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Mitt Romney 'Wins' The Maine Caucuses, Unless Ron Paul Actually Won Them

2012-02-11T19:20:00.001-08:00

Mitt Romney 'Wins' The Maine Caucuses, Unless Ron Paul Actually Won Them

Mitt Romney 'Wins' The Maine Caucuses, Unless Ron Paul Actually Won Them
Whitney Houston Dead At 48
These 16 Countries Are Leading European Innovation
The 10 Most Romantic Hotels In The U.S.
3 Things You Should Do With Your Extra Money
Single On Valentines Day? Try And Score A Date With One Of The Most Eligible Bachelors In Sports
MAULDIN: The Truth Is It Doesn't Matter Who's President -- We'd Be Screwed Regardless
6 Benefits To Boosting Your Credit Limit
RIM BOARD MEMBER: Our Critics Are Idiots -- We Had No Choice But To Run The Company Into The Ground
Links for 2012-02-10 [del.icio.us]
Here Are This Week's Winners And Losers In Sports
WATCH: Suarez Inflames Racially Charged Situation; Sir Alex Wants Suarez Banned Permanently
11 Amazing Thank You Notes From Famous People
Meet the Cast Of The Much-Hyped 'Hunger Games'
WINNING CAPTION: 'OK. You Might Want To Explain To Her Again How Pinterest Works'
The Ultimate Valentine's Day Debate: Who pays?
DEAR TWITTER: Don't Mean To Be Rude, But Maybe It's Time To Hire A Full-Time Product Guy?
Here Are The Best iPhone And iPad Apps You Missed This Week (AAPL)
11 Awesome Facts About The American Romance Industry
Here Are The Best iPhone And iPad Apps You Missed This Week (AAPL)

Mitt Romney 'Wins' The Maine Caucuses, Unless Ron Paul Actually Won Them

Posted: 11 Feb 2012 06:02 PM PST

Maine's Republican Party reported the results of their state caucus tonight, even though not all of Maine has finished voting, and not all the votes have really been counted.

The results?

Mitt Romney won 39% with 2,190 total votes.

Ron Paul came in second at 36% with 1,996 votes.

Rick Santorum cam in third 18%; 989 votes.

Newt Gingrich was fourth with 6%; 349 votes).

But of course the Caucus results are non-binding, and there may be more votes coming in.

If the outstanding votes tip for Ron Paul (and they might, since the outstanding votes are mostly from rural areas), Mitt Romney may be dealing with a replay of the Iowa Caucuses where he is declared a winner the night after voting stops, but then has the victory snatched away later.

So what are the takeaways?

1) Mitt Romney avoided more bad news. A win for Romney in Maine is nothing to brag about, but this 'victory' isn't a shame either. An outright defeat by Paul would have sent the media into talk of Romney going 0-4 in February.

2) Ron Paul still slightly underperforms when the votes come in. In part it could be that some of his supporters have been so disillusioned with politics for so long that they are more difficult to get to the polls or to make participate in caucuses.

3) No one in the media has any idea how many delegates Ron Paul is actually amassing in these contests. Is it a lot, or is this just talk from the Paul campaign. Everyone seems to be aware that his campaign is training people to volunteer to be delegates. But there is no way to really count them until the convention at Tampa.

4) These results aren't really final.

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Whitney Houston Dead At 48

Posted: 11 Feb 2012 06:03 PM PST

Whitney Houston, six-time Grammy winner, has died at age 48 on the eve of the Grammy Awards.

From the Associated Press:

"Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown."

According to TMZ, Houston passed away Saturday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, where paramedics reportedly found the singer unresponsive in her hotel room.

"According to our sources, paramedics performed CPR but it did not work and she was pronounced dead at 3:55 PM," TMZ reported. "Our sources say there were to signs of foul play. We're told she was ID'ed by family and friends."

Houston was set to attend close friend Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party tonight, which was just cancelled.

"He's not having it anymore," Davis' label confirmed to JustJared.com. "It's been canceled. Very unfortunate."

Another source tells Just Jared, "There will instead be a close friends and family gathering/grieving tonight."

Houston had one child, Bobbi Kristina, with husband Bobby Brown and had won six Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards thoughout her career.

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 03:13 PM PST

Europe may still be in the grips of a financial crisis, but that hasn't stopped a number of countries investing in innovation and research and development.

An annual study by the European Commission, titled the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) shows that in 2011, while some nations are lagging in their "innovation performance" (the state of R&D and innovation), 16 of the 34 European countries surveyed performed as well as or better than the EU average.

Monitoring 25 indicators, from human resources and investments, to entrepreneurship and intellectual assets, the index is meant to help monitor the implementation of the Europe 2020 Innovation Union flagship adopted in 2010.

Using the most recent statistics from Eurostat and other sources, the index calculates relative scores by country, which have then been made into composite scores after factoring in the nation's growth rate.

According to this methodology, the countries have been grouped into four categories: those performing better than the EU average are 'innovation leaders', those performing as well as the EU are 'innovation followers', those performing slightly below average are 'moderate innovators', and those much below the EU average are 'modest innovators'.

Estonia

Innovation performance group: Innovation Followers

Strengths: Human resources, Finance and support, Firm investments, Linkages and entrepreneurship, and Innovators.

Weaknesses: [lack of] Open, excellent, and attractive research systems, Intellectual assets, and Economic effects.

(Source)

Cyprus

Innovation performance group: Innovation Followers

Strengths: Human resources, Linkages and entrepreneurship, and Innovators.

Weaknesses: [lack of] Open, excellent and attractive research systems, Finance and support, and Intellectual assets.

(Source)

Slovenia

Innovation performance group: Innovation Followers

Strengths: Human resources, and Linkages and entrepreneurship.

Weaknesses: Intellectual assets, and Innovators.

(Source)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The 10 Most Romantic Hotels In The U.S.

Posted: 11 Feb 2012 02:56 PM PST

This post originally appeared at Travel + Leisure.

Imagine you and your better half cuddling fireside as the sun dips behind the distant mountains. The only sounds are from the wild; the only sights are canyons and the stark desert. No, you're not in the Sahara. You're at Utah's ultra-romantic Amangiri resort.

With Valentine's Day looming and no end to winter in sight, who doesn't dream of stealing away on vacation? But you don't need to travel to the ends of the earth (or beloved spots like Paris or the Caribbean) to find that spark-kindling setting. From seaside New England to Washington State's wine country, we've uncovered dreamy properties certain to get you in the mood—whatever your idea of romance and your price range.

You can take your love to literal new heights at Big Sur's Post Ranch Inn, a cliff-top hotel whose treehouses and cottages perch a thousand feet above the Pacific. The policy of no clocks or televisions encourages couples to reconnect, while perks like a gratis convertible inspire drives along scenic Highway 1 with impromptu picnics on any of the breathtaking beaches.

Of course, romance doesn't require endless water views; cozying up in a country bed-and-breakfast has its own appeal. Hillside Victorian cottages with a white picket fence and fairy-tale-like setting draw couples year round to Landrum, SC, where they check into the affordable Red Horse Inn. Blame its high occupancy rate on the waterfalls, rocking chairs, and in-room candlelit dinners.

Great country inns know just how to take care of their guests, and indeed many of our favorite romantic hotels are a quick jaunt but worlds away from major cities. It's about a two-hour drive from Phoenix to an enchanting resort of adobe suites with kiva fireplaces set among the red-rock canyons of Sedona, while 2 1/2 hours gets you from Atlanta to a Blue Ridge Mountains retreat.

And sometimes, romance is just a subway ride away. Lovebirds who want to fall in love with their hometown all over again—or flock to a hotel with urban sophistication—can look no further than actor Robert De Niro's Greenwich Hotel in New York City.

Read on to find the perfect romantic hotel for you two and make that daydreamed getaway a reality.

More from Travel + Leisure

Best Romantic Winter Getaways

World's Most Romantic All-Inclusive Resorts

America's Most Romantic Restaurants

World's Most Romantic Hotels

Most Over-the-Top Honeymoon Suites

Willows Lodge, Woodinville, WA

Bordering the Sammamish River, this rustic-meets-luxe lodge occupies five lush acres in Western Washington's wine country. The 84 rooms are subtly done in salvaged timber and antique slate with Frette linens and giant Jacuzzis for two. Couples can bliss-out with massages, leisurely walks through the impeccably manicured gardens, or bike rides along the beautiful Burke-Gilman Trail. At the end of the day, the nearby Herbfarm restaurant beckons with nine courses and wines to match.

Price Tag: From approximately $120 per night, includes daily breakfast.

Source: Travel + Leisure

Enchantment Resort, Sedona, AZ

The red rocks of Arizona's Boynton Canyon tower over Enchantment's adobe suites outfitted with kiva fireplaces, Native American accents, log-beamed ceilings, and oversize soaking tubs. Several pools, six tennis courts, pitch-and-putt golf, and complimentary guided hikes along the surrounding scenic trails round out the resort's activities. But you don't have to venture far to enjoy some of the area's most awe-inspiring views—seen from the vantage point of the spa's pool.

Price Tag: From approximately $295 per night.

Source: Travel + Leisure

Hamilton Turner Inn, Savannah, GA

Amid magnolias and moss-draped oaks, this elegant 19th-century bed-and-breakfast oozes with old-time southern charm (it even got a mention in John Berendt'sMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). Soaring ceilings, four-poster canopy beds, cozy fireplaces, and double whirlpool spas compliment the park views. Couples can start the day with a gourmet breakfast, enjoy a horse-drawn carriage through downtown, and savor complimentary home-baked cookies fireside before bed.

Price Tag: From approximately $189 per night, includes daily breakfast.

Source: Travel + Leisure

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 01:31 PM PST

Most common money questions revolve around saving more, but what if you have money sitting around in a checking or savings account?

What should you do with it?

Tom from Mountain View, CA, asks:

"I've been really good about keeping my expenses down, finding multiple sources of income and building a 12-month emergency fund.

Through all of this, I've saved up quite a bit of extra money which is currently in a high yield savings account. I feel like I should be doing some more with this money, but I'm not quite sure what the best thing would be."

Obviously, this depends on your age and financial goals, but here are some specific recommendations you can use today.

Invest so your money grows for you.

Counterintuitively, putting money in a savings account is not enough. With interest rates so low, you're actually losing money thanks to inflation. The real gains come from investing your money so it grows for you.

A great starting investment is a low-cost target-date retirement fund, which automatically diversifies and rebalances your investments based on your age — for very low fees. Vanguard is a great company with low-cost target-date funds. Also consider T.Rowe Price or TIAA-CREF.

If you have "extra" money, use the 10 Year Savings Strategy. If you have extra money, use the 10 Year Savings Strategy to save for predictable expenses in the next 10 years (wedding, kids, house, etc). Set up specific sub-savings accounts for each of these items.

(Interesting sidenote: I surveyed people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, asking them what they wish they'd saved for 10 years ago. Here are the actual results, but in short: People in their 20s wish they'd saved for travel. People in their 30s wish they'd saved for buying a house. And people in their 40s wish they'd saved for retirement.)

The big goal: Automate your money.

Saving and investing alone are great, but you want to be strategic with your money.

