Chuggington Die-Cast 10-in-1 Layout Track Pack review

Koko and Dunbar not included. When I was offered the opportunity to review a toy train set, I thought it would be interesting to try it in conjunction with my expert team of train set testers ? my sons, Franklyn (7) and Matthew (4). They willingly agreed to work with me on the project and [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/12/22/chuggington-die-cast-10-in-1-layout-track-pack-review/

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NRA's Wayne LaPierre On Meet The Press - Business Insider

NBC

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre doubled down this morning on what was a rather stunning press conference Friday, defending his plan to put armed officers in every school in the U.S. on "Meet the Press."

"If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre told NBC's David Gregory.?"I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe."

The NRA spoke out for the first time on Friday in the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and seven others dead.?In the press conference, LaPierre blamed many things for the influx of mass shootings in the U.S. ? everything from gun-free school zones, the media, movies, violent video games, and even hurricanes.

On Sunday, he repeated many of the same themes. He repeated his call to put armed officers in every school, he urged Congress to create a database of mentally ill, and he called Sen. Dianne Feinstein's plan to re-introduce an assault weapons ban a "phony piece of legislation."

LaPierre refused to support any new measures of stricter gun control, telling Gregory that most of the existing laws on the books are rarely enforced.

"I know there's a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens," "I know there's an anti-gun industry in this town." But of an assault weapons ban, he said, "We don't think it works, and we don't support it."

Watch the full interview below:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/nra-wayne-lapierre-meet-the-press-gun-control-conference-sandy-hook-newtown-ct-shooting-2012-12

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In Latin America, Women Are Breaking Barriers To Entrepreneurship

Editor?s note:?Maria Rocio Paniagua currently works as a project manager at?Innku, one of the top mobile and web workshops in Mexico. The lack of women in technology in Latin America and the Caribbean is an issue whose cause has deep roots. Still, despite the barriers, there are examples of women disrupting not only businesses, but entire societies all over the continent. Entrepreneurship has proven to be an area where the few that excel really go the distance, particularly where technology is concerned.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RphBtk1YkCg/

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Netflix wants users to be able to share viewing habits on Facebook, US Senate agrees

We knew Netflix was big, but big enough to change the law? Apparently so, as an amendment to the Video Privacy Protection Act backed by the streaming service has been cleared by the US Senate. If the alteration gets a final sign-off from Obama himself, it'll allow Netflix users to easily share their streaming activity on Facebook -- something already implemented in regions outside the US. The current law, which makes such sharing tricky, was passed in the late 80's after a judge saw his video rental history leaked to a newspaper. There wasn't anything embarrassing in this list, but the episode begat the Act which requires a person's legal consent every time there's a request to publish such data. Instead, Netflix is proposing a one-off authorization which streamlines the whole process. We imagine the president's signature is just a formality, in which case you'll soon know exactly how many times we've watched Step Up 2: The Streets.

Continue reading Netflix wants users to be able to share viewing habits on Facebook, US Senate agrees

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/netflix-facebook-law-change/

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What Would Jesus Burn?

Why wouldn't frankincense make as good a gift now as it did 2,000 years ago?

Vesna Galesev/Thinkstock.

Christians around the world on Tuesday will commemorate the birth of Jesus by showering their loved ones with toys and electronics. Jesus himself received an impressive basket of gifts on his birthday: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We still exchange gifts made of gold. Whatever happened to frankincense and myrrh?

They lost their cachet. Frankincense and myrrh, a pair of aromatic oils, were the hottest luxury items of the ancient world. When Greeks and Romans wanted to flaunt their wealth, they burned enormous amounts of the stuff, particularly at funerals honoring their deceased parents or spouses. Near Easterners slathered it on their bodies to cover their natural odors, and well-to-do women used myrrh to keep their skin looking healthy. (Myrrh?s ability to preserve skin wasn?t limited to the living: The ancient Egyptians used it in the mummification process.) Demand for frankincense and myrrh began to drop off in the third century, and 300 years later, they were very minor commodities in the West. Many scholars blame Christianity for the decline. Early Christians stopped burning incense in religious rituals, labeling the widespread practice a form of idolatry. The oil returned to Christian worship by the seventh century, but the damage to the frankincense and myrrh trade was done.

