Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Microsoft Is Right About Touchscreen Computers

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-touchscreen-computers-190333298.html

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Washington D.C. escapes worst of storm Sandy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nation's capital appeared to have escaped the worst of the mammoth storm Sandy on Tuesday, although concerns remained about the potential for severe flooding along the Potomac River.

Washington, D.C., suffered high winds and rains that brought down trees on some homes and flooded a few roads. But the area got off lightly compared to New York City and New Jersey, where Sandy came ashore on Monday night.

More than 4 inches of rain fell over the course of the storm in Washington, the National Weather Service said Tuesday. Although Sandy has moved on, weather officials said flooding was still a concern.

"Flood and flash flood watches and warnings are in effect over portions of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states," the weather service said.

On Monday, the weather service warned that the storm was expected to cause the worst floods in 16 years along the Potomac River, starting on Tuesday night. This could affect the historic Georgetown neighborhood along the river and parts of the National Mall.

So far, the river's waters have swelled, reaching docks and some parkland, but have not yet caused more extensive problems. Washington Mayor Vincent Gray said the main flooding threat was over the next day or two.

"We need to be mindful of what could happen over the next 48 hours," he told a news conference.

As for Sandy, it "turned out a whole lot better than expected in the District of Columbia," Gray said. "We are prepared to be helpful if we can" to New York and New Jersey, he added.

Washington's Canal Road near the river was closed on Tuesday because of flooding, radio station WTOP said.

Power outages in the region appeared to be limited. Just over 139,000 people were without power Tuesday afternoon because of the severe weather, according to a Washington Post website tracking blackouts. The vast majority of these outages were in the suburbs of northern Virginia.

In Washington, 10,000 people lost power at the height of the storm, but the number had fallen to 2,000 by Tuesday afternoon, according to PEPCO, the local power company.

Federal agencies were scheduled to reopen on Wednesday after being closed for two days because of the storm. Federal workers will be allowed to take unscheduled leave on Wednesday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said.

Washington city government and schools were closed Tuesday, but Gray announced both would be open on Wednesday.

Gray said there had been 236 calls to the city government about downed trees -- but only 187 were actually trees down, "the rest were limbs and debris."

The Washington transit authority announced it was resuming limited rail service on the Metro on Tuesday afternoon. Normal service will resume on Wednesday.

Another sign that life was returning to normal: the DC Taxicab Commission said the surcharge it had authorized drivers to levy during the storm - $15 - expired at noon.

There were some reports of storm damage around town. In Washington's small Chinatown, a small metal piece of an ornate arch over the main street came loose and dangled precariously, causing police to block one lane of traffic below.

The White House announced President Barack Obama would eschew campaigning for re-election and stay in town Wednesday to oversee the hurricane response.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-capital-escapes-brunt-storm-sandy-172909350.html

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Nets opener postponed by Sandy; NYC Marathon on

The Nets' regular-season debut in Brooklyn will have to wait. The New York City Marathon, however, is good to go.

With mass transportation still crippled in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked the NBA to postpone Thursday's highly anticipated opener between the Knicks and Nets at the Barclays Center, and the league agreed.

"It's a great stadium, it would have been a great game, but the bottom line is: There is not a lot of mass transit. Our police have plenty of other things to do," Bloomberg said at a news conference Wednesday.

The Barclays Center sits above the Atlantic Avenue subway station complex which hosts nine subway lines and a Long Island Rail Road station, and was expanded as part of the $1 billion arena's construction.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nets-opener-postponed-sandy-nyc-marathon-221908949--spt.html

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Most East Coast refineries unhurt by Sandy

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Iran sees conspiracy in box office success of Ben Affleck's 'Argo' (+video)

Based on true events surrounding the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, 'Argo' opened this weekend at No. 2 and rose to the top spot on Monday. Iranians are less enthused.

By Roshanak Taghavi,?Correspondent / October 17, 2012

This film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Bryan Cranston (l.) as Jack O?Donnell and Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in 'Argo,' a rescue thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

Claire Folger/Warner Bros./AP

Enlarge

American moviegoers flocked to theaters this weekend to see Ben Affleck's long-anticipated thriller Argo, which has been generating headlines since it was first screened at the Toronto Film Festival last month.?

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Based on a true story about how the CIA smuggled six American diplomats out of Iran after the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, the film opened on Oct. 12 and came in at No. 2 in box office sales over the weekend, after "Taken 2" (an action film starring Liam Neeson). By Oct. 15, Argo held the top spot.?

But inside?Iran, where the decision by a group of Iranian students to storm the US Embassy and hold Americans hostage for 444 days is still controversial and vibrantly debated, the press has paid Argo scant attention. The few comments the film has received are generally negative ? Iran's state-run IRNA news agency called Argo "Hollywood?s latest failed attempt to confront the Islamic Revolution" ? and?replete with complaints that the movie portrays all Iranians as stereotypically aggressive and unrefined and fails to give viewers enough historical context.?(Pirated copies of American films typically become available in Iran a few months before the films open in the US, and are easily accessed by the public.)

?Argo makes the people of Iran look like they have no self-determination, and indisputably support violence,? writes Meysam Karimi in a lengthy review?for the popular Iran-based film magazine website, Moviemag.???For me, as an Iranian ? this makes [the storyline behind] Argo much less believable.?

Iran?s semi-official Fars News Agency?labels Argo ?anti-Iranian" and painted the film as a flop. Citing unidentified "news agencies," it asserted that Argo only?managed to reach second place in the US and Canada because the filmmakers artificially boosted sales by purchasing tickets ?en masse? and giving them away for free to random people. ?

Argo??was unable to become a box office hit in spite of considerable advertisement," Fars wrote.??The filmmakers tried very hard and used a variety of methods to increase ticket sales, but they were unsuccessful. ? Even though ?Taken 2? was in its second week, Argo still couldn?t beat it to first place in the box office ? due to a lack of interest among its own [North American] audience.?

Moviemag, the privately owned online film magazine, is more sober in its assessment of the film, acknowledging Ben Affleck?s strong directorial skill and the film?s attention-grabbing story line and?giving the film a four out of five star rating.

"If I were to set aside issues [with how Iran is portrayed], I must admit that Argo is one of this year?s best movies, and expect it to be awarded an Oscar for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin?s role," he writes.?

?Without a doubt, a non-Iranian viewer will highly enjoy seeing Argo because the story is strong and keeps the viewer?s attention through to the end,? he adds. ?But for an Iranian who counts this subject as part of our country?s history, the view may be a bit different.?

