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That’s Quite A Tangled Web Miley Wears: Perhaps someone should tell soon-to-be ex Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus that cobwebs are never in fashion. Check out what the Teen Queen wore during a Starbucks run in L.A. on Sunday.

Homosexuality itself is a “death sentence”

Evangelical Christians are falsely accused of inspiring a “death sentence” for homosexuals in Uganda, [“Uganda and gays: a malicious blasphemy,” Opinion, Jan. 8] even though the Christians were only trying to heal them.

Ironically, gays have a perpetual “death sentence” hanging over their heads. According to the American Medical Association, the average life expectancy for active homosexuals is about 20 years less than for heterosexuals. It’s a medical no-brainer because when you do things that the body is not designed to do, it causes diseases and infections at uncommon levels, therefore shortening the life span.

Homosexuals need to rethink what they’re doing so they can live longer.

— Clark Chase, Monroe

In this case, Bible is wrong

The Bible usually gets it right. Sometimes it gets it wrong. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a good idea. Killing your neighbor based on how your neighbor loves is wrong.

In your Jan. 8 editorial, you reflect on the shock of three evangelists. It is the natural result of their biblical views. The Bible can be used to teach some awful ideas.

Alternative interpretations of such scripture as Leviticus 20:13 are very important. What the scripture says is: Death “if a man lies with a man as with a woman.” It says nothing about homosexual orientation.

Applying it to today is a matter of interpretation. Any translation of the Bible that uses the word “homosexual” has been translated to further a political agenda. I was surprised and pleased to learn that the King James version of the Bible does not include this word anywhere.

The Hebrew and Christian scriptures say a lot of things that need to be interpreted. In some cases, the scriptures need to be rejected, whether interpreted literally or in other ways.

— John J. Shaffer, retired pastor, Stanwood

I’ll confess, I’ve always been more of a summer-salad person than a winter-salad person. But this year I’ve resolved to set aside my leafy-green biases and change all that. The first step: browsing through our archives for inspiring winter salad recipes. Not surprisingly, there were a number of tantalizing choices featuring a gamut of ingredients, from cauliflower and celeriac to peanuts and persimmons.

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Second Amendment ensures individual right

In his recent letter, [“Gun control,” NW Voices, Jan. 9] Bob Ackerman is right that the Second Amendment means what it says but he is quite wrong about what it means.

The amendment, as written, is indeed an unfettered right. The fist 13 words of the amendment do not nullify or qualify the second 14 words, rather they provide a reason for it.

It is even more implausible that any government — let alone our visionary Founding Fathers — would write a law guaranteeing itself the right to arms. The operating clause “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” cannot be misinterpreted. If the “people” here does not mean individuals, then what does the “people” refer to in the First, Fourth and Ninth Amendments?

If anyone is still not convinced that the Second Amendment is an individual right, they need to look no further than the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. Additional insight can be gained by reading what some of the Founding Fathers had to say about firearms and why the amendment was written.

— John O’Brien, DuPont

Found under: Google, Nexus One, Android, T-Mobile,

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Israeli startup Siano, which makes tiny digital TV receiver chips for mobile devices, announced a $24 fourth round of funding from Siano’s existing investors: JVP, DFJ-Tamir-Fishman, Star Ventures, Walden Israel, and Bessemer Venture Partners. The same investors had participated in a $17.5 million round in August 2008.

The new round brings Siano’s total fundraising to around $76 million.

Siano chairman Erel Margalit said in a prepared statement that “Coming out of the global financial crisis around mid 2009, it was clear that the mobile DTV market has shifted gear.” Demand for mobile TV, he added, has been strong in the emerging BRIC market — Brazil, Russian, India and China.

Siano, founded in 2004, provides TV chips to Samsung (pictured: the Samsung YP-CM3,) Motorola, ZTE, Huawei, Mio, Garmin, and Dell among others. Siano’s website — siano-ms.com — has a gallery of Siano-powered gadgets. The company keeps an office in Austin, Texas, and more offices in Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan.

