Will Tony Stark's comic book brother take over for Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel movie-verse?
By Alex Zalben
BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets fell Wednesday, hit by slower U.S. hiring and reports of tighter money market conditions in China that could check its economic recovery.
Weaker-than-expected U.S. job creation in September was a mixed cue for markets. On the plus side, it boosted the case for a full-strength continuation of the Federal Reserve's super-easy monetary policy that has boosted investment in stocks worldwide. On the downside, it suggests U.S. demand for exports will continue to be subdued, which could hurt company earnings.
The Labor Department reported that 148,000 jobs were created in September, below the consensus among analysts for around 180,000. Following revisions to back data, it means that the U.S. economy added an average of 143,000 jobs a month from July through September, down from 182,000 from April through June.
Sentiment in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan was hurt by reports the central bank refrained from injecting funds into money markets, pushing up short-term lending rates.
Markets were also down in Europe where Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.4 percent to 6,668.81. Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent to 8,912.97 and France's CAC-40 tumbled 0.6 percent to 4,269.70.
Futures pointed to a retreat on Wall Street too. Dow futures were down 0.4 percent and broader S&P 500 futures lost 0.5 percent.
In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.3 percent to 2,183.11 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.4 percent to 23,999.95. Taiwan's benchmark dropped 0.3 percent to 8,393.62.
China's economic growth rebounded to 7.8 percent in the third quarter but inflation and house prices have also risen, creating a balancing act for policymakers who want to shift the economy to growth driven by consumption rather than investment and exports.
Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 2 percent to 14,426.05 as the yen gained against the U.S. dollar, which can hurt sales and profits at Japanese exporters.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3 percent to 5,356.10.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was down 78 cents at $97.53 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.38 to $98.30 on Tuesday.
The dollar fell to 97.26 yen from 98.13 yen late Tuesday. The euro fell to $1.3755 from $1.3777.
Craig Federighi has announced that OS X Mavericks will be made available for free starting today. It can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store.
Keep an eye on our ongoing event coverage today!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/iH_dcLBQwic/story01.htmMichele K. Short/FX
"American Horror Story"
With partial DVR data now available for the first two episodes of American Horror Story: Coven, FX's latest entry in the anthology series is proving to be remarkably steady -- and huge. Ahead of Live+Seven Day ratings, both episodes are already outpacing all but one other telecast (Sons of Anarchy) in network history.
Upping its time-shifted viewing in the second week to leave the audience virtually on par with the massive premiere (7.121 versus 7.266 million in Live+Three), Coven actually improved its lot among adults 18-34. The new record, 2.945 million in the demo, now outranks the network's all-time top performer across the board (the recent season-six premiere of Sons).
PHOTOS: THR Goes On Set With 'American Horror Story: Coven'
Among adults 18-49, the second episode of Coven is also neck-and-neck with its premiere -- falling a touch from a 4.98 to 4.92 million demo viewers. That's a difference of less than a tenth of a ratings point.
Compared to the previous two seasons in the American Horror Story franchise, Coven is outpacing Asylum by 41 percent in the key demo and Murder House by a whopping 90 percent.
Looking at FX's top 50 telecasts of all time, all of which save Coven include the extra four days of DVR use, 18 of the top 20 are all Sons of Anarchy. The first two episodes of Coven currently hold the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, and the most recent episode is on track to topple the premiere when Live+Seven is available for both.
So what does that mean? Barring a serious drop in momentum, Coven may end up rivaling the current run of veteran Sons of Anarchy as the highest-rated season of any show in the cable network's history.
As a part of the launch of the Retina iPad mini, Apple announced that the original iPad mini is getting a price cut down to $299, and the new iPad mini 2 will be taking the $399 spot.
$299 is a sweet spot for many tablet shoppers, and it's good to see a relatively new iPad finding its way down the price ladder that low. Anyone considering snagging one as a holiday gift?
Keep an eye on our event coverage from today!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/vWBVg1jY7Sk/story01.htmIn the summer of 1927 a new fashion craze swept the nation. Called the "Lucky Lindy Lid," it was a ladies' felt hat that came in a variety of sizes and colors. Adorned with a small propellor on the front and two miniature wings darting out on each side, it may have looked a bit ridiculous, but it celebrated an important moment in aviation history — Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/A7SLPEDdGag/@ericlimerGood morning.