Almost all coverage of Argo also noted that the film?s Toronto Film Festival debut, Sept. 7, is the same day Canada closed its embassy this year in Tehran and announced the expulsion of Iran?s diplomats from Ottawa. ? ?

?Perhaps it was a coincidence,? writes Mr. Karimi for Moviemag. ?But for [the embassy closure] to take place during the Toronto Film Festival, right when this film was being screened, somewhat undermines the theory that this happened by accident.?

Follow Roshanak Taghavi on Twitter at?@RoshanakT.

(This article was updated after first posting to correct the spelling of the capital of Canada.)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/lCJ_WmylCwQ/Iran-sees-conspiracy-in-box-office-success-of-Ben-Affleck-s-Argo-video

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NASA satellites capture Hurricane Sandy's massive size

NASA satellites capture Hurricane Sandy's massive size [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image Sandy's massive circulation. Sandy covers 1.8 million square miles, from the Mid-Atlantic to the Ohio Valley, into Canada and New England.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image Sandy's massive circulation on October 29 at 18:20 UTC (2:20 p.m. EDT). Sandy covered 1.8 million square miles, from the Mid-Atlantic to the Ohio Valley, into Canada and New England. Sandy made landfall hours after the MODIS image was taken.

Sandy was still a hurricane after landfall

On October 29, 2012 at 11 p.m. EDT, the center of Hurricane Sandy was just 10 miles (15 km) southwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, near 39.8 North and 75.4 West. Sandy was still a hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph (120 kph) and moving northwest at 18 mph (30 kph). Sandy's minimum central pressure had risen to 952 millibars. The hurricane-force-winds extended 90 miles (150 km) east of the center of circulation. Tropical-storm-force winds, however, went much further, as far as 485 miles (780 km).

NASA's GOES Project created a "full-disk view" of NOAA's GOES satellite data, that captured a global view of Hurricane Sandy's birth to landfall. The animation of NOAA's GOES-13 and GOES-15 satellite observations were combined from October 21-30, 2012 and showed the birth of Tropical Storm Sandy in the Caribbean Sea, the intensification and movement of Sandy in the Atlantic Ocean along the U.S. East Coast, and Hurricane Sandy make landfall in New Jersey on October 29 and move inland to Pennsylvania

Sandy's inland movement on October 29

At 2 a.m. EDT, on October 29, Sandy's center was located just south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania At 5 a.m. EDT, Sandy continued moving to the west-northwest at 15 knots (24 kph) and was located just 15 miles (24 km) east of York, Pennsylvania, and 90 miles (145 km) west of Philadelphia. Sandy was centered near 40.5 North and 77.0 West. Sandy's minimum central pressure continues to rise and was 960 millibars.

Sandy's sustained winds were near 65 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend almost 1,000 miles. According to Weather Channel, the winds are going to continue being a problem from the northeast into the Ohio Valley today. The strongest winds are being experienced now in the Great Lakes Region.

Widespread damages

Hurricane Sandy has caused significant damage in New York City and along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Flooding has been reported from Maine to Virginia During the morning hours on October 29 (Eastern Daylight Time), nearly eight million people were without power this morning up and down the East coast. The Appalachian Mountains received some heavy snow from western Maryland down to Tennessee and North Carolina As much as 26 inches of snow had fallen in Garrett County, Maryland by the morning of October 30. According to Reuters news, flooding along the U.S. East Coast was extensive.

Watches and warnings in effect on October 29

According to the NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (NOAA/HPC), there are high-wind warnings in effect including gale force winds over the coastal waters of the Mid-Atlantic States, New York and New England. Storm warnings are in effect for portions of the Mid-Atlantic coastal waters. Flood and flash flood watches and warnings are in effect over portions of the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern states.

NOAA's HPC forecast on October 29 calls for Sandy to move in a "west-northwest motion with reduced forward speed is expected today into western Pennsylvania with a turn north into western New York tonight, October 30. The cyclone will move into Canada on Wed., October 31. Steady weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours."

NOAA/HPC warns that gale-force winds will continue over parts of the Mid-Atlantic through New England on October 29 and storm surge and tides can still cause normally dry areas along or near the coast to be flooded, especially during high tide.

Rain and snowfall forecasts from NOAA

NOAA/HPC forecasts large rainfall totals for many areas in Sandy's reach. Far northeastern North Carolina could expect 3 to 6 inches, while 4 to 8 inches more are possible over the Mid-Atlantic States on October 30. Both areas can see isolated higher totals. Between 1 and 3 inches are possible with up to 5 inches in the southern tier of New York state and northeastward through New England.

Snowfall between 2 and 3 feet are expected in the West Virginia mountains with higher totals through October 30. Snowfall of 1 to 2 feet in the southwestern Virginia and Kentucky Mountains are expected, and between 12 and 18 inches along the North Carolina and Tennessee border and in western Maryland.

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NASA satellites capture Hurricane Sandy's massive size [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image Sandy's massive circulation. Sandy covers 1.8 million square miles, from the Mid-Atlantic to the Ohio Valley, into Canada and New England.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image Sandy's massive circulation on October 29 at 18:20 UTC (2:20 p.m. EDT). Sandy covered 1.8 million square miles, from the Mid-Atlantic to the Ohio Valley, into Canada and New England. Sandy made landfall hours after the MODIS image was taken.

Sandy was still a hurricane after landfall

On October 29, 2012 at 11 p.m. EDT, the center of Hurricane Sandy was just 10 miles (15 km) southwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, near 39.8 North and 75.4 West. Sandy was still a hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph (120 kph) and moving northwest at 18 mph (30 kph). Sandy's minimum central pressure had risen to 952 millibars. The hurricane-force-winds extended 90 miles (150 km) east of the center of circulation. Tropical-storm-force winds, however, went much further, as far as 485 miles (780 km).

NASA's GOES Project created a "full-disk view" of NOAA's GOES satellite data, that captured a global view of Hurricane Sandy's birth to landfall. The animation of NOAA's GOES-13 and GOES-15 satellite observations were combined from October 21-30, 2012 and showed the birth of Tropical Storm Sandy in the Caribbean Sea, the intensification and movement of Sandy in the Atlantic Ocean along the U.S. East Coast, and Hurricane Sandy make landfall in New Jersey on October 29 and move inland to Pennsylvania

Sandy's inland movement on October 29

At 2 a.m. EDT, on October 29, Sandy's center was located just south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania At 5 a.m. EDT, Sandy continued moving to the west-northwest at 15 knots (24 kph) and was located just 15 miles (24 km) east of York, Pennsylvania, and 90 miles (145 km) west of Philadelphia. Sandy was centered near 40.5 North and 77.0 West. Sandy's minimum central pressure continues to rise and was 960 millibars.

