9 Things to Know Before Buying Another Supplement - Health.com

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9 Things to Know Before Buying Another Supplement - Health.com

November 10, 2014 at 12:38pm

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http://time.com/3554782/dietary-supplement-safety/

• Health.com / Catherine DiBenedetto @goodhealth
 

Nov. 8, 2014

    

 A guide to avoiding sketchy ingredients and choosing the most trusted brands

The supplement aisle at the drugstore is lined with products that promise to prevent illness, improve energy, boost metabolism, even brighten your skin. You probably already know these capsules aren’t necessarily silver bullets to perfect health. (Whatever benefits your multivitamin or omega-3 supplements offer, you still have to exercise and eat right, for example.) But you do expect them to be safe to swallow, at the very least.

Sadly, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests otherwise. After analyzing supplements that had been recalled by the FDA for containing banned substances—such as steroids or powerful prescription medications like Viagra and Prozac—researchers found that roughly two-thirds of the tainted products were back on store shelves with the same illicit ingredients at least six months later.

HEALTH.COM: 6 Myths (and Facts) About Weight Loss Supplements

Because supplement makers are subject to little regulatory oversight from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, they aren’t required to prove a product’s safety (or efficacy) before it goes to market. And as this study shows, some fail at accurately providing the most basic safety information.

That said, the supplement industry is vast; Americans are expected to spend $32.4 billion on vitamins and dietary supplements in 2014, according to a Euromonitor International report. And there arereputable, safe supplement-makers out there.

Our buyer’s guide can help you avoid sketchy ingredients and choose the most established, trusted brands.

Be wary of certain types of pills

Namely exercise, weight-loss, and sexual-enhancement supplements. The products analyzed in the JAMA study fell into these three categories. Several of the weight-loss supplements actually contained an amphetamine-like drug called sibutramine, which is banned in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.

HEALTH.COM: Warning: Do Not Mix These Supplements

Shop selectively

Big-chain drugstores, pharmacies, and supplement stores like GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe may act faster to pull recalled items.

Don’t bargain-hunt

A University of Minnesota analysis found that for six types of herbal products, the more expensive the supplement was, the more likely it was that the recommended dosage would be consistent with established standards.

Steer clear of supplements made in China

Lack of regulation and poor manufacturing practices in China mean their goods may be more likely to be contaminated with substances like lead.

HEALTH.COM: Probiotic Foods and Supplements That Really Work

Check for a USP Verified Mark

It means that the nonprofit US Pharmacopeia has verified that a product contains the ingredients on the label in the amounts specified and doesn’t contain unacceptable levels of contaminants.

Do research at reputable sites

You can read supplement fact sheets from National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements to get all the info you need on everything from the recommended daily amount (RDA) to the latest on the health benefits of a certain supplement. It’s also a good idea to stay on top of warnings or recall alerts from the FDA. When you’re ready to buy, the USP website has a store directory and list of all the participating supplement companies if you want to check before you head to the store.

HEALTH.COM: Vitamins: What to Take, What to Skip

Consult the experts

Namely, the store pharmacist and your doctor. The former can alert you to any potential adverse events or drug interactions, and your doc can advise you on which supplements are safe and effective.

Skip dubious ingredients

These four have been linked to serious side effects, and aren’t worth the risk.

1. Kava. It has been reported to cause liver damage.
   2. Bitter orange. It contains the chemical syndephrine, which has been linked to heart attacks and strokes in healthy people when taken alone or combined with caffeine.
   3. Contaminated L-tryptophan. It’s associated with neurotoxic reactions.
   4. Chromium. When overused, it’s been linked to anemia—even kidney failure.

HEALTH.COM: Best Foods For Every Vitamin and Mineral

With additional reporting by Hallie Levine

Man Accused of Running the First Ever Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme - Reuters

http://time.com/3571415/bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-trendon-shavers-bitcoin-savings-and-trust/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Rishi Iyengar
 

Nov. 6, 2014

    

He allegedly raised the digital equivalent of $4.5 million by offering insanely high interest rates

A Texas man was charged with fraud in New York on Thursday, in what federal authorities claim is the first-ever Ponzi scheme involving the unregulated digital currency Bitcoin.

Trendon Shavers, 32, who runs a company called Bitcoin Savings and Trust, allegedly raised the equivalent of $4.5 million by offering investors weekly interest rates of 7%, Reuters reports. That translates to a 3,641% annual rate of return.

