Why states shouldn't cash in on Super Bowl odds

By the half-time show of the 2013 Super Bowl game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, Americans will have gambled an estimated $10 billion on various aspects of the sports spectacle ? from picking the winner to whether Alicia Keys will flub the words of the national anthem.

New Jersey would like a cut of that $10 billion and more of the money now regularly wagered privately on sporting events. Last year, the state approved a new law to start doing just that.

But on Feb. 1, the Obama administration filed a court brief to block the state action. And on Feb. 14, a federal judge will hear arguments on whether New Jersey ? along with other states eager to follow its example ? can be allowed to ignore a 1992 federal law against sports betting.

The judge in the case, Michael A. Shipp, has already agreed with four major professional sports leagues as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, that the integrity of athletic competition might be harmed if states can expand sports betting by making it legal. (The leagues are the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.)

MONITOR'S VIEW: Misdeal on Internet poker gambling

The brief by the US Justice Department rests mainly on the constitutionality of the 1992 federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA. But it also upholds the intent of Congress to protect sports from the type of game fixing and other corruption seen in other countries where sports betting is legal.

?Congress is not limited to addressing purely economic matters ? it also may seek to remedy social or moral concerns that substantially effect interstate commerce,? said the brief.

The court case could not come at a better time. A national poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University finds a rapid rise in the public acceptance of legalized sports betting, from 39 percent two years ago to 51 percent last year. One-third of registered voters ? as well as a majority of women ? are against it.

New Jersey?s case might seem strong to Americans who now gamble on sports. But consider this: The new law prevents gambling on all collegiate sporting events within the Garden State. What?s bad for New Jersey and its school teams ought to be bad for the country and all its sports teams.

A third of National Basketball Association fans, for example, already think game fixing is a problem. About a fifth of ?March Madness? fansagree. This perception would only grow if sports wagering were legal. The big sports leagues also found in surveys that fans would attend fewer games if sports gambling were legal.

Also consider this: Las Vegas, one of the nation?s larger metropolitan areas, has no major-league franchise because the leagues don?t want their sports tainted by the betting now allowed within the state. (PASPA made an allowance for Nevada.)

New Jersey has another problem, one that might not come up in court. About 350,000 people in the state are compulsive gamblers, with many of them young people hooked on Internet betting and about 6 to 10 percent of these addicts losing money on sports wagers.

MONITOR'S VIEW: New Jersey's bad call on sports betting

Why add to this social and financial problem that ruins so many lives? And why should states like New Jersey seek revenue from an activity that only feeds into the addiction of an estimated 3 percent of the population?

But even for nonaddicts, the ?fun? of betting on the Super Bowl ? the largest sporting event of the year ? only adds to a perception that ?luck? drives one?s life.

What a contrast to the thinking of athletes who know that such qualities as hard work, talent, and teamwork are the real predictors of who wins in sports.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-states-shouldnt-cash-super-bowl-odds-114916287--politics.html

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Coke's new ad about protecting profit, not fighting obesity

A controversial ad from Coca-cola has given the role of soft drinks in the obesity epidemic the type of attention the company had hoped to deflect. The new ad tries to improve public opinion of Coca-Cola by showing concern about the future health of the nation. Since the campaign kicked off, nutrition experts have been reminding the public about how scientific research debunks Coca-Cola?s cynical claims.

Coke and cigarettes

Last year government officials, most notably the mayor of New York, started imposing strict regulations on the portion size of sugar-sweetened beverages. Growing public awareness of their health risks is leading to comparisons of products such as Coke with cigarettes in terms of health impact.

Fearing the damage to profits from an emerging marketing and public relations debacle, Coca-Cola has produced an ad intended to obfuscate scientific research confirming that Coke and other sugar-sweetened soft drinks are a major contributor to obesity and that their products have absolutely no nutritional value.

Coke sounds the alarm

The spin of the company?s new ad campaign, ?Coming Together,? is that Coca-Cola is working hard to make its beverages healthier. It begins with a sincerely earnest tone:

?For over 125 years, we?ve been bringing people together. Today we?d like people to come together on something that concerns all of us: obesity. The long-term health of our families and the country is at stake.?

Healthier choices?

The narrator uses statistics to create the impression that Coca-Cola is leading people who drink sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks to a thinner, healthier tomorrow:

?Across our portfolio of more than 650 beverages, we now offer over 180 low- and no-calorie choices,? the ad says, ?Over the last 15 years, this helped reduce the average calories per serving across our industry?s products in the U.S. by 22 percent.?

Many people have been led to believe that so-called diet drinks with no- or low-calories are a healthier choice. However, numerous studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can distort biochemistry in ways that lead to significant weight gain and higher blood sugar levels, as well as disrupt the body?s ability to control calorie intake.

