Benny Gantz, Chief of Staff, Israel’s Defense Forces: “For Iran, 2012 is a critical year in combining the continuation of its nuclearisation, internal changes in the Iranian leadership, continuing and growing pressure from the international community and things which take place in an unnatural manner.”
Comments »SOMEONE IS KILLING IRANIAN NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS (VIDEO)
The United States swears on a stack of korans to have nothing to do with the magnetic bomb attached to the car of a nuclear scientist today. Israel could not be reached for comment.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wjb4EoIkk 603 500] Comments »Carl Ichan Drops His Bid for Commercial Metals
COMPREHENSIVE #CES 2012 DAY 2 PREVIEW
Consumer Electronics Show: Complete coverage
The Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing now, with keynotes Wednesday focusing on some higher-level trends in the consumer technology world.
In the morning, Xerox, Verizon Communications and Ford will discuss innovation and its role in their companies’ success. In the afternoon, high-level marketing and communications officers from AT&T, General Electric, Hyundai, Facebook, Wal-Mart and Unilever will discuss marketing and branding on a global scale.
Hans Vestberg, president and chief executive of Ericsson, will also give a keynote address in the afternoon. The Swedish company is in a transition year. Ericsson ended its consumer electronics partnership with Sony but faces a greater demand for its mobile and wireless management services than ever before. The keynote speech should have some insights into the future of the mobile industry, even if it likely won’t have any flashy consumer product announcements.
This is also a day for policy at CES, with panels addressing a range of technology policy issues. Wednesday’s congressional panel features Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Lee Terry (R-Neb.), Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), and probably will address the thorny issue of online piracy and copyright. Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski is also speaking with the Consumer Electronics Association president, Gary Shapiro, while commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell will discuss spectrum and other policy issues on a panel moderated by The Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang.
Related stories:
Privacy rights activists worry about potential abuse of high-tech devices featured at CES event
CES 2012: What is an ultrabook, anyway?
PHOTOS: Cool gadgets unveiled at CES
Comments »UniCredit Does the Dead Cat Bounce After Analyst Upgraded the Stock
Yale’s Crash Confidence Index Shows Just How Fearful Investors Have Become
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:15PM
The Yale School of Management has been conducting its own market sentiment surveys for some time now. One of its surveys is the Crash Confidence Index, which asks both individual and institutional investors how confident they are that there will not be a stock market crash in the next six months. Recent results from the survey show just how worried investors recently became.
As shown below, early 2009 marked the low point in the Crash Confidence index for both individual and institutional investors. That was the point where the least number of investors were confident that there wouldn’t be a stock market crash in the next six months. Early 2009 was also when the market ultimately made its financial crisis low, so just when investors became the most fearful of a crash, the market was about to turn a corner and head significantly higher.
Read the rest of the excellent Bespoke piece here.
FLASH: Urban Outfitters CEO Resigns ….Stock Tanks in AH
EU Antitrust to Block NYSE Deutsche Boerse Deal
Ford’s Asia Division Will Report a Loss Due to Thai Flooding
Comcast Beams TV to iPad
Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has taken the wraps off AnyPlay, the MSO’s in-home live TV transcoding device, introducing it in two markets: Nashville and Denver.
AnyPlay will initially support live TV streaming to the iPad, Full Story Here
Comments »Ahmadinejad, Chavez pal around
They say we’re making (a) bomb. Fortunately, the majority of Latin American countries are alert. Everyone knows that those words … are a joke. It’s something to laugh at.
– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President
Comments »Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sarcastically addressed America’s growing concern over Iran’s nuclear program referring to themselves as “devils” whose love for one another would fuel their “a-bomb.”
Ahmadinejad defended his country’s nuclear program as he began a four-nation tour of Latin America, joining his ally Chávez in accusing the U.S. and its allies of using the dispute to unjustly threaten Iran.
Both leaders dismissed U.S. concerns about Iran’s intentions in the Middle East and its growing diplomatic ties with Chávez and his allies in Latin America.
“They accuse us of being warmongers,” Chávez said. “They’re the threat.”
FLASH: Orange-Juice Futures Trade at Highest Level Since 1977
Futures of frozen orange juice concentrate in New York surged on concerns that the presence of a fungicide in samples from Brazil could crimp supplies.
January-delivery orange juice hit $2.12 per pound, the highest front-month price since November 1977. The more actively-traded March contract was recently trading 10.7% higher at $2.0775 per pound on ICE Futures U.S
The Food and Drug Administration is testing orange juice for a fungicide and says it will order the product removed from the market if it poses a public health risk.
In a letter dated Jan. 9 to the Juice Products Association, an industry group, the FDA said a juice company reported “low levels” of carbendazim, a fungicide, in its and its competitors products.
The FDA said the fungicide was used on the 2011 orange crop in Brazil, the world’s largest grower of oranges and the biggest producer of orange juice.
Florida oranges produce about three-quarters of U.S. orange-juice concentrate supplies, and imports cover the rest. About 75% of those imports come from Brazil.
Comments »Tim Tebow Declines to Endorse Any Presidential Candidates Despite Courtship
Sensing the excitement and loving his message, Tebow is also being courted by Republican presidential candidates. The quarterback recently told The Associated Press he’s been asked by more than one of the contenders for his support. He wouldn’t name names, but did say he’d declined the offer.
