TV watching linked to young adults' heart risk

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Watching a favorite television show may feel relaxing, but in a new study, the longer 30-somethings spent in front of the TV, the stiffer their arteries - a sign of likely heart disease in the future.

"The fact that your arteries aren't elastic, it predisposes you to develop hypertension in later age and cardiovascular disease," Isabel Ferreira, senior epidemiologist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said.

Previous studies have linked TV watching to increased weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes, she and her colleagues write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

It's thought that people who spend more time in front of their TVs are less likely to get up and be physically active throughout the day, leading to a variety of problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

For the new study, researchers wanted to see whether early signs of damage caused by too little activity could be detected in younger adults.

They used data collected from 373 women and men, who filled out questionnaires about their TV viewing, exercise and other habits at age 32 and then again at age 36.

At age 36, each participant also had an ultrasound measurement of the stiffness of several major arteries in the body.

The researchers found those with the stiffest carotid artery, which is the main blood vessel in the head and neck, spent an average of about 20 more minutes per day watching TV, compared to people with the most elastic carotid artery.

Similar results were seen for stiffness of the femoral arteries in the legs.

Ferreira said the "critical cutoff" was about two hours per day of sitting. That's in line with current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics for maximum screen time for children.

What's more, the negative effects of sitting did not appear to be offset by exercising.

"The funny thing is even if they do physical activity… that doesn't correct the bad effects of sedentary time," Ferreira said.

Joel Stager, a professor at the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Public Health, told Reuters Health that those with stiff arteries wouldn't face immediate health problems. But it raises their risks later on.

"To be honest about this particular measure, it's more of an association of future problems," he said. "In other words, it's predictive of cardiovascular disease down the road."

Stager was not involved with the new study, but has researched arterial stiffening among college-age people.

"We are catching the early stages of this process," Ferreira said.

Stager also added that the new study cannot prove watching TV is what caused people's arteries to stiffen. It could be some other factor that goes along with TV watching, for instance, or young people with stiff arteries might be more likely to stay in and watch TV.

Ferreira told Reuters Health that more research into how watching TV may be tied to arterial stiffness is needed. But she said there is a take-home message for the average person.

"To put it simply, be active," she said. "And on top of that don't spend more than two hours sitting in front of your television, computer or laptop per day."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/168hd0m British Journal of Sports Medicine, online October 7, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tv-watching-linked-young-adults-heart-risk-204956225.html
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Lenovo's convertible Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook now available in the US, starts at $1,049

Many Ultrabook fans have pined for Lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro given its blend of a 3,200 x 1,800 display, long battery life and a slim profile. Those people can finally act on their impulses, as Lenovo has quietly started selling the 13-inch folding convertible. For the $1,049 base price, buyers get a ...

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Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida' Wins Grand Prix at Warsaw International Film Festival

WARSAW – The Polish film Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, was awarded the Grand Prix of the 29th Warsaw International Film Festival, which drew to a close in the Polish capital on Saturday.

The movie was awarded for “the superb combination of script, directing, cinematography, acting and music,” from which “comes a beautiful and delicate film that portrays a post-war Polish society, trying to get past its demons,” said the international jury, which named Zaza Urushadze best director for the Estonian/Georgian co-production Mandariinid (Tangerines).

TORONTO REVIEW: Ida

Uljana Kim and Roberts Vinovskis, the producers of the Lithuanian/Latvian film Losejas (The Gambler), directed by Ignas Jonynas, picked up the Special Jury Prize.

The jury of the 1-2 competition, in which directors’ first and second features competed, gave ex-aequo awards to the Romanian film Cainele Japonez (The Japanese Dog), directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, and Otchuzhdenie (Alienation) by Bulgarian director Milko Lazarov.

Soy Mucho Mejor Que Vos (Much Better Than You) by Chilean director Ché Sandoval won in the Free Spirit competition.

The U.S. film Dirty Wars, directed by Richard Rowley, was awarded as the best documentary, and the animated film Pandy (Pandas) by Czech director Matúš Vizár collected the best short film award.

