“I learned a big civics lesson today.” — Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, who tweeted a picture of his filled-out ballot (for Mitt Romney, natch), only to learn that appeared to break the law in New York state.
— David Bauder — http://twitter.com/dbauder
___
EDITOR’S NOTE — Election Watch shows you Election Day 2012 through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – John Lennon held out the promise he could bring out more musical greatness in legendary guitarist Eric Clapton in a letter that could fetch as much as $ 30,000 when it is sold at auction next month, the organizers of the sale said on Monday.
The signed, hand-written letter by the Beatle, who died in 1980 at the age of 40, is one of a selection from some of the world’s great musicians that will go under the hammer in Los Angeles at the Profiles in History auction on December 18.
In a draft letter dated September 29, 1971, Lennon expressed his respect and admiration for British guitarist Clapton and suggested that they form a band together.
“Eric, I know I can bring out something great, in fact greater in you that had been so far evident in your music. I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us, which I know will happen if/when we get together,” Lennon wrote in the letter.
The letter will hold special significance for Beatles fans as auctioneer Joe Maddalena said it was widely known that there were problems in the Fab Four’s relationships with each other, and that Clapton had almost become a Beatle.
Clapton played in the Plastic Ono Band, formed by Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 before the breakup of the Beatles in 1970. He also played on the George Harrison song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which was on the Beatles’ White Album.
“There was a point in time when George Harrison thought about leaving the band and his replacement was Clapton, so this letter is a link of what could have been,” Maddalena said.
The letter is one of 300 manuscripts and letters from literary, musical and political greats, that will be auctioned from the holdings of an American collector.
“What we know of history is from the written word, without these letters, it would all be verbal. It’s a really unique area of collecting as you’re getting a glimpse into people’s minds,” Maddalena said.
Other highlights include a handwritten letter from George Washington, with a pre-sale estimate of up to $ 300,000, and a Charles Dickens manuscript with an obituary of novelist William Thackeray, expected to fetch between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.
Also on the auction block is a signed, handwritten letter from German composer Ludwig van Beethoven to Tobias Haslinger, a friend of his publisher, in which the musician discussed the second performance of his Ninth Symphony and the Missa Solemnis, two of his most revered works.
The letter, written in German, is undated, but both the Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis debuted in performances in 1824. Because of the rarity of the letter, it is estimated it will sell for between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.
Other items going under the hammer include a signed letter in Russian by composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which has a pre-sale estimate of $ 10,000 to $ 15,000, and a letter by composer George Gershwin dated March 24, 1932, in which he compares his compositions “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris”.
The Gershwin letter is expected to sell for as much as $ 3,000, according to the auction house.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Patricia Reaney; and Peter Galloway)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – He’s sold hot dogs in Minnesota and spent summers in Colorado. His mother lives in Florida and Ohio looks just like his native Wisconsin. Whatever the swing state, Paul Ryan finds a way to call it home.
Addressing one of his largest crowds of the 2012 presidential campaign, the Republican vice presidential candidate ticked off his many ties to Minnesota, one of a handful of states that Mitt Romney‘s team has visited in the final hours of the U.S. presidential race.
Ryan is from Wisconsin, Minnesota’s neighbor and occasional friendly rival. But he boasted that he is often mistaken as one of the crowd’s own.
“In (Washington) D.C., people say, ‘Oh yeah, Ryan, you’re the budget guy from Minnesota, right? I’m from Wisconsin. Close,” Ryan said at the gathering at an airport hangar on Sunday evening.
Politicians often highlight connections to states they visit, hoping a little local pride will go a long way on Election Day. But few politicians can match Ryan.
In Minnesota, Ryan talked about the summer job he had selling Oscar Mayer products in northern part of the state. He mentioned his cousin, Terry, who works for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. He joked about needing better equipment for ice fishing, a passion in the state with long, cold winters.
Ryan’s actual home happens to be a swing state, one of the nine or so battlegrounds likely to determine whether Romney and Ryan can defeat President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s election.
He spent three days there last week, telling voters about his passion for deer hunting and the state’s dairy and farming traditions.
Ryan, who has represented a district in southern Wisconsin in Congress for 14 years, visited Green Bay on Sunday to shake hands with Packers fans, wearing the football team’s green and yellow colors on his tie.