President Obama just had a very bad, no good, awful day trying to explain what went so terribly wrong with his administration's health care sign-up website, and Republicans had a field day.
Today, it's Republicans who will be having just such a day.
Three major national polls show, unequivocally, that Republicans are taking the brunt of the public's anger after this month's government shut down and default crisis.
Democrats didn't fare well, either, but the early landscape for the 2014 mid-term elections looks particularly bleak for the riven-from-within Republicans.
Let's go to the numbers.
*A new Washington Post-ABC Poll reveals that the recent budget confrontations have not only "dealt a major blow to the GOP's image," write Dan Balz and Scott Clement, but also "exposed significant divisions between Tea Party supporters and other Republicans."
More than 80 percent of Americans surveyed said they disapproved of the partial government shutdown that began Oct. 1, and ended last week.
Balz and Clement write: "The survey highlights just how badly the GOP hard-liners and the leaders who went along with them misjudged the public mood. In the aftermath, eight in 10 Americans say they disapprove of the shutdown. Two in three Republicans or independents who lean Republican share a negative view of the impasse. And even a majority of those who support the tea party movement disapprove."
Sixty-three percent of Americans surveyed said they had an unfavorable view of Republicans.
The poll found fallout to go around, with Americans expressing deep dissatisfaction with Congress, including congressional Democrats, seen unfavorably by 49 percent of those surveyed.
President Obama appeared the only politician relatively unscathed by the crisis, with his approval rating at about 50 percent, the survey found.
*At USA TODAY, Susan Page writes that the new USA TODAY/Princeton Research Poll showing that only 4 percent of Americans believe Congress would be worse off if every member were replaced holds a special warning for Republicans.
Says Page: "Those findings are similar to the public's views in previous years when voter dismay cost one side or the other control of the House. In 1994, when Democrats lost their majority, 40% said Congress would be better off if most members were replaced. In 2006, when Republicans lost control, 42% held that view."
She notes that there's still a year before voters go to the poll - plenty of time for changes in the political winds. But the USA TODAY poll also finds that Republicans have lost more ground and, by a 2-1 margin, are shouldering more blame than Democrats for Capitol Hill dysfunction."Even Republicans," Page says, "presumably inclined to blame the other side, are divided about whether responsibility belongs to the Democrats or to both parties equally. That's not true among Democrats: Eight in 10 say the GOP is largely to blame."
*A post-shutdown CNN/ORC International survey found that 75 percent of Americans say that most Republicans in Congress "don't deserve to be re-elected."
The survey found that Democrats have an eight-point approval edge over Republicans, "in an early indicator in the battle for control of Congress," noting, as did USA TODAY, that "there's plenty of time for these numbers to change" before the 2014 midterm congressional elections.
"A majority of those questioned," CNN reported, "blamed congressional Republicans for the government shutdown and said the President was the bigger winner in the deal to end the crisis."
Let's take a turn from polls and shutdown politics for now to a crisis that has captured the attention of the nation, including Congress and the White House: sexual assaults in the military.
The new edition of Washington Monthly contains two must-read stories that will no doubt generate conversation and controversy as Congress continues to debate how best to improve the safety of women, and others, in the military, and to better investigate and prosecute cases of alleged sexual assault.
Writers Laura Kasinof and Stephanie Mencimer take in-depth looks at whether women are more affected by the trauma of combat, and at the veracity of one woman's highly-publicized account of rape by a military contractor — an account that helped galvanize action around military sexual assault.
Kasinof, noting that the Defense Department in January lifted its ban on women service in combat roles, writes: "While it's clear that war is hell for everyone, men and women alike, it's unclear how the unique female experience in the barracks, on the battlefield, and back at home may affect them differently. Female veterans are already more likely than male veterans to be homeless, divorced, or raising children as single parents. Female vets under fifty are more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to kill themselves. And a growing body of research suggests that female vets may also be more susceptible than men to psychological disorders, including PTSD."
