This undated photo made available by NOAA shows a computer displaying an electronic nautical chart aboard a ship.
AP
This undated photo made available by NOAA shows a computer displaying an electronic nautical chart aboard a ship.
AP
NOAA, the federal agency charged with surveying the nation's navigable waters to help keep mariners off the rocks and out of the shallows, will cease printing paper charts after mid-April.
"Since 1862, those lithographic nautical charts—available in marine shops and other stores—have been printed by the U.S. government and sold to the public by commercial vendors. The decision to stop production is based on several factors: the declining demand for lithographic charts, the increasing use of digital and electronic charts, and federal budget realities."
"With the end of traditional paper charts, our primary concern continues to be making sure that boaters, fishing vessels, and commercial mariners have access to the most accurate, up-to-date nautical chart in a format that works well for them," Ocean Survey chief Capt. Shep Smith says. "Fortunately, advancements in computing and mobile technologies give us many more options than was possible years ago."
In recent years, electronic charts accessed on tablet computers and GPS chartplotters have become a popular option for pleasure boats and larger vessels, but many people still insist on using paper charts, at least as a backup, says Bill Griffin, general manager of Fawcett Boat Supply in Annapolis, Maryland.
"Any prudent mariner is going to have paper charts," he says. "I don't see paper going away anytime soon."
All of the charts that Fawcett sells are on-demand and the store sells "hundreds" each year, Griffin tells NPR.
"We used to stock lots of paper charts, but we couldn't keep everything," he says. "With on-demand printing, we can get any chart for U.S. waters at the drop of a hat — and the beauty is it's always updated."
"NOAA sells about 60,000 of the old lithographic 4-by-3 foot maps each year, for about $20 apiece, the same price it costs to print them.
The trouble is that NOAA doesn't print them, but the Federal Aviation Administration does. And they don't want to anymore to save some money, Smith said. The FAA took over federal chart-making in 1999 and on Oct. 15 told NOAA it was going to stop the presses, according to the ocean agency.
Capt. Shep Smith says it costs NOAA about $100 million a year to survey and chart the nation's waters and it will still spend the same money, but provide the information in the less traditional way."
NOAA says it will officially stop supplying printed charts on April 13.
So far, there's been mixed reaction to the move, at least from mariners who tweet:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Netflix's earnings quadrupled as the Internet video subscription service's line-up of original programming helped attract 1.3 million more U.S. subscribers during its latest quarter.
The July-September financial results announced Monday are the latest evidence of Netflix's increasing popularity as the service's video library expands to include exclusive, high-caliber shows. The strategy is getting rave reviews among investors whose adulation has quadrupled Netflix's market value so far this year.
Netflix's stock soared again Monday, rising $38.01, or nearly 11 percent, to $393 in extended trading after the numbers came out. That sets up the shares to hit an all-time high for the third consecutive trading session on Tuesday.
"They are growing nicely, and they deserve credit for that," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "But I still don't understand how they can be valued this high."
In a Monday interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged "there seems to be some euphoria" surrounding the company's stock.
Investors increasingly view Netflix as the leader in a technology upheaval that will redefine the entertainment landscape for decades to come. The Los Gatos, Calif., company is steadily winning new converts to an $8-per-month service that streams TV shows and movies to any device with an Internet connection. Some households are so enamored with Netflix that they are canceling more expensive subscriptions to cable- and satellite-TV services.
Netflix ended September with 31.1 million U.S. subscribers, eclipsing the estimated 29 million subscribers that HBO's 41-year-old pay-TV channel is believed to have in the country.
HBO, which is owned by Time Warner Inc., still has a commanding lead globally with 114 million subscribers around the world.
Netflix Inc., in contrast, has 40.3 million subscribers worldwide after adding 1.44 million customers outside the U.S. in the July-September quarter. The company's streaming service is available in 41 countries, and Netflix plans to enter another yet-to-be identified overseas market next year.
The third quarter covered a three-month stretch that featured the debut of two exclusive series. They were the critically acclaimed "Orange Is The New Black," and "Derek," which also got largely positive reviews. In a Monday letter reviewing the third quarter, Netflix predicted "Orange Is The New Black" — a drama/comedy set in a women's prison — will end this year as its most-watched piece of original programming yet, outstripping "House of Cards," a hit released earlier this year that won three Emmy awards.
Hastings told The Associated Press that "Orange Is The New Black" played such a big role in the company's success during the third quarter that he considered staging a special tribute to the series during a Monday discussion of the earnings that was shown on a video feed. "I almost did the earnings show in an orange jumpsuit," Hastings quipped, adding he was overruled by Netflix's head of communications.
Netflix earned $32 million, or 52 cents per share, in the quarter. That compared with income of $7.7 million, or 13 cents per share, at the same time last year.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 48 cents per share.
Revenue rose 22 percent from last year to $1.1 billion to match analyst projections.
Netflix expects to add another 2.5 million to 4.1 million subscribers worldwide in the current quarter ending in December, including an additional 1.6 million to 2.4 million in the U.S.
The lofty gains in the company's stock price are starting to unnerve Hastings, who recalls the shares increasing by nearly five-fold in 2003, only to plunge by 77 percent the following year as investors fretted about stiffening competition and higher expenses for a DVD-by-mail rental service that was once Netflix's financial backbone. Hastings also watched the stock plummet by more than 80 percent from its highs reached in 2011 after Netflix imposed pricing changes that triggered a customer backlash.
