Score big on game day with Bobby Flay's BBQ burgers, Jessica Simpson's dip and more star-approved finger food recipes
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Updated: Monday Jan 28, 2013 | 06:00 AM EST
By: Kate Hogan
NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.
In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.
The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.
Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.
Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.
In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.
Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.
Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.
The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.
___
Online:
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks climbed to five-year highs on Friday in the wake of jobs and manufacturing data that showed the economy's sluggish recovery is still on track.
The Dow industrials rose to 14,000 for the first time since mid-October 2007 and the S&P hit its highest since December that year. The S&P advanced 5 percent in January, its best start to a year since 1997.
Analysts attributed the market's robust showing so far this year partly to a deluge of cash flowing into equities.
Data on Thursday showed investors poured $12.7 billion into U.S.-based stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the latest week, concluding the strongest four-week flows into stock funds since 1996.
"There's a lot of money looking for a home and people are finally deciding the bond market is done and moving money into equities," said Edward Simmons, managing director and partner at HighTower in Portland, Maine.
"I see the rotation (of assets) pushing the market up in the face of not-massive amounts of good news," he said. "People are overlooking the higher risk in equities."
Employment grew modestly in January, with 157,000 jobs added in the month, slightly below expectations for 160,000. Still, figures for both November and December were revised upwards.
Other reports released Friday showed the pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector picked up in January to its highest level in nine months, U.S. consumer sentiment rose more than expected last month, while December construction spending also beat forecasts.
"All the data seems to keep pointing to a slowly, steadily improving economy," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 137.21 points or 0.99 percent, to 13,997.79, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 14.81 points or 0.99 percent, to 1,512.92 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 34.76 points, or 1.11 percent, to 3,176.89.
With the day's gains, major equity indexes were on track for a fifth straight week of gains. The S&P 500 is also coming off its best monthly performance since October 2011.
Investors were also attuned to corporate earnings, with a trio of Dow components reporting profits that beat expectations.
Exxon Mobil
Drugmaker Merck & Co
Generic drugmaker Perrigo
Of the 252 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 69 percent have exceeded expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. That is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above average since 1994.
Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are estimated to have grown 4.4 percent, according to the data, up from a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth forecast on October 1.
Dell Inc
Shares of General Motors
GM gained 1.2 percent to $28.42 and Ford added 0.9 percent to $13.07.
Shares of Zoetis
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
The social media sphere is an increasingly noisy place, especially for brands. But hiding somewhere in the static are strong signals from companies reaching their customers in innovative ways. The Social Business Index from the Dachis Group provides a (free) real-time ranking of more than 30,000 global brands based on their social performance. Every week we’re taking a tally of who’s getting heard, what they’re saying, and why it matters.
RELATED: This Week’s Social Media Power Rankings: Cisco Has a Warrior
As you can see, there wasn’t much movement in the top 10. But if you look at number 17, you’ll see Diageo had the biggest jump this week. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, it’s the company that owns more familiar brands like Guiness, Johnnie Walker and Ketel One. So props to them and our livers—now let’s look at what happened outside the top 20:
RELATED: This Week’s Social Media Power Rankings: Cheers to Heineken
“Cisco’s rise in the Social Business Index this week was supported by the social efforts behind ‘the world’s largest classroom.’” Lizzie Steen of the Dachis Group told us. What she’s referring to is the The Cisco Networking Academy— a public/private program that provides technology and career education to more than four million students across 10,000 academies in 165 countries. And that sounds serious, but as Steen points out, part of its success is there’s an emphasis on fun. Steen writes:
Two engineers, Ian and Dan, set up two servers and decorated them with flower lights while studying for their certification from Cisco. The photo received more than 1,200 likes and 186 shares from the the site’s 460 thousand fans. Overall, the CNA page has balanced a dense subject matter with a collaborative and fun posts, making the learning process more global and human.