Build a bulletproof personal-finance system to help you automatically take a percentage of every dollar you earn and funnel it towards the right goals — including investing, saving, and guilt-free spending.

This post originally appeared on Lifehacker.

Now see 15 smart things you can do with $100 >

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 12:28 PM PST

It's great to be a professional athlete. It's even better to be on top of your game, making a lot of money, and single.

Whether it's because they are still looking for love, recently broken up, or just enjoying the life, none of these guys have a ring.

We're guessing most of them don't have Valentine's Day dates either...

Note: we thought it would be wrong to include Tiger Woods...

#20 Alex Ovechkin

Sport: Hockey

Age: 26

Annual Income: $9 million

Pros and Cons: A colorful player, and one of the best hockey players in the world. But it is not clear how many of his teeth are real.

#19 Aaron Rodgers

Sport: Football

Age: 28

Annual Income: $10 million

Pros and Cons: Maybe the best player in the NFL right now. But he lives in Green Bay most of the year.

#18 Mark Sanchez

Sport: Football

Age: 25

Annual Income: $14 million

Pros and Cons: Considered by some to be the best looking player in the NFL. But others think he spends too much time worrying about his looks than his game.

*NOTE: He's recently been linked to 19-year-old model Kate Upton

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 11:52 AM PST

6 Benefits To Boosting Your Credit Limit

Posted: 11 Feb 2012 11:06 AM PST

Increasing your credit limit just means giving yourself the opportunity to spend beyond your means, right? Not necessarily. Increasing your credit limit can have a number of upsides if you manage your credit wisely.

SEE: Check Your Credit Report

Lowers Your Credit Utilization and Increases Your Credit Score
The FICO credit scoring model will ding your credit score if the amount of credit you've used is close to the total amount of credit available to you. That's because it considers you to be at risk of maxing out your cards and having trouble making future payments. You might know that these risks don't actually apply to you, but that's how the scoring model works.

If you have a $2,000 credit limit and you regularly end up with a monthly bill of around $1,800, you're using 90% of your available credit. Raising your credit limit will reduce that percentage and should improve your credit score.

Cheaper and Easier to Get Loans and Additional Credit
When you're not using nearly all of your available credit, you appear to be financially responsible to the credit bureaus and your credit score should increase. If your credit score is higher, you will have a better chance of getting approved for a credit card, car loan or mortgage in the future. You'll also have a better chance of getting a lower interest rate, since your credit score determines whether you'll be offered the best available rate or a higher, risk-adjusted rate. (For additional reading, check out How To Dispute Errors On Your Credit Report.)

Helps in an Emergency
Having a credit limit well in excess of your usual spending amount gives you a resource if you have a genuine emergency that you can't pay for with cash. Say you're traveling and you need to change your plans and return back home immediately - it probably won't be cheap to change your plane ticket, and it's easier to pay for a plane ticket with a credit card.

Increases Your Rewards
If you consistently pay off your balance in full and on time but you're not putting all of your expenses on your credit card, it might be time to start. Having a higher credit limit can help you do that. The conventional wisdom says that you shouldn't charge everyday expenses like groceries and gas to your credit card, but that advice only applies if you're carrying a balance - it's designed to help you avoid making a bad problem worse.

If you never carry a credit card balance, paying for recurring expenses on your credit cards won't cost you anything and can help you earn more rewards. Those rewards can actually reduce your spending in other areas by helping you pay for vacations, gifts, clothes and nights out. (To learn more, read Rewards Credit Cards That Give Back The Most.)

Lets You Make Large Purchases Efficiently
You already know that using your credit card to pay for large purchases is convenient and can help you rack up rewards. What you might not know is that your credit card likely includes a number of consumer protections that can come to your rescue if there is a problem with your purchase. For example, MasterCard's protections include extended warranties, price protection and coverage for damaged or stolen items. American Express offers similar benefits. Check your credit card agreement to see what protections apply to your cards.

Helps You Avoid Credit Score Dings
One way to get access to more credit is to get another credit card, but increasing your limit on an existing card might be a better option. According to FICO, opening a new credit card can ding your score. When you open a new account, it shortens the length of your credit history, and a longer history often means a better score. The age of your oldest account, the age of your newest account and the average age of all your accounts are factored into the length of your credit history, and this metric affects around 15% of your score.

The Bottom Line
If you know you're likely to spend up to your credit limit no matter how high it is, that major drawback will outweigh these benefits of increasing your credit limit. Otherwise, consider requesting an increase. It's usually as simple as sending an email to customer service. (For more information, read How Many Credit Cards Should You Have?)

This post originally appeared at Investopedia.

7 Reasons You Might Not Want To Put A Ring On It >

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 10:59 AM PST

A board member of Research in Motion offers an interesting new take on the company's implosion.

There was no way to avoid disaster, the board member says, because the two co-CEOs who flew RIM into a mountain were absolutely the best people for the job.

The Globe and Mail:

Today, the 55-year-old [board member Roger Martin, dean of business at the U of Toronto] is part of a RIM board under fire, facing criticism from investors and analysts who say it failed to take the dramatic steps needed to stem the decline of the Waterloo, Ont., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone.

The combative Mr. Martin forcefully rejects that view, challenging the notion that last month's resignations of the embattled Mr. Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as co-CEOs and chairmen was a case of too little, too late.

"I laugh at the vast majority of critics when they say 'Oh, you should have made this CEO transition, like, four years ago.' Yeah, right – like, to who?" Mr. Martin scoffs over lunch at Mideastro, a favourite restaurant in Toronto's Yorkville.

Read the whole thing >

So, basically, in the view of RIM's board, RIM's critics are fools who don't understand that there was absolutely no way to save the company.

And maybe that's true.

But it's too bad RIM's co-CEOs didn't realize that! They could have saved employees and shareholders a lot of heartache, frustration, and losses.

(via Paul Kedrosky)

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 12:00 AM PST

Here Are This Week's Winners And Losers In Sports

Posted: 11 Feb 2012 10:00 AM PST

We spent most of the week slowly recovering from another classic Giants-Pats Super Bowl.

Tom Brady's supermodel wife blasted his teammates. The Patriots' most notorious player got his dancing shoes on after losing the Super Bowl. And one TV personality lost a bet and had to wear a bikini in Times Square.

Outside of football, the sports world was dominated by the NBA's newest, most pun-friendly star.

WINNER: Maria Menounos

Maria is a HUGE Pats fan. She bet one of her EXTRA colleagues that the Pats would win, and lost.

So Maria stuck to her bet and wore a bikini in Times Square.

WINNER: Jeremy Lin

Jeremy Lin. If you don't know who he is, you've really been detached from the sports world this week.

Lin has started in the Knicks past three games and is averaging 25 points. Not bad.

WINNER: Austin Rivers

River sank a buzzer beater to win against his biggest rival: UNC.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:47 AM PST

Earlier this season, Luis Suarez of Liverpool F.C. was suspended for eight games after he used racist language against Manchester United defender Patrice Evra. Those two teams met again today, and Suarez managed to make a bad situation worse.

During the pre-game handshake, Suarez refused to shake Evra's hand. Evra was noticeably upset and the match referee had to settle him down.

After the match, Evra could be seen taunting Suarez by celebrating Man U's 2-1 victory in front of Suarez and cheering the crowd as Suarez walked off the pitch. There was also a report that the two players had to be separated in the tunnel at halftime.

The pre-game snub led Manchester United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, to issue a very strong rebuke of Suarez...

"He's a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club. That certain player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again...I was really disappointed in that guy. It was terrible what he did."

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:44 AM PST

This post originally appeared at Mental Floss.

Letters of Note is one of our favorite places to hang out. Since 2009 the site has curated hundreds of interesting letters, telegrams, memos and faxes, from famous people, regular people, and even fictional people. We took advantage of their hard work and rounded up these 11 thank you (and one thanks-for-nothing) letters from their archives.

1. Roald Dahl: Thank You for the Dream You Sent Me

Once upon a time (1989), a little girl named Amy sent a bottle of colored water, oil and glitter to Roald Dahl, who knew right away that this was a dream in a bottle inspired by his book, The BFG. In response, the author penned this short note to his 7-year-old fan

Dear Amy,

I must write a special letter and thank you for the dream in the bottle. You are the first person in the world who has sent me one of these and it intrigued me very much. I also liked the dream. Tonight I shall go down to the village and blow it through the bedroom window of some sleeping child and see if it works.

With love from,
(Signed)
Roald Dahl

2. Neil Armstrong: Thank You for Keeping Me Safe on the Moon

When your job involves leaving the planet to walk on the nearest rocky body, it's important that the people who build your equipment do things the right way. The enormity of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit engineering team's task—that is, building a spacesuit that kept a man safe and alive on the moon—was not lost on Neil Armstrong, who wrote this letter for the 25th anniversary of the lunar landing.

To the EMU gang:

I remember noting a quarter century or so ago that an emu was a 6 foot Australian flightless bird. I thought that got most of it right.

It turned out to be one of the most widely photographed spacecraft in history. That was no doubt due to the fact that it was so photogenic. Equally responsible for its success was its characteristic of hiding from view its ugly occupant.

Its true beauty, however, was that it worked. It was tough, reliable and almost cuddly.

To all of you who made it all that it was, I send a quarter century's worth of thanks and congratulations.

Sincerely,

(Signed) Neil A. Armstrong

3. Conan O'Brien: Thank You for Asking Me to Your Prom

Remember prom? Nikki Simmons probably won't forget hers, even though the guy she asked had to politely decline. Seems he'd just gotten married and, honestly, he was probably busy.

Dear Nikki –

Thanks for your very flattering offer. It's great to know I have such a devoted fan out there, and I'm sure you would make a great prom date (I didn't go to mine – it's a very sad story).

Unfortunately, I got married recently and my wife doesn't allow me to go to proms anymore with cute 16 year old girls. Still, it was very cool of you to ask me. Thanks and have a great evening.

Your Friend,

Conan

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:36 AM PST

The buzz around "The Hunger Games" has been building for months. The film isn't due out until March 23; however, with tickets going on sale in less than two weeks, we think its as good a time as any to become familiar with the cast of Hollywood's next big money maker.

The film, based on the best-selling series by Suzanne Collins, takes place in a future utopia split into twelve districts where each year two children between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen to participate in a fight to the death.

(Imagine the dystopian future featured in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" meshed together with the television-based killing competition of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 film "The Running Man.")

Although you may have heard Jennifer Lawrence plays the lead, we doubt you know the entire cast. Not only does the film feature a handful of Oscar nominees, but many familiar faces are all grown up and hidden under their costumed characters.

The three lead characters dyed their hair for the film, Elizabeth Banks is covered in pale, white makeup, Stanley Tucci wigs out and a one girl is all grown up from a recent horror flick.

Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdene)

If you find Jennifer Lawrence unrecognizable as a brunette, you're not the only one.

Lawrence turned down the lead in "Savages" for "The Hunger Games," winning the lead role over the likes of Shailene Woodley, Emma Roberts and Abigail Breslin. Not surprising considering Lawrence is no stranger to kicking tail.

In 2010, she made a huge splash with her Oscar nominated performance as the Ozark mountain girl Ree, who hunts down her father in "Winter's Bone."

