Japan stocks tumble in post-holiday return, as strong yen weighs; Nikkei Average down 2.8% via @MarketWatch
Comments »WASHINGTON — A senior Qaeda militant in Yemen linked to the deadly bombing of an American warship there in 2000 was killed in an airstrike on Sunday, the Yemeni government said, in the latest sign of an escalating American campaign to counter the terrorist threat there.
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso
“The Avengers” proved that five superheroes are better than one by bursting into Hollywood’s record books with a massive $200.3 million in ticket sales over its opening weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, kicking off Hollywood’s summer movie season with a bang.
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Source: Marvel.com
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The domestic debut for the big-budget, effects-filled movie from Disney’s [DIS 42.93 
-0.88 (-2.01%) 
] Marvel studios sped past last summer’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 2,” which opened with $169.2 million in its first weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. In March, “The Hunger Games” opened with $152.5 million, the fourth largest opening in box office history.
READ THE REST HERE AT CNBC.COM
Comments »via NBC NEWS
Investigators have arrested two brothers from Cuba in a mysterious $80 million drug caper that included an elaborate scheme complete with repelling rope and disabling the alarm system.
Comments »UPDATE: Hearing that it is a suicide (CBS NY)
via TMZ.com & yahoo.com
TMZ is reporting retired NFL star Junior Seau is dead, and the police are investigating a shooting in his home:
Comments »NFL legend Junior Seau was found dead in his home in Oceanside, CA … and cops are investigating a shooting … multiple law enforcement sources tell TMZ.
Cops are currently at Seau’s home just outside San Diego. Seau was 43-years-old … and leaves behind 3 kids and an ex-wife.
Incredible piece of investigate journalism by John Koblin (@koblin) over at Deadspin.com. RUN, don’t walk to read it.
UPDATE: @sarahphilli has since been fired from ESPN.com as a freelance contributor.
Comments »The iconic Sahara Hotel & Casino is coming back as a redesigned and reconceived SLS Las Vegas that’s expected to open in 2014. Philippe Starck will do the interior design at what will become a resort with name-brand restaurants, clubs and more than 1,600 guest rooms and suites.
1. Noma, Denmark
2. El Cellar de Can Roca, Spain
3. Mugaritz, Spain
4. D.O.M., Brazil
5. Osteria Francescana, Italy
6. Per Se, New York
via NYDAILYNEWS.com
Andrew Ross Sorkin is apparently not too big to tank.
The same goes for “Money Honey” Maria Bartiromo.
CNBC insiders tell us executives at the cable business channel are “freaking out” because viewership levels are down essentially across-the-board, particularly with its marquee shows, “Squawk Box” and “Closing Bell.”
Comments »The apparent epidemic of autism is in fact the latest instance of the fads that litter the history of psychiatry.
We have a strong urge to find labels for disturbing behaviors; naming things gives us an (often false) feeling that we control them. So, time and again, an obscure diagnosis suddenly comes out of nowhere to achieve great popularity. It seems temporarily to explain a lot of previously confusing behavior — but then suddenly and mysteriously returns to obscurity.
Not so long ago, autism was the rarest of diagnoses, occurring in fewer than one in 2,000 people. Now the rate has skyrocketed to 1 in 88 in America (and to a remarkable 1 in 38 in Korea). And there is no end in sight.
Increasingly panicked, parents have become understandably vulnerable to quackery and conspiracy theories. The worst result has been a reluctance to vaccinate kids because of the thoroughly disproved and discredited suggestion that the shots can somehow cause autism.
There are also frantic (and probably futile) efforts to find environmental toxins that might be harming developing brains, explaining the sudden explosion of autism.
Anything is possible, but when rates rise this high and this fast, the best bet is always that there has been a change in diagnostic habits, not a real change in people or in the rate of illness.
So what is really going on to cause this “epidemic”?
Perhaps a third of the huge jump in rates can be explained by three factors: the much-increased public and provider awareness of autism, the much-reduced stigma associated with it and the fact that the definition of autism has been loosened to include milder cases.
Sixteen years ago, when we updated the DSM (the official manual of psych diagnoses) for the fourth edition, we expanded the definition of autism to include Aspergers. At the time, we expected this to triple the rate of diagnosed cases; instead, it has climbed 20 times higher.
That unexpected jump has three obvious causes. Most important, the diagnosis has become closely linked with eligibility for special school services.
