Kohler ordered to pay $9.6 million in patent suit | Wisconsin Law ...

KOHLER, Wis. (AP) ? The Kohler Co. has been ordered in federal court to pay $9.6 million to a Massachusetts manufacturer for infringing on two of its patents for components that reduce exhaust emissions in marine generators.

Jurors in U.S. District Court in Boston last week found Kohler willfully infringed on the patents issued in 2008 and 2010. They are owned by an affiliate of the Westerbeke Corp., which accused Kohler of infringing on both patents with several models of its low carbon monoxide marine generators.

Kohler denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim seeking to declare Westerbeke?s patents invalid because the technology would have been ?obvious to one of ordinary skill,? according to court filings.

Kohler spokesman Todd Weber said the company still believes the technology used in its generators was ?well known and in the public domain? and was developed years ago by the automotive industry to reduce emissions.

?There is nothing novel about using this known technology on a marine generator,? Weber said.

Weber said Kohler will ask the court to modify the jury?s verdict and will file appeals on ?any remaining issues on infringement and invalidity.?

Westerbeke?s lawsuit, filed more than two years ago, went to trial earlier this month, with Westerbeke seeking to recoup damages and costs, along with an injunction prohibiting further patent infringement, according to The Sheboygan Press.

Jurors determined Westerbeke was due royalties worth 13.5 percent of Kohler?s gross sales on its marine generators, according to court records.

Information from: The Sheboygan Press, http://www.sheboygan-press.com

Source: http://wislawjournal.com/2013/05/21/kohler-ordered-to-pay-9-6-million-in-patent-suit/

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The Past and Future of Tornado Prediction

The country?s first official tornado watch was issued 65 years ago, on March 25, 1948. It was for Tinker Air Force Base, located just 12 miles northeast of Moore, Okla., where Monday?s mile-wide tornado tore through town, killing at least 24 people and leveling entire neighborhoods along its 20-mile path. That warning, issued by Air Force meteorologists Capt. Robert Miller and Maj. Ernest Fawbush, was based on similar weather patterns from five days earlier, when a tornado ripped through the base. They got it right: The base hangered its planes before another tornado hit it that day.

"We?ve come a long way since the Tinker Air Force Base warnings, both in our understanding of tornadoes and weather patterns, and also in our technological ability," says Roger Edwards, a meteorologist who has spent the past 20 years at the National Weather Service?s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. "For the most part tornado warning times in the 1950s and ?60s was a matter of seconds."

Today, the average warning time is more like 15 minutes, and the weather service uses a combination of weather balloons?launched every 12 hours?satellite, radar, and weather-station feeds to make those predictions. Today forecasters look at long-range temperature data and wind-flow patterns that can produce atmospheric instability (warm air at the surface, cold air higher up), moisture, and wind shear (change of wind speed at different levels of elevation). Those latter ingredients are the building blocks of tornadoes.

Predicting Moore

While most of the news stories in the wake of Monday?s tornadoes have reported the fact that there was a warning issued 16 minutes before the tornado touched down near Moore, the Storm Prediction Center was hard at work, warning local forecasters, the media, and local citizens long before that.

The Storm Prediction Center actually issued a moderate-outlook warning two days before the Moore tornado, another the day before the tornado hit, and another at 7 am Central time on May 20?the day the tornado hit.

The 7 am report warned: "STORMS THAT FORM FROM CENTRAL OK NORTHEASTWARD INTO SOUTHEAST KS AND MO APPEAR LIKELY TO ORGANIZE INTO BROKEN LINES AND CLUSTERS BY EARLY EVENING CAPABLE OF WIDESPREAD DAMAGING WINDS . . .LARGE HAIL . . . AND A FEW TORNADOES."

At 1:10 pm, the Storm Prediction Center issued a storm watch, alerting residents of most of Oklahoma, including Moore, that the conditions for a tornado were in effect and to prepare to take cover if one developed. By 2:08, the National Weather Service office in Norman, which handles tornado warnings for the area, and which is next door to the Strom Prediction Center, began issuing increasingly dire alerts. They also took to their Twitter feed @NWSNorman, writing:

2:08 p.m.: "Storms developing near Blanchard and Tuttle, moving NE at 30mph. Stay alert Norman, Moore, and S OKC. Not severe yet." 2:30 p.m.: "People in south OKC, Moore and north Norman need to pay VERY close attention to the storm near Newcastle." 2:34 p.m.: "One warning forecaster focusing on big supercell west of OKC." 2:39 p.m.: "Storm west of Newcastle is intensifying and showing some rotation. Stay alert! No tornado warning yet."

At 2:40 pm, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down in Newcastle, and 36 minutes before hitting Moore, a tornado warning was issued across all media outlets and weather radios, and again on Twitter, where the NWS wrote: "TORNADO WARNING for OKC metro! Developing tornado near Newcastle moving E 20 mph. Take shelter!!"

Oklahoma City?s local news teams, famous for their severe weather coverage, were on the air. In Moore, the city?s network tornado sirens began wailing. A city emergency-alert system that dials city phone numbers and plays a warning was activated. At 2:56 pm, the tornado tore across Moore.

Storm Prediction in the Future

Officially, tornado watches are issued by the Storm Prediction Center. They are, in effect, an alert that the weather conditions will likely exist for a tornado to form later in the day. Watches typically cover 3- to 8-hour periods and cover areas as large as 25,000 square miles?about half the size of Mississippi. Warnings, on the other hand, come from the National Weather Service offices and are issued when a tornado is imminent?typically about 15 minutes before touchdown.

"We?re trying to bridge the gap between watches and warnings so we can issue specific notices hours in advance that a tornado will touch down in a specific county, but we?re several years off," Edwards says. "It all comes down to the data and modeling the data, and that takes a lot of computing power. Once you get above the surface, our data is not as dense as it could be. We?ll need to launch more weather balloons and get more frequent sampling from satellites."

Another step in improving tornado forecasts nationwide is the linking of various weather reporting stations into a network of networks with an endless stream of data. Oklahoma has already developed such a network, but the goal is to expand this nationally.

Until that time, people?s best strategy for staying out of harm?s way is to treat tornado watches incredibly seriously. These watches are, in effect, an early warning system that should put you on notice that you?re in danger. By the time an actual warning is issued you?re most likely looking at just minutes to react, not hours.

"That 16-minute warning doesn?t sound like much," Edwards says. "But it?s a tremendous improvement compared to warning times in the past. The hurricane path was 20 miles long and lasted for 40 minutes. Hundreds of lives were saved because the warnings for those spots further down the hurricane track were even greater than that 16 minutes."