And she anticipates the controversial nature of questioning trauma and gender differences, but says the discussion is necessary:
"Those facts and new research—indeed, the very discussion of gender differences in the armed forces—are often incendiary, but they should not be taken as an argument against equality in the armed forces. Instead, they should be the catalyst for a worthwhile discussion. After all, we owe it to our veterans to study how some women experience war and homecoming differently, and to determine what can be done to better support female soldiers—women who are now poised, for the first time in history, to be deployed in large numbers in combat positions overseas."
Mencimer, in "The War of Rape: What happened to Jamie Leigh Jones in Iraq?" delves deeply into the case of Jones, whose "terrifying story" of being raped by men working in Iraq for a subsidiary of Halliburton was covered heavily by the media.
Mencimer goes into Jones' complicated medical and personal history, reviews reports of physical evidence collected after her claim, and pores over court documents that detail how the case fell apart.
The writer says that after a jury dismissed Jones' case, she was troubled that reporters and news organizations that highlighted the story for years did not follow up.
She writes: "The story has continued to nag at me, even two years after the trial and a decade after the start of the Iraq War. Now that the trial is over, and the evidence the jurors used to come to their decision is publicly available, there haven't been many mea culpas from the reporters who helped put Jones in the limelight. Brian Ross, who scored the first on-air interview with Jones back in 2007, and whose exposé prompted Congress to act, referred my requests for an interview to a flack for ABC News, who called to ask what I was writing about and then never answered a single question. Rachel Maddow, who essentially used Jones's story to accuse thirty Republican senators of being rape apologists, never responded to repeated requests for comment. Only the Houston Chronicle, which failed to cover more than a day or two of the sensational trial in its own backyard, went back a few months later to revisit the verdict with a serious story."
Mencimer also interviews Jones, who says her claim fell apart because her lawyers couldn't compete with those at KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton for whom her alleged attacker(s) worked.
"It was a David-and-Goliath thing. To be honest with you, I had attorneys that were small potatoes, and they had these lawyers that were sharks. I was eaten alive in there," Jones told Mencimer. "If you go against KBR, they could make anybody look crazy.... They wanted to give that impression to people and to the jury that I'm just a liar. And that's not true."
Ready to go back into service: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train cars at a station in Oakland, Calif.
Ready to go back into service: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train cars at a station in Oakland, Calif.
Commuters in the San Francisco area should see things start returning to normal Tuesday, thanks to an overnight agreement that has ended a strike by workers at the transit system known as BART.
The walkout began Friday. Around 10:30 p.m. local time Monday (1:30 a.m. ET Tuesday), Bay Area Rapid Transit management and representatives of the workers' unions announced they had reached a deal.
Details of the agreement weren't released, but according to KQED:
"BART General Manager Grace Crunican signaled that the agency had retreated somewhat from its final offer last week, which included a demand for changes in the agency's work rules as well as a 12 percent pay increase and new pension and medical benefits payments.
" 'I will simply say that this offer is more than we wanted to pay,' Crunican said. 'But it is also a new path in terms of our partnership with workers and helps us deliver the BART service of the future. We compromised to get to this place, as did our union members.' "
Service is going to be gradually restored.
"Some trains were expected to be running on all lines at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning," says The San Francisco Chronicle, "but full service wasn't to be restored until later in the day, probably in time for the afternoon commute."
Workers will be returning to their jobs even though the deal has yet to be ratified by union members. It's expected the agreement will win their OK.
As the Chronicle adds:
"Negotiations picked up Sunday evening after the unions released a proposal that offered to end the dispute by modifying contract language that BART contends has prevented technological advances and enshrined inefficiencies. The union offer proposed to allow for work-rule changes regarding technology but to retain rules on safety.
"Disagreement over work rules, which make up much of BART's 470-page contract with its two largest unions, provoked the strike, which began Friday."
On Saturday, two workers performing a track inspection died after being hit by a BART train. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. KQED reports that union representatives said the accident underscored why they were pushing to protect work and safety rules. A trainee was at the train's controls at the time of the incident.
About 400,000 people ride BART's trains on a typical weekday.