Sandy's sustained winds were near 65 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend almost 1,000 miles. According to Weather Channel, the winds are going to continue being a problem from the northeast into the Ohio Valley today. The strongest winds are being experienced now in the Great Lakes Region.

Widespread damages

Hurricane Sandy has caused significant damage in New York City and along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Flooding has been reported from Maine to Virginia During the morning hours on October 29 (Eastern Daylight Time), nearly eight million people were without power this morning up and down the East coast. The Appalachian Mountains received some heavy snow from western Maryland down to Tennessee and North Carolina As much as 26 inches of snow had fallen in Garrett County, Maryland by the morning of October 30. According to Reuters news, flooding along the U.S. East Coast was extensive.

Watches and warnings in effect on October 29

According to the NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (NOAA/HPC), there are high-wind warnings in effect including gale force winds over the coastal waters of the Mid-Atlantic States, New York and New England. Storm warnings are in effect for portions of the Mid-Atlantic coastal waters. Flood and flash flood watches and warnings are in effect over portions of the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern states.

NOAA's HPC forecast on October 29 calls for Sandy to move in a "west-northwest motion with reduced forward speed is expected today into western Pennsylvania with a turn north into western New York tonight, October 30. The cyclone will move into Canada on Wed., October 31. Steady weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours."

NOAA/HPC warns that gale-force winds will continue over parts of the Mid-Atlantic through New England on October 29 and storm surge and tides can still cause normally dry areas along or near the coast to be flooded, especially during high tide.

Rain and snowfall forecasts from NOAA

NOAA/HPC forecasts large rainfall totals for many areas in Sandy's reach. Far northeastern North Carolina could expect 3 to 6 inches, while 4 to 8 inches more are possible over the Mid-Atlantic States on October 30. Both areas can see isolated higher totals. Between 1 and 3 inches are possible with up to 5 inches in the southern tier of New York state and northeastward through New England.

Snowfall between 2 and 3 feet are expected in the West Virginia mountains with higher totals through October 30. Snowfall of 1 to 2 feet in the southwestern Virginia and Kentucky Mountains are expected, and between 12 and 18 inches along the North Carolina and Tennessee border and in western Maryland.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/nsfc-nsc103012.php

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Flying Fish Evolved to Escape Prehistoric Predators

The first flying fish may have evolved to escape marine reptile predators, researchers say.

These new findings hint that marine life may have recovered more quickly than before thought after the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history, scientists added.

Modern flying fish are capable of gliding through the air as much as 1,300 feet (400 meters) in 30 seconds, with a maximum flight speed of up to about 45 mph (72 kph), probably flying mainly to escape from predators such as dolphins, squid and other fish. Modern flying fish live in tropical and subtropical waters, and no known fossil specimens are older than 65 million years.

Now researchers find evidence that flight evolved another time in the history of fish. This is the earliest example of gliding on water seen in vertebrates ? that is, creatures with backbones. [Image Gallery: The Freakiest Fish]

Winged fish

Scientists analyzed fossils they excavated from southwest China in 2009. The ancient bones come from a marine fish named Potanichthys xingyiensis. "Potanos" means winged and "ichthys" means fish in Greek, while "xingyiensis" refers to the city of Xingyi near where the fossil was found.

The fish lived about 235 million to 242 million years ago in what researchers call the Yangtze Sea. This was part of the eastern Paleotethys Ocean that sat about where the Indian Ocean and Southern Asia are now located.

The newfound fish was apparently capable of gliding just like modern flying fish. For instance, it had a greatly enlarged pair of pectoral fins that could have served as wings. It also had a deeply forked tail fin whose lower half was much stronger than its upper half, and swimming with such a fin could potentially generate the power needed to launch the fish out of water.

However, modern flying fish do not appear to descend from this fossil. Instead, the ability to glide on water seems to have evolved independently in this ancient lineage.

Other fossils unearthed in the same area as Potanichthys include those of marine reptiles such as dolphin-shaped ichthyosaurs. These ancient flying fish may have evolved gliding for much the same reasons as modern flying fish ? to escape dangerous predators.

"The discovery of Potanichthys significantly adds to our knowledge of the ecological complexity in the Middle Triassic of the Paleotethys Ocean," said researcher Guang-Hui Xu, a paleontologist at China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

End-Permian extinction

The extinct group of fish to which this fossil belonged, known as the thoracopterids, was previously only seen in Austria and Italy. These findings suggest such fish lived from the western to eastern rim of the Paleotethys Ocean, hinting that other forms of life back then could have once spread from what is now Europe to Asia.

"In modern ecosystems, due to limitations of muscle function, flying fishes are unlikely capable of flight at temperatures below 20 degrees C (68 degrees F)," Xu told LiveScience. "We can reasonably apply similar limitations to the Triassic thoracopterids, and we suggest that Potanichthys adds a new datum supporting a generally hot climate in the Middle Triassic eastern Paleotethys Ocean."

Potanichthyslived about 10 million years after the end-Permian mass extinction about 250 million years ago, the greatest die-off in Earth's history, which claimed as much as 95 percent of the world's species.

"The end-Permian mass extinction was the most dramatic event to impact ecological systems on Earth, and recovery from this extinction has long been viewed as more prolonged than the recoveries following other mass extinctions," Xu said. "As the earliest evidence of over-water gliding in vertebrates, the new discovery lends support to the hypothesis that the recovery of marine ecosystems after the end-Permian was more rapid than previously thought."

The scientists detailed their findings online Oct. 31 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flying-fish-evolved-escape-prehistoric-predators-230621249.html

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Sandy snarls flights: What you should know if you're traveling

11 hrs.

If you had to define a travel nightmare, this would be it: Thousands of flights canceled, train service halted, public transit on pause and countless travelers going nowhere fast as Hurricane Sandy menaces the East Coast.

?There are travel messes and then there are travel messes,? said Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.

?You have things like the Icelandic volcano, for example, which was only (affecting) trans-Atlantic traffic. This is bigger because it?s both trans-Atlantic and Eastern seaboard. The Eastern seaboard controls sort of the nation,?so it trickles down throughout the nation. Even if you?re flying on the West Coast you could be delayed because of what?s going on.?

Deteriorating weather conditions forced airlines to cancel nearly 14,000 flights through Tuesday, and that number is expected to grow, according to Jackie Butcher, a spokesperson for FlightAware.com.?Philadelphia International was most affected on Monday with 1,259 cancellations, followed by the three major New York City-area airports.