John Galvin covers natural and man-made disasters for Popular Mechanics. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnPGalvin.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/the-past-and-future-of-tornado-prediction-15502769?src=rss

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Portland, Ore., voting on water fluoridation

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Oral health and politics collided Tuesday as Portlanders ? proudly nonconformist and environmentally minded ? decided whether their city remains the largest in the U.S. without public fluoridation.

Voters had weeks to make their choice in the mail-ballot election. But by Tuesday it was too late to rely on the postman, so drop boxes have been placed across the city to accommodate those who waited until the final day to make a decision, as well as people who didn't want to pay for postage.

Supporters and opponents of fluoridation have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and traded accusations of sign-stealing and shoddy science in an election that has been the city's most contentious of the 21st century.

If voters say no, Portland will remain the largest U.S. city without fluoride in the water or plans to add it to combat tooth decay. Voters in Portland twice rejected fluoridation before approving it in 1978. That plan was overturned two years later, before any fluoride was ever added to the water.

A sampling of voters dropping off ballots in rainy Pioneer Courthouse Square found people opposed to fluoridation.

"People don't like change. When in doubt, say no," said Tracy Rauscher, a native Portlander who, like a native Portlander, did not use an umbrella.

Portland's drinking water already contains naturally occurring fluoride, though not at levels considered to be effective at fighting cavities. Backers of fluoridation say adding more of it to the water is a safe, effective and affordable way to improve the health of low-income children whose parents don't stress proper nutrition and dental hygiene.

Opponents describe fluoride as a chemical that will ruin the city's pristine water supply, and they argue that adding it would violate an individual's right to consent to medication.

Although most Americans drink water treated with fluoride, it has long been a contentious topic. In the 1950s, fluoridation was feared as a Communist plot. Today, people worry that its effect on the body has not been sufficiently examined.

"I don't want chemicals in my water," Sarah Lazzaro said after voting Tuesday. "I know that there are really no known health risks with it, but there's a lot of things we find out later in life really do have health risks."

The issue re-appeared on Portland's radar late last summer, when health organizations that had quietly lobbied the City Council for a year persuaded the panel to unanimously approve fluoridation by March 2014.

Days before the vote, 227 people ? most of them opponents ? signed up to testify at a public hearing that lasted 6 1/2 hours. When their objections weren't heeded, they quickly gathered tens of thousands of signatures to force Tuesday's vote.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/portland-ore-voting-water-fluoridation-022425730.html

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Apple Avoids Billions in Taxes: Senate (ABC News)

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Childhood ADHD Linked to Obesity in Adulthood

Identification and treatment issues surrounding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are challenging enough. Now research is shedding light on long-term outcomes for people with ADHD. A recent study in Pediatrics reports that men who had ADHD in childhood are twice as likely to be obese in middle age, even if they no longer exhibit symptoms of ADHD. ADHD is a mental disorder characterized by hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention and inability to focus. It affects approximately 6.8 percent of U.S. children ages 3 to 17 in any given year, according to a recent report by the CDC. Medications used to treat ADHD, such as Ritalin (methylphenidate) or Adderall (dextroamphetamine and amphetamine), are stimulants that can suppress appetite, however, a couple recent retrospective studies have pointed to a possible increased risk for obesity among adults diagnosed with ADHD as children. The new 33-year prospective study started with 207 healthy middle-class white boys from New York City between 6 and 12 years old, who had been diagnosed with ADHD. When the cohort reached an average age of 18, another 178 healthy boys without ADHD were recruited for comparison. At the most recent follow-up when the participants were an average age of 41, a total of 222 men remained in the study. A troubling pattern emerged: A comparison of the men?s self-reported height and weight revealed that twice as many men with childhood ADHD were obese than those without childhood ADHD. The average body mass index (BMI) of the men with childhood ADHD was 30.1 and 41.4 percent were obese, whereas those without the condition as kids reported an average BMI of 27.6 and an obesity rate of 21.6 percent. The association held even after the researchers controlled for socioeconomic status, depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorders. The results have implications for parents currently raising kids with ADHD. ?Many parents are concerned that their children may not be gaining as much weight as they should because [ADHD] medications can decrease appetite in the short run, but these results would lead me to be much less worried about that now,? says corresponding author F. Xavier Castellanos of the Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute of Pediatric Neuroscience at NYU Langone Medical Center. ?It helps us to realize that over the long run, the potential risks of obesity, of overeating and of dysregulation, are a more prominent long-term concern.? The study is case-controlled, which means researchers identified participants (cases) with the condition and then matched them to a control population to compare outcomes and look for risk factor differences. Therefore, it cannot prove causation because it?s observational. Only a randomized, controlled trial could show that obesity is caused by ADHD, but it?s impossible to randomize participants to have ADHD, both because it?s unethical and because researchers do not know precisely what causes ADHD. Possible causes could include genetics, nutrition, environmental factors or brain injuries. These findings, however, are similar to results in other studies that have found links between ADHD and obesity. The previous studies, however, were retrospective (relying on participants? recall), did not focus exclusively on ADHD (included other conduct disorders) or compared only men with adult ADHD to men with remitted childhood ADHD, rather than to controls without ADHD. This prospective study is the most long-term and the first to focus exclusively on adult obesity rates in men with childhood ADHD compared to men without childhood ADHD. Its findings therefore contribute to the growing evidence base for an association between obesity and childhood ADHD.? An unclear mechanism A link between obesity and childhood ADHD could be explained by either a neurobiological or a psychological mechanism, the authors proposed. With the former, it is possible that something similar genetically underlies both ADHD and obesity; Castellanos and his colleagues note that dysfunction in the dopamine pathways of the brain have been found among both people who are obese and people with ADHD. As for the psychological mechanism, the impulsive behaviors and diminished inhibitions associated with ADHD ?may foster poor planning and difficulty in monitoring eating behaviors, leading to abnormal eating patterns and consequent obesity,? the team wrote. ?One of the aspects of ADHD is this tendency to focus on ?I want it now? and not waiting for something, not delaying gratification, so we think that may lead people to eat more than they physiologically might need,? Castellanos says. Eating just an extra 100 calories a day than the total burned can easily lead one to accumulate extra pounds. Appetite regulation is complex but usually balances out in healthy individuals?unless they eat when they?re not actually hungry. Some researchers are dubious about both the neurobiological and the psychological explanations. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral developmental pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of Remembering Ritalin and Running on Ritalin, says he finds the idea of dysregulation in adulthood unlikely for adults who no longer have symptoms of ADHD. ?The finding is real?no question about it?but the explanations are poor,? says Diller. ?If the ADHD is remitted, then why should the impulsivity and poor judgment still be there?? Of the 111 men with childhood ADHD in this study, 87 no longer had ADHD symptoms (remitted) and 24 still had ADHD (persistent). Those with remitted ADHD had relatively higher obesity rates than the persistent-ADHD men, though the small number of men with persistent ADHD makes it difficult to draw any substantial conclusions about this difference. Diller suggested that the long-term impact of ADHD medication may play a part. ?We know that stimulants very much affect the satiety thermostat in people who take them,? he says. ?There is the question of whether or not the long-term suppression of appetite somehow affects the brain so that when you?re no longer taking the drugs, it takes more [food] to make you feel full.? Diller pointed to research showing that long-term use of ADHD stimulants can lead to an inch or two of lower-than-predicted height in adults, although the adults in this new study showed no significant differences in height. ?That doesn?t mean you shouldn?t take the medicine, but in weighing the pros and cons, it?s one more thing for parents to think about in treatment,? Diller says. ?The idea that impulsivity and poor judgment may play a role is possible, but I think my idea of adjusting the satiety thermostat long-term is just as plausible as theirs.? A different possible mechanism, proposed by Juan Salinas, a lecturer specializing in the neuropharmacology of learning and memory at the University of Texas at Austin, resembles the neurobiological hypothesis, given that ADHD involves a dysfunctional release of dopamine in the brain. ?From more basic research into the neurobiology of reward, it?s suggestive that maybe somehow these people who do not have ADHD anymore may have an alteration in the dopamine pathways, and maybe some of the eating may be a way to self-medicate to increase dopamine release,? Salinas says. ?It?s not so much impulse control, but it?s a self-medicating idea.? The implications of the study, then, Salinas says, are that parents need to train their children with ADHD early to eat healthily, exercise and practice a healthy lifestyle. Another line of thought, proposed by Stephen Hinshaw, a psychology professor specializing in ADHD at the University of California at Berkeley and at San Francisco, extends the poor impulse control hypothesis. ?It?s plausible that there are biological underpinnings of both ADHD and obesity,? he says, ?but the more parsimonious explanation from other research is that ADHD portends problems in self-regulation over time.? In other words, adults who once had ADHD might later be able to sit in a chair and refrain from fidgeting, but emotional and physical regulation issues could linger in the form of less-than-ideal eating habits. 'Devastating? long-term consequences Hinshaw?s own work with ADHD in girls and other research into long-term outcomes support this idea that the challenges of self-regulation may not fade when the outwardly clinical symptoms of hyperactivity do. His 10-year study of 140 girls with ADHD found much higher rates of self-cutting, self-burning and suicide attempts in this group than were found in a control group. Additionally, he says, recent research has found high levels of unemployment and underemployment and poorer work productivity among adults who had childhood ADHD than among those who did not. The men with childhood ADHD in the new study also had significantly lower socioeconomic status than those in the control group, even though the groups had been matched initially for parental socioeconomic status and geography. ?ADHD still gets ridiculed in the press?saying it?s a made-up disease or that we just don?t tolerate fidgety kids?but it has really devastating long-term consequences, and we have to take it seriously,? Hinshaw says. Rising rates of ADHD diagnoses could be related to both improved health care access for more children and possible misdiagnoses due to the inadequate time spent on assessments in pediatricians? offices. ?We need to insist upon a much higher level of diagnosis and evaluation so that we?re really sure that it?s ADHD and not maltreatment or family conflict or normal-range behavior,? Hinshaw says. For those who really suffer from ADHD, this study provides more evidence of the challenges those children will face in adulthood. ?ADHD has staying power,? he says, ?regardless of whether the symptoms on the surface improve or not.?? Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/childhood-adhd-linked-obesity-adulthood-090000730.html

