World stocks slide as US growth data disappoint

LONDON (AP) ? World stocks turned lower on Friday after official data showed the U.S. economic recovery was not as fast as many had hoped.

The Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy, the world's largest, grew at a modest 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year. While that is the fastest growth in 2011, economists had expected growth of 3 percent.

A cut in government spending was offset partly by a rise in inventories, which are expected to slow back down in the early months of 2012, hurting growth. After that, "growth will pick up again by late spring," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Bank.

With the data suggesting the U.S. recovery would continue to be a slow process, investors sold off stocks to cash in on gains made so far this month.

Britain's FTSE 100 was down 1.1 percent to 5,733 while Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent at 6,511.98 and France's CAC-40 lost 1.3 percent to 3,318.76. The euro was up 0.83 percent at $1.3189.

Wall Street edged lower on the open ? the Dow Jones industrial average fell 94 points to 12,639 and the S&P 500 5.8 points to 1,312.

Other economic and corporate news released Friday contributed to sour market sentiment.

Consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. cut its earnings outlook and Ford Motor Co. fell short of Wall Street expectations, while Japanese games and electronics companies Nintendo and NEC issued profit warnings.

In Europe, traders digested grim statistics from Spain showing more than 5 million people without jobs. The National Statistics Institute said the jobless rate shot up from 21.5 percent ? already the highest in the eurozone ? to 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

Attention was also focused on the resumption of talks to reach a deal on how Greece can avoid a catastrophic default on its debt. Greece and its bailout rescuers ? other countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund ? are asking private creditors to swap their Greek bonds for new ones with a lower value, interest rate and much longer maturity.

The two sides have so far disagreed over what interest rate the new bonds should take. Some negotiators have said they hope to have a deal this weekend, in time for a European leaders' meeting on Monday.

While investors appear to expect a deal at some point ? the euro was up and eurozone borrowing rates were down, suggesting a steady increase in confidence ? some worried that the crisis was far from over.

Portugal's markets have worsened in recent days on fears that its austerity efforts will not be enough to achieve its deficit-reduction targets and that it may end up like Greece, needing a second bailout effort and possibly a debt writedown.

Getting economies like Portugal to grow is fast becoming a priority and is expected to be one of the main topics of discussion at the European leaders' summit in Brussels on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Asian markets showed little momentum ahead of the weekend.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1 percent to close at 8,841.22 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.4 percent to 1,964.83. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent to 20,501.67 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4 percent to 4,288.40.

Japanese exporters continued to be hit by a strong yen, which reduces the value of repatriated profits. The dollar fell to 76.81 yen from 77.49 yen.

Nintendo Corp., the Japanese gaming giant behind the Super Mario and Pokemon games, plummeted 4.1 percent, a day after it lowered its annual earnings forecast to a 65 billion yen ($844 million) loss. The company blamed the strong yen for much of the loss.

Japanese electronics company NEC Corp. plummeted 7.1 percent after announcing Thursday that it was slashing 10,000 jobs worldwide and would slide into the red for the full year.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was up 5 cents at $99.75 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 30 cents to finish at $99.70 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

___

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-27-World-Markets/id-ae6931b92ea948bea6f83718da04b6a2

zappos martin luther king jr fox news debate i have a dream speech school closures mlk mlk

LMFAO Joining Madonna At Super Bowl?

Will.i.am says party rockers will perform with Queen of Pop for halftime show on February 5.
By Gil Kaufman

LMFAO
Photo: Steven Lawton/ FilmMagic

It's a good thing the Super Bowl provides its halftime performer with the biggest platform in television, because according to the latest rumors Madonna is going to need a seriously massive stage to hold all her guests at the February 5 game.

Following reports that Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. as well as "The Voice" coach Cee Lo Green may make appearances comes news that LMFAO could be called off the bench also.