NEW YORK (AP) — Nokia is expanding its lineup of Windows phones and introducing its first tablet computer, all sporting the powerful camera technology found in its flagship Lumia 1020 smartphone.
The struggling cellphone maker is turning to the camera to differentiate its phones from rivals. The Lumia 1020 has a 41-megapixel camera with technology designed to produce better low-light shots and offer greater manual controls than most smartphones.
The new devices will use Microsoft's Windows system and come as Microsoft aims to complete its 5.44 billion euros ($7.4 billion) deal to buy Nokia's phone business and patent rights. The deal is expected to close early next year.
Nokia, a Finnish company, has seen its cellphone business unravel since Apple revolutionized the way people use handsets with the 2007 introduction of the iPhone. Microsoft, meanwhile, is struggling amid declines in sales of traditional personal computers in favor of smartphones and tablets.
Nokia's new Lumia 1520 will have a larger screen, measuring 6 inches diagonally, compared with 4.5 inches on the 1020. Nokia said the new phone's camera will have only 20 megapixels in order to keep the camera sensor smaller and the phone thinner. But that's still more resolution than most other phones.
The 1520 will also come with new apps designed to organize photos based on where you take the shots and to give you more flexibility in determining —after the fact— where the image should be focused. The phone will cost $740, though wireless carriers are expected to offer it cheaper with two-year service contracts.
Nokia will also make a cheaper version, the Lumia 1320, for a contract-free price of $339. It will have a 5-megapixel camera and a slower processor than the 1520. Both run the latest version of Windows Phone 8, which has new features to accommodate larger screen sizes.
Nokia's first tablet will be the Lumia 2520. It will run Windows 8.1 RT, meaning it shares the tile-based interface of the phone software, but can run various apps designed for Windows tablets. However, RT is the lightweight version of Windows, so it will run only apps specifically designed for it. Regular versions of Windows 8.1 can run apps for older versions of Windows.
All versions of the 2520 will come with built-in 4G LTE cellular access. By contrast, iPads and most other tablets make cellular access optional, with their cheapest models capable of using Wi-Fi only for Internet access.
The 10.1-inch tablet will cost $499. An optional cover with a physical keyboard and extended battery life is $149 extra. The camera is 6.7 megapixels, but shares the low-light technology and manual controls found in the Lumia 1020.
All three devices are expected to go on sale by the end of the year. They will come in multiple colors with a hard, plastic back molded onto the device.
This week the MLB's fall classic kicks off as the Red Sox face the Cardinals. If you're not a baseball fan there's still other things to look forward to, with plenty of horror-related Blu-ray releases and the requisite cheesy Syfy movie arriving in time for Halloween. The Nerdist himself Chris Hardwick is also a highlight, as he adds a new late night show on Comedy Central called @midnight to his usual Talking AMC duties. Look after the break for our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
Blu-ray & Games
The Conjuring
The Internship
The Uninvited
The Way Way Back
Before Midnight
The Vincent Price Collection
Rocksmith 2014 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
The Sims 3: Into the Future (PC/Mac)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director's Cut) (PC)
Monday
How I Met Your Mother , CBS, 8PM
Hart of Dixie , CW, 8PM
The Voice, NBC, 8PM
Bones, Fox, 8PM
Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 8PM
Vikings/Giants Monday Night Football, ESPN, 8:40PM
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
STERLING, Va.—The polling in the Virginia governor’s race turned against state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli months ago. The government shutdown was blamed on his peers in the Republican Party. (It didn’t help that Sen. Ted Cruz, whom Cuccinelli had praised lavishly, forded the Potomac for a campaign event.) His opponent, Terry McAuliffe, has endured multiple scandals, including a fictional one that led to two Associated Press journalists getting sacked.
“This launch has been a national embarrassment, but it’s just a symptom of much bigger problems,” said Cuccinelli. “I believe President Obama ought to fire Kathleen Sebelius.”
That got the loudest applause of a 20-minute speech in front of 200-odd Republican activists. A blonde, middle-aged female Tea Partier, who had spent the time before the speech telling people nearby not to talk to reporters, shouted, “Sebelius must go!”
So Cuccinelli said it again. “Kathleen Sebelius ought to be fired.” Before the speech was over he’d called on the secretary of Health and Human Services to resign three times, and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey (one of four AGs from other states who’d come to campaign with Cuccinelli) chastised Sebelius for “going to a gala” instead of agreeing to testify in front of Congress about Healthcare.gov. When the speech was over, Cuccinelli was asked whether he was asking for something President Obama would never do, something not pertinent to a race for governor.
Before the speech was over, Cuccinelli had called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to resign three times.
“It's very realistic, certainly given that people in his own party are calling for people to be fired,” said Cuccinelli. “I don't think it's anything novel for someone from the other side to say that, when all we want is competency. And because we did win some of the [legal] arguments, we still have this debate. The Medicare debate is an Obamacare debate. Having the exchanges is an Obamacare debate.”
Democrats fully expect Cuccinelli to lose this election, and they will make no personnel decisions based on his advice. He was actually late to the blame-Sebelius party. The former governor of Kansas has never tingled the conservative id as much as Attorney General Eric Holder or departed Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (“Big Sis,” as the Drudge Report called her). Savvier conservatives have warned for years that the Affordable Care Act gives incredible new regulatory power to whomever happens to run HHS, but they trained most of their fire on the “Obama” prefix of “Obamacare.”