John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia remained open on Monday, but the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey discouraged travelers from even trying to get to the airports.The agency also began setting up cots for stranded passengers and placed sandbags at Newark Liberty. Photos showed flood waters from Hurricane Sandy approaching LaGuardia runways and taxiways on Monday afternoon.

The ripple effects are being felt across the country and even the world, as travelers trying to fly into the region to either get back home or make a connection are in limbo.?Even Capt. Chesley B. ?Sully? Sullenberger, the pilot made famous by the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight, tweeted that he was "stuck in PA" because of Sandy on Monday afternoon.

Hailey Walmsley was scheduled to return to Boston after attending a wedding in Atlanta, but she is stuck at the city?s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport ? often dubbed ?Hotel Hartsfield? when travelers in transit have nowhere to go???and told she won?t be able to fly out until Thursday.

?My flight was actually canceled twice,? she told Atlanta's?NBC?affiliate WXIA. ?So now it?s just kind of up in the air.?

In Denver, where about 50 flights to the East Coast were canceled, Steve Houston was trying to get home to Belfast, Ireland.

"My biggest concern was that I would leave Denver, get to New York, and then get stranded in New York and be sitting there in the middle of the hurricane," Houston told Denver's?NBC?affiliate KUSA.

JetBlue closed its New York City operations Sunday night and proactively canceled more than 1,000 flights through Wednesday morning, said airline?spokeswoman Sharon Jones.

?High winds are no bueno for flying machines, so we are sheltering our aircraft in other cities,? the airline said on its blog.

American Airlines suspended operations Sunday night until Wednesday at nine airports in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including Ronald Reagan Washington National, Dulles International, Baltimore/Washington International, Norfolk International, Philadelphia International, Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Bradley International.

?First flights into?these cities will resume Wednesday. First flights out of these cities will take place after noon on Wednesday,? said spokesman Kent Powell.

Delta Air Lines, which has cancelled about 2,500 flights, expects to resume limited operations at its LaGuardia and JFK hubs on Tuesday afternoon, with a full restart targeted for Wednesday. Operations at other East Coast airports are expected to resume by mid-morning Tuesday. ?

Still, the good news is that the storm is hitting during a relatively slow travel period, FareCompare.com's?Seaney said. Airlines also had plenty of notice to move planes to safer grounds and pre-cancel flights, he added.

?They?ll be able to unwind (the backlog) in a day or two completely as long as there?s no major damage to airports,? Seaney said.

Related: Hurricane Sandy, by the numbers

All airlines now have hurricane-related travel waiver policies in effect, allowing passengers to change their reservations without a fee.

If you bought tickets through sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz,?call those companies and have them rebook, instead of calling airlines directly, because the carriers? phone lines may be jammed as everyone scrambles to change plans, advised?Airfarewatchdog.com founder?George Hobica.

Also keep in mind that if you are stuck at the airport, hurricanes are considered a "force majeure" event or an "act of God" by the airlines, which means that cancellations are viewed as out of the airlines' control and the only thing travelers are entitled to is a refund, Hobica said. In other words, you may not get a hotel voucher.

Here are some more tips if you have to fly into or out of the region this week:

  • Sign up for alerts from your airlines and follow them on Twitter to get the latest information on your flights;
  • Monitor the FAA?s flight information map for any airport delays or closures;
  • Have items like medications, your hotel and airline phone numbers, a change of clothes and toiletries with you, Hobica advised. If they're kept in checked luggage and you're stranded, you're most likely out of luck;
  • For JetBlue travel waivers, click here;
  • For United travel waivers, click here;
  • For Delta travel waivers, click here;
  • For American travel waivers, click here;
  • For US Airways travel waivers, click here;
  • For Southwest travel waivers, click here.

Air travel isn't the only mode of transportation impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Amtrak cancelled nearly all service on the eastern seaboard on Monday, and public transit was suspended in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

It?s not a good time to be a tourist either. In New York, the Statue of Liberty crown reopened to the public on Sunday, but the monument will be closed Monday and Tuesday because of the storm. All Broadway and off-Broadway shows have been canceled for Monday.?

More hurricane?coverage from NBC?News:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/sandy-snarls-flights-trains-public-transit-what-you-should-know-1B6737188

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The Platinum Girl Celebrity Blog | Relationship Love Gossip Rumors ...

Gabrielle Union celebrated her 40th birthday over the weekend! In her interview with Just The Fab excerpted from Bossip, she opened up about her relationship with Dwyane Wade. When asked whether Gabrielle saw marriage in her future, she answered, "We like each other a lot and both failed miserably the last time either one of us got married. I think we?re doing it slow. When you rush in, then people have crap to say; if you go too slow people have stuff to say. We have to take it at the pace that?s great for us."

Gabrielle's right. People will always have something to say -- myself included. I understand she wants to take it slow. Yet, I wouldn't talk too much about how Dwayne and she failed miserably in their last marriages. Quite frankly, it isn't anyone's business. Talking about their past and plans to take it slow will only subject them to other opinions.

But, the reason why her comment caught my attention had more to do with how I want Dwayne to perceive Gabby. Ok, so her last marriage didn't work out. What I'd like to see her avoid, though, is using words like "failed miserably." Those are two big words! All she had to say is, "We like each other and will see what happens." I understand she was being honest and can appreciate that. As an objective reader, though, it sounded like...baggage.

Letting your partner know, "I failed last time, but like you a lot" doesn't sound positive. True, it's a backwards compliment. You acknowledge that your past relationships didn't work out for the best. Thus, you're intent on going slow because you like the person you're dating and don't want to ruin it. Nevertheless, it's a deep thing to say. It can be perceived as placing too much emphasis on the past instead of feeling positive about the present.?

Whenever someone tells me, "I failed" in a relationship, I always say they shouldn't be so hard on themselves. If they can honestly say they tried their best (or even if they didn't), it takes a lot to make relationships and marriages work. In no sense am I being cavalier about commitment. My point is that I wouldn't use the words "fail miserably" in my next relationship. Keep it as positive as possible when it comes to reflecting and discussing past romances.

Lastly, I had a quick note to Bossip - I know the reporters and writers wanted to end the tension they've had with Gabrielle. But, calling her a "Hollyweird banger" isn't exactly complimentary. Take it from someone who lives in Los Angeles, it's somewhat offensive. Not to mention, the word "Hollyweird" is tired. Gabrielle is not about "that life" compared to a lot of the other wrecks out here. Plus, she's 40, is a supportive girlfriend, and helps Dwayne's children with their homework. If you want a better relationship with Gabrielle, maybe pay closer attention to the adjectives used when describing her.