On Friday, he told supporters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, that his wife’s mother’s family comes from Iowa. Playing on the state’s frugal reputation, he recounted how his wife Janna’s grandmother once froze five ounces of dog food for months, worried that it would go to waste.
“That is Iowa fiscal conservatism. That is Iowa common sense,” said Ryan.
Earlier that day, he told a crowd in Montrose, Colorado, that he visited their state each summer growing up.
“Janna and I spent our childhoods coming to Colorado every year. We love this state whether it’s fishing, hunting, climbing, skiing, backpacking, just hanging out,” Ryan said.
“This is God’s country,” he added.
On Saturday, Ryan flew to Panama Beach, Florida, where he reminded the crowd that his mother calls the state home.
And in Ohio, the campaign’s most fiercely contested battleground, Ryan’s enthusiasm knows no bounds.
Roving the state on an eight-stop bus tour late last month, he urged crowd to vote for the local — or almost local — guy.
Ryan likes to call Wisconsin and Ohio, “Big Ten” country, linking the two states by a shared college football conference.
“I look around here I feel like I’m 10 miles from my house, except our corn is already down by now,” Ryan told a crowd of 2,000 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, one evening.
At a midday rally, Ryan reveled in the similarity between the names of his host, Zanesville, and his real home town.
“I almost said hello Janesville,” Ryan said. “That’s where I’m from.”
(Reporting By Samuel P. Jacobs; Editing by Frances Kerry and Doina Chiacu)
Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News
5 November 2012 Last updated at 19:01 ET
Cashback deals are becoming more common in reward schemes for credit card customers, research has indicated.
The number of cards on the market that carry the feature has doubled in two years, according to the report by financial research group Defaqto.
The report, commissioned by card provider Capital One, suggested that the growth had not been mirrored by other rewards features.
One expert has warned of the danger of choosing a card based on rewards.
Spending
The Defaqto report found that people in the UK could choose from about 245 different credit cards. About three quarters of these were regarded as standard, rather than platinum or gold, cards.
The most common features that these cards carried as customer rewards were points schemes and shopping rewards, that were each found on 20% of cards.
Air miles featured on 10% of cards, while 9% of cards had cashback rewards.
Cashback is the only one of these that has seen a big rise in the past two years, the report suggested. However, it still only features on 22 cards.
Each time the customer uses their card an amount of cashback is accrued. After a set period, usually annually or monthly, the cashback amount is paid automatically to the customer’s credit card.
Cashback amounts can vary between £1.10 and £36 for every £100 spent on the card each month.
“To make the card truly worthwhile a customer would need to spend well in excess of £1,000 per month, so these cards are most likely to appeal to the higher spenders,” the report said.
Habit
For many people this would require a change of habit, by using a credit card for everyday spending.
So, customers should be realistic about whether they would be happy to do this for the cashback rewards, according to Sarah Pennells, founder of the Savvywoman financial website.
“If people are used to paying for their shopping or fuel by cash, then they might not think about getting a credit card out,” she said.
Customers should consider the whole package being offered by a credit card provider when choosing a card, she added.
Cashback would only prove to be a benefit if borrowers paid off their credit card each month, or took advantage of longer interest-free periods, she said. Other considerations when shopping around for a card might include charges when using the card overseas, she added.
BBC News – Business
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand coal mining company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before an underground explosion killed 29 workers two years ago, an investigation concluded.
The official report released Monday after 11 weeks of hearings on the disaster found broad safety problems in New Zealand workplaces and said the Pike River Coal company was exposing miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets.
“The company completely and utterly failed to protect its workers,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Monday.
The country’s labor minister, Kate Wilkinson, resigned from her labor portfolio after the report’s release, saying she felt it was the honorable thing to do after the tragedy occurred on her watch. She plans to retain her remaining government responsibilities.
The Royal Commission report said New Zealand has a poor workplace safety record and its regulators failed to provide adequate oversight before the explosion.
At the time of the disaster, New Zealand had just two mine inspectors who were unable to keep up with their workload, the report said. Pike River was able to obtain a permit with no scrutiny of its initial health and safety plans and little ongoing scrutiny.
Key said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that there needs to be a philosophical shift in New Zealand from believing that companies are acting in the best interests of workers to a more proscriptive set of regulations that forces companies to do the right thing.
