MUST BE THE END OF THE WORLD

Are you ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

If you believe the word of Harold Camping you better be.  According to this eighty nine year old multi millionaire from California, Saturday May 21st will be the 'End of The World'.

Based on a bunch of mumbo jumbo numerological fuzzy math, multiplying the amount of years from the story of the flood of Noah in the Bible, the presumed day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the number 51, and April 1st (yeah, April 1st is a factor in this equation) this former Sunday School teacher and host of 'Family Radio' has the world involved in a terrible meme of gloom and doom.

According to his interpretation, on Saturday 'the saved' dead and alive will be raptured to heaven, with the rest of the unsaved left to live on a hellish earth before it is destroyed by God fifty days later.  He predicts it will begin with earthquakes in Fiji and New Zealand ripping a hole in the earth and launching a catastrophe of 'Biblical' proportions.

He's done this before.

Harold Camping is a civil engineer and a math wizard who was around in world war two and excelled in Church as a Sunday School teacher with no formal theological training, but his charismatic style attracted hundreds of students to his classes.

He started eventually started Family Radio and in the 1980's he began to promote eschatological predictions so heavily, Church leaders came down on him, forcing him, his wife and his seven kids to start their own congregation.

They took several hundred followers with them for a while before Camping declared the end of the 20th century the end of the 'church era' and focused solely on his radio show.  He predicted the end of the world in the 90's only to be proven wrong, and he's still around today in the viral age of social media to spread his end of days doctrine again.

This time, he believes he is right.  Billboards have be erected, subway ads, twitter posts, facebook status updates, it's the most queried search term on the web.  Even the Center for Disease control has capitalized on this mania with a pseudo blog post called 'The Zombie Apocalypse' about preparing with foods and supplies for hurricane season as if a zombie apocalypse was approaching, of course undoubtedly tapping into the subconscious of the fear-mongering going on right now.

 I guess we will all find out on Saturday night  right?

Pen Paul.


credit to Jaweed Kaleem of The Huffington Post for information used in this story.

p.s.
















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Reuter site - Sony begins restoring PlayStation after security breach

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Sony begins restoring PlayStation after security breach

Sun, May 15 07:27 AM EDT

By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony said it had begun restoration of its PlayStation Network games service on Sunday, almost a month after a massive security breach of the network forced the company to shut it down.

Gamers and security experts had criticized Sony for its handling of the incident, which sparked lawsuits and cast a shadow over its plans to combine the strengths of its content and hardware products via online services.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant apologized to customers for the outage, and said a range of new security measures had been introduced. These included an early warning system that could alert the company to any attempt to penetrate the network.

"I can't thank you enough for your patience and support during this time," Sony No. 2 Kazuo Hirai said in the news release, which was also posted as a video message on the PlayStation Network blog.

"We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, companywide commitment."

A single message from a PlayStation Network user under the name SG-1_F-302 on the blog read simply: "Thank you Sony!!!!"

But some users have said the prolonged outage has prompted them to switch to rival Microsoft's Xbox Live games service.

In what is thought to be the biggest security breach of its kind, hackers accessed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts, 90 percent of which are in North America and Europe, and may have stolen credit card information.

Hackers rented a server from Amazon for the attack, Bloomberg news said earlier in the day, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.

Sony discovered unusual activity on its PlayStation Network, which enables games console owners to download games, chat with friends and pit their skills against rivals, on April 19.

It shut down the network and its Qriocity online music and movie service, frustrating many users, but waited almost a week before alerting users to the extent of the security leak.

The company later found out that a separate online games service had also been penetrated, allowing access to another 25 million user accounts.

PROCESS TO BE COMPLETE BY MAY 31

Sony said the restoration of PlayStation Network and Qriocity online movie and music services would take place on a country by country basis and that it expected the process to be complete by May 31.

Sony Online Entertainment services are also being restored and customers will be offered free game time as compensation for the outage, the company said.

Sony also said it had appointed an acting chief information officer to oversee security on its networks.

The attack on Sony is the highest-profile of a series that have affected large corporations in recent months, fuelling doubts about the security of cloud computing services.

"During the past 18 months, we've seen a dramatic rise in the volume of cyber attacks, their sophistication and their impact on businesses," Sony quoted Francis deSouza of Internet security company Symantec as saying.

