StumbleUpon (for iPhone)

StumbleUpon, the site that encourages you to explore your interests widely across the Web, brings its love of discovery to the Apple's smartphone market with a StumbleUpon iPhone app. On the larger screen of Apple's tablet, StumbleUpon for iPad (free, 4.5 stars and an Editors' Choice) is one of our favorite apps, and a recent overhaul of the site helps adapt the little app to the iPhone's tighter dimensions. StumbleUpon for iPhone comes close to reaching its full potential as a beautiful, compelling, and cerebral plaything, though the screen size still holds it back a touch.

StumbleUpon works gracefully on the iPhone and iPod touch to a point, but the nature of the site, which is to show you other sites and Web pages oftentimes at random, leaves it stuck between a rock and a hard place. It could alters page displays for mobile optimization, the way Instapaper (which in fact connects with StumbleUpon to enable a read-it-later feature), but at the risk of stripping away whatever it is that makes the page interesting, quirky, unique, or hilarious. What StumbleUpon has done instead is display pages as they are, wrapped inside its own interface and therefore shrunk a few more pixels smaller, which can lead to squinting madness. It's a toss-up. Some sites display nicely. Others require nothing more than a double tap to zoom them in to acceptable viewing level. Yet others, cluttered with ads, suffering from tiny text point size, will never look good. It's not StumbleUpon's fault that some sites are ugly or unadapted for mobile viewing, but it can put a damper on the experience. The same goes for page-loading speeds.

Check out?The Best iPhone Apps

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Features
All the other features that I love about StumbleUpon's site and iPad app remain intact. You can create an account or log into an existing one to get recommendations for sites to explore. Connect with others to follow their interests. Mark pages you view with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Select areas of interest, from knitting to science to home improvement. All this activity and information feeds StumbleUpon's recommendation engine, which spits back at you amazingly well-curated content.

Third-party app integration was done right. A sharing button gives you the most appropriate options first: share with another StumbleUpon user, send a link via email, and share as a Facebook or Twitter post. "More" options open up additional possibilities. You can open the page in Safari, read it in Google Reader, save it to the Instapaper app or Read it Later app, or recycle it on a Tumblr blog.

The app gives lets you access your StumbleUpon account, too, so you can change your interests, add new friends, cull whom you're following, and comb through your StumbleUpon history of likes and dislikes while on the go.

Stumble To Go
Playing with StumbleUpon on an iPhone is not nearly as gratifying as flipping through the app on an iPad?we think it's one of the best apps for the iPad, period?but it's still a fantastic leisure site that stumblers will be happy to browse on their phones, especially if they don't have an iPad. On the small screen, StumbleUpon does cause occasional squinting, but integration with some third-party mobile reading sites, like Instapaper, iron out that problem a little.

More iPhone App Reviews:
??? Lookout for iPhone
??? StumbleUpon (for iPhone)
??? Adaptu Wallet for iPhone
??? Snapseed
??? Hipstamatic for iPhone
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/tGpUhrniG74/0,2817,2398438,00.asp

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Retail sales weaken in Dec. but cap a record year (AP)

WASHINGTON ? America's retailers enjoyed a record 2011 and their first $400 billion sales months ever. But the final month of the year was a dud.

Sales eked out a 0.1 percent increase in December, to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion.

It was the second straight month that sales topped $400 billion. The government revised November sales to show a 0.4 percent gain, twice the original estimate.

December's increase, though, was the weakest in seven months. Excluding volatile auto purchases, overall sales actually fell 0.2 percent. It was the first such drop since May 2010.

But analysts said they still expect consumers to help the economy strengthen further, especially because businesses have stepped up hiring. More jobs mean more people with money to spend.

"Although consumer spending is not particularly robust, households do continue to spend and provide moderate support for the overall economy," said Steven Wood, chief economist at Insight Economics.

For all of 2011, sales totaled a record $4.7 trillion. That was a gain of nearly 8 percent over 2010 ? the largest percentage increase since 1999.

Steady sales gains have fueled a 20 percent surge from the low during the Great Recession. Monthly sales are even 6 percent above their pre-recession high. The figures confirm evidence that the economy was strengthening as 2011 ended.

Part of the reason for December's weak showing was lower gasoline prices. Those prices reduced sales at gasoline stations. Excluding gas stations, overall retail sales would have risen 0.3 percent in December.

Another factor was heavy discounting during the holiday shopping season. Many retailers said they had to offer cut prices in December to attract shoppers.

The sluggish retail-sales data followed a report this week that consumers raised their borrowing in November by the most in a decade. Many might have charged more spending to their credit cards because their pay has all but stagnated. The savings rate has also declined.