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If you recall all the way back to last week — yes, it’s a bit of a blur to us, too — Intel CEO Paul Otellini brought to his keynote an Atom-powered home monitor system, demonstrated by him and his rockstar compadre Craig. It was actually quite impressive, and thankfully Intel’s gone ahead and launched an educational page for the Intelligent Home Energy Management Proof of Concept. The specs break down as follows: a gorgeous 11.5-inch capacitive OLED touch screen, Z530 processor, motion sensor and video camera support, stereo audio, WiFi, and Zigbee integration. Throw in an open API and we’re pretty sold on this — assuming it was real, of course, and at this point it’s nothing more than a teaser of things to come. Hit up the source link and expect a notable uptick in your longing for the future.

Intel’s Atom-powered home energy dashboard concept gets itself a website, no closer to retail reality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi e-tron was unveiled in Frankfurt.

The Audi e-tron that was unveiled at the Detroit auto show on Monday. It is the second concept Audi has revealed with the e-tron name

Wheels:

“Detroit Auto Show: Audi’s Second Electric e-tron

Found under: HTC, Touch Pro 2, Ozone, Verizon,

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It’s been a while since we’ve taken a hard look at emerging research regarding obesity. Today, several stories offer some needed insights.

Australian researchers report that watching lots of TV is associated with a higher risk of death. This wouldn’t seem novel—except that even regular exercisers who had a lot of tube time had a higher risk of dying. As lead author Dr. David Dunstan explains, it’s because people are losing the minor bouts of activity around the house:

It’s not the sweaty type of exercise we’re losing. It’s the incidental moving around, walking around, standing up and utilizing muscles that [doesn’t happen] when we’re plunked on a couch in front of a television.

This phenomenon of the ways in which we’re getting less activity isn’t restricted to sitting on the sofa. We detail in our book Small Choices, Big Bodies the many ways in which society has engineered physical activity out of people’s lives through the spread of labor-saving devices, among other modern conveniences. Our lives may be more convenient, but we’re also burning fewer calories.

Taking a different approach, researchers from Tulane are pointing the finger at snack food in the obesity debate. It’s worth pointing out that one of them is Tom “Dr. No” Farley—NYC’s newest nanny and Tom Frieden replacement—who yesterday promoted the city’s overzealous salt reduction initiative. As Reuters reports, Farley and coauthors report that “the widespread availability of snacks could be fuelling obesity.”

By researchers’ estimates, this availability “problem” could lead to people consuming an extra 2,600 calories per year. Doing the math, that works out to just over 7 calories a day. That’s right—the equivalent of 5 raisins. That’s hardly worth making a fuss over (unless your modus operandi is playing the blame game and creating draconian regulations). An easier option might be to ask people to take a 3-minute walk on the way to get those raisins.

And lastly, as USA TODAY details, a British study finds that having a few extra pounds isn’t even necessarily a bad thing. Researchers from Oxford report that having a little extra “cushion” in the hips, thighs, and buttocks is healthy and protects against heart and metabolic problems.

Obesity has many factors and inputs, but in the end (or hips or thighs) weight gain or loss boils down to one thing: An imbalance of “calories in” and “calories out.”

CCF’s Senior Research Analyst appeared on Fox & Friends this morning to tell viewers about how New York City’s latest dietary war is yet another bunch of big government hooey. Click here to watch us debate a nutritionist who thinks that government-induced recipe reformulations are a good thing.

We had the idea a long time ago, so it’s pretty awesome to see some serious passive aggression being displayed in Wi-Fi network names. Seriously, grindcore at 3am? That sounds annoying. [Passive Aggressive Notes]

LONDON, January 12 /PRNewswire/ —

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Unite, the leading union in the food industry, will today (Tuesday) repeat that a bidding war is bad for Cadbury and its workforce as rumours intensify about the future ownership of the chocolate maker.

The union is to give evidence to the influential Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee of the House of Commons today which is conducting an emergency inquiry into the attempted acquisition of Cadbury.