The 9th edition of CentEast Market, which showcased recently completed films and works in progress from Central and Eastern Europe, ran as part of the festival on Oct. 18-19.

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Calculating The Worth Of The Redskins Brand

The name of Washington's football team has been hotly debated: criticized for being a racial slur but defended but the team's owner as actually being a kind of tribute to Native Americans. Host Scott Simon talks to Forbes senior editor Kurt Badenhausen about the economics of the Washington Redskins brand.

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Blog Carnival: Chronic Illness in Children and Teens - IBD - About.com

Welcome to the About.com Health Channel blog carnival! The topic for this month is: How does chronic illness affect children and teens differently than it does adults?

How Illnesses Affect Children

There are many chronic illnesses that affect children, and children with chronic disease are not a small group. In fact, the incidence of certain illnesses in children is rising. Children with chronic illnesses are often underserved by a health care system that doesn't know what to do with them. Medications are not always tested on children, often because of ethical concerns, but that leaves parents and children in a void of information when it comes to choosing the right drugs.

Illnesses may affect children differently than they do adults, but this is not always taken into account. Kids are still growing, which means that illnesses can affect their brains, bones, and even their final height as adults.

Children have challenges when it comes to discussing or even being aware of their symptoms, or of how medications affect them. Even older kids and teens may not always have the vocabulary to express the finer nuances of how they feel. Parents may be able translate to a certain extent, but young children may not be able to express how they feel, and older children and teens may not divulge important information for more complicated reasons.

Yahoo Mail Is Switching to HTTPS--Four Years After GMail

From January 8th, Yahoo will be enabling encryption by default for all of its webmail users. That's great news—it just happens to be four years later than the likes of GMail.

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Zelda edition Nintendo 3DS XL spotted in GameStop ad with $220 price

Americans wanting that flashy Zelda edition 3DS XL may not have to import a European model. If GottaDeal.com's leaked copy of GameStop's Black Friday flyer proves to be accurate, Nintendo's gold-colored handheld should be available in the US for $220. As overseas, stateside buyers would get both a ...

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Shutdown showdown widened GOP-tea party rift

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans' clear defeat in the budget-debt brawl has widened the rift between the Grand Old Party and the blossoming tea party movement that helped revive it.

Implored by House Speaker John Boehner to unite and "fight another day" against President Barack Obama and Democrats, Republicans instead intensified attacks on one another, an ominous sign in advance of more difficult policy fights and the 2014 midterm elections.

The tea party movement spawned by the passage of Obama's health care overhaul three years ago put the GOP back in charge of the House and in hot pursuit of the law's repeal. The effort hit a wall this month in the budget and debt fight, but tea partyers promised to keep up the effort.

Whatever the future of the troubled law, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell vowed he would not permit another government shutdown.

"I think we have now fully acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is," McConnell said in an interview with The Hill newspaper.

Tea party Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told ABC News he wouldn't rule out using the tactic again, when the same budget and debt questions come up next year.

"I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare," Cruz said.

That divide defined the warring Republican factions ahead of the midterm elections, when 35 seats in the Democratic-controlled Senate and all 435 seats in the Republican-dominated House will be on the ballot. In the nearer term, difficult debates over immigration and farm policy loom, along with another round of budget and debt talks.

The animosity only intensified as lawmakers fled Washington this week for a few days' rest.

The Twitterverse crackled with threats, insults and the names of the 27 GOP senators and 87 GOP House members who voted for the leadership's agreement that reopened the government and raised the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans got none of their demands, keeping only the spending cuts they had won in 2011.

Within hours, TeaParty.net tweeted a link to the 114 lawmakers, tagging each as a Republican in name only who should be turned out of office: "Your 2014 #RINO hunting list!"

"We shouldn't have to put up with fake conservatives like Mitch McConnell," read a fundraising letter Thursday from the Tea Party Victory Fund Inc.

Another group, the Senate Conservatives Fund, announced it was endorsing McConnell's GOP opponent, Louisville, Ky., businessman Matt Bevin.