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World stocks rise on signs of steady US recovery

BANGKOK (AP) ? Evidence of a steady economic recovery in the U.S. helped push world stock markets higher Monday.

A gauge of future economic activity issued Friday rose more than expected, a sign that the world's biggest economy is improving. Consumer confidence also rose, offsetting several lackluster reports on slowing manufacturing and an increase in applications for unemployment benefits.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.7 percent to 6,735.31. Germany's DAX gained 0.5 percent to 8,440.38. France's CAC-40 advanced 0.3 percent to 4,012.55. Wall Street looked set for a flat opening, however. Dow Jones industrial futures were nearly unchanged at 15,316. S&P 500 futures were flat at 1,663.10.

Asian stock markets were broadly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.5 percent to 15,360.81. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.8 percent to 23,493.03. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5 percent to 5,209. Benchmarks in mainland China, Taiwan, and Indonesia also rose. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 1,982.43.

Investors will have a slew of data to sift through this week, including U.S. homes sales and durable goods orders. Analysts are somewhat pessimistic about the strength of China's recovery but are expecting to see solid improvement in the U.S.

In Washington, remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to members of Congress on Wednesday will be closely examined for hints about the future direction of the central bank's monetary policy.

The Fed is currently conducting the third round of massive bond purchases known as quantitative easing to help drive down interest rates and spur lending. But recently improving data on the U.S. economy has led to speculation that the Fed might consider winding the program down earlier than expected.

"What everyone is watching for is any comment from the Fed chief on asset purchases or any clarification on current thinking," said Mitul Kotecha of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. "The timing of any decision on winding down asset purchases is still very much undecided so it seems unlikely Bernanke will be categorical or provide strong timing about a reduction" in quantitative easing.

HSBC's survey on China's manufacturing growth, to be released Thursday, is also highly anticipated. Analysts at Credit Agricole are expecting a slight deceleration due to seasonal factors, from 50.4 in April to 50.3 in May.

"More signs of weakness will add to global growth worries. I think markets are particularly sensitive to this data release," Kotecha said.

Wall Street stocks again pushed higher Friday after the Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent last month after a revised decline of 0.2 percent in March. The index is intended to predict how the economy will be doing in three to six months. Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary survey of consumer confidence climbed to 83.7. Economists had predicted that the gauge would climb to 76.8.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 57 cents at $95.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2846 from $1.2829 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 102.54 yen from 103.18 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-rise-signs-steady-us-recovery-091112139.html

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The New ?Handmade?