Having the label can make the difference between being closely attended to in a class of four versus being lost in a class of 40. Kids who need special attention can often get it only if they are labeled autistic.
So the autism tent has been stretched to accommodate a wide variety of difficult learning, behavioral and social problems that certainly deserve help — but aren’t really autism. Probably as many as half of the kids labeled autistic wouldn’t really meet the DSM IV criteria if these were applied carefully.
Freeing autism from its too tight coupling with service provision would bring down its rates and end the “epidemic.” But that doesn’t mean that school services should also be reduced. The mislabeled problems are serious in their own right, and call out for help.
The second driver of the jump in diagnosis has been a remarkably active and successful consumer advocacy on autism, facilitated by the power of the Internet. This has had four big upsides: the identification of previously missed cases, better care and education for the identified cases, greatly expanded research and a huge reduction in stigma.
But there are two unfortunate downsides: Many people with the diagnosis don’t really meet the criteria for it, and the diagnosis has become so heterogeneous that it loses meaning and predictive value. This is why so many kids now outgrow their autism. They were never really autistic in the first place.
A third cause has been overstated claims coming from epidemiological research — studies of autism rates in the general population. For reasons of convenience and cost, the ratings in the studies always have to be done by lay interviewers, who aren’t trained as clinicians and so are unable to judge whether the elicited symptoms are severe and enduring enough to qualify as a mental disorder.
It’s important to understand that the rates reported in these studies are always upper limits, not true rates; they exaggerate the prevalence of autism by including people who’d be excluded by careful clinical interview. (This also explains why rates can change so quickly from year to year.)
So where do we stand, and what should we do? I am for a more careful and restricted diagnosis of autism that isn’t driven by service requirements. I am also for kids getting the school services they need.
The only way to achieve both goals is to reduce the inordinate power of the diagnosis of autism in determining who gets what educational service. Psychiatric diagnosis is devised for use in clinical settings, not educational ones. It may help contribute to educational decisions but should not determine them.
Human nature changes slowly, if at all, but the ways we label it can change fast and tend to follow fleeting fashions.
Dr. Allen Frances, now a professor emeritus at Duke University’s department of psychology, chaired the DSM IV task force.
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A new fragrance from custom cologne crafter Air Aroma captures the uniquely appealing scent of a freshly unwrapped MacBook, iPad or Apple TV.
Scheduled to be unveiled at the upcoming De Facto Standard art exhibit in Melbourne, Australia, the latest cologne from the aptly-named Air Aroma is modeled after the smell that comes wafting out of the box once you’ve popped open a brand new MacBook Pro. A group of three Aussie artists teamed with Air Aroma to “scientifically recreate the smell of an Apple unboxing,” using sophisticated technology and their own inherent sniffing skills to duplicate “the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China.”
Think of it as the proverbial “new car smell,” only geekier and with strong hints of the aerosolized incarnation of a smug grin.
As Fashionably Geek points out however, the as-yet-unnamed cologne will likely be impossible to find in stores. Currently it’s only scheduled to appear at the art show, and Air Aroma has no plans for a large-scale retail release. The show is slated to run at Melbourne’s West Space gallery from April 20 to May 12, after which the smell will only be found in Cupertino, California and within the stylish, sealed packaging of Apple’s flagship laptop line.
Though the official Air Aroma blog offers no solid answer to the bold-font “WHY?” currently playing across your bemused face, it does offer a surprisingly in-depth explanation of how this cologne was created.
The process of creating this signature fragrance started with an initial meeting with our client to understand the concept and desired effect of the fragrance. Once this was established, the ingredients for the fragrance had to be sourced. The scent requested by our client was quite unusual so we contacted our fragrance suppliers in the South of France to send over samples of fragrances with the aroma of glue, plastic, rubber and paper. Air Aroma fragrance designers then used these samples as ingredients to create a range of signature blend fragrances. The blends, each with unique recipes were then tested in the Air Aroma laboratory until a final fragrance was ultimately selected.
To replicate the smell a brand new unopened Apple was sent to our fragrance lab in France. From there, professional perfume makers used the scents they observed unboxing the new Apple computer to source fragrance samples. On completion the laptop was sent back to Australia, travelling nearly 50,000kms and returned to our clients together with scent of an Apple Macbook Pro.
It’s an interesting process, no doubt, but again, it does little to explain the purpose behind the scent. Thus, as with all such things, we’re forced to conclude that its purpose is pure artistic expression. It’s art guys, you aren’t supposed to get it.
