dongeunshin

Older women staying on the job to make up lost time

Label: World

By Mark Miller

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Susan Damour flunked retirement. She tried it at age 64 in 2008 along with her husband, Tim, who was 68. That lasted a year.

Overseas travel, cooking and knitting baby sweaters for the grandchildren weren’t enough to satisfy her. Tim, a retired attorney, was happy, but she hated it.

“I’m an extrovert,” Damour says. “I draw my strength from being around people, and I crave being in a problem-solving environment. Retirement was like being put in a prison.”

Fortunately for her, the Obama administration approached her soon after the 2008 election, inviting her to rejoin the General Services Administration, which manages buildings and procurement for the government. She had served as regional administrator for the GSA’s six-state Rocky Mountain region during the Clinton years, and she returned to the same position near the end of 2009.

Now 69, Damour loves her job, which gets her out of her Denver office frequently and focuses this time around on spurring environmental initiatives in government buildings, something she cares deeply about.

Damour’s experience illustrates one of the most surprising recent U.S. economic trends: the increasing presence of women working well beyond traditional retirement age, into their late sixties, seventies and beyond. This will be the fastest-growing workforce segment in the next five years, according to the Department of Labor.

The number of working women over age 65 rose 147 percent from 1977 to 2007; those over 75 rose 172 percent, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the next five years, the number of older women in the workforce will grow at a rate faster than younger women and almost double that of older men, the bureau said.

Some growth can be attributed to economic travails, but many women say they are making up for lost time after raising children or being shut out of male-dominated jobs in their younger working days. Others can’t imagine turning their backs on hard-won career gains.

EARLY DISCRIMINATION, RENEWED FERVOR

Rising longevity and the aging baby boom partially explain the trend. Almost 75 percent of 55- to 64-year-olds will be working in 2018, compared with 65 percent in 2008, forecasts Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone. Likewise, he thinks 30 percent of Americans age 65 to 74 will be working at that point, up from 25 percent in 2008.

Some researchers believe something else is at play. Elizabeth Fideler, a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College and the author of “Women Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and On the Job,” has studied the cohort, and she believes they are making up for slow career starts.

“Many of them faced sex discrimination,” she says. These women entered adulthood in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before the women’s movement began, when the career choices they faced were narrow and help-wanted ads were segregated by sex.

At that time, most working women were funneled into nursing, teaching, secretarial or social work. Eventually, many switched to other careers. These were hard-won gains.

“They’re damned if they’re going to give it up now,” says Fideler. “They’ve reached the peak of their careers and don’t want to stop, even if their husbands have retired.”

This was true for Damour, who graduated college in 1965 with limited career options.

“I remember telling my mother when I was a girl that I wanted to be a judge, and she told me I couldn’t do that, because girls aren’t lawyers.”

She married young, worked in a series of low-paying jobs, had a child and was divorced at age 30. But an active volunteer role in progressive political causes led her into a position in the 1974 Colorado gubernatorial campaign of Dick Lamm. That led indirectly to her first stint at the GSA.

These days, Damour works 40 to 50 hours a week.

“I don’t get tired, because I’m a high-energy person, and I love my work,” she says.

Does she envision retiring again – ever?

“I’m going to stay in this job as long as they’ll keep me, and then I’ll re-evaluate” she says.

BLOOMING LATE

Ann Kaganoff, 76, is another late bloomer. The Irvine, California, resident began her career as a grade-school teacher. She entered a doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Barbara in reading and language development at age 36.

“My dad said I needed to be a teacher so that I’d always be able to provide for myself,” she says. “But in graduate school, I discovered I was a good analytical thinker, and that was exciting.”

Kaganoff’s career didn’t really start taking off until 1985, when at age 50 she started and ran a clinic for children with reading and learning problems at the University of California at Irvine.

“I was learning new things constantly,” she says.

In 1992 the clinic closed, a victim of budget cuts at the university. Today, Kaganoff feels that she’s at the peak of her professional growth with a private therapy practice in Irvine, and she doesn’t see herself stepping away anytime soon.

“The experiences are so cumulative,” she says. “Every time I walk into a meeting, I realize the wealth of background I have to draw upon.”

Fideler fits the profile. She’s 70 and already at work on a follow-up book on the second-fastest-growing age group in the labor force: men over age 65.

Older men keep working for the same career achievement and income rewards that motivate women. But perhaps Fideler will find that men simply grow tired of watching their wives leave for work every morning, and of spending the day by themselves.

(Editing by Linda Stern, Chelsea Emery and Douglas Royalty)

Yahoo! Finance – Personal Finance

Title Post: Older women staying on the job to make up lost time
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/older-women-staying-on-the-job-to-make-up-lost-time/
Link To Post : Older women staying on the job to make up lost time
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

TCU shocks Kansas, 1st losing streak in 7 years

Label: Technology

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Kansas coach Bill Self's Big 12 bullies are suddenly beatable.