Lawrence was also in last year's hit "X-Men: First Class" where she played the young Mystique.

Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark)

Josh Hutcherson was featured in another 2010 Oscar nominated flick: "The Kids Are All Right."

Mostly, Hutcherson is known for his kid flicks, including "Bridge to Terabithia" and the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" franchise.

In "The Hunger Games," he'll play the male tribute from District 12 alongside Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss.

Alexander Ludwig (Cato)

Alexander Ludwig is known for another film featuring "The Rock." The 19 year old was featured in Disney's 2009 "Race to Witch Mountain."

Yes, that's the same guy. Alexander Ludwig grew up a lot in the past three years. Currently, he's a student at USC.

He'll play one of Katniss' foes, Cato, in "The Hunger Games."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:34 AM PST

Last week, we asked Business Insider readers to supply us with their wittiest captions for the HP Printers ad to the right.

After going through almost 100 submissions—lots of invocations of the E*Trade baby—we were able to narrow the captions to a top five, and again implored BI readers to vote on their favorite caption.

Well, the people have spoken, and one lucky winner will be rewarded the high honor of being dubbed BI's wittiest reader of the week. Oh yeah, and get a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Who were our winners? Click below to find out!

Advertisers: If you would like to sponsor the caption contest please email sales@businessinsider.com.

FIRST PLACE: "Ok, you might want to explain to her again how Pinterest works."

Ernesto Lotitto

Runner Up: "The E-Trade kid gets a crib and a dog; I get Velcroed to the wall. I'm changing brokerages!"

Paul Dicker; Coordinator at Employee Corporate Benefits Program; Portland, Oregon

Second Runner Up: "The interns seem younger every year."

Gil Pomeranz; Canton, MI

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:35 AM PST

Whether you go weak in the knees for all things heart-shaped and bursting with cupid confetti or would rather see hearts broken than budgets blown on Valentine's Day, there really is no escaping it.

Americans are set to spend more than ever on treating their lovers to a special night out this year, bringing the average spent on the big day to $196, according to the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker.

And nearly half (46%) plan on dining out at their favorite restaurant–up from 41% last year.

Love is beautiful and all that, but when it comes to covering the bill for your fancy feast, that's when things can get a little awkward – especially for newly dating couples. (See 7 ways to score affordable V-day gifts.)

Men and women are split on the issue, it seems. Nearly 60 percent of men in the AmEx report said they'd cover the check on V-day, but only 40 percent of women felt the same.

For advice on who should take the hit to their wallet, we turned to a man who knows a thing or two about the dating scene: Thomas Edwards, a/k/a The Professional Wingman.

Edward's makes his living helping clients find their way to lasting relationships and he's been in the game for more than three years.

"My rule of thumb is whoever asks for the date, pays for it," Edwards says. "By that rule, the guy typically pays."

That goes for blind and online dates, too.

But it doesn't mean ladies are completely off the hook. It's a nice gesture to at least offer to contribute to the bill (14% in the AMEX survey said they'd split it).

"Nine times out of ten that offer will be denied but it's important for the other person to know you're willing to contribute – a positive trait for long-term relationship potential," Edwards says.

Still, that doesn't mean you've got to shell out $200 bucks with the rest of those crazy love birds out there. See these 8 ideas for ways to save on traditional V-day gestures.

DON'T MISS: 10 online dating scams that'll break your heart and your wallet >

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:27 AM PST

It's hard to find anyone anywhere who has anything less-than-glowing to say about Jack Dorsey, the entrepreneur who invented Twitter and another red-hot company called Square and is now Twitter's product guru.

Jack Dorsey, everyone agrees these days, is "the next Steve Jobs."

And it is Jack's obvious brilliance, work ethic, and product-design chops that are always cited whenever anyone asks why a company like Twitter, with nearly 1,000 employees, a ~$10 billion valuation, and all the cash in the world has to settle for having a part-time product guy.

Because that, of course, is what Jack is at Twitter--a part-time product guy.

Jack's other job, CEO of Square, commands at least half of his work attention. Jack, legendarily, lives right between Twitter and Square, and he spends one shift at Twitter and the next shift at Square.

And of course Jack works 80 hours a week minimum, this story goes, so it's not really like Twitter is having to settle for having a part-time product guy. It's more like Twitter and Square both have absolutely amazing full-time product guys.

Well, it's time we at least put that last bit of spin to bed.

If Jack didn't have two jobs, he'd still have his legendary design and product chops and work ethic... and he'd be giving those 80 hours a week to one company, not 40 each to two.

And it seems safe to say that either Twitter or Square would be getting twice as much out of their product chief if Jack were only working one job--if not more.

Why?

Well, because if there's one thing that just about everyone who has ever accomplished anything amazing in life agrees upon, it's that obsessive focus is key to success.

Splitting your time between two completely different companies is the opposite of focus, no matter how talented you are. And pretending that you can do each of these jobs as well as you would if you only had one of them is not just dreamy--it's delusional.

Now, it's possible that Jack is such an amazing product genius that his half-time effort is better than anyone else's full-time effort, but this seems unlikely. There are a lot of smart, talented product people out there.

And it is very much worth noting that, even if Jack IS the next Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs did not split his time between two companies, at least not for long. When Steve got canned from Apple, he went off and founded NEXT. Then, later, for a brief period, he bought Pixar and ran that while also running NEXT. But soon after he rejoined Apple, he focused on one thing... Apple.

And if Steve hadn't done that--if, instead, Steve had spent half his week at Pixar and half at Apple--I'd bet good money that Apple wouldn't be anywhere near where it is today.

In any event, the proof is in the pudding. Jack has now been doing his two part-time jobs for more than a year. So we can look at Twitter's product and success and see how he's doing.

So, how's Jack doing?

Well, officially, everyone raves about the amazing leadership and influence Jack has had at Twitter, and everyone gushed all over some of the recent product innovations Twitter announced under Jack's leadership.

But I have to say this.

As a massively heavy Twitter user, the recent changes that Twitter has made to my Twitter-app--TweetDeck--have been all for the worse.

My old TweetDeck for iPhone stopped working, so I had to upgrade to the new one. Yes, it's buggy and crash-prone, but the old version had that problem, too. But it's the "improvements" to the new version of the TweetDeck app that bug me the most. I won't chronicle them here, but suffice it to say that I don't like them. The new version of TweetDeck is now less-intuitive and harder to use than the old one. And I'm holding Jack responsible for that.

And then there's the steady stream of Twitter complaints I see on Twitter about the new Twitter.com. I don't use Twitter.com myself much, so I'm no authority there, but aside from the usual hosannahs from the usual techo-chamber sycophants, I don't see a lot of folks who are thrilled with it.

And, lastly, there's Twitter's new vision.

I saw Jack speak in Germany recently. He was as articulate and charming and suave as always, and, thankfully, he doesn't appear to have let the whole "next Steve Jobs" thing go to his head. (It's not Jack's fault that people have beatified him.) But the new vision Jack laid out for Twitter just wasn't very coherent.

Per Jack's speech, Twitter seems to have given up on the idea that normal people are going to Tweet. And that's fine. Normal people probably aren't going to Tweet. So the new Twitter vision, Jack says, is that normal people are going to check in on Twitter all day to see "what's going on."

And I have no doubt that some normal people might do that. But, anecdotally at least, that does not, in fact, seem to be the way normal people are using Twitter.

The way normal people are using Twitter, it seems, is to follow celebrities and yak together about things that are being shown right then on TV (like the Super Bowl). And that's very different than turning to Twitter as a news source, which seems to be part of the new Twitter vision.

In support of this, check out this chart from a recent Pew study on where folks get news about the Presidential campaign. Only 2% of people turn to Twitter for news. That's not a whole lot of people for a company with 50 million daily users that is staking at least part of its future vision on news.

And check out this other chart below, which we pulled together for our Social Commerce Summit last week.

This chart shows the average time the average social network user spends using the service each month.

Facebook, obviously, is rocking the house. People live on Facebook.

And Tumblr's doing pretty well, too. Tumblr's success really is astounding.

And Pinterest's explosion on the the scene is startling. People already spend a lot of time on Pinterest.

But people hardly spend any time on Twitter.

Yes, I understand that lots of people use Twitter via apps, but not everyone. And Twitter has put a lot of effort into redesigning its Twitter.com page, which I doubt Twitter would have done if only a tiny fraction of its users ever used it.

So I still think this low monthly usage of Twitter is startling. And concerning.

And it leads me back to the point I was making at the beginning.

Twitter's product direction is confusing to me. In many ways, it seems to be getting worse, not better.

And Twitter's vision of itself is also confusing to me. It's vague, and it doesn't seem to line up with how normal people are actually using the service.

And I can't help but wonder if part of the reason why Twitter's product and vision seem confusing is that Twitter's product guy is only working part-time.

So might it not finally be time for Twitter to consider hiring a full-time product guy?

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:15 AM PST

We've put together a list of the best iPhone and iPad apps you might've missed this week.

We have an app to make cool GIF animations on your iPhone, the best Twitter app for iPad, a voice activated GPS app, and much more.

Vonage's new iPhone app lets you make calls for free.

Vonage's new iPhone app lets you call and text other Vonage app users for free, worldwide.

It works by using your phone's data connection (so you don't use any minutes), and even works over 3G if you don't have Wi-Fi.

If someone you want to call doesn't have the Vonage app, you can always

Price: free

Tweetbot for iPad is a must-buy.

Tweetbot for iPad is the first truly excellent Twitter client for iPad, combining powerful gestures for navigating tweets, convenient support for multiple accounts, and a streamlined and attractive interface.

Tweetbot for iPhone also hit version 2.0 this week, bringing some cool new features like in-line photo viewing, more legible text, and much more.

Price: $2.99 (iPad), $2.99 (iPhone)

Remarks is the Swiss army knife of annotating tools for iPad.

Remarks makes it simple to annotate PDFs and documents using a variety of pens, colors, shapes, and more.

This app is also useful for sketching out ideas and brain maps, which you can in turn upload to your Dropbox or Box.net account.

Price: $4.99

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 02:01 PM PST

Ever wonder how much the flower and chocolate industries make off of your attempts to impress that smoldering co-worker across the hall?

Now the U.S. Census Bureau has the answers.

They've put together a fact sheet on the love industry in the U.S. in honor of Valentine's Day.

$12.6 Billion

Value of the domestic chocolate industry in 2009. The industry employs 34,252 people.

Source: U.S. Census

24.7 lbs.

Amount of chocolate eaten by Americans in 2010.

Source: U.S. Census

$17 million

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2010 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales.

Source: U.S. Census via USDA

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:15 AM PST

We've put together a list of the best iPhone and iPad apps you might've missed this week.

We have an app to make cool GIF animations on your iPhone, the best Twitter app for iPad, a voice activated GPS app, and much more.

Vonage's new iPhone app lets you make calls for free.

Vonage's new iPhone app lets you call and text other Vonage app users for free, worldwide.

It works by using your phone's data connection (so you don't use any minutes), and even works over 3G if you don't have Wi-Fi.

If someone you want to call doesn't have the Vonage app, you can always

Price: free

Tweetbot for iPad is a must-buy.