Shavers is suspected of embezzling about 146,000 of the 764,000 bitcoins he raised between Sept. 2011 and Sept. 2012 and allegedly using the proceeds to buy a BMW sedan, spa treatments and a $1,000 steak dinner, among other things.

If convicted, Shavers could serve up to 20 year.

5 Holiday Spending Mistakes That Can Kill Your Credit - TIME

http://time.com/3559640/5-holiday-spending-mistakes-that-can-kill-your-credit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Martha C. White
 

Nov. 6, 2014

    

This time of year can be brutal on your credit score

Now that the holiday shopping season is here (what, you didn’t know Halloween is thenew Black Friday?), companies are pulling out all the stops to get us to spend. But watch out: There are some fairly common holiday spending behaviors that can do a number on your credit score. Here’s what the experts say you need to avoid.

Maxing out your cards. In truth, getting anywhere near your credit limit is a bad idea. “Your credit card utilization rate accounts for nearly a third of your credit score,” says Charles Tran, founder of CreditDonkey.com. This percentage of the credit you’ve used compared to how much you have available should be at 30% or less, and if you’re actively trying to raise your score, you should aim for as little as 10%.

This holds true even if you don’t revolve a balance, Tran says. “Even if you religiously pay off your credit card balance in full, the snapshot that the credit report captures might show a high balance, which has a negative impact,” he says.

Loading up a low-limit card. This is a corollary to not maxing out your cards because your credit is scored based on both your per-card as well as aggregate limits, explains John Ulzheimer, credit expert atCreditSesame.com. “The closer your balance is to your credit limit, the lower your credit scores,” he says. If you put $1,000 on a card with a $1,500 limit, that looks much worse than putting the same amount on a card with a $15,000 limit, he says, even though the amount you’re spending and the total amount of credit you have available hasn’t changed.

Ulzheimer notes this is even more important if you plan to pay off your holiday purchases over a number of months, because this maximizes the amount of time you’ll have a harmfully high ratio on the card.

Opening a slew of store cards. Yes, we know — you’ll get 10% or 15% off, or maybe you’ll even be able to jump that insane line on Black Friday. Opening a bunch of store credit cards is still a bad idea. Every time you apply for credit, your score takes a (small) ding, so making your way through the mall filling out applications can cumulatively have a noticeable effect on your credit score.

Closing a bunch of cards. “It can… be damaging to panic and close credit cards because you’re afraid of overspending for the holidays,” warns Bankrate.com analyst Jeanine Skowronski. If you know you can’t handle the temptation, then go ahead and close cards, but this should be a last resort because it can hurt your score because closing a card takes that credit away from your utilization calculation, she says.

Similarly, a lot of people think they’ll sign up for a store card just to get the one-time discount, pay it off and then cancel it. This is really a double-whammy for your score because you ding your credit profile twice, once when you open the card and again when you close it.

Taking the deferred-interest bait. “One marketing strategy that can get folks in trouble is the delayed interest offer,” says Beverly Harzog, consumer credit expert and author of “Confessions of a Credit Junkie.” Not paying by the end of the grace period or even missing a payment could trigger retroactive interest on your purchase, often at sky-high retail card rates. “You’ll owe the interest that would have been charged during that time period,” Harzog says. Not only does this make that purchase ultimately more expensive, it also increases the likelihood you’ll need to revolve that debt, which hurts your utilization.

Here’s What Basically Everybody Gets Wrong at Work - TIME

http://time.com/3557040/work-mistake/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Justin Bariso / Inc.
 

8:22 AM ET

    

The one quality you need to make your mark

Ever wonder why some managers just can’t get along with their teams? Or have you seen a boss who’s lost touch with reality?

Maybe you’re the leader, and you’ve noticed a slow-but-sure disconnect from your team. What can you do about it?

You’ve heard the advice time and again: Learn to show moreempathy.

Empathy is considered by many to be a basic human quality. So why is it often still missing in our day-to-day work?

Many persons confuse empathy with its closely related cousinsympathy. The two qualities are definitely related, but the key to demonstrating empathy is knowing the difference.

According to Merriam-Webster, empathy is “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s feelings and emotions.”