A year after his group, the on-hiatus Black Eyed Peas, played the big game,
 will.i.am told English radio station Capital FM that his party-rocking homies will be in the mix. "I'm going to the Super Bowl this year to see my group LMFAO perform with Madonna," he said. "Check that out, Will.i.am Music Group is pretty freaking two for two! One year the Super Bowl, the next year another group part of the Super Bowl in collaboration with Madonna. That's still happening."

According to sources, Madonna asked Green to perform with her at the showdown in Indianapolis between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, which is traditionally the most-watched TV event of the year. TheInsider.com reports that he's been flying to New York to rehearse with the pop icon. The sources add that he will contribute his signature flair to some of her classic tunes.

The pairing would make sense given that the new season of "The Voice" premieres right after the Super Bowl next month. MTV News caught up with the Queen of Pop at her "W.E." premiere earlier this week in New York, and the singer only had one tease about the Super Bowl gig. "I am not saying 'Yes,' and "I am not saying yes and I am not saying no," she replied when asked whether Minaj and M.I.A. will join her onstage, adding, "Pom-poms. That's all I can tell you."

As if the pom-poms and all the alleged guests aren't enough, the halftime show will be "imagined" by trippy Canadian circus troupe Cirque du Soleil and Madonna's longtime choreographer and creative director Jamie King. According to reports, the set list could include Madonna's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin," as well as such classics as "Ray of Light," "Vogue" and "Music."

In addition to her Super Bowl performance, Madonna's fans are awaiting the release of her next studio album, M.D.N.A., out later this year.

Related Artists

• Lmfao
• Madonna

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678014/lmfao-madonna-super-bowl-halftime.jhtml

cacao spartacus blood and sand starz kiwi kiwi our daily bread white pages

Colgate hikes prices at home; 1st attempt in years (AP)

NEW YORK ? Colgate-Palmolive is navigating a delicate tightrope, as it raises prices in North America for the first time in more than two years.

The company, best known for its toothpaste and dish soap, said Thursday it had raised prices in North America by an average of 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter, after cutting prices every quarter since the summer of 2009. The news emerged as the company reported a 5 percent decline in net income that it blamed on higher costs for raw materials.

Raising prices can be a risky move, because cash-strapped customers can drop even their favorite brands to save a few cents. Paychecks are already stretched thin and the government's most recent data on jobs, also released Thursday, show that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week. There are signs that the economy is healing, but raising prices in North America had been something that Colgate, until recently, had been unwilling to try.

Many of Colgate's rivals raised prices last year, as well as many restaurants, clothing stores and other industries. But Colgate had taken a different strategy, raising prices in fast-growing Latin America, where customers seemed willing to stomach the higher costs, but lowering prices in North America through discounts and other promotions.

In a call with analysts, CEO Ian Cook said customers were still willing to pay for premium products, like toothpaste for sensitive teeth, if they provided a benefit that customers want. Colgate is also aware that budget-conscious customers are generally more likely to trade down in other household products before swapping out their favorite toothpaste for store brands.

Overall, Colgate raised prices 3 percent in the quarter and 1 percent for the year, and Cook said price changes for the coming year would be "on the same order of magnitude."

The higher prices would come even though costs for many materials appear to be declining: Cook said he thought commodities costs would rise 2 to 3 percent this year, a far smaller burden than 2011's increase of 12 to 13 percent. As Colgate paid more for raw materials, its profit margin fell 1.7 percentage points.

But Colgate, like other U.S. companies, probably won't enjoy the same benefit that it got in 2011 from the weak dollar, which caused revenue raised overseas to translate into more dollars at home. Cook noted that other U.S. companies face the same challenge. "That is a global factor," he said, "not a Colgate factor."

Javier Escalante, an analyst at Consumer Edge Research, asked whether the higher prices would hurt Colgate's sales. Cook replied that the volume of sales had continued to grow in the quarter despite higher prices. "We believe we can continue that in 2012, balancing the volume between the rollover of the pricing that we have already," he said.