Swatch proved that it’s never too early to start prepping for Valentine’s Day. As the Dachis Group’s Joe Pinaire points out, their very popular True Love (has nothing to hide) campaign and its new A la Folie watch contributed to Swatch’s boost this week. “From Taiwan to Chile, the brand has leveraged countless regional Facebook presences to let their fans know the clock is ticking on the seasonal special,” Pinaire told us. “And fans have taken to this messaging, as the brand’s bevy of original and creative photo content has garnered love from around the globe,” he added. That photo content was specified and regionalized for their fans, featuring pictures of a Spanish store floor redesign promoting the watch and the watch thriving in the hustle of Vienna city-life and the new O’Hare airport store. “Swatch also launched a Twitter contest using their global handle (@swatch), encouraging Belgian, Dutch, English, Spanish, and Swiss fans to declare their #TrueLove (because it has nothing to hide–right?) in exchange for a chance to win the seasonal watch and a travel voucher.” And if there’s something people love more than Valentine’s Day, it’s a free contest.
So, no cheating, but do you know how many Facebook fans Intel and its Ultrabooks have? Over 16.5 million. That also means a lot of social media juice. “Last week, the Ultrabook took in the sights in New York City and Paris. In New York, an Ultrabook posed within view of the inimitable Empire State Building with the caption, ‘Empire State of Mind’, showing off its amazing form factor and the Intel i7 chip that powers it,” the Dachis Group’s Charles Lim told us. The photo generated more than 130 thousand likes, 1,600 comments and six thousand shares—it’s a photo of a computer people. Lim explains:
Like car lovers, electronics enthusiasts react positively to photos of gear that they already own or would like to own. This is because electronics, like cars, are aspirational and functional and inspire lust and passion. It also helped that the photo was a shout-out to the cultural hub of America. …
These posts are well tuned to a global brand campaign that appeals the traveler, gets local voices involved, inspires contests and instills the notion that the Ultrabook can go anywhere you go.
Methodology: A project of the Dachis Group, a social business professional services group, the Social Business Index analyzes the conversations on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and others. The index, which currently covers approximately 25,0000 companies and 27,000 brands, detects behaviors and activities exhibited by these companies and analyzes their execution and effectiveness at driving outcomes such as brand awareness, brand love, mind share, and advocacy. The Atlantic Wire takes a snapshot of the rankings at the end of the day on Sundays.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
The Bachelor
(from left) Selma Alameri, Sean Lowe and Tierra LiCausi
Kevin Foley/ABC(3)
You seemed disappointed – not to mention scared – when Sean took the "Iraqi to the desert" for rock climbing.
I was so scared but [I went into] survival mode and hauled ass up that rock. I was like, "I can't think about where I am or what I am doing or I'll go out of my mind." I loved him so much for him giving me the opportunity to prove to the world that I am more than just a glamour girl.
Refusing to kiss Sean had everyone talking. Why wouldn't you kiss him?
I don't believe that showing affection in public is a bad thing but my mom does. ... Her one simple request was don't make out with somebody on television. ... She didn't mind that I was going to do the show, which is so huge, and she clearly knows that I go on dates and that I've kissed a boy before. It was more for the people in our Arab circle. ... We have such a strong culture and my family is big in my life, so I needed to test Sean to see if he'd respect my family and culture. And it was a huge test for me to see if I could resist.
Did you regret withholding kisses or worry it'd put you at a disadvantage?
Honestly, I never regret anything ... [I was] afraid that he'd take that as [as a sign that] I don't really like him. But Sean is such an amazing man that he totally understood.
You said you wouldn't kiss Sean until you were last woman standing. Seriously?
At that moment, I meant it. ... I didn't know if I would end up kissing him. Things change. Life happens. You act on emotion. You'll have to wait and see what ended up happening.
Acknowledging the obvious cultural and religious differences, if Sean does pick you in the end, would he be welcomed by your family?
Yeah. Our family is American and lives the American culture. I was born into a Muslim family. I'm spiritual and believe in God, but I'm not a practicing Muslim.