Whereas sympathy involves feeling sorry for someone, empathy requires us to go a step further, and it lasts longer. Here’s an example:

Imagine a colleague goes through a difficult situation; let’s say he loses a close family member in an accident. We naturally feelsympathy for him. We may even write a card or express those feelings somehow. For the most part, though, we move on with our lives.

But when we show empathy, we take more time–time to remember how we felt when we lost someone close to us (or how we would feel, if we haven’t had this experience). We think about how this affected our work, our relationships with others.

Even further, we try to imagine specifically how our colleague feels in this situation. We recognize that he (like every individual) will deal with the trauma in his own unique way.

Empathy has been described as “your pain in my heart.”

The problem is, despite the fact that we crave for others to try fitting into our shoes, we’re often not ready to do the same for them. We see this every day: broken marriages, strained parent-child relationships, deteriorating communication in the workplace. (Author Mike Robbins illustrates this perfectly here.)

If a leader can demonstrate true empathy to individual team members, it will go a long way toward encouraging them to perform at their best.

It may even inspire the team to show empathy for the leader.

That’s right—empathy begets empathy.

So how do you get your company leaders—and employees—to be more empathetic?

• If you’re a manager, the next time an employee comes to you with a problem or complaint, resist the ‘Not again. What now?’ attitude. Try to remember: You once had a similar problem. If not, someone you respect did. Ask yourself: Why does this person feel this way? What can I do to make the situation better?

• If a specific task or process is causing problems, try to work alongside a disgruntled team member, to better understand the person’s point of view. Showing empathy in this way takes time, but you will often motivate the one(s) you are trying to help. Not to mention the benefits this will bring to your working relationship.

• If you are an employee who feels your manager is being especially unreasonable, try to understand why. Maybe the manager is dealing with extreme pressure of his or her own, or maybe there’s a problem at home, or maybe … you get the drift.

Simply put, empathy starts with giving others the benefit of the doubt.

Once, I learned the value of showing empathy firsthand. I had been working a number of years for the same organization, and was now engaged to my fiancée from Germany. As we were trying to determine where to start our new life together, my office made it clear that it was reducing personnel, and my department was being reorganized. I was being considered for a new position, and my fiancée and I decided that if I got it, I would remain in New York City and she would join me. If not, we would move.

I was told I would be informed of the decision within four to six weeks. Six weeks came and went. Then seven. Eight. Nine. The wedding date was getting closer, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take the suspense—I didn’t care anymore what happened; I just needed to know something.

After going through the normal HR channels, I decided to try something different. I wrote an email directly to Mr. Pierce—a member of the executive board who was the head of personnel (whom I had never met). Since our organization had about 6,000 staff members at the time, I wasn’t sure how he would take this: I was traveling to Germany to see my fiancée in a few days, and I thought it would be great to have some news to share with her personally. (Call me a romantic. Or call me stupid–I’ve heard both.)

After two months of anticipation, it took exactly two days after my email to get a decision. I then boarded a plane to Germany, and less than 12 hours later, my fiancée and I were planning our new life together—in New York City. We couldn’t have been happier.

Sadly, Mr. Pierce passed away some months ago. I’ve often wondered how many similar emails, letters, and requests he read throughout the years. A press release issued by my former agency made the following statement:

Mr. Pierce served on various committees … [and] his organizational responsibilities required that he travel extensively … Despite his workload, he was well known for never being too busy to listen to those needing assistance or advice, and he put others at ease with his warm smile and good sense of humor. His closest associates noted that people from different backgrounds or cultures were naturally drawn to him.

When Mr. Pierce read my email all those years ago, he wasn’t just reading the random request of a junior manager. He was reading mydeep concerns and feelings. The problem was important to me, so it was important to him.

Mr. Pierce knew empathy. My pain in his heart.

Employer or employee, empathy makes us more flexible and compassionate. It makes us easier to work with, and in the eyes of others, it makes us more human.

So the next time you realize that the relationship you have with a colleague is not what you want, take the time to show some empathy.

It might be just what the person needs.

One day, it’ll be what you need, too.

Warren Buffett's 6 best investments of all time - Fortune Magazine

http://for.tn/1s9IVz5

• by 
 
• Stephen Gandel

 

• @stephengandel

 OCTOBER 31, 2014, 4:54 PM EST

• 
  

Some of the Oracle of Omaha’s best investments of his entire career have been ones he has made in the past few years.