That changed in October. The disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov coincided with the government shutdown; Republicans were slow to take advantage of the mini-crisis. It was really Sebelius’s interview with The Daily Show on Oct. 7 that made them see the roadkill bleeding out on the interstate. Jon Stewart started the segment by opening a Macbook and offering Sebelius a “dare”: “I’m gonna try and download every movie ever made, and you’re gonna try to sign up for Obamacare, and we’ll see which happens first.” By the end, Sebelius was struggling to convince Stewart—who wanted the law to work!—why it didn’t make sense to delay the mandate until the exchange site was at least as functional as a Geocities page.
Slowly, methodically, as the site errors persisted, Republicans lit into Sebelius. On Oct. 11, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts called on Sebelius to “resign for gross incompetence” after “even Jon Stewart” saw through the failure of Obamacare. Five days later, at a congressional forum sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, multiple House Republicans told reporters to watch the Jon Stewart interview to 1) learn how journalism was done and 2) see how sensible the one-year delay truly was.
By this time, non-Comedy Central news organizations were running their own investigations into the site failures. (Slate, which has been gathering reports from people signing up this year, published their “site didn’t work” tales on Oct. 3.) The House Energy and Commerce Committee was asking Sebelius to show up on Oct. 24 and explain why the exchange site wasn’t loading Sebelius passed. On Monday morning, hours before the Cuccinelli rally, the same House committee issued a statement asking, “Will President Obama Call on Secretary Sebelius to Skip the Gala and Testify Thursday?” For the aid of lazy reporters, they attached a video of Sebelius getting interviewed by Jon Stewart.
Sebelius has agreed to testify before the committee on Oct. 30. That means nine more potential days of human piñata-bashing. Republicans are making up for two wasted weeks of shutdown politics, arguing that Healthcare.gov’s disaster presages the collapse of Obamacare. They think they got a substantial assist from the president’s Monday speech, where his fellow Americans were asked to remember that Obamacare was “not just a website,” and given the phone numbers to call if the pages didn’t load. All that was missing, snarked Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. Steve Scalise, “was an offer for free T-shirts to the first 100 callers.”
And Obama’s speech probably was a favor to Republicans. Those crusades against high-level members of the administration have largely failed—Eric Holder has a job, Chuck Hagel has a job, and Susan Rise became national security adviser after Republicans thought they’d scalped her. Focusing on Sebelius gets the administration’s back up, because it has no fear whatsoever of congressional inquisitors. It creates the impression that one firing could right the program, like swapping out generals in Iraq kind-of-sort-of-won that war.
“Congress should legally pass a one-year delay of the individual mandate,” said Cuccinelli at Monday’s rally in Sterling. The House GOP had just spent two weeks failing to do as much, but that was before the Big Glitch. “The big boys got their delay illegally from a president who waved his magic president wand. Didn’t know there was one, but apparently there is.”
Personal and social concerns motivate organic food buyers
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Ioannis Kareklas Ioannis.kareklas@wsu.edu 509-335-2781 Washington State University
Study offers tips for green advertising strategists
PULLMAN, Wash. Predicting whether consumers will purchase organic or conventional food is a multimillion dollar gamble within the food sector. A novel paper by Washington State University College of Business researchers will help advertisers more effectively target the fast-growing organic food market.
"We propose that organic purchases are not just made with the intention of benefiting one's self," said lead author Ioannis Kareklas, a WSU marketing assistant professor. "Our paper provides evidence that advertising that highlights and addresses both personal (egoistic) and environmental (altruistic) concerns in tandem may be the most impactful in influencing consumer attitudes toward and intentions to purchase organic products."
The paper is the first in the United States to explore the relative impact of both considerations simultaneously in relation to self-perception. Co-authors include Darrel Muehling, WSU marketing professor, and Jeffrey Carlson, University of Connecticut doctoral student.
Personal values affect advertisement success
Research has shown that promotional messages tend to be evaluated more favorably when they are consistent with consumers' values, said Kareklas. For example, independent, Western cultures that tend to emphasize autonomy and individualism respond more favorably to ads that emphasize personal welfare. Consumers from interdependent cultures, such as East Asian and Latin American countries, prefer ads that emphasize collective welfare.
However, research shows that egoistic and altruistic considerations coexist within all individuals. Therefore, advertising claims focusing on egoistic/altruistic concerns can make consumers aware of their underlying values, thus increasing the effectiveness of promotional messages, he said.
The researchers conducted a three-part study to test their premise. The results of the first two studies suggested that consumers' organic product purchases may be influenced by both egoistic and altruistic considerations. A key finding was that consumers are more influenced by altruistic concerns when considering the purchase of green/organic products compared to conventional products.
In a third study, the researchers tested the effectiveness of various advertising treatments promoting a fictitious new brand of organic meat called "Gold Standard." The ads emphasized personal health, nutritional value, taste, cleaner water, humane treatment of livestock, community support and a combination of these egoistic and altruistic claims.
"We found that the ad featuring both egoistic and altruistic appeals produced more favorable attitudes toward the brand and company and greater purchase intentions," said Kareklas.
Tips for "green" strategists
These results provide an important theoretical foundation that helps explain why and how specific organic food attitudes and purchase intentions vary among individuals.
"It's important to view consumers' organic food perceptions and buying tendencies in relation to self-concept," said Kareklas. "Unlike previous research that often views the two self-views to be mutually exclusive and competing, we find that the goals of the independent and interdependent view of the self are complimentary influences in the context of organic/green purchase considerations."