Japanese games company Square Enix, known for the Final Fantasy series, said on Saturday that hackers had accessed one of its websites and obtained information, including up to 25,000 customer e-mail addresses and possibly job applicants' resumes.

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

Reuter site - iPhone helps Verizon, but not enough for some

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iPhone helps Verizon, but not enough for some

Fri, Apr 22 08:52 AM EDT

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc <VZ.N> gained wireless subscribers with Apple Inc's <AAPL.O> iPhone, but the effect on its financials failed to impress investors, who sent its shares down 2.3 percent.

With subscriber growth only meeting Wall Street estimates, some analysts complained about profit margins and others said revenue growth was lower than they hoped at Verizon Wireless, the mobile venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc <VOD.L>.

Since Verizon's shares had increased 18 percent in the five months ahead of the quarter, its merely "solid" results were not remarkable enough, said Mizuho analyst Michael Nelson.

"I'm not sure if there's anything in today's report that gives investors reason to believe Verizon should continue to expand its premium valuation," Nelson said.

Even Verizon's announcement on its conference call that it would sell a new version of the iPhone later this year, failed to excite investors. It said that unlike its current iPhone, the next one would work globally.

Verizon Wireless, the top U.S. mobile provider, posted 906,000 net new subscribers, roughly in line with expectations for over 888,000 from seven analysts contacted by Reuters.

This was much better than AT&T Inc <T.N>, which added only 62,000 net subscribers in the quarter as it lost iPhone exclusivity in the quarter.

But a key sticking point for investors when comparing the two operators was the fact that AT&T won more new iPhone customers in the quarter than Verizon.

The expectation had been for hordes of customers to flee AT&T when the Verizon iPhone arrived, since popular phones typically see a big spike in sales in the launch quarter.

"It was a stronger new customer driver for AT&T," Pacific Crest analyst Steve Clement said.

Verizon, which put the iPhone on store shelves February 10, said it sold 2.2 million iPhones by the end of the quarter, much lower than the 3.6 million iPhone sales at AT&T, which had the phone for the entire quarter.

About 22 percent of Verizon's iPhone customers switched from rival carriers but, about 23 percent of AT&T's were also new to that company. This implies that Verizon won fewer than 500,000 new customers through iPhone, whereas AT&T added more than 800,00 iPhone customers for other carriers.

USAGE AND COSTS

As well as attracting new customers, advanced devices like the iPhone are meant to boost monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) as smartphone customers spend more on services like mobile web surfing.

But Verizon's 2.2 percent ARPU increase was lower than some analysts had expected.

"It calls into question the longer term growth outlook," said Nomura analyst Michael McCormack who had expected 2.5 percent growth. The cost of selling iPhone was also an issue.

Sales of all advanced phones, and particularly the iPhone, come at a high cost. As a result, Verizon's profit margin dipped under its usual levels and below some analyst estimates.

Its margin was 43.7 percent, well below the 46 percent it posted a year earlier, based on earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization. This was below the 44.2 percent margin Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin had expected.

The carrier subsidy required for iPhone is about $400 while carriers typically pay a subsidy of $250 to $300 for other smartphones, Nomura analyst Michael McCormack estimated.

Verizon earnings rose to $1.44 billion, or 51 cents per share, from $443 million, or 16 cents per share, in the same quarter a year before when it shouldered hefty one time charges.

Revenue rose to $26.99 billion from $26.86 billion in the year-ago quarter and compared with the average analyst expectation for $26.86 bln, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Verizon shares ended Thursday down 2.3 percent at $36.91, while AT&T shares rose 1.8 percent, both on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Derek Caney and Tim Dobbyn)

Steve Wozniak: "sure, I'd love to go back, if you'd have me that is?"

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Reuter site - Steve Wozniak says would consider return to Apple

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Steve Wozniak says would consider return to Apple

Fri, Apr 08 13:37 PM EDT

By Georgina Prodhan

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Steve Wozniak would consider returning to an active role at Apple, the company he co-founded, and believes the consumer electronics giant could afford to be more open than it is, he told Reuters.

"I'd consider it, yeah," the 60-year-old computer engineer said in an interview, when asked whether he would play a more active role if asked.

He founded Apple Computer in 1976 with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and built the Apple I and Apple II computers that helped revolutionize personal computing.