Even against the league newcomer that hadn't won a conference game.

The fifth-ranked Jayhawks have their first losing streak in more than seven years after trailing throughout in a 62-55 loss Wednesday night at TCU, which had never before beaten a top 5 team.

"It's not so much that we lost, it's just so much to me that we were kind of the bullies of the league, and we let people think they could whip us," Self said. "And when they did, everybody now thinks they can whip us."

Four days after an 85-80 home loss to Oklahoma State ended their nation-best 18-game overall winning streak and 33-game streak at Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks went more than 7 minutes from the tip before finally scoring.

Kansas (19-3, 7-2 Big 12) had played 264 games in a row since January 2006 without consecutive losses, the longest active streak in Division I.

Against TCU (10-12, 1-8), the Jayhawks looked nothing like the team that has won or shared 12 of the league's 16 regular-season titles — and now has company at the top of the Big 12 standings with 13th-ranked Kansas State.

They trailed 22-13 at halftime on 3-of-22 shooting, the fewest points and field goals in a half since Kansas started keeping those records nearly 25 years ago.

"It was the worst team that Kansas ever put on the floor, since Dr. Naismith was there," Self said. "I think he had some bad teams when he lost to Topeka YMCA and things like that in the first couple years. But for the first half, there hasn't been a team play worse than that offensively."

Instead of a bounce-back win, Kansas had six turnovers and missed its first four shots before finally scoring 7:17 into the game. Ben McLemore's bounce pass to Jamari Traylor for a layup made it 8-2, but the Jayhawks then went 8 more minutes before making another field goal.

The Jayhawks finished 29.5 percent from the field (18 of 61), their worst in 514 games — since making only 15 of 51 shots (29.4 percent) against Kentucky on Dec. 1, 1998. It was their lowest-scoring game since also scoring 55 in an NCAA tournament loss to UCLA on March 24, 2007.

They made only 3-of-22 from 3-point range, including two in the final minute.

McLemore led Kansas with 15 points, 13 after halftime. Jeff Withey had 12 points and Naadir Tharpe 11.

"We knew going in that we would have to play extremely well, offensively, defensively, extremely hard, and they were going to have to help us out," said first-year TCU coach Johnson said. "When I said help us, obviously they missed a lot of shots they probably would make."

Garlon Green scored 20 points for the Horned Frogs, including five in a row after a late 17-4 Kansas spurt.

"It means a lot. Obviously we've had some tough years," said Green, a senior forward. "We've had a tough year right now, but this is a big win. We need to carry this momentum."

TCU played the first of three games in six days. The Frogs host fellow league newcomer West Virginia on Saturday and go to Oklahoma on Monday night.

Kansas, which plays at Oklahoma on Saturday, hasn't lost three games in a row since February 2005 — a stretch with games that went to overtime and double-overtime.

Tharpe scored nine points in a 2-minute span for Kansas, with a 3-pointer and six consecutive free throws, before a basket by Withey with 6:49 left got the Jayhawks within 44-40 — the closest they got after TCU's game-opening spurt.

After Tharpe missed a 3-pointer on a break, Adrick McKinney slung a pass inside to Green for a layup. McLemore, the Big 12's top freshman scorer, missed an open 3-pointer before Green had a three-point play to stretch the TCU lead back to 49-40.

"Everybody came to play today," said Connell Crossland, who had eight points and 15 rebounds for TCU. "I just saw everybody was ready (in warmups). That's when I knew it was going to be a good game. And we pulled it off."

The record sellout crowd of 7,412 fans in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum included a large portion of loud Jayhawks fans, but they filed out quietly after this game while TCU students stormed the court to celebrate.

"All teams go through funks, but we're certainly in probably the worst funk that I've ever seen a Kansas team be in," Self said. "Just a bad, bad, bad night. Not a good team right now. ... This thing has turned on a dime and it could certainly continue to turn worse if we don't right the ship real soon."

Should we still fear al Qaeda?

Label: Lifestyle

Mali military battles Islamist insurgents

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Peter Bergen: U.K. politicians called North Africa terror an existential threat

Bergen says core al Qaeda has been greatly weakened, hasn't mounted serious operations

Terror groups loosely affiliated with al Qaeda have also lost ground, he says

Bergen: Jihadist violence does continue, but it does no good to overstate threat

Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad", and a director at the New America Foundation.

Washington (CNN) -- The attack in January on a gas facility in Algeria by an al Qaeda-linked group that resulted in at least 37 dead hostages has sparked an outpouring of dire warnings from leading Western politicians.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described a "large and existential threat" emanating from North Africa. Tony Blair, his predecessor as prime minister, agreed saying, "David Cameron is right to warn that this is a battle for our values and way of life which will take years, even decades."

Hang on chaps! Before we all get our knickers in a tremendous twist: How exactly does an attack on an undefended gas facility in the remotest depths of the Algerian desert become an "existential threat" to our "way of life"?

