laptop, with the display lining up with the back edge of the laptop chassis. In this mode, it functions much like any other touchscreen-equipped laptop, aside from the unusual keyboard layout (more on that in a moment).
In Ezel mode, the display stand allows for a monitor-like setup much more like a desktop display. In addition to looking cool, this mode has the benefit of best utilizing the touch display, letting you bring the screen closer and put it at an angle more comfortable than a regular touch-enabled laptop screen. The Ezel hinge features two adjustable hinges, and both hold firmly enough that when touching and tapping the screen, there's no noticeable screen wobble. The unfortunate side-effect of the sturdy hinges, of course, is that they are just as stiff when adjusting the angle of the display and opening the closed laptop.
Folding the Ezel hinge flat with the screen out puts the laptop into Pad Mode, which converts the Aspire R7 into something like a tablet. It's too large to simply pick up and use on the go, though it can certainly be moved from one room to the next with relative ease. Though not exactly mobile, Pad mode does make for a more comfortable table-top touch experience, and the bulk of the hinge sets the display at an angle, more like a small All-in-One system laying nearly flat. Getting the Aspire R7 out of Pad mode is sometimes difficult, with the sturdy hinges requiring some force to pry the display up and manhandle it back into position.
Finally, the display can be tipped back and flipped over, to show the screen to someone on the opposite side. We've seen similar screen-sharing concepts on the Lenovo Yoga and the Asus Taichi 21, but the Aspire R7 doesn't do much to make this dubious concept seem more reasonable?showing someone else the display requires giving up your own, and it still seems like more trouble than looking at the same screen while standing side-by-side. As with the Asus Taichi, the display sharing feature feels more like an afterthought based on the fact that the stand allows flipping the screen, added to pad out the feature list.
The layout?keyboard on bottom, touchpad on top?is almost as weird as the bizarre easel/stand and display/monitor. While the reasoning is at least logical?with a floating touchscreen you don't necessarily need a touchpad, and the angle of the floating display would block part of the keyboard in normal use?there's no ignoring the fact that the switch is otherwise difficult to justify. The traditional keyboard and touchpad arrangement wasn't arbitrary; properly placed palm rests make typing more ergonomic and on-the-go laptop use easier, and a touchpad located below the spacebar lets you navigate without having to hover over the keyboard or worry about unintentional keystrokes. This new design eliminates those important touches, and just feels like change for the sake of change.
The Aspire R7 boasts four speakers for fuller sound, with Dolby Home Theater v4 adding to the overall quality. The sound quality was actually quite good, and the volume was impressive?loud enough to disturb the neighbors, and clear enough that you might want to. Flip the display from Ezel mode to Display also switches the right and left stereo channels, to match the right and left of the person viewing the screen.
Features
The Aspire R7 places all of its ports and connectors in the bottom half of the system. While this isn't uncommon for a laptop, the desktop-like design makes it feel more like an all-in-one placing all of the ports in the monitor stand, as is seen on the Vizio All-in-One systems.
On the right is a power button and volume controls, one USB 2.0 port with power for charging devices, an SD card slot (SD, SDHC, SDXC), and a Kensington lock slot for physically securing the device. On the left is a mini DisplayPort and full-size HDMI output for connecting an external monitor or TV, and two faster USB 3.0 ports. Despite the Aspire R7's undeniably desktop-like nature, you'll have to use the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi for networking because there's no Ethernet port to plug into. Also, the Aspire R7 has built-in Bluetooth 4.0, with support for stereo sound, as well as an integrated 720p webcam above the screen.
Though the Aspire R7 is pretty big, the storage is a bit on the small side, with a 500GB spinning hard drive paired with a 24GB solid-state drive (SSD) for snappy performance.
Acer loads up the Aspire R7 with a lot of media and social apps, like Zinio and Next Issue magazine readers, Ebay and Amazon for shopping, and an array of others, like iCookbook, Spotify, ChaCha, Netflix, HuluPlus, and Amazon Kindle all crowding the start screen. Dig in a bit more and you'll find some truely useful extras, like Skype, Acer Clear.fi (for networked media sharing), and Dragon Assistant (a voice recognition and dictation app). While the appeal of individual apps will vary by personal preference and usage patterns, it's clear that Acer has made an effort to be sure that there is plenty to do with the Aspire R7 right out of the box. Acer also covers the Aspire R7 with a one-year warranty.