Until next time...

Shine like Platinum!

Vanessa


Don't let texting ruin your dating life!

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No Kindle or iPad? Read Text. Love. Power. on your computer. Simply download Kindle for PC and have your texting questions answered immediately for $3.99!

Click here to see my video on why famous actress Olivia Wilde needs Text. Love. Power..

Source: http://www.platinumgirlcelebrityblog.com/2012/10/gabrielle-union-says-she-failed.html

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Scherzy Roundup! On Long-Distance Relationships/Chris Brown

Nicole Scherzinger: How To Handle a Long-Distance Relationship
Nicole Scherzinger has been dating F1 driver Lewis Hamilton for four years and recently she has spoken about how difficult it is to conduct a well-working long-distance relationship. In fact, she said to the Sun that she "wouldn't wish it on anyone."

However, despite the difficulties and hardships that are inevitable in the kind of relationship they have, Scherzinger believes that she and Hamilton have a strong relationship based on trust. This was really put to the test recently when photos of the X-Factor judge getting a little too close for comfort to Rihanna's ex, Chris Brown. She confounded the rumours, "You are always going to have people saying something or having a picture." She said, "But it is complete dross if you and your partner know what the truth is. Chris Brown and I are definitely just mates - I have known him since he was younger than 16." And in the Metro she is reported talking about press in general; 'It's a part of it, you know, and you just got to pay no time to it. The press does not define you, you know who you are deep inside."

Using words such as 'mate' she seems to have forgotten who she is deep down inside (lol wtf), opting for British terminology rather than American. However this is probably all due to Hamilton's family who have embraced her wholly and integrated her into London life. As reported, "Lewis has helped her settle in London by introducing her to his pals, adding that his family has also been a huge help."

X Factor 2012: Olly Murs enjoys "banter" with Nicole Scherzinger

Xtra Factor co-host Olly Murs has said he enjoys banter with Nicole Scherzinger, but insisted he wouldn?t go any further!

Olly has made no secret of fancying the US singer since first meeting her on last year?s show.

He said today: ?Nicole and I enjoy a bit of friendly flirting during the show. She?s one of the hottest girls on the show.

?You?d have to be gay not to fancy Nicole! Things won?t go any further than my crush ? she has a boyfriend and it?s just a bit of banter for the show.?

Speaking to the X Factor website at ITV1.com, Olly continued: ?I think all four Judges look amazing this series. Tulisa and Nicole dress so differently but both always look very glamorous.

?Nicole?s catsuit was VERY distracting. Goodness knows how her Boys managed to concentrate that night!?

Meanwhile, Olly insisted that all four judges were all speaking terms after the weekend?s spats on the live shows.

He said: ?We covered the Tulisa/Gary spat on The Xtra Factor. Gary apologised to Tulisa on our show and you could see he really meant it. I don?t think he meant to say what he did and you could see he was genuinely sorry. Gary?s a great guy. Everything seems cool with the Judges now!?

Nicole Scherzinger stuns in a sexy sheer catsuit on Halloween X Factor special

Nicole Scherzinger certainly embraced the Halloween theme on Saturday night's X Factor in a super sexy sheer jumpsuit.

The singer wore a black lace and embellished all-in-one and topped her crimped hair with a dramatic black headpiece.

Nicole was overheard saying to host Dermot O'Leary earlier in the day: 'I just want to wear something really simple tonight.'

Er, Miss Scherzinger must have changed her mind then.

Shame Nicole's boyfriend Lewis Hamilton was in India for the Grand Prix and missed the spectacle, but designer Julien Macdonald got very excited, Tweeting: 'Did you all see @NicoleScherzy in @JulienMacdonald catsuit last night on @Xfactor! Wow!'

We can't wait to see what next week brings for the Scherzy style show.

source 1 | 2 | 3

any experiences with/thoughts on long-distance relationships, ontd ?

Source: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/73158177.html

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Smoking laws limit heart attacks

Perhaps living in a ?nanny state? isn?t half bad. A Minnesota County that banned smoking in public places in 2007 experienced a one-third drop in the heart attack rate compared with the period just before the restrictions began to be phased in, researchers report in the Oct. 29 Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study is the longest analysis to date to measure a smoking ordinance?s effect on community-wide heart health, says study coauthor Richard Hurt, an internist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

?Our hope is that this will turn the page on this chapter, and whether secondhand smoke is associated with heart attacks,? Hurt says. ?It is.?

Olmstead County prohibited smoking in restaurants on January 1, 2002 and expanded the ban to all workplaces, including bars, on October 1, 2007. Cigarette smoke inhalation increases heart attack risk, so Hurt and his colleagues calculated the rate of heart attacks during the 18 months preceding the enactment of the first ordinance and the 18 months immediately after the full ban went into effect.

The county has a population of nearly 145,000 people. Medical records show 187 heart attacks there in the 18 months before the first smoking ban and 139 in the same time frame immediately after the full prohibition began. When adjusted to account for demographic changes in the county's population between the two periods, the data revealed an annual heart attack rate of 151 per 100,000 people before and 101 per 100,000 afterward.

Olmstead County is hardly the first to enact curbs on public smoking, but the county benefits from having an exhaustive medical database of its residents to analyze. The new study and a litany of similar findings impress even those who promoted smoking bans early on. ?Initially, when these ordinances were passed, I don?t think anyone really expected to see such a rapid cardiovascular effect,? says Pamela Ling, an internist at the University of California, San Francisco. ?But I think the evidence now ? particularly linking smoke-free policies and real medical outcomes ? is really quite strong.?

The new data reflect less smoke exposure and probably also less smoking per se, she says. ?One of the arguments was that smoke-free policies would restrict it in the workplace but that people would smoke more at home,? Ling says. ?But actually, studies suggest ... that people don?t compensate.?

Hurt says he hopes the emerging antismoking ethic will now spread to automobiles. When someone smokes in a car, he says, ?the concentration of secondhand smoke is just amazing.?

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/346089/title/Smoking_laws_limit_heart_attacks

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PSA: Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight now on sale in the UK

PSA Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight go on sale in the UK

Barnes & Noble's arrival in the UK has been so well-telegraphed, you might be surprised to learn that today's the day the units actually launch. You'll be able to pick up a Nook Simple Touch or awkwardly-titled Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight from retailers such as John Lewis, Sainsbury's and on the company's new Nook.co.uk site. Access to Barnes & Noble's 2.5 million title e-book library will set you back £79 for the base model and £109 for the glow-in-the-dark version.