Tweetbot for iPhone also hit version 2.0 this week, bringing some cool new features like in-line photo viewing, more legible text, and much more.

Price: $2.99 (iPad), $2.99 (iPhone)

Remarks is the Swiss army knife of annotating tools for iPad.

Remarks makes it simple to annotate PDFs and documents using a variety of pens, colors, shapes, and more.

This app is also useful for sketching out ideas and brain maps, which you can in turn upload to your Dropbox or Box.net account.

Price: $4.99

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:

The Verge Is Losing A Founding Member To ABC News

2012-02-10T19:42:00.001-08:00

The Verge Is Losing A Founding Member To ABC News

The Verge Is Losing A Founding Member To ABC News
Why The Chicago Bulls Prove That You Have To Be Bad To Be Good In The NBA
Google Has Not Insured Itself Against The Loss Of Larry Page (GOOG)
Breakthrough.com Lets You Talk To A Shrink Over The Web
After Years Of Extracting Money, Patent Troll Gets Slapped Down
Here's What Nicolas Cage Has To Say About Those Rumors That He's A Vampire
Newt Gingrich Just Totally KILLED It At CPAC
Top Celebrity Tweets O' The Week
A Brooklyn Sewage Plant Offers An Unconventional Valentine's Day Spot
PHOTOS: Here's What You Missed During The First 2 Days Of New York Fashion Week
Follow These 5 Steps To Beat Your Opponent During A Negotiation
SPOTTED: There Are Only 77 Of These Aston Martins In The World
OOPS: Kazakhstan (Accidentally) Sent Radioactive Coal To Kyrgyzstan Orphans
Kickstarter Is Helping People Raise Serious Cash For Their Projects
Watch The Evolution Of The Quaker Man (PEP)
WATCH: Erin Andrews Asks Brooklyn Decker To Play Her In The ESPN Movie
17 Facts About Those Tiny Falkland Islands That Argentina And The UK Are Fighting Over
Boeing Just Drew Its Own Logo With A 787 Flight Path
Greek Cabinet Approves Austerity Plan
Indianapolis May Have Hosted Its Way Into The Regular Super Bowl Rotation

The Verge Is Losing A Founding Member To ABC News

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 07:12 PM PST

Joanna Stern, technology editor for The Verge, will be leaving the site to join ABC News, Verge editor Joshua Topolsky announced tonight.

At ABC, Stern will lead technology coverage and do broadcast work.

Stern was part of the Engadget crew that left en masse to start The Verge.

Prior to Engadget, she worked at Gizmodo.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 04:30 PM PST

Chicagoans are ecstatic about their Bulls now that Derrick Rose has put them back on the map, reminding fans of the Michael Jordan-Phil Jackson era.

Although it may seem like those six NBA titles happened just a few years ago, the decade between Rose's arrival and MJ's retirement was a tumultuous one for the Bulls.

Multiple coaches, poor management decisions, bad draft picks, and a few lucky breaks in between got them to where they are today.

Michael Jordan and his 6 titles ruled the NBA during the 90s

Chicago was officially known as "Title Town." Not only did the Bulls own the NBA, led by Michael Jordan they owned all of sports too.

The year after MJ was AWFUL, with Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and head coach Phil Jackson ALL leaving too.

New head coach Tim Floyd only had scraps like Brent Barry and Dicky Simpkins to throw out there en route to an Eastern Conference worst 13-37 record during the 1999 lockout-shortened season.

Their terrible 1999 record garnered the Bulls the first overall pick of that year's draft, taking Elton Brand. The team also selected Ron Artest in the first round.

Brand would go on to average 20 points and 10 rebounds per game on his way to Rookie of the Year honors, but Chicago still struggled, only winning 17 games.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 04:07 PM PST

If Larry Page bites the dust, Google doesn't have life insurance on him. Same goes for Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt.

That's not so unusual. Giant corporations don't always take out policies on their top brass. Seriously, how big a policy would Google need for them, anyway? A billion dollars? Apiece?

It's just that Google wants you to know. In its 10-K filing it makes a point to say so:

Our future success depends in a large part upon the continued service of key members of our senior management team. In particular, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are critical to the overall management of Google and the development of our technology. Along with our Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt, they also play a key role in maintaining our culture and setting our strategic direction. All of our executive officers and key employees are at-will employees, and we do not maintain any key-person life insurance policies. The loss of key personnel could seriously harm our business." [Emphasis ours.]

Just for fun we checked with Apple's and Microsoft's 10-K. They don't feel the need to discuss it.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 03:32 PM PST

Forget sitting on a couch at your shrink's office.

Now you can book an appointment online and get psychiatric help right from your couch.

Using web cams and the Internet, Breakthrough CEO Mark Goldenson wants to make it easier for people to get therapy.

Yesterday at the demo day for StartX, an accelerator for companies run by Stanford students and recent grads, Goldensen explained why therapy over the Web makes sense.

"It's expensive for people. It costs $1,800 for a therapy and medication course," Goldenson explained.

"It's hard for people to find a good provider, particularly in rural areas. It's stigmatizing where people don't want to admit they have a mental health condition or ask for a provider recommendation. And it's really hard for people to find a good provider because so many providers don't have websites."

On the site, people can look through the directory of providers, book appointment, pay a co-pay, and have a session.

Goldenson is a serial entrepreneur, including a stint as product manager at PayPal. After 14 years working in web startups, he spent four years as a psychology researcher at Stanford.

Breakthrough is raising its first round of funding, and is about to sign a deal with a national insurer that will cover 2 million people, market it, and cover the cost of care.

Here's what the demo looked like:

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 03:21 PM PST

Here's a great example of how broken the patent system is.

Yesterday, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas ruled against a company called Eolas Technologies, saying that Eolas' two patents were invalid.

Most people have never heard of Eolas, but it's a familiar -- and little-loved -- name in the tech industry.

Eolas is a non-practicing entity. It makes no products. Its business model is getting companies to pay it for patents, and suing them if they refuse.

The impolite name for such entities is "patent troll."

Eolas was founded by Michael Doyle. He did some research for the University of California in the early 1990s. Some of that research related to technology that was later used in Web browsers. In 1998, he got a patent -- #5838906 -- for one of these inventions. That patent got assigned to Eolas.

In 1999, Eolas sued Microsoft for patent infringement in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft got experts to testify on its behalf, including a man named Pei-Yuan Lee, who invented an early browser called Viola. One of the inventors of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, wrote a letter on behalf of the W3C (a Web standards body) in Microsoft's favor.

But in 2003, Eolas won. Microsoft had to make changes to Internet Explorer and was fined more than $500 million.

(For a moment, it looked like Microsoft would have to make big changes to IE that would break millions of Web pages unless developers changed them, but the eventual changes were less dramatic.)

The huge fine was eventually thrown out on appeal, but Microsoft ended up settling with Eolas in 2007 and paying some unknown sum -- probably tens of millions -- to make it go away.

Eolas then got another patent, #7599985, in 2009. This wasn't for some new invention. It was a second patent on the work that Doyle had done back in the early 1990s.

Over the years, Eolas sued a bunch of other tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, and Yahoo, and non-tech companies, like Citigroup, over these two patents.

Some, like JP Morgan Stanley, Oracle, and Texas Instruments, and licensed the patents. The rest fought.

That fight is now over. Not only did the jury invalidate the two patents, but three upcoming damages trials were canceled. Eolas will have to start all over again if it wants to pursue these lawsuits.

Thousands of hours of court time and lawyers' time. Tens of millions of dollars. All for what?

Tim O'Reilly, who worked with Pei back in 1992 and 1993, celebrated the verdict on a Google+ post, and added this warning:

The current patent system is a terrible tax on invention, as it requires real inventors to spend time in court rather than focusing on making real things happen. We must remember that the patent system was supposed to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts," not to enrich people who know how to work the legal system.

Amen to that.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 03:14 PM PST

While promoting his new film, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," on "The Late Show with David Letterman," Nicolas Cage addressed rumors (and photographic evidence) that claim he is a vampire.

Letterman showed Cage a photo that surfaced on eBay a few weeks ago of a Tennessee man from the 1870s that bore an extremely strong resemblance to the action star.

The man selling the photo had this to say on the website:

"Original c.1870 carte de visite showing a man who looks exactly like Nic Cage. Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead / vampire, et cetera, who quickens / reinvents himself once every 75 years or so. 150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host."

Watch Cage defend his humanity in the video below.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 03:06 PM PST

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich was on fire at CPAC this afternoon, proving once again that the former House Speaker is political Teflon.

Apparently recovered after his epic meltdown in Nevada, Gingrich revved up the crowd at CPAC with an impassioned version of his stump speech that hit all the conservative high notes (Obamacare, taxes, war on religion, et. al.) In short, Gingrich managed to give the audience the "red meat" that his main rival Mitt Romney failed to deliver earlier this afternoon.

The speech actually got off to a relatively inauspicious start. He faced a serious uphill battle at CPAC, in the wake of his collapse last week, and for a few moments it looked as though he was going to run back his horrible Las Vegas press conference.

Callista Gingrich, making a rare public speaking appearance, introduced her husband, and it was immediately clear why she never gives speeches. Informing the audience about "things they probably didn't know about Newt," the best she could come up with was that he "loves to read" and "an enthusiastic and committed golfer."

"Newt plays golf like he does most things in his life," Callista said. Gingrich subsequently informed the crowd that he is a "very bad golfer."

He proceeded to spend the first few minutes of his speech railing against the Republican Establishment, rhetoric that did not appear to resonate with the group at CPAC. But then he started to pick up steam, and by the end of the speech the audience was eating Newt's anti-Establishment message out of his hand.

The best part of the new Newt rollout, however, was definitely the introduction of his "Conservative Dream Team" — eight "fearless" Gingrich endorsers who are "rallying around" the candidate "as he takes on the Saul Alinsky radicalism of the Obama administration."

Here is the badass picture of the team, featuring (from left) Chuck Norris, evangelical leader and former Congressman J.C. Watts, GOP strategist Kellyanne Conway, Fred Thompson, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michael Reagan, and Iowa State Rep. Linda Upmeyer. Todd Palin is apparently an honorary member.

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Top Celebrity Tweets O' The Week

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:56 PM PST

Celebs tweet the Super Bowl: Britney loves Madonna, Katy Perry goes H.A.M. and Ochocinco deals with the Patriots' loss.

Plus, Chelsea Handler's an "angel" and Rihanna still looks good as a blonde.

Yep. It's that time of the week again—from Jimmy Fallon to Jordin Sparks, check out this week's roundup of best celebrity tweets.

Aziz Ansari unknowingly revealed Christopher Nolan's perfect plan to get everyone to watch his film after a football game.

Plenty were freaking out about the last minutes of the game...

...while Britney was raving about Madonna's halftime performance.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:50 PM PST

If you value a meaningful experience over material gifts, consider a romantic tour of the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn this Valentine's Day.

Erin Durkin of The New York Daily News reports that New York City's Department of Environmental Protection is offering a morning tour of the 53-acre plant, which provides "stunning views of New York City and the nearby industrial landscape," according to the center's official website.

Plant superintendent Jim Pynn told The Daily News that guests will get to walk through the facility's digester eggs, giant stainless steel spheres that are responsible for breaking down the city's sewage into 1.5 million gallons of sludge every day.