Wozniak, who was in the English seaside town of Brighton for a computer server conference and to present a software developer award, stopped working for Apple in 1987 but is still on the payroll.

Chief Executive Jobs is currently on indefinite medical leave, his third medical absence since 2004.

The visionary Apple leader had a liver transplant two years ago and surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2005.

Apple -- whose Macintosh computers, iPod, iPhone and iPad have transformed consumer electronics -- became the world's most valuable technology company last year, overtaking software giant Microsoft.

"There's just an awful lot I know about Apple products and competing products that has some relevance, some meaning. They're my own feelings, though," said Wozniak, who is currently chief scientist of storage start-up Fusion-io.

Asked his opinion of Apple today, he said: "Unbelievable. The products, one after another, quality and hits."

Many consumers like Apple products because they make it easy to buy and consume content without glitches, but the closed system that makes this possible locks customers and media and software providers into Apple's proprietary iTunes online store and iOS operating system. Some critics compare it to Microsoft in that regard.

Wozniak, a lifelong hands-on engineer, said he liked technology to be relatively open so that he could "get in there and add my own touches."

"My thinking is that Apple could be more open and not lose sales," said Wozniak, but added: "I'm sure they're making the right decisions for the right reasons for Apple."

(Editing by Will Waterman)

Gettin' Money

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Reuter site - Wealth management? There's an app for that

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Wealth management? There's an app for that

Fri, Apr 08 11:30 AM EDT

By John McCrank

TORONTO (Reuters) - They're sleek, sexy and fun. They're also revolutionizing the way financial advisers do business.

A host of adviser-specific apps have taken iPads and other tablets from nifty playthings to seductive business tools that can dazzle and truly educate clients, advocates say.

"It's really a new paradigm," said David Wisehaupt, managing director and senior portfolio manager at Wisehaupt Bray Asset Management, a unit of Chicago-based independent brokerage HighTower.

"I'm with a client, be they young or old, and ... they sort of can't help themselves -- before the meeting is over, they're manipulating the images on the screen."

Wisehaupt, a 29-year financial services industry veteran who works with high-net-worth clients, said the charts, research and portfolio analytics he displays on his tablet screen connect with clients more than one-sided dissertations or lectures.

The interactive experience helps clients retain more information and feel more secure about his stewardship of their assets, he said.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Bill Winterberg, whose technology consulting firm FP Pad in Dallas, Texas, specializes in working with independent advisers, calls tablets a "disruptive technology" that improves productivity and mobility.

He pointed to apps that enable advisers to access customer relationship management and portfolio management tools.

For instance, there's Orion Advisor Services' MobileAdvisor app, which displays portfolios, performance information and contact information.

It also allows advisers using Orion's platform to rebrand the app, so clients download it, log in, track their portfolios, and view videos that the adviser provides.

For security purposes, the data is kept on the Omaha-based company's servers rather than directly on the tablet.

Security is the primary compliance concern for advisers using iPads, Winterberg said. At a minimum, he recommends pass code locks and password protection for the tablets.

Users also can use a service from Apple called MobileMe that homes in on lost iPads and allows all data to be erased remotely if the tablet is online.

INTELLIGENT PAPER

Some brokerage firms are beginning to embrace tablet technology. Canada's No. 3 lender, Bank of Nova Scotia, is looking at arming its wealth managers with Research In Motion's upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook.

Firms like Charles Schwab Corp, TD Ameritrade, which offer custody and business services to independent registered investment advisers and others have been introducing apps that allow advisers and their clients to do some trading directly from their iPads.

HighTower's Wisehaupt is a fan of an application called LogMeIn that connects him via his iPad to his office desktop if a secure Wi-Fi or other 3G mobile connection is available.

When a client has a question, the information is always at his fingertips. "Signing in, getting it and showing it to clients live is powerful," he said.

Other popular web-based applications keep track of call records, conversation notes and updated contact information.

"It's the convenience factor," said Winterberg. "They can do the same with the laptop, but they're not going to get the battery life from a laptop, and they don't get necessarily the portability factor of being able to just hold it in one hand and look up this information."

There is also the social factor.