"Mitch McConnell has the support of the entire Washington establishment and he will do anything to hold on to power," the group, which raised nearly $2 million for tea party candidates in last year's elections, announced. "But if people in Kentucky and all across the country rise up and demand something better, we're confident Matt Bevin can win this race."

The same group pivoted to the Mississippi Senate race, where Republican Thad Cochran is weighing whether to seek a seventh term. Cochran voted for the McConnell-Reid deal, so the Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed a primary opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a private attorney the group says "will fight to stop Obamacare," ''is not part of the Washington establishment" and "has the courage to stand up to the big spenders in both parties."

There were more tea party targets: Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and Lamar Alexander in Tennessee also are seeking re-election.

To her Facebook friends, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin posted: "We're going to shake things up in 2014. Rest well tonight, for soon we must focus on important House and Senate races. Let's start with Kentucky — which happens to be awfully close to South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi."

Opponents of the tea party strategy to make "Obamacare" the centerpiece of the budget fight seethed over what they said was an exercise in self destruction. Many clamored for Boehner and McConnell, the nation's highest-ranking Republicans, to impose some discipline, pointing to polls that showed public approval of Congress plummeting to historic lows and that most Americans blamed Republicans for the government shutdown.

A Pew Research Center poll released this week showed public favorability for the Tea Party dropped to its lowest level since driving the Republican takeover of the House in the 2010 elections. An AP-Gfk poll showed that 70 percent now hold unfavorable views of the Tea Party.

And yet, House Republican leaders tried again and again to resolve the standoff the tea party's way — by demanding limits on Obamacare in exchange for reopening the government — until they ran of options and accepted the bipartisan deal.

"When your strategy doesn't work, or your tactic doesn't work, you lose credibility in your conference," said Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., referring to the tea partyers' tactics. "Clearly the leadership followed certain members' tactics, certain members' strategies, and they proved not to be all that successful. So I would hope that we learn from the past."

"I do believe the outside groups have really put us in this position," said Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., referring to the Heritage Foundation's political campaign arm and other organizations demanding fealty to their ideology. Those groups "have worked in conjunction with members of Congress and with Tea Party groups pushing a strategy that was never going to work."

Tea partyers hold a contrary view. Boehner, they say, solidified his standing as the GOP's leader by holding the line against compromise as long as he did. And the standoff, they add, has increased their movement's clout.

"I think it builds credibility, because I think Democrats did not think that we would press this," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. "And now they know that we will, and that we might do it again."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shutdown-showdown-widened-gop-tea-party-rift-191705968.html
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One Man's Epic Review of a "Match.com for NFL Fans"

NFL commentator Rich Eisen has, for reasons unknown, created a dating app for football fans. And if the only good it brings the world is this joyously unhinged review from KissingSuzyKolber's PFTCommenter, it will have been worth it. Read it below, in all its [sic]'d glory:

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NVIDIA reveals the GTX 780 Ti, a new 'high-end enthusiast' GPU

NVIDIA's news day apparently isn't over just yet, as the company just revealed a new graphics card: the NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti. It's apparently hitting retail shelves this November, and it's just one step below the company's super high-end GPU, the Titan. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang didn't offer many specifics on the new graphics card, instead choosing to leave it to reviewers who are apparently receiving units any day now. We're gonna go ahead and call it safe to assume that this is a pretty powerful little card, but we'll get some hands-on time in the coming hours with any luck!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/18/nvidia-gtx-780-ti/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Why Is Cheating In Science Research On The Rise?

The vast majority of researchers in the science field are honest and conscientious. But that's not the case for all of them, and a federal agency that tracks misconduct and cheating in the field is seeing increases.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

Cheating in science is not new, but the way it happens and the way it's detected are changing. There's a lot at stake in science research, everything from public health to valuable federal dollars.

And as Gigi Douban reports from Birmingham, Alabama, there are more people watching to keep researchers honest.