Amid grumblings of a “general fatigue” when it comes to software-based startups, a potentially transformative technology called 3D printing is poised to reach critical mass and mainstream awareness. Today’s news headlines about the technology tend to focus on the extreme possibilities in being able to print objects on demand – from the terrors of things like a homemade 3D-printed gun to heartwarming tales of printed robotic hands for children born without fingers. But the innovation is also powering a revolution of a different kind. An emerging class of creatives are using 3D printing techniques, not to either save or destroy the world and the people in it, but simply to create a little beauty along the way. These creatives, makers of the new “handmade” goods, are selling their art in online storefronts like Etsy and Shapeways, as well as within brick-and-mortar stores, and even museums. They range from technically adept programmers who never dabbled in hands-on art involving paint or clay or other materials, to formally trained artists and even do-it-yourselfers who taught themselves 3D modeling by watching tutorials on YouTube. Regardless of how they got there, the end result is an output of affordably priced, print-on-demand goods that reflect their own unique vision and inspirations, whether that’s a new kind of jewelry that couldn’t exist before the capabilities introduced by 3D printing, one-of-a-kind items used to decorate your home, or objects which buyers help craft themselves, using simple online tools. Here are some of their stories. This is part one of an ongoing series which will showcase some of the art that’s being fueled by the increasingly accessible 3D printing technology, and the artists behind the work. ~~~ Part One: The Formally Trained Artist Summer Powell has always been an artist. She has both undergrad and graduate degrees in graphic design, and has worked on a number of products involving mixed media, vacuum forming, and lenticular technology, while exploring the intersection of art and technology in years past. Along with a collaborator, she once produced a clock which used high-resolution animations to tell the time, for example. Powell says she first heard about 3D printing around 10 years ago and had been watching the space ever since waiting for it to become viable for use in her art. “I had industrial designer friends in New York, and I’d go see their prototyping 3D printing machines,” she says. “They were

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JGpzyg6X2e4/

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Nook Simple Touch reportedly getting web browser, email client on June 1st

Remember that web browser that was found hiding in the Nook's search function? It's time could be nigh. According to a leaked memo acquired by TechCrunch, Barnes & Nobel will be updating the Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight with an email app, web browser and an updated store next month. The update will reportedly be sent over the air starting on June 1st and rolling out to all devices in the following weeks. The idea isn't too far fetched -- the Simple Touch is running a skinned version of Android. Nook owners not willing to wait for the official patch can always root the device of course, which comes with some peripheral advantages. Check out TechCrunch for a look the full memo.

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Source: TechCrunch

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Cam Newton is a leaner leader in 2013 - Cat Scratch Reader

Cam's return to school has resulted in a thinned-down version of the Panthers' QB.

Cam Newton will look a little different come this fall, but it's all in an effort to further improve his game. An article by Joe Person, he details how Cam has lost 5-6 pounds this off-season. This puts him at around 245 lbs, which keeps him as one of the largest quarterbacks in the league -- but also allows him to be a little faster on the field.

"I don't know if he did it intentionally or it's a matter of how active he's been," Rivera said, but it's hard to imagine this is a wild coincidence. If anything, the likelihood in being away from Charlotte would have added weight, not lost. Newton didn't look heavy in 2013, but his weight loss points to the larger facet to Cam -- self-improvement.

It's this adherence to honing his game that's often glossed over when discussing Newton as a quarterback. Sure, every QB does work in the off-season, but most fail to realize that he shares the same sensibilities as Peyton Manning when it comes to preseason preparation. He might fall short during the regular season when it comes to getting his team to the playoffs, but Cam is taking the next step to change that.

More encouraging are a few simple words from Person that make a world of difference:

"Rivera said Newton has taken on more of a leadership role in his third season."

This is the final step Cam needs to take in order to transcend being a physically gifted player, and become a dominant quarterback. The towels, the pouting, the sideline spats with Steve Smith -- this is where all that gets erased, and if the light-bulb has come on for Newton as a leader, well, it could be very special.

It remains to be seen whether this weight loss and burgeoning leadership will result in the best Newton we've seen -- but at least he'll be running on well-maintained feet.

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Source: http://www.catscratchreader.com/2013/5/20/4347742/cam-newton-is-a-leaner-leader-in-2013

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Cannes helps actors Bejo and Rahim cross borders

CANNES, France (AP) ? The magic and glamour of Cannes can be hard to spot on a day when rain is lashing the palm trees, roiling the gray Mediterranean and pooling in puddles along the Croisette.

But the world's leading film festival can transform careers ? something no one knows that better than actors Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, stars of director Asghar Farhadi's festival entry "The Past."

Bejo shimmered on-screen in Cannes two years ago in "The Artist," her director husband Michel Hazanavicius' vivacious silent homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture.

Rahim was the breakout star of the 2009 festival in Jacques Audiard's poetic and brutal prison drama "A Prophet," as a youth growing to manhood behind bars.

Cannes exposure helped boost both performers onto the international stage. While once most European actors could choose between stay at home and playing Hollywood villains, their paths suggest a more globalized movie world.

"It was quite a miracle for me," Bejo said Saturday, as rain drummed remorselessly on a Cannes rooftop lounge. "Two years ago my life changed a little bit in Cannes.

"I don't think Asghar Farhadi would have cast me in this movie if I hadn't done 'The Artist.'"

It's hard to think of two movie styles further apart than the flamboyant artifice of "The Artist" and the anatomically detailed domestic drama of "The Past"

Bejo plays Marie, a harried Frenchwoman with two children, a new boyfriend with a young son, and an Iranian ex who has returned after four years to finalize their divorce. Rahim is her boyfriend Samir, a man with complex family ties of his own.

All the characters are trying to move on ? but the past keeps dragging them back.

Bejo said she did a screen test for Farhadi, then didn't hear from him for a month, so initially thought she hadn't got the part.

"He said to me, I was looking into your face if I could see the doubt," she said. "I guess because he saw me in movies where I was quite positive, quite sunny, quite glamorous. He needed to see if I could show another part of myself ? and I guess he found it."

For Bejo, as for Rahim, working with the Iran director was a dream come true. "The Past" is the first film Farhadi has shot outside his homeland, and the actors say they loved his working methods ? two months of rehearsal to delve into character, break down barriers and forge bonds, followed by a four-month shoot.

With its Iranian director and largely French cast, it's one of several border-hopping movies at Cannes this year. French director Arnaud Desplechin's made-in-America "Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" stars France's Mathieu Amalric and Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. Another French filmmaker, Guillaume Canet, has a multinational cast including Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard in his New York crime drama "Blood Ties."

It's a trend Bejo is happy to embrace.

"In America you have Christoph Waltz, you have Marion Cotillard," she said. "In France we have Italian and Spanish actors. ... I think it's great. We are used to strangers and foreign accents, and it's great that we can see that in our movies now."

Both she and Rahim have been busy since their Cannes breakthroughs. Bejo recently made French heist movie "The Last Diamond" and soon starts filming Hazanavicius' next project, a war movie set in Chechnya.

Rahim's projects include the English-language Roman-era adventure "The Eagle" and another movie appearing at Cannes this year, the nuclear power plant romance "Grand Central."

Coming up, he plays a cop in the French movie "The Informant," and is currently shooting a globe-spanning 1920s-set drama with Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, another pillar of culture-crossing cinema.