Performance
The Acer Aspire R7 is equipped with a 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U processor paired with 6GB of RAM. It's the same processor seen in the Sony VAIO T15 Touch (SVT15112CXS), and actually did better in Cinebench, scoring 2.43 points to the Sony T15 Touch's 2.28, but the overall performance scores were very different. In PCMark 7 the Aspire R7 scored 2,702 points, falling behind every other 15-inch laptop with touch?the Sony T15 Touch scored 4,112 points in the same test, and the Editors' Choice Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51 scored 3,013.
The Aspire R7 planted itself firmly in the middle of the pack during multimedia tests, finishing in Handbrake in 1 minute 33 seconds and Photoshop in 5:43. By comparison, the Dell Inspiron 15z (I15Z-4801SLV) (1:33 Handbrake, 4:51 Photoshop) and the Sony VAIO T15 Touch (1:25 Handbrake, 5:21 Photoshop) both offer better performance with similar hardware. Though the use of Intel's integrated graphics solution isn't sufficient for high end gaming, a 3DMark score of 1,203 points (at Entry settings) indicate that it will do just fine handling Web browsing and video. Given the unusual design and layout of the Aspire R7, media consumption may be one of its best uses.
And while raw performance may not put the Acer Aspire R7 at the top of anyone's must-have list, it did eke out a bit more battery life than competitors, lasting 5 hours 41 minutes in our battery rundown test, outlasting the competition by nearly an hour or more.
Conclusion
In the end, however, the Acer Aspire R7 is a high-flying concept brought low by reality. While the design is daring and innovative, even among the many experimental designs being tried with convertible and touch-centric laptops, the end user experience shows it to be deeply flawed. With a swapped keyboard and trackpad layout that proves cumbersome, a floating touch screen display that adds little, and a bulky design that reduces portability, the Aspire R7 is more of a weird-looking proof of concept than a marketable product, and the middling to mediocre performance just cements it further as a product that may look cool on the shelf, but isn't the one shoppers should spend their money on.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghanistan's president says he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations and the militant group stops its violent attacks on the ground.
Hamid Karzai is upset over a U.S. and Taliban announcement the day before that they would begin preliminary peace talks in Qatar without the Afghan government.
According to a statement from Karzai's office, he says that his High Peace Council would "neither attend nor participate in the talks" until the process is "completely" in the hands of Afghans.
Karzai earlier Wednesday announced he had suspended talks with the U.S. on a new security deal in protest of how the talks were announced.
He also says peace talks cannot begin amid "fighting and bloodshed."
June 20, 2013 ? Well-rested teenagers tend to make more healthful food choices than their sleep-deprived peers, according to a study led by Lauren Hale, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. The finding, presented at SLEEP 2013, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, may be key to understanding the link between sleep and obesity.
"Not only do sleepy teens on average eat more food that's bad for them, they also eat less food that is good for them," said Dr. Hale, speaking about the study results. "While we already know that sleep duration is associated with a range of health consequences, this study speaks to some of the mechanisms, i.e., nutrition and decision making, through which health outcomes are affected."
The study, which was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, examined the association between sleep duration and food choices in a national representative sample of 13,284 teenagers in the second wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The data were collected in 1996 when the interview subjects had a mean age of 16 years.
The authors found that those teens who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours per night -- 18 percent of respondents -- were more likely to consume fast food two or more times per week and less likely to eat healthful food such as fruits and vegetables. The results took into account factors such as age, gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical activity and family structure, and found that short sleep duration had an independent effect on both healthy and unhealthy food choices.
The respondents fell into one of three categories: short sleepers, who received fewer than seven hours per night; mid-range sleepers, who had seven to eight hours per night; and recommended sleepers, who received more than eight hours per night. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that adolescents get between nine and 10 hours of sleep per night.
"We are interested in the association between sleep duration and food choices in teenagers because adolescence is a critical developmental period between childhood and adulthood," said the first author of the study, Allison Kruger, MPH, a community health worker at Stony Brook University Hospital. "Teenagers have a fair amount of control over their food and sleep, and the habits they form in adolescence can strongly impact their habits as adults."
The research team -- which included co-authors Eric N. Reither, PhD, Utah State University; Patrick Krueger, PhD, University of Colorado at Denver; and Paul E. Peppard, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison -- concluded that addressing sleep deficiency may be a novel and effective way to improve obesity prevention and health promotion interventions.