AMC
"The Walking Dead's" Chad Coleman (Tyreese)
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead's "Infected" episode.]
The survivors of The Walking Dead faced two new threats Sunday in the second episode of its fourth season, after Patrick, who succumbed to a flu and turned overnight, terrorized the gated community of the prison.
During the hour, Zombie Patrick attacks what used to be his own community, spreading both the flu (which seemingly has also taken out the pigs) and turning more members of the group into walkers. As for the source of the virus, that continues to remain a mystery -- as does just who is baiting the undead to the weakening gates of the prison.
As if that weren't enough, the prison gang is forced to contend with a murderer among its ranks after Karen and another resident are seemingly burned alive in the final moments of "Infected."
STORY: 'Walking Dead' Cast, Creators on Season 4's Key Changes, Challenges
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with showrunner Scott M. Gimple to dissect the episode.
The flu has spread to Karen -- does that narrow down the origins of the virus to either animals or water?
One thing I really dug about this story when we were talking about it [in the writers' room] is that because of the third-world situation that they're in -- it's almost medieval -- they don't get to know; they don't have a lab to take samples and look at stuff under microscopes. They need to roll with it and figure it out in a really difficult situation to do so. And the audience has to, too.
Carol (Melissa McBride) is now charged with caring for two young girls, Lizzie and Mika. What will she do differently after losing Sophia now that she's arming everyone?
She lost her daughter in a horrible way, and she absolutely got the memo regarding everything that happened with that. Carol was already teaching the children at the prison how to protect themselves at all costs to make sure that they don't become victims [like Sophia ultimately was]. With these two girls, she's going to continue that. It hits her now in a much deeper way -- these are her daughters now for all intents and purposes, and suddenly she's a mom again. She was pretty determined even before she was in that position, so it's only going to get more intense that way.
PHOTOS: 'The Walking Dead's' Most Shocking Deaths
Mika, the younger of the sisters, reveals that Lizzie is "messed up, not weak." In the comics, Sophia grappled with sanity while she was at the prison. Is this a remix of her story with Carl?
Yes. There's a couple things going on there that's taking elements of various stories from the prison and elsewhere in the comic. In the comic, Sophia winds up essentially becoming Maggie's daughter. Kids wind up with other people in the comic. That was something that absolutely came from the comic. Yes, Sophia in the comic, after losing Carol, was not completely looking at the world the right way; she didn't even remember Carol very quickly in the comic, which happened at the farm. A lot of this stuff is subliminal. Having read the comic as much as I have, even after the fact, I realized something that Robert [Kirkman] did. One of my favorite covers of all-time of The Walking Dead was Carl and Sofia holding hands in front of the fences with the walkers. I'm sure that that influenced stuff in [episodes] 401 and 402. That contrast of innocence with threats and death -- there's a whole lot of remixing going on there.
The group is now divided between those who have been exposed to the flu, leaving Michonne (Danai Gurira), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) split from the rest of the group. How will that change the leadership within the prison?
The council is getting broken up, and all stability at the prison -- all these things that they built -- are being challenged and compromised. The momentum to this is not good for them holding on to what they have.
The group thinks someone is leaving mice near the fence -- which could be another threat from within their walls. How long can this group stay at the prison?
It looks like that might be what's going on; that's what they're speculating it is. They're going to be tested. The thing I love is that you find safety in this world. You find these walls, and then those walls start closing in on you. And what the hell do you then?
Someone is feeding rats to the walkers and drawing them to the fences of the prison. Could Bob (Larry Gilliard Jr.) be connected to this? We don't know much about him before Daryl brings him to the prison.
There's a lot of speculation online with that, and I shall not comment! But I will say that Bob does have a lot going on under the surface.
PHOTOS: Inside 'The Walking Dead's' Spooky Season 4 Premiere
Michonne starts crying while holding Rick's baby, Judith. She was a mother in the comics. Could we see more of her backstory in flashbacks this year?
Michonne's story is very much tied in to finding out more about how she became who she is. One of my goals was to explore all of these characters to the nth-degree. Michonne has a lot of mystery about her. And as a reader of the comic and that Michonne one shot -- which wasn't in the comic -- and even a viewer of the show, I want to find out more about these characters, and I want to know how Michonne wound up the Michonne we know and love.