The researchers suggest advertisers consider designing messages that relate to personal benefits and environmental benefits in tandem, taking note that synergies may be gained by emphasizing both.
###
The article, titled "I Eat Organic for My Benefit and Yours: Egotistic and Altruistic Considerations for Purchasing Organic Food and Their Implications for Advertising Strategists," will appear in the Journal of Advertising and is available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2325108.
"The article, titled "I Eat Organic for My Benefit and Yours: Egotistic and Altruistic Considerations for Purchasing Organic Food and Their Implications for Advertising Strategists," will appear in the Journal of Advertising and is available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2325108. Kareklas previously published a related article, titled "The Role of Regulatory Focus and Self-View in 'Green' Advertising Message Framing," in the Journal of Advertising: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2012.10672455#.UmAiLFPORtw.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Personal and social concerns motivate organic food buyers
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Ioannis Kareklas Ioannis.kareklas@wsu.edu 509-335-2781 Washington State University
Study offers tips for green advertising strategists
PULLMAN, Wash. Predicting whether consumers will purchase organic or conventional food is a multimillion dollar gamble within the food sector. A novel paper by Washington State University College of Business researchers will help advertisers more effectively target the fast-growing organic food market.
"We propose that organic purchases are not just made with the intention of benefiting one's self," said lead author Ioannis Kareklas, a WSU marketing assistant professor. "Our paper provides evidence that advertising that highlights and addresses both personal (egoistic) and environmental (altruistic) concerns in tandem may be the most impactful in influencing consumer attitudes toward and intentions to purchase organic products."
The paper is the first in the United States to explore the relative impact of both considerations simultaneously in relation to self-perception. Co-authors include Darrel Muehling, WSU marketing professor, and Jeffrey Carlson, University of Connecticut doctoral student.
Personal values affect advertisement success
Research has shown that promotional messages tend to be evaluated more favorably when they are consistent with consumers' values, said Kareklas. For example, independent, Western cultures that tend to emphasize autonomy and individualism respond more favorably to ads that emphasize personal welfare. Consumers from interdependent cultures, such as East Asian and Latin American countries, prefer ads that emphasize collective welfare.
However, research shows that egoistic and altruistic considerations coexist within all individuals. Therefore, advertising claims focusing on egoistic/altruistic concerns can make consumers aware of their underlying values, thus increasing the effectiveness of promotional messages, he said.
The researchers conducted a three-part study to test their premise. The results of the first two studies suggested that consumers' organic product purchases may be influenced by both egoistic and altruistic considerations. A key finding was that consumers are more influenced by altruistic concerns when considering the purchase of green/organic products compared to conventional products.
In a third study, the researchers tested the effectiveness of various advertising treatments promoting a fictitious new brand of organic meat called "Gold Standard." The ads emphasized personal health, nutritional value, taste, cleaner water, humane treatment of livestock, community support and a combination of these egoistic and altruistic claims.
"We found that the ad featuring both egoistic and altruistic appeals produced more favorable attitudes toward the brand and company and greater purchase intentions," said Kareklas.
Tips for "green" strategists
These results provide an important theoretical foundation that helps explain why and how specific organic food attitudes and purchase intentions vary among individuals.
"It's important to view consumers' organic food perceptions and buying tendencies in relation to self-concept," said Kareklas. "Unlike previous research that often views the two self-views to be mutually exclusive and competing, we find that the goals of the independent and interdependent view of the self are complimentary influences in the context of organic/green purchase considerations."
The researchers suggest advertisers consider designing messages that relate to personal benefits and environmental benefits in tandem, taking note that synergies may be gained by emphasizing both.
###
The article, titled "I Eat Organic for My Benefit and Yours: Egotistic and Altruistic Considerations for Purchasing Organic Food and Their Implications for Advertising Strategists," will appear in the Journal of Advertising and is available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2325108.
"The article, titled "I Eat Organic for My Benefit and Yours: Egotistic and Altruistic Considerations for Purchasing Organic Food and Their Implications for Advertising Strategists," will appear in the Journal of Advertising and is available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2325108. Kareklas previously published a related article, titled "The Role of Regulatory Focus and Self-View in 'Green' Advertising Message Framing," in the Journal of Advertising: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2012.10672455#.UmAiLFPORtw.
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Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DETROIT (AP) — A picture of Jim Leyland's face stared out from the video board at an empty Comerica Park, next to that familiar Olde English "D'' and a message that said simply: "Thank You Jim."
After eight seasons managing the Tigers, including three division titles and two American League pennants, Leyland stepped down Monday. His voice cracking at times, wiping away tears at others, he announced his departure two days after Detroit was eliminated by Boston in the AL championship series.
"It's been a thrill," the 68-year-old Leyland said during a news conference at the ballpark. "I came here to change talent to team, and I think with the help of this entire organization, I think we've done that. We've won quite a bit. I'm very grateful to have been a small part of that."
Leyland made his managerial debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986, and from Barry Bonds to Miguel Cabrera, he's managed some of the sport's biggest stars and been involved in some of baseball's most memorable games over the past quarter-century.
In 1992, his Pirates lost Game 7 of the NLCS when Atlanta rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning. Five years later, Leyland won his only World Series title as manager when his Florida Marlins beat Cleveland in an 11-inning thriller in Game 7.