GIGI DOUBAN, BYLINE: About 60 science graduate students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are working in small groups on a quiz.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Now it gets more complicated, though. This is where it started getting really tricky for me.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Okay, so we encouraged her to go talk to him. She didn't do it.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yep.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Now, you're going to have to do something because your colleague won't. So what (unintelligible)...

DOUBAN: The questions have to do with right and wrong in science research. Sometimes, the discussions get pretty heated. That's because issues like what do you do when you're under pressure to publish and you're faced with a shortcut, or what if a few labels fall off some samples? How do you reassign them? They don't all have clear answers.

JEFF ENGLER: You hear the level of noise. You hear the level of discussion, and I think that's a good thing.

DOUBAN: That's Jeff Engler, associate dean at the UAB Graduate School. He's training the next generation of scientists to do honest work. It's not something that comes automatically. Take the case years ago of the South Korean stem cell researcher. Scientists in the field thought he was doing groundbreaking research, so a lot of them put their own work on hold. Some even collaborated with him. Turns out, his data was faked and at least a year of science was lost.

Then there was the study that linked the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine to autism. It was more than 10 years before the scientific paper was retracted. In the meantime, that vaccine-autism connection was accepted by some and scores of parents opted not to vaccinate their kids. Dozens of articles spread the autism scare and other researchers based their work on that false data. It's important to note most scientists do not fake results. But for the ones who cheat, it's easier than ever.

DAVID WRIGHT: We received last year more than 400 allegations, which was just about double that of the year before.

DOUBAN: That's David Wright, director of the Federal Office of Research Integrity. It investigates misconduct allegations and has tracked them since 1994. He says most of the increase is driven by technology, especially Photoshop.

WRIGHT: It's enabled investigators using that technology to present their images much more vividly and directly than they could before. But it's also made it easier for people to manipulate images.

DOUBAN: Technology has also made it easier to catch stuff like this. The Office of Research Integrity has forensic tools on its website that anyone can download to spot phony data. So more people are watching, which could be one reason for the increase. Another is that science is more global. You might have research teams in Denmark, China and the U.S. collaborating.

WRIGHT: And when the research groups get bigger and bigger, it's not always easy to assign responsibility.

DOUBAN: How can faked results make it this far? Michael Kalichman is director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego. He says despite all the technology, we're still dealing with humans.

MICHAEL KALICHMAN: Scientists are not better members of the general public. There are people in science who will be sloppy, who will cut corners and who, worse, will intentionally mislead.

DOUBAN: There are enough that the Office of Research Integrity is hiring another staffer to keep up with misconduct claims. For NPR News, I'm Gigi Douban in Birmingham, Alabama.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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American Airlines' Parent Earns $289 Million In 3Q

DALLAS (AP) — After years of losses, American Airlines is making money by boosting revenue and cutting labor costs.

The nation's third-largest airline is doing well enough to add dozens of new planes to its fleet, announce new flights to China, and set aside money for profit-sharing with employees.

The results, plus an upgrade from J.P. Morgan, fueled a rally in shares of parent AMR Corp.

AMR said Thursday that it earned $289 million, or 76 cents per share, in the third quarter. That's a turnaround from a loss of $238 million, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier. AMR's adjusted profit was a record $530 million. That figure doesn't include bankruptcy-reorganization costs and other special items.

Revenue rose 6 percent, as passengers paid more per mile to fly. Labor costs fell 13 percent from a year ago, as the company cut jobs during its makeover under bankruptcy protection.

American expects to add about 60 new planes this year to its fleet of more than 600 aircraft. It just announced plans to start flying from Dallas to Hong Kong and Shanghai next year, and it is expanding ties with partner airlines in Latin America. All of those things are either helping to improve the company's financial performance now, or will in the future, Chairman and CEO Tom Horton said in an interview.

"But the most important thing is day-to-day execution," Horton said. American has long struggled with high rates of delays and cancelations, but so far in October there have been eight days with no canceled flights, he said.

Airline officials feel confident enough that they plan to boost passenger-carrying capacity by 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year.

Horton said the airline's improved performance creates momentum for its planned merger with US Airways.