As an extra incentive, visitors will also receive a Hershey kiss. How sweet!

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:54 PM PST

We were on the front lines when Victor Cruz, of the New York Giants, cut the ribbon officially starting Mercedes Benz Fashion Week fall 2012, and Lincoln Center has been booming ever since.

On Day 1, we we explored the tents and took in the Chadwick Bell show. We haven't spotted any major celebrities yet, but we have been enjoying the street fashion.

On Day 2, we had a Gossip Girl moment and went across the street from Lincoln Center to Ed's Chowder House at The Empire Hotel, where the appropriately-themed Nautica men's presentation took place. The music was fun and the place was packed. Understandably so, because head designer Chris Cox was there explaining the looks, and booze were flowing everywhere. There were even some lobsters.

Here's a quick look at what happened during the first two days of Fashion Week.

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Fall 2012 is in full swing at Lincoln Center

We got invited to Chadwick Bell's show. It was his first time showing at Lincoln Center.

Naturally, inside the tents at Mercedes Benz Fashion week, there are some Mercedes.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:38 PM PST

Negotiation skills are crucial in the workplace. You'll have to negotiate for the rest of your life, so it's best to learn now how to do it right.

According to Kevin Dutton in his book Split-Second Persuasion: The Ancient Art and New Science of Changing Minds (via Psychology Today), there are five simple tactics that can help you conquer your opponent, which he calls S.P.I.C.E:

Simplicity: In order to convince someone what you're saying is a fact, communicate it in a very simple manner. For example, "The way you set up that meeting yesterday was ineffective." Whatever you do, don't draw out your argument or your opponent will start losing track of what you're saying.

Perceived self-interest: Dutton says the trick to convincing others that your argument is better is to "focus on the benefits of the person whose mind you want to change, rather than emphasizing your own wants and wishes." For example, don't say "I would like you to do this..." but rather say, "You'll be glad if you do this..."

Incongruity: Throw your opponent off track by using information in a way that isn't consistent with how they are used to hearing it. For example, tell them something costs 400 cents instead of four dollars.

Confidence: The most obvious strategy, but a very crucial one if you want to win. Confidence goes hand-in-hand with being aggressive but you need both if you want other people to think you're right.

Empathy: The trick is to look people right in the eye, nod when they nod and conduct other characteristics that make them trust you. People feel connected to people who are similar to them, so use those similarities to your advantage.

Beyond these simple strategic rules to abide by, there are still a couple of things you should consider when trying to convince someone that what you're saying actually makes more sense than their argument, writes Farouk Radwan in his blog Pick the Brain.

When you're negotiating your position, make sure you listen carefully to what your opponent is saying and keep a mental list of everything they say in its exact order. You will need to confront what they're saying one-by-one and in the order that they bring it up during the conversation. This tactic will make the negotiation more effective for you.

Also, keep in mind that you shouldn't try to attack everything they're saying all at once. In other words, "don't try and bring the castle down all in one; chip away, soldier by soldier, until you start to make a big dent."

You will know that you're winning if your opponent starts making new arguments instead of sticking to their original ones. At this point, continue to repeat your reasoning and arguments and as soon as they say, "I don't know," end the conversation: You've successfully won your negotiation.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:30 PM PST

In the realm of Aston Martin, none of the cars could be considered very common. Even the car we lust after day and night, the V12 Zagato, will have just 150 total copies distributed around the world.

But this is not the rarest current Aston. That honor goes to the $1.7 million One-77. As you may have guessed, the name refers to the fact that each car is one of 77. You will not be seeing these on every corner like you would a V12 Zagato.

Our friend Christopher Queitsch of carstalker.com spotted one of the rarest rides a lot of money can buy.

Where did he make the find? In the global hotbed for exotic cars: Dubai.

The One-77 looks to be an amazing ride. We are jealous he got to see one, if just for a brief second.

Have you spotted a rare or unusual car/plane/train/boat/industry person in your travels? Did you take a photo? Do you like sharing?

If you answered yes to these questions, please send the picture to tokulski@businessinsider.com along with where you spotted it to be considered for our Photo of the Day.

Take a peek at yesterday's Photo of the Day >

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:22 PM PST

Kyrgyzstan has arrested seven government officials for allowing imported radioactive coal to be delivered to several schools, an orphanage, and a nursing home in the country, The Telegraph reports.

The coal is from the Kulan mine in neighboring Kazakhstan and was bought by a Kyrgyz state energy company.

The Prosecutor General's office has begun criminal proceedings against the head of the Kyrgyz company which shipped the coal, and charged him with ecocide, according to Ria Novosti. Criminal cases were also opened against the health and sanitary officials who authorized the dangerous 9,000 ton-shipment.

While the amount of radiation in the coal is not lethal, it's still higher than normal, government scientists say. However, nobody has fallen ill from the coal, and it is unclear why the coal has a higher than normal radioactive reading.

Prosecutors began investigating the consignment from the Kulan mine in November after activists discovered it was radioactive.

The case has caused an uproar in the Kyrgyz parliament, with opposition politicians calling for the government to resign and rival MPs accusing each other of receiving kickbacks from the coal shipment, the AP reports.

Kazakhstan has agreed to take back the coal after negotiations between the two nations' energy suppliers.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:18 PM PST

Crowd sourced funding site Kickstarter has been kicking ass for would-be entrepreneurs.

So far in 2012, two projects have raised over $1 million. Several others have surpassed $250,000.

A project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. That way creators don't get locked into developing a project if they don't have enough money and contributors don't get stuck paying for crummy ideas.

Project owners have to promise something of value in exchange to those that contribute, but not the typical financial incentives such as ownership, a share of profits, or repayment. Instead the so-called "Kickstarter economy" is based on other types of rewards like copies of the work, limited editions or just plain fun experiences (such as dinner with a famous person).

Here are the 8 biggest awards for tech products so far...

8. Daniel Chin raised $262,351 to turn thumb drives into file servers.

Who: Daniel Chin founder of Apple accessory maker Sanho, in Fremont, CA.

How much: Chin got backers to contribute $262,351 when the project closed on January 6. This was fortunate as he was asking for more than the typical Kickstart project, $100,000.

For what: CloudFTP will turn any USB storage into a device that can wirelessly share files with the iPad and iPhone. Chin offered backers free products and also promised those that pledged $500 to include them in the ads placed he would place in a couple of popular Mac magazines.

7. Justin Jensen snags $486,518 for putting an iPhone camera on wheels

Who: Justin Jensen a mechanical engineer from Austin, TX and photo/film buff and his firm Cinetics.

How much: He asked for $20,000 and got $486,518 when the project closed in October.

For what: CineSkates are a set of three wheels that quickly attach to a tripod and enable fluid, rolling video. They require a GorillaPod Focus tripod. He set a retail price of $200 and Jensen gave backers at the $150 level a set of CineSkates. For bigger backers he threw in the GorillaPod, too.

6. David Carr and John Kestner got $556,541 to connect objects to the Internet.

Who: Designer-engineers David Carr and John Kestner and their firm Supermechanical.

How much: They asked for $35,000 and got $556,541 when the project closed on January 3.

For what: Twine is a device that lets you add Internet connectivity and apps to any object at all, without any geek skills. The designers say it can do things like let you get a tweet when your laundry's done, or get an email if the basement floods while you're on vacation.

For those pledging $100 or they not only offered two free Twines, but also a t-shirt and a card that let people give Twine as gifts -- and batteries were included.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:19 PM PST

At the beginning of the year, without so much as a press release, Quaker Oats gave the Quaker Man a makeover.

Did the PepsiCo-owned company actually think it could get away with this logo redesign unnoticed?

The Quaker Man was born in 1877 and has undergone many instances of reconstructive surgery. In the last year, alone, Quaker has introduced two new logos—some designs attempting to emote a svelter and "lighter" image.

The birth of the Quaker Man in 1877.

The Quaker Man head shot was drawn by Jim Nash in 1956.

Harold Sundblond, best known for his Santa Claus illustrations for Coca-Cola, colored in the Quaker Man in 1957.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:24 PM PST

By now you are well aware of the grandiose event the Super Bowl has become. So much so, that all the crazy celebrity parties each have their own red carpet entrances.

One party in particular this year, GQ's, featured a giggly set of famous blondes having an absolutely wonderful time.

Watch as everyone's favorite sideline girl, Erin Andrews, calls SI Swimsuit cover girl Brooklyn Decker "my goddess" and "my life" (from Busted Coverage via Outside the Boxscore).

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:08 PM PST

The Argentinian-UK spat over the Falkland Islands seems to show no signs of abating, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon today calling on both nations to avoid "escalation", the BBC reports.

So what's so special about the Falkland Islands that has made both countries enter a war of words just 30 years after an actual war?

The islands are about 4,700 square miles big.

That's around 1,000 square miles smaller than Connecticut.

The last census recorded only 2,955 people on the island.

(Source)

Most of these people are Falkland Islanders (known as "kelpers"), who of British descent.

90% of the island claims British birth or descent.

(Source)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:07 PM PST

In one of the most creative stunts we have seen in a while, Boeing just drew its own logo with GPS signals from planes.

They flew a 787 across the Northwest and Midwest in pretty exact ways to write out 787 and draw the distinctive Boeing logo.

We think this is incredibly cool.

Check it out below (via FlightAware):

Now take a look at some other cool planes >

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Greek Cabinet Approves Austerity Plan

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 02:03 PM PST

After a day of worrisome headlines, Bloomberg reports that the Greek cabinet has approved a package of austerity measures necessary to receive troika loans.

This comes despite numerous cabinet resignations and amid growing pressure from both Greek citizens to curtail economic reforms.

Even so, the two biggest hurdles for the plan as well as PM Lucas Papademos are still ahead. First, the Greek Parliament will vote on this agreement Sunday or Monday.

Second, Greeks will have to win approval for the agreement from EU leaders, who thought the deal fell short of the goals they had set for Greece and are demanding stiffer reforms before they give out more bailout funds.

But even if this were all to work out, Greece wouldn't be out of the woods yet. The Greek government and its private sector creditors are still locked in negotiations over a deal for the latter to take losses on holdings of government bonds. The numbers being bandied about right now are 70-75 percent, and it is extremely likely that all these creditors will agree to participate in a "voluntary" debt swap plan. This could lead to a credit event and potentially provoke a disorderly default.

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Posted: 10 Feb 2012 01:57 PM PST

In the aftermath of last weekend's Super Bowl, one of the common reactions to the entire experience is just how great Indianapolis was as a Super Bowl venue.

Here is one example from Hub Arkush of Pro Football Weekly...

..."super," in fact, is the best way to describe Indianapolis' effort in putting on its first Super Bowl. If you'd like a grade, let's give it an A-minus. There is very little I can imagine that could have been done better.

Arkush says his grade was not influenced by the weather. But the unseasonably warm temperatures couldn't have hurt.

It is generally accepted that there are five cities in the Super Bowl rotation, including Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, San Diego, and Phoenix (Glendale). Other cities, like Indianapolis this year and Dallas last year, will receive single Super Bowls as a reward for building a new stadium.

