Ron Paul, Mitt Romney Leading On Facebook Ahead Of Florida Primary

Screen Shot 2012-01-27 at 5.40.06 PMThe Republican presidential candidacy is still far from decided, based on the split primaries and mixed polls so far. So here's another source for trying to figure who's really pulling ahead -- the number of new Facebook fans that each candidate is getting, according to the Inside Facebook Election Tracker. Mitt Romney is finally making some strong gains this month, in contrast to his Facebook performance over December. By "strong gains" I mean he's been attracting a roughly similar number of fans to Ron Paul, the candidate who normally dominates on the web (and the clear leader last month). The two have fought for the daily lead for most of January, except for when Rick Santorum surged around his Iowa primary win on the 3rd.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eQ8ZC3oFovw/

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Facebook IPO could value it among top companies

FILE - In this May, 26, 2010 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the social network site's new privacy settings in Palo Alto, Calif. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

FILE - In this May, 26, 2010 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the social network site's new privacy settings in Palo Alto, Calif. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When Facebook makes its long-expected debut as a public company this spring, the social-networking company will likely vault into the ranks of the largest public companies in the world, alongside McDonald's, Amazon.com and Bank of America.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as Wednesday, with an initial public offering of stock in three or four months.

The targeted amount would slot it among the world's 25 largest IPOs, although as recently as November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion when it shed majority control by the U.S. government.

The IPOs of 14 companies would rank higher than Facebook's, according to investment adviser Renaissance Capital. Among them were Visa Inc.'s $17.9 billion IPO in March 2008, the largest for a U.S. company, and world-topper Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., which raised $19.3 billion in July 2010, not including extra shares issued to meet demand.

Facebook spokesman Larry Wu said the company will not comment on IPO-related speculation. The Journal had cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The Journal also said that Facebook was close to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter, which would be a setback for rival Goldman Sachs. Both declined comment to The Associated Press.

The buzz surrounding an outsized haul for Facebook's founders, employees and early investors remains a hopeful sign for capital markets following a deep recession. At the reported price, Facebook's IPO would be the biggest for a U.S. Internet company ever ? topping the debut of one of its main rivals, Google Inc.

"We are expecting 2012 to be a year of recovery for the IPO market led by the Facebook IPO," said Kathy Smith, Renaissance Capital's principal.

The event will follow a string of tepid debuts by technology startups including social game maker Zynga and discount advertiser Groupon. The stocks of both companies are just pennies above their offering prices in December and November respectively. Zynga's stock fell 5 percent below the IPO price on its first day of trading.

Facebook's will be the most anticipated tech IPO since Google went public in August 2004. Not including shares sold by early investors, the Internet search giant raised $1.2 billion and grabbed a market value of $23 billion, the biggest so far for a U.S. Internet company. The IPO raised $1.9 billion, including shares sold by early investors and extra stock issued to meet the heavy demand. It's not known whether Facebook's $10 billion target includes shares owned by early investors.

Facebook's reported valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion compares with about $100 billion for McDonald's Corp., $90 billion for Citigroup Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and $75 billion for Bank of America Corp. It would exceed the market cap of $55 billion for Hewlett-Packard Co., one of the world's largest technology companies by revenue.

Both Facebook and Google earn most of their money from advertising and are now competing to gain as much information as possible about their users to help advertisers target niche audiences.

According to eMarketer, Facebook is expected to grow its share of the U.S. display ad market to about 20 percent this year from 16 percent in 2011, above second-ranked Yahoo's expected share of about 13 percent. For overall online ad revenue, Facebook is seen grabbing just 8 percent of the market this year, compared with 45 percent for Google.

EMarketer estimates that Facebook's ad revenue will grow 52 percent to $5.78 billion this year and will reach $7 billion in 2013.

Despite presumably topping Google's public launch, Facebook spent more time growing behind the veil of private ownership than its rival.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates in 2004 and is debuting on stock markets in its eighth year. Google's IPO came six years after being founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google turned eight in August 2006, its market cap was roughly $116 billion. Today, the company is worth nearly $190 billion ? down from a peak of about $235 billion in November 2007.

Investors may be asked to bet heavily on the belief that Facebook will continue to revolutionize the way people communicate around the globe. Even with Facebook's heady growth rate, Google had ad revenue last year of more than five times what Facebook is expected to get in 2013. Yet it is Google that is mimicking Facebook in building a rival social network called Plus.

"There's the general feeling that Facebook might be the future of the way the Internet works," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

Zuckerberg, 27, is already worth $17.5 billion, based on the latest estimates from Forbes magazine. Most of that wealth is drawn from the value of Facebook shares that have traded among a small universe of well-heeled investors that buy stakes in companies before they go public.

As the company gauges public demand for its stock, the number of shares offered and the price asked could change significantly. Groupon had to refile its securities paperwork repeatedly as regulators questioned some of its accounting methods. Even Google took in less than it hoped as people shunned an unorthodox auction-based offering.

John Fitzgibbon Jr., publisher of IPOScoop.com, said it's too early to get excited.

"Until they actually put the ink on the paper and push it across the desk of the SEC, it's all speculation," he said.

The possible filing next week isn't all that surprising.

Federal rules require companies with at least $10 million in assets and more than 500 shareholders to disclose its quarterly financial results and other details. The reporting requirement