He's experienced some of the highest highs the game has to offer, but he also endured difficult rebuilding periods in both Pittsburgh and Florida.
After one season with the Colorado Rockies, Leyland didn't manage at all from 2000-05 before Detroit hired him. Leyland led the Tigers to the World Series immediately after taking over in 2006, losing to St. Louis in five games. The Tigers went to the World Series again in 2012 but were swept by San Francisco.
Leyland worked under one-year contracts the last couple years, saying he was content to wait until after the season to address his status. He was reflective late this season, mentioning to reporters that he had already managed the Tigers longer than he had expected they would keep him, but he also said in September that he still loved the atmosphere, the competition and his team.
In fact, he'd actually told general manager Dave Dombrowski in early September that he didn't want to return as manager. He expects to remain with the organization in some capacity after going 700-597 as a manager.
"I'm not totally retiring today, I'm just not going to be in the dugout anymore," Leyland said. "I hope and pray that you give the next manager the same respect and the same chance that you gave me."
Leyland says his health is fine, but it's time to stop managing. He said he started weighing his decision around June.
"I started thinking this was getting a little rough. I thought that the fuel was getting a little low," Leyland said. "I knew that I'd get through it because I knew we'd be playing for something."
Detroit's players found out about Leyland's departure after Saturday night's game in Boston, when the Red Sox won Game 6 to take the series.
"You've got your head down, you lost and the season's over, and then Jim dropped that bomb on us," outfielder Torii Hunter said. "I just had a feeling that it could have been his last year. All year, he was kind of emotional, and I just felt it."
Leyland said there was no announcement Saturday because he wanted the focus to be on the victorious Red Sox. However, he was honest about how much this defeat hurt.
"With all due respect to the Boston Red Sox — who earned it, they won it, they deserve to be where they are — I truly believe the Detroit Tigers should be playing here tomorrow," Leyland said. "This is one that's going to stick with me, this is one that really hurts, because I really felt like we let it get away."
When Leyland arrived at the Tigers' training camp this year, it marked 50 seasons since he first showed up there as an 18-year-old prospect. His playing career never amounted to much, but his accomplishments as a manager over more than two decades have been impressive.
He is 1,769-1,728 overall during stints with the Tigers, Pirates, Marlins and Rockies.
"I had sent him a text yesterday morning, just to congratulate he and the organization," Boston manager John Farrell said. "Not only on a great team and a great year, and express the respect we have for him and certainly personally have for him throughout his career. To see the announcement today, and listen to him and know that early September this was clearly in his mind, that surprised me."
When Leyland took over the Tigers, they had gone 12 years without a winning season. Under Leyland, they finished under .500 only once.
Detroit has become one of baseball's glamour teams of late, with stars like Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer helping the team win games and draw fans. Cabrera won the Triple Crown and MVP award last year. Verlander won the MVP and Cy Young Award the previous season.
"It's been as much fun for me to manage Ramon Santiago is it has Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander," Leyland said. "Now in saying that, it was also an honor to manage the Triple Crown winner, an MVP, a Cy Young winner."
The Tigers should be able to keep their core of players mostly together for next season, but now they'll need to find a new manager to replace Leyland, who always earned high marks for his ability to keep his veterans focused.
"He really cares deeply about his players," utility man Don Kelly said. "When you go out there, the way he treats you, you want to run through a wall for him, go out there and get a win. That's the way he treated me, he treated everybody like that."
___
AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is expected to round out its line-up of gadgets for the holiday shopping season with the Tuesday unveiling of its latest iPads.
The San Francisco showcase is likely to feature remodeled versions of Apple's standard-sized iPad with a 10-inch display screen and the iPad Mini with a nearly 8-inch screen. Hewing to its usually tight-lipped ways, Apple Inc. hasn't shared details about what's on the agenda. The Cupertino, Calif. company merely sent out invitations that said, "We still have a lot to cover."
Apple's secrecy notwithstanding, glimpses of the revamped iPads have been showing up in videos posted on the Internet, including on websites that provided early — and accurate — peeks at the new iPhones Apple rolled out last month.
It will be a shock if Apple isn't taking the wraps off new iPads on Tuesday because it has been nearly a year since the previous generation came out. This would be the fifth generation of Apple's tablet computer. The original iPad debuted in early 2010 and accelerated the consumer shift away from traditional laptop and desktop computers. Tablets, including rival devices inspired by the iPad, are now outselling laptops.
If the unauthorized previews of the new iPads are correct, this year's standard-sized model is getting a more noticeable makeover than last year. It's expected to be even thinner and lighter than its predecessor and designed more like the iPad Mini with slimmer sides and tighter curves on the back. To conform with the new look, Apple is also expected to introduce new versions of its smart covers — the polyurethane shields that attach to iPads to protect the screen. The covers also can be detached and folded into a stand for the device.
Apple will probably add its high-definition "Retina Display" to the iPad Mini to stay competitive with recent upgrades to the smaller tablets sold by Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
Both sizes of iPad almost certainly will come with iOS 7, Apple's latest mobile operating system, already installed. The new operating software has been available to download on most of the previous generations of the iPad since last month. Some iPad owners have complained that iOS 7 doesn't look as good or run as well on older tablets.
The new iPads may also come equipped with a biometric sensor that enables a user's fingerprints to serve as a password instead of typing a numeric code to unlock the device. The fingerprint technology is part of the iPhone 5S, Apple's latest high-end smartphone.