Across the Atlantic, American politicians also got into sky-is-falling mode. Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, fulminated, "This is going to get worse. You cannot allow this to become a national security issue for the United States. And I argue it's already crossed that threshold."

Peter Bergen

Previous real U.S. national security threats and their manifestations include 9/11, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (from the potential use of nuclear weapons) with the Soviets, Pearl Harbor and Hitler's armies taking over much of Europe.

A ragtag group of jihadists roaming the North African deserts is orders of magnitude less significant than those genuine threats to the West and is more comparable to the threats posed by the bands of pirates who continue to harass shipping off the coast of Somalia. They are surely a problem, but a localized and containable one.

Western politicians and commentators who claim that the al Qaeda linked groups in North Africa are a serious threat to the West unnecessarily alarm their publics and also feed the self-image of these terrorists who aspire to attack the West, but don't have the capacity to do so. Terrorism doesn't work if folks aren't terrorized.

North African group hasn't attacked in the West

Western politicians and commentators who claim that the al Qaeda linked groups in North Africa are a serious threat to the West unnecessarily alarm their publics...
Peter Bergen

Much has been written, for instance, in recent weeks about al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al Qaeda's North African affiliate, a splinter group of which carried out the attack on the Algerian gas facility. But according to Camille Tawil, who has authoritatively covered Islamist militant groups over the past two decades for the leading Arabic daily Al-Hayat and has written three books about al Qaeda, AQIM doesn't threaten the West: "To my knowledge no known attacks or aborted attacks in the West have been linked directly to AQIM."

AQIM was formed seven years ago so the group has had more than enough time to plot and carry out an attack in the West. By way of comparison, it took two years of serious plotting for al Qaeda to plan the 9/11 attacks.

So, what is the real level of threat now posed by al Qaeda and allied groups?

Let's start with "core al Qaeda" which attacked the United States on 9/11 and that is headquartered in Pakistan. This group hasn't, of course, been able to pull off an attack in the United States in twelve years. Nor has it been able to mount an attack anywhere in the West since the attacks on London's transportation system eight years ago.

Core al Qaeda on way to extinction

Osama bin Laden, the group's founder and charismatic leader, was buried at sea a year and half ago and despite concerns that his "martyrdom" would provoke a rash of attacks in the West or against Western interests in the Muslim world there has instead been.... nothing.

Meanwhile, CIA drone strikes in Pakistan during President Obama's tenure alone have killed 38 of al Qaeda's leaders in Pakistan, according to a count by the New America Foundation.

Those drone strikes were so effective that shortly before bin Laden died he was contemplating ordering what remained of al Qaeda to move to Kunar Province in the remote, heavily forested mountains of eastern Afghanistan, according to documents that were discovered following the SEAL assault on the compound where bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Core al Qaeda is going the way of the dodo.

Affiliates are no better off

And a number of the affiliates of core al Qaeda are in just as bad shape as the mother ship.

Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the virulent Southeast Asian al Qaeda affiliate that killed hundreds in the years after 9/11 is largely out of business. Why so? JI killed mostly Westerners in its first attacks on the tourist island of Bali in 2002, but the subsequent Bali attack three years later killed mostly Indonesians. So too did JI's attacks on the Marriott hotel in the capital Jakarta in 2003 and the Australian embassy in 2004. As a result, JI lost any shred of popular support it had once enjoyed.

At the same time the Indonesian government, which at one point had denied that JI even existed, mounted a sophisticated campaign to dismantle the group, capturing many of its leaders and putting them on trial.

In the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf Group, a number of whose leaders had trained in Afghanistan in al Qaeda's camps, and which specialized in kidnapping Westerners in the years after 9/11, was effectively dismantled by the Philippine army working in tandem with a small contingent of U.S. Special Operations Forces.

In Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban in 2009 took over the once-tranquil mountainous vacation destination of Swat, and destroyed some 180 schools and beheaded 70 policemen there. Suddenly, they were only 70 miles from the capital Islamabad and some warned that the Pakistani state was in danger. Today, the Pakistani Taliban have been rolled back to their bases along the Afghan border and 16 of their leaders have been killed by CIA drones since President Obama took office.

Al Qaeda militants based in Saudi Arabia mounted a terrorist campaign beginning in 2003 that killed dozens of Saudis, and they also attacked a number of the oil workers and oil facilities that lie at the heart of the Saudi economy. This prompted the Saudi government to mount such an effective crackdown that the few remaining al Qaeda leaders who were not killed or captured have in recent years fled south to Yemen where the remnants of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are now based.

From its new headquarters in Yemen AQAP has made serious efforts to attack the United States, sending the "underwear bomber" to blow up Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 and also smuggling bombs on to U.S.-bound cargo shipments in October 2010.

None of these attempts were successful.