But based on all of the positive reviews from Super Bowl 46, it would not be a surprise if Indy finds itself as part of the regular rotation.

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Check Out This Crazy Front Page Of A Greek Newspaper

2012-02-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Check Out This Crazy Front Page Of A Greek Newspaper

Check Out This Crazy Front Page Of A Greek Newspaper
INFOGRAPHIC: How Kissing Helps Men Live Longer
WATCH: Charles Barkley Thinks Truman Defeated Nixon In '48
These Vandalized Mad Men Ads Are Absolutely Wonderful
49 States Agreed To The Mortgage Settlement—Here's Why Oklahoma Refused To Go Along
The 8 Wildest Hotel Pool Parties On The Planet
The NY Mets Owners Are Asking The Supreme Court To Intervene In Their Fight For Madoff Money
Markets Are Inching Lower In Asia
Here's How Microsoft Could Sell Lots Of Windows Tablets To Big Companies (MSFT)
INTRODUCING THE AZERBAIJAN TOWER: Soon To Be The World's Tallest Building
WATCH: 14 Videos Of Michelle Obama Exercising
SAM STOVALL: Here's The Best Way To Profit From The January Effect, Presidential Cycle And S&P 5-Day Rule (SPY)
Inside TaskRabbit: Nobody Does Their Own Chores, So There's More Time For Fun And Pranks
Here Are The 10 Best Rivalries In The NBA
Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, February 10, 2012 (NYX, THS, PPL, AB, ACI, CPN, LH)
Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster — Here's Why (GOOG)
IT'S OFFICIAL: The First New US Nuclear Plant Since The Three Mile Island Disaster Has Been Approved
This Kickstarter Project Raised Nearly $1 Million in One Day
Europe's Top-Secret Plan For Solving The Crisis Is Completely Worthless
Marine Corps Acknowledges Photo With Marines Posing In Front of Nazi 'SS' Flag

Check Out This Crazy Front Page Of A Greek Newspaper

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:23 PM PST

We don't speak Greek, but it's not hard to figure out the message going on here. (Via @fgoria)

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:03 PM PST

In anticipation of Valentine's day— and ensuing lipstick and chocolate stains — Clorox came out with some enlightening infographics.

Apparently, consumers buy more than 52 million pounds of chocolate during Valentine's week bringing the sales of chocolate for the holiday to more than one billion dollars. To work off all those extra calories, consumers should plan on doing a lot of smooching since one minute of "passionate kissing" burns 6.4 calories.

Another heart-healthy factoid: men who kiss their wives in the morning live fiver years long than those who don't

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 06:54 PM PST

During halftime of tonight's Celtics-Lakers game, the TNT studio crew discussed Duke's win over UNC. And in doing so, they poked some fun at Kenny Smith with a Photoshop job on the iconic image of Harry S Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." In the TNT version, Smith is holding a paper that reads "UNC Defeats Duke."

Well, while the other hosts were giggling like schoolgirls, Charles Barkley can be heard asking "was that Truman-Nixon?" And then just before going to commercial, he asks it again.

While this certainly good for a chuckle, we need to keep in mind that Chuck says he will run for Governor of Alabama in 2014. Let's hope he brushes up on his history first.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 06:30 PM PST

Ever since AMC began advertising the new season of Mad Men (starting March 25) with almost entirely blank posters showing a falling man in a suit, vandals in New York have been adding their own flourishes in the white space.

And the results are brilliant. You can see a collection of vandalized Mad Men posters here.

The Gothamist blog went one further and asked its readers to create their own Photoshopped version of the Mad Men ads, and got even better results.

Who wouldn't want to see Mad Men CSI: Miami, for instance?

This is an actual, original, unaltered Mad Men poster as displayed in subway stations. Next, see what people did to them...

Singin' in the rain

Breakdancing! (By Deric)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:48 PM PST

The New York Observer's Foster Kamer has a great post on why Oklahoma's Attorney General refused to join into the mortgage settlement.

There are, expectedly, diverse opinions on the settlement, from both sides of the debate and a comfortable middle.

Wherever you land on that spectrum, when 49 states go along with a decision and one holds out, there's something going on.

Kamer does a great job debunking Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's claim that Oklahoma homeowner's will get the same amount of money as those in the other 49 states and tosses aside the claim that the state didn't need to participate because it has an acceptable foreclosure rate.

So what's up with Pruitt? It's impossible to know his motivations with any certainty, of course, but this doesn't make things look good:

In Pruitt's words, he did it for the community banks. And on principle, of course.

For what it's worth, the article provides some samples from Pruitt's 2010 donation cycle:

JP MORGAN CHASE & CO: $10,000.00
ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS OF OKLAHOMA: $5,000.00
ERC LAND DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC: $5,000.00
AMERICAN FIDELITY CORP: $5,000.00
KOCH INDUSTRIES: $5,000.00
OKLAHOMA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS: $4,000.00
OKLAHOMA BANKERS ASSOCIATION: $3,500.00

And some broader totals:

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate: $175,172.00
Lawyers & Lobbyists: $142,835.00
General Business: $125,546.00

Read the full post at the New York Observer here > >

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:40 PM PST

This post originally appeared at Oyster.com.

It's time to get wet, y'all! With Spring Break just around the corner — and the rest of us here dying for a warm-weather vacation — we thought about where we'd wanna party in the sun.

Check out the hottest pool parties around the globe.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino; Las Vegas, NV

WHY SPLASH AROUND HERE: Easily one of the most popular with the bachelor-and-bachelorette set, the weeklySunday Rehab Pool Party is notorious for bringing in huge (but sexy!) crowds. An eight-hour affair (it starts at noon), the party is known to bring in top party DJs from around the globe including Paul Oakenfold and Bad Boy Bill who spin tunes that range from Top 40 pop hits to banging house beats.

Source: Oyster.com

Bahia Principe San Juan; Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

WHY SPLASH AROUND HERE: Party-seeking, money-saving folks flock to this vibrant all-inclusive resort in the middle of nowhere — which doesn't seem to bother its guests. In addition to its lively pool activities, the hotel features regular karaoke and a bitchin' disco where plenty of people boogie down.

Source: Oyster.com

Room Mate Grace; New York City, NY

WHY SPLASH AROUND HERE: Well, for starters, Room Mate Grace offers New York City's only swim-up bar — practically in the lobby. (There's also a 24-hour steam room and sauna to enjoy, too.) But the party to check out here is on Wednesday nights for the gay-friendly crowd; tales from nights here have been legendary. The hotel's location isn't so bad too, located smack in the middle of the city: The heart of Times Square.

Source: Oyster.com

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:09 PM PST

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets' owners want the Supreme Court to decide whether only those investors who lost money should get a share of proceeds recovered from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Sterling Equities Associates, which owns the Mets, on Feb. 3 asked the high court to hear the case. It will likely take months before justices decide if they will.

Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars before Madoff revealed his scheme in 2008. Judges repeatedly agreed with a trustee trying to recover money for investors that only those who lost their original investment can get a portion of what he recovers.

Trustee spokeswoman Amanda Remus says the Supreme Court should decline to hear the case because Sterling Equities is offering the same arguments that were already rejected by lower courts.

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Markets Are Inching Lower In Asia

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:03 PM PST

There hasn't been any major news since U.S. markets closed and Asian markets opened for trading.

Japan's Nikkei is down 0.1%.

Korea's Kospi is down 0.5%.

Australia's S&P/ASX is down 0.3%.

It appears Greece and the troika (i.e. the EU, ECB and IMF) have finally agreed on austerity measures, which should get Greece one step closer to its much needed bailout money.

However, we didn't see markets move in a major way in either direction.

This tight global market trading range has simultaneously been remarkable and quite boring.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:56 PM PST

Enterprises might get a break on Windows 8 devices with Office 15 -- if they happened to have signed a new license deal after mid 2011.

That's one possibility raised by Cynthia Farren, principal of a software license consulting company.

While Microsoft has not yet said how it will charge enterprises for Windows ARM devices, it has offered clues.

Big companies often license Microsoft software with an Enterprise Agreement, or EA. It includes a lot of side benefits, including free upgrades to the latest versions of Microsoft software.

Earlier today, Microsoft said that Windows 8 ARM devices will "include" a special version of Office. It's not exactly clear what "include" means, but Farren has an idea.

In license agreements after mid-2011, Microsoft deliberately changed the definition of "qualified desktop" to "qualified device" when indicating what type of device is covered by the EA.

"If your EA includes Office and specifies 'device' then Microsoft will likely have to include Office 15 on ARM in your EA licensing agreement," says Farren.

But the trickier part is how Microsoft will charge for the Windows 8 operating system itself. To understand the potential gotcha, you've got to understand how Microsoft treats non-Windows devices in these agreements.

If a company yanks out its Windows desktops and replaces them with iPads that run Windows and Office, Microsoft charges a "Virtual Desktop Access" fee for each device. And it doesn't remove those devices from the cost of the EA agreement unless a company deliberately goes back and negotiates for that.

So Microsoft often double charges for those devices -- still charging for the Windows license no longer in use, and also charging a fee to access Windows in a virtual Web-based cloud way.

Microsoft is clearly trying to penalize non-Windows devices by making it super expensive to run Windows software on them.

But if Windows 8 on an ARM tablet is considered a "fully functional OS" and not an "embedded OS," then an upgrade to it would be covered by the EA license with SA. A company with a recent EA could swap out other Windows devices with the tablet and be squared away.

That means companies would get a price break on Windows tablets compared with iPads -- at least when it comes to Microsoft software.

It is unclear how Microsoft will treat customers with older EA agreements that still use the words "qualified desktop."

Farren doesn't expect Microsoft to be offering any great deals on EA licenses for Windows ARM tablets. While companies may not have to pay for Office 15 or the VDA fee, there are other gotchas. Because employees may actually need two devices -- their PC and their tablet -- enterprises could wind up spending more on Microsoft software overall.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:46 PM PST

We brought you the news last month that Azerbaijan was planning to build the world's tallest building at 3,645 feet — taller than both the Burj Khalifa and the upcoming Kingdom Tower to be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Now, News.az brings us more information on the building, which will be known as the Azerbaijan Tower and will feature 189 floors.

The building is being built on a series of artificial islands, called the Khazar Islands, constructed in the Caspian Sea off Garadag, southwest of Baku. The company behind the building, Avesta Group, is said to be in talks with the companies behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and hopes the building to be complete by 2018-2019.

It's all going to cost a pretty penny, of course. Architizer reports that the islands are due to cost $100 billion and the tower itself $2 billion — it looks like Azerbaijan will be putting that energy money they are getting into use.

Let's hope the building fares better than the Burj, which is now a "distressed" property.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:47 PM PST

Today is the Second Anniversary of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative!

To celebrate, we've collected 14 videos of Michelle Obama, well, moving. We found her playing ping pong, basketball, soccer, and basketball and dancing with just about everyone.

Click here to go directly to the videos >>>>>

As the Washington Post's Krissah Thompson noted today, Obama will do just about anything to promote fitness in America. That includes competing in a potato sack race with Jimmy Fallon, doing push-ups with Ellen DeGeneres, and getting silly on a Nickelodeon television show.