If Apple is consistent with its past practices, the prices on the new iPads won't change. Prices on the standard-sized iPad usually start at $499 and the cheapest iPad Mini goes for $329. That has left Apple's tablets more expensive than rival models, but the company has maintained the iPad is worth it.
The higher prices nevertheless have eroded the iPad's market share. The research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that tablet's running Google's Android operating system will end this year with a 50 percent share of the worldwide market versus 49 percent for the iPad. Just two years ago, the iPad commanded a 65 percent market share compared to 30 percent for Android tablets, according to Gartner.
The introduction of a new iPad could also herald the end of the line for the iPad 2, a tablet that Apple released more than two years ago. The iPad 2 currently serves as Apple's discount tablet with a $399 price tag.
It's also likely Apple will use Tuesday's event to announce the release dates for the polished version of its Mavericks operating system for Mac computers and the revamped MacBook Pro. Both the operating system and MacBook pro were previewed at an Apple conference in June.
Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press
Badgers are an important wildlife reservoir for tuberculosis infection, a disease that leads thousands of cattle to slaughter each year. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 21 have found that the spread of the disease is influenced in surprising ways by infected badgers, and especially by the details of their social lives.
"In wild animals, just as in humans, social networks are very important for disease transmission," says Robbie McDonald of the University of Exeter. "When management changes stable networks, the results for disease control are often counterintuitive and unexpected."
By using special collars that tracked social interactions, first author Nicola Weber, working with colleagues at the National Wildlife Management Centre at Woodchester Park in rural England, found that tuberculosis (TB)-infected badgers were more isolated from their own social groups than were uninfected badgers. However, Weber also found that infected badgers were more likely to form social linkages for the flow of infection to other groups. As a result, infected badgers are less likely to spread the disease within their own groups but more likely to facilitate spread across a network.
"This unusual social arrangement may help explain why TB tends not to spread easily in undisturbed badger populations but also may help explain why, when their social networks are perturbed, infection spreads quickly to other badgers and onwards to cattle," McDonald says.
The researchers refer to these infected animals as "spread capacitors" because they are passive components in the network that can hold and discharge infection but tend to stabilize flow. "That's in contrast to the more familiar notion of 'super-spreader' individuals that are thought to spread infection disproportionately because of their high connectedness in a network," McDonald explains.
The findings suggest that badger management efforts will be most effective when they maintain stability and do not disrupt social networks. And that means it might be more effective in the long term to vaccinate badgers than it is to attempt to cull them.
"The good news is that vaccination does not disturb social structure," McDonald says. "The sort of social structure we have observed -- where relatively few individuals might be responsible for disease spread -- lends itself to vaccination and could lead quite rapidly to herd immunity."
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Current Biology, Weber et al.: "Badger social networks correlate with tuberculosis infection"
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Tuberculosis and the social lives of badgers
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press
Badgers are an important wildlife reservoir for tuberculosis infection, a disease that leads thousands of cattle to slaughter each year. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 21 have found that the spread of the disease is influenced in surprising ways by infected badgers, and especially by the details of their social lives.
"In wild animals, just as in humans, social networks are very important for disease transmission," says Robbie McDonald of the University of Exeter. "When management changes stable networks, the results for disease control are often counterintuitive and unexpected."
By using special collars that tracked social interactions, first author Nicola Weber, working with colleagues at the National Wildlife Management Centre at Woodchester Park in rural England, found that tuberculosis (TB)-infected badgers were more isolated from their own social groups than were uninfected badgers. However, Weber also found that infected badgers were more likely to form social linkages for the flow of infection to other groups. As a result, infected badgers are less likely to spread the disease within their own groups but more likely to facilitate spread across a network.
"This unusual social arrangement may help explain why TB tends not to spread easily in undisturbed badger populations but also may help explain why, when their social networks are perturbed, infection spreads quickly to other badgers and onwards to cattle," McDonald says.
The researchers refer to these infected animals as "spread capacitors" because they are passive components in the network that can hold and discharge infection but tend to stabilize flow. "That's in contrast to the more familiar notion of 'super-spreader' individuals that are thought to spread infection disproportionately because of their high connectedness in a network," McDonald explains.
The findings suggest that badger management efforts will be most effective when they maintain stability and do not disrupt social networks. And that means it might be more effective in the long term to vaccinate badgers than it is to attempt to cull them.
"The good news is that vaccination does not disturb social structure," McDonald says. "The sort of social structure we have observed -- where relatively few individuals might be responsible for disease spread -- lends itself to vaccination and could lead quite rapidly to herd immunity."
###
Current Biology, Weber et al.: "Badger social networks correlate with tuberculosis infection"
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Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
At 5 p.m. EST Monday, the all music channel goes live in the homes of about 22 million Comcast subscribers and 12 million Time Warner Cable customers, marking one of the biggest launches of a cable channel in years.
Revolt TV is the latest brainchild of Combs (aka Diddy, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy), a serial entrepreneur who has found success in music as an executive and hip hop artist as well as in fashion, liquor, marketing and more, helping him accumulate a fortune that Forbes estimated in 2012 at $550 million.
Now, seven years after he first conceived a new kind of all music channel, Combs is pouring tens of millions of that into launching a service aimed at 18 to 34 year olds – members of the Millennial generation – who consume more music than ever but not necessarily in traditional ways like listening to the radio or watching cable TV. In fact, they are the generation often described as “cord cutters,” because they haven’t rushed to subscribe to cable and often are more likely to view TV on a mobile phone or tablet computer than on the living room flat screen.