If a client is worried about retirement and the adviser is busy typing away behind a keyboard, it can seem disrespectful, said Alessandro Tonchia, founder and director of Finantix, which offers a suite of wealth management apps for iPads, iPhones, and Android-smartphones.

"The iPad has the same social acceptability as a piece of paper, but it has all the power of an interactive device," Tonchia said. "We present it is as intelligent paper."

($1=$0.96 Canadian)

(Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Rob Wilson)

Reuter site - Blinkx buys Burst for $30 million to boost online TV

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Blinkx buys Burst for $30 million to boost online TV

Fri, Apr 08 09:50 AM EDT

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Online video search firm Blinkx is to buy online ad network Burst Media for $30 million to help build personalized online TV channels that should command premium rates from advertisers.

Online advertising has, for some time, been the fastest growing segment of the overall ad market, with online video ads running before or after video clips achieving the highest prices from marketers.

Blinkx, which already shows video to an audience gathered from more general sources, said the deal would give it access to Burst's audience of over 130 million unique users and its partnerships with more than 1,000 niche websites.

Chief Executive Suranga Chandratillake said advertisers were willing to pay much higher sums if the ad was directed at an audience known to be interested in the product or subject.

"If it's a pharmaceutical ad that appears only on video that is talking about very specific health problems, then the price we can charge per impression of those ads is much much higher than the price for something more general," he told Reuters.

"The Blinkx audience is currently gathered from more general channels, this gives more scale (for a targeted audience)."

The group announced the takeover as it released a trading update predicting a rise in full-year revenue to more than $65 million, up around 90 percent on last year. It expects to report an operating profit above the current analyst consensus estimates of $6.7 million for the year ended March 31.

The trading update and the deal with Burst sent shares in the group up 10.2 percent to 122 pence on Friday, while shares in Burst were up 390 percent to 23.93 pence.

The offer represents a premium of around 400 percent to the mid-market closing price on Thursday but Chandratillake said the firm had been penalized by the market in recent months which had started to question its future.

"Up until now, the primary barrier to further television advertising budgets moving online has been online video's inability to match the sheer scale of audience that television can deliver," he said.

"The acquisition ... will allow us to overcome that challenge: by fusing Blinkx's unique patented technology and large video index with Burst's massive reach, we will have the potential to create personalized, online television that is watched by hundreds of millions of users."

(Editing by Ben Hirschler)

Reuter site - Expedia plans to split into 2 companies

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Expedia plans to split into 2 companies

Fri, Apr 08 06:48 AM EDT

By Karen Jacobs

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Expedia Inc, the largest online travel agency, said it plans to split into two publicly traded companies through a proposed spin-off of its TripAdvisor business, and its shares shot up 13 percent in after-hours trading.

Analysts said the plan could help unlock value for the high-growth TripAdvisor travel site business as Expedia invests in product enhancements that would bolster its competitive positioning.

"While Expedia still makes the majority of the profits of the two companies, the TripAdvisor advertising-based model seems to be the future of the industry," Morningstar analyst Warren Miller said by email. "I expect the move should allow TripAdvisor to flourish a little more outside of the Expedia brand."

Expedia, whose chairman is media billionaire Barry Diller, joins a host of companies that have set plans to split and spin off units this year, including diversified manufacturer ITT Corp and food company Sara Lee Corp.

The separation "allows the two businesses to be pure plays and to operate with the proper amount of focus to grow respectively," Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi told Reuters on Thursday.

He said no big changes were expected from a management perspective, and added there were no plans to sell TripAdvisor.

TAX-FREE DEAL

Under the separation, the new TripAdvisor would include operations of the current TripAdvisor Media Group travel advisory business that includes 18 popular travel brands, and Expedia Inc would continue to comprise transaction brands such as Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire and carrentals.com.

The transaction, intended to be tax free, is expected to take the form of a spin-off of TripAdvisor stock to Expedia shareholders or a reclassification of Expedia shares, with holders receiving a proportionate amount of TripAdvisor stock, Expedia said.

Frederick Moran, an Internet analyst with Benchmark, said Expedia shares have trailed rival Priceline.com in performance because of weaker-than-expected earnings growth as it looks to reinvest in its business.

Expedia's stock was down about 10 percent so far this year before the Thursday announcement, while Priceline.com has gained 27 percent. Orbitz Worldwide, which is in a distribution dispute with AMR Corp's American Airlines, is down about 39 percent this year.