A calorie is a calorie?

According to most critics of the campaign, the company goes too far when the narrator tries to shift blame for obesity from the company to the consumer?with the implication that all calories, including soda calories, are created equal:

??beating obesity will take action by all of us, based on one simple, common-sense fact: All calories count, no matter where they come from. ?And if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you?ll gain weight.?

Scientific research in the past few years has proven that in human metabolism, all calories are not created equal, in particular those from fructose, the main sweetener in Coke. Fructose, which can only be metabolized in the liver, overwhelms the organ, where fat accumulates. Fructose also forces the pancreas to make more insulin, which can eventually lead to a prediabetic condition. Both effects send a body on the road to metabolic syndrome.

Shameless

Even the advertising industry has responded to Coca-Cola?s campaign with derision. Adweek, called the video ?shameless? in an article titled ?The soda giant makes an awkward first stab at addressing obesity.?

So we can expect to hear more from Coca-Cola about obesity. But properly translated the company?s message is an attempt to maintain profits, not take action for the health of consumers.

Source: New York Times, Medill Reports, Dr. Mercola

Tagged as: artificial sweeteners, coca cola claims, coke ad obesity, coke and cigarettes, fructose calories, Healthier choices, obesity epidemic, scientific research, sugar-sweetened beverages

Source: http://www.themedifastplan.com/main/cokes-new-ad-about-protecting-profit-not-fighting-obesity/

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Clinton raps critics as she leaves office

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is leaving office with a slap at critics of the Obama administration's handling of the September attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya. She told The Associated Press that critics of the administration's handling of the attack don't live in an "evidence-based world" and their refusal to "accept the facts" is unfortunate and regrettable for the political system.

In her last one-on-one interview before she steps down on Friday, Clinton told the AP that the attack in Benghazi was the low point of her time as America's top diplomat. But she suggested that the furor over the assault would not affect whether she runs for president in 2016.

Although she insisted that she has not decided what her future holds, she said she "absolutely" still plans to make a difference on issues she cares about in speeches and in a sequel to her 2003 memoir, "Living History," that will focus largely on her years as secretary of state.

Clinton spoke to the AP Thursday in her outer office on the seventh floor of the State Department less than 24 hours before she walks out for a final time as boss. She was relaxed but clearly perturbed by allegations from Republican lawmakers and commentators that the administration had intentionally misled the public about whether the attack was a protest gone awry or a terrorist attack, or intentionally withheld additional security for diplomatic personnel in Libya knowing that an attack could happen.

An independent panel she convened to look into the incident was scathing in its criticism of the State Department and singled out four officials for serious management and leadership failures. But it also determined that there was no guarantee that extra personnel could have prevented the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans. Clinton herself was not blamed, although she has said she accepted responsibility for the situation.

"I was so unhappy with the way that some people refused to accept the facts, refused to accept the findings of an independent Accountability Review Board, politicized everything about this terrible attack," she said. "My job is to admit that we have to make improvements and we're going to."

Clinton faced a barrage of hostile questions about Benghazi from Republican lawmakers when she testified before Congress recently in appearances that were delayed from December because of illness. Afterward, some lawmakers continued to accuse her and the administration of withholding evidence. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., told a television interviewer that he thought Clinton was getting "away with murder."

In the interview, Clinton had little patience for such allegations.

"There are some people in politics and in the press who can't be confused by the facts," she said. "They just will not live in an evidence-based world. And that's regrettable. It's regrettable for our political system and for the people who serve our government in very dangerous, difficult circumstances."

At the same time, Clinton said she refused to be discouraged by the fact that critics "are never going to accept the facts and the limitations of the facts." She added that "you have to get up every day and work to do best you can and communicate that to the vast majority of fair-minded Americans whether they're in Congress, in the press or in the public."

Because of that, she said, the partisan divide should not dissuade anyone with a cause from getting involved in politics and she hinted strongly that a divisive atmosphere would not stop her in any future endeavor. "You have to have a thick skin because (politics) is just going to be a contact sport as far as we can look into the future."

Clinton is no stranger to partisan politics. As first lady, she railed in 1998 against a "vast right-wing conspiracy" that she asserted had been attacking her husband, Bill Clinton, ever since he had become president.

But the woman who was once considered a divisive figure in American politics, yet leaves office as one of its most popular, remained coy about whether she would run for president in 2016.

"I am making no decisions, but I would never give that advice to someone that I wouldn't take myself," she said. "If you believe you can make a difference, not just in politics, in public service, in advocacy around all these important issues, then you have to be prepared to accept that you are not going to get 100 percent approval."

Asked if she still thought she could make a difference, Clinton replied, "Absolutely," but added quickly that she hadn't yet decided how.