Combs has chosen Keith Clinkscales, who helped Quincy Jones launch Vibe magazine and spent years doing content development for ESPN, to be CEO of Revolt TV. He hired former MTV programming chief Andy Schuon as president. They have been working with a team of more than 100 other hires, mostly at Los Angeles headquarters and in New York City, to figure out how to make the all music formula work on TV.
Clinkscales says it's a good time to launch because music and digital consumption are both up.
"You have more and more bands and artists going across the whole eco system. Music is very healthy," Clinkscales tells The Hollywood Reporter. "To have a place that can be the center of that—we would like to earn that position by reaching our fans well. We have to have good access and engage with the artists and be able to go ahead and provide sponsors, advertisers, and record companies a place we can meet."
Two decades after he founded Bad Boy Records, Combs at 44 seems confident he can reach the younger generation and build a significant business by reaching his audience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media as a way to lure them to watch his cable channel. He calls it the first launch in the era of social media.
His pitch is simple. It will be fresh, new and unlike what you have seen before. “I said it twice,” he recently tweeted, “and imma say it again. No Rules. Anything can happen. @RevoltTV.”
Combs has crisscrossed the country in the last year meeting with brands and advertisers, talking up his channel vision to advertisers, media and some private investors who have joined his latest venture as minority investors.
He seems confident even though there are lots of challenges for a music channel. Consider that MTV started with a business plan similar to what Combs has in mind – get lots of videos at little cost from record companies and artists, present them with exciting young personalities, fill in airtime with music oriented news and attract advertisers who are hip to the value of this audience.
What happened, however, was that over time MTV couldn’t generate high enough ratings with that formula. So it shifted its focus to individual shows, first with reality and then scripted, pushing the music to MTV 2, until that too became more series oriented.
There is also Fuse, a music channel owned by The Madison Square Garden Company, Mark Cuban’s AXS pay channel, and of course Viacom’s VH-1, which programs music and series but for a somewhat older crowd. All have struggled to build their own viewership to a significant level.
Revolt TV is one of about ten channels chosen by Comcast for carriage in fulfillment of a 2011 agreement when the big cable company bought NBCUniversal to provide more diversity across the dial. Combs was one of those who sought such carriage and he won that lottery; but now he has to prove his formula will really draw Millennials.
Clinkscales says that both Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which is also a charter carrier of Revolt TV, see this as a way to turn those cable cutters into cable consumers. The two cable giants are distributing but are not investors in Revolt TV.
“The leadership opportunity for them was to recognize what were trying to do is reach a new generation of people that are going to be watching cable in the future,” says Clinkscales. “When I came out of college getting cable was an extremely important thing in my life. For the generation currently coming out of college and going into the workforce that challenge is something cable operators have to address. We’re hoping to develop the kind of product that can help them meet that challenge.”
Clinkscales says that they believe the combination of social media, an online presence (but not a full stream of the channel) and smart programming carefully targeted at their Millennial audience will draw in viewers, who then will return because of the environment of music, culture, fashion and insider insights that they will create.
“This won’t be just a channel,” says Clinkscales. “The main thing were going to do is be a place where you can get news and information about music. We want to make sure when you come to Revolt, you’re getting a full picture of what is happing in the world of music.”
In September, Revolt TV hired Bruce Perlmutter, the former editor of E! News and E! Online, to head the news operation. Clinkscales says they will have reports not only about music newsmakers, but also behind the scenes at concerts, music festivals and related events.
The shows being planned are being designed both to attract Millennials and to interact with them. One called Power To The People is supposed to reflect content based on feedback from the audience.
Combs' presence suggests that music and the related news will be mostly urban, hip-hop and possibly R&B-related, but Combs has said (and Clinkscales is adamant) it will program beyond that.
“We are working hard from the launch to be not just an urban channel but a channel that covers all music from alternative to rock and roll to hip-hop and down the line.”
Even country? “If young people bang it,” promises Clinkscales, “we’ll cover it. If the target audience we are after likes electronic dance music, we’re going to be there.”
They don’t plan to sign a lot of artists to exclusive music and video breaks, at least not initially. And Clinkscales insist that it will be one of the few places to discover emerging artists – whom it plans to identify early on and bring to the market.
“We want artists to be more vulnerable & say what they really feel,” read a recent Revolt TV tweet, “even introduce us into their private lives. Don't be upset when they do.”
“We're out here on a mission,” read another tweet, “to use music as an influence to make your OWN rules. Get it ? No Rules.”
Revolt TV also has a movie division, Revolt Film, which to date has one picture and one documentary under its belt. The movie, Lawless, starring Shia LaBeouf and Jessica Chastain, was released in Aug. 2012 and grossed about $51 million worldwide. Revolt Film came on board Lawless as a financier after it's premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival.
So will Combs rule as he has in hip-hop, fashion and as a vodka salesman? He has said he is ready to do and spend what it takes for as long as it takes.
“You can feel music now bringing back the excitement and emotion of the timeless years,” read another Revolt TV tweet. “It's a marathon, not a sprint.”
Glenn Greenwald, who first reported the disclosures of U.S. surveillance programs, is now leaving The Guardian to work with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar on a new journalism venture.
Silvia Izquierdo/AP
Glenn Greenwald, who first reported the disclosures of U.S. surveillance programs, is now leaving The Guardian to work with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar on a new journalism venture.