Yemen militants decimated

As a result of the threat posed by AQAP, the United States has mounted a devastating campaign against the group over the past three years. There was one American drone strike in Yemen in 2009. In 2012 there were 46. That drone campaign has killed 28 prominent members of the group, according to a count by the New America Foundation. Among them was the No. 2 in AQAP, Said al-Shihri, who was confirmed to be dead last week.

In the chaos of the multiple civil wars that gripped Yemen in 2011, AQAP seized a number of towns in southern Yemen. But AQAP has now been pushed out of those towns because of effective joint operations between U.S. Special Operations Forces, the CIA and the Yemeni government.

The Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, even went to the United Nations General Assembly in September where he publicly endorsed the use of CIA drones in his country, something of a first.

A couple of years ago, al Qaeda's Somali affiliate, Al- Shabaab ("the youth" in Arabic) controlled much of southern Somalia including key cities such as the capital Mogadishu.

Once in a position of power, Shaabab inflicted Taliban-like rule on a reluctant Somali population, which eroded its popular legitimacy. Shabaab was also the target of effective military operations by the military of neighboring Kenya, troops of the African Union and U.S. Special Operation Forces.

As a result, today the group controls only some rural areas and for the first time in two decades the United States has formally recognized a Somali government.

Mali conflict shows weakness of jihadist militant groups

Similarly, groups with an al Qaeda-like agenda captured most of northern Mali last year, a vast desert region the size of France. Once in power they imposed Taliban-like strictures on the population, banning smoking and music and enforcing their interpretation of Sharia law with the amputation of hands. The militants also destroyed tombs in the ancient city of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on the grounds that the tombs promoted "idol worship."

None of these measures endeared the jihadist militants to the population of Mali. In the past weeks, as a relatively small force of some 2,000 French soldiers has rolled through Mali putting the militants on the run, the French have been cheered on by dancing and singing Malians.

When French soldiers are greeted as an army of liberation in an area of the world that in the past century was part of a vast French empire, you can get a sense of how much the jihadist militants had alienated the locals.

Last week the French military took the city of Timbuktu. The defeat of the al Qaeda-linked groups as effective insurgent forces in Mali is now almost complete.

What has just happened in Mali gets to the central problem that jihadist militant groups invariably have. Wherever they begin to control territory and population they create self-styled Islamic "emirates" where they then rule like the Taliban.

Over time this doesn't go down too well with the locals, who usually practice a far less austere version of Islam, and they eventually rise up against the militants, or, if they are too weak to do so themselves, they will cheer on an outside intervention to turf out the militants.

The classical example of this happened in Iraq where al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) controlled Anbar Province, about a third of the country in 2006. AQI cadres ruled with an iron fist and imposed their ultrafundamentalist rule on their fellow Sunnis, who they killed if they felt they were deviating from their supposedly purist Islamic precepts.

This provoked the "Sunni Awakening" of Iraqi tribes that rose up against AQI. These tribes then allied with the U.S. military and by the end of 2007 AQI went from an insurgent group that controlled vast territories to a terrorist group that controlled little but was still able to pull off occasional spectacular terrorist attacks in Baghdad.

Jihadist violence still a threat

The collapse of core al Qaeda and a number of its key affiliates does not, of course, mean that jihadist violence is over. Such religiously motivated mayhem has been a feature of the Muslim world for many centuries. Recall the Assassins, a Shia sect that from its base in what is now Iran dispatched cutthroats armed with daggers to kill its enemies around the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries. In so doing the sect gave the world the useful noun "assassin."

And so while core al Qaeda and several of its affiliates and like-minded groups are in terrible shape, there are certainly groups with links to al Qaeda or animated by its ideology that are today enjoying something of a resurgence.

Most of these groups do not call themselves al Qaeda, which is a smart tactic, as even bin Laden himself was advising his Somali affiliate, Al Shabaab, not to use the al Qaeda name as it would turn off fundraisers because the shine had long gone off the al Qaeda brand, according to documents recovered at bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.

One such militant group is the Nigerian Boko Haram, which bombed the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria in 2011 and has also attacked a wide range of Christian targets in the country. However, the group has shown "no capability to attack the West and also has no known members outside of West Africa," according to Virginia Comolli of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies who tracks the group.

Ansar al-Sharia, "Supporters of Sharia," is the name taken by the militant group in Libya that carried out the attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September in which four Americans were killed. Similarly, in Yemen militants that are aligned with al Qaeda have labeled themselves Ansar al-Sharia.

But this new branding hasn't done the militants much good in either country. In Libya, shortly after the attack on the U.S. consulate, an enraged mob stormed and took over Ansar al Sharia's headquarters in Benghazi. And, as we have seen, in Yemen the jihadists have now been forced out of the towns in the south that they had once held.