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was told Friday that New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome suite that had been secretly re-wired to enable him to eavesdrop on visiting coaching staffs for nearly three NFL seasons, “Outside the Lines” has learned.
Sources familiar with Saints game-day operations told “Outside the Lines” that Loomis, who faces an eight-game suspension from the NFL for his role in the recent bounty scandal, had the ability to secretly listen for most of the 2002 season, his first as general manager of the Saints, and all of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The sources spoke with “Outside the Lines” under the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals from members of the Saints organization.
Jim Letten, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, acknowledged being told of the allegations Friday and has briefed the FBI in New Orleans about Loomis’ alleged activity, according to sources. If proven, the allegations could be both a violation of NFL rules and potentially a federal crime, according to legal sources. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 prohibits any person from intercepting communications from another person using an electronic or mechanical device.
“I can say that we were just made aware of that on Friday, at least of these allegations,” Letten said. “Anything beyond that I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to comment.”
Greg Bensel, Saints vice president of communications, said Monday afternoon on behalf of the Saints and Loomis: “This is 1,000 percent false. This is 1,000 percent inaccurate.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league was unaware of the allegations.
Sources told “Outside the Lines” the listening device was first installed in the general manager’s suite in 2000, when Loomis’ predecessor, Randy Mueller, served as Saints GM. At that time, according to sources, Mueller only had the ability to use the device to monitor the game-day communications of the Saints coaching staff, not the opposing coaches. Mueller, now a senior executive with the San Diego Chargers (he also was an ESPN.com NFL analyst from 2002-05), declined to comment when contacted by “Outside the Lines.”
After the transition from Mueller to Loomis, the electronic device was re-wired to listen only to opposing coaches and could no longer be used to listen to any game-day communications between members of the Saints coaching staff, one source said.
“There was a switch, and the switch accessed offense and defense,” said the source. “When Randy was there, it was the Saints offense or defense, and when Mickey was there it changed over so it was the visiting offense or defense,” the source said.
“Outside the Lines” could not determine for certain whether Loomis ever made use of the electronic setup.
The sources said when Loomis took his seat during home games, then in the front row of box No. 4 in the 300 level of the Superdome’s north side, he was able to plug an earpiece into a jack that was under the desk in front of him. The earpiece was not unlike those used to listen to inexpensive transistor radios, the sources said. With the earpiece in place, Loomis could then toggle back and forth with a switch that he controlled, enabling him to listen to either the game-day communications of the opposing offensive or defensive coaches.
Also underneath the desk in front of Loomis, said the sources, was a metal box that contained two belt packs similar to those worn around the waists of NFL head coaches during games. The packs powered the listening device available to Loomis, which was, according to sources, hard-wired to the audio feed of the opposing coaches.
The wiring setup was disabled sometime in September 2005 in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. The timing of the device’s removal could prove significant for legal reasons. If Loomis used an electronic device to secretly listen to the opposing coaches without their consent, it would appear to be a violation of the federal ECPA statute, said Mike Emmick, a Los Angeles-based attorney.
Emmick worked for 25 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, serving for eight years as chief of the public corruption and government fraud section.
“The ECPA bars any person from intentionally intercepting wire, oral or electronic communications by using an electronic or mechanical device,” Emmick said. “The ECPA doesn’t make it illegal just to eavesdrop. You have to have used a device … Intentional interception by using the device is the key.”
But the statute of limitations, the window federal prosecutors have to pursue any criminal charges against Loomis or the Saints, would only extend for five years after the date of such an offense, Emmick said.
If Loomis no longer had the ability to eavesdrop on opposing coaches after the 2004 season, he would be free from any potential criminal prosecution for a violation of the ECPA, Emmick said.
Loomis’ alleged activity also would be a violation of Louisiana state law, according to Danny Onorato, a former assistant U.S. attorney now in private practice in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in white-collar crime. The statute of limitations for the law governing electronic eavesdropping in Louisiana is six years, Onorato said.
“A prosecutor or law enforcement should conduct a thorough investigation to make sure these are the facts. Did these individuals re-connect this device in some way?” Onorato said.
“At a minimum, somebody somewhere has a duty to investigate it to ensure the integrity of the game of football,” he said.
Emmick said that it’s possible Loomis and others could still be prosecuted for taking part in a conspiracy to cover up the federal ECPA violation. The statute of limitations for prosecution of a conspiracy is also five years, Emmick said, but that period would begin with the last “overt act” of the parties involved in a conspiracy.