Moran said Expedia's 2011 forecast was below expectations and called for essentially no growth in earnings because of needed investments in technology in the face of higher competition.

"Priceline has shown tremendous growth over in Europe and Asia and Expedia has fallen behind them in that regard," Moran said. "So Expedia not only wants to protect their leading market share in the U.S. but also wants to globalize in order to compete and investment is required to do so."

Moran added: "Unlocking TripAdvisor into its own enterprise clearly could help the recognition of hidden shareholder value at a time when the stock has obviously underperformed."

Yet debt-rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's warned they may cut certain Expedia ratings. S&P said it believed the separation of TripAdvisor could "reduce Expedia's growth rate, EBITDA margin and discretionary cash flow generation."

Expedia said the proposed spin-off of TripAdvisor is expected to be completed in the third quarter, and said the plan is subject to shareholder and final board approval.

Shares of Expedia were up 13.6 percent at $25.45 in extended trading after the bell from their $22.40 close on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs, with additional reporting by Kyle Peterson in Phoenix, editing by Matthew Lewis, Bernard Orr, Gary Hill)

Reuter site - Actress Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79

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Actress Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79

Wed, Mar 23 11:46 AM EDT

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, a two-time Oscar winner and Hollywood beauty whose screen success was sometimes overshadowed by her tumultuous personal life, died on Wednesday at age 79.

She died after a long battle with congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by her four children after having been hospitalized six weeks ago, her spokeswoman said in a statement.

In a career spanning seven decades, Taylor first gained major fame in 1944's "National Velvet" at age 12, and was nominated for five Oscars. She won the best actress honor twice, for "BUtterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) with actor Richard Burton, whom she would marry twice.

Taylor lived a glamorous life and was married eight times in all, including to singer Eddie Fisher and movie producer Mike Todd. She was famous for her love of diamonds and furs, and later in life raised large sums for AIDS research.

"My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world," son Michael Wilding said in a statement.

Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, in London to American parents and said many times she never wanted to be an actress but was pushed into it by her mother, former actress Sara Sothern Taylor.

She moved to the United States as a child and soon after her 10th birthday landed the lead in 1942 film "Lassie Come Home." That role was followed by her turn as a young girl whose love tames the fury of a wild horse in "National Velvet."

"Velvet" sparked a string of girl-next-door roles that were eclipsed by her first hint of dramatic promise in "A Place in the Sun" in 1950, playing opposite Montgomery Clift.

She confirmed her star power in 1958 as Maggie in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and cemented her reputation as among the greatest actresses of her generation playing a foul-mouthed alcoholic in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

GLAMOROUS HOLLYWOOD LIFE

But Taylor's life went far beyond Hollywood fame as she set a the standard for glamour and tumult. After the death of Todd in 1958, she found herself in a well-chronicled love triangle with Fisher and his wife actress Debbie Reynolds, before marrying Fisher.

While filming the lavishly produced "Cleopatra" in 1961, she started a torrid affair with Burton, who played Mark Antony and was also married at the time.

The two strong-willed actors wed in 1964 after she divorced Fisher, and Burton lavished her with furs and diamonds, including a $1 million pear-shaped jewel, while publicly praising her "wonderful bosom."

The pair also were famous for hurling invective at one another. "We enjoy fighting," Taylor once said. "Having an out-and-out, outrageous, ridiculous fight is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness."

As she grew older and movie roles became fewer, the actress once famed for beauty began drinking heavily and grew addicted to prescription drugs. Her weight ballooned and she was lampooned by comedians. In 1983 she entered the Betty Ford Center in California to overcome her addiction.

But Taylor never forgot others less fortunate than herself, and she became a major fund-raiser for AIDS research.

"We have just lost a Hollywood giant. More importantly we have lost an incredible human being," singer Elton John said in a statement.

Among Taylor's close friends was pop star Michael Jackson, whom she befriended while he was growing up in the harsh spotlight of the media and whom she staunchly defended as he was tried and acquitted on child molestation charges.

In May 2000, Taylor received the title "Dame," the female equivalent of a knighthood, from Queen Elizabeth.

She died surrounded by her children, Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton. In addition to her children, she is survived by 10 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; editing by Phil Barbara and Vicki Allen)