She really, really wants everyone to exercise. And she's been effective, apparently. According to a survey by the Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than eight in ten Americans have heard of Obama's initiative.

But the First Lady's work isn't done. Thompson reports that Obama has announced a four-state tour to promote her efforts. So expect to see more of Obama breaking a sweat soon. We'll keep you posted.

Feel the burn, Ellen!

Were those real push-ups? We're not experts but this still looked pretty impressive. Maybe Ellen will think twice next time she challenges the First Lady.

No need to teach Michelle the Dougie. She already knows it.

Michelle has some dance skills, and this video is undeniable proof.

Show me your moves.

When Michelle Obama and Ellen DeGeneres meet, there tends to be some movement. Back during the 2008 race, Michelle and Ellen showed off their best moves.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:40 PM PST

Bear with us as we set aside fundamentals for a moment.

Much has been made about a slew of popular bullish stock market indicators that have been confirmed since the beginning of the year. Lets review a few:

January effect: A positive January for stocks has led to a positive year 86 percent of the time since 1945.
Election year: The fourth year of a presidential term is usually a good one for stocks. In fact a positive January during an election year has led to a positive year 100 percent of the time.
The early warning signal: Also known as the 'S&P 5-day rule,' if stocks are positive during the first five days of January, then January and the full year are positive 86 percent of the time.
The Super Bowl Indicator: When a team from the old NFL (NFC division) wins the Super Bowl, the S&P 500 rises for the year 78 percent of the time.

No one knows more about this stuff than S&P's Sam Stovall, who wrote the book on Wall Street rules of thumb. Literally. It's titled The Seven Rules of Wall Street. And his father, Wall Street legend Bob Stovall, is the Super Bowl indicator's official custodian.

Sam's latest Stovall's Sector Watch addresses these indicators. And he starts off with the warning you'll get from any piece of investor advice: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

Having said that, Stovall notes that predictive power of these beginning-of-the-year indicators aren't completely without merit. He argues there are strong "behavioral reasons" that could drive investors to pour into stocks. From his note:

Investors are a lot like dieters; they look to January as a new beginning. With cash on the sidelines, combined with the desire to take advantage of the more favorable tax treatment offered by long-term capital gains, investors are likely to reinvest these assets in opportunities that are perceived to reap rewards over the coming 12 months.

But he suggests a targeted approach to investing over buying the whole S&P 500. It's called the January Barometer Portfolio, which "uses January performances for sectors and sub-industries as a clue to their results for the coming 12 months." From his note:

As I wrote in my book The Seven Rules of Wall Street, which leverages time-tested rules of thumb to create market-beating portfolios, investors could have reaped rewards by taking a cue from the three S&P 500 sectors or 10 S&P 500 sub-industries that posted the strongest results during January. Since 1990, a portfolio consisting of an equal weighting to the three best performing sectors in January posted a compound annual growth rate of 8.0% in the following 12 months (February through January), versus 6.6% for the S&P 500, and beat the market in nearly two of every three years. The sub-industry-level results were even more encouraging. Since 1970, a portfolio consisting of an equal weighting to the 10 S&P 500 sub-industries with the best January performances went on to post a 12- month CAGR of 14.4% versus 6.8% for the S&P 500 (excluding dividends). What's more, this January Barometer Portfolio of sub-industries beat the market nearly 70% of the time. Of course, there's no guarantee that what worked in the past will work again in the future.

Of course, this isn't an air-tight investment strategy. Stovall is the first to admit it. Again, from his note:

No technique works every time, and the same holds true for the January Barometer. Last year's two January Barometer Portfolios (sector and sub-industry) underperformed the broader market. While the S&P 500 rose 2.0% from January 31, 2011 through January 31, 2012 (excluding dividends), the three sectors gained 0.5%, while the 10 sub-industries advanced 0.6%.

The recent underperformance of the Barometer Portfolio is probably a turn off. But Stovall invokes another popular rule of thumb: Murphy's Law. From his note:

But I believe Murphy's Law applies to investing as well: The year you give up on a time-tested investment strategy that has suffered through a batting slump is the year in which it begins to outperform once again.

So, are you willing to bet that the Barometer Portfolio will be a home run this year? If so, here are the sectors and sub-industries you should be in:

Sectors: Financials, Information Technology, Materials
Sub-industries: Aluminum, Construction & Farm Machinery & Heavy Trucks, Diversified Metals & Mining, Fertilizers & Agricultural Chemicals, Internet Retail, Investment Banking & Brokerage, Life Sciences Tools & Services, Multi-Sector Holdings, Other Diversified Financial Services, and Real Estate Services

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:32 PM PST

Kobe the dog is TaskRabbit's chief inspiration officer.

It's a fancy position for a pet, but it's well-deserved, considering the dog actually inspired Leah Busque to start TaskRabbit.

Click here to see what it's like to work at TaskRabbit→

One night on February 2008, Busque was sitting at home and getting ready for dinner with her husband when she realized she was out of dog food.

The couple wondered: Are we going to have a cab stop on the way home? Later that night, they kept talking about how it would be nice if there was a place to go to online where could name a price they were willing to pay for someone to get them dog food.

Busque quit her job at IBM and founded TaskRabbit in June 2008. The site has grown since we last spoke to Busque: since the company's series A round in May, TaskRabbit has seven times the amount of users, and the posted tasks have tripled. TaskRabbit also closed a second funding round of $17.8 million in December, and is now in seven cities: San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, Seattle, and Portland. The next city is Austin, which will launch at SXSW next month.

We visited TaskRabbit's San Francisco offices to see what it's like there...

Here we are. That rabbit looks busy!

Johnny Brackett showed us around. He's talking to marketing head Jamie Viggiano. Brackett joked that most employees love TaskRabbit so much, they probably should start doing their own errands again.

TaskRabbit began serving consumers, but small businesses are beginning to see the value. Susie Cakes likes to use the service for delivery. Companies like Google and Twitter offer a discount to their employees.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:06 PM PST

This post originally appeared at Bleacher Report.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics resume their storied rivalry Thursday night as Kobe Bryant and the Lakers take on the Green in Beantown.

And whether it's Kobe versus Boston's "Big Three" or Magic going up against Bird, this Lakers-Celtics rivalry—probably the NBA's best ever—has seen plenty of meaningful iterations in recent years.

But there are plenty of other NBA rivalries that are nearly as bitter.

Here's a look at 10 of pro basketball's best rivalries of the last 30 years, at BleacherReport.com >

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:01 PM PST

Friday closes out a busy earnings week, while data streams out of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Earnings may take a back seat to consumer confidence out in the U.S., as well as a series of industrial production readings overseas. Add to that reports from names like NYSE Euronext, and the Street may not have as much reason to stay quiet.

Here's what you need to know.

Japan starts the day off early with its domestic corporate goods price index at 6:50 p.m. EST on Thursday evening. Economists predict prices will rise 0.1 percent in January from a month earlier, the same rate seen in December.
Indian industrial production will be announced at 12:30 a.m. EST on Friday. Year-on-year, production is seen advancing 2.6 percent.
Finland industrial production follows at 2:00 a.m. EST, with forecasts for a 0.1 percent contraction. The measure was last revised up in November to 0.6 percent growth.
At the same time, Germany will announce the final January reading of consumer prices, which a preliminary release noted would decline by 40 basis points in the month.
Attention shifts to France at 2:45 a.m. EST for manufacturing and industrial production. Economists forecast that manufacturing will fall 1.0 percent in December from November, while industrials drop 0.7 percent.
Denmark CPI will be announced at 3:00 a.m. EST, with expectations for a 0.2 percent increase in January. Switzerland and Norway follow later in the morning, with economists forecasting 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent drop, respectively.
Industrial production in Italy is seen declining 0.5 percent in December. The measure will be released at 4:00 a.m. EST.
At 4:30 a.m. EST January's Producer Price Index in the U.K. will be released. Economists polled by Bloomberg see input and output prices rising by 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
U.S. economic announcements kick off at 8:30 a.m. EST with the country's trade balance, which is forecast to increase to -$48.5 billion in December. At 9:55 a.m. EST, the University of Michigan consumer confidence reading will be releases. Economists see the important metric declining in February to 74.8 from January's final reading of 75.

U.S. corporates reporting quarterly results on Friday include names like NYSE Euronext. Below, a roundup of tomorrow's big announcers.

NYSE Euronext (NYX): $0.49
TreeHouse Foods (THS): $0.88
PPL (PPL): $0.61
AllianceBernstein Holding (AB): $0.19
Arch Coal (ACI): $0.32
Calpine (CPN): $0.04
Laboratory Corp of America Holdings (LH): $1.53

Consensus estimates provided by Bloomberg.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:56 PM PST

It's finally clear: Google is getting into the hardware business.

Last week, word came out that it was testing some sort of mysterious entertainment device in employees' homes.

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that Google will build and market a Google-branded music gadget that will stream tunes around the home.

Google is about to finish buying Motorola, the world's biggest maker of TV set top boxes and one of its larger cell phone makers, and Eric Schmidt has said that it wasn't just for the patents.

It's even building retail stores.

Maybe Larry Page really was jealous of Steve Jobs. Or maybe Google is just jealous of Apple's revenue and profits and market cap.

Whatever the reason, this won't end well.

Google has never shown that it has any of the characteristics necessary to build, market, and sell consumer goods.

Let's take a look at all the things that made Apple one of the biggest and most admired companies in the world. Does Google have any of those things?

Design chops? Apple has revolutionized product design several times -- the iMac, iPod, iPhone, Mac Air, and iPad. Google's best design was its original home page, loved for its white space and simplicity. Google+ had some nice elements -- Circles was designed by Apple old-timer Andy Hertzfeld -- but the recent redesigns of products like Gmail, Reader, and Search have caused more anger than delight.

Shipping finished products that customers love? Apple products are designed with the customer experience top of mind -- Steve Jobs famously said that Apple doesn't listen to customers first, it figures out what they should want and then goes and builds that. Google is infamous for releasing half-finished products like Music and Google TV, slapping a beta label on them, then gradually improving them over time. That works fine with free Internet services. It does not work with products that you're trying to sell for hundreds of dollars. (Need evidence? Spend an hour with an Android tablet that hasn't been updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.)

Customer service? The Genius Bar gives Apple customers on-demand customer service for any problem with any Apple product. Google hardly provides personalized customer service to its most important customers, the advertisers who make up more than 95% of its business -- most Google ad products are self serve for all but their largest and most important customers.

Manufacturing? Apple's Tim Cook is a genius at managing Apple's supply chain. Google has done some of this with suppliers for its data centers, but that's different from setting up the parts and manufacturing necessary to build and ship tens of millions of devices on quick turnaround.

Advertising? Remember those iPod ads with the white figures dancing? Of course you do. Remember those Google+ ads with the muppets singing along to David Bowie? Probably, but not for the same reason.

Can companies change? Of course they can.

Microsoft spent 10 years and several billion dollars to get into the game business, and while it's still about $4 billion in the hole (lifetime), the Xbox is finally on a consistent profit streak and Microsoft has passed Sony.

But at least Microsoft had a long history of building and selling packaged consumer products like Windows, Office, and CD-ROMs, and even hardware like keyboards and mice.