The commission’s report recommended a new agency be formed to focus solely on workplace health and safety problems. It also recommended a raft of measures to strengthen mine oversight.
Key said his government would consider the recommendations and hoped to implement most of them. He would not commit on forming a new agency. Workplace safety issues are currently one of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
In the seven weeks before the explosion, the Pike River company received 21 warnings from mine workers that methane gas had built up to explosive levels below ground and another 27 warnings of dangerous levels, the report said. The warnings continued right up until the morning of the deadly explosion.
The company used unconventional methods to get rid of methane, the report said. Some workers even rigged their machines to bypass the methane sensors after the machines kept automatically shutting down — something they were designed to do when methane levels got too high.
The company made a “major error” by placing a ventilation fan underground instead of on the surface, the report found. The fan failed after the first of several explosions, effectively shutting down the entire ventilation system. The company was also using water jets to cut the coal face, a highly specialized technique than can release large amounts of methane.
The report did not definitively conclude what sparked the explosion itself, although it noted that a pump was switched on immediately before the explosion, raising the possibility it was triggered by an electrical arc.
The now-bankrupt Pike River Coal company is not defending itself against charges it committed nine labor violations related to the disaster. Former chief executive Peter Whittall has pleaded not guilty to 12 violations and his lawyers say he is being scapegoated.
An Australian contractor was fined last month for three safety violations after its methane detector was found to be faulty at the time of the explosion.
Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News
(Reuters) – An Apple lawsuit against Google‘s Motorola Mobility unit over alleged patent abuse was thrown out on Monday just hours before trial, a setback for the iPhone maker in its efforts to gain leverage in the smartphone patent wars.
The two rivals were set to square off in a Madison, Wisconsin federal court over the library of patents Google Inc acquired along with Motorola for $ 12.5 billion in May. Apple Inc claimed Motorola‘s licensing practices were unfair.
However, late last week District Judge Barbara Crabb questioned whether she had the legal authority to hear Apple‘s claims, and on Monday she dismissed the case.
A Google spokeswoman said the company was pleased with the order, while an Apple representative declined to comment. In a legal brief filed after Crabb’s ruling, Apple contended that the judge does indeed have the authority to hear its claims.
Lea Shaver, an intellectual property professor at Indiana University School of Law, said a ruling against Google would have diminished Motorola‘s patents as an effective bargaining chip in settlement negotiations.
“This puts Apple back into the position it was before,” Shaver said.
Apple and Microsoft Corp have been litigating in courts around the world against Google and partners like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which use the Android operating system on their mobile devices.
Apple contends that Android is basically a copy of its iOS smartphone software, and Microsoft holds patents that it contends cover a number of Android features. Microsoft is set for a trial against Motorola in Seattle next week in a case with similar issues as the Apple matter in Wisconsin.
Apple and Microsoft accuse Google of demanding too high a royalty for some of its so-called standard essential patents. Motorola promised to license those patents on fair terms, they argue, in exchange for Motorola technology being adopted as an industry standard.
In Wisconsin, Crabb had ruled during the run-up to trial that she might decide what a fair royalty for Motorola‘s patents should be.
However, in a court filing last week, Apple argued that it would not consider itself bound by Crabb’s rate if it exceeded $ 1 per Apple phone.
Given Apple‘s position, Crabb questioned whether she had the power to issue merely an advisory opinion. “It has become clear that Apple‘s interest in a license is qualified,” Crabb wrote on Friday.
Microsoft, by contrast, has agreed to live with whatever terms U.S. District Judge James Robart sets at the Seattle trial.
In Wisconsin, the trial was scheduled to begin Monday afternoon in Madison, but Crabb dismissed the case during a morning hearing. If Apple cannot convince Crabb to reconsider, then the matter could be appealed.
In its statement, Google said Motorola has long offered licensing at reasonable rates. “We remain interested in reaching an agreement with Apple,” the company said.
The case in U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin is Apple Inc. v. Motorola Mobility Inc., No. 11-cv-178.
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Tim Dobbyn)
Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (AP) — The days of watching Election Night coverage on a single television set may soon be a quaint anachronism.
Americans have an array of alternatives for following returns on Tuesday night. Television news divisions are throwing everything they have into the story. People will be able to construct their own media experiences, seek out desired information instead of waiting for it, participate in conversations and hear analysis that reflects their own perspectives or none in particular.