My brother-in-law is blond-haired, blue eyed, very Catholic, very American. Every guy I've ever dated was American. He would fit right in.
If it can't be you, which of your housemates should end up with Sean?
None. I'm the best match for him. That was my man.
But seems Sean is falling for many girls at once.
I believe him that he has a connection with each of the girls. I loved and got along with all the girls in the house after living with them and all the drama with the exception of one. We won't mention in names.
Assuming you mean Tierra, was she as bad as she seems on TV?
Tierra was definitely the black sheep. ... She just doesn't know how to get along with other girls. Not everybody can handle dating a man with [25] other women – it's harder than you realize – but you signed up for this so don't take it out on us. I was like, "Lady, hide your crazy for a little bit."
It's hard to believe Sean doesn't see that side of her.
I don't blame him because she was so good at switching it on and off. She's got him so fooled. He didn't live with us or see her daily. She was a completely different person with him. I'd watch her with Sean and she'd be batting her eyelashes and be like a sweet puppy just looking into his eyes.
NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.
In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.
The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.
Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.
Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.
In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.
Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.
Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.
The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.
___
Online:
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors were cautious after a mixed bag of economic data, while stellar earnings from chipmaker Qualcomm helped the Nasdaq index to edge higher.
The S&P 500 is on track to post its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997.
Investors expect a pullback in equities after the recent gains, though they have bought on dips over the past four weeks. The largest daily decline on the S&P 500 so far in 2013 was Thursday's 0.39 percent drop after data showed the economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012.
"This is a highly rotational market," said Janelle Nelson, portfolio analyst at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis, noting how investors dive into beaten-down sectors on the smallest encouraging news.
Data on Thursday that showed a slight rise in weekly jobless claims while incomes grew at the best pace since 2004 underscored how fragile the economic recovery still was.
On Friday the government is due to release figures on January's non-farm payrolls, which are expected to show employers added 160,000 jobs in January after a rise of 155,000 in December. Friday will also bring reports on consumer confidence, U.S. manufacturing, construction spending and car sales.
"The market's lack of movement is due in part to the large number of economic releases coming out tomorrow," said Nelson.
Qualcomm
Facebook
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 19.72 points or 0.14 percent, to 13,890.7, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 1.68 points or 0.11 percent, to 1,500.28 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 3.04 points or 0.1 percent, to 3,145.35.
The S&P 500 has advanced more than 5 percent in January after legislators in Washington temporarily sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could have derailed the recovery. Better-than-expected corporate earnings have added to the gains.
It would be the benchmark's largest monthly advance since a more than 6 percent gain in October 2011 and the best January advance since a 6.1 percent jump in 1997.
UPS
Constellation Brands
Tank barge operator Kirby Corp
Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning shows that of the 231 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 69.3 percent have exceeded expectations, a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.
Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 3.7 percent. That's above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth forecast on October 1, the data showed.
WMS Industries
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by Bernadette Baum and Kenneth Barry)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A roadside bomb killed two polio workers in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, in the third such attack this week on workers struggling to immunize children against the crippling disease.
The explosion struck as the two workers, with a United Nations-backed campaign, were traveling by motorcycle near Parachinar in the Kurram District, near the border with Afghanistan.
It was the first such attack on health workers in that area, said a senior local official speaking by phone on the condition of anonymity, offering further evidence that a Taliban-led campaign of violence and intimidation against polio workers is spreading across northwestern Pakistan.
Despite an internationally supported campaign to halt polio in Pakistan, infection rates have soared across the country in the past year, coinciding with a wave of militant attacks against the poorly protected workers at the heart of the effort. Some militants accuse polio workers of using vaccination as a cover to spy on behalf of the United States — a claim that has been fueled by the revelation that the C.I.A. used a vaccination drive as cover for the effort to find Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in early 2011.