Dr. Hale said that one of the next steps in the research will be to explore whether the association between sleep duration and food choices is causal.
"If we determine that there is a causal link between chronic sleep and poor dietary choices, then we need to start thinking about how to more actively incorporate sleep hygiene education into obesity prevention and health promotion interventions," she said.
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB on Wednesday said profits fell by 11 percent in the second quarter due to the strong Swedish krona and increased markdowns as it tried to shift its products.
The company said its net profit for the March-May period dropped to 4.66 billion kronor ($720 million) from 5.22 billion a year earlier. Sales for the quarter slipped marginally to 31.64 billion kronor from 31.66 billion.
H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said the krona's strength weighed on the result, while sales in local currencies increased by 5 percent.
He said sales remained strong in Asia but that the overall revenue suffered due to the "continued challenging situation for the fashion retail industry" and bad weather in many of the company's big markets.
Persson added that H&M opened nearly 100 new stores in the second quarter, including its first in South America in Santiago de Chile, and continues to make long-term investments in its online sales.
"Although most of these long-term investments have not yet generated revenues, we see them as wise and necessary - all in order to build an even stronger H&M," Persson said. "There is great potential in the growing online market. We are looking forward to launching our online sales in the US in August."
H&M's share price was up some 1.2 percent at 227.5 kronor in early trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Founded in 1947, H&M has more than 2,900 stores in some 48 countries. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday, & Other Stories as well as H&M Home. It employs more than 100,000 people worldwide.
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? The G-8 summit's joint statement on ending the Syrian civil war will not mention whether Bashar Assad must step down from power as part of any peace settlement, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday ahead of the document's publication.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters the eight nations have agreed they should not specify any outcome from peace talks that all agree should start soon in Geneva.
Ryabkov said the talks should aim to create a transitional coalition government for Syria, but should not predetermine whether Assad can participate in that government.
"It would be wrong and harmful and violate the political balance," he said. "We cannot dictate to the participants in the process how it's going to end, otherwise it makes no sense to even start it."
The formal Syria declaration is expected later Tuesday after leaders of all eight G-8 members discussed the Syrian impasse over dinner Monday night.
Ryabkov dismissed Western claims that Assad's forces used chemical weapons as unproven, and said they require further investigation.
"We cannot agree to biased interpretations and groundless claims that the government of Syria has used chemical weapons," he said.
He said a new probe involving an international chemical weapons watchdog and the World Health Organization should be assigned to investigate the validity of such claims.
He said Syria should join an international treaty banning chemical weapons and destroy its arsenal of such weapons.
Protein?s Role ?n Building Muscle Mass Protein ?? necessary ?n order f?r muscles become stronger ?n? really grow. If ??? ?r? strength training, ??? w??? need plenty ?f ?t ?n ???r daily diet. Protein ?? found ?n many different foods including: eggs, dairy products ?n? lean meats. Th??? ?r? ??? foods th?t ?h???? b? ?n essential ??rt ?f a healthy diet.
Another ?r??t way t? build muscle f??t ?? t? ??? protein powder ?n between ???r main meals. Th?? protein supplement comes ?n several forms ?n? ??n b? added t? different foods ?n? drinks f?r consumption. Whey protein ?? one ?f th? best types f?r building muscle.
Whey protein ?? a very powerful supplement th?t builds muscle mass ?n a very b?? way. In fact, a high quality whey protein powder ?h???? b? ???r number one supplement. Th? best ??rt ?? ?t?s very affordable ?n? ??n b? ??r?h???? ?t ???r local supermarket.
Though ??? ?r? already eating six high protein meals each day t? ?? along w?th ???r intense weight training program, using a whey protein supplement w??? really amp up ???r muscle gaining capability. Protein powders m?k? ?t very easy t? eat six meals a day full ?f quality protein. Th?? ???? m?k?? consuming calories easy.
Weight gain drinks ?r? considered a ??rt ?f ???r meal ???n ?n? ??n b? used along w?th ?f a meal. One ?r??t protein drink ?? a smoothie. Y?? ??n ??? a small container ?f yogurt, a half cup ?f milk, a few pieces ?f fruit ?f ???r ?h???? ?n? a tablespoon ?f whey protein powder ??? blended together t? concoct a healthy alternative. Y?? w??? b? consuming both calories ?n? protein ??? ?t th? same time ?n? w??? feel full.