The airlines had expected to close the merger this summer but were delayed when the U.S. Justice Department and several states filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal. A trial on the lawsuit is scheduled to start Nov. 25, and Horton said, "We remain open to a reasonable, common-sense settlement" that would allow the airlines to combine.

The Justice Department has pointed to American's improving fortunes as evidence that it doesn't need a merger to succeed. However, the attorney general of Texas pulled out of the lawsuit two weeks ago, and more than 60 House Democrats wrote to President Barack Obama this week to urge the administration to allow the merger.

AMR filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 after losing more than $10 billion over the previous decade. It has used bankruptcy to renegotiate deals with labor unions and suppliers, which showed up in a reduction of $248 million, or 4 percent, in third-quarter operating costs. Labor, the airline's second-biggest cost after fuel, fell $237 million.

AMR ended the quarter with $7.7 billion in cash and short-term investments, compared with $5.1 billion a year earlier.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based company set aside $59 million for expected profit sharing next spring. American Airlines employees haven't received such payouts since 2001.

Before the earnings report, J.P. Morgan upgraded AMR shares to "Overweight" from "Neutral." Analyst Jamie Baker said he saw a 60-percent likelihood of a merger, up from 50-50. Even without a deal, the downside for AMR shares might not be as bad as feared because of improvement in the airline industry, he said.

The shares, which have traded over the counter since being removed from the New York Stock Exchange in January 2012, jumped 48 cents, or 9.3 percent, to close at $5.62.

AMR was the first big U.S. airline company to report third-quarter numbers. Analysts expect that United, Delta, Southwest and US Airways will all report larger profits than a year ago.

___

Follow David Koenig at http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

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'Game of Thrones' spoof trades drama for laughs

Pop culture

Kurt Schlosser
TODAY

4 hours ago

Keeping track of the numerous "Game of Thrones" characters just got a lot more interesting as they've been reimagined in a hilarious new spoof video from the folks at Bad Lip Reading.

Bad Lip Reading has previously taken on "Twilight," "The Hunger Games," President Obama, the NFL and much more. In this fake trailer for "Medieval Land Fun-Time World," Ned Stark is "Eddie," the manager of a theme park who has a week to get his lackluster employees whipped into shape for the park's grand opening. For almost six minutes, the video dubs new dialogue over scenes from "GoT."

All the bloody drama of HBO's fantasy series is drained and replaced with a cheesy soundtrack and laugh-worthy lines. The best scenes feature Joffrey "JoJo" Baratheon and Tyrion "Terry" Lannister. The spoof maintains two key things here — JoJo is still worth hating, and the gangster Terry is still the best character on the show.

Jamie Lannister is "Jimmy Whisper," who delivers all of his lines in hushed tones: "Today, I had a cheesesteak, then I got a Walkman," he tells Eddie. And Petyr "Petey" Baelish is a hit at the dinner table when he asks everyone how they liked "the kitten meat I put in my burgers everyone just ate."

The video is already headed toward 2 million views in less than a day. And BLR has put up outtakes and extended scenes, too.

The real "Game of Thrones" returns in 2014 for season four.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/game-thrones-spoof-brings-laughs-medieval-theme-park-8C11409513
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Biggie Smalls Was a Criminal and Too Fat to Get Corner Named for Him, Says Brooklyn Neighborhood

Clarence Davis/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Biggie Smalls

Community board members in a Brooklyn neighborhood have shot down a proposal to name a corner for the late rapper Biggie Smalls, citing his criminal past -- and his large girth.

Lucy Koteen told the Clinton Hill board Tuesday night that she had "looked up the rapper's history" and didn't support the idea of honoring Smalls by naming the corner "Christopher Wallace Way," a reference to the rapper's real name.

PHOTOS: Hip-Hop's Bling-iest Music Videos of All Time

"He started selling drugs at 12, he was a school dropout at 17, he was arrested for drugs and weapons charge, he was arrested for parole violations, he was arrested in North Carolina for crack cocaine, in 1996 he was again arrested for assault, he had a violent death, and physically the man is not exactly a role model for youth," she said, as reported by DNA Info. "I don't see how this guy was a role model, and frankly it offends me."