Virtually all of the media organizations covering the election promise an abundance of information available online, from interactive maps that display state-by-state results to data from exit polls.
It’s expected to be a huge night for social media. And news organizations say they will monitor the conversations and have their own journalists actively participate.
Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Angioplasty to clear blocked arteries costs more at hospitals not equipped for emergency heart surgery, according to a study presented on Sunday at the American Heart Association scientific meeting.
Elective angioplasty is becoming increasingly common at hospitals that do not conduct more complicated heart procedures. During angioplasty, doctors insert a balloon-tipped catheter into an artery and inflate a balloon to open the narrowed blood vessel.
Researchers from Duke University Medical School in North Carolina analyzed billing data from more than 18,000 patients and found that the average cumulative medical costs were $ 23,991 in surgery-equipped hospitals, versus $ 25,460 in those without surgical centers.
“Surprisingly, there was no difference in procedure cost,” said Dr. Eric Eisenstein, lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at Duke. “We did find a difference in follow-up cost.”
The difference was due mainly to the fact that non-surgery hospitals used intensive care units for post-angioplasty care, as required by the study, and patients treated at these hospitals were more likely to be readmitted nine months after treatment.
“Rising costs of medical care make it very pertinent for us to assess value,” said Dr. Mark Hlatky, director of the cardiovascular outcomes research center at Stanford University.
Eisenstein said, “there is no guarantee that a community hospital can provide angioplasty services at costs comparable with those of major hospitals with on-site cardiac surgery.”
More than 1 million coronary artery opening procedures are performed in the United States each year, according to the American Heart Association.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker says he’s asked the country’s media ethics inquiry to consider newly disclosed text messages sent between Prime Minister David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks, the ex-chief executive of Rupert Murdoch‘s British newspaper division.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper on Sunday published two previously undisclosed messages exchanged between the pair, who are friends and neighbors.
Brooks is facing trial on conspiracy charges linked to Britain’s phone hacking scandal, which saw Murdoch close down The News of The World tabloid.
In one newly disclosed message, Cameron thanked Brooks in 2009 for allowing him to borrow a horse, joking it was “fast, unpredictable and hard to control but fun.”
Opposition lawmaker Chris Bryant has asked a judge-led inquiry scrutinizing ties between the press and the powerful to examine the messages.
Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News
This evening while I was casually browsing my Facebook news feed, the site asked me if I’d like to take a survey, giving some feedback about my Facebook experience. I’d seen plenty of surveys on Facebook before, but never one from Facebook. I excitedly clicked my approval and began my quest to help improve the service.
[More from Mashable: iPhone Loyalty Wanes After Apple’s Latest Smartphone Release [STUDY]]
It soon became clear the survey was more about making Facebook feel good about itself than actually improving its service (Sample question: “How much fun is Facebook overall?”). The questions were extremely general, and made no reference to any specific features, recent news or the wicked-cool Instagrams I’ve been sharing. Are they even paying attention?
When I asked Facebook about the survey, a spokesperson told me only that, “Facebook runs variations of surveys all the time in order to improve the user experience.” When I asked to see a transcript of the survey questions, she politely refused, probably because Facebook doesn’t want the world to know how banal they are.
[More from Mashable: The Secret of Viral Videos, in One Hilarious Parody]
Well phooey on social networks and their misplaced secrecy, I say! I captured screengrabs of most of the survey questions and compiled them into a gallery, which you can check out below (you can thank me in the comments).
But I think Facebook should see this as a learning experience. If it’s serious about improving its service, it needs to be more direct. Forget the focus-grouped questions about “feelings,” “fun” and “control over privacy” — let’s get to the hard stuff. Here are the questions Facebook should have asked in its survey.
1. Should Facebook increase the size of photos in shared links?
2. How bad was that idea to ask people to pay $ 7 to promote posts in their friends’ news feeds?
3. Facebook’s IPO: What’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
4. How much less respect do you have for Facebook after that ridiculous ad with all the chairs?
5. Should Facebook just admit that Google+ schooled it with Hangouts?
6. And dude, how drunk with power is Twitter right now?
What other questions should the Facebook survey have asked? Shout out your suggestions in the comments.
You may see a survey like this one on Facebook. The company says it presents surveys to its users all the time to “improve the user experience.”
Click here to view this gallery.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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