Another ?r??t drink ??? ??n consume throughout th? day ??n b? m??? ?? follows. Mix 100 grams ?f ???r favorite protein powder, two quarts ?f whole ?r two percent milk, two cups ?f skim milk powder, two cups ?f chocolate ice cream, four tablespoons ?f peanut butter ?n? one banana. Blend th?m together t? m?k? a t??t? shake th?t w??? ??f?n?t??? supplement ???r meal ???n, providing ??? th? additional protein ??? w??? need t? continue building strong muscles. Y?? ??n add ?r subtract ingredients based ?n ???r ?wn personal preferences ?n? calorie needs. If ??? h??? a particularly high metabolism, ??? w??? need ??? th? quality muscle building calories ??? ??n ??t. Y?? w??? want t? adjust th? ingredients t? meet ???r ?wn personal needs based ?n th? amount ?f activity ??? ?? throughout ???r day ?n? th? intensity ?f ???r workouts.
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UFC 161 wasn't the greatest of cards, but some fighters did stand out. Who stood out for you? Speak up on Facebook or Twitter.
No. 1 star -- James Krause: In 2009, Krause had two fights in the WEC. He lost to Donald Cerrone and Ricardo Lamas and missed his chance to get into the UFC when it merged with the WEC. Krause kept training and kept fighting, putting together a seven-fight win streak in promotions like Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Shark Fights.
He was ready when the UFC called and asked him to fill in at the last minute for a tough match-up with Sam Stout. He not only had an entertaining fight with Stout, he finished him with a guillotine with 13 seconds left in the fight. He won both a Fight of the Night bonus and a Submission of the Night bonus, totaling $100,000.* After years of training and fighting in smaller promotions, that money is an excellent reward for keeping the faith.
No. 2 star -- Shawn Jordan: Perhaps it's just that Shawn Jordan is a really busy guy. He has many items on his to-do list, and he doesn't have time to waste on knocking out a fighter. He quickly finished Pat Barry, earning the TKO in 59 seconds. Next item on the to-do list? Heading to the bank to cash his $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.*
No. 3 star -- Stipe Miocic: Does it actually take throwing a kitchen sink at Roy Nelson's head to knock him out? Because Miocic's strikes were just short of kitchen-sink-level, and Nelson remained standing. That Miocic was able to put such a beating on Nelson showed that he is back to being the striking stud he was before being knocked out by Stefan Struve.
*UFC bonuses are paid out after fighters have passed their post-fight drug tests.
Not everybody's into chemistry but you have to be a special kind of insane to not have a fondness for the Muppets. This periodic table of Muppetry is a wonderfully organized and colorful take on the history of the form than anyone (with a soul) can appreciate, chem-geek or not.
Designed by Mike BaBoon, the chart is more than just Muppet abbreviations in squares; it actually gets some real information across. The background color of each element/Muppet/muplement/elemupp represents its skin or fur, the border color stands in for any hat or hair, and the color of the abbreviation text matches its nose. On top of that, each box indicates the muppet's year of introduction, and the primary muppeteer. It's more data than you might expect, and all in a delightful form.
If this seems like something that belongs on your wall, you can find prints of various sizes for various prices at Redbubble and Society6. And study up; there will be a quiz. [Mike BaBoon Design via Buzzfeed]
Abnormal Returns?is hiatus this week. However that does not mean that we are content-free.?As we did last year, and the year before, we asked a panel of independent finance bloggers a series of (hopefully) provocative questions. We hope you enjoy these posts as much as we do putting them together. Feel free to jump in the comments with your own answers to the questions.
Question: This post argues that John Bogle, i.e. low-cost indexing, has already won. Has he? What comes next? (Answers in no particular order.)
David Merkel, Aleph Blog, @alephblog: No, Jack Bogle has not won yet, and I think he would agree with me. ETFs for the most part have low costs, but from my limited observations they lose in a bigger way than fees. People using them to aggressively trade end up losing far more than the difference in fees. Those in open-end mutual funds trade far less, and lose less as a result.? We need to look at dollar-weighted returns, not time-weighted returns. ETFs lose more than a buy-and-hold investor would experience.
Brian Lund, bclund, @bclund: Yes. What is next is the total and final destruction of the broker model and a move towards ?co-directed? investing, where the customers leverages the experience of an seasoned market participant to trade/invest.
