The Bonsai Is A Shaving Accessory That Hopes To Be One Designer?s Contribution To Water Conservation

The Bonsai is gadget with a soul, one that hopes to make a global difference by changing the way we go about an activity many do on a daily basis. It's a shaving accessory, and it's being funded via Indiegogo right now, with creator Craig Battin and his team looking for $125,000 to turn their final prototype into a production shipping device.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/diza2F_SrN8/

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Apple reportedly considering Waze acquisition to help fix iOS Maps app

Despite reaching a fiscal cliff deal that will shield 99 percent of Americans from an income tax increase, more than three quarters of American households will still face higher federal tax bills in 2013. That's because legislators failed to renew a temporary reduction in payroll taxes, worth about $1,000 to a worker earning $50,000 a year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-reportedly-considering-waze-acquisition-help-fix-ios-183535052.html

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Unnerving Instagram-Street View smashup built with best intentions

35 min.

Rosa Golijan , NBC News

"If you don't want it to be shared or seen by the entire world,"?Abe Stanway explains,?"you shouldn't share it with anyone at all." The 22-year-old?engineer is part of a small team that built a site which shows anyone exactly where an Instagram photo was taken.

The site, called the Beat, takes advantage of the Instagram and Google Street View application programming interfaces (APIs) in order to create a strange mashup of the two services. All a user has to do is search for a keyword and Beat will spit out results in the form of photos with geotags?? embedded geographic data?? and a look at the Google Street View location corresponding to that information.

Through some simple?keyword searches, I found that it's?possible to easily?discover where a girl with a large?pile of yet-to-be-opened gift boxes from Tiffany's resides, where a family is spending its summer vacation (and which hotel's bar the father favors), where a man with an impressive gun collection lives, and so on. Someone with a plan???malicious or otherwise???and some time on his or her hands can easily compile a wealth of data on strangers. (Is it any surprise that at least one tech reporter?has wondered if Beat is a "creepy" use of technology?)

Of course, what Beat does isn't an absolute novelty. In the past we've seen apps and services ? such as one named "Creepy"?or another dubbed "Please Rob Me"?? which easily gather?geographic data from services like Flickr, Twitpic, Instagram, Foursquare and so on.?Thanks to these apps and services, and smartphones which have the ability to add geotags to photos and social media posts, there's plenty of information lingering out there.

"People want to share, people sometimes want to share publicly," Mor Naaman, an?assistant professor at Rutgers University whose research group built Beat, told NBC News. "But they still want to retain privacy." He sounds certain that both desires can coexist.

Naaman's research group consists of?Abe Stanway (who also spoke with NBC News), Ian Jennings?and Jerry Reptak???current and former Rutgers University?undergrads. For them, Beat is just a small part of what Naaman describes as a "much larger project," one which focuses on collecting, organizing?and showing relevant information online.

"Social media forgets a lot about what's happening in real life, what's happening out there, what people do, what they care about," Naaman explains. Stanway says if aliens were looking at Earth or a city on Earth, "What would they want to know? [...] What would be their passport to figure it out?"

By giving photos context?? location?? Beat can show you the ... well, beat,?or rhythm,?of any place or topic.

As Beat flashes images of valuables and their locations across my screen, Naaman's words seem too gentle for the potential danger they convey.

"I?think people should continue to share," he says. "I think it's interesting and critical [...]?but I would also like them to think about the consequences."

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/unnerving-instagram-street-view-smashup-built-best-intentions-1C7804643

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Dozens killed, wounded in airstrike near Damascus

BEIRUT (AP) ? A Syrian warplane blasted a gas station near Damascus Wednesday, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in what could be one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month civil war.

Activists said a single Russian-built MiG fighter fired a missile that hit the gas station, setting off an inferno in the eastern suburb of Mleiha. Black smoke billowed from the site. An amateur video posted online showed charred bodies and gruesome carnage at the scene.

Mohammed Saeed, an activist who visited the site, said the missile struck as drivers waited in line with their cars at the station. Syria has been facing a fuel crisis, and people often wait for hours to get gasoline.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human said "tens of people were killed or wounded." At least 10 bodies were seen in an amateur video.

"Many of the people who were there were killed," Saeed said via Skype. "Body parts could be seen on the ground."

He said the missile fired by the MiG warplane caused a crater a meter (three feet) deep.

An amateur video showed several vehicles on fire and a cloud of smoke rising into the air. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

It was unclear why the Syrian military targeted the gas station. There have been clashes and shelling in nearby areas in the past days.