"I have deliberately cabined it off," she said. "I am going to be secretary of state until the very last minute when I walk out the door. And then I am going to take the weekend off and then I may start thinking about all the various offers and requests and ideas that have come my way.

"I have made no decisions and I just can't until I have time to think it through and see how I am going to put it all together. I will certainly write something. I will certainly speak. Those are givens, but the rest of it I don't have in mind. And I hope through my writing and speaking to continue making a difference as well."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-clinton-raps-benghazi-critics-084552064--politics.html

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Apple halting Mac Pro sales in Europe on March 1st in the wake of new standards

Apple has hinted that it will give Mac Pro aficionados some love with a professional Mac follow-up sometime this year. For Europeans, though, it might not come soon enough: the company has confirmed that it's officially stopping sales of the current Mac Pro in European Union-affiliated countries as of March 1st. Why? Soon-to-be-implemented tougher standards require that companies shield their fans and electrical ports more thoroughly than we see in the existing system, Apple says. While there's no immediate sign of a replacement, prospective customers who want the tower for projects won't be completely left out -- resellers will be free to sell what stock they have after the cutoff date. That might still be small consolation to European pros who need heavier iron for their tasks than an iMac.

Filed under: Desktops, Apple

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Via: MacRumors

Source: Macworld UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/31/apple-halting-mac-pro-sales-in-europe-on-march-1st/

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LG Optimus L7 II Dual pictured ahead of possible MWC launch

It’s almost a year since we first met the LG L-style series at Mobile World Congress 2012 -- the original line-up consisted of the Optimus L3, L5 and L7. And ahead of this year’s show, there are signs the Korean manufacturer could have at least one follow-up in the pipeline.

According to reports from Russian site Hi-Tech, backed up by what seem to be leaked renders of the phone, the clumsily-named "LG Optimus L7 II Dual" will be heading to Russia in late February, and it’ll pack dual-SIM capabilities. (Note the capacitive SIM-switching button on the images above.)

Other reported specs include a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch IPS display, an 8MP camera and 2460mAh battery -- supposedly enough for two days per charge. On the software side, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is said to be on-board, along with LG customizations including QuickMemo, QuickTranslator and QSlide. In Russia, the phone will reportedly retail for 12,990 rubles ($432).

Assuming this information is legit, we can probably expect to see the Optimus L7 II Dual at this year’s MWC -- and we imagine there’ll probably be a vanilla L7 II on display too, with a standard single SIM slot.

Source: Hi-Tech@Mail.ru; via: PocketNow

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/wlom7wbNlR4/story01.htm

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Mali jihadists in custody say tortured by military

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) ? Three suspected jihadists arrested in the days since the liberation of the town of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.

The three are being held in an earthen cell in what remains of the military camp in Timbuktu, which was freed earlier this week by French and Malian soldiers after nearly 10 months under the rule of radical Islamists.

The men, who were tied together with a turban and one handcuff, all acknowledged to The Associated Press having been members of the al-Qaida-linked group known as Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith.

"To force me to talk they poured 40 liters of water in my mouth and over my nostrils which made it so that I could not breathe anymore. For a moment I thought I was even going to die," said one of the men, who gave his name as Ali Guindo and said he was from a village near the central Malian town of Niono.

"I sleep in the cold and every night they come pour freezing water over me. "

All three prisoners described similar treatment. Their account could not be independently verified. Soldiers holding the three asked reporters to leave after initially allowing journalists to speak with them.

Army Col. Mamary Camara told reporters that the three were arrested by Malian forces in the town of Lere, and he said that one of the men was from Libya and was caught wearing a foreign military uniform.

The Libyan jihadist was visibly frightened, crouching in a corner of his cell. He gave the AP contradictory information about his background, first saying he was born in a Malian village but of Libyan descent.

Later, he said he was from Tripoli but has lived for years in Mali. He initially denied being part of Ansar Dine but later confirmed that he belonged to the movement though he denied having an important role.

The Malian military said that when he was arrested he was wearing a watch with a memory card inside that they said was used to communicate with other foreign jihadists.

The allegations of torture made public Friday in Timbuktu come as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released reports Friday outlining other allegations of misconduct by the Malian military and Islamists over the last month.

Both groups said they had documented cases of Malian soldiers killing suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare on the eve of the French-led intervention. Human Rights Watch document at least 13 killings, though Amnesty said the number could be as high as two dozen.

Human Rights Watch said the witnesses described seeing soldiers at a bus station in Sevare interrogate passengers suspected of links to extremist groups. Those who did not produce the proper identification were taken away, the witnesses said.

"Before the soldiers marched them off, many of the detained men frantically tried to find someone in the crowd at the bus station who could vouch for them and verify their identity," the HRW report said. "They were driven or marched to a nearby field, where they were shot and their bodies dumped into one of four wells."