Colgate has consistently cut North American prices since the third quarter of 2009, by an average of 1.5 percent to 4.5 percent each quarter. To be sure, its 0.5 percent increase in the fourth quarter was far less than the 8.5 percent price increase in Latin America. But it did represent a snapped trend. In Europe, a region the company described as "volatile," Colgate dropped prices by an average of 3 percent.

The higher North American prices may be because the company thinks it can, or that it must, or perhaps a little bit of both. At the same time, Colgate is aggressively seeking to protect market share, even if it has to spend to do so. Cook said the company would continue to invest in creating and advertising new products.

The pricing strategy also reinforces Colgate's decision to lean on emerging markets for growth as U.S. customers get tapped out. Of Colgate's four main geographic regions, North America accounts for the smallest portion and it is where revenue grew the slowest. Latin America grew the fastest, and made up the biggest portion of revenue

For the quarter, the higher prices helped fuel a 5 percent rise in revenue to $4.17 billion, up from $3.98 billion. It was dwarfed by the 9 percent increase in what the company had to pay to make and transport its products.

Colgate earned $590 million, or $1.21 per share. That was down from $624 million, or $1.24 per share. Excluding one-time expenses like putting cost-saving plans into place and other charges, Colgate earned $1.30 per share. That beat the $1.29 that Wall Street expected, according to a poll by FactSet.

Barclays Capital analyst Lauren Lieberman described fourth-quarter results as "more or less in line with our lackluster estimates."

Colgate's decision to try to recoup its margins comes during a fragile time for the U.S. economy.

The jobs data released Thursday show more people sought unemployment benefits. However, the overall trends point to a recovering job market. At least 100,000 jobs have been added for six straight months and the unemployment rate has declined to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years.

But it's not a healthy number yet and the government also released data Thursday showing that fewer people bought new homes in December, sealing 2011 as the worst year for new home sales on record.

For the year, Colgate's revenue rose 7.5 percent, to $16.7 billion, and net income rose 10 percent to $2.4 billion.

Shares of Colgate-Palmolive Co. rose $1.75, or 2 percent, to $91.19 in afternoon trading.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_colgate

rex grossman carolina panthers arizona cardinals cake boss twin towers september 11 tennessee titans

Aurorae from Earth, Space, and on Other Worlds

By Caleb A. Scharf?| January 25, 2012 |??

Share ?Email

---

Southern aurora (aurora australis) composited with NASA imagery

As we?re in the midst of experiencing some particularly stormy solar weather it seems appropriate to make a quick post with some nifty auroral images and time-lapse movies (see below). It?s also fun to point out that the phenomenon of aurorae (or auroras) is truly universal. Caused when high-velocity particles like electrons and protons expelled by (for example) stellar activity crash into the upper reaches of planetary atmospheres, aurorae are one of the most beautiful manifestations of fundamental physics. These speedy particles can dump energy into the electrons bound into atoms of atmosphere ? oxygen and nitrogen on Earth for example. As the electrons rid themselves of this energy in order to snuggle back up to their atomic nuclei they bleed photons ? the photons that light up the skies.

The complexity of the illuminated structures is testament to the complexity of the flows of atmospheric electrical currents and particles within a planetary magnetic field, together with the tendrils of incoming particle streams from a star.

Hubble Space Telescope of UV light emitted by aurorae in upper atmosphere of Jupiter (J. Clarke, ESA/NASA)

Earth does it, Jupiter and Saturn do it, Neptune and Uranus have been caught at it, and even Mars does it. We also presume that many exoplanets must also do it ? in fact auroral emission mechanisms (which can also produce radio frequencies) could offer a truly unique way to detect and study planets around other stars.

For now though we can simply marvel at a light show that has played out across billions of years in the skies of planet Earth.

From Earth (TESOPHOTOGRAPHY)

..and from space (the International Space Station/thesuntoday.com)

About the Author: Caleb Scharf is the director of Columbia University's multidisciplinary Astrobiology Center. He has worked in the fields of observational cosmology, X-ray astronomy, and more recently exoplanetary science. He is working on a new book entitled Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos (forthcoming from Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2012). Follow on Twitter @caleb_scharf.