These days, the thing to say if you want to sound smart about Warren Buffett is that the Oracle of Omaha’s crystal ball has cracked. In mid-October, headlines blared that Buffett had lost $2 billion in just two days on Coke and IBM  IBM -0.02% . Nevermind that Buffett has said those investements are long-term holdings, that he hasn’t sold a share of either company’s stock, and that he would prefer it if IBM’s shares stayed cheap, for now. It seemed to reinforce the notion that the world’s great stock picker had lost it.

Last year, the book value of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway badly trailed the S&P 500, increasing less than the broad market index over the past five years for the first time in history. Buffett has acknowledged that his hand picked successors Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, have done better in recent years than he has. (Combs’ and Weschler’s market beating performance was the subject of a recent Fortune story.) Earlier this year, The New York Times highlighted a recent study that found Buffett’s ability to do better than the market has mostly disappeared.

And yet, some of Buffett’s best investments of his entire career have been ones he has made in the past few years. What’s more, if Buffett has lost it, someone forgot to tell the market. Share of Berkshire  BRK.A 0.52%  are way up, have more than doubled in the past five years. That’s generally a reflection of how well investors think Berkshire’s stock market portfolio, still over 85% managed by Buffett and his long-time partner Charlie Munger, as well as the businesses they have bought over the years—including railroad company Burlington Northern, See’s Candies, and dozens of others—are doing. If Buffett has hit a lull, that’s only because the comparison he has built up for himself over the years is tough to top.

Here are Buffett’s greatest investments of all time, ranked by annual average rate of return. It’s a testament to how successful Buffett has been. Even some of Buffett’s best-known investment successes, like Coke  KO -0.17% , Capital Cities/ABC, Gillette, and auto insurance company Geico, were not good enough to make the list. Here are the ones that did:

1. PetroChina

• 
  

Annual average compounded return: 52%

Total return: 720%
Years held: 5

Buffett is known for his "buy what you know" investment mantra, and his consistent praise for America. In last year's annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett wrote, "America's best days lie ahead." Nonetheless, some of his greatest investments, particularly his recent ones, have been in China. In 2002 and 2003, Berkshire bought 1.3% of China's dominant oil company PetroChina  PTR -3.43%  for $488 million. Some questioned the investment. PetroChina's oil fields looked tapped out, and the company, with 400,000 employees, was loaded down with costs. At the time, PetroChina had a market cap of $37 billion. Buffett suspected it was worth $100 billion. Buffett was low. Rising oil prices and new discoveries caused PetroChina's shares to soar. By the time Berkshire sold in 2007, PetroChina's market cap had reached $275 billion, and Berkshire reaped a $3.6 billion gain.

2. BYD

• 
  

China Stringer Network—REUTERS

Annual average compounded return: 41%
Total Return: 671%
Years held: 6

One of Buffett's best recent investments came as a suggestion from his long-time lieutenant Charlie Munger. In 2008, Munger sold Buffett on Chinese car battery company BYD by saying that its CEO, Wang Chuan-Fu, was quite obviously a descendant of both Thomas Edison and Jack Welch. He solves problems like Edison and gets things done like Welch, Munger said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life."

In late 2008, Berkshire bought 10% of BYD for $230 million. Munger has since said that he thinks the adoption of electric cars will take longer than many think, but he said he has plenty of faith in Chuan-Fu, and he and Buffett have been rewarded for that. Six years later, that 10% stake in BYD, which Berkshire still holds, is now worth nearly $1.8 billion.

3. Freddie Mac

• Annual average compounded return: 24%
  

Total return: 1,525%
Years held: 13

Buffett had plenty of conviction when, in 1988, he invested $108 million in Freddie Mac, the giant government-backed mortgage insurance firm, at a split-adjusted $4 a share. Shortly after making the investment, he talked it up in the pages of Fortunemagazine. Ten years later, Freddie Mac's shares traded at $70. But perhaps the most notable thing about Buffett's investment in Freddie is not how well it did, but when he sold. In 2000, Buffett testified that he had a series of meetings with Freddie Mac's CEO at the time, Leland Brendsel, in which it was clear to Buffett that Brendsel was unwisely striving for double-digit returns.