Saeed said there were two other air raids in the nearby suburbs of Maadamiyeh and Deir al-Asafir.

"Since yesterday the raids have been very intense," Saeed said.

In the north, rebels attacked a sprawling air base Wednesday as the opposition expanded its offensive on military airports in an attempt to sideline a major weapon in the hands of President Bashar Assad's forces.

The Observatory said the rebel assault on the Taftanaz base was preceded by heavy shelling of the area, and the fighters appeared to be trying to storm the facility. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman described the attack as one "of the most intense" on the airfield.

In the past few weeks, Syrian rebels have stepped up their attacks on airports around the neighboring province of Aleppo, trying to chip away at the government's air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to the opposition fighters' advances. As its control of large swaths of territory has slipped over the past year, the government has increasingly relied on its warplanes and helicopters to strike rebel-held areas.

Several past rebel attempts to capture the Taftanaz base have failed.

The Observatory said Syrian army helicopters were helping defend the airfield against the rebel assault. It said four rebels were killed in the clashes around the base, and one helicopter was hit by rebel fire.

The Observatory said the rebels attacking Taftanaz base included members of Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliated with al-Qaida and branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. The group's fighters have been among the most effective on the rebel side in their battle to oust Assad.

On Tuesday, clashes between government troops and rebels forced the international airport in Aleppo to stop all flights in and out of Syria's largest city.

Rebels have been fighting for control of Aleppo since launching an offensive on the city over the summer. The fight over the commercial hub has turned into a bloody stalemate. Rebels have captured large swathes of territory in the surrounding Aleppo province west and north of the city up to the Turkish border.

The rebels have been attacking three other airports in the Aleppo area, including the Mannagh military helicopter base near the Turkish border. They have posted dozens of videos online that appear to show fighters shooting mortars, homemade rockets and sniper rifles at targets inside the bases.

The LCC said rebels Wednesday bombarded the Mannagh air base, which has been subjected to almost daily attacks since late last month.

The Observatory also reported that eight shells struck the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the capital forcing some of the residents to flee the area that is mostly in the hands of rebels.

Anti-regime activists say more than 45,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Since then, it has evolved into a full-scale civil war with scores of armed groups across the country fighting regime forces.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dozens-killed-wounded-airstrike-near-damascus-124126113.html

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Reid among 7 NFL coaches sacked in firing frenzy

FILE - Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Giants Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, N.J. Reid has been fired after 14 seasons coaching the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles made the announcement Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Giants Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, N.J. Reid has been fired after 14 seasons coaching the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles made the announcement Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE -- In a Dec. 23, 2012 file photo Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith watches his team during the first half of an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, Ariz. The Chicago Bears have fired coach Lovie Smith after the team missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri/file)

FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2012, file photo, Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt appears before an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Glendale, Ariz. The Cardinals fired Whisenhunt Monday, Dec. 31, after six seasons that included the long-suffering franchise's only Super Bowl appearance. (AP Photo/Paul Connors, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2012, file photo, San Diego Chargers head coach Norv Turner leaves the field at the end of the first half of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in San Diego. The Chargers fired Turner and general manager A.J. Smith on Monday, Dec. 31, after missing the playoffs for the third straight season. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, left, shakes hands with Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur after the Steelers' 24-10 win in an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Andy Reid is the winningest coach in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles. Lovie Smith led the Chicago Bears to the 2007 Super Bowl.

Now they're looking for work.

Seven coaches and five general managers were fired Monday in a flurry of pink slips that were delivered the day after the regular-season ended.

Ken Whisenhunt is out after helping Arizona reach the Super Bowl following the 2008 season. Also gone: Norv Turner in San Diego, Pat Shurmur in Cleveland, Romeo Crennel in Kansas City and Chan Gailey in Buffalo.

Three teams made it a clean sweep, saying goodbye to the GM along with the coach ? San Diego, Cleveland, Arizona. General managers also were fired in Jacksonville and New York, where Rex Ryan held onto his coaching job with the Jets despite a losing record.

Reid was the longest tenured of the coaches, removed after 14 seasons and a Super Bowl appearance in 2005 ? a loss to New England. Smith spent nine seasons with the Bears.

Turner has now been fired as head coach by three teams. San Diego won the AFC West from 2006-09, but didn't make the postseason the last three years under Turner and GM A.J. Smith.

"Both Norv and A.J. are consummate NFL professionals, and they understand that in this league, the bottom line is winning," Chargers President Dean Spanos said in a statement.