Why does Carl tell Rick (Andrew Lincoln) that Carol is teaching the kids how to defend themselves after she asked him not to?
He's his father's son, and that shows the strength of their relationship. Even though Carl did share this information, he also shared that he thought Rick should let her continue doing what she's doing. He did it with a recommendation and to maybe surprise this sad moment that Rick knows his son is right and that Carol is right. What we were shooting for was to see these two on the same page. Carl has not been totally down with the changes that have happened to his life and has moved away from being a soldier. But he is down with being his father's son; he appreciates that. To see Rick go toward Carl's line of thinking is a strong family moment for them.
Was there any part of that that was Carl manipulating Rick in order to get his gun back?
No way.
Considering the path that Carl was on at the end of season three when it was a question of whether he was going to be more like the Governor (David Morrissey) or his father, it seemed like it could have been in line with his dark leanings.
That's the goal: to show even though he still has that desire to be the soldier, he still wants to be his father's son and he wants to follow his dad's lead. There has been a change in Carl that Rick fostered that he enacted.
PHOTOS: The 'Dead' and the Red: 'The Walking Dead Cast in Character and on the Red Carpet
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) realizes he can't continue to take a back seat anymore and resumes carrying his holster and gun. How will he change going forward?
We started him off in a very peaceful place -- as peaceful as you can get on this show. He's achieved something for his family and for himself and the people around him. Clara said to him, "It's almost like a curse -- you don't get to come back from the things you've done." From the time he got back from there, that pig -- one of the symbols of what he achieved with his farm life -- had died. Things are getting taken away from him: There goes the farm, there's a gun in his son's hand, and he'd taken that gun out of his hand, and things are slowly being taken away from him. All the things he's achieved, he's going to be challenged whether he can hold on to them. Whether it's his identity, his family, his relationship to the people in the prison, it's all coming to a head very quickly.
The prison is very susceptible now to the walkers. How much longer can they stay there?
We've shown from the beginning that they have to do this regular maintenance on those fences -- meaning taking out walkers at fences. They're a little busy right now, and they're not at full strength but they need to be. They have a big problem coming up. We've talked about different locations this season, so who knows what can happen. Who knows, maybe they'll pull it off and maybe that requires another location. Maybe other locations come from them not pulling it off. It comes to a head sooner than later.
Tyreese finds Karen (Melissa Ponzio) has been killed and dragged outside, where her body -- and David, who was also sick -- were burned. Were these preventative slayings, or is someone targeting people who are sick with the flu?
Those were the two sickest people who were put away from everybody else. We also know some weird and scary things have been going on at the prison. So was it because they were sick? Was it because they were easy targets set away from everyone? I can only speculate along with you even though I totally know the answer (laughs).
It seems like there's a murder within the walls of the prison. Could whoever burned Karen's and David's bodies be the same person who is trying to force the group out of the prison from within? There's the origin of the flu, the rat bait at the fences …
Totally possible. Maybe, maybe not! It's a totally lame answer. But I will tell you this: It will be answered sooner rather than later.
Tyreese (Chad Coleman) had this peaceful approach to living in this world -- with Karen. How will her death change him?
That is a terrific question. We don't know Tyreese's full story, but the way he carries himself, he hasn't lost much the same way that some other people have since the turn. He hasn't lost his wife -- I'm not saying he had one -- but compared to Rick, he hasn't had these crushing losses. This is a very defining moment for him; it's his first big loss. Everybody has lost something, and everybody has lost this world, but for Tyreese, this is the first big loss he's had. It will change him, and it's going to deeply affect him. We're going to see those effects right at the start of the next episode.
Who do you think is behind the two slayings? Do you think the flu, fence bait and killings is the work of the same person? Hit the comments below with your thoughts. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
AT&T's live U-Verse TV streaming has at last reached Android. Subscribers can now watch over 100 live channels from their Google-powered hardware, including more than 20 channels that are available away from home. The U-Verse app also supports Android tablets for the first time, the carrier says. ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-VqYsUVyYMU/