Despite the busy international career ? and post-"Prophet" expressions of interest from the United States ? Rahim says Hollywood remains a hard nut to crack for non-Anglophone actors.

"It's not what you expect at first," Rahim said. "You'd like to be with Michael Mann or (directors) like this, but you don't have those parts that easily. Because first you have to speak English, you have to erase your accent."

For now, he's just happy to be back in Cannes, an experience that is easier the second time around.

"The difference is that now I'm not afraid when I come here," he said. "I'm (saying) 'OK I'm going to take every good vibe and keep it.'"

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-helps-actors-bejo-rahim-cross-borders-165726670.html

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Pacers' Hill cleared to play Game 6 vs. Knicks

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Indiana Pacers guard George Hill has been cleared to play Saturday night against the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Hill missed Game 5 on Thursday night in New York because of a concussion.

The Pacers released a statement about 1? hours before the scheduled tipoff saying Hill passed the NBA's return protocol as part of the league's concussion policy.

The Pacers said Hill remained symptom-free after each step, including workouts and the shootaround Saturday. He was injured in the first quarter of Game 4.

The Pacers lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pacers-hill-cleared-play-game-6-vs-knicks-225259036.html

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Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $1.1 billion cash deal

That cat's out of the bag a day early, it seems. Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion cash deal to purchase the blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal. We were expecting Yahoo to announce the acquisition during tomorrow's NYC media event -- CEO Marissa Mayer may instead use the last-minute gathering to detail the company's plans for integrating the popular platform. It's unclear how Yahoo intends to utilize its latest procurement, but with a 10-figure price tag now public, we can only imagine that Tumblr will be put to good use. We'll be covering tomorrow afternoon's event live, so stay tuned for more details from New York City.

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Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/yahoo-to-acquire-tumblr/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Friday random ten: The city never sleeps, part 6 (Offthekuff)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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House chairman sees IRS errors as part of pattern

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Internal Revenue Service's improper use of tougher scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status seems part of a broader pattern of intimidation and cover-ups by the Obama administration, a top House Republican said Friday.

The accusation by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., came as his panel held the first congressional hearing into the tax agency's improper targeting of tea party and other conservative groups. At a session that saw the IRS face harsh criticism from members of both parties, the just-ousted acting chief of the agency, Steven Miller, expressed regret for the heightened reviews.

"I want to apologize on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided," Miller told the committee. "The affected organizations and the American public deserve better. Partisanship and even the perception of partisanship have no place at the Internal Revenue Service."

Miller conceded that "foolish mistakes were made" by IRS officials trying to handle a flood of applications for tax-exempt status. He said the process that resulted in conservatives being targeted, "while intolerable, was a mistake and not an act of partisanship."

Though Miller and another top IRS official are stepping down, Camp said that would not be enough.

"The reality is this is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too powerful, too intrusive and too abusive of honest, hardworking taxpayers," Camp said.

Friday's hearing is the first of what are expected to be many on the subject by congressional panels. Underscoring the seriousness of the episode, Miller was sworn in as a witness, an unusual step for the Ways and Means panel and one that could put Miller in jeopardy if he is later shown to have misled lawmakers with his testimony.

Camp referred to a "culture of cover-ups and intimidation in this administration," but offered no other examples.

The administration has been forced on the defensive about last September's terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and the government's seizure of The Associated Press' telephone records as part of a leaks investigation.

Republicans are hoping to link the issues in an effort to raise questions about President Barack Obama's credibility and make it harder for him to press a second-term agenda.

Camp's remark about cover-ups drew a sharp retort from the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan. Levin said if the hearing became a preview of the 2014 political campaigns, "we'll be making a very, very serious mistake."

Even so, Levin also was harshly critical of the IRS's treatment of conservative groups, saying the agency "completely failed the American people." He said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that makes decisions about tax-exempt groups, should be "relieved of her duties."

Miller said the IRS struggled to efficiently handle growing numbers of applications for tax-exempt status.

The agency has said between 2008 and 2012, the number of groups applying for tax-exempt status as so-called social welfare groups more than doubled. Along with that was an increase in complaints that such groups were largely engaging in electoral politics, which is not supposed to be their primary activity.

"I do not believe partisanship motivated the people" at the IRS who engaged in the harsher screening for conservative groups, Miller said.

In recent months, Republicans on the Ways and Means panel had repeatedly asked the IRS about complaints from conservative groups that their applications were being treated unfairly.

On Friday, numerous Republicans wanted to know why Miller and others never told them the groups were being targeted, even after May 2012, when the IRS has said Miller was briefed on the practice. Miller was previously a deputy commissioner whose portfolio included the unit that made decisions about tax-exempt status.

"I did not mislead Congress or the American people," Miller told Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-La., one of several Republicans who challenged him about why he hadn't mentioned the targeting in the past.

Also testifying Friday was J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

In a report he issued this week, George said IRS officials reported they were not politically pressured to target conservative groups. Asked about that conclusion, George said Friday, "We have no evidence at this time to contradict that assertion," but in prepared testimony to the committee he said he is continuing to investigate that question.

George's report concluded that the IRS office in Cincinnati, which screened applications for the tax exemptions, improperly singled out tea party and other conservative groups for tougher treatment. The report says the practice began in March 2010 and lasted more than 18 months.

The report blamed "ineffective management" for letting IRS officials craft "inappropriate criteria" to review applications from tea party and other conservative groups, based on their names or political views. It found that the IRS took no action on many of the conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status for long periods of time, hindering their fundraising for the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Republicans have spent the past few days trying to link the IRS' improper scrutiny of conservatives to Obama. The president has said he didn't know about the targeting until last Friday, when Lerner acknowledged at a legal conference that conservative groups had been singled out.

Many of the groups were applying for tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations, which are allowed to participate in campaign activity if that is not their primary activity. The IRS judges whether that imprecise standard is met.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said the FBI was investigating whether the IRS may have violated applicants' civil rights.

Obama has rejected the idea of naming a special prosecutor to investigate the episode, saying the investigations by Congress and the Justice Department were sufficient.

Obama has named Daniel Werfel, a top White House budget officer, to replace Miller.

Also Thursday, Joseph Grant, one of Miller's top deputies, announced plans to retire June 3, according to an internal IRS memo. Grant is commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, which includes the agents that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny.

Grant joined the IRS in 2005 and took over as acting commissioner of the tax exempt and government entities division in December 2010. He was just named the permanent commissioner May 8.