Unite wants a stronger voice to be given to workers during the takeover process. Cadbury is already subject to a takeover bid from US-based transnational Kraft, which Unite fears could be paid for in job losses and cuts in pay and conditions for the UK and Ireland workforce. Speculation is now growing that Ferrero-Rocher is also in the process of finalising an offer for Cadbury, adding to Unite’s concerns that the interests of the UK and Irish workforce will be lost as a bidding war erupts between companies based in two separate continents.

Unite says that the bids for Cadbury underscore the ease with which otherwise stable UK companies can be subject to hostile acquisition. Speaking ahead of the Select Committee session at which he will give evidence, Unite’s deputy general secretary Jack Dromey, said:

“Takeover policy is shrouded in secrecy and tilted towards profiteering, not the public interest, so much so that the interests of banks and far-off boardrooms come before those of loyal workers and communities. Billion-dollar buy-up packages are put together without any need to guarantee jobs and investment.

“UK and Irish workers, and UK businesses, certainly do not benefit and they will continue to lose out if bidding wars, like the one unfolding for Cadbury, are allowed to determine the future of our companies and country.”

Also set to appear before the Select Committee, Jennie Formby, Unite’s national officer for food and drink, added:

“The speed with which Cadbury has gone from “Not for Sale” to “Under Offer” is startling. Once the speculators started to hover, a great UK and Irish company, a household name with products loved by generations of consumers, was plunged into uncertainty.

“Two months on from Kraft’s initial interest, we are still none the wiser as to Kraft’s plans for Cadbury. Thousands of workers are in the dark about their jobs and it cannot be right that they will remain so until any deal, whether with Kraft or another bidder, is done and dusted.”

Despite continued pressure on the company, Unite has failed to secure further information from Kraft on it intentions towards Cadbury’s workforce. With analysts predicting that Kraft will be seeking to generate up to $1.5 billion in savings, and fears growing that much of these could be made through mass redundancies and restructuring, Unite is pushing for commitments on minimum employment protections, including no compulsory redundancies or site closures, and protection for pensions.

Unite says it also wants Kraft to be much clearer about its plans for all sites in the UK and Ireland, and for details of the business plans for the combined company as a whole.

The union says it will continue to engage in discussion with Kraft and any other company mounting a bid for Cadbury, including Ferrero-Rocher. Last month, Unite launched its “Keep Cadbury Independent” campaign to win security in any takeover for workers in the UK and Ireland.

Notes: Jack Dromey, Unite’s deputy general secretary, and Jennie Formby, Unite’s national officer for food and drink, will give evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee of the House of Commons tomorrow, Tuesday (12th January). The Committee is sitting in Portcullis House and will begin its evidence session at 10.30am.

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Unite the Union

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Well it isn’t the lowest we’ve ever seen, but at $209.99 the price for no-restrictions HDTV isn’t bad.  Plus sightings of the Hauppauge HD-PVR for sale has been pretty sparse these past few months as Hauppauge works to get more in stock.

Why Have the Hauppauge HD-PVRs been so Sparse?

According to Hauppauge this has been due to an especially strong demand created by a Hauppauge/Amazon promotion for Black Friday week.  They report that they’ve been sold out continuously since the end of November but should be caught up by next month.  If you want one anytime in the next month or so, you might want to get the ones available at Amazon.

More about the Hauppauge HD-PVR

Worried about losing your analog channels or more of your QAM channels?  If you would like to be able to record (and watch LiveTV) on all of your TV channels including the encrypted ones on your HTPC you’ll want to check out the Hauppauge HD-PVR 1212.  You can read more about the HD-PVR Recorder here.

Amazon.com (affiliate) has the Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder for $209.99 with free shipping(regular price is $250)

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Short Version: The Sprint Overdrive is a small, compact portable 3G/4G cellular data network to WiFi dongle designed for use by up to five people simultaneously. The best part is the ease of use and the worst part is the dearth of 4G networking outside of a few major cities.

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January 12, 2010

Ian King and Helen Power

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Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive of Kraft, has been dealt an extraordinary snub by two leading shareholders in Cadbury after trying to launch a charm offensive.