One strong foothold in Syria

The one country where jihadist militants have a serious foothold and are likely to play an important role for some period in the future is in Syria. That is because of a perfect storm there that favors them. The Sunni militants in Syria are fighting the regime of Bashir al Assad, a secular dictator who is also an Alawite, which many Muslims believe to be a heretical branch of Shiism.

For the jihadists, Assad's secularism makes him an apostate and his Alawi roots also make him a heretic, while his brutal tactics make him an international pariah. This trifecta makes funding the Sunni insurgency highly attractive for donors in the Gulf.

And for the Arabs who form the heart of al Qaeda the fight against Assad is in the heart of the Arab world, a contest that happens to border also on the hated state of Israel. Also Syria was for much of the past decade the entry point for many hundreds of foreign fighters who poured into Iraq to join Al Qaeda in Iraq following the American invasion of the country. As a result, al Qaeda has long had an infrastructure both in Syria and, of course, in neighboring Iraq.

The Al Nusra Front is the name of arguably the most effective fighting force in Syria. In December the State Department publicly said that Al Nusra, which is estimated to number in the low thousands and about 10% of the fighters arrayed against Assad, was a front for Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Al Nusra certainly seems to have learned from AQI's mistakes. For starters, it doesn't call itself al Qaeda. Secondly, it hasn't launched a campaign to crack down on social issues such as smoking or listening to music and so has not alienated the local Sunni population as AQI did in Iraq.

Barak Barfi, a journalist and fellow at the New America Foundation who has spent several months on the ground in Aleppo in northwestern Syria reporting on the opposition to Assad, says Nusra fighters stand out for their bravery and discipline: "They are winning over the hearts and minds of Aleppo residents who see them as straight shooters. There is a regimented recruiting process that weeds out the chaff. Their bases are highly organized with each person given specific responsibilities."

Arab Spring countries seen as an opportunity

The chaotic conditions of several of the countries of the "Arab Spring" are certainly something al Qaeda views as an opportunity. Ayman al-Zawahiri the leader of the group, has issued 27 audio and video statements since the death of bin Laden, 10 of which have focused on the Arab countries that have experienced the revolutions of the past two years.

But if history is a guide, the jihadist militants, whether in Syria or elsewhere, are likely to repeat the mistakes and failures that their fellow militants have experienced during the past decade in countries as disparate as Somalia, the Philippines, Yemen, Iraq, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and now, Mali.

That's because encoded in the DNA of al Qaeda and like-minded groups are the seeds of their own destruction because in power they rule like the Taliban, and they also attack fellow Muslims who don't follow their dictates to the letter. This doesn't mesh very well with these organizations' claims that they are the defenders of Muslims.

These groups also have no real plans for the multiple political and economic problems that beset much of the Islamic world. And they won't engage in normal politics such as elections believing them to be "un-Islamic."

This is invariably a recipe for irrelevance or defeat. In not one nation in the Muslim world since 9/11 has a jihadist militant group seized control of a country. And al Qaeda and its allies' record of effective attacks in the West has been non-existent since 2005.

With threats like these we can all sleep soundly at night.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

Daniel Day-Lewis seen winning Best Actor Oscar, poll shows

Label: Health

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Daniel Day-Lewis is expected to make Hollywood history by winning his third Best Actor Oscar on February 24 but the public is split over who deserves the Best Supporting Actor prize, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Day-Lewis, 55, has already picked up almost every major award this season for playing U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg‘s Civil War-era drama “Lincoln” and he is front-runner for the top British BAFTA award on February 10.

A Reuters Ipsos poll of 909 Americans found 21 percent thought British-born Day-Lewis, 55, should win and 26 percent said he was most likely to win Best Actor at the Oscars for Lincoln, a role he assumed both off and on set during filming.

He is up against Hugh Jackman, who came second in the Reuters poll for musical “Les Miserables,” Bradley Cooper in the quirky romance “Silver Linings Playbook,” Joaquin Phoenix in cult drama “The Master” and Denzel Washington as an alcoholic pilot in “Flight.”

If Day-Lewis does win, he will be the first man to take home the Best Actor statue three times, having won the award in 1990 for playing severely disabled Irish artist Christy Brown in “My Left Foot” and in 2008 for his role as oil prospector Daniel Plainview in “There Will be Blood.”

But Day-Lewis, who chooses his roles carefully and has only appeared in 10 films in the past 20 years, was not taking a win for granted. It took Spielberg three attempts to persuade him to sign up for the lead role in “Lincoln.”

“Members of the Academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you’ve built up an expectation,” the actor told reporters after winning the Screen Actors Guild trophy in Los Angeles last week.

Bookmakers, however, were not expecting any surprises, with Day-Lewis the clear favorite to win the Best Actor award.

But the public was less certain on who would bag the award for Best Supporting Actor from the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The field of five includes Alan Arkin from Iran hostage drama “Argo,” Robert De Niro as the father in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Philip Seymour Hoffman from “The Master,” Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln,” and Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained.”