The violence has badly affected vaccination efforts, which involve tens of thousands of health workers who repeatedly administer cheap oral vaccines to children under 5.
Nine polio workers were killed in a string of attacks across the country in December. On Tuesday, suspected militants fatally shot a police officer who had been escorting female polio workers in the Swabi District, 50 miles east of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The shooting prompted officials to suspend the campaign in Swabi, but they pressed ahead in other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining tribal belt. Another polio worker was wounded by a man with an ax in an unrelated episode on Tuesday.
It was unclear, however, whether the latest killings were directly related to the polio campaign. The Kurram District has a history of violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and the local official said it was unclear whether the explosion targeted the two workers for their links to the polio campaign or for their religious affiliation.
Violence against polio workers is not confined to the turbulent northwest. United Nations workers in Karachi, the port city on the Arabian Sea, have also suffered attacks that have set back efforts to wipe the disease from the city, Pakistan’s most populous.
Pakistan is one of three countries, along with Nigeria and Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected Apple Inc‘s request to revive its bid for a sales ban on Samsung‘s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dashing the iPhone maker’s attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars.
Apple had asked the full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to revisit a decision in October by a three-judge panel of the same court. The panel rejected Apple’s request to impose a sales ban on Samsung’s Nexus smartphone ahead of a trial set for March 2014.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. A Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.
The fight in appeals court comes after Apple won a $ 1.05 billion verdict last year against Samsung in a U.S. District Court in California. The same trial judge will preside over the legal battle surrounding the Nexus phone, which involves a patent not included in the earlier trial.
The fight has been widely viewed as a proxy war between Apple and Google Inc. Samsung’s hot-selling Galaxy smartphones and tablets run on Google’s Android operating system, which Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, once denounced as a “stolen product.”
In its October ruling against Apple, the appeals court raised the bar for potentially market-crippling injunctions on product sales based on narrow patents for phone features. The legal precedent puts Samsung in a much stronger position by allowing its products to remain on store shelves while it fights a global patent battle against Apple over smartphone technology.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, in San Jose, California, who has presided over much of the Apple/Samsung litigation in the United States, cited the appeals’ court decision in a December order rejecting Apple’s request for permanent sales bans on several Samsung phones. Apple has appealed Koh’s ruling.
Apple wanted the full Federal Circuit of Appeals, made up of nine active judges, to reverse the earlier ruling. But in a brief order on Thursday, the court rejected Apple’s request without detailed explanation or any published dissents.
Several experts had believed that Apple faced long odds, as the legal issues in play were not considered controversial enough to spur full court review.
Apple could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the high court has made it more difficult for patent plaintiffs to secure sales injunctions in recent years.
The case in the Federal Circuit is Apple Inc. vs Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 12-1507.
(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by John Wallace, Grant McCool and Leslie Adler)
Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News
One Direction, (from left) Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Harry Styles
Jon Furniss/AP
"My mum just cries the whole time. My mum literally has not stopped crying for the past two and a half years," Liam Payne said Thursday on ITV's Daybreak show in Britain.
The boys may be world famous, but they insist their families are still their biggest fans.
"It's really nice just to like look out [at a concert] and see your family, however embarrassing they're being," said Zayn Malik. "Even if they're on the chair dancing, like, it's just cool."
Just don't invite them on stage. "Our mums would absolutely poo themselves if we brought them on stage," Louis Tomlinson said. "My mum wouldn't know what to do."
One things the moms are a little less thrilled about? The tattoos their sons have been getting.
"My mum went crazy about the whole tattoo idea," Payne said. Malik added that their manager, Simon Cowell, hasn't said anything about the tattoos, "but our mums have been like, 'Maybe you're getting a bit too much.' "
The boys also denied rumors they were house hunting in Los Angeles. "No," said Tomlinson. "I think someone just sits down and says, 'What can I write about today?' "
In any case, they may have a grander destination in mind. Both Tomlinson and Harry Styles revealed in the interview that they'd love to go to space.
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