Egypt crash kills 49 schoolchildren; transportation chief resigns

CAIRO — The Egyptian transportation minister resigned Saturday after 49 children were killed on their way to school in southern Egypt in a collision between their bus and a train.

The state-run news agency said a total of 51 people died in all in the accident near Mandara village in Assiut province. Another 16 were injured.

Before submitting his resignation and taking responsibility for the crash, Transportation Minister Mohamed Rashad Metiny requested an investigation by the national Railways System.

The bus, which was carrying 60 students, collided with the train as it was crossing the track.

Roads and railways in Egypt are known for their poor safety record. Many have not been renovated in 30 years. The accident Saturday was the second serious mishap in the last two months.

In October, as many as six people died in a train crash near the Nile Delta. Police officials arrested the assistant conductor, who was put under investigation.

The railway system is a popular means of transportation for many of Egypt's 82 million citizens. Egyptians have repeatedly called on the government to invest in the rails and provide newer, safer train cars.

The country's crumbling infrastructure and hazardous transportation system serves as another obstacle for President Mohamed Morsi, who most Egyptians say failed to deliver on his promises in his first 100 day-plan as president. Morsi briefly addressed the nation after Saturday’s crash. He sent condolences and promised support to families of the deceased.

"President Mohamed Morsi is responsible and must follow up personally," the April 6 group, an activist organization said in a statement. "He is the one who chose this failed government whose disasters increase day after day."

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Israel's Rocket-Hunting Ace Got His Start Playing <em>Warcraft</em>

War has once again erupted between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces, with the Gaza-based militant group launching hundreds of rockets and missiles at Israeli towns. But many of these projectiles never made it to their targets, thanks to the new Iron Dome missile defense system that’s arguably become this conflict’s most important technological difference-maker. This article, first published in April, tracks the story of Iron Dome’s most prolific “gunner.” While his record for shooting down missiles and rockets has by now undoubtedly fallen, the tale still gives insight into the battle now gripping Israel and Gaza.

KFAR GVIROL, Israel — While many of the boys in Idan Yahya’s high school class were buffing up and preparing themselves for selection into elite combat units, this gawky teenager was spending “a lot of time” playing Warcraft — the real-time strategy computer game where opposing players command virtual armies in a battle to dominate the fictional world of Azeroth.

Four years later, the high school jocks who sweated it out in pre-military academies so they could make the cut into the Israel Defense Force’s Special Operations units are now crawling through the sand dunes on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip and watching while Idan knocks rockets out of the sky hundreds of meters above their heads. Idan Yahya, 22, an Iron Dome “gunner” in the Active Air Defense Wing 167, currently holds the record for the number of rockets intercepted: eight.

People in the army describe him variously as a geek and an ace. But the geek who grew up playing Warcraft is now a highly prized soldier on the cutting edge of real war craft. He’s the Israeli army’s top rocket interceptor.

The Iron Dome is a mobile anti-rocket interception system that Israel moves around the country to shoot down the rockets fired at its civilian population centers by armed groups in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Its radar picks up launches and fires interceptor missiles at them if they’re calculated to be heading towards populated centers. The system has become increasingly important as Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups amass surface-to-surface missiles to hit the Israeli home front with, thus bypassing the Israel Defense Force’s overwhelming advantage of concentrated firepower and fighter aircraft. Should Israel attack Iran’s nuclear installations, the expected rocket reprisals from the armed groups on its borders will keep Iron Dome very, very busy.

As the war between Israelis and Arabs enters its sixth decade (or its 500th depending on who you ask), it is increasingly becoming a hi-tech rocket war. The IDF’s Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi in February said there were 200,000 rockets aimed at Israel from the south, north and east. And in this increasingly technological battlefield of rockets, anti-rocket interceptors, radars, control rooms, drones and drone hacking, it is soldiers like Idan Yahya (and whoever his counterparts on the Arab side are) who are making the most impact.

Computer geek, keyboard combatant, soldier, call him what you will, Idan and others like him man the controls of the latest rock star in advanced military technology. “There are a lot of flashing blips, signs, symbols, colors and pictures on the screen. You look at your tactical map; see where the threat is coming from. You have to make sure you’re locked onto the right target. There’s a lot of information and there is very little time. It definitely reminds me of Warcraft and other online strategy games,” Idan says.

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Jon Stewart tells Bill O’Reilly to stop worrying about loss of “traditional America”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Jon Stewart has a message for Fox News host Bill O’Reilly — chill out about the loss of “traditional America.”

“The Daily Show” funnyman skewered the right-leaning network on Thursday for treating the re-election of President Barack Obama – a victory aided by minority voters – as a cataclysm for the white men who were once in the driver’s seat in America. Stewart implied that this longing on behalf of some of the network’s commentators for a Grover’s Corners past may not be rooted in reality.

“Yes Bill,” Stewart said. “Obama’s re-election marked the moment that traditional America ended. The moment when the family from the 1950s sitcom ‘Leave it to Beaver’ ceased to be real.”

Moreover, Stewart said that ethnic demographics are constantly shifting in the United States and that such changes can be a little troublesome for the folks who were in control.

“You don’t need to worry so much,” Stewart counseled. “What you are demonstrating is the health and vitality of America’s greatest tradition – a fevered, frightened ruling class lamenting the rise of a new ethnically and religiously diverse new class. One that will destroy all that is virtuous and good and bring the American experiment crashing to the ground.”

He added that those rising ethnic groups work so hard so that their children and grandchildren have the opportunity to be intolerant of new immigrant populations. Thus the circle of life continues.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Meatless Main Dishes for a Holiday Table

Most vegetarian diners are happy to fill their plates with delicious sides and salads, but if you want to make them feel special, consider one of these main course vegetarian dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. All of them are inspired by Greek cooking, which has a rich tradition of vegetarian meals.

I know that Greek food is not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the word “Thanksgiving,” yet why not consider this cuisine if you’re searching for a meatless main dish that will please a crowd? It’s certainly a better idea, in my mind, than Tofurky and all of the other overprocessed attempts at making a vegan turkey. If you want to serve something that will be somewhat reminiscent of a turkey, make the stuffed acorn squashes in this week’s selection, and once they’re out of the oven, stick some feathers in the “rump,” as I did for the first vegetarian Thanksgiving I ever cooked: I stuffed and baked a huge crookneck squash, then decorated it with turkey feathers. The filling wasn’t nearly as good as the one you’ll get this week, but the creation was fun.

Here are five new vegetarian recipes for your Thanksgiving table — or any time.

Giant Beans With Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta: This delicious, dill-infused dish is inspired by a northern Greek recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook, “The Country Cooking of Greece.”

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Northern Greek Mushroom and Onion Pie: Meaty portobello mushrooms make this a very substantial dish.

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Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas With Cinnamon-Tinged Tomato Sauce and Feta: This fragrant and comforting dish can easily be modified for vegans.

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Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie: The extra time this beautiful vegetable pie takes to assemble is worth it for a holiday dinner.

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Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed With Wild Rice and Kale Risotto: Serve one squash to each person at your Thanksgiving meal: They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

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Privatizing Greece, Slowly but Not Surely

Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune

Potential privatization hit a wall at Katakolo, a seaside town where Christos Konstantopoulos paused near abandoned beachfront homes. More Photos »

THE government inspectors set out from Athens for what they thought was a pristine patch of coastline on the Ionian Sea. Their mission was to determine how much money that sun-kissed shore, owned by the Greek government, might sell for under a sweeping privatization program demanded by the nation’s restive creditors.

What the inspectors found was 7,000 homes — none of which were supposed to be there. They had been thrown up without ever having been recorded in a land registry.

“If the government wanted to privatize here, they would have to bulldoze everything,” says Makis Paraskevopoulos, the local mayor. “And that’s never going to happen.”

Athens agreed. It scratched the town, Katakolo, off a list of potential properties to sell. But as Greece redoubles its efforts to raise billions to cut its debt and stoke its economy, the situation in Katakolo illustrates the daunting hurdles ahead.

In the three years since the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission — the so-called troika of lenders — first required Greece to sell state assets, a mere 1.6 billion euros have been raised. Last Tuesday, European leaders said Greece needed an additional 15 billion euros in aid through 2014 to meet debt-reduction targets — partly because Athens has failed to make money on privatization.