The results at awards ceremonies so far this year have been mixed.

Jones won at the Screen Actors Guild, Waltz won the Golden Globe, and Seymour Hoffman was chosen Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Movie Awards.

Almost half of the respondents to the online poll, conducted Friday through Tuesday, were unsure who should win at the Oscars in the supporting actor category.

Some 20 percent chose Jones, while 14 percent picked De Niro as the actor most likely to take home the Oscar.

The accuracy of the poll uses a statistical measure called a “credibility interval” and is precise to within 2.8 percentage points.

Bookmakers, however, put 66-year-old Jones as the front-runner to win his second Oscar for his role as liberal congressman Thaddeus Stevens in “Lincoln.” He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for “The Fugitive.”

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Daniel Day-Lewis seen winning Best Actor Oscar, poll shows
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/daniel-day-lewis-seen-winning-best-actor-oscar-poll-shows/
Link To Post : Daniel Day-Lewis seen winning Best Actor Oscar, poll shows
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Wall Street flat as rally runs out of steam, results eyed

Label: World

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed in late morning trading on Wednesday as investors awaited fresh trading incentives after recent rallies took the S&P 500 to five-year highs.

Transportation stocks were among the worst performers, weighed down by a 10-percent drop in CH Robinson Worldwide to $60.49 after it reported fourth-quarter earnings.

The Dow Jones Transportation index <.djt> shed 0.5 percent after closing at a record high Tuesday for a gain of more than 10 percent in 2013.

A 6-percent advance this year so far has lifted the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest since December 2007, while the Dow <.dji> briefly climbed above 14,000 recently, making it a challenge for investors to continue pushing the equity market upward in the absence of strong catalysts.

"Overall, we believe that the next near-term market dip should provide an opportunity to buy stocks ahead of rallies higher in the coming months, but we are skeptical about the long-term sustainability of these gains due to the maturing age of the bull market," said Ari Wald, equity research analyst at C&Co\PrinceRidge in New York.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was supported by Apple Inc , which rose 1.2 percent to $463.62.

Walt Disney Co was among the bright spots, up 0.9 percent at $54.77, after the company beat estimates for quarterly adjusted earnings and gave an optimistic outlook for the next few quarters.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.

Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 11.25 points, or 0.08 percent, at 13,968.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 0.05 points, or 0.00 percent, at 1,511.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 2.69 points, or 0.08 percent, at 3,174.27.

The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.

Ralph Lauren Corp climbed 7.1 percent to $176.57 as the best performer on the S&P 500 after reporting renewed momentum in its holiday-quarter sales and profits.

Time Warner Inc jumped 4.1 percent to $51.99 after reporting higher fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates, as growth in its cable networks offset declines in its film, TV entertainment and publishing units.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Shhh, Home Office and Other IRS Audit Trigger Secrets

Label: World

People have worried for decades that home office deductions flag their returns for audit. Yet more than half of working Americans work for a small business or own one. 52% are home-based and many have home office space. Besides, with improved technology, some businesses are going virtual and recruiting employees from across the country, many of whom work from home offices.

[More from Forbes: 10 Ways To Become A Victim Of Tax Identity Theft]

Not claiming tax deductions can feel like lemon juice in a paper cut. And as the economy and workplace change, you may be leaving more on the table every year. Fortunately, starting with 2013 tax returns, the IRS is easing some home office deductions. See IRS simplifies the home-office deduction, for 2013.

In the meantime, the old rules apply for your 2012 return. A home office must be used regularly and exclusively for business. The deduction is limited to income from the business. For more rules, see Don’t Try This at Home: The ABCs of Home Office Or Vacation Home Rental Deductions. There’s nothing wrong with claiming them if you meet all these rules. But don’t claim them if you don’t.

There are many old wives tales about what triggers an audit: home office deductions, passive losses, schedule C (sole proprietorship) activities, etc. You can’t predict the trigger (and you can drive yourself crazy trying). But be reasonable about every item on your return. If you don’t have a solid home office claim with good records, don’t claim it. If your money-losing sole proprietorship is really just a hobby, treat it as such.

[More from Forbes: 10 Things You Should Know About The Fiscal Cliff Deal]

Consider cost-benefit too. Home office deductions involve filling out a 43-line form (Form 8829) with complex calculations of allocated expenses, depreciation and carryovers of unused deductions. It may be easier next year, since a streamlined form will be used for the simplified home office deduction on 2013 returns.

But are there really audit triggers? At least there are dos and don’ts, including these:

1. Report Each Form 1099. Enough said.

2. Report Each Form K-1. As with Forms 1099, don’t ignore them.

3. If You Can, Avoid Schedule C. Remember, Schedule C is the primary place the IRS can audit “hobby” losses.

4. Use Care With Noncash Charitable Donations. If you make them, scrupulously follow the forms, especially Form 8283. Don’t get too greedy with valuations.