That spelled trouble to Buffett and, within a year, Berkshire had dumped its entire stake in the company. In 2003, news came out that Freddie Mac had regularly misreported its earnings. Brendsel was forced out. In 2008, at the start of the financial crisis, Freddie Mac, along with its sister company Fannie Mae, was on the hook for piles and piles of unwise mortgage loans, and had to be bailed out by the government. Shares of Freddie Mac  FMCC 2.91%  now trade at just over $2.

4. Berkshire Hathaway

• Annual average compounded return: 22%
  

Total return: 1,745,300%
Years held: 49

When Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway  BRK.A 0.52%  in 1965 for for about $12 a share, it was a textile company and one of the largest employers in New Bedford, Mass. It quickly became Buffett's acquisition vehicle.

He first bought up insurance companies and then a whole host of other kinds of companies, including retailer Nebraska Furniture Mart, See's Candies, catalog company Oriental Trading, ice cream scooper Dairy Queen, underwear maker Fruit of the Loom, railroad firm Burlington Northern, and, most recently in partnership with Brazilian investment firm 3G, ketchup maker Heinz.

Buffett shuttered the textile business in 1985, and he moved the company's headquarters to his hometown, Omaha, long before then. The true success of Berkshire is the combination of the cash generated by its insurance business and Buffett's ability to invest that cash far better than anyone else on the planet. But Buffett has also proven good at picking managers and having a light touch. Only when companies prove to be a problem, like paint company Benjamin Moore, has Buffett swooped in. Buffett's conglomerate now ranks fourth on the Fortune 500 and now has a stock price of $210,000.

5. Wells Fargo

• Annual average compounded return: 21%
  

Total return: 9,417%
Years held: 24

Buffett first announced his $290 million investment in Wells Fargo  WFC 0.53%  in his 1990 annual letter to shareholders. Bank stocks were being battered by the savings and loan crisis, and Buffett characteristically took advantage of the market turmoil to buy into one of the highest quality banks he could find.

Buffett said that, as a rule, he generally doesn't like to invest in banks (a rule that he has broken again and again, first with Wells but more recently with Bank of America  BAC 0.64%  and US Bancorp  USB 0.75% ) but Wells was too much of a bargain to pass up.

That was a good call. Back in 1990, Wells Fargo had a market capitalization of $2.9 billion. It is now worth $275 billion. Last year, it earned more money than any other bank in the country. Berkshire is still Wells Fargo's largest outside shareholder, and Wells would like Buffett and Berkshire to stick around. Recently, Wells Fargo's CEO John Stumpf told an audience at the National Press Club that he advised the 84-year-old Buffett, who classically subsists on a diet of Cherry Cokes and steak, to cut back on his sodium intake. “When the food comes, Warren grabs a salt shaker in his left hand and one in his right, and it’s a snowstorm," Stumpf told the crowd. "And I know a snowstorm when I see one because I’m from Minnesota.”

6. The Intelligent Investor

• Harper Collins
  

Annual average compounded return: A lot
Total return: $45 billion
Years since read: 65 (published in 1949)

Buffett has said the best investment he ever made was not a stock or a bond or even in real estate, but buying a copy of The Intelligent Investor, a book written by Benjamin Graham. Buffett read the book when it came out in 1949 and later enrolled at Columbia Business School in order to take classes with Graham. Buffett says the book still guides his investment decisions today, and he has recommended it to Bill Gates, among others. Here's what Buffett had to say about the book in his most recent letter to Berkshire shareholders:

I can’t remember what I paid for that first copy of The Intelligent Investor. Whatever the cost, it would underscore the truth of Ben’s adage: Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Of all the investments I ever made, buying Ben’s book was the best (except for my purchase of two marriage licenses).

Japan's quantitative easing A bigger bazooka - Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/10/japans-quantitative-easing?fsrc=nlw%7Cnewe%7C3-11-2014%7C

A bigger bazooka

Oct 31st 2014, 17:11 BY T.B. | TOKYO

• 
  

THE riposte to doubts about Abenomics, the three-part plan of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, to shake the country from its economic torpor, is more of the same, and a lot more. On October 31st the Bank of Japan (BoJ) stunned the financial markets by unexpectedly expanding its programme of quantitative easing. The bank’s existing measures, a “different dimension” of easing from past efforts, were already daringly bold. Now it will swell Japan’s monetary base at an even faster pace, by around ¥80 trillion ($712 billion) each year, up from ¥60 trillion-70 trillion currently. To do so, it will hoover up still larger quantities of Japanese government bonds (JGBs). This additional step, said Haruhiko Kuroda, the governor of the BoJ, “shows our unwavering determination to end deflation”.