Now, the troika may consider cutting an already lowered target for Greece to raise 19 billion euros by 2015 to about 10 billion euros as investors worry that Greece may have to leave the euro. The troika is requiring that Greece must still raise 50 billion through privatizations by 2022.

The I.M.F. estimates that those funds, should they materialize, will trim only up to 1 percent from Greece’s debt, which is expected to rise to a staggering 189 percent of the nation’s economic output in 2013, from 175 percent this year.

But with Greece’s economy headed into its sixth year of recession, and unemployment at 25 percent, the nation’s immediate goal is to lure any investment it can through long-term leases on state properties to create jobs and get money flowing into depleted public coffers.

“This could put the economy back in motion,” says Andreas Taprantzis, the executive director of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, a new agency set up to hasten privatization. If investors develop land, restructure highways or build business parks, the activity would “help employment, which is a major issue for Greece,” he says.

Indeed, privatization is one of the last hopes here for luring foreign cash.

Efforts stumbled anew last summer, when the government fell and two chaotic elections were held, amplifying fears of what is known in financial circles as a “Grexit” — a Greek exit from the euro. Investor confidence fell so low that a recent survey by the BDO consulting firm found that Greece was considered more risky for investment than Syria.

Yet as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took steps last week to secure an additional 31.5 billion euros of bailout money from creditors, the thinking is that if one major asset can be sold now, investors will feel better about spending their money on Greece.

OFFICIALS are trotting out Greece’s most tempting offer: OPAP, the highly profitable gambling company in which the government has a major stake. Its gambling agencies abound around Athens and in Greek villages. Last week, as the government went on a road show to China to drum up investor interest, eight bids landed, including one from a Chinese concern.

Still, Mr. Taprantzis’s agency faces a daunting task. The idea of the country selling off its crown jewels touches a raw nerve here. Many Greeks say the government is buckling to decrees from the troika. Citizen protests have flared over nearly every state asset up for offer, including ones that have long bled cash — even if shedding them would help Greece’s finances.

Others say the government is so desperate that prime assets will be sold too cheaply. In the case of OPAP, Greeks grumble about the government’s logic in selling one of the few things that brings a steady stream of money to the treasury.

Given the culture of clientelism that pervades business dealings in Greece, others are concerned that properties will wind up in the hands of powerful Greek oligarchs who, these critics worry, may be waiting for an opportunity to get them at a cut-rate price.

Dimitris Bounias contributed reporting.

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UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad cleared by NCAA, eligible to compete now

UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad is eligible to play for the Bruins men's basketball immediately, the NCAA announced Friday when it reinstated him after hearing an appeal from the university.

Muhammad, a 6-foot-6 swingman listed by many as the nation’s top high school recruit last year, will travel with UCLA to New York on Saturday for its games in the Legends Classic tournament, and he's expected to make his college debut Monday when the No. 13 Bruins (3-0) play Georgetown (2-0).

“I am excited to be able to play for UCLA starting next Monday," Muhammad said in a statement.

"My family and friends were very supportive of me throughout this process and I couldn’t have gone through this without them.”

The 5 p.m. PST game will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and will be televised on ESPN2. 

"Look out New York City," said Bill Trosch, the attorney for the Muhammad family.

The Las Vegas native has yet to play for the Bruins this season after the NCAA declared him ineligible on Nov. 9 for violating its amateurism rules following an investigation that spanned more than a year.

“I am relieved that this long, arduous process has come to an end," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said in a statment. "So many people worked very hard on this case and I am eternally grateful to them as well as the Bruin family, who stood by us throughout. I am pleased that Shabazz will be able to begin his collegiate career.” 

Said Trosch: "There were many times during the investigation that my faith in the NCAA wavered. I understand the NCAA’s ruling, and am grateful that they have done the right thing, allowing Shabazz back on the court."

In its Nov. 9 ruling, the NCAA said that in addition to other "pending issues," Muhammad accepted airfare and lodging for three unofficial recruiting visits. The visits, to Duke and North Carolina, were paid for by financial advisor Benjamin Lincoln.

The Muhammad family has said Lincoln is a longtime family friend whose assistance should be allowed under NCAA rules.

The school and NCAA enforcement agreed on the facts of the case, and therefore it was determined by the NCAA that Muhammad couldn’t play in UCLA's season opener against Indiana State, said a person with knowledge of the situation who is not allowed to speak publicly about it.

But UCLA disagreed that a violation occurred and formally appealed the NCAA’s decision earlier this week.

The NCAA appeals committee had a hearing Friday with UCLA and, after several hours, a decision was rendered. 

In a statement, the NCAA said that UCLA acknowledged amateurism violations occurred and asked the NCAA on Friday to reinstate Muhammad with conditions.

The school required Muhammad to sit 10% of the season (three games) and to repay about $1,600 in impermissible benefits, the approximate cost of the three unofficial trips paid for by Lincoln.

But because Muhammad has already sat out three games, he has served his suspension and is eligible to compete immediately.

"I’m delighted that Shabazz can join the team on Monday and hopefully will have a successful season with UCLA," said Robert Orr, Muhammad's attorney. "I’m appreciative of the tenacious effort by the UCLA administration to try and help Shabazz in this. They’re to be commended for all they’ve done."

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said the Bruins family is "extremely grateful" the matter is over.

"This entire process has been challenging on many fronts, but we believe strongly in the principles of fairness, integrity and due process," he said in a statement.

"We are satisfied with the outcome and pleased that Shabazz will be able to join his teammates on the floor, representing UCLA in Brooklyn on Monday night.” 

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So You Want in on the Music Biz? Fred Wilson Has 4 Things to Tell You

Not only is Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson the godfather of the New York startup scene, he also loves music. So who better than this self-proclaimed music nut to talk about the future of music and technology, and how companies straddling both have a shot at making money.

At the Billboard FutureSound conference in San Francisco this week, Wilson laid out four guiding principals for would-be music moguls. All you Russell Simmons wannabes, here you go.

1. It’s more expensive than you think, and it takes longer than you want.

Unlike a typical software startup that can get up and running with $500,000, music startups often need at least $5 million and up to $20 million just to get started, says Wilson. Much of that money goes towards licensing music content from the copyright holder, which is usually a record label. “The startup costs for a legal and legitimate music service are extremely high relative to any other sector,” he says. Translation: VCs have plenty of other cheap sectors to go hunting for promising startups, so funding for music startups is hard to come by.

Union Square Ventures‘ two music plays are group listening service Turntable.fm and social MP3 sharing site SoundCloud, both of which received sizable rounds from the firm. Turntable.fm has raised $7 million from Union Square and others, and SoundCloud banked $10 million in its Wilson-led second round of funding.

Unlike many web-based startups (mobile and otherwise), which latch on to massive distribution platforms offered by Facebook, Google and Apple, music streaming or discovery services can’t go global on day one because of copyright protections and country-specific licensing contracts.

Turntable.fm learned that lesson the hard way. When the service launched in 2011 it blew up thanks to its slick design and mobile-friendly approach. But the startup quickly learned that it was illegally offering music to overseas listeners. It immediately shut off service to international customers, and two-thirds of its users disappeared. The company is now hammering agreements with individual countries and record labels to stream music legally, but it’s going to be a long and tedious process, says Wilson.

2. No matter how many users you have, massive valuations are fleeting if you can’t make money – even if you are Spotify and Pandora.

Spotify recently banked $100 million from Goldman Sachs, valuing the company at $3 billion. Even though Pandora has been trading down 46 percent from its 2011 debut, the company still has a $1.21 billion market cap. But those valuations will disappear if neither company can stem their operating losses, and fast, says Wilson.

A PrivCo report shows that while Spotify earned $244 million in revenue during 2011, the company lost $60 million in the same period. Even though a leaked report says that Spotify’s revenue could double in 2012, if the company losses keep climbing, Wilson says Spotify’s value won’t stay in the billions forever. “Spotify is probably not worth $3 billion,” he says. “It might be worth something, someday to someone, but if they still can’t figure how to make money, they’ll lose.”