In addition to the abandonment of incense in religious practice, Christianity worked a more general change in society. Conspicuous consumption was a virtue in pagan Rome. When Christianity swept through Europe, even the rich became more humble in their displays of wealth. Burning hundreds of libras? worth of frankincense just because you could was no longer considered appropriate. When the wealthy stop demanding a luxury item, the floor drops out of the market.

Although they?re not as popular as they once were, frankincense and myrrh are still common in fragrances. Myrrh is used in approximately 7 percent of modern perfumes, and parfumeries are worried about the potential extinction of trees that provide frankincense.

Despite the collapse of the frankincense and myrrh trade in the ancient West, buyers in the Near East and China kept the trade alive. Eastern people used the oils for medicine as well as fragrance. Like many pharmaceuticals of the ancient world, they were described as panaceas and used to treat everything from diarrhea to amenorrhea to cancer to syphilis. Frankincense and myrrh were also rubbed on wounds, a practice that some modern studies support. A handful of laboratory tests, mostly in Africa, Egypt, or China, have shown that frankincense and myrrh have antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. One study even suggests that frankincense and myrrh work best in combination.

That brings us back to the manger in Bethlehem. The conventional wisdom is that the gifts of the magi were symbolic of Jesus? future roles as religious leader and king. But over the years, medical journals have carried a variety of articles proposing that the Magi were delivering not symbols but medicine to baby Jesus. One of the more imaginative theories was proposed in a letter to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1989: Gold, frankincense, and myrrh could have been the ingredients in an ancient eye ointment. The writer noted that gold was also used as a drug at the time, treating such ailments as arthritis, tuberculosis, and syphilis. (Syphilis was a major problem in ancient times.) Since many practitioners of ancient medicine believed that yellow medicines are best against yellow ailments, such as jaundice, it?s possible that gold was added to frankincense and myrrh to treat a puss-filled eye. This theory is, of course, speculative in the extreme.

Got a question about today?s news? Ask the Explainer.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=ccbaf6e609fa3ea4812bb6d0c5a03295

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How Social Media Works, or What I Learned from a Banana Slicer

The story you are about to read is true. None of the names have been changed, but a few of the facts might be fuzzy. Nevertheless, this is how social media REALLY works.

December 10, 2012

2:08 p.m. ? Final day of teaching my social media marketing class at PCA&D. Two of my students, Patrick & Nick, tell me they have a great viral/Internet link they need to share with me. They forget.

5:17 p.m. ? I remember that they forgot, so I post a note on my Facebook wall about it, and tag them in it.

9:24 p.m. - One of the students posts this ?viral internet sensation? as a comment. I immediately click on the link and proceed to laugh. A lot.

9:27 p.m. - I repost the link and immediately begin getting likes, comments, and shares. Lots of them.

The link in question is for an item on Amazon known as the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer. And what?s more amazing than the fact that this product even exists, are the hundreds of hilarious product reviews that go along with it.

My sharing of the link continues to get comments and likes as much as ten days after I posted it. The engagement I have gotten comes from quite a few states and even a few other countries.

December 16, 2012

5:45 p.m. - Six days after the original posting, my friend Hope sees the link and comments back that she actually has one of these, still in its package, and that she?d like to send it to me. Hope and I met more than a dozen years ago when I was working in NYC, and have since reconnected on Facebook. While I now live in Pennsylvania, she lives in California. (Since I didn?t ask Hope?s permission to user her comment, I took the liberty of obscuring both her last name and her eyes. It adds something to the mystique of this story, don?t you think?)

?By the way, check out Hope?s business on Etsy, Vintage Rescue Shop. You might find some cool things on there!

December 17, 2012

7:05 p.m. - I send Hope my address.