Continued job growth may be needed to sustain spending increases.

In the meantime, Thursday's news "reminds us that the economy is still struggling," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "This is the recovery of fits and starts."

Separately, more people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Applications rose 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 399,000. But the gain was due largely to companies shedding workers after the holiday season.

Economists downplayed the increase. It followed three months of declines that had reduced the number of unemployment applications to their lowest level in three years.

And businesses increased their stockpiles in November to meet rising consumer demand. That gain likely boosted economic growth in the final months of 2011. Companies are rebuilding stockpiles after cutting them last summer amid fears of another recession. It means many anticipate higher consumer spending.

The retail sales report showed that holiday discounts helped push department store sales down 0.2 percent in December.

Compared with the same time last year, retail sales have risen 6.4 percent. An earlier survey of 25 major retail chains by the International Council of Shopping Centers found that December revenue at stores open at least a year rose 3.5 percent over the same month a year ago.

That survey's figures aren't adjusted for seasonal changes; the government's figures are. The government report is also a broader gauge. It covers purchases at all retailers, not just major national chains. It also includes auto dealerships, restaurants and bars, grocery stores and gasoline stations.

The strength last month was led by a 1.5 percent jump in auto sales. Furniture and hardware stores reported increases, too. But sales at electronics and appliance stores sank nearly 4 percent.

The government's retail sales report is its first look each month at consumer spending, which accounts for roughly 70 percent of the economy. A healthy report typically signals a stronger economy.

This week, the Federal Reserve issued a report saying the final six weeks of 2011 were among the economy's best last year. It noted higher holiday and auto sales, along with increased travel.

U.S. automakers have said that November and December were their two best sales months in 2011. The job market has brightened, too. Employers added 200,000 jobs in December. And the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest in nearly three years.

At the same time, the U.S. economy remains under threat. The biggest risk is that Europe's debt troubles could destabilize the world's financial system and trigger a global recession.

Other threats could come from another spike in oil prices or political gridlock that blocks a full-year extension of a Social Security tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits.

Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, said he thinks spending will ease in coming months, in part because of a need to rebuild savings after the holidays.

"We don't think the consumer is completely going into hiding, but we do think that the pace of consumer spending is poised to slow," Vitner said.

Because the government's retail sales report is seasonally adjusted, the current month can be compared with the previous month. But the figures aren't adjusted for inflation.

A separate government report each month measures consumer spending. It's a more inclusive gauge. It covers all spending at retailers ? for both durable goods like cars that are expected to last for years and nondurable goods such as food.

It also covers spending on services. Services include items such as doctor's visits, airline tickets, apartment rentals and utility bills. The service category makes up two-thirds of consumer spending and isn't covered in the retail surveys.

__

AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_bi_ge/us_economy

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Hogs get 11th win, 29-16 over K-State in Cotton (AP)

ARLINGTON, Texas ? Joe Adams and Jarius Wright quickly found themselves on the field as freshmen for Bobby Petrino's first team at Arkansas four years ago.

"They had no choice," Petrino said. "Not as big and as fast as they are right now, but they did a nice job. There were a few times that season where they weren't sure if they broke the huddle and went to the right or broke the huddle and went to the left."

Wright and Adams are leaving 1-2 on Arkansas' career receptions list after three consecutive bowl games, the last when the No. 7 Razorbacks defeated No. 11 Kansas State 29-16 in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night to tie the school record with their 11th victory.

The All-SEC receivers both scored in the finale, Adams on another explosive punt return and Wright on a 45-yard catch.

"It's a huge deal for us," Wright said. "We always talked about winning 11 games."

Arkansas was 5-7 when they were freshmen, then 8-5 before 10 wins last season with a Sugar Bowl appearance. The only previous years Arkansas teams won 11 games were in 1964 and 1977.

The only losses for these Razorbacks (11-2) were to No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, their SEC West rivals who will play for the BCS national championship Monday night.

Adams tied an SEC record with his fourth punt return for a touchdown this season, a 51-yarder early in the second quarter that gave Arkansas a 10-0 lead before it even had a first down.

"Joe Adams has made big plays for us all year long," said All-SEC quarterback Tyler Wilson, who threw two touchdown passes after that. "We were struggling offensively until he sparked us."

It was the first punt return for a touchdown in the Cotton Bowl in 51 years.

"It was another one of those where you just go, `Wow!'" Petrino said. "You could see when he made the catch he had in mind what he was going to do."

After fielding the ball near midfield, Adams took a few steps back before squirting through a gap past several defenders. He got all the way to the opposite sideline, his path cleared by one last downfield block from Javontee Herndon.