Pandora faces the same struggle as Spotify, trying to get users, not advertisers, to pay for its service. For the second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, the company booked $101.3 million in revenue, but lost $5.4 million. Though its advertising revenue remains strong at $89.4 million, it is having a hard time converting freeloading listeners into paid subscribers, despite its own ad attempts. “Pandora will not be worth billions for long if they are losing money,” Wilson says.

3. That said, Pandora has the right idea. Advertising dollars will move increasingly to internet radio, and artists will start to make money from their music.

FM radio advertising is a $17 billion market, and Wilson believes that as Internet radio services like Pandora, Songza, and Rdio take the place of traditional broadcast, those ad dollars will move online. That’s good for online radio streaming startups, but even better for the artists whose music is played over these apps and websites.

When a song is played on the radio, the artists gets a royalty. But to play a song over Rdio or Pandora, those companies must pay licensing costs and higher royalties, which go right back to the artists. Pandora has said that it pays out $1 million to Adele, Coldplay, and others.

Wilson is optimistic that as more music enthusiasts ditch radios for apps, more money will find its way to artists. That might be the case for radio apps now, but that could easily change as Pandora has been looking for ways to reduce its royalty costs. The company recently sued the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers, a major royalty collection agency, seeking lower licensing fees. Pandora is also lobbying Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act to bring down it’s licensing costs, a piece of legislation that many artists oppose.

4. Selling virtual goods might be a better business than selling music.

Wilson would be remiss to not plug his own investment in Turntable.fm during his keynote. If you’re not familiar with the service, users create themed music rooms, like “I Love the 80s” or “Indiescribable,” which they join as a virtual DJ. Others join the room as listeners, and influence which songs are played based on a thumbs-up/thumbs-down voting system. Too many down-votes will force the song to skip to a new one on the playlist, but up-votes earn you “DJ points,” credits you can use to unlock new avatars.

Turntable.fm doesn’t charge its users for a subscription and doesn’t serve ads. Though it’s not bringing in revenue right now, there is talk of charging for DJ points, so anyone can get a little bit of cred without getting up on the virtual DJ platform.

While that will surely vex some current Turntable.fm users, charging for virtual goods might be the next big revenue-earning tool for music businesses. “Ads can carry a lot of the load, but not all,” says Wilson. “Turntable.fm’s virtual goods model could work well as a new revenue stream for other music businesses.”

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Robert Pattinson looks for danger after “Twilight”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Robert Pattinson has set young hearts aflutter as the teen vampire Edward Cullen in the “Twilight Saga” films, but as the sun sets on the franchise that launched his career, the actor is looking for more grown-up and “dangerous” roles.

“Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” released this week, is the fifth and final in the series, and Edward’s character shifts from brooding, tormented lover to a contented husband and father who must protect his family from an ancient vampire clan.

But Pattinson, 26, still has those rakish good looks that drew a screaming fan base and made him a tabloid fixture. While the avid fan excitement around the “Twilight” series overwhelms him, the British actor hopes his audience will follow him as he moves on.

“It’s all about control. Now, I don’t feel like I have any control whatsoever,” he told Reuters with a laugh.

“They’re a very ardent fan base, so to figure out a way to harness that vehement audience, it’s definitely an important thing.”

Pattinson became a pinup as the angst-ridden Edward, but said he wasn’t worried he might be typecast as the perpetual brooding hero. “I’m not particularly brooding in my real life,” he said.

The actor has already been laying the ground for a career beyond “Twilight.” He played a 19th century French gigolo in “Bel Ami” and a billionaire with an existential crisis in David Cronenberg‘s “Cosmopolis,” although both films fared poorly at the box office earlier this year.

Next up is a drama, “Map to the Stars,” again with Cronenberg, and “The Rover,” a Western-style action movie set in the Australian desert.

“Everything I’ve signed up for now is very physical, because I feel like I’ve done quite a few things where I’m quite still. I’m trying to find people that are doing things that feel dangerous,” Pattinson said.

ROMANCE ON AND OFF SCREEN

Away from the series with its apple motif, symbolizing forbidden love, Pattinson’s fame has also been fueled by his off-screen romance with “Twilight” co-star Kristen Stewart, 22, who plays Bella Swan.

Their relationship was thrust into the spotlight in the summer when Stewart publicly admitted she had an affair with her married “Snow White and the Huntsman” director, Rupert Sanders.

The actress apologized in a rare, heartfelt public statement but the affair shocked “Twilight” fans. Pattinson and Stewart have since reconciled, and the paparazzi have spotted them together, but they have stayed mum on their relationship.

“I just try and avoid it,” Pattinson said when asked about the scrutiny of his personal life.

“I don’t think it’s good in terms of a career as an actor. I think being in gossip magazines – I don’t like the whole industry, I think it’s a lazy industry, and it’s a weird media consumer culture,” the actor said.

“(Success) is so much based on luck as an actor. No one knew that the audience would connect to the ‘Twilight’ series the way that they did … it’s just luck, you’ve got to do the things that interest you.”

For now, Pattinson is coming to terms with saying goodbye to the franchise.

“It sounds cheesy, but it’s been such a life-changing experience where you share a bond with people, it’s weird. I remember hearing about ‘Lord of the Rings,’ they all got tattoos … that’d be so funny, maybe we could get a little apple, a ‘tramp stamp’ with an apple,” the actor mused, laughing.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, Editing by Jill Serjeant, Gary Hill)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Personal Health: Quitting Smoking for Good

Few smokers would claim that it’s easy to quit. The addiction to nicotine is strong and repeatedly reinforced by circumstances that prompt smokers to light up.

Yet the millions who have successfully quit are proof that a smoke-free life is achievable, even by those who have been regular, even heavy, smokers for decades.

Today, 19 percent of American adults smoke, down from more than 42 percent half a century ago, when Luther Terry, the United States surgeon general, formed a committee to produce the first official report on the health effects of smoking. Ever-increasing restrictions on where people can smoke have helped to swell the ranks of former smokers.

Now, however, as we approach the American Cancer Society’s 37th Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the decline in adult smoking has stalled despite the economic downturn and the soaring price of cigarettes.

Currently, 45 million Americans are regular smokers who, if they remain smokers, can on average expect to live 10 fewer years. Half will die of a tobacco-related disease, and many others will suffer for years with smoking-caused illness. Smoking adds $96 billion to the annual cost of medical care in this country, Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month. Even as some adult smokers quit, their ranks are being swelled by the 800,000 teenagers who become regular smokers each year and by young adults who, through advertising and giveaways, are now the prime targets of the tobacco industry.

People ages 18 to 25 now have the nation’s highest smoking rate: about 34 percent counted in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2010 reported smoking cigarettes in the previous month. I had to hold my breath the other day as dozens of 20-somethings streamed out of art gallery openings and lighted up. Do they not know how easy it is to get hooked on nicotine and how challenging it can be to escape this addiction?

Challenging, yes, but by no means impossible. On the Web you can download a “Guide to Quitting Smoking,” with detailed descriptions of all the tools and tips to help you become an ex-smoker once and for all.

Or consult the new book by Dr. Richard Brunswick, a retired family physician in Northampton, Mass., who says he’s helped hundreds of people escape the clutches of nicotine and smoking. (The printable parts of the book’s provocative title are “Can’t Quit? You Can Stop Smoking.”)

“There is no magic pill or formula for beating back nicotine addiction,” Dr. Brunswick said. “However, with a better understanding of why you smoke and the different tools you can use to control the urge to light up, you can stop being a slave to your cigarettes.”

Addiction and Withdrawal

Nicotine beats a direct path to the brain, where it provides both relaxation and a small energy boost. But few smokers realize that the stress and lethargy they are trying to relieve are a result of nicotine withdrawal, not some underlying distress. Break the addiction, and the ill feelings are likely to dissipate.

Physical withdrawal from nicotine is short-lived. Four days without it and the worst is over, with remaining symptoms gone within a month, Dr. Brunswick said. But emotional and circumstantial tugs to smoke can last much longer.

Depending on when and why you smoke, cues can include needing a break from work, having to focus on a challenging task, drinking coffee or alcohol, being with other people who smoke or in places you associate with smoking, finishing a meal or sexual activity, and feeling depressed or upset.