Whisenhunt was fired after six seasons. He had more wins than any other coach in Cardinals history, going 45-51, and has one year worth about $5.5 million left on his contract. GM Rod Graves had been with Arizona for 16 years, nine in his current position. A 5-11 record after a 4-0 start cost him and Whisenhunt their jobs.

Gailey was dumped after three seasons with the Bills; Shurmur after two; and Crennel had one full season with the Chiefs.

Reid took over a 3-13 Eagles team in 1999, drafted Donovan McNabb with the No. 2 overall pick and quickly turned the franchise into a title contender.

But the team hasn't won a playoff game since 2008 and after last season's 8-8 finish, owner Jeffrey Lurie said he was looking for improvement this year. Instead, it was even worse. The Eagles finished 4-12.

"When you have a season like that, it's embarrassing. It's personally crushing to me and it's terrible," Lurie said at a news conference. He said he respects Reid and plans to stay friends with him, "but, it is time for the Eagles to move in a new direction."

Shurmur went 9-23 in his two seasons with the Browns, who will embark on yet another offseason of change ? the only constant in more than a decade of futility. Cleveland has lost at least 11 games in each of the past five seasons and made the playoffs just once since returning to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999.

"Ultimately our objective is to put together an organization that will be the best at everything we do," Browns CEO Joe Banner said. "On the field, our only goal is trying to win championships."

Crennel took over with three games left in the 2011 season after GM Scott Pioli fired Todd Haley. Kansas City will have the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft as a result of having one of the worst seasons in its 53-year history. The only other time the Chiefs finished 2-14 was 2008, the year before Pioli was hired.

"I am embarrassed by the poor product we gave our fans this season, and I believe we have no choice but to move the franchise in a different direction," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement.

Gailey, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, compiled a 16-32 record in his three seasons in Buffalo, never doing better than 6-10.

"This will probably be, and I say probably, but I think it will be the first place that's ever fired me that I'll pull for," Gailey said.

Smith and the Bears went 10-6 this season and just missed a playoff spot. But Chicago started 7-1 and has struggled to put together a productive offense throughout Smith's tenure. His record was 81-63 with the Bears, and he took them to one Super Bowl loss and to one NFC championship game defeat.

Receiver and kick return standout Devin Hester was bitter about Smith's firing.

"The media, the false fans, you all got what you all wanted," Hester said as he cleared out his locker. "The majority of you all wanted him out. As players we wanted him in. I guess the fans ? the false fans ? outruled us. I thought he was a great coach, probably one of the best coaches I've ever been around."

The fired GMs included Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets; Gene Smith of the Jaguars; Tom Heckert of the Browns; Smith of the Chargers and Graves of Arizona.

"You hope that those guys that obviously were victims of black Monday land on their feet," Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. "You've got guys that have been to Super Bowls and won championship games and all of a sudden they've forgot how to coach, I guess."

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-01-NFL%20Firings/id-c157b2c63e304ce0996d0a22a3f34b36

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Housing and jobs key to lifting S&P toward record

NEW YORK (AP) ? It may be a big if, but assuming Washington lawmakers can get past the "fiscal cliff," many analysts say that the outlook for stocks next year is good, as a recovering housing market and an improving jobs outlook helps the economy maintain a slow, but steady recovery.

An advance of 10 percent in 2013 would send the S&P 500 toward, and possibly past, its record close of 1,565 reached in October 2007.

A mid-year rally in 2012 pushed stocks to their highest in more than four years. Both the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained in 2012. Those advances came despite uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election and bouts of turmoil from Europe, where policy makers finally appear to be getting a grip on the region's debt crisis.

"As you remove little bits of uncertainty, investors can then once again return to focusing on the fundamentals," says Joseph Tanious, a global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. "Corporate America is actually doing quite well."

Although earnings growth of S&P 500 listed companies dipped as low as 0.8 percent in the summer, analysts are predicting that it will rebound to average 9.5 percent for 2013, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Companies have also been hoarding cash. The amount of cash and cash-equivalents being held by companies listed in the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high $1 trillion at the end of September, 65 percent more than five years ago, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

By the time trading ended Monday, Republicans and Democrats still hadn't reached a budget compromise ? but investors were betting that they would ? after President Barack Obama said that a compromise was "within sight," but not finalized. Without a budget agreement, millions of Americans face the prospect of higher taxes and the government would be forced to slash spending, measures that would probably push the economy into recession, economists say.

Assuming a budget deal is reached in a reasonable amount of time, investors will be more comfortable owning stocks in 2013, allowing valuations to rise, says Tanious.