"It obviously made a major difference," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. "The players were probably tired of me talking about being able to contain Joe Adams and not let him bounce the ball outside. Sure enough he bounced it outside."

The last punt return for a touchdown in the Cotton Bowl was by a Razorback. When Lance Alworth had a 49-yard return in a 7-6 loss to Duke in the 1961 game.

"To get this program consistently in the top 10, in BCS bowl games, great bowl games like the Cotton Bowl, hopefully in the top five in the country with 11 wins, it means so much to me personally, and to this group of seniors," defensive end Jake Bequette said. "It's just been such a fun ride."

Kansas State (10-3) also was trying to match its school record with 11 victories, but still finished a surprising season in Snyder's second Wildcats turnaround. K-State won 11 games six times during a seven-year span in Snyder's first tenure before his three-year retirement, and almost reached that mark again in his third season back.

Wildcats quarterback Collin Klein tied the Big 12 record with his 27th rushing touchdown this season and matched the FBS record for quarterbacks.

"It's overshadowed by our ability as a group. We came up short," Klein said. "My heart just goes out to our seniors. We weren't able to send them out the right way."

After being held to 15 yards on 12 carries in the first half, Klein finished the opening drive of the third quarter with a 6-yard TD run that got the Wildcats to 19-16.

That matched the Big 12 record for rushing touchdowns held by 1998 Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams of Texas. The only other FBS quarterback with 27 rushing touchdowns in a season was Ricky Dobbs for Navy in 2009.

Wilson, who threw for a school-record 510 yards in a win over Texas A&M at Cowboys Stadium three months ago, was 20 of 31 for 216 yards against Kansas State. Wright, who had 13 catches for a record 287 yards against the Aggies, made three catches for 88 yards in the Cotton Bowl.

The Cotton Bowl was the only non-BCS game with both teams in the top 15 of the Bowl Championship Series standings ? Arkansas came in sixth, Kansas State eighth. It also is the only bowl featuring the SEC versus the Big 12, the top two conferences in the BCS computer rankings.

Arkansas led 19-0 on Wright's 45-yard catch with 4 minutes left in the first half.

Kansas State, which has lost its last four bowl games since beating Arizona State in the 2002 Holiday Bowl, blocked the extra point and Nigel Malone returned it for two points.

It was 19-9 at halftime after Klein threw a 3-yard TD pass to Andrew McDonald with 26 seconds left in the first half. That score was set up after Wilson was sacked and fumbled at the Razorbacks 13.

Arkansas led 3-0 after Bequette sacked Klein and forced a fumble. Tenarius Wright recovered at the Kansas State 13.

"We got off to an awfully bad start and really couldn't overcome the damage that we did," Snyder said. "And most of it was pretty obvious."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120107/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_t25_cotton_bowl_folo

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one on one?(:

Hello all! I have been away for quite some time but I am ready to jump back into the saddle and get back to roleplaying. I think it would be the safest to start back with a few one on ones until i'm comfortable with the updates and such. So i'm interested in pretty much any type of rps except the highschool, and vamipre junk. (Sorry to those who enjoy them) I might be a bit rusty at first so just bare with me and i'm sure it will all come back to me. XD

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/3Fx3HhuzzTU/viewtopic.php

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Central Florida woman claims $2 million lottery jackpot

Lottery winner Doris Hastings poses with her son Trevor and her $2 million check at Florida Lottery headquarters. (Florida Lottery / January 5, 2012)

Staff report

11:23 a.m. EST, January 5, 2012

A 54-year-old Paisley woman has claimed a $2 million Mega Money jackpot, Florida Lottery officials said.

Doris Hastings bought the winning ticket at Paisley Discount Beverage on County Road 42. She chose to take her winnings in lump sum, which amounted to $1,628,212.43.

Hastings intends to use her winnings to buy a house and pay off vehicles she and her son drive, according to the lottery.

Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-lk-lotto-winner-20120105,0,1285208.story?track=rss

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KentuckyfaninNC: RT @JayBilas: NCAA powerless to overturn LA-Lafayette v. WKY result, but NCAA announced emphatically that Jim Calhoun will not get credi ...

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Source: http://twitter.com/KentuckyfaninNC/statuses/155140257917050882

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Paul Paz y Miño: How Lawyer Arrogance Imperils Chevron Shareholders in Ecuador

One of the more interesting aspects of the $18 billion Chevron-Ecuador environmental case is not only that the oil giant recently offered a $1 billion bribe to Ecuador's government to quash the case, but how a series of monumental mistakes by the American law firm Gibson Dunn Crutcher ("GDC") and its lead partner, Randy Mastro, have increasingly imperiled the interests of a major client like Chevron and its institutional shareholders.