Continue reading PSA: Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight now on sale in the UK

PSA: Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight now on sale in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 05:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2SvKwe87SYY/

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Hurricane Surfing: This Is How We Do Product Reviews

Yesterday, as the front-edge of Hurricane Sandy started bearing down on New York and newscasters were talking about, "Idiot surfers risking their lives," I was one of those idiots. Sorry. I had a camera to test. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VIvS_Fjl2Bc/hurricane-surfing-this-is-how-we-do-product-reviews

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High court weighs closely watched copyright case

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Supreme Court justices on Monday weighed copyright protections for publishers, creative artists and manufacturers in a global marketplace in a case that has attracted the interest of Costco, eBay and Google. The outcome has important implications for consumers and multibillion dollar annual sales online and in discount stores.

The court was about the only Washington institution open on Monday. The justices and spectators who braved the rain and wind saw a book publisher face off against a Thai graduate student in the U.S. who resold the publisher's copyrighted books on eBay after relatives first bought nearly identical, cheaper versions abroad.

The court seemed to struggle with whether it matters where the books were produced and first sold.

The justices' answer to those questions is of enormous interest to discount sellers like Costco and online business like eBay and Google that offer good prices on many products that were made abroad.

Publisher John Wiley & Sons won a copyright infringement lawsuit against the student, Supap Kirtsaeng. The high court is considering Kirtsaeng's appeal, which argues that Wiley lost its right to control resale of the books once his relatives bought them legally.

Kirtsaeng used eBay to sell $900,000 worth of books published abroad by Wiley and others and made about $100,000 in profit. The international editions of the textbooks were essentially the same as the more costly American editions. A jury in New York awarded Wiley $600,000 after deciding Kirtsaeng sold copies of eight Wiley textbooks without permission.

The issue at the Supreme Court concerns what protection the holder of a copyright has after a product made outside the United States is sold for the first time. In this case, the issue is whether U.S. copyright protection applies to items that are made abroad, purchased abroad and then resold in the U.S. without the permission of the manufacturer. The high court split 4-4 when it tried to answer that question in a case in 2010 involving Costco and Swiss watch maker Omega.

Justice Elena Kagan sat out the Costco case, but is taking part in the new dispute. She signed the government's legal brief in the Costco case that took Omega's side. The government is backing the publisher against Kirtsaeng, but it advocates something of a compromise in laying down a rule for other disputes.

The court already has rejected copyright claims over U.S.-made items that were sold abroad and then brought back to the United States for resale.

The justices did not appear entirely comfortable with either side's arguments, or the government's middle ground.

E. Joshua Rosenkranz, Kirtsaeng's lawyer, ran into skepticism from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when he suggested that a ruling for Wiley would allow publishers and other copyright holders control over repeated resale of their products if only they made them abroad.

"So a U.S. manufacturer who wants to sell into the U.S. market has this incentive to go and send jobs overseas. It's an irresistible incentive if this court says the law is what Wiley says," Rosenkranz said.

Ginsburg replied, "Has that ever happened?"

Rosenkranz said he is sure it has, but could not come up with any specifics.

On other hand, Theodore Olson, representing Wiley, struggled to satisfy justices who wondered whether Rosenkranz might be right.

Justice Stephen Breyer asked Olson whether, without seeking permission, people could resell their foreign cars, libraries could sell or lend books bought from foreign publishers or museums could display paintings by Pablo Picasso. "Those are some of the horribles that they sketch. And if I am looking for the bear in the mouse hole, I look at those horribles, and there I see that bear. So I'm asking you to spend some time telling me why I'm wrong."

Olson did not allay Breyer's concerns with his answer. "I would say that when we talk about all the horribles that might apply in cases other than this, museums, used Toyotas, books and luggage, and that sort of thing, we're not talking about this case."

When Rosenkranz returned to the podium to conclude the argument, he said, "To Justice Breyer's question, the bear is there. It is very much there."

The current case has attracted so much attention because it could affect many goods sold online and in discount stores. The resale of merchandise that originates overseas often is called the gray market, and it has an annual value in the tens of billions of dollars.

Consumers benefit from this market because manufacturers commonly price items more cheaply abroad than in the United States.

The federal appeals court in New York sided with Wiley in this case.

EBay and Google say in court papers that the appellate ruling "threatens the increasingly important e-commerce sector of the economy." Art museums fear that the ruling, if allowed to stand, would jeopardize their ability to exhibit art created outside the United States.

Conversely, the producers of copyrighted movies, music and other goods say that their businesses will be undercut by unauthorized sales if the court blesses Kirtsaeng's actions.

A decision is expected by June.

The case is Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, 11-697.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-weighs-closely-watched-copyright-case-184513938.html

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Tips For Managing Your Asthma Symptoms Better - Health and ...

Working around the possibility of an asthma attack is tough, but it is possible to live a relatively normal life, even with asthma. You can keep your asthma in check and prevent it from lowering your quality of life through a variety of methods, techniques and treatments. Read this article to find out how you can manage your condition more easily.

The only way to effectively treat your asthma attacks is to know what is bringing them on. For instance, pet dander or dust can cause asthma flare-ups. As soon as you can identify the causes of your asthmatic attacks, you will be able to do something to keep yourself away from these things as much as you can.

Going to an asthma support group or just talking to people who also have asthma can really help out. Other sufferers can help you learn how to manage and live with your asthma, by offering tips and advice. Having supportive people that care about you is imperative.

When cooking, those with asthma conditions should keep windows open to air out smoke. Breathing can be challenged when asthma is triggered by smoke. If the smoke remains potent even if windows are open, go outside until the smoke clears.

Be sure to take plenty of Vitamins C and E if you have asthma. It is thought that these vitamins will help increase lung function and will help control asthma symptoms. You are able to get these vitamins either from food or a supplement. These vitamins will also help prevent illnesses by boosting your body?s immune system.

If you decide to paint a room in your house, purchase a mask in order to keep yourself from inhaling fumes. Paint fumes are especially dangerous for asthmatic people, but a mask will prevent asthma attacks efficiently. Avoid chemicals, substances and scents that aggravate your asthma.

Asthma sufferers should definitely stay indoors more when pollen increases. Asthma symptoms are not the same as allergic reactions, but allergies and asthma attacks have many common triggers. Given the widespread availability of air quality indices for local communities, anyone who is afflicted with asthma can easily avoid unnecessary outdoor exposure when the atmosphere has likely exacerbants floating around.

Check in with your doctor regularly to ensure that you are maintaining your asthma condition correctly and successfully. Your physician must check you out regularly to see if you need to do anything differently with your treatment. It is up to you to work with your doctor at regular appointments to keep your treatment plan working.