To break such links, you must first identify them and then replace them with other activities, like taking a walk, chewing sugar-free gum or taking deep breaths. These can help you control cravings until the urge passes.

If you’ve failed at quitting before, try to identify what went wrong and do things differently this time, Dr. Brunswick suggests. Most smokers need several attempts before they can become permanent ex-smokers.

Perhaps most important is to be sure you are serious about quitting; if not, wait until you are. Motivation is half the battle. Also, should you slip and have a cigarette after days or weeks of not smoking, don’t assume you’ve failed and give up. Just go right back to not smoking.

Aids for Quitting

Many if not most smokers need two kinds of assistance to become lasting ex-smokers: psychological support and medicinal aids. Only about 4 percent to 7 percent of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without help, the cancer society says.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have free telephone-based support programs that connect would-be quitters to trained counselors. Together, you can plan a stop-smoking method that suits your smoking pattern and helps you avoid common pitfalls.

Online support groups and Nicotine Anonymous can help as well. To find a group, ask a local hospital or call the cancer society at (800) 227-2345. Consider telling relatives and friends about your intention to quit, and plan to spend time in smoke-free settings.

More than a dozen treatments can help you break the physical addiction to tobacco. Most popular is nicotine replacement therapy, sold both with and without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has approved five types: nicotine patches of varying strengths, gums, sprays, inhalers and lozenges that can curb withdrawal symptoms and help you gradually reduce your dependence on nicotine.

Two prescription drugs are also effective: an extended-release form of the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban or Wellbutrin), which reduces nicotine cravings, and varenicline (Chantix), which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, reducing both the pleasurable effects of smoking and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Combining a nicotine replacement with one of these drugs is often more effective than either approach alone.

Other suggested techniques, like hypnosis and acupuncture, have helped some people quit but lack strong proof of their effectiveness. Tobacco lozenges and pouches and nicotine lollipops and lip balms lack evidence as quitting aids, and no clinical trials have been published showing that electronic cigarettes can help people quit.

The cancer society suggests picking a “quit day”; ridding your home, car and workplace of smoking paraphernalia; choosing a stop-smoking plan, and stocking up on whatever aids you may need.

On the chosen day, keep active; drink lots of water and juices; use a nicotine replacement; change your routine if possible; and avoid alcohol, situations you associate with smoking and people who are smoking.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 16, 2012

An earlier version of this column stated imprecisely the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes in the month before the survey -- not daily. (About 16 percent of them reported smoking daily, according to the survey.)

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An earlier version of this column misstated the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes, not 40 percent. (That is the share of young adults who use tobacco products of any kind, according to the survey.)

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2 Banks Settle With S.E.C. on Mortgage Securities

JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse have agreed to settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission totaling $417 million over their packaging and sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors, the agency said Friday. The settlements are the latest major penalties extracted by the agency in a broad investigation into the way Wall Street firms bundled mortgages into complex investments before the financial crisis.

The S.E.C. has leveled claims against a handful of major banks, including JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, that they painted a deceptively rosy portrait of the securities while some of the underlying loans were already showing signs of delinquency.

Robert Khuzami, director of the S.E.C.’s Division of Enforcement, called mortgage products like those sold by the banks “ground zero in the financial crisis” in a statement Friday. The S.E.C. cautioned Wall Street to brace itself for more enforcement actions.

While the S.E.C. has brought more than 100 cases related to the financial crisis, the agency has won only piecemeal victories against the banks, and has not yet secured a big victory against any individuals responsible for some of the reckless behavior. In a significant setback for the agency, a federal jury in August acquitted a Citigroup manager whom the S.E.C. had accused of misleading investors in the sale of a complex security made up of residential mortgages.

Mr. Khuzami on a conference call Friday acknowledged the challenge of bringing cases against individuals related to “structured” financial products, but noted that “we are by no means are shying away from charging individuals.”

JPMorgan and Credit Suisse did not admit or deny guilt. JPMorgan agreed to pay $296.9 million to settle the charges and Credit Suisse agreed to pay $120 million.

The S.E.C. brought the cases in conjunction with the federal-state mortgage task force, which President Obama created in January to investigate the subprime mortgage morass. In its first major salvo against banks, the group sued JPMorgan last month. That federal lawsuit is still pending.

Separately, the federal regulator that oversees the housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac filed lawsuits against 17 financial firms last year over nearly $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities that imploded after the loans soured.

Legal wrangling over Wall Street’s behavior during the housing boom has targeted virtually every step in the process, from making loans to borrowers with tarnished credit to the sale of securities engineered with the subprime loans. As a result of the mortgage-litigation storm, banks have had to set aside billions of dollars to deal with claims from investors and regulators.

The S.E.C.’s investigation into JPMorgan included creating troubled securities itself, as well as misleading investors through its Bear Stearns unit, the troubled investment bank it purchased at the urging of the federal government in 2008.

In a December 2006 sale of $1.8 billion of mortgage-backed securities, JPMorgan played down delinquency rates of the mortgages used as collateral in the securities, according to the S.E.C. Despite assurances by JPMorgan that only .04 percent of the loans were more than 30 days delinquent, roughly 7 percent of the loans were troubled, the agency said. While the bank reaped $2.7 million as part of the deal, investors didn’t fare as well, losing at least $37 million, according to the S.E.C.

The S.E.C. also faulted Bear Stearns for pocketing compensation it received from mortgage lenders for shoddy loans that the firm had purchased to package into mortgage securities. Bear Stearns, the agency claimed, never passed that money on to investors in the securities. As a result, Bear Stearns received $137.8 million, the agency said Credit Suisse was also accused of keeping roughly $55.7 million in such payments from investors. The Swiss bank was also faulted by the agency for misstating when it would buy back mortgages if homeowners fell behind on their payments.

In a statement Friday, JPMorgan said that it was pleased to “put these matters” behind it. Credit Suisse also expressed relief, noting that the bank was “committed to the highest standards of integrity and regulatory compliance in all its businesses.”

The S.E.C. said it would distribute the money to investors harmed by banks’ practices.

Despite the settlement, JPMorgan is still dogged by mortgage-related headaches. The mortgage task force case filed last month by the New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, asserted that Bear Stearns sold securities between 2006 and 2007 that caused roughly $22.5 billion in lossesfor investors.

In another mortgage feud, JPMorgan is one of the 17 firms that the Federal Housing Finance Agency claims sold shoddy loans to the government without adequately disclosing the risks. In court filings, JPMorgan has pushed for the lawsuit to be thrown out.

Beyond the government actions, JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks face an onslaught of battles with private investors. Dexia, a Belgian-French bank, for example, sued JPMorgan in federal court in Manhattan over $1.6 billion in troubling mortgage-backed securities bought from Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

In a statement Friday, Kenneth Lench, who is the head of the S.E.C.’s enforcement division’s structured and new products unit, said “these actions demonstrate that we intend to hold accountable those who misled investors through poor disclosures in the sale of RMBS (residential mortgage backed securities) and other financial products commonly marketed and sold during the financial crisis.” He added: “Our efforts in that regard continue.”

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Investigators find major flaws in L.A. Fire Department data

A long-awaited review of the Los Angeles Fire Department found the agency relied on inaccurate data, which provided the public with an erroneous portrait of the department’s performance that was used to make critical staffing decisions.

“All prior reporting data should not be relied upon until they are properly recalculated and validated,” the task force appointed by Fire Chief Brian Cummings concluded.

While the Fire Department has acknowledged some mistakes in its data, the 32-page report found more widespread problems and delves more deeply into a series of factors that contributed to the faulty figures. Among other things, the experts found systemic flaws in a 30-year-old computerized dispatch network and a lack of adequate training for firefighters assigned to complex data analysis.

INTERACTIVE: Check response times in your L.A. neighborhood

The probe was launched after department officials acknowledged earlier this year that LAFD performance reports released to City Hall leaders and the public made it appear rescuers were getting to emergencies faster than they actually were.

The task force report, scheduled to be discussed Tuesday by the Fire Commission, said the department has corrected the computer-system flaws that led to the inaccurate figures.