The latest of several recent Gibson Dunn setbacks occurred Tuesday, when an Ecuador appellate court affirmed the $18 billion judgment against Chevron. Chevron is Gibson Dunn's lead client for the last two years as the law firm has seen its profits soar off of the oil giant's Ecuador debacle, which is largely a function of Mastro's own flawed advice and unethical litigation practices as outlined below.

Gibson Dunn partners might want to wake up to Mastro's shenanigans, which have largely remained hidden from public view but threaten to stain the reputation of a prominent law firm that has always been pretty good at hiding its dark side. The same might go for Chevron's management, which continues to foot the bill for a legal strategy that creates major operational risks for the company in countries around the world.

Gibson Dunn has long advertised itself as the "dream team" for clients in serious trouble. It boasts that lawyers like Mastro, Andrea Neumann, Scott Edelman, and William Thomson are capable of mounting "rescue" operations for corporations facing major liability for environmental and other abuses committed against vulnerable peoples like the indigenous and farmer communities of Ecuador's Amazon. If the law is in the way of a client's interests, GDC claims it will work to either change the law or maneuver around it. The firm is notorious forthrowing a client's lawyers under the bus for not being "aggressive" enough so GDC can replace them.

Hyped-out aggression is an approach that can resonate powerfully to a desperate and confused management team like the one at Chevron. CEO John Watson already has egg on his face for bungling what could be the largest environmental litigation in history. For years Chevron praised Ecuador's courts to move the venue of the case out of the U.S. Its attacks on those courts today after it lost the case seem opportunistic to say the least, particularly after Chevron submitted scientific evidence and internal audits that prove the claims of the plaintiffs. While with Mastro's encouragement Watson tries to kick the Ecuador can down the road, the risk to Chevron's shareholders continues to increase while Watson's personal conflicts of interest become ever more manifest. See here, here, and here.

(Note: Watson in 2001 helped engineer the Chevron purchase of Texaco after failing to properly vet the company for the Ecuador liability. Chevron at the time ignored repeated warnings about the case from environmentalists and others. After ignoring these warnings, Chevron vastly overpaid for Texaco by not accounting for the Ecuador liability in the purchase price. The problem for shareholders is exacerbated by the company's notoriously passive board of directors, whose members allow Watson to police himself by holding the dual titles of board chairman and CEO.)

Back to Gibson Dunn. The combination of Chevron's deep pockets and its desperate situation in Ecuador -- the country where it wanted the trial held thinking it could use political influence to engineer the "proper" result -- has created the perfect storm of opportunity for GDC's marketing and billing machine. In fact, Gibson Dunn has billed Chevron so much for its Ecuador work -- at least hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years, according to those who know the legal profession -- that one has to wonder whether Chevron General Counsel Hewitt Pate works for his outside law firm or whether the outside law firm works for Pate. Gibson Dunn alone has at least 60 lawyers working on the Ecuador case, according to its own admission before a U.S. federal court.

Chevron also uses three other major U.S. law firms on the case (Jones Day, King & Spalding, and Boies Schiller) and at least six public relations firms to spread company propaganda that the matter is a "fraud" orchestrated by greedy American lawyers. It also uses the same political consulting firm that launched the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. What few know is that Gibson Dunn basically uses carbon copy lawsuits alleging "fraud" against almost any entity that has the temerity to challenge its powerful clients.

To get Chevron out of its mess, Gibson has targeted Ecuadorian lawyer, Pablo Fajardo, who was profiled with great sensitivity in Vanity Fair. Fajardo brilliantly has outmaneuvered Chevron's high-priced lawyers at almost every turn. The fact GDC with its hundreds of millions of dollars has been unable to shake Fajardo and his team of twenty-somethings has to be the litigation story of the year, but you won't read about it American Lawyer, which recently named Gibson Dunn its litigation firm of the year even after it suffered multiple setbacks in the Ecuador case.