“I think you have to have so much trust in who you support, just from product endorsements to endorsing a candidate because if that person or company does something (bad), it reflects on you,” said Tebow, who’s a pitchman for Nike, Jockey and FRS energy drink.
Tebow has, however, placed himself in the political realm before – two Super Bowls ago when he starred in a Focus on the Family commercial with his mother sharing the story of how she gave birth to him in the Philippines in 1987 after spurning a doctor’s advice to have an abortion for medical reasons. After being criticized for that ad, he didn’t do an encore and instead tries to toe the line of showing his religion without shoving it down people’s throats.
That hasn’t stopped people from mocking him – and worse.
After Tebow was particularly bad in an ugly loss to Buffalo on Dec. 24, comedian and talk show host Bill Maher sent out a tweet that basked in the QB’s misfortune, blaming Jesus for the loss. “And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler `Hey, Buffalo’s killing them,’” Maher tweeted.
Maher, in turn, was roundly ripped for the post.
Less toxic was the recent skit on “Saturday Night Live,” where “Jesus” materializes in the locker room with an actor portraying Tebow, admits he is pulling some strings during these Bronco games, then after being told the New England Patriots are next on the schedule, suggests Tebow substitute his playbook, “the holy Bible,” for one with some Xs and Os.
The “SNL” Jesus also concedes that he, personally, prays to the Broncos place-kicker, Matt Prater, whose excellence has defined what the Tebow sensation has been about for most of this season: a bunch of teammates, motivated by a less-than-perfect leader who never gives up, coming together and picking each other up when the going gets tough.
A great story line that has held most of the year.
The twist on Sunday, though, was that for the first time this season, it could reasonably be argued that Tebow was a one-man show. In the win over Pittsburgh, he completed five passes of 30 yards or more. And with his defense struggling, he threw a perfect strike for the game-winner to receiver Demaryius Thomas, who didn’t have to change his stride and, thus, ran untouched into the end zone.
“He was the same Tim, calm and collected,” Thomas said. “He took it one play at a time and was in the huddle and said, `It’s either we win or we go home.’”
Comments »Freddie Will Give a Break to Unemployed Home Owners
Kodak Restructures To Avoid Chapter 11
Apple Closing In On China
Poll: Americans 2-1 Fear Obama’s Reelection
When it comes to how Americans view President Obama going into the new year, there appears to be very little spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Instead, according to the new Washington Whispers poll, many voters aren’t forgetting what they dislike about Obama and want him out office.
In our New Year’s poll, when asked what news event they fear most about 2012, Americans by a margin of two-to-one said Obama’s reelection. Only 16 percent said they fear the Democrat won’t win a second term, while 33 percent said they fear four more years.
Next to Obama’s reelection, 31 percent of Americans said they feared higher taxes, which may be proof that the president’s focus on the payroll tax cut has hit paydirt.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Tebow and Jesus: 316
Fun facts about the TEBOW vs RAPIST game from last night.
Tebow averaged 31.6 yards per play.
The peak ratings for the game was 31.6.
To top it off, the receiver who caught the 80 yard pass was born on DECEMBER 25th and his name is DEMARYIUS.
Comments »Iran Sentences American Man to Death in CIA Case
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran.
Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. Under Iranian law, he has 20 days to appeal.
The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of Iranian origin. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan, has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested.
His trial took place as the U.S. announced new, tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes Tehran is using to develop a possible atomic weapons capability.
Iran, which says it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and research, has sharply increased its threats and military posturing against stronger pressures, including the U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s Central Bank in attempts to complicate its ability to sell oil.
The U.S. State Department has demanded Hekmati’s release.
The court convicted him of working with a hostile country, belonging to the CIA and trying to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism, Monday’s report said.
In its ruling, a branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court described Hekmati as a mohareb, an Islamic term that means a fighter against God, and a mofsed, or one who spreads corruption on earth. Both terms appear frequently in Iranian court rulings.
In a closed court hearing in late December, the prosecution asked for the death penalty for Hekmati.
The U.S. government has called on Iranian authorities to grant Swiss diplomats access to him in prison. The Swiss government represents U.S. interests in Iran because the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations.
Hekmati is a dual U.S.-Iranian national. Iran considers him an Iranian since the country’s law does not recognize dual citizenship.
His father, Ali Hekmati, and family friend Muna Jondy, an attorney who has been speaking on behalf of the family, did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages left at their offices before business hours Monday morning.
Similar cases against Americans accused of spying have heightened tensions throughout the years-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran arrested three Americans in July 2009 along the border with Iraq and accused them of espionage, though the Americans said they were just hiking in the scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
One of them was released after a year in prison, and the other two were freed in September in deals involving bail payments that were brokered by the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which has good relations with Iran and the U.S.
On Dec. 18, Iran’s state TV broadcast video of Hekmati delivering a purported confession in which he said he was part of a plot to infiltrate Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.
In a statement released the same day, the Intelligence Ministry said its agents identified Hekmati before his arrival in Iran, at Bagram Air Field in neighboring Afghanistan. Bagram is the main base for American and other international forces outside Kabul, the Afghan capital.
It is not clear exactly when he was arrested. Iranian news reports have said he was detained in late August or early September.
Hekmati’s father, Ali, said in a December interview with The Associated Press, that his son was a former Arabic translator in the U.S. Marines who entered Iran about four months earlier to visit his grandmothers.
At the time, he was working in Qatar as a contractor for a company “that served the Marines,” his father said, without providing more specific details.