Tom Brakke,tjb research, @researchpuzzler: Given the predominance of active management, it is hard to say that Bogle has won, but at the margin he is clearly winning.? As I noted in a recent piece on the investment management industry, active managers now have to step up, by offering truly differentiated methods and results (no more closet indexing, or playing the game in a way that effectively results in that), and, yes, lowering fees.
Bill Luby, VIX and More,? @VIXandMore: There is a general downward trend in all fees related to the investment world, as more firms are forced to compete on cost and as more investors become comfortable with a self-directed approach.? Index funds were the leaders in the area of low fees, with actively managed funds sticking more stubbornly to higher fees.? No load mutual funds began the revolution and more recently brokers have extended this war on fees to include commission-free exchange-traded products.? Asset management fees are also trending lower for both hedge funds and registered investment advisors.
With continued advances in technology as well as the breadth and depth of information available to retail investors, the rise of the self-directed investor should continue, but the size of this market segment has a limit, as many investors do not have the time, inclination, knowledge and confidence in their own ability to manage their investments.? Eventually, I see three customer segments being defined in a more distinct manner:? (1) self-directed investors; (2) investors who partner with an investment manager; and (3) investors who outsource the investment management process and often also the emotional and intellectual component of managing their assets.
Investors with a higher sensitivity to price and costs (particularly self-directed investors) will place a strong emphasis on cost and that should keep fees trending down.? There will be pockets where fees will be stickier, particularly those in alternative asset classes, complex strategies or more specialized areas of focus.? Ultimately, the ability to add value through a targeted focus or in dealing with increased complexity will be a requirement for maintaining higher fees, but the trend in this direction may be slow as short-term and intermediate-term performance and correlation data make it difficult to draw conclusions about the long-term value of these investment approaches.
Along the way, I expect that the trend toward ETPs and away from mutual funds will pick up steam.? ETPs that embrace the index fund approach will continue to lead the way, but the rise of actively-managed ETPs will begin to undermine mutual funds more dramatically going forward.? Whether investors continue to embrace an index-based approach or seek out active management products in an effort to beat the indices, it is just a matter of time before ETPs nudge aside mutual funds and rule the financial world.
Jared Woodard, Condor Options, @condoroptions: How many 40-something professionals still pick stocks? Bogle has definitely won, in that sense. People hate high fees, complex strategies, and hedge funds so much that they?d rather take cheap beta than reach for any alpha. What comes next is a quiet resurgence of alpha opportunities for smart managers.
Wesley R. Gray, Ph.D., TurnkeyAnalyst & Empiritrage, @turnkeyanalyst & @empiritrage: There are few broad category descriptions in my mind: passive, closet-passive, and active. Passive would be the S&P 500 index, closet-passive would be ?active? managers that have very little tracking error, and then there are genuine active managers that have more concentrated portfolios and are less concerned about tracking a passive benchmark (i.e., rare).
Bogle has certainly won the hearts and minds of the passive and closet-passive investors, as evidenced by fund flows and the data on the performance of active managers relative to passive benchmarks. That said, there are still large pools of capital allocated to genuine ?active? managers via mutual funds and other asset structures (hedge funds, SMA, and so forth). The next revolution will be transitioning these high-tracking error active portfolios into lower-cost and tax-efficient ETFs. Our firm is creating an active ETF platform to facilitate Vanguard 2.0 and transition the high-tracking error, high-cost active strategies into low-cost, low-tax drag investment vehicles. We?re excited about changing the industry.
Josh Brown, The Reformed Broker, @reformedbroker: What comes next, hilariously, is a flat market where the index does nothing ? once the last investment dollar is the world is finally thrown at a passive product. That?s when alpha strategies begin to gain some traction again ? precisely when no one is in them. This will, of course, frustrate the maximum amount of participants which is what the market has been designed to do.
Look for a boom as the pendulum swings back in hedge fund strategies adopting the mutual fund/ETF wrapper and other so-called ?Liquid Alts? coming out. They will have dramatically lower fees than these strategies typically have had in their hedge fund lives. Bogle will end up ?winning? all over again as the bulk of these disappoint circa 2015, 2017. Then we?ll all go back to indexing.
I can see for miles and miles.