Amazon is becoming a hardware company, but only after selling hardware through its online retail store for years. It understands logistics, advertising, marketing, and customer service, and has a huge store of data about customer buying habits which it can use to help.

Google has never successfully sold anything to consumers. Not a single thing.

Google is really good at building fast, useful, responsive software that runs at Internet scale, and at hooking up the users of that software with advertisers to make gobs of money.

That's a great business. Google utterly dominates it. There are untapped adjacent markets, too -- what about getting serious about Apps, taking its expertise in delivering online services and really applying them to the enterprise? (Is Google really going to cede that market to Box.net? Really?)

Or building YouTube into the cable TV system for the Internet?

Or even coming up with new forms of advertising for other kinds of media?

But adding a business in which it has demonstrated none of the characteristics necessary to succeed just seems utterly mad.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:40 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's first new nuclear power plant in a generation won approval Thursday as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors at a site in eastern Georgia.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. hopes to begin operating the $14 billion reactors at its Vogtle site south of Augusta as soon as 2016. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the company's plans on a 4-1 vote.

The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. After that accident, fears of a radiation release were heightened and new reactor orders were brought nearly to a halt.

The planned reactors, along with two others in South Carolina expected to win approval in coming months, are the remnants of a once-anticipated building boom that the power industry dubbed the "nuclear renaissance." The head of an industry lobbying group said the Vogtle project could be the start of a smaller renaissance that expands nuclear power in the United States.

"This is a historic day," said Marvin Fertel, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. He said the NRC vote "sounds a clarion call to the world that the United States recognizes the importance of expanding nuclear energy as a key component of a low-carbon energy future that is central to job creation, diversity of electricity supply and energy security."

President Barack Obama and other proponents say greater use of nuclear power could cut the nation's reliance on fossil fuels and create energy without producing emissions blamed for global warming. The Obama administration has offered the Vogtle project $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees as part of its pledge to expand nuclear power.

More than two dozen nuclear reactors have been proposed in recent years, but experts now say it is likely that only five or six new reactors will be completed by the end of the decade.

The once-expected nuclear power boom has been plagued by a series of problems, from the prolonged economic downturn to the sharp drop in the price of natural gas and the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.

"It's clear the nuclear renaissance has been significantly slowed," said Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group. Lyman blamed what he called "inappropriate optimism" about nuclear power that ignores the huge start-up costs and safety risks.

The Vogtle project is considered by many observers to be a major test of whether the industry can build nuclear plants without the delays and cost overruns that plagued earlier rounds of building.

Close on the project's heels is South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which is seeking permission to build two reactors at an existing plant in Jenkinsville, S.C. In addition, construction of a second reactor at the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee is under way after years of delay.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko voted against the Vogtle license, saying he wanted a binding commitment from the company that it would make safety changes prompted by the Japan disaster.

"We've given them a license. They have not given us any commitment they will make these changes in the future," Jaczko said.

The meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant led to a series of recommendations by the NRC to improve safety at the 104 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S. The changes are intended to make the plants better prepared for incidents they were not initially designed to handle, such as prolonged power blackouts or damage to multiple reactors at the same time.

The changes are still being developed, though Jaczko said it is clear that they will be required by the NRC before the new reactors begin operating.

Despite his opposition to the license, Jaczko called the vote "historic" and a culmination of years of work by Southern Co. and the NRC.

Southern Company Chairman and CEO Thomas A. Fanning called the NRC vote "a monumental accomplishment for Southern Company, Georgia Power, our partners and the nuclear industry."

Fanning said the company was "committed to bringing these units online to deliver clean, safe and reliable energy to our customers."

The NRC license "creates a standard of performance there, and Southern Company expects to exceed it," Fanning said.

Allison Fisher, an energy expert for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, called the NRC's action — less than a year after the Japan crisis — a step in the wrong direction.

"It is inexplicable that we've chosen this moment in history to expand the use of a failed and dangerous technology," she said.

While other countries such as Germany are reversing their commitment to nuclear power, "the U.S. is approving new reactors before the full suite of lessons from Japan has been learned and before new safety regulations that were recommended by a task force established after the meltdown crisis at Fukushima have been implemented," Fisher said.

The NRC approved a new reactor design for the Vogtle plant in December. Utility companies in Florida and the Carolinas also plan new reactors that use the same design by Westinghouse Electric Co.

Jack Spencer, a nuclear expert for the conservative Heritage Foundation, called approval of the Vogtle project "good news," but added: "I don't think this is the beginning of a full-scale renaissance" for the nuclear industry.

"Too many questions remain" about nuclear waste, government regulation and development of nuclear technology, Spencer said.

___

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this story.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:24 PM PST

This post originally appeared at The Fiscal Times

It's been a kick-ass week for raising money on Kickstarter. The crowd-source funding site saw a new record set on Wednesday by the Elevation iPhone Dock, which raised over $1 million in less than two months and beat the previous all-time funding record of $942,000 (it's now up to $1,035,214). Today, it looks like yet another record could be broken.

On Wednesday night, San Francisco-based independent video game studio Double Fine Productions posted a new adventure game on the fundraising site with the goal of collecting $400,000, and watched the dollars start to pour in from fans. In just eight hours and 11 minutes, Double Fine had surpassed its goal. Less than eight hours later, they had doubled it. At time of publication, the total raised was over $900,000 and growing by tens of thousands of dollars every few minutes – with 33 days left to collect.

Owner Tim Schafer, who is known for popular adventure games like Full Throttle and The Secret of Monkey Island, says, although there's huge interest from fans, he's struggled to get any interest from big game publishers to do adventure games like this one. That's when he turned to Kickstarter.

Kickstarter funders don't receive any ownership of the project, and don't see a return on their money, but many Kickstarter projects offer perks. Double Fine will give a copy of the game to anyone who gives $15 or more and a signed poster to those who give $250 or more. Donors who give $10,000 or more get lunch and a tour of the studio with Schafer and Ron Gilbert, another developer. One video game animator in Seattle, Will Christiansen, heard about it this morning and gave $100. "Everyone was passing the link around Facebook and Twitter," he said. "As developers and gamers, we'd love to see this new model take off. It would mean a big shift in the game/publisher dynamic and could make games more interesting, innovative and independent."

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:38 PM PST

At last, European leaders have revealed their top-secret plan for solving the euro's crisis. And it is – drum roll – a version of the "Tobin tax," a levy on financial transactions first suggested in 1972 by the Nobel laureate economist James Tobin.

Now, 40 years later, the European Commission has proposed – and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have endorsed – a turnover tax on all financial transactions, varying from 0.1% on stocks to 0.01% on financial derivatives like futures and credit-default swaps. If the tax can't be imposed globally or even Europe-wide, France and Germany will go it alone. Given Sarkozy's enthusiasm for the tax, there is even talk of France adopting it unilaterally.

But how, exactly, a tax on financial transactions would help to cure Europe's ills is unclear. According to the European Commission's own estimates, it would raise only about €50 billion ($65.7 billion) a year, even if imposed throughout the European Union. This is a pittance compared to the eurozone's debts and deficits, and would fall far short of funding Europe's permanent rescue facility, the European Stability Mechanism, which is supposed to be capitalized to the tune of €500 billion.

Moreover, the Commission's €50 billion estimate surely overstates the prospective receipts. If France imposes the tax unilaterally, trading in equities and derivatives will simply migrate to Frankfurt. If it is limited to the eurozone, transactions will move to London. And if it is adopted by all EU member states – a fanciful scenario, given British resistance – the market will simply migrate to New York and Singapore.

European leaders claim that they can create mechanisms to ensure that their residents pay the tax, regardless of where trades are booked. But banks are widely reported to be devising new instruments to enable their clients to avoid the tax. On whom would you bet – the tax authorities or the financial engineers?

If the aim is to augment revenues, a Tobin tax is the wrong tool. Indeed, Tobin designed it to solve an entirely different problem: excessive volatility in currency markets. By discouraging foreign-exchange transactions, Tobin's proposal sought to promote exchange-rate stability by preventing national currencies from coming under speculative attack.

The irony, of course, is that eurozone members have no national currencies to attack. As members of a monetary union, they enjoy a relatively high degree of exchange-rate stability – far too much stability, in fact. In the current circumstances, with much of Europe lacking competitiveness, a weaker exchange rate is precisely what the continent needs.

European leaders sometimes extend Tobin's logic from the currency market to financial markets generally. An across-the-board tax on transactions, they argue, would dampen financial volatility.

But the logic behind this conclusion is lacking. What we know is that a tax on transactions would result in fewer transactions. Some investors would exit the market. But which ones – the opportunist speculators, who sell when everyone else is selling, or the contrarian speculators, who do the opposite and stabilize volatile markets?

Maybe a Tobin tax is intended to shrink Europe's bloated financial sector. In that case, it is, once again, misdirected. Europe's problem is its banks, which are too big to fail – and also too big to save. A Tobin tax would do nothing to shrink them. On the contrary, by discouraging trading in securities, it would encourage investors to shift their funds into bank accounts and certificates of deposit.

Nor would a Tobin tax address the fact that Europe's banks are undercapitalized, or that pro-cyclical bank lending amplifies business cycles (and that regulation does too little to restrain this).

Forgive my naiveté, but I have begun to think that politics rather than economics explains European leaders' enthusiasm for a Tobin tax. Sarkozy can preempt a long-standing proposal of the Socialists in the run-up to this spring's presidential election. By supporting Sarkozy, Merkel can get in return what she really wants: French support for stronger fiscal rules. And EU leaders can claim that the financial sector is being made to contribute to the costs of Europe's financial cleanup.

To paraphrase the famous put down of then-Senator Dan Quayle in the US vice presidential debate in 1988: I knew James Tobin; James Tobin was a friend of mine, my mentor, and, for a brief privileged period, coauthor. Tobin would not have been pleased to see his proposal repurposed in this way.

Though no one can say for sure what Tobin would have thought of Europe's crisis, his priority was always the pursuit of full employment. One suspects that he would have urged European policymakers to dispense with their silly fixation on a financial transactions tax and instead repair their broken banking systems and use all monetary and fiscal means at their disposal to jump-start economic growth.

This post originally appeared at Project Syndicate.

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Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:20 PM PST

A Marine Corps spokesman acknowledged Thursday that a platoon shown posing in front of a Nazi "SS" flag was part of a scout sniper team stationed in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps Times' Dan Lamothe reports that the photo was taken in Sept. 2010 in a contested district of the Helmand province.

[Click here to see the photo]

Also on Thursday, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to first amendment rights, circulated a photo showing the SS logo on a 7.62mm M40 sniper rifle carried by a Marine.

Lamothe said information electronically embedded in that photo shows the image was released by the Marine Corps sometime in 2004, suggesting use of the logo was common practice.

Given that the name of the unit was "scout snipers," Lamothe speculates the platoon was using the flag and logo for its stylized "SS" imagery.

On his Twitter feed, Lamothe linked to an undated PowerPoint that gives an extensive review of what images are banned in the Corps in any form. The presentation explicitly mentions the SS symbol.

The L.A. Times reported that the Marine spokesman, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton said the snipers had been "addressed" concerning the issue. None of the personnel in the picture are still part of the unit, which is now deployed again, he said.

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