If you have asthma and suffer persistent attacks caused by allergy symptoms, an injectable medicine can be administered for extended relief. An antibody medicine known as omalizumab is very effective at countering asthma attacks related to allergies. Ask your allergist about it.

You need to know how to properly use asthma medications that are prescribed to you, especially your rescue medication, so that you are prepared if you need to use it during an emergency. Asthma is usually treated with an everyday medication that is sometimes supplemented with an emergency treatment, like an inhaler. It?s important to use both forms of medication properly to treat your chronic condition.

There are a lot of ways you can control your asthma and stop it from hurting you. Asthma does not have to be a death sentence, so if you can make a plan on how to live with asthma, you will have a much more fulfilling life.

Source: http://www.indexicon.com/health/tips-for-managing-your-asthma-symptoms-better/

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Corporate Finance Jobs Hierarchy: Roles, Lifestyle, and Pay ...

The Corporate Finance Jobs HierarchyYou?re sitting in front of your computer reading your 102nd rejection email:

?Thanks for your interest, but we have already hired for this position.?

You start to feel desperate, when out of the blue a friend calls. ?I have a job for you, it?s a Corporate Finance Analyst position at a Fortune 500 company, what do you say??

You answer without even thinking: ?Are you joking? You know that it?s banking or bust for me!?

If that?s you, you need to rethink what you just said.

No, Corporate Finance is NOT as ?prestigious? as investment banking, and it doesn?t give you as many exit opportunities.

It?s a different world altogether.

But it?s also a world where you can still make hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even into the millions if you?re at the right company in the right role.

Here?s what you?re going to learn in this comprehensive breakdown of the Corporate Finance world:

  • How the finance department is organized at a Fortune 500 company
  • What you do on a daily basis in the Financial Planning division
  • Why accounting is not (always) just a 9-to-5 job that bores you to death
  • Why Treasury roles are crucial and why they can mean life or death for a company
  • How you can become a CFO and make it to the top of the ladder

CFO: The King of the Castle

Let?s start at the top. In every finance department the ?King? is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). You could argue that the CFO is ordered around by the CEO, but at the end of the day if you work in a finance department you are doing whatever your CFO asks of you, period.

We?ll focus on the CFO and the team directly under him first.

Every Corporate Finance department is different, so the exact team depends on the organization, the size of the division, the industry, and plenty of other parameters.

But despite all that, most corporate finance departments at large companies are similar. Here?s who reports directly to the CFO:

  • The FP&A Manager: Heads the management accounting department
  • The Controller: Heads the financial accounting department
  • The Treasurer: Heads? the treasury department!

FP&A: Got Strategy?

FP&A stands for ?Financial Planning and Analysis,? and some companies also refer to it as Management Accounting.

This department is in charge of the company?s Profit & Loss Statement (P&L), and forecasts the all-mighty ?bottom line?: Net Income, which is literally the bottom line of any company?s or division?s P&L.

If you work in FP&A, your job is to give the CFO a good idea of what will happen to the different line items of the P&L during the quarter, year, and next five years. For example:

  • Based on your projections, will Net Sales grow more quickly or more slowly than expected?
  • Is the increase in Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) or Sales & Marketing expenses out of line with the increase in revenue over a certain time period?
  • Will there be certain ?one-time? expenses that you anticipate and that will throw off the bottom line in a certain period?

You also give every operational department, including Sales or Production, a target to reach in terms of revenue and expenses. Then you collect information along the way to see how far away the departments are from their targets.

Working in FP&A involves a lot of data consolidation and variance analysis to see what went wrong or right in the previous quarter.

You also produce ad hoc reports on key metrics such as sales volume compared to the plan, or the employee compensation expense compared to projections. This is one of the most strategic departments because you define where the company is going to be in five years.

Organization

3 or 4 analysts are led by a senior analyst, who is in charge of a specific product. The senior analyst then reports to the FP&A manager on their respective product.

The FP&A Manager is at the top of the pyramid and reports directly to the CFO.

Lifestyle

During normal weeks, expect to work approximately 60 hours per week with weekends off. Quarter/year end closes and planning sessions are your busiest weeks, and hours can jump up to the investment banking range ? sometimes close to 100 hours of work per week.

Pay

Compensation varies widely depending on the size of the company and the size of the P&L. Here?s what you might expect at each level:

  • Entry-Level Analyst: $60-70K USD base salary
  • Senior Analyst: $90-130K USD base salary, with a 10% bonus in a good year
  • FP&A Manager: $200K USD for a smaller P&L (e.g. the German division of a global company); can range up to a 7-figure salary for a Global FP&A Manager

Bonuses are heavily tied to the health of the company and the managers? ability to forecast performance accurately.

Controllership: Accounting Without a CPA?!

Controllership or financial accounting usually has the worst reputation in the world of finance: many people think that working in financial accounting means a boring, mundane, accountant job where you?re inspecting journal entries all day.

But that?s only one side of the story.

The other side ? the interesting one ? is where you are in charge of the integrity of the Balance Sheet.

Whenever an accounting problem arises, you have to make a decision so that your financial statements clearly and accurately reflect the state of the business. Your work as an analyst is to be a liaison between the accountants? world and the other financial departments.

Here?s the difference between what an accountant might do and what the CFO might do:

  • Accountant: Avoid screwing up and making errors so that the company doesn?t have to restate its financial statements afterward.
  • CFO: Hit his Net Income target? even if he has to ?take some liberties? along the way.

A CFO is incentivized to be more ?aggressive? with his accounting in order to hit that Net Income target. So he might argue for policies that result in potentially misleading financial statements:

  • He might try to classify more spending as Capital Expenditures so that it doesn?t hit the Net Income line (e.g. Capitalized R&D spending)
  • He might try to change the timing of certain expenses, or the company?s revenue recognition policy, so that Net Income looks better

As an accountant, you have to manage both sides and make sure that the CFO is happy, but that the financial statements are also accurate and don?t mislead investors or company management.

You have to make sure that when auditors review them, they can understand everything and won?t ask you to restate results.

Audits are also a big part of your job since you?ll be providing auditors with the necessary accounting documents.

Organization

Traditional Accountants are divided by product or region, and you have to coordinate their work so that they book entries properly.

The ?finance-oriented? side, where non-accountant profiles work, is made up of 3 or 4 analysts led by a senior analyst. Financial accountants are in charge of producing the financial statements and dealing with all the tasks and responsibilities discussed above.

The Controller ? the head of this department ? reports directly to the CFO.