December 18, 2012

6:58 p.m. - Hope tells me my package is on the way.

December 20, 2012

12:34 p.m. - The banana slicer arrives! Not the Hutzler 571, but one of the many similar brands that can be found online, although this one doesn?t even have a brand name on it

In just ten days, not ?including the years of reviews and whatever else happened before I first became aware of this wonderful item, I went from my first exposure to the project to actually having one shipped to me (for free!) from across the country

This is how social media works.

Compelling content is posted online. People engage with that content and share it. And then the magic happens.

Word of mouth. Online.

Now, what can you and your business learn from this wonderful story of the banana slicer?

?

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Tagged as: Amazon, banana slicer, word of mouth

Source: http://inklingmedia.net/2012/12/21/how-social-media-works-or-what-i-learned-from-a-banana-slicer/

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ICE to buy NYSE Euronext for $8.2 bln

REUTERS - In October, Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of upstart IntercontinentalExchange , approached NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer with a modest proposal to team up on clearing trades in London.

As the men continued talking, Sprecher grew bolder, instead suggesting that ICE buy NYSE in what became an $8.2 billion deal announced on Thursday.

The deal will link up two powerful derivatives exchange and clearing house operators, but threatens to further reduce the clout of the New York Stock Exchange. While the New York Stock Exchange has stood for 200 years as an iconic symbol of U.S. capitalism, it is almost an afterthought in this deal.

For ICE, the crown jewel of NYSE Euronext is Liffe, Europe's second-largest derivatives market, analysts said. Niederauer had long felt that NYSE's shareholders did not appreciate the true value of the London-based futures and options exchange, and had talked to bankers about how to improve NYSE's stock price, a person familiar with the matter said.

Liffe will help ICE compete against U.S.-based CME Group, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade. Derivatives trading remains highly profitable for the exchanges, and new rules next year will dramatically expand the demand for clearing over-the-counter contracts.

The stock market businesses are less valuable to ICE. The company said it will try to spin off the Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering, generating speculation it may also have little interest in the NYSE trading floor. Profits from stock trading have been significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of other places for investors to trade, including venues known as "dark pools."

ICE's Sprecher will be CEO of the combined organization, and the NYSE Euronext CEO will be president, a ceremonial title at many U.S. companies. In an interview, Niederauer said he would remain at least through 2014 as an "important senior member" of Sprecher's management team.

Niederauer will also be CEO of the NYSE Group. The combined company will be based in New York and Atlanta, where ICE is headqurtered.

Sprecher and Niederauerhave been friends for years, but the two stopped talking for about six weeks in 2011 when ICE teamed up with Nasdaq OMX Group to make an unsolicited bid for NYSE Euronext. That bid came even as the New York Stock Exchange operator was trying to sell itself to Deutsche Bourse . Regulatory concerns killed both deals.

Without the Nasdaq or Deutsche Bourse's huge equity operations, ICE alone has far less overlapping business and should face easy approvals, antitrust lawyers said.

The deal values each NYSE Euronext share at $33.12, a 28 percent premium to the stock's closing price on Wednesday. NYSE Euronext stock rose 34 percent to end at $32.25 on Thursday. ICE's shares fell as much as 4 percent but finished regular trading at $127.60, up 1.4 percent on the day.

ICE said it would pay annual dividends of $300 million to the companies' shareholders once the deal closes, about what NYSE pays its shareholders now.

IN THE DOLDRUMS

The deal reflected Niederauer's inability to get his company's share price out of the doldrums. Before the latest ICE offer emerged, NYSE Euronext's shares had fallen by nearly a third since ICE and Nasdaq launched their thwarted joint bid.

Further consolidation of exchanges was "inevitable" and ICE was a "great partner," Niederauer said on a call with analysts, so continuing on alone did not make sense.

"We can sit here and keep slugging away and keep working hard, but the bottom line is we had not delivered, in my mind, sufficient returns to shareholders," Niederauer said. NYSE bought Euronext, including Liffe, for 8 billion euros in 2007.