Michael Kitces, Nerd?s Eye View & Pinnacle Advisory Group, @MichaelKitces: The caveat that this article misses is the rise of tactical asset allocation, overlay managers, and other portfolio management approaches that use passive pooled vehicles (e.g., ETFs) as a tool to implement what are actually active strategies (and for which there?s a separate active fee). Cerulli?s research notes that ETF managed portfolio providers are ?flourishing? (see http://www.financial-planning.com/news/advisors-to-ramp-up-etf-allocations-cerulli-2685079-1.html). You can believe that that trend is good or bad, but to say the least it?s not exactly the buy-and-hold indexing focus of Bogle, and suggestions that the growth of ETF index funds mean Bogle has won miss the point of how ETFs are being used by a large segment of investors. There?s a difference between the passive vs active debate ? a la Bogle ? and the strategic versus tactical implementation, which can be done with active OR passive funds, as I wrote a few years ago (see http://www.kitces.com/blog/archives/103-Is-The-Passive-Vs-Active-Debate-Different-Than-Strategic-Vs-Tactical.html).
Jeff Carter, Points and Figures, @pointsnfigures: Of course Bogle won. So did David Booth. He used a similar theory and returned billions-they even named the best business school in the world after him. Efficient Market Theory works. You can?t beat the market.
Robert Seawright, Above the Market, @rpseawright: Despite the enormous growth of passive investing, Jack?s arguments have been much more successful within the marketplace of ideas than in the markets themselves.? Based upon the supporting data, I have consistently argued that those in the active management business ought to be able to defend their processes with more than just a sales pitch ? y?know, with data and stuff. Sadly, that isn?t often attempted much less achieved. While I don?t think that Jack?s argument extends nearly as far as he does (I think that active management is a valuable and appropriate tool), I also think that passive management is the appropriate investment default and that the situations of the majority of individual investors would be improved by their using passively managed investments. I don?t think Jack has won or even that his position is like that of the Allies after D-Day (the outcome seems decided but there is still a lot of work to do).? That said, Jack is clearly ahead.
Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool, @TMFHousel: He?s clearly won.
Josh Brown once quipped that the definition of a hedge fund is ?a vehicle that turns investor capital into Greenwich real estate.? That?s as relevant to mutual funds as it is hedge funds. The evidence is overwhelming that the vast majority of active managers can?t beat an index, which is actually a certainty given the size of the industry. Their justification of fees is now that they offer risk management and lower volatility, but that?s questionable, too ? and no one asked investors if they signed up for such an arrangement.
Active managers can hide during a 1990?s boom when their fund earns 30% while the S&P returns 32%. No one cares about underperformance when they?re still getting rich. But when investors realize they paid a manager 150 basis points a year for a lost decade, they wake up.
Individual investors have gotten the message. The next to move will be company 401(k) administrators. My guess is that ten years from now there will be a third fewer actively managed equity funds, 2-and-20 will become 1-and-5, Vanguard will gain another $1 trillion in AUM above market returns, and most investors will be better off because of it.
??
Thanks to everyone for their participation. Stay tuned for another question tomorrow.
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Apple introduced new MacBook Airs at WWDC today. The new MacBooks Air are faster, more power efficient, and in some cases, cheaper than their predecessors. And they're shipping now, so if you've been waiting to get one, now's the time.
It's been a year since Apple refreshed the MacBook Air, so Apple's smallest and lightest laptop was certainly due for some improvements. The new systems still come in the familiar 11 and 13-inch form factors, with 1366 x 768 and 1440 x 900 pixel resolutions respectively. That's unchanged from last year, and bound to disappoint some forward-thinking Mac users who were hoping to see a Retina Display-equipped MacBook Pro join the ranks.
Weight and dimensions remains virtually unchanged: the 11-inch MacBook Air weighs a scant 2.38 pounds, measuring 0.11 x 11.8 x 7.56 inches when the lid is closed. The 13-inch model still weighs 2.96 pounds, measuring 0.11 x 12.8 x 8.94 inches.
Despite the same display resolutions, same sizes and same weights, under the hood there are a lot of differences. The new MacBook Airs are the first Mac models to use Intel's fourth generation Core processor - the chips known as "Haswell." The new MBAs have lower CPU clock speeds than their predecessors - 1.3 GHz across the board, compared to 1.7 GHz for the 2012 11-inch and 1.8 GHz for the 2012 13-inch - but they also feature Intel HD Graphics 5000, an integrated graphics processor that Apple says is up to 40 percent faster than what was in last year's model.