“The No. 1 goal was to restore confidence in the Fire Department's statistics in the eyes of the public and city leaders,” said Fire Commissioner Alan Skobin, who helped oversee the report. “We now have the ability to identify and pull out accurate data.”

Still, the report paints a picture of a department woefully behind in using technology to help speed up emergency responses and improve efficiency by analyzing thousands of dispatch records that churn through the department's computer system each day.

The report recommends installing GPS devices on fire units so dispatchers know their location at all times, an upgrade that has been discussed since at least 2009. That could ensure that the closest rescuers are sent to those in need.

The task force also said upgrades or replacement of the aging computer system at the heart of dispatch operations may be needed, as well as hiring professional analysts to scrutinize the data.

Some money has been set aside to help pay for the GPS upgrade and the dispatch system changes. But whether all the changes raised in the report could be funded is unclear, given that the LAFD already is projected to run a $5.2-million deficit in its current budget.

The report’s findings in some ways parallel recent probes by City Controller Wendy Greuel and Jeffrey Godown, an expert brought in by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as questions grew about the department’s performance figures.

The task force includes members of the chief’s own staff, as well as experts from USC, the RAND Corp. and the Los Angeles Police Department’s COMPSTAT unit, which is recognized for its crime data analysis.

Indeed, the Fire Department hopes to roll out its own version of the LAPD’s data-reporting system, called FIRESTATLA. It would allow managers, elected officials and the public access to regularly updated reports on detailed response times and other statistics by neighborhood, Skobin said. The new system is estimated to cost up to $500,000, he said.

In March, fire officials acknowledged that they had changed the way in which they evaluated response times without telling the public or city officials. Their method made it appear that crews surpassed national standards more frequently than they actually did.

Those faulty statistics were used by Cummings and other top fire officials to push for a new cost-cutting deployment plan that shut down firetrucks and ambulances at more than one-fifth of the city's 106 firehouses. Cummings initially defended the department’s data when questions arose about its accuracy.

Later, he acknowledged that yet another set of numbers used in reports on the proposed deployment changes were projections, not actual response times. Some council members said they might not have voted for the budget cuts had they been aware that projections were used.

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As CIA Chief Scandal Looms, Lawmakers Consider Tightening E-Mail Privacy

Recent intrusions by the FBI into e-mail correspondence between former CIA Director David Petraeus and his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell, have raised a lot of questions and concerns about the government’s ability to access private e-mails.

The current law covering access to e-mail gives the government the right to snoop without a court order on email that’s older than 180 days, but requires a court order for missives that are newer than this, a fact that privacy activists have been trying to change for years.

Now they might finally be getting closer to that wish.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that it will be voting Nov. 29 on whether to advance legislation that would require authorities to obtain a probable-cause warrant to get access to all e-mail and other content stored in the cloud, just as a warrant is required to search a car or house.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, proposed the sweeping digital privacy protections in September after first failing to push them through last year. The proposal would amend the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act and “bring our privacy laws into the digital age.”

The announcement comes two days after Google released stats showing an alarming rise in the number of U.S. government demands for data about Gmail users and other Google account holders. Google didn’t say how many times authorities used a warrant to make the requests.

It’s also not known precisely what legal authorities were used to obtain access to e-mail accounts used by Broadwell, Petraeus and others involved.

The investigation into the extramarital affair between the two, which led to the CIA director’s resignation last week, is ongoing, and the FBI won’t say whether it obtained a probable-cause warrant signed by a judge to peek at e-mail exchanged between the two. Conflicting news reports say they did and did not use a warrant. The issue is important, because authorities apparently had no reason to believe a crime had been committed at the time they sought access to the accounts.

The career of the former CIA director and former Afghanistan war commander came unhinged after a woman in Florida named Jill Kelley received harassing e-mails from an anonymous sender and reported them to an FBI friend.

Authorities say the location data connected to the e-mails and the e-mail account from which they were sent helped them identify the sender as Petraeus’ biographer — Broadwell. Armed with this information, they were reportedly able to obtain a warrant to search other e-mail accounts Broadwell used, which led to discovery of the affair.

It’s not the first time that Leahy has tried to strengthen privacy protection for e-mail. Last year, he never even got a hearing for the same proposal introduced in the committee that he heads. But this time he’s trying to attach it to a legislative package about video-rental privacy and Netflix that already has momentum.

Leahy’s package (.pdf) would nullify the provision of ECPA that allows the government to acquire a suspect’s e-mail or other stored content from an internet service provider without showing probable cause that a crime was committed, as long as the content has been stored on a third-party server for 180 days or more. Currently, to acquire such data, the government only needs to show, often via an administrative subpoena, that it has “reasonable grounds to believe” the information would be useful in an investigation.

When enacted two decades ago, ECPA provided much more privacy than it does today. The act was adopted at a time when e-mail wasn’t stored on servers for a long time, but instead was held there briefly on its way to a recipient’s inbox. E-mail more than six months old was assumed abandoned.

As technology advanced, more and more people began storing e-mail on cloud servers indefinitely. And Congress has so far been unwilling to change course, despite the Fourth Amendment implications as data storage in the cloud has grown.

Leahy’s measure simply requires authorities to get a probable-cause warrant from a judge to access electronic information. His package has a greater chance of passing this time because the measure is being included in a proposal to amend the Video Privacy Protection Act — which concerns the ability of Netflix customers to more easily display their video preferences and interests on Facebook and other sites and has broad support from legislators.

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Drug charges dropped against Jon Bon Jovi’s daughter

(Reuters) – Drug charges against the daughter of rock star Jon Bon Jovi were dropped on Thursday, a day after she suffered a suspected heroin overdose, officials in New York said.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott D. McNamara said in a statement that Stephanie Bongiovi could not be charged because New York law prohibits the prosecution of people who had overdosed and were in possession of small amounts of drugs.

Bongiovi, 19, was found unresponsive in a dormitory room at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, early on Wednesday and was later booked on misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance (heroin), marijuana possession and criminal use of drug paraphernalia, which were found in the room.

A message left with the singer’s representative was not immediately returned.

Heroin and marijuana charges against fellow student Ian S. Grant, 21, in connection with Bongiovi’s case were also dropped as a witness or victim to a drug or alcohol overdose cannot be prosecuted in New York.

Bongiovi is the oldest of four children of Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea Hurley.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Andre Grenon)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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I Was Misinformed: The Time She Tried Viagra

I have noticed, in the bragging-rights department, that “he doesn’t need Viagra” has become the female equivalent of the male “and, I swear, she’s a real blonde.” Personally, I do not care a bit. To me, anything that keeps you happy and in the game is a good thing.

But then, I am proud to say, I was among the early, and from what I gather, rare female users.

It happened when the drug was introduced around 1998. I was 50, but after chemotherapy for breast cancer — and later, advanced ovarian cancer — I was, hormonally speaking, pretty much running on fumes. Whether this had diminished my sex drive I did not yet know. One may have Zorba-esque impulses when a cancer diagnosis first comes in; but a treatment that leaves you bald, moon-faced and exhausted knocks that out of your system pretty fast.

But by 1998, the cancer was gone, my hair was back and I was ready to get back in the game. I was talking to an endocrinologist when I brought up Viagra. This was not to deal with the age-related physical changes I knew it would not address, it was more along the feminist lines of equal pay for equal work: if men have this new sex drug, I want this new sex drug.

“I know it’s supposed to work by increasing blood flow,” I told the doctor, “But if that’s true for men, shouldn’t it be true for women, too?”

“You’re the third woman who asked me that this week,” he said.

He wrote me a prescription. I was not seeing anyone, so I understood that I would have to do both parts myself, but that was fine. I have a low drug threshold and figured it might be best the first time to fly solo. My memory of the directions are hazy: I think there was a warning that one might have a facial flush or headaches or drop dead of a heart attack; that you were to take a pill at least an hour before you planned to get lucky, and, as zero hour approached, you were supposed to help things along by thinking beautiful thoughts, kind of like Peter Pan teaching Wendy and the boys how to fly.