Another board member, Brooklyn Heights Cinema owner Kenn Lowy, cited the rapper's use of derogatory names for women in his music.

But LeRoy McCarthy, who began the online petition to name the corner after Smalls, defended the rapper: "There are many artists that share stories in a vernacular that their audiences understand. Biggie used the language from the streets he grew up in to convey what he wanted to say."

VIDEO: Remembering Notorious B.I.G.: 5 Iconic Biggie Moments

McCarthy added that "board members should not hold Wallace's physical appearance nor how he died against him."

The proposal could still go forward if councilwoman Letitia James issues a letter of support.

Smalls -- aka Notorious B.I.G. -- grew up in Clinton Hill. He was shot in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in 1997. The case remains unsolved.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/music/~3/VdyoowwvFCw/story01.htm
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You Can Actually Buy This Electric Flame-Throwing Batpod (Updated)

This isn't the motorcycle you need. It's the motorcycle you deserve. You'll be able to conquer Bane and the morning rush hour commute aboard this insane Harley V-Rod mod. And yes, those are dual flamethrowers and shotguns up front.

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British drug regulator recalls five Wockhardt drugs

(Reuters) - Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has recalled five prescription-only drugs made by India's Wockhardt Ltd after it found deficiencies in manufacturing procedures at the drugmaker's Chikalthana factory.

The agency said there was no evidence that the products are defective and that patients who already have the medicines do not need to return them. However, pharmacies dispensing clinics and wholesalers have been asked to stop selling them.

MHRA said its action follows a precautionary recall made by Wockhardt, which is asking retail outlets to return five over-the-counter medicines.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in MUMBAI; Editing by Sunil Nair)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-drug-regulator-recalls-five-wockhardt-drugs-111926453--finance.html
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Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014

By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth.

Complicating the Fed's task, a 16-day government shutdown choked off the flow of much of the economic data on which it relies and could undermine the quality of the reports covering October.

Lawmakers voted on Wednesday to end the shutdown and lift the U.S. debt limit, averting a potential default that many economists had warned could tip the United States back into another severe recession.

The deal clears the way for the release of delayed updates on the health of the economy, including data on employment, retail sales and factory output for September.

But the shutdown will probably hurt the quality of some other indicators covering activity this month that rely on surveys which were not conducted because government staff were furloughed. That will mean readings on the state of activity in October will be unusually suspect.

On top of this, the harm potentially done to U.S. growth by the wrangling in Washington could encourage policymakers to wait a little longer to monitor whether the softness in hiring that worried them in September was only temporary.

Economists polled by Reuters since the October 1 shutdown found the median estimate of the drag on fourth-quarter U.S. growth was 0.3 percent annualized. They now see growth in the quarter at just a 2.3 percent annual rate, which might not be enough to lower the jobless rate further.

OCTOBER OFF THE TABLE

Analysts said there were a number of factors the Fed would need to consider in deciding when to pare its $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds.

"October is out of the running. December is not an impossible scenario but seems increasingly unlikely. I think the debate is revolving around January versus March," said Eric Lascelles, chief economist with RBC Global Asset Management in Toronto, referring to the Fed's upcoming policy meetings.

"Each has its charms, and each has its challenges."

Lawmakers agreed to fund the government until January 15, and raise the debt ceiling until February 7, which means the fiscal fight could start all over again in the New Year.

That would argue for making a move as soon as December, before fiscal clouds gather, or waiting until March, by which time they should have cleared.

By March, the economy's fundamental strength should be easier to discern, absent another confidence-shaking political standoff or government shutdown.

"If they were going to be consistent, they would not have an opportunity to go until March. That would be the first chance for a clean look" at the economy, said Michael Feroli, an economist with JPMorgan in New York.