In this case, any attempt to cover up the ECPA violation that extended into 2007 could constitute such an overt act and fall within the window of the statute of limitations, Emmick said.
Emmick and Onorato both said that any prosecution on the basis of a conspiracy to cover up an ECPA violation is unlikely. But there is another potentially far more costly aspect to Loomis’ alleged behavior, according to Emmick and other legal sources contacted by ESPN.
“There’s the potential for a lot of lawsuits filed by whoever was victimized by the electronic eavesdropping,” Emmick said.
Under the civil laws that govern electronic eavesdropping, the victims of the eavesdropping would have two years from the time they had a “reasonable opportunity to discover the violation” in order to file lawsuits, Emmick said.
In other words, if an opposing team or individuals who were eavesdropped upon wanted to sue Loomis or the Saints, the clock would start ticking on their time frame to file a lawsuit when they discovered the alleged ECPA violation, not when the violation actually occurred.
Under Article No. 9 of the Constitution and Bylaws of the NFL, which lists “Prohibited Conduct,” the league specifically bans the use of “…videotape machines, telephone tapping or bugging devices, or any other form of electronic device that might aid a team during the playing of a game.”
“That would be a stupendous advantage if you had that,” said Rick Venturi, who was the team’s defensive coordinator during the period the sources said Loomis could eavesdrop on opposing coaches.
“That’s shocking,” Venturi said, when told of the allegations. “I can tell you if we did it, nobody told me about it. … Nobody ever helped me during a game.”
Venturi served in various capacities during a decade-long period with the Saints coaching staff, including a brief stint as interim head coach, and now hosts a radio program on an ESPN Radio affiliate in St. Louis.
Attempts to reach former Saints head coach Jim Haslett were not successful. Haslett served as the Saints head coach from 2000-05 and is now defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins. Sean Payton was named head coach of the Saints in 2006.
Rick Mueller, the brother of former Saints general manager Randy Mueller, was in the Saints front office from 2000-08 and was a regular in Loomis’ booth during Saints home games.
“I sat right next to him most of the time,” said Mueller, who now serves as a player personnel executive with the Philadelphia Eagles. Mueller said he vaguely recalled Loomis using an earpiece during games but he could not recall whether Loomis ever did so during the period in which sources allege Loomis had the ability to eavesdrop on opponents.
During Saints home games, Loomis typically sat in a seat next to the glass separating the Saints front office personnel from the Saints assistant coaches. When asked whether Loomis in any way signaled those Saints assistants on the other side of the glass during games, Mueller replied: “I didn’t get any indication of that. … There’s no communication going on between Mickey and the coaches during a game I can tell you that. … If it was just Mickey hearing it, I would see no way he could signal our coaches next door.”
In 2002, the Saints compiled a 9-7 record. The team had an 8-8 record during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. In those three seasons combined, the Saints were 12-12 in the Superdome.
The 2005 season remains the infamous one that the Saints never played a home game in the Superdome due to the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina. According to sources, that was also the first time Loomis would not have had the ability to listen in on the play calls of opposing teams. That year the Saints finished 3-13.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has an established a track record of issuing severe penalties when teams attempt to skirt those rules.
When it was discovered that the New England Patriots videotaped the New York Jets coaches’ signals during a September 2007 game — the so-called “Spygate” episode — Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 by the NFL, the maximum amount permitted under league rules.
The Patriots were also fined $250,000 by the NFL, and the team was forced to give up its first-round pick in 2008.
“This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field,” Goodell wrote at the time in a letter to the Patriots.
Producer David Lubbers and production assistant Danielle DeSousa contributed to this report.
Comments »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYVDsZh4LiU&feature=youtu.be
Comments »More: Polling agencies project Hollande, Sarkozy to advance to French presidential runoff – @AP
Comments »Hat Tips: @pourmecoffee @hedgefundinvest
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By 1914, Albert Einstein‘s marriage to his wife of 11 years, Mileva Marić, was fast deteriorating. Realising there was no hope for their relationship on a romantic level, Einstein proposed that they remain together for the sake of their children, but only if she agree to the following list of conditions.Mileva accepted them, but to no avail. A few months later, she left her husband in Berlin and moved, with their sons, to Zurich. They eventually divorced in 1919, having lived apart for five years.
(Source: Einstein: His Life and Universe; Image: Mileva Marić & Albert Einstein, via elcorreo.)