But you know how it is: It’s hard to think beautiful thoughts when you’re wondering, “Is it happening? Do I feel anything? Woof, woof? Hello, sailor? Naaah.”

After about an hour, however, I was aware of a dramatic change. I had developed a red flush on my face; I was a hot tomato, though not the kind I had planned. I had also developed a horrible headache. The sex pill had turned into a bad joke: Not now, honey, I have a headache.

I put a cold cloth on my head and went to sleep. But here’s where it got good: When I slept, I dreamed; one of those extraordinary, sensual, swimming in silk sort of things. I woke up dazed and glowing with just one thought: I gotta get this baby out on the highway and see what it can do.

A few months later I am fixed up with a guy, and after a time he is, under the Seinfeldian definition of human relations (Saturday night date assumed) my official boyfriend. He is middle aged, in good health. How to describe our romantic life with the delicacy a family publication requires? Perhaps a line from “Veronika, der Lenz ist da” (“Veronica, Spring Is Here”), a song popularized by the German group the Comedian Harmonists: “Veronika, der Spargel Wächst” (“Veronica, the asparagus are blooming”). On the other hand, sometimes not. And so, one day, I put it out there in the manner of sport:

“Want to drop some Viagra?” I say.

Here we go again, falling into what I am beginning to think is an inevitable pattern: lying there like a lox, or two loxes, waiting for the train to pull into the station. (Yes, I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but at least I didn’t bring in the asparagus.) So there we are, waiting. And then, suddenly, spring comes to Suffolk County. It’s such a presence. I’m wondering if I should ask it if it hit traffic on the L.I.E. We sit there staring.

My reaction is less impressive. I don’t get a headache this time. And romantically, things are more so, but not so much that I feel compelled to try the little blue pills again.

Onward roll the years. I have a new man in my life, who is 63. He does have health problems, for which his doctor prescribes an E.D. drug. I no longer have any interest in them. My curiosity has been satisfied. Plus I am deeply in love, an aphrodisiac yet to be encapsulated in pharmaceuticals.

We take a vacation in mountain Mexico. We pop into a drugstore to pick up sunscreen and spot the whole gang, Cialis, Viagra, Levitra, on a shelf at the checkout counter. No prescription needed in Mexico, the clerk says. We buy all three drugs and return to the hotel. I try some, he tries some. In retrospect, given the altitude and his health, we are lucky we did not kill him. I came across an old photo the other day. He is on the bed, the drugs in their boxes lined up a in a semi-circle around him. He looks a bit dazed and his nose is red.

Looking at the picture, I wonder if he had a cold.

Then I remember: the flush, the damn flush. If I had kids, I suppose I would have to lie about it.

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DealBook: In a Switch, Investors Are Buying European Bank Bonds

LONDON — European bank debt, once an investment pariah, is suddenly popular.

In recent weeks, money managers have been readily buying the new bonds of the region’s financial institutions, deals that just months ago would have seemed unpalatable. Bank of Ireland, which received a bailout in 2010, sold $1.3 billion of bonds on Tuesday and found strong demand. It was the largest offering by an Irish bank without a government guarantee in almost three years.

The gradual thawing of the capital markets is a good sign for the region’s banks. In the midst of the crisis, institutions, especially in troubled economies like Ireland and Portugal, have been struggling to raise money from private investors. The latest deals will help bolster banks’ capital levels and strengthen their balance sheets.

But the bonds could leave investors exposed, especially given the precarious situation in Europe. The sovereign debt crisis continues to weigh on the economy. The financial markets remain volatile. And profit at the region’s banks is flagging.

“It’s a great time to be issuing high-yield debt but not to be investing in it,” said Robin Doumar, managing partner at the private equity firm Park Square Capital.

For now, bondholders are taking comfort in the policy makers’ response to the sovereign debt crisis.

In late August, the European Central Bank began an unlimited bond-buying program aimed at lowering countries’ borrowing costs and breathing life into local economies. By essentially offering a blank check to help Europe’s troubled governments, policy makers calmed short-term fears that some of the region’s banks might need to be bailed out, reviving interest in the companies’ bonds.

“The biggest driver of demand has been the policy responses from the European Central Bank,” said Melissa Smith, head of European high-grade debt capital markets at JPMorgan Chase in London. “It’s provided stability as policy makers have stated their commitment to preserving the euro zone.”

With interest rates at record lows, European bank debt looks especially appealing to investors.

On Thursday, the British bank Barclays sold $3 billion of 10-year bonds at 7.6 percent. The Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo recently issued $958 million worth of debt at 5.9 percent.

By comparison, a 10-year Treasury is paying 1.8 percent. Germany has offered a negative yield on some of its sovereign debt maturities this year.

Even the yields on junk bonds, the risky corporate debt that pays high interest rates, are coming down as investors pile into such securities. The average yield is now just 5.8 percent, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index. Historically, they have paid 10 percent or even more.

“There’s been a huge contraction,” said Robert Ellison, head of European debt capital markets for financial institutions at UBS in London.

The industry has been quick to capitalize on investors’ desperate hunt for returns. Banks in Europe have issued a combined $318 billion of unsecured debt so far this year, almost triple the amount raised by their American counterparts, according to the data provider Dealogic.

The capital markets are being discerning. This year, well-financed companies in Northern Europe, like Nordea Bank of Sweden, have been able to sell the largest lots of bonds at relatively reasonable rates. Smaller banks, particularly in Southern Europe, have had to offer investors better rates to win support for their bond deals.

Even so, it is a stark contrast from almost a year ago. With the capital markets paralyzed, the European Central Bank then had to step in to stabilize the banks, offering $1.3 trillion in short-term, low-cost loans to financial companies.

As they find renewed interest from private investors, European banks can more easily raise money, fortifying their balance sheets in case of unexpected losses. At regulators’ behest, financial institutions in the region have been increasing their capital levels.

But bond investors, in their thirst for yield, may be overlooking signs of potential trouble.

Barclays, for instance, sold a controversial type of debt, known as contingent convertible bonds. With these so-called CoCo bonds, investors can be wiped out if the bank’s capital falls below a certain threshold. While Barclays’ balance sheet is in good shape, bondholders’ willingness to accept such conditions highlights the risks in the market. Traditional bondholders can usually recoup at least some of their principal even if a company goes bankrupt.

At the same time, many European financial institutions are still in fragile shape. The Bank of Ireland, in which the Irish government still has a small stake, is struggling to divest itself of many risky loans that it made before the financial crisis. Portugal’s economy is also expected to contract 3 percent this year, which will probably depress the earnings of Banco Espírito Santo.

The question for investors is whether the reward is worth the risk.

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October home sales hit 3-year high; prices up 17% year over year

Consumer columnist David Lazarus talks with real estate reporter Alejandro Lazo, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage and Bill McBride of the Calculated Risk blog about the strong October real estate numbers.

Southern California's real estate market bucked the typical fall slowdown last month, with buyers snapping up pricier homes and sales roaring up 18% over the prior month.

Sales hit a three-year high for an October, rising 25% from the same month last year. The median sale price for a Southland house last month was $315,000, equal to September and up 17% from October 2011, according to real estate research firm DataQuick.

A decline in the number of foreclosed homes has caused a shortage of inventory in entry-level neighborhoods, pushing up home prices. Demand from investors also remains strong, with these buyers snapping up a near-record level of homes last month.

"There is a growing appreciation of the fact that we've come to a sort of a point of inflection in the housing market," Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate, said. "The housing market, for a large number of factors, is perceived as having turned a corner."

The region's median hit bottom at $247,000 in April 2009 and has slowly crawled its way up since. The median is the point at which half the homes in the area sold for more and half for less.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of business news

The rebound stems from more people chasing fewer homes. Interest rates remain near record-low levels, luring buyers. Investors with cash have poured into the market looking for cheap properties to flip or rent. And foreclosure resales have sunk to a five-year low, tightening the supply of cheap homes.

An estimated 21,075 newly built and previously owned houses and condominiums sold throughout the region last month. Coastal markets saw the biggest increases in sales — though every county posted double-digit gains compared with October last year. Orange County saw the biggest surge, with sales up 41%. Ventura rose 35%, San Diego, 31%, Los Angeles, 25%, San Bernardino, 18% and Riverside 13%.