Silvia Izquierdo/AP
Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story about the U.S. government's massive surveillance program, is quittingThe Guardian. He's leaving the British daily and joining a journalism startup with eBay founder and billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar.
The move may offer Greenwald a break from Britain's reporting restrictions and a chance to further propel his journalism career.
The idea is to create a "new digital, investigative news shop," NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik says. "What he needs to figure out is a business model, but he's saving himself a lot of costs from a conventional newspaper."
As NPR reported Wednesday, Omidyar has said he will fund the project with his own personal investment, rather than through his philanthropic investment firm, Omidyar Network.
The venture is an opportunity for Omidyar to build a news organization from scratch, and "perhaps fill the gaps that he thought mainstream news organizations were not covering," Folkenflik tells Weekend Edition host Rachel Martin.
Greenwald himself may also have more latitude with the project, given British media laws.
"In Britain, there are far more restrictive laws about what you can and can't report than there are in the U.S.," Folkenflik says. "The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, chafed about that and ultimately decided to share some of the documents obtained from Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker ... to The New York Times and to ProPublica here in the states as a way of avoiding the reach of British authorities."
Rusbridger wrote about the decision to share the files in August, saying, "I strongly suspected that our ability to research and publish anything to do with this trove of secret material would be severely constrained in the UK. America, for all its own problems with media laws and whistleblowers, at least has press freedom enshrined in a written constitution."
Greenwald criticized the British government after authorities detained his partner at Heathrow Airport in August, using Schedule 7 of Britain's Terrorism Act 2000.
The world has learned more about Greenwald since the surveillance leaks, but how his role will change in this next step is uncertain, though he's called Omidyar's offer "a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity."
Greenwald "has gone on an incredible voyage," Folkenflik says. "He's a lawyer, he's an activist, he's been a columnist and a blogger, and he's now been inventing himself at The Guardian, with the collaboration of the editors there, into more of a reporter."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets climbed to a five-year high on Friday as investors bet the Federal Reserve would extend its stimulus policy well into 2014, but uncertainty over when U.S. interest rates will rise caused the dollar to sink to an eight-month low.
Better-than-expected results from Google Inc and Morgan Stanley also helped lift stocks on Wall Street, with shares of the Internet search company surging past the $1,000 mark for the first time.
An acceleration in China's giant economy provided another boost for equity markets, as well as for commodities such as oil and copper, as the prospect of an extended spell of ultra-easy money policy and improving growth buoyed investor sentiment.
MSCI's index that tracks the equity performance of 45 countries rose 0.7 percent to highs last seen in January 2008, while a European index, the Stoxx Europe 600, rose for a seventh successive day, its longest winning streak this year.
A last-minute deal by U.S. lawmakers this week to avert a debt default and re-open shuttered government offices also has bolstered investor confidence, pushing the broad S&P 500 to a record close on Thursday and new highs on Friday.
But analysts said concerns about the negative impact of the shutdown on the U.S. economy and the likelihood the Fed would leave its bond-buying program intact until well into 2014 would weigh on the dollar, with the euro potentially rising to $1.40.
On the company earnings front, so far 98 companies in the broad S&P 500 index have reported third-quarter results, with 62 percent beating estimates by an average of 4.3 percent. Since 1994, 63 percent of companies have beat earnings estimates.
Google gained 13.9 percent at $1,012.22, while Morgan Stanley rose 2.6 percent to $29.67. Google's surge contributed to almost half of the gains in the Nasdaq composite index.
"Surprises have been broad-based with all of the nine sectors surpassing their forecasts," said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 27.36 points, or 0.18 percent, at 15,399.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 10.80 points, or 0.62 percent, at 1,743.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 48.83 points, or 1.26 percent, at 3,911.98.
European shares rose to a five-year high after robust growth data from China for the third quarter, which boosted shares of luxury goods companies and miners.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index extended its rally to seven days, rising 0.79 percent, while the broader FTSEurofirst 300 of leading European shares rose 0.76 percent to close at 1,277.70, a new five-year high.
The dollar rebounded against a basket of currencies, pushing the dollar index up 0.01 percent at 79.653. Earlier, the dollar fell on expectations the Fed may delay scaling back its stimulus, which keeps interest rates down.
"The real economy has been negatively impacted by the government shutdown and uncertainty of the debt crisis, all of which pushes out eventual Fed policy normalization which is bad for the dollar," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.
The euro rose to 0.03 percent to $1.3679, while the dollar was 0.04 percent lower against the Japanese yen at 97.85.
German Bunds rose on the view that the stop-gap U.S. debt deal may hurt the longer-term growth prospects of the world's largest economy and push the Fed's bond-buying program into next year.
Bund futures rose 37 ticks to settle at 140.05.
Brent crude futures rose toward $110 a barrel, supported by a weak U.S. dollar and growth data from China.
Brent crude settled up 83 cents at $109.94 a barrel, while U.S. crude oil rose 14 cents to settle at $100.81.
Investors were relieved by data showing China's economy grew at its fastest pace this year as firmer foreign and domestic demand lifted factory output and retail sales.
China's CSI300 index climbed 0.7 percent, while Australian shares jumped to their highest level since June 2008. Australian exports are closely linked to China's economic fortunes.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries rose 1/32 to yield 2.5886 percent.
(Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kenneth Barry and Theodore d'Afflisio)
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