When asked whether Grant was pressured to leave, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Grant had more than 31 years of federal service and it was his personal decision to leave.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-chairman-sees-irs-errors-part-pattern-133004012.html

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Toshiba Kirabook

The Toshiba Kirabook ($1,999.99) is a high-end ultrabook cut from the same cloth as the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) and the Google ChromeBook Pixel. All three are ultraportable laptops with higher than 1080p HD screens. All three will give you the visual fireworks, though the Kirabook has the lock on thinness and lightness. That said, the Kirabook is really pricey for an ultrabook, and while the screen and other features will wow you, the $2,000 price tag puts a serious damper on things. It's a really nice laptop, but not necessarily $2,000 worth of nice.

Design and Features
The Kirabook is a slim, svelte ultrabook that measures about 0.7 by 12.5 by 8.25 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.77 pounds. This is measurably thicker than the 0.47 inch thick Acer Aspire S7-391-9886 ($1,649), and the Kirabook is imperceptibly lighter than the 2.86-pound Acer S7-391. The Kirabook will fit into most travel bags easily, and with its magnesium alloy exterior and Corning Concore glass screen, you won't have to worry about the occasional drop while it's in that bag.

The top lid has a brushed metal finish, while the bottom lid is matte. The keyboard deck has a matching brushed metal finish to it, with a wide one-piece trackpad ringed by a chrome insert. Toshiba has gone minimal with the Kirabook, since the only visible embellishments are the LED ring around the power button and the adjacent single LED to tell you that Wi-Fi is on. There's a charging indicator LED on the left side of the system as well. The sides of the system house the system's three USB 3.0 ports (two left, one right), HDMI-out port, SD card reader, and headset jack. The USB ports are black instead of the more common blue, but that is OK, since there aren't any USB 2.0 ports to confuse the user. This is where the Kirabook's extra girth comes in handy: you won't need an adapter to use the full sized HDMI port, unlike Micro-HDMI on the slimmer Acer Aspire S7-391. The Acer S7-391also has one less USB port than the Kirabook. The Kirabook has a backlit keyboard. The row of function keys above the numbers default to their more usable functions (e.g., volume, play/FF/REW, etc.) rather than F1-F12, which makes more sense for most users. There are a few keys smaller than standard, like PgUP/PgDN, but on the whole the keyboard is comfortable, even with its slightly shallow keystroke.

The Kirabook's 13.3-inch screen is its centerpiece, coming in at a brilliant 2,560 by 1,440 resolution. This is a claimed 221 pixels per inch (ppi), about the same as the 220-ppi Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Retina Display) ($2,199), but a smidge lower than the 239-ppi Google ChromeBook Pixel. The screen looked great when we played 4k QFHD (3,840 by 2,160) videos streamed from the Internet, though it's notable that these videos took quite some time to buffer, even over a 40Mbit FIOS connection. Viewing 1080p streaming videos from Amazon and Netflix looked fine as well, though of course without the eye-popping detail that you'd see in 4k. The strength of the 2,560 by 1,440 display comes into play when you use the system for editing photos and videos, since you can concentrate on large swaths of a 12-megapixel image without having to zoom in too far. You can also edit a 1080p HD video at full resolution even if you surround your workspace screen with a plethora of toolbars. To this end, Toshiba has included a copy of both Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. The Kirabook's screen has 10-point touch, which is a must for a Windows 8 laptop at this price.

Toshiba also includes quite a few other pre-loaded apps, including Skype, Vimeo, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon, eBay, Toshiba Book Place, and Norton Internet Security. The copy of Norton Internet Security is notable because it includes a two-year subscription, which is excellent and almost unheard of today, when 30-60 days is the norm. The Kirabook also includes two years of technical support on a specialized Platinum support plan that promises a direct line to support techs including callback service. The top of the line system we reviewed came with a 256GB SSD, plenty of space for many users. All three configurations of Kirabook come with 256GB of storage, and if you need more, it's easy to hook up a USB 3.0 drive.

There are a few drawbacks to the compact design. Though the touch screen has enough friction to avoid bouncing when you touch it , the sides of the screen have very small bezels. While this makes the system look slimmer than other touch screen systems, it also means that swipes from off screen (like the ones used by the Charm bar) can be awkward. The Kirabook also lacks 802.11ac or 5GHz 802.11 a/n Wi-Fi, being strictly limited to 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n. This isn't a huge deal for most, but if you live in a crowded neighborhood you'd want 5GHz Wi-Fi to cut through your neighbors' wireless routers. While the screen is brilliant, you may have to fiddle with zoom and screen resolution settings on older games and programs: they may not display correctly scaled up to 2,560 by 1,440.

Performance
Performance on the Kirabook was a mixed bag, but mostly good. The Intel Core i7-3537U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD combined to give us an excellent 5,229 point score on PCMark7, which measures day-to-day performance. This compares well to the non-touch Asus ZenBook UX51Vz-DH71, which came in with a 4,926 point score. The Kirabook was very good, but a bit slower than the quad-core powered Asus UX51Vz-DH71 on the multimedia tests (Handbrake and Photoshop CS6).

The big performance issue for the Kirabook is its lack of discrete graphics. In order to shrink down to ultrabook standards, the Kirabook only has integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. While HD Graphics 4000 is fine for casual and browser-based games, it can't hold a candle to the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics in the ZenBook and the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch, both of which are in the same $2,000 price league as the Kirabook. While they may not miss the GPU for its 3D gaming prowess, graphic artists and videographers will prefer to have a GPU helping them out with professional graphics apps like the full CS6 versions of Photoshop and Premiere.

The Kirabook received a passable 5 hours 50 minutes on our battery rundown test. This is an hour better than the Acer S7-391 and two hours better than the Asus UX51Vz-DH71. However, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Retina Display) and high-end ultraportable Editors' Choice Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) last into the seven-hour range, so the Kirabook is good, but not the best.

And therein lies the problem: The Toshiba Kirabook is really good, but not the best for the money. If you have a need to spend $2,000 on a high-end ultraportable laptop, the Editors' Choice Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) will give you a higher-than-HD resolution screen, dual-band Wi-Fi, full size HDMI, 8GB of memory, 256GB Flash Storage, and similar performance with a Core i5 processor for the same $2,000 price tag. The MacBook Pro also has more battery life and forward-looking I/O ports like Thunderbolt. The Kirabook is lighter, thinner, and comes with the two-year service and support, but those aren't quite enough to unseat the MacBook Pro as the high end ultraportable EC. High-end ultrabooks like the current EC Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T ($1,199) are unfortunately in a totally different price point, and aside from the screen and its lighter weight, the Kirabook doesn't have the bang for the buck that the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A brings to the table.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Toshiba Kirabook with several other laptops side by side.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/2vRDNRdhyA0/0,2817,2418968,00.asp

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Noah Baumbach on ?Frances Ha': Why it took 40 takes to make a little story feel epic

By Steve Pond

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha" seemingly came out of nowhere to charm viewers at Telluride and Toronto last fall.