Absentee buyers — investors and some second-home buyers — snapped up a near-record 28% of homes throughout the Southland last month. These investors paid a median $245,000, a 23% increase from October last year.

A recent report by real estate website Zillow showed that many investors and others are paying market value for foreclosed homes in the region, erasing the discount between foreclosed homes and regular properties. Discounts were marginal on bank-owned homes in September, with the discount in the Inland Empire just 2% and in the Los Angeles area 4% in September, Zillow said.

Bruce Norris, president of Norris Group, an investment company in Riverside that buys foreclosed homes, said he expects prices to increase in coming years as the Obama administration has encouraged banks to curtail foreclosures. That will push up prices, he said.

"It is policy driven," Norris said. "Since the policy is going to continue … you are about to see a pretty substantial price increase within the next two years."

Indeed, the high level of affordability ushered in by the housing crash could erode quickly in California. This week the California Assn. of Realtors reported that homes in the state are getting less affordable as property values rise. The group estimated that 49% of home buyers in the third quarter could afford a median-priced house in California, a decline from 51% last quarter. The rise in prices is offsetting the benefit to home shoppers from low mortgage interest rates.

Christopher Thornberg, a principal at Beacon Economics and one of the first to call attention to the housing bubble, said home shoppers should expect expensive housing in the Golden State for the foreseeable future. The reason: Construction of new homes remains highly expensive for builders.

"Why would it stop?" he said. "The economy is growing. Short of a fiscally led second recession, there is no reason in the world that it's going to do anything but to continue."

The region's lowest-cost areas — often those the most starved for inventory these days — posted the weakest sales numbers last month, according to DataQuick. The number of homes that sold below $200,000 in the region dropped 11% from October last year. Sales in these markets have slowed because of the drop in foreclosures, while increased demand has pushed up prices.

Sales of previously foreclosed-upon homes made up just 16% of the resale market last month, a drop from 17% last month and 33% in October 2011. Foreclosure resales peaked at 57% in February 2009.

In the meantime, sales surged in several mid- and higher-cost neighborhoods throughout Southern California in October, DataQuick said. Sales of homes between $300,000 and $800,000 increased 42% year over year. Sales of homes costing more than $500,000 were up 55% and sales of homes more than $800,000 rose 52%.

Bill McBride, lead writer for the housing blog Calculated Risk, said that with the upswing in prices homeowners are encouraged to keep their homes off the market.

"Why is there no inventory? I ask every real estate agent that, just to hear what they tell me. And they say people don't have enough equity in their homes and so they aren't listing them," McBride said. "That is a solid argument. But I also think the people are sensing that prices are going up and there is no urgency to sell."

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

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Infinite Jukebox Lets You Listen to 'Call Me Maybe' Forever

By Philippa Warr, Wired UK

A Music Hack Day event in Boston has yielded The Infinite Jukebox — an app that creates infinitely long and ever-changing versions of uploaded tracks.

The Infinite Jukebox is the handiwork of Paul Lamere, director of developer platform for music intelligence company The Echo Nest and the man behind the Infinite Gangnam Style hack at Reykjavik’s Music Hack Day, and extends his previous project to its universal conclusion.

The app uses The Echo Nest analyzer — a music data service — to break the uploaded MP3 into individual beats. These beats can then be checked against one another to find similar-sounding points in the song. When the song is played, beat by beat there is a chance that the track will transition to one of the matched points rather than just playing normally.

Each track generates its own unique visualization that maps the beats around the circumference of a circle and shows possible transition paths between them.

“I was quite pleased at how the visualization turned out,” says Lamere. “I think it does a good job of helping the listener understand what is going on under the hood, and different songs have very different looks and color palettes. They can be quite attractive.”

The Infinite Jukebox works best with songs that have a lot of repetition, as they contain many transition opportunities — hence why we have been listening to “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson for 55 minutes but uploading an audio file of Richard Dreyfuss’ dramatic reading of the iTunes EULA yielded the error message, “Sorry, can’t make an infinite version of the song, it is too varied.”

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NBC names new top producer for ‘Today’

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News is staying in-house in its effort to turn around the “Today” show.

The network on Wednesday appointed a 23-year veteran of the morning news show as its new executive producer. Don Nash began working for “Today” as a production assistant in NBC’s Burbank office in 1989 and will now run the four-hour broadcast.

Nash was most recently senior broadcast producer in the show’s control room. He replaces Jim Bell, who shifted to NBC Sports to run its Olympics broadcasts.

After nearly two decades of dominance, “Today” has slipped behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the ratings.

NBC also added another layer of management for the show, appointing Alexandra Wallace as the network’s executive in charge of the program.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Recurring Lyme Disease Symptoms Caused by New Infection, Study Finds

When people who have been treated for Lyme disease recover but later come down with its symptoms again, is the illness a relapse or a new infection?

The question has lingered for years. Now, a new study finds that repeat symptoms are from new infections, not from relapses.

The results challenge the notion, strongly held by some patients and advocacy groups, that Lyme disease, a bacterial infection, has a tendency to resist the usual antibiotic treatment and turn into a chronic illness that requires months or even years of antibiotic therapy.

The conclusion that new symptoms come from new infections is based on genetically fingerprinting the Lyme bacteria in people who have had the illness more than once, and finding that the fingerprints do not match. The result means that different episodes of Lyme in each patient were caused by different strains of the bacteria, and could not have been relapses.

The study, by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and New York Medical College, in Valhalla, was published online on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 cases of Lyme disease occur each year in the United States. The disease is caused by a bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, that is carried by deer ticks. It often begins with an expanding zone of red skin — a symptom called erythema migrans — around the tick bite, but sometimes in other areas too. Fever, headaches, fatigue and aches and pains often follow.

Untreated, the disease can cause heart and neurological problems and arthritis, with symptoms that can come and go for years. Advanced cases that have gone months or years before being treated are most likely to result in persistent arthritis.

But when the disease is detected earlier, treatment with an antibiotic, usually two to four weeks of doxycycline, can get rid of the bacteria, according to infectious disease experts. Even advanced cases can be cleared by the drugs, doctors say, though an extra month or so of treatment may be needed. Symptoms like pain and fatigue can linger even after the bacteria are gone, possibly because the infection caused abnormalities in the immune system.

However, some doctors, patients and advocacy groups think that the bacteria themselves can somehow hang on despite treatment, even in cases caught early, and cause a chronic infection that requires long-term treatment with antibiotics. In some cases, people with unexplained pain, fatigue and cognitive problems have been told they had chronic Lyme disease even though blood tests found no evidence of the infection.

Several controlled studies have found that long-term antibiotics did not help people who had already been treated for Lyme disease but had such lingering problems.

Despite the data, the belief has hung on that Lyme disease bacteria can cause a chronic infection even after treatment.

The researchers who conducted the new study wanted to test that idea by finding out whether people who had repeated bouts of the disease were actually having relapses. They identified 17 patients who had erythema migrans — the rash — more than once between 1991 and 2011. Most had it twice, at least a year apart, but a few patients had it three times and one had four cases. Many had other symptoms as well, and more than half had signs of widespread systemic infection. All were treated, and recovered fully.

Lyme bacteria were grown from skin or blood samples taken from the patients when they had the rash, and the researchers analyzed a bacterial gene that varies from one strain to another. For each patient, they compared the genes from different cases of the rash. The genotypes did not match, which the researchers said proved that each rash represented a new infection, not a relapse.

In an editorial accompanying the article, Dr. Allen C. Steere, a Harvard professor who was the first to identify Lyme disease, said the new study supported previous research suggesting that new infections, not relapses, were the cause of new symptoms in people who had taken antibiotics to treat earlier cases of the disease.

Dr. Steere acknowledged that symptoms, sometimes disabling ones, do linger for months after treatment in as many as 10 percent of patients. Doctors do not know why. But, Dr. Steere said, “antibiotics are not the answer.”

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5-Hour Energy Is Cited in 13 Death Reports

Federal officials have received reports of 13 deaths over the last four years that cited the possible involvement of 5-Hour Energy, a highly caffeinated energy shot, according to Food and Drug Administration records and an interview with an agency official.