The bank’s action is also an admission of partial failure thus far. Its bond-buying has succeeded in sparking some inflation, yet its goal of achieving price rises of 2% a year by around April 2015 remains a distant possibility. Along with the government, it badly underestimated the dampening effect of a hike in the consumption tax in April this year, which caused the economy to shrink by 1.7% in the second quarter. Because of faltering consumer and corporate demand, and falling oil prices, inflation is now heading in the wrong direction, and may dip beneath 1%.

 

In recent weeks, economists had started to question Mr Kuroda’s oft-stated commitment to banishing Japan’s entrenched deflationary psychology. They suggested that the bank’s formerly conservative mindset might even be returning. Mr Kuroda’s predecessor, Masaaki Shirakawa, pursued monetary easing only half-heartedly, and achieved little. Meanwhile, Mr Kuroda had sought to stealthily extend the deadline for exiting deflation. That did little to reassure that Abenomics was on track in spite of stalled growth and sluggish inflation. Upon announcing the additional easing, Mr Kuroda admitted that matters had reached a “critical point”, as the bank’s efforts were losing momentum.

Now a fresh round of no-holds-barred QE will immediately boost Mr Abe’s economic plan. The Nikkei stock index—a vital gauge of success for the government—rose to its highest level in seven years on the news. The yen lurched further downwards, which will help import inflation. In addition to the tidings from the central bank, there was still more sugar on offer for equity markets. The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world's largest, said it would slash its holdings of government bonds from 60% to 35% in order to buy more shares. The strength of the co-ordination between the government, the BoJ and the ministry of labour, health and welfare, which oversees the GPIF, surprised observers. After the GPIF’s changes, most economists had not expected further monetary easing until 2015.

The BoJ’s action this week also took markets aback because in recent public appearances Mr Kuroda had stuck to a bullish economic outlook. Yet on October 31st the BoJ halved its forecast for economic growth for the 2014 fiscal year to 0.5%. The bank also made its timeframe for achieving 2% inflation open-ended, removing its two-year deadline. Nonetheless, following the additional easing, the central bank still expects to meet its inflation target in 2015. As well as buying an additional ¥30 trillion of JGBs a year, the BoJ will also purchase more risky assets in the form of exchange-traded funds and investment trusts in Japanese property.

A motivation for Mr Kuroda—in addition to visibly slowing inflation and weak growth—may have been an intensifying political debate over whether or not Mr Abe should again raise the unpopular consumption tax from 8% to 10% in 2015. The BoJ is strongly in favour of a second hike in order to repair Japan’s stretched public finances. More monetary easing should encourage Mr Abe to press ahead.

But this latest round of QE is not without its detractors. In April 2013 the BoJ’s nine-strong policy board voted unanimously in favour of its radical new monetary drive, this time it revealed a rare split. Four members voted against the expansion of monetary easing, which came just two days after America’s Federal Reserve ended its third round of QE. It is unclear whether or not the dissenters disagreed with the extra stimulus itself, or merely with its timing. This week’s further easing will intensify the worries around the policy announced last spring. Chief among these is that QE will be hard to exit without alarming the bond market. Yet for the time being, Mr Kuroda is waging a more dogged fight against deflation. The prospect of Japanese “tapering” is ever more distant.

Facebook sets up 'dark web' link to access network via Tor - BBC NEWS

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29879851

3 November 2014 Last updated at 13:58

Facebook sets up 'dark web' link to access network via Tor

By Dave LeeTechnology reporter, BBC News

Facebook's Tor support means users' traffic remains in the anonymising network

Facebook has created the ability for users to connect directly to the social network via anonymising "dark web" service Tor.

While it was already possible to access Facebook via Tor, the new set-up means all data is encrypted and Tor users are not mistaken for hacked accounts.

Users could access the site "without losing the cryptographic protections" of Tor, Facebook said.

It may appeal to people in places where the network is blocked.

China, Iran, North Korea and Cuba are among countries that have attempted to prevent access to the site.

Facebook is the first Silicon Valley giant to provide official support for Tor, a network built to allow people to visit web pages without being tracked and to publish sites whose contents would not show up in search engines.