[More from Forbes: 15 Ways To Invite An IRS Audit]

5. Pay S Corporation Wages. If you own an S corporation, make sure the company pays you a fair wage.

6. Beware Real Estate Losses. Keep good records of how much time you spend, since it can influence whether your losses are “active” or “passive.”

7. Avoid Excessive Travel And Entertainment. Even if your income is high, high travel and entertainment expenses for business can make you stick out. Consider carefully if you really meet the business purpose tests before you claim it.

Yahoo! Finance – Personal Finance | Taxes

Title Post: Shhh, Home Office and Other IRS Audit Trigger Secrets
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/shhh-home-office-and-other-irs-audit-trigger-secrets/
Link To Post : Shhh, Home Office and Other IRS Audit Trigger Secrets
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Braun says he used Fla clinic owner as consultant

Label: Technology

NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun said the person who ran the Florida clinic being investigated by Major League Baseball was used only as a consultant on his drug suspension appeal last year.

"I have nothing to hide," Braun said in a statement released by his representatives on Tuesday night.

Earlier in the day, Yahoo Sports reported the 2011 NL MVP's name showed up three times in records of the Biogenesis of America LLC clinic. Yahoo said no specific performance-enhancing drugs were listed next to his name.

The Miami New Times recently released clinic documents that purportedly linked Alex Rodriguez, Gio Gonzalez, Melky Cabrera and other players to purchases of banned drugs from the now-closed anti-aging center.

Rodriguez and Cabrera were on the list with Braun that also included New York Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli and Baltimore Orioles infielder Danny Valencia.

Braun said his name was in the Biogenesis records because of an issue over payment to Anthony Bosch, who ran the clinic near Miami.

"There was a dispute over compensation for Bosch's work, which is why my lawyer and I are listed under 'moneys owed' and not on any other list," Braun said.

"I have nothing to hide and have never had any other relationship with Bosch," he said. "I will fully cooperate with any inquiry into this matter."

On Tuesday, MLB officials asked the Miami New Times for the records the alternative newspaper obtained for its story.

Asked specifically about Braun's name in the documents before the five-time All-Star released his statement, MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said: "Aware of report and are in the midst of an active investigation in South Florida."

Braun tested positive during the 2011 postseason for elevated testosterone levels. He maintained his innocence and his 50-game suspension was overturned during spring training last year when arbitrator Shyam Das ruled in favor of Braun due to chain of custody issues involving the sample.

With that, Braun became the first major leaguer to have a drug suspension overturned.

"During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Tony Bosch, used him as a consultant. More specifically, he answered questions about T/E ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples," Braun said.

The T/E ratio is a comparison of the levels of testosterone to epitestosterone.

Braun led the NL in homers (41), runs (108) and slugging percentage (.595) last season while batting .319 with 112 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. He finished second to San Francisco catcher Buster Posey in MVP balloting."

Cervelli, who spent nearly all of last season in Triple-A, posted a statement on Twitter later Tuesday night.

"Following my foot injury in March 2011, I consulted with a number of experts, including BioGenesis Clinic, for (cont)," Cervelli posted, "(cont)legal ways to aid my rehab and recovery. I purchased supplements that I am certain were not prohibited by Major League Baseball."

An email sent to Valencia's agent was not returned.

Richard III 'still the criminal king'

Label: Lifestyle

Richard III on stage and screen

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Dan Jones: Richard III's remains found; some see chance to redeem his bad reputation

Jones says the bones reveal and confirm his appearance, how he died and his injuries

Nothing changes his rep as a usurper of the Crown who likely had nephews killed, Jones says

Jones: Richard good or bad? Truth likely somewhere in between

Editor's note: Dan Jones is a historian and newspaper columnist based in London. His new book, "The Plantagenets" (Viking) is published in the US this Spring. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) -- Richard III is the king we British just can't seem to make our minds up about.

The monarch who reigned from 1483 to 1485 became, a century later, the blackest villain of Shakespeare's history plays. The three most commonly known facts of his life are that he stole the Crown, murdered his nephews and died wailing for a horse at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. His death ushered in the Tudor dynasty, so Richard often suffers the dual ignominy of being named the last "medieval" king of England -- in which medieval is not held to be a good thing.

Like any black legend, much of it is slander.

Richard did indeed usurp the Crown and lose at Bosworth. He probably had his nephews killed too -- it is unknowable but overwhelmingly likely. Yet as his many supporters have been busy telling us since it was announced Monday that Richard's lost skeleton was found in a car park in Leicester, he wasn't all bad. In fact, he was for most of his life loyal and conscientious.

Dan Jones

To fill you in, a news conference held at the University of Leicester Monday confirmed what archaeologists working there have suspected for months: that a skeleton removed from under a parking lot in the city center last fall was indeed the long-lost remains of Richard III.