Stocks in the S&P 500 index are currently trading on a price-to-earnings multiple of about 13.5, compared with the average of 17.9 since 1988, according to S&P Capital IQ data. A lower-than-average ration suggests that stocks are cheap.

The stock market will also likely face less drag from the European debt crisis this year, said Steven Bulko, the chief investment officer at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. While policy makers in Europe have yet to come up with a comprehensive solution to the region's woes, they appear to have a better handle on the region's problems than they have for quite some time.

"There is still some heavy lifting that needs to be done in Europe," said Bulko. Now, though, "we are dealing with much more manageable risk than we have had in the past few years."

Next year may also see an increase in mergers and acquisitions as companies seeks to make use of the cash on their balance sheets, says Jarred Kessler, global head of equities at broker Cantor Fitzgerald.

While the number of M&A deals has gradually crept higher in the past four years, the dollar value of the deals remains remains well short of the total reached five years ago. U.S. targeted acquisitions totaled $964 billion through Dec. 27, according to data tracking firm Dealogic. That's slightly down from last year's total of $1 trillion and about 40 percent lower than in 2007, when deals worth $1.6 trillion were struck.

M&A deals are good for stock prices because the acquiring company typically pays a premium for the one it's buying.

Falling interest rates also set off a rally in the bond market. Concerns about swings in stock prices prompted investors to switch money out of stocks and into bond funds. If investors decide that the bond rally may be nearing an end, that flow of funds may be reversed, providing a support for stocks.

"Equities are the best house in a bad neighborhood," says Cantor's Kessler. "Bonds are, not priced to euphoria, but they are definitely rich compared to equities right now."

Not all investors are as sanguine about the prospects for 2013.

The rally in stocks in 2012 had less to do with company earnings and the economy and more to do with monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world, says David Wright, a managing director and co-founder at Sierra Investment Management in Santa Monica, Calif.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced Sept. 13 that the central bank would add another round to its bond-purchase program, known as "quantitative easing" on Wall Street, which is intended to lower borrowing costs and boost growth. Speculation that more stimulus was coming had pushed the S&P 500 index to 1,466, its highest close of the year, a day earlier. The Dow peaked for the year at 13,610, Oct. 5.

"The Fed has done everything it can do and is probably pretty close to having used its last bullet," said Wright. "It's been a good year for stocks, but we think that's an artifact of monetary stimulus."

This year's peaks in the Dow and the S&P 500 won't be surpassed in 2013 and stocks may even slump in the first quarter, as investors lower their earnings expectations, Wright says. The money manager also says that any budget plan, regardless of the details, will be negative for stocks as it will involve higher taxes and lower government spending.

Wells Fargo Securities market analyst Gina Martin Adams also says companies will struggle in the first half of the year as the economy flirts with recession. Export growth is slowing and policymakers are struggling to come up with a plan to reduce the budget deficit.

The bank recommends that investors add to their holdings of financial and utilities stocks because low rates should help support steady earnings growth in the early part of the 2013. Financial stocks advanced 25 percent in 2012, making them the best performing industry group in the S&P 500. Utility stocks fell 3.4 percent, the worst performing of 10 industry groups in the index. The bank says investors should reduce their exposure to so-called consumer discretionary stocks, such as hotels and restaurant companies, because consumer spending will likely take a hit next year as taxes rise.

With a backdrop of historically low interest rates and an economy that still needs to address its fiscal imbalances, investors should remain realistic about the returns they are going to get from the stock market, says Darell Krassnoff, managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

"Things are getting better, not worse, but you have to have reasonable expectations," Krassnoff says.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/housing-jobs-key-lifting-p-toward-record-203223550--finance.html

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Judge allows ban on funds to Planned Parenthood

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? A Texas judge has ruled that the state may cut off funding to Planned Parenthood's family planning programs for poor women.

The attorney general's spokeswoman, Lauren Bean, said Judge Gary Harger has ruled that Texas may exclude otherwise qualified doctors and clinics from receiving state funding just because they advocate for abortion rights. The state has long banned the use of state funds for abortion.

At issue Monday was whether Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups could continue to provide preventive health care to poor women as part of the Women's Health Program. The program provides check-ups and birth control to 110,000 poor women and 48,000 of them go to Planned Parenthood clinics.

Planned Parenthood asked for a restraining order against enforcing the ban on them, arguing it violates state law.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-allows-ban-funds-planned-parenthood-182854910.html

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