Facebook's move would prove popular among those who wanted to stop their location and browsing habits from being tracked, said Dr Steven Murdoch, from University College London, who was consulted by Facebook for the project.

He explained users would still need to log-in, using real-name credentials, to access the site.

He told the BBC: "It's quite hard to use a social network completely anonymously, it somewhat defeats the point, unless you're just reading information.

"But just because you want to tell Facebook your name, doesn't mean they should be able to find out your location and your browsing habits."

Users will still need to log-in to use the site

The crucial change is the new Tor service - accessed through a Tor browser at https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/ - means all communication remains in the anonymous Tor network. Previously, some traffic would leave the closed network and access the open internet, potentially exposing a user's location and other information.

Dr Murdoch dismissed suggestions the move could anger governments who regularly approached Facebook with requests to hand over user information.

"It's not so much protecting people from governments," said Dr Murdoch, "but protecting from people who are spying on communications - that could be anyone from criminals to marketers."

Facebook, along with other major web companies, is currently pushing for permission to be more transparent over government requests it receives.

Security blockage

It has been possible to access Facebook through Tor for some time, albeit with some frustrations.

Tor is a network that anonymises users. One of the key ways it does this is by routing internet traffic through several locations - making it hard to track down where the user is browsing from.

But when accessing Facebook, this causes problems. One of the site's security measures is that if a user tries to log-in from an unexpected location, it will flag this as evidence the account has possibly been compromised.

Tor can be used to access Facebook in countries such as China, where the network is blocked

Of course, it could just mean that a user has changed location - holidaymakers often find they must go through additional security steps, such as naming people in pictures, before being able to log-in while abroad.

"[Tor's] design means that from the perspective of our systems a person who appears to be connecting from Australia at one moment may the next appear to be in Sweden or Canada," explained Facebook engineer Alec Muffett, who has led the site's Tor efforts, in a blog post.

"In other contexts such behaviour might suggest that a hacked account is being accessed through a 'botnet', but for Tor this is normal."

It meant accounts were being wrongly locked out. Other problems, such as fonts not displaying correctly, marred Facebook use on Tor.

What is Tor?

Tor is a special part of the internet that requires software, known as the Tor Browser bundle, to access it.

The name is an acronym for The Onion Router - just as there are many layers to the vegetable, there are many layers of encryption on the network.

It was originally designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and continues to receive funding from the US State Department.

It attempts to hide a person's location and identity by sending data across the internet via a very circuitous route involving several "nodes" - which, in this context, means using volunteers' PCs and computer servers as connection points.

Encryption applied at each hop along this route makes it very hard to connect a person to any particular activity.

To the website that ultimately receives the request, it appears as if the data traffic comes from the last computer in the chain - known as an "exit relay" - rather than the person responsible.

Tor hides a user's identity by routing their traffic through a series of other computers

As well as allowing users to visit normal website anonymously, it can also be used to host hidden sites, which use the .onion suffix.

Tor's users include the military, law enforcement officers and journalists - who use it as a way of communicating with whistle-blowers - as well as members of the public who wish to keep their browser activity secret.

But it has also been associated with illegal activity, allowing people to visit sites offering illegal drugs for sale and access to child abuse images, which do not show up in normal search engine results and would not be available to those who did not know where to look.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

Private Space Industry Faces Questions After 2 Crashes - Fortune Magazine

http://time.com/3552499/virgin-galactic-crash-orbital-sciences-antares/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Fortune / Benjamin Snyder and John Kell
 

Nov. 1, 2014

    

“Space is hard. And today was a tough day"

What The Virgin Galactic Crash Means For Space Tourism

It’s been a rough week for the private space industry. On Friday, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two crashed during a flight test in the Mojave Desert, killing one and seriously injuring another. On Tuesday, an unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded six seconds after lift-off in Virginia.

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The back-to-back accidents raise inevitable questions about the safety and reliability of the emerging private space industry. Will space tourists and companies that want to put cargo into orbit take the risk?

“Gut reaction, this is a major setback,” said James Pura, president of Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit that advocates more space exploration. “A lot of our hopes and dreams in the private commercial space industry lie in the success of the leading companies, and Virgin Galactic is one of those.”