All of the new MacBook Airs come equipped with 4GB of RAM standard (configurable to 8GB), and the base 11-inch model now doubles storage capacity from 64GB to 128GB. The higher-end 11-inch also doubles capacity from 128GB to 256GB. 13-inch models remain unchanged, with 128GB and 256GB as standard issue for the low and high-end, respectively.
Haswell processors also introduce dramatically improved power management. This is one area where MacBook Air owners are going to see huge improvements: Apple estimated the battery run-time of the 2012 11-inch model at up to five hours, and that jumps up to nine hours for the new one. The 13-inch, which packs more battery capacity inside its larger case, jumps from nine hours to 12.
Other accouterments remain unchanged, for the most part - stereo speakers, FaceTime HD cameras, two USB 3.0 ports, headphone jack and MagSafe 2 adapter; one Thunderbolt port (and yes, it's the original Thunderbolt, not the Thunderbolt 2 that will be featured on the Mac Pro later this year).
There's one other modest change: all MacBook Airs now come equipped with dual microphones, a carryover first introduced on the MacBook Pros with Retina Display. Dual mics produce better sound quality for voice chats via Skype, Messages, FaceTime and other services.
The price of the base 11-inch model remains unchanged from last year: $999. The higher-end 11-inch model jumps up $100, however, from $1099 to $1199 (likely explained by the double SSD capacity). There's better news for 13-inch buyers - both machines see a $100 price drop, to $1099 and $1299 respectively.
All told, a solid enhancement to Apple's popular lightweight laptops. Apple took the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach while incorporating solid enhancements that promise better performance and better power management - always welcome news for road warriors who depend on the nimble MacBook Air to get their work done.
Remember the wave of pundit insanity over the death of Trayvon Martin two Februaries ago? Well, get ready for round two. The trial of George Zimmerman, who stands accused of second degree murder, began today in Sanford, Florida, and immediately inspired one of the most baffling comments ever uttered by a talking head about Martin's late-night confrontation with Zimmerman, even for a story already so loaded with race, death, lawyers, Florida, and inevitably Nancy Grace. ...
(Reuters) - A former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co finance executive on Monday pleaded guilty to an insider trading charge, admitting to buying stock options in a biotechnology company that the drugmaker was preparing to buy.
Robert Ramnarine, 46, admitted to one count of securities fraud for trading in Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc options before Bristol-Myers agreed to buy that company last June for $5.3 billion, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said.
Federal prosecutors had last August charged Ramnarine with three counts of securities fraud.
They said he made $311,361 of illegal profit from August 2010 to July 2012 from options trading in Amylin and two other companies that Bristol-Myers sought to buy - Pharmasset Inc and ZymoGenetics Inc.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil fraud case against Ramnarine.
Investigators said Ramnarine learned about the takeovers while working as a director and later as an executive director in Bristol-Myers' pension and savings investments office in Princeton, New Jersey.
They also said the East Brunswick, New Jersey resident did Internet searches on insider trading detection prior to some of his trades, including a review of an article titled "Ways to Avoid Insider Trading."
Ramnarine entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson in Trenton, New Jersey.
He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and $5 million fine when he is sentenced on September 26. Ramnarine agreed to forfeit $311,361, and Fishman said the sentence can take into account his trades in Pharmasset and ZymoGenetics, as well as Amylin.
Douglas Jensen, a lawyer for Ramnarine, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ramnarine had worked for Bristol-Myers for 15 years, the last of which as assistant treasurer for capital markets. His employment with the New York-based company ended last August after criminal charges were announced, court records show.
Bristol-Myers bought ZymoGenetics for $885 million in October 2010. Gilead Sciences Inc bought Pharmasset for about $11.2 billion in January 2012 after Bristol-Myers dropped out of talks.
The cases are U.S. v. Ramnarine, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 12-mj-08121; and SEC v. Ramnarine in the same court, No. 12-04837.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)
The Acer Aspire R7 is equipped with a 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U processor paired with 6GB of RAM. It's the same processor seen in the Sony VAIO T15 Touch (SVT15112CXS), and actually did better in Cinebench, scoring 2.43 points to the Sony T15 Touch's 2.28, but the overall performance scores were very different. In PCMark 7 the Aspire R7 scored 2,702 points, falling behind every other 15-inch laptop with touch?the Sony T15 Touch scored 4,112 points in the same test, and the Editors' Choice Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51 scored 3,013.