CONDITIONS
- You will make sure:
- that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
- that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
- that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.
- You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:
- my sitting at home with you;
- my going out or travelling with you.
- You will obey the following points in your relations with me:
- you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
- you will stop talking to me if I request it;
- you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.
- You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.
via TMZ.com
Jose Baez, Casey Anthony‘s lawyer, has for the first time publicly acknowledged he was able to mount a successful defense thanks to the money he got from ABC news.
Baez, who appeared on PBS’s “Frontline,” explained how they got $200,000 from ABC for photos of Casey and Caylee, and that money was used “so we could mount a proper defense.”
In 2010, Casey’s team divulged in the trial that they spent $275,000 on the defense, and the major portion came from the ABC deal. Now Baez explains the money was critical in beating the murder rap.
Comments »A Senate committee will expand its probe into the U.S. Secret Service this week following a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia in advance of a recent trip by the president.
The Homeland Security Committee will send the Secret Service “some questions this week, as the beginning of our broader investigation, asking whether… this was an exception, or is there anything in the records that show this is a pattern of misconduct that has gone on elsewhere by Secret Service agents on assignment, but off-duty?” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the committee chairman, told “Fox News Sunday.”
“Why wasn’t it noticed if that was the case? What’s the Secret Service going to do to make sure it never happens again?”
Some Secret Service members and agents allegedly brought back several prostitutes to a hotel in Cartagena, according to sources familiar with the U.S. government’s investigation.
The Secret Service says 12 members of the agency have been implicated in the incident.
Across the Sunday political talk shows, officials expressed confidence in Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, saying they believe he has handled the scandal well and will get answers.
“History is full of cases where enemies have compromised” people with security or intelligence information through sex, said Lieberman, I-Connecticut. He added that based on what he has been told so far, “there is no evidence that information was compromised” in this case.
Down the road, the committee will hold a public hearing on the matter — perhaps more than one, Lieberman said.
“Anyone who’s found to be guilty” will lose his job, Rep. Peter King, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
King told CNN last week that four investigators were assigned to his committee’s probe.
One person who was “partially exonerated” will instead likely face administrative action, King said.
In a letter sent to Sullivan on Friday, King listed a series of questions, including how many employees were aware of the alleged incident and how many total employees were in Cartagena in support of President Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas when the incident occurred earlier this month.
“Please provide a comprehensive, minute-by-minute timeline of all known actions, locations, and possible violations of U.S. or Colombia law,” codes of conduct, and directives, King wrote in the letter.
But King and other officials are quick to emphasize that those allegedly involved in cavorting with prostitutes at a hotel in Cartagena are the exceptions.
“In any organization things can go wrong,” President Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “I must say that in my experience the Secret Service has been completely professional, so impressive. I always felt like they were … willing to do anything to protect the president and the people around the president. And so this was really disappointing.
“Obviously we have to get to the bottom of it, but those problems should not denigrate the efforts of so many who do such a good job.”
Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney of the House Oversight Committee suggested having more female agents could help avoid such scandals.
“I can’t help but wonder if there’d been more women as part of that detail if this ever would have happened,” Collins told ABC’s “This Week.”
Maloney agreed, and added that she was told 11% of agents in the Secret Service are women. The agency did not immediately confirm the figure to CNN Sunday.
“We probably need to diversify the Secret Service and have more minorities and more women,” she said.
Six Secret Service members have left their jobs in the wake of the incident in Cartagena, Colombia, which came while they were on a security detail in advance of President Obama’s trip for the Summit of the Americas.
One employee “has been cleared of serious misconduct, but will face administrative action,” the Secret Service said.
Five employees are on administrative leave and have had their security clearances temporarily revoked.
In addition, the U.S. military is investigating 11 of its own troops for possible heavy drinking and consorting with prostitutes.
White House staff have not been implicated in the controversy.
After the scandal broke, President Obama called for a “thorough” and “rigorous” invsetigation. “If it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course I’ll be angry,” he said.
Comments »Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, continuing to play down talk of his possible selection as Mitt Romney’s running mate, on Sunday tried to shift the speculation to another Sunshine State Republican: former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Bush recently said he hoped Rubio would accept a potential offer from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Romney to serve on the ticket, calling it “an extraordinary combination.” Rubio said he feels Bush should do the same.
“That’s very nice of Jeb. I hope he’ll say yes if future President Romney asks him,” the senator said on CNN’sState of the Union. “I think he’d be a fantastic vice president.”
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