More??

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

---

---

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9fcfda323eccc31243a76a4ffcea0b8c

college football bowl schedule double mastectomy 2011 bowl schedule bcs games heath bell tiger woods eddie long

G-Shock prototype phone hides its craggy looks at CES, only fears your stares

Like your phones tough? Casio's apparently crafted another hardy device and this one appears to be running Android Gingerbread. The unnamed device can handle ten-foot drops and ten meters of water, while scaring small children at the same time. Hiding under a bridge somewhere in Las Vegas, it somehow avoided our patrols of the CES showfloor. The rubberized smartphone holds on to those G-Shock looks, with nubs mimicking the layout of Casio's ubiquitous digital watch. Aside from the super-tough credentials emblazoned on the back of the device, other specs remain unknown. MyNavi reports that the device remains a concept at the moment, although Casio still seems more than happy to show off the phone on its Facebook page. Interested in another option besides those smartphone-friendly G-Shocks? You can peruse the source for a full gallery of the hardware.

[Thanks GreeKNastY]

G-Shock prototype phone hides its craggy looks at CES, only fears your stares originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Droid-Life  |  MyNavi (translated), Facebook  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/g-shock-prototype-phone-hides-its-craggy-looks-at-ces-only-fear/

ali fedotowsky ali fedotowsky krill oil krill oil black friday 2011 rhodium uppity

Former CIA officer accused of terror leaks

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) ? Authorities say a former CIA agent has been charged with leaking classified secrets about operatives and other information to the media.

Forty-seven-year-old John Kiriakou was charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act.

He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Virginia on Monday afternoon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-CIA%20Leak%20Charges/id-b4f6fe88d9f4426caaa5d983a5d029eb

pope joan pope joan extremely loud and incredibly close squirrel appreciation day 10 minute trainer south carolina primary billy beane

London's Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain's Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports Monday said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future.

The House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the upkeep of the 19th century neo-Gothic parliamentary estate popular with tourist photographs, was due to meet Monday.

Media reports said it would discuss a surveyor's report which could recommend lawmakers move out for repairs costing up to one billion pounds, while the Daily Telegraph said another proposal might be to sell to Russian or Chinese developers for about 500 million pounds (?779.7 million).

But a commission spokesman said there was no surveyor's report, and members were only meeting to discuss setting up a group to look at general long-term renovation of the grade 1-listed building designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin.

"I think there's been twos and twos added together and come up with we are selling to the Russians, but they won't be talking about anything like that," the spokesman said.

The 96-metre tall clock tower, which houses the bell originally nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak.

A construction expert who worked on the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and a multi-storey carpark under the houses of parliament in central London, said there was nothing to worry about, and it would take 10,000 years to reach an angle of concern.

Professor John Burland of Imperial College London also said work on the underground Jubilee train line in the 1990s had not caused dramatic movement, while a spokesman for the commission said the tilt could have existed since its construction in 1859.

The lean which is just visible to the naked eye had "been there for years," Burland said.

"When I first started work on the car park it was obvious that it was leaning," he told BBC radio.

"It was probably developed at a very early stage because there's no cracking in the cladding and we think it probably leant while they were building it and before they put the cladding on.

"That was a long time ago and buildings do lean a little bit."

He also dismissed concern in the media that parliament was slipping into the Thames, while the commission's spokesman denied the walls around the palace were suffering from a particularly bad subsidence problem causing Big Ben to lean.

The current building, which houses the upper and lower chambers as well as the offices of some lawmakers, was built after its medieval predecessor was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 and has required constant maintenance.

"There's no such thing as an old building that isn't cracked," he said.

"In fact they're beneficial because the building moves thermally more than is caused by the Jubilee Line and the movements concentrated around the cracks and, if they didn't, there'd be cracking elsewhere.

"So these have been there for years and they're certainly not caused by the Jubilee Line or the car park."

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/od_nm/us_britain_parliament_leaning

definition of love creature creature us open mens final go daddy tmobile johnny cash