Ms Rosenfeld has sought to meet a number of institutional investors in the British confectionery group before next week’s final deadline for Kraft to raise its hostile £10.5 billion takeover bid for Cadbury.

However, it is understood that at least two of the shareholders have told Kraft that they are uninterested in meeting Ms Rosenfeld, arguing that there would be little point in their doing so until she was prepared to contemplate raising Kraft’s offer for Cadbury. The Times has been told that one of these was Deutsche Bank’s asset management division.

A number of other shareholders, including Legal & General and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, have agreed to take part in the meetings, which have been scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday. But it is understood that they, too, have made clear that they have no intention of accepting Kraft’s offer while it remains pitched at the existing price.

One person familiar with their thinking said last night: “They have said they will see her, but they will be giving her some very forthright opinions.”

Others that have been invited to meet Kraft include Standard Life, AXA and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

Ms Rosenfeld’s trip to London is significant because it is the first contact that she has sought with Cadbury’s shareholders since Kraft made its takeover bid on September 7 last year. During the takeover battle, Ms Rosenfeld has taken a methodical approach to the bidding process, insisting that Kraft would “maintain a disciplined approach” and arguing that she was certain of Cadbury’s intrinsic value.

Market insiders believe that her offer to meet Cadbury shareholders represents something of a U-turn from this standpoint. Most Cadbury shareholders have made clear that Kraft’s cash-and-shares offer, which last night was worth 757p per Cadbury share, would have to be raised to at least 800p — and possibly to 820p — to be taken seriously. Cadbury shares closed up 3p at 781p.

One shareholder said that they thought that Ms Rosenfeld was meeting shareholders in an early attempt to “test the water” before raising Kraft’s terms in a way acceptable to Cadbury shareholders and Warren Buffett, Kraft’s biggest shareholder. He said last week that he was opposed to the US food conglomerate’s plans to issue new shares to help to finance a takeover on the grounds that it represented a “blank cheque”.

The shareholder said: “They must be trying to ascertain what they can do before going back to check with Buffett [that this will be acceptable to him].”

Another insider claimed that Ms Rosenfeld’s visits had probably always been part of Kraft’s game plan: “Kraft were always planning to send her to London at this stage. The reason she hasn’t spoken to the investors yet is because, until now, she hasn’t had anything to say to them.”

Cadbury will issue its latest defence against Kraft this morning. It has been given a further three days by the Takeover Panel, giving it until Friday in which to unveil its 2009 trading update, which is also expected to form a key plank in its fight to remain independent. Kraft has until Tuesday next week in which to improve the terms of its offer.

Hershey, the American confectionery group, and Ferrero, the Italian chocolatier, have been given until January 23 to come up with a fully financed bid for Cadbury. Italian newspapers reported at the weekend that Ferrero was seeking to raise a $4.5 billion loan to help to fund a possible bid.

Ferrero, whose brands include Ferrero Rocher, Tic-Tac and Nutella, is not expected to make an offer without a partner such as Hershey, which would also struggle to fund an offer on its own.

Ferrero is also thought to have spoken to private equity firms, including Blackstone Group, about its intentions towards Cadbury.

Wrapping up

Roger Carr, Cadbury’s chairman, will launch a volley of anti-Kraft rhetoric today, asking investors why they would want shares in the underperforming US food group (Helen Power writes). Mr Carr is expected to revisit comments about the mixed performance of Kraft’s share price since its IPO nine years ago as he makes a penultimate defence against the US raider. Todd Stitzer, Cadbury’s chief executive, will announce an increased dividend for 2009. Cadbury has brought forward its 2009 full-year results to Thursday, when it will present its final defence in advance of next Tuesday, when Kraft must make its best and final offer.

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	Security Analysis: Sixth Edition, Foreword by Warren Buffett (Security Analysis Prior Editions) by Benjamin Graham Buy new: $47.25 / Used from: $46.96 Usually ships in 9 to 11 days
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