Sprecher incorporated the stalled stock price - and the unrecognized value of Liffe - as part of his pitch.

"The reason that we were prepared to pay $33 a share for a company that was trading at $24 a share was that there is a $33 company in here and the market was just not either seeing it or willing to give credit for," he said in an interview. "We said, 'let's just force the credit.'"

The two sides negotiated in secret for about eight to 10 weeks, the two CEOs said. In options markets, there were some signs that word might have leaked out, with a sudden upswing in the demand for call options on NYSE, which perform well when a company's share price rises.

ICE started out as an online marketplace for energy trading before Sprecher initiated a string of acquisitions from the London-based International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, to the New York Board of Trade and, most recently, a handful of smaller deals, including a climate exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house.

ICE's current main operations are in energy futures trading and, it has steered clear of stocks and stock-options trading, key businesses for NYSE Euronext.

"This deal is probably not going to generate a lot of concern from an antitrust perspective," said Warren Rosborough, a veteran of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division who is now with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

In clearing, ICE has a popular U.S. over-the-counter and listed business, while Liffe's operation is strong in futures and based in Europe.

Concerns over a small amount of competing derivatives business could be addressed with straightforward divestitures, Rosborough said. "It's an open question about whether it will generate questions," he added. "If there is a fix, it will be relatively easy fix."

Sprecher said the deal had been "well received" by regulators after he and Niederauer completed a "whirlwind tour" in the United States and Europe ahead of Thursday's announcement. Officials at the European Commission, the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

Last year, Justice Department objections blocked ICE and Nasdaq OMX's $11 billion bid on concerns the tie-up would dominate U.S. stock listings. The rival $9.3 billion bid by Deutsche Boerse fell afoul of European regulators.

A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leap-frog Deutsche Boerse to become the world's third-largest exchange group with a combined market value of $15.2 billion. CME Group has a market value of $17.5 billion, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is the world's largest exchange group with a market cap of $19.5 billion.

ICE said it expected to achieve $450 million in cost savings from the takeover. In the first year after the deal closes, additional earnings of 15 percent are expected.

Long-time Wall Street traders saw the potential takeover of the venerable stock exchange by a 12-year-old derivatives upstart as fraught with symbolism.

"It's the end of an era," said a director on the board of a rival exchange who did not have clearance to speak to the press and asked not to be named. "I think ultimately the floor will be closed, because Jeff (Sprecher) has shut every floor he's ever had," the person said.

With the deal still a long way from completed, Sprecher and Niederauer said they planned to keep the high-profile NYSE trading floor running. "The floor has value and in particular, it has a lot of brand value," Niederauer said. "So we are committed. Jeff is committed."

The exchange was prepared to shut down the floor temporarily during superstorm Sandy and trade completely electronically, Wall Street executives said.

Shareholders will have the option of accepting $33.12 in cash per NYSE Euronext share or 0.2581 ICE share or a mix of $11.27 in cash and 0.1703 ICE share, subject to a maximum cash consideration of $2.7 billion.

Morgan Stanley was the lead financial adviser to ICE, with assistance from BMO Capital Markets Corp, Broadhaven Capital Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co , Lazard Group LLC , Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wells Fargo Securities LLC . ICE legal advisers are Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Shearman & Sterling LLP.

The main financial advisers to NYSE Euronext are Perella Weinberg Partners and BNP Paribas. Further financial advice to NYSE Euronext was provided by Blackstone Advisory Partners, Citigroup , Goldman Sachs & Co. and Moelis & Co. Legal advisers to NYSE Euronext are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Slaughter & May, and Stibbe NV.

(Additional reporting by Luke Jeffs and David Brough in London, Jessica Toonkel, Jed Horowitz, Jonathan Spicer, David Gaffen and Karen Brettell in New York, Sarah N. Lynch and Diane Bartz in Washington and Ann Saphir in Chicago; writing by Carmel Crimmins and Aaron Pressman; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ice-buy-nyse-euronext-8-2-billion-224959350--sector.html

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