His official burial place -- under the floor of a church belonging to the monastic order of the Greyfriars -- had been lost during the dissolution of the monasteries that was carried out in the 1530s under Henry VIII. A legend grew up that the bones had been thrown in a river. Today, we know they were not.

What do the bones tell us?

Well, they show that Richard -- identified by mitochondrial DNA tests against a Canadian descendant of his sister, Anne of York -- was about 5-foot-8, suffered curvature of the spine and had delicate limbs. He had been buried roughly and unceremoniously in a shallow grave too small for him, beneath the choir of the church.

He had died from a slicing blow to the back of the head sustained during battle and had suffered many other "humiliation injuries" after his death, including having a knife or dagger plunged into his hind parts. His hands may have been tied at his burial. A TV show aired Monday night in the UK was expected to show a facial reconstruction from the skull.

Opinion: What will the finding of Richard III mean?

In other words, we have quite a lot of either new or confirmed biographical information about Richard.

He was not a hunchback, but he was spindly and warped. He died unhorsed. He was buried where it was said he was buried. He very likely was, as one source had said, carried roughly across a horse's back from the battlefield where he died to Leicester, stripped naked and abused all the way.

All this is known today thanks to a superb piece of historical teamwork.

The interdisciplinary team at Leicester that worked toward Monday's revelations deserves huge plaudits. From the desk-based research that pinpointed the spot to dig, to the digging itself, to the bone analysis, the DNA work and the genealogy that identified Richard's descendants, all of it is worthy of the highest praise. Hat-tips, too, to the Richard III Society, as well as Leicester's City Council, which pulled together to make the project happen and also to publicize the society and city so effectively.

However, should anyone today tell you that Richard's skeleton somehow vindicates his historical reputation, you may tell them they are talking horsefeathers.

Back from the grave, King Richard III gets rehab

Richard III got a rep for a reason. He usurped the Crown from a 12-year old boy, who later died.

This was his great crime, and there is no point denying it. It is true that before this crime, Richard was a conspicuously loyal lieutenant to the boy's father, his own brother, King Edward IV. It is also true that once he was king, Richard made a great effort to promote justice to the poor and needy, stabilize royal finances and contain public disorder.

But this does not mitigate that he stole the Crown, justifying it after the fact with the claim that his nephews were illegitimate. Likewise, it remains indisputably true that his usurpation threw English politics, painstakingly restored to some order in the 12 years before his crime, into a turmoil from which it did not fully recover for another two decades.

So the discovery of Richard's bones is exciting. But it does not tell us anything to justify changing the current historical view of Richard: that the Tudor historians and propagandists, culminating with Shakespeare, may have exaggerated his physical deformities and the horrors of Richard's character, but he remains a criminal king whose actions wrought havoc on his realm.

Unfortunately, we don't all want to hear that. Richard remains the only king with a society devoted to rehabilitating his name, and it is a trait of some "Ricardians" to refuse to acknowledge any criticism of their hero whatever. So despite today's discovery, we Brits are likely to remain split on Richard down the old lines: murdering, crook-backed, dissembling Shakespearean monster versus misunderstood, loyal, enlightened, slandered hero. Which is the truth?

Somewhere in between. That's a classic historian's answer, isn't it? But it's also the truth.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Jones.

Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group

Label: Health

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Golden Globe-winning actor Kiefer Sutherland has been named Man of the Year by Harvard University‘s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

Sutherland will be roasted and receive his ceremonial pudding pot at a ceremony scheduled for Friday.

The 46-year-old Sutherland has been in dozens of films but is perhaps best known for his role as Jack Bauer in the television series “24,” for which he won Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy awards. He is currently starring in the television show “Touch.”

Last year’s Man of the Year was Jason Segel.

The 2013 Woman of the Year, Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR’), was honored last week.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals is the nation’s oldest undergraduate drama troupe.

The awards are presented annually to performers who have made a lasting and impressive contribution to entertainment.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/kiefer-sutherland-honored-by-harvard-theater-group/
Link To Post : Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Wall Street extends gains; Nasdaq up 1 percent

Label: World

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq gaining more than 1 percent, as investors sought bargains following the market's worst daily session since November and more companies reported results that beat Wall Street's expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 114.81 points, or 0.83 percent, at 13,994.89. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 13.63 points, or 0.91 percent, at 1,509.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 30.81 points, or 0.98 percent, at 3,161.98.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

dongeunshin

Category

Archive

Older women staying on the job to make up lost time

TCU shocks Kansas, 1st losing streak in 7 years

Should we still fear al Qaeda?

Daniel Day-Lewis seen winning Best Actor Oscar, poll shows

Wall Street flat as rally runs out of steam, results eyed

Shhh, Home Office and Other IRS Audit Trigger Secrets

Braun says he used Fla clinic owner as consultant

Richard III 'still the criminal king'

Kiefer Sutherland honored by Harvard theater group

Wall Street extends gains; Nasdaq up 1 percent

Subscribe Me