More incredible is that since Gibson Dunn entered the Ecuador case on behalf of Chevron in 2009, the interests of the oil company's shareholders have endured a series of blows almost unprecedented in the annals of litigation. Consider the sad results of Mastro's latest "rescue" operation for Chevron:

• Chevron in February of 2011 lost the underlying Ecuador litigation in one of the largest civil judgments in history -- roughly $18 billion. In a 188-page decision, the court found the company poisoned an area the size of Rhode Island, decimated indigenous groups and caused an outbreak of cancer affecting thousands of people. See here and here.
• Just this week, Gibson Dunn suffered another blow when an Ecuadorian appellate court affirmed the trial court decision.
• Roughly half of the total judgment in Ecuador is to compensate the rainforest communities for the harm caused by Chevron's and Gibson Dunn's hyper-aggressive litigation tactics, including the repeated filing of frivolous motions and the threatening of the presiding judge with jail time if he didn't rule in favor of the company.
• Last September, a federal appellate court panel in New York rebuked Mastro for attempting (without any legal precedent) to use the U.S. court system to block the Ecuadorian rainforest communities from enforcing a judgment from their courts in any country in the world. Mastro's position was blasted by jurists around the world for turning U.S. trial courts into appellate courts for all of the world's judicial systems. Mastro was so hysterical and rude to the appellate panel that one of its members asked him to sit down. See page 19 of this transcript. Chevron General Counsel Pate, who was attending, looked ashen-faced after the argument.
• Chevron orchestrated a video entrapment scheme against a sitting judge in Ecuador, which backfired against the company and prompted an ongoing criminal investigation in Ecuador of Chevron's attempts to corrupt the country's justice system. Mastro and his team have played a leading role in trying to block the release of documents in the United States related to this outrageous scandal, which also has created potential exposure for Chevron under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• Gibson Dunn lawyers have been sanctioned repeatedly by U.S. courts for engaging in unethical behavior on behalf of Chevron. Just weeks ago a federal judge in Oregon sanctioned and fined Chevron after finding that Gibson lawyer Kristin Hendricks (an associate working under Mastro) abused the discovery process to harass a respected environmental organization that had filed a brief in the Ecuador case.
• A Colorado federal court in 2010 rebuked Gibson Dunn lawyer Andrea Neumann for trying to intimidate and harass a witness she was deposing who had worked for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs.
• Gibson Dunn partner Scott Edelman, a key member of Mastro's team, has been sanctioned twice under California's anti-SLAPP statute for filing frivolous litigation to intimidate lawyers and filmmakers who are trying to hold Gibson Dunn clients accountable for human rights violations. In one of those cases, a judge ordered Chevron to pay the legal fees for a lawyer who had represented the Ecuadorian plaintiffs against Chevron.
• Gibson Dunn partner William Thomson, also a key member of Mastro's team, wrote a report for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticizing "abusive foreign litigations" without disclosing that he represents Chevron in the Ecuador case, which the Chamber uses as Exhibit A in its campaign to prevent the enforcement of foreign judgments against U.S. corporations. Thomson allowed his report to be used to mislead the U.S. Congress at a recent hearing that dealt with the Ecuador case.
• Under Mastro's leadership, the Ecuador case recently has taken a profound turn for the worse with the attempted bribe of Ecuador's government by long-time ally Ivonne Baki, the discovery that Chevron lied to its own expert witnesses to get them to defend the use of deceptive sampling practices during the trial, and the shocking revelation that Chevron used a secret lab to hide from the Ecuador court its dirty soil samples taken from its former well sites. In fact, Chevron's entire defense in Ecuador is falling apart given the mounting evidence that it is based on fraudulent science designed to hide evidence of life-threatening amounts of contamination.
• Mastro recently tried to convince a federal court judge that Ecuador's entire judicial system is as bad as that of Iran's, which has about as much credibility as saying North Korea will hold free and fair elections to replace Kim Il Jong. In fact, Ecuador has one of the top judicial systems in Latin America and Chevron and other foreign investors have won multiple cases in Ecuador's courts in recent years.

Mastro also appears to use his own low-paid associates to take outrageous personal risks that he would never take himself. The official court sanctioning of Hendricks, a young graduate of Georgetown law school, is a classic example. What is distressing is that Hendricks did not bungle the Oregon case; harassment is what Mastro teaches his associates if they want to get ahead in his practice group.

The real question is whether Chevron's shareholders wake up to the fact that a) their company faces unprecedented legal risk for the obvious mishandling of the Ecuador case; b) that their own management team is in bed with a law firm that has a huge stake in convincing the company to continue the litigation even at great risk, so it can keep lubricating its billing machine; and c) that an American law firm is creating open conflict between Chevron and a foreign government, disrespecting local laws and the communities in which the company operates, all the while casting outrageous aspersions on the court system of a nation that is a U.S. ally.

Given that Chevron might face enforcement actions in countries around the world over the Ecuador liability, shareholders might want to question whether Gibson Dunn's "rescue" strategy is as good for Chevron as it for Gibson Dunn.

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Follow Paul Paz y Mi?o on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulpaz

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-paz-y-mino/chevron-ecuador-oil_b_1180208.html

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