The disclosure of the reports is the second time in recent weeks that F.D.A. filings citing energy drinks and deaths have emerged. Last month, the agency acknowledged it had received five fatality filings mentioning another popular energy drink, Monster Energy.

Since 2009, 5-Hour Energy has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the F.D.A., including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, a spontaneous abortion, a summary of F.D.A. records reviewed by The New York Times showed.

The filing of an incident report with the F.D.A. does not mean that a product was responsible for a death or an injury or contributed in any way to it. Such reports can be fragmentary in nature and difficult to investigate.

The distributor of 5-Hour Energy, Living Essentials of Farmington Hills, Mich., did not respond to written questions about the filings, and its top executive declined to be interviewed. Living Essentials is a unit of the product’s producer, Innovation Ventures.

However, in a statement, Living Essentials said the product was safe when used as directed and that it was “unaware of any deaths proven to be caused by the consumption of 5-Hour Energy.”

Since the public disclosure of reports about Monster Energy, its producer, Monster Beverage of Corona, Calif., has repeatedly said that its products are safe, adding that they were not the cause of any of the health problems reported to the F.D.A.

Shares of Monster Beverage, which traded above $80 earlier this year, closed Wednesday at $44.74.

The fast-growing energy drink industry is facing increasing scrutiny over issues like labeling disclosures and possible health risks. Some lawmakers are calling on the F.D.A. to increase its regulation of the products and the New York State attorney general is investigating the practices of several producers.

Unlike Red Bull, Monster Energy and some other energy drinks that look like beverages, 5-Hour Energy is sold in a two-ounce bottle referred to as a shot. The company does not disclose the amount of caffeine in each bottle, but a recent article published by Consumer Reports placed that level at about 215 milligrams.

An eight-ounce cup of coffee, depending on how it is made, can contain from 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine.

The F.D.A. has stated that it does not have sufficient scientific evidence to justify changing how it regulates caffeine or other ingredients in energy products. The issue of how to do so is complicated by the fact that some high-caffeine drinks, like Red Bull, are sold under agency rules governing beverages, while others, like 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy, are marketed as dietary supplements. The categories have differing ingredient rules and reporting requirements.

In an interview Wednesday, Daniel Fabricant, the director of the agency’s division of dietary supplement programs, said the agency was looking into the death reports that cited 5-Hour Energy. He said that while medical information in such reports could rule out a link with the product, other reports could contain insufficient information to determine what role, if any, a supplement might have played.

Mr. Fabricant said that the 13 fatality reports that mentioned 5-Hour Energy had all been submitted to the F.D.A. by Living Essentials. Since late 2008, producers of dietary supplements are required to notify the F.D.A. when they become aware of a death or serious injury that may be related to their product.

Currently, the agency does not publicly disclose adverse event filings about dietary supplements like 5-Hour Energy. Companies that market energy drinks as beverages are not required to make such reports to the agency, although they can do so voluntarily, Mr. Fabricant said.

Along with caffeine, 5-Hour Energy contains other ingredients, like very high levels of certain B vitamins and an amino acid called taurine.

Reached by telephone, the chief executive of the Living Essentials, Manoj Bhargava, declined to discuss the filings and said he believed an article about the reports would cast the company in a negative light.

“I am not interested in making any comment,” Mr. Bhargava said.

Subsequently, the company issued a statement that said, among other things, that it took “reports of any potential adverse event tied to our products very seriously,” adding that the company complied “with all of our reporting requirements” to the F.D.A.

The company also stated that it marketed 5-Hour Energy to “hardworking adults who need an extra boost of energy.” The product’s label recommends that it not be used by woman who are pregnant or by children under 12 years of age.

The number of reports filed with the F.D.A. that mention 5-Hour Energy appears particularly striking. In 2010, for example, the F.D.A. received a total of 17 fatality reports that mentioned a dietary supplement or a weight loss product, two broad categories that cover more than 50,000 products, according to Mr. Fabricant, the F.D.A. official.

He added that it was difficult to put the volume of 5-Hour Energy filings into context because he believed that some supplement manufacturers were probably not following the mandated reporting rules and that consumers and doctors might also be unaware that they can file incident reports with the agency. Last year, the F.D.A. received only 2,000 reports about fatalities or serious injuries that cited dietary supplements and weight loss products, he said.

Another federal agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reported late last year that more than 13,000 emergency room visits in 2009 were associated with energy drinks alone.

Along with Living Essentials, The Times sent queries last week to several producers asking whether they had received reports linking fatalities or serious injuries to their products.

Representatives for two of those companies — Red Bull and Coca-Cola, which sells NOS and Full Throttle — said they were unaware of any such reports. A representative for PepsiCo, which makes Amp, also said it was unaware of any such reports.

In addition to Red Bull, NOS, Full Throttle and Amp are also marketed as beverages, rather than as dietary supplements.

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Kupchak: If Phil Jackson hadn't hesitated he might be Lakers coach

History could have been different if Phil Jackson had said he was ready to coach the Lakers while meeting informally with two team executives on Saturday morning.

He might be the Lakers' coach right now, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said Tuesday.

"We would have gone back immediately and gone back and holed up with Dr. [Jerry] Buss and decided what we were going to do that day," Kupchak said.

Instead, Jackson asked Kupchak and team executive Jim Buss for two more days to think about a return after an 18-month layoff. The Lakers waited about 30 hours, didn't hear from him, and decided to hire Mike D'Antoni on Sunday night.

"There was no agreement to wait for [Jackson's] response on Monday," Kupchak said. "He told us that's when he would get back to us. I could see where he might interpret that as 'You guys would wait for me.' But I thought when I said I had to go on and interview other candidates that it was clear I had a job to do."

The Lakers interviewed D'Antoni by phone Saturday afternoon not long after meeting with Jackson at his Playa del Rey home. D'Antoni could not fly to Los Angeles last weekend because of recent knee-replacement surgery.

The Lakers hired D'Antoni mainly because of his high-flying offense. "He plays the way we see our team playing and our personnel executing," Kupchak said.

Kupchak himself wasn't sold on meshing Jackson's share-the-ball triangle offense with the Lakers' present-day roster. "I know the triangle," he said. "Obviously I wasn't convinced."

The Lakers decided to hire D'Antoni at 6 p.m. Sunday, half an hour before they tipped off against Sacramento at Staples Center.

Negotiations took some time, and then an unexpected electronic gaffe delayed the process once the sides agreed to a three-year, $12-million contact with a team option for a fourth year.

D'Antoni's fax machine was not working properly and could not transmit his signed contract back to the Lakers, according to a team spokesman. Finally, by 11:30 p.m. Sunday, the Lakers officially had a new coach, hiring D'Antoni despite the "We Want Phil!" chants by Lakers fans at Staples Center.

Kupchak acknowledged the "groundswell of support" for Jackson, who had the popular vote from the fans and received positive reviews from Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, though Bryant and Nash also endorsed D'Antoni.

"There was a lot of pressure to seriously consider bringing Phil back," Kupchak said. "We sorted through the PR backlash and decided that we ultimately could withstand it."

They still had to withstand one other thing. They had to call Jackson on Sunday near midnight. He was sleeping.

"In those kind of situations, there's not a lot of small talk," Kupchak said. "He was very complimentary of Mike under the circumstances. I just told him . . . that we just felt the present makeup of the team and the kind of basketball we wanted to play going forward, we just felt that Mike D'Antoni was the choice.

"I didn't look forward to calling somebody at midnight to tell him that he's not going to get a job that he might or might not accept," Kupchak said. "But the only other thing I could do was wait until Monday morning and that would have been worse."

Jackson told The Times on Monday that the midnight phone call seemed "slimy."

"I wish it would have been a little bit cleaner," he said. "It would have been much more circumspect and respectful of everybody that's involved. It seemed slimy to be awoken with this kind of news. It's just weird."

Kupchak confirmed what was already stated by Jackson to The Times — salary wasn't discussed in their Saturday morning meeting. Neither was the concept of Jackson missing games on the road.

Jackson told Jim Buss and Kupchak he wanted the same communication between them on personnel decisions that he held in his second tenure with the team from 2005-11.

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