If the Fed does not move in December, there is another factor that may lead it to wait until March. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke steps down at the end of January and is replaced by Fed No. 2 Janet Yellen, presuming the Senate confirms her. Making a major policy shift on the eve of the handover does not look like ideal timing. The Fed meets on January 28-29.

However, if it skips January and waits until March, the Fed would add another $255 billion to its balance sheet - a figure that would likely cause a fair amount of discomfort on the central bank's policy panel unless the economy was in clear need of support.

Minutes of the Fed's meeting in September, when it surprised markets by delaying an announcement to slow its bond-buying pace, showed a number of the central bank's 19 policymakers viewed the decision as a close call.

DECEMBER NOT IMPOSSIBLE

For those reasons, officials might be looking at December, provided that the broad picture they see is of an economy that has rebounded confidently from the drag of the fiscal showdown.

The possibility of tough budget negotiations in the New Year would likely not be enough to prevent action, partly because the Fed will not want to tie monetary policy to an increasingly unpredictable Congress.

"If risky asset markets are doing well in December, if the employment figures are looking stronger, if the unemployment rate moves lower, a taper is on the table at that meeting," said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays in New York.

Bernanke said in June the Fed expected to begin the process of ending the massive asset purchase program later this year.

The key question is whether the economy will show enough strength by December to make a move.

"The Fed is probably going to be looking at employment conditions that are not that different from where they were in September," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist with Northern Trust in Chicago. That doesn't remove December from the taper-table, but it would be a tough decision, he said.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-washington-budget-battle-may-delay-fed-taper-181346748--business.html
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The Elder Scrolls Anthology (for PC)

By Matt Sarrel

The Elder Scrolls Anthology puts the entire Elder Scrolls series, Elder Scrolls Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and all of the downloadable content in one convenient and beautiful package. The full series is assembled into an elegant book. Each game gets its own folded page, and unfolding each is like a journey into that particular title. Each side of each folded page is designed to convey the mood and aesthetic of each particular game and still they all fit together into the larger aesthetic of the entire book (and series). Merely unboxing the anthology was a journey through the vast and varied landscapes already familiar to me from playing each game as it came out. Physical maps, alas printed on a page not on cloth as in days of yore, complete the scene and bring to life the lands of Tamriel, Iliac Bay, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim.

While this is by no means a necessary purchase for those who already purchased each game separately, it is awfully convenient to have all of them together in one box, and even more so to have all of the downloadable content at hand. This includes the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions for Morrowind; Shivering Isles and Knights of Nine are included for Oblivion; and Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn are there for Skyrim. This is a lot of gameplay in one box.

The Elder Scrolls is a bundling and a re-release, not a remastering or an upgrade. All of the games appear in their original format – Arena and Daggerfall run within a DOS emulator. Sure, they don't look great, but this is where it all began. Seeing this almost made me gasp with nostalgia.  Seeing all of the games together showed me a much larger and more cohesive storyline than I had noticed previously. Subtle connection became more apparent, and the amazing depth and scope of the individual stories and worlds are even more spectacular than the first time through.

The Elder Scrolls Anthology contains a mind-bogglingly insane amount of exploration. The whole series must be hundreds of hours of gameplay. If you're an RPG fan, then it would be hard to go wrong purchasing this anthology.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Tmf_QpcC4fo/0,2817,2425773,00.asp
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Oyster turns the page on its subscription e-book service, now open to all

Previously requiring an invitation, subscription based e-book service Oyster has today gone live to all and brings a universal iPhone and iPad app to the App Store to make full use of it. If you read a lot of e-books, Oyster's $9.95 monthly subscription fee could be right up your street, with a library of over 100,000 books.

The app is free to download, and many of the books within the Oyster library are from HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and all kinds of smaller publishers. The choice isn't going to come close to something like the Kindle store at this point, but for the price of a book a month you're opened up to as many pages as you can turn. Grab the iOS app from the App Store link below, or head on over to the Oyster homepage to sign up. The first month is free, so take a look and let us know what you think of it.

• Free (monthly subscription applies) - Download Now

Source: Oyster

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/RvSdX1tr-xg/story01.htm
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