The Brooklyn-born director, whose previous films include "Kicking and Screaming," "The Squid and the Whale" and "Margot at the Wedding," made the made the movie quietly, co-writing it with his "Greenberg" leading lady Greta Gerwig and filming it in luminous black and white on the streets and in the subways and apartments of New York City.

The film follows Gerwig's title character, a 27-year-old aspiring dancer who's never quite gotten her life together; by turns funny, sad, touching and cringe-inducing, it approaches the mess that Frances has made with what TheWrap's Alonso Duralde described as "an optimism and empathy ? that feels genuine and earned."

TheWrap spoke to Baumbach about the Woody Allen connection, shooting up to 40 takes for each scene and the leap of faith needed on the part of financiers.

Warning: His final answer contains spoilers.

You approached Greta Gerwig about making another film together after finishing "Greenberg," but at that point how much of an idea did you have for this film?

I really just had a sense of a movie - doing something in New York that Greta would be the center of and maybe centering on being that age. I didn't really know much beyond that. But working with her on "Greenberg," I was struck by how hilarious she is, so I also had the sense that it could be funny.

So we just started emailing each other back and forth with pretty broad thoughts. They were things like, "Do you pay the surcharge at an ATM if you're in a rush and you're broke, instead of walking to a cheaper ATM?" Things like that that did make it into the movie, and then many things that didn't make it into the movie.

Did you decide to shoot in black and white early on?

That was one of my first ideas. I felt like the black and white would both contrast and support what was essentially a very modern story and a very contemporary character.

And also, there was something about the character as she developed where all my visual ideas started going toward a more classical mode of shooting. I wanted it to feel kind of elegant and beautiful and epic at times, and the black and white certainly was part of that, and later the music. There was something about the intimacy of the story that I felt should be told in a bigger, bolder way.

When you make the decision to make a movie in black and white in New York City, do you always feel the shadow of Woody Allen and his "Manhattan" cinematographer Gordon Willis? Well, of course we went right to that movie, to "Manhattan." And "Broadway Danny Rose." I felt like what we were doing was maybe in the tradition of it, but it was so much our story. It wasn't so much of a shadow so much as it was something to get inspiration from, as a kind of bar you want to try to hit.

You famously shot 30, 40 takes or more of many of the scenes in this film. What do you get out of a scene when you do it that many times?

Well, I'm often interested in how much story you can tell with one shot. And so sometimes I tend to shoot many pages in one shot, without a cutting point. If the scene were shot in a more traditional way, you'd ultimately be doing almost as many takes, because you'd be shooting a master and then medium close, then close ... So in some ways you'd be close to 40 takes anyway.

What we're trying to do, often, is to get many pages to work in one shot. Maybe that's where perfectionism comes into play. It's sometimes getting the camera move right or changing our minds in the middle and deciding to block it differently. Sometimes two actors are on different trajectories within a scene, and you need to get them both at the same place at the same time.

And sometimes it's me, and I'm having trouble figuring it out.

If you're shooting traditionally, using coverage, you can piece a scene together using the best lines from many different takes. But if you're shooting the whole thing in one shot, you have to hope that one take has everything you want. Exactly. My friend Brian DePalma says he thinks coverage is a bad word. He says anybody can shoot a scene with coverage. I do think it's more interesting to see how shots can evolve.

And it doesn't need to be with wild camera moves or anything. It can just be with blocking, having an actor start in the background and walk to the foreground as the scene develops. I was thinking in some cases of the way Woody Allen blocks scenes, or how Ernest Lubitsch would block a scene.

A black-and-white movie with a script that was kept under wraps - this must have been a leap of faith on the part of the financiers.

It was a major leap of faith. I told them I was going to be black and white, but I did tell them that it wasn't going to be experimental. I said it would be a movie that would stand with anything else I'd made. And they were really cool about it.

Not to give anything away, but there's something quite refreshing about an ending that feels like a small triumph, even though it's very much not what this character has spent the entire movie working toward and dreaming about.

Right. It was clear to me early on that the ending should be hopeful, that she should be rewarded for her struggles. At a Q&A recently, somebody said, "Did you ever think of not giving it such a happy ending?" And I think it was Greta who said the same thing you were just pointing out. She said, "It is a happy ending - but if you really kind look at it, she takes a desk job and gets a crummy little apartment. It's hardly like she's marrying a prince."

We really wanted to create a context where those moves seemed big. Heroic, in a way. It was a movie where acknowledging that you're not going to get what you fantasized about can be a very positive thing. That's what growth is, you know?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/noah-baumbach-frances-why-took-40-takes-little-222224818.html

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Cannes Shooting: Gunfire Interrupts Christoph Waltz Interview

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/cannes-shooting-gunfire-interrupts-christoph-waltz-interview/

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Surprise! Prepaid debit cards actually a good deal for consumers

By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

Prepaid debit cards, long synonymous with frustrating or even exploitative fees, are suddenly a pretty good deal. In fact, artfully deployed, a prepaid card can be used without any fees at all, and serve as a real substitute for a checking account.

It should come as no surprise, however, that there is still plenty of small print to worry about.

It would have been unthinkable a few years ago to put the words "good deal" and "prepaid card" in the same sentence. Called "general purpose reloadable cards" by the industry, prepaid debit cards that allow repeated deposits have always come with a laundry list of traps designed to grab $2-$3 at time from unsuspecting card holders: fees for loading, fees for withdrawing, fees for checking balances, fees for doing nothing. (A story in 2009 recounted an ordeal where a consumer was charged $2.95 when his transaction was declined (he claimed there were sufficient funds in his account), then was charged $1.95 when he called to complain.)

But banks are easing off some of those fees?thanks to a number of factors?? competition being chief?among them. Large banks like Chase have jumped into the prepaid market, creating sizable networks for cardholders to enjoy fee-free ATM withdrawals.? Walmart's aggressive steps into the market have helped consumers, too ? card holders can deposit money onto cards at ubiquitous Walmart stores for free.

"We are seeing new entrants to the market with some pretty compelling offers," said Greg McBride of Bankrate.com, which recently issued a report about the turnaround in the prepaid debit market. "Over time, this will marginalize the higher-cost offerings that have characterized the prepaid marketplace so far."

That marketplace is expanding, even when some other parts of the plastic card market are shrinking, according to a report from bank consultancy Mercator Group. Gift card purchases dropped slightly from 2011-2012, but reloadable cards that act as pseudo checking accounts were purchased by 14 percent of U.S. consumers in 2012, up from 12 percent in 2011, the Mercator report said. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says $57 billion was loaded onto reloadable cards last year.