The private space industry is receiving a huge influx of investment and attention. Elon Musk’s Space X, for example, has a number of contracts to deliver satellites and cargo into space. Another company, Planetary Sciences, backed by billionaires like Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, plans to mine asteroids. Meanwhile, Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, got started in 2010 as a space tourism business, but has since detoured into making rocket engines.

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism start-up founded by Virgin mogul Richard Branson, had plans to take its first commercial trip 62 miles into the stratosphere by the end of the year. Over 700 customers have paid $250,000 to take a trip.

But it may be difficult to meet that goal after today’s accident, in which a test flight experienced what the company described as an “in-flight anomaly” that sent the craft hurtling to the ground. At least one of the test pilots escaped by parachute.

“Space is hard. And today was a tough day,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said.

Earlier in the week, Orbital Sciences, a company that carries customer payloads into space, suffered a huge setback when its launch went haywire. A rocket it launched in Virginia had to be destroyed just seconds after taking off.

Shares in Orbital Sciences  ORB  plummeted over 16% after the failure.

“It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s executive vice president and general manager of its advanced programs group, said in a statement. “As we begin to gather information, our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations.

“From a financial standpoint it will take some time to assess the precise impacts; however, I can tell you that Orbital’s view for 2014 remains unchanged,” Garrett Pierce, Orbital Sciences’ vice chairman and CFO, said on a conference call with analysts and investors.

Of course, private space companies aren’t the only to suffer setbacks. NASA has had its own high-profile mishaps over the years, including two Space Shuttle accidents. Whether governmental efforts are any more risky than private launches is unclear. But one thing is certain.

“Space flight is inherently risky and we as humans are curious about space and always will be,” Pura, the foundation president, said. “Those brave pioneers are turning science fiction into reality. Our heart goes out to those brave pioneers at this time.”

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com

9 Things the Smartest Leaders Do - TIME

http://time.com/3507117/9-things-smart-leaders-do/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Inc.
 

Oct. 21, 2014

    

These simple strategies create organizations that are flexible, resilient, and attractive to top talent

In previous posts, I’ve described what smart bosses believe, what smart bosses know about people, and the words that smart bosses never say. This piece describes the specific strategies I’ve observed CEOs apply inside the most consistently successful companies:

1. They encourage diversity of thought.

Smart CEOs build organizations in which a diversity of opinion and background produce alternative approaches to solving problems and building opportunity.

Average CEOs build organizations in which everyone looks and thinks the same way. This reduces conflict but results in a brittle organization that can’t adapt.

2. They sacrifice their cash cows.

Smart CEOs realize that a successful product becomes obsolete even while it’s still selling well. As a result, they kill off and replace their most profitable products.

Average CEOs keep their cash cows alive even if it means that competitors will capture the next product generation.

3. They build symbiotic relationships.

Smart CEOs seek out situations in which customers and partners mutually benefit because everyone’s growth depends upon how well that she or he can cooperate.

Average CEOs think of business as a zero-sum game, where being a winner means that somebody else must be a loser, even if it’s a customer or partner.

4. They physically connect with employees.

Smart CEOs walk the halls, shake hands, and speak one-on-one with line employees, sincerely thanking them for their contributions.

Average CEOs send out pep-talk emails filled with biz-blab like “employees are our greatest resource.”

5. They encourage social interaction.

Smart CEOs encourage social activities with intergroup mingling. They want employees from sales, engineering, and finance (for instance) to know and like one another.

Average CEOs have management retreats in fancy resort hotels and give regular employees free passes to the local Six Flags park.

6. They foster hands-on community involvement.

Smart CEOs want employees to become involved in personally helping the local community deal with whatever problems exist.

Average CEOs run contests to see which manager can arm-twist the most employees into donating money to United Way.

7. They increase flexibility by dispersing power.

Smart CEOs push authority as far down the organizational chain as possible, so that those closest to a situation have the power to make the best decisions.

Average CEOs obsess about checks and balances so that nobody takes a risk without first getting approval from higher-ups.

8. They encourage informality.

Smart CEOs create collegelike work environments in which employees feel relaxed, as if they’re among friends and mentors.

Average CEOs create factorylike environments in which everyone feels like a cog in the corporate machine.

9. They keep job descriptions fluid.

Smart CEOs let individuals, teams, and organizations define their roles as necessary to accomplish the job at hand.

Average CEOs expend vast effort writing detailed job descriptions and defining how the “system” is supposed to work.