The Associated Press had earlier reported killings of civilians by the Malian army in Sevare, with bodies dumped into a well.

The Malian government has promised to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by its soldiers.

France has said that it eventually wants to hand over responsibility for the mission to the Malian army and other African counterparts.

Friday's reports also cited alleged human rights abuses committed by the Islamists. Human Rights Watch said Islamist rebels had killed at least seven Malian soldiers.

"One begged for his life saying, 'Please, in the name of God.' but they held him down and slit his throat," a witness told HRW. "Two days later, as we picked up the dead soldiers to bury them, the Islamists saw that five of them were still living. Most were gravely wounded but they were still breathing and should have been given a chance to live. Instead the Islamists killed them ? one after the other."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mali-jihadists-custody-tortured-military-122145724.html

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Facebook's mobile ad revenue doubles in fourth quarter

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, a sign that the No.1 social network is seeing early success in expanding onto handheld devices as more of its users migrate to smartphones and tablets.

Investors want to see evidence that CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 8-year-old company is delivering on promises to develop a full-fledged mobile advertising business, a challenge facing many of today's technology leaders including Google Inc .

But the growth trailed some of Wall Street's most aggressive estimates. Shares of Facebook were down roughly 3 percent at $30.21 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, regaining ground after falling more than 8 percent immediately after the numbers were released.

Mobile revenue estimates among some analysts and investors were unreasonably high, said Sterne, Agee & Leach analyst Arvind Bhatia.

"As a result the stock was set up for disappointment," he said. Overall, he said, Facebook's results were encouraging.

The company's overall advertising business grew at its fastest clip since before its May initial public offering, helping the company's revenue expand 40 percent and surpass Wall Street targets.

Facebook has rolled out a wide variety of new services in recent months as the company seeks to stay ahead in the fast-moving Web market and to convince Wall Street that it can turn its audience of more than 1 billion users into a sustainable business.

Zuckerberg said the company plans to spend heavily to recruit talent in 2013 as the company pushes forward with new product development, particularly "mobile-first" services.

"We aren't operating to maximize our profit this year but we're doing what we think will build the best service and business over the long term," Zuckerberg said during a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.

The strategy makes sense for an Internet company, said Stifel Nicolaus Jordan Rohan. But it will force Wall Street analysts to "ratchet down" their profit expectations.

"The conference call was a bit of a sobering event," said Rohan. "The company advised analysts and investors to expect lower margins, and downplayed the near-term opportunity for revenues from Gifts," Facebook's recently-launched online commerce service.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Facebook shares, which lost more than half their value following a rocky IPO, have regained ground in recent months as concerns about its mobile ad business and insider selling have eased. Shares have surged roughly 60 percent since mid-November.

Zuckerberg said that recently introduced products such as Gifts, which allows Facebook users to purchase retail goods for their friends, as well as its new social search tool could become important businesses in the future. But in the near term he said that Facebook's advertising efforts will be the core of its business.

The number of monthly active users on the social network reached 1.06 billion at the end of last year, with 618 million daily active users, Facebook said. But much of that growth again came from emerging markets like Asia, rather than the United States or Europe, where revenue per user is several times higher. For instance, average revenue per user is $13.58 for the United States and Canada, but just $2.35 in Asia.

Overall fourth-quarter revenue came to $1.585 billion, up 40 percent versus $1.131 billion a year earlier. Analysts were looking for revenue of $1.53 billion.

Executives said some revenue from its payments business dating back to September 2012 had been booked in the October-December quarter, inflating the number somewhat. Excluding those deferred sales, overall revenue would have been up just 34 percent in the quarter.

But it was the fledgling mobile business that dominated Wednesday's discussion on the call. Finance Chief David Ebersman said Facebook had "basically doubled" mobile ad revenue from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.

"Two quarters ago we really had no mobile revenue," Ebersman told Reuters in an interview. "In the course of a pretty short period of time, we've dramatically ramped up our ability to monetize mobile."

Facebook said net income in the fourth quarter was $64 million, or 3 cents a share, compared to $302 million, or 14 cents a share a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, Facebook said it earned 17 cents a share, compared to the 15 cents a share expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Facebook expects expenses -- excluding stock-based compensation for employees -- to jump 50 percent in 2013, likely outpacing revenue growth. Capital investments may climb to $1.8 billion, up 14 percent from last year's $1.575 billion.

"They're going to have to continue to develop new products, which will cost them," said Bhatia of Sterne, Agee & Leach.

But he said, "the market would be less happy if they were not finding enough opportunities." (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebooks-mobile-ad-revenue-doubles-fourth-quarter-014152243--finance.html

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