Even consumer advocates have noticed the kinder, gentler nature of the reloadable cards, and some even think they are a real alternative for the 10 million U.S. adults who currently don't have a checking or savings account.

"There has been tremendous price compression. We look at the fee schedules for these cards, and it isn't that horrible," said Jennifer Tescher, CEO of the Center for Financial Services Innovation. "We feel like these products are headed in the right direction, that (prepaid cards are) becoming a mainstream product. I am quite excited about the possibilities."

Transparency spurs growth
New prepaid cards come with a long list of benefits once limited to checking account users. Consumers can direct-deposit paychecks onto the cards (and in many cases, avoid monthly fees by doing so). The cards allow holders to make Internet purchases. They can sign up for online banking and pay bills online with the cards. In some cases, they can even write paper checks using the accounts.

McBride links growth in the market to a growing transparency about costs. In the past, consumers were often forced to buy the cards at grocery stores or other retail outlets without being able to see a full list of quirk fees which were sometimes only available online. But newer card issuers have adopted simplified, single monthly fee structures that are winning over consumers.

"The transparency of that one monthly fee is pretty compelling. You can easily quantify what the cost is going to be," McBride said.? Even more compelling ? that monthly fee may very well be less than the fee on a low-balance, entry-level, traditional checking account. For example, Bankrate's survey of 24 prepaid card issuers found that 15 had monthly fees ranging from $3-$10. Bank of America's entry-level checking account can cost $12 monthly. (In both cases, monthly fees can be avoided via direct deposit and other ways).

Prepaid debit cards are not a replacement for traditional checking accounts. Most critically, prepaid cards enjoy none of the standard federal consumer protections that credit and debit cards do. There are no refunds for fraud, for example, and there are no dispute resolution requirements. As a result, Internet message boards are full of consumers who complain that money has been stolen or is missing from their card balance, and who say they have no recourse.

Because of the lack of federal protections, prepaid debit card payments are similar to wire transfers ? once the money is sent, it's gone???and Internet criminals have taken notice. Cards like the popular Green Dot have become a frequent, and powerfully elusive, way for Net criminals to steal from consumers. Nigerian scammers, for example, no longer need to trick a mark into visiting a Western Union and wiring money overseas. Many now trick victims into buying a Green Dot card instead, and sharing the secret payment code online. The Better Business Bureau, and NBC News' ConsumerMan, issued a warning about this recently.

Consumers also complain about poor customer service when they call to dispute deductions, or when they complain about missing money.

But it appears general purpose reloadable cards are here to stay. They have become popular with government agencies that disburse funds ? such as unemployment benefits or tax refunds. Loading a card is safer and cheaper than mailing checks. And while they have a reputation for servicing consumers who are blocked from traditional banking, a growing number of middle-class consumers are using the cards. A report issued last year by the Aite Group says 34 percent of users hold college degrees, and one-third earn more than $45,000 annually.

Red Tape wrestling tips
People use pre-paid debit cards in two very different ways ? they should be different products???and it's important to understand the distinction before buying a card.

Short-term purchasers use them as gift cards: To give a college graduate $100 to spend how he or she likes, for example. The card will be used and discarded. For that use, pick a card with low activation fees, even if it has a higher monthly fee. Just advise the recipient to use it quickly. Another slice of consumers use prepaid cards to spend at special events like vacations. They fall into the same category.?

On the other hand, consumers who plan to use prepaid cards as a checking account substitute, and who plan to take advantage of a card's full slate of options ??frequent ATM withdrawals, check deposits, etc.???should pay more attention to monthly fees when buying a card.?

Many of these fees are not obvious from the card packaging, so it's worth doing a little research online to pick the best card for your purpose. Consumers Union warns consumers to consider the following potential costs:

• Activation or initiation fees
• Monthly fees
• Point-of-sale transaction fees
• Cash-withdrawal fees
• Balance-inquiry fees
• Fees to receive a paper statement
• Fees to call customer service
• Bill-payment fees
• Fees to add, or ?load,? funds
• Dormancy fees for not using your card
• Fees to get your remaining funds back when closing the account
• Overdraft, or ?shortage,? fees

Related:?

'Like a drug:' Payday loan users hooked on quick-cash cycle

Follow Bob Sullivan on?Facebook?or?Twitter.

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Pelosi: GOP using IRS, Benghazi and DOJ issues as ?evasion? tactic

May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/pelosi-gop-using-irs-benghazi-doj-issues-evasion-173845377.html

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Ousted 'Voice' singers have no regrets

TV

Brittany Frederick TODAY contributor

11 hours ago

Team Usher?s Vedo and Team Shakira?s Garrett Gardner were handed their walking papers at the end of Tuesday night?s "The Voice" -- and neither of them were particularly surprised by their dismissals.

"I mentally prepared myself," Vedo told TODAY.com after the results were announced. "I was ready."

The R&B singer?s version of Michael Jackson?s "Rock With You" wasn?t enough to get him into the top 10, but he still earned plenty of fans, as evidenced by how several audience members chanted his name after live episode ended. "I heard it," Vedo said of the show of support. "It was definitely a boost of confidence. I was like 'Okay, somebody likes me.'"

As far as what he?ll do from this point forward, "The next move is just to hit the ground running," he said.

?It's been a wonderful experience. I wouldn't change it for the world,? Vedo added. ?Every single thing that happened, I wouldn't change it because it made me a better person. Even from all the people saying they love (me) to all the people saying 'Vedo sucks,' I love all of it. You want that. You want a balance of good and bad. When nobody's talking about you, that's when you've got a problem.?

Garrett Gardner told us on Monday that he knew performing the Backstreet Boys? ?I Want It That Way? was a huge risk, but even after finding out that it didn?t pay off, the second-chance artist had no regrets.

?I think we could've picked a different song but I don't regret the risk that we took,? he said. ?That might have been what sent me home, but at the same time it?s not something I'm going to brood on. Sometimes the risk can equal the benefit and it didn't last night. You just have to look back on it and say ?Was this worth it?? and for me, I think it was.?

What will he do next? ?I have a lot of original material that I want to release. I have like 30 songs I?m ready to record,? he continued. ?I have a lot of ideas, to go on tour and play some benefit shows for various causes, and give back to all the people that've been supporting me - show them that I really care and appreciate all the support.?

Garrett called his "Voice" journey "totally a confirmation above and beyond. No matter what happens, you have to keep on pushing to that next goal. And just because you don't make it the first time, that doesn't mean anything. You can always get back up and always succeed."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/after-ousters-voices-vedo-garrett-gardner-have-no-regrets-1C9928676

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