Lifestyle

If you are on the traditional accounting side, congratulations! You?re the very definition of ?work/life balance.? You work 40 hours a week ? no more, no less ? and you?re paid accordingly: $40-50K USD for an entry-level position.

If you are reading this article, though, you are probably more interested in the ?dynamic? side of controllership: the royal path to becoming a CFO.

In that case, your hours and your salary will be very similar to the figures quoted above for FP&A roles.

An annual closing can turn into a nightmare and make investment banking hours look like a primary school teacher?s schedule, though! (On the upside, at least you won?t have to deal with quite as many crazy people)

Treasury: The Most Important and Overlooked Department?

Treasury deals with everything related to cash and cash flow.

If you?ve studied accounting, you know that Net Income can be manipulated in many ways: you can change revenue and expense recognition, re-classify expenses as capital expenditures, and so on.

But you can?t fake how much cash you?re making or losing.

If, at some point, you have no cash left and no credit line available, your company is dead. That?s why Treasury is so important.

As a Treasury analyst, you forecast how much cash your company is going to need in the future. You then have to make sure that this amount of cash is available when it?s required.

In order to do that, you have many tools at your disposal: you can emit bonds, raise equity, borrow through commercial paper, or negotiate credit lines with banks.

You?re in contact with banks and investors on a weekly basis to secure funding and support ? and this is one of the reasons why you work so closely with Debt Capital Markets (DCM) groups at banks.

You are also responsible for equilibrating the cash position of all the company?s accounts to make sure that none are negative and costing you extra in fees.

On the other side, you also have to invest short-term funds so they don?t stay idle in your accounts and so that you get at least some interest income out of them.

Organization

The size of the Treasury team depends heavily on the industry. It?s more important for a bank to have a larger Treasury team because you have to deal with liquidity ratios and heavy regulations.

But an industrial company would have a much smaller Treasury team, since managing their liquidity and cash positions isn?t quite as important.

Each analyst has a specialty, ranging from bonds emission to cash position forecasting, and the Treasurer coordinates all of them. The Treasurer is also the main contact for investment banks and investors.

Lifestyle

If everything goes smoothly and the company generates a lot of cash flow, being a Treasurer can be a breeze.

On the other hand, if your company is in a tight spot from a cash point of view, the Treasury team will meet with the CFO daily to find solutions.

So hours vary widely and depending on the state of the company, you could find yourself working anything from a normal 40-50 hours per week all the way up to investment banking hours if you?re in ?crisis mode.?

Pay

People working in the Treasury department are usually more senior than those in FP&A and Controllership positions due to the intense contact with investors and banks ? and salaries reflect that fact. Here?s a run-down:

  • Analysts: $70-90K USD
  • Senior Analysts: $100-170K USD with up to a 15% bonus
  • Treasurer: He tends to be one of the better-paid members of the Corporate Finance department, and often earns the next most after the CFO; that translates to a range between $200K USD and $4MM USD.

What About the Rest of the Corporate Finance Department?

There are a lot of ?core? functions I didn?t mention here because they are not always part of the CFO?s team.

For instance, Pricing can be a marketing role or a financial role depending on the company.

Internal Audit and Risk are usually part of the CEO?s responsibility to avoid any conflict of interest (COI.)

I didn?t mention Tax because it?s a very specialized job, and I have never witnessed someone moving from a Tax position to another corporate finance function.

So How Do You Become a CFO?

Good question! The chief financial officer (CFO) of a decent-sized division manages between 25 and 200 people and earns $300,000 USD and above (bigger company and bigger division generally equals higher pay).

At the end of the day, 80% of the people in the finance department want to become the CFO? and, of course, very few succeed.

Being a CFO requires a wide range of skills and some heavy internal networking. At a Fortune 500 company, you don?t get promoted to the CFO role just because you?re doing ?a great job.?

You also have to know the right people (and play the office politics game well), and make sure that they like you enough to trust you with a P&L.

In that way, it?s very, very different from what it takes to succeed at a hedge fund or asset management firm (or prop trading and so on), where advancement is more merit-based, and it?s arguably quite different even from investment banking.

Ten years ago, the standard ?path? to becoming a CFO was to be an FP&A Manager for a while to learn everything about hitting your Net Income target ? and how to coordinate with other groups.

But things have changed a lot, and regulators are now the CFO?s main focus. Thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US and similar legislation in other countries, CFOs can now go to jail if they certify incorrect financial statements.

So now and for the foreseeable future, strong controllership skills are essential if you want to reach the CFO level. Controllership isn?t the sexiest department, but you?ll have to get used to it!

If you have a Big 4 background, you will have a serious advantage.

Once you?ve learned how to manage a P&L by working in Management Accounting for a few years, you have a good shot at moving toward the CFO role as you move up the ladder? as long as you get everyone there to like you.

What About the Exit Opps?!!!

There?s a lot of ?controversy? over exit opportunities within corporate finance. Here?s the rough breakdown of where people go afterward, based on what I?ve seen?in real life:

  • 60% stay in corporate finance but move to another firm;
  • 10% move to investment banking or venture capital;
  • 20% move to consulting;
  • 10% move to sales & marketing or risk

Yes, you can transition to investment banking or private equity? but it?s also much harder than if you started out in one of those.

The skills are relevant because doing planning sessions in FP&A will teach you a lot about how to actually model revenue and expenses for a company ? you?ll be much more grounded in reality than bankers who have never actually seen what all their fancy spreadsheets mean in real life.

Controllership will give you a perfect understanding of the Balance Sheet. But in a tough economy, you?ll have to be very talented and very well-connected to make the move.

If you want to follow that route, it?s almost easier to re-brand yourself with a top MBA degree and make the switch after that.

You can also transition to management consulting because Financial Planning & Analysis teaches you a lot about strategy, but you?ll probably better off in operational consulting, where you?ll be able to show-off your ?execution and implementation skills.?

If you feel more like a sales guy or girl, you should definitely consider sales and marketing in a big group. Forget all the hassle of regulators and audits, and embrace the world where the bottom line is all that matters.

A background in finance won?t hurt and could even put you ahead ? sales teams often have a hard time understanding the financial impact of their actions!

Any Questions?

I hope you enjoyed your tour in the world of corporate finance, and that you no longer think of it like the back office ? where front office careers go to die ? anymore.

If you have any questions or experiences, please share them in the comments!

After 6 years of experience in Corporate Finance,?Thomas Ausart?founded?finance-resume.com?along with a former VP in investment banking, to assist you with your resume, cover letter and interview preparation so that you land the Finance job you really want.


Source: http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/corporate-finance-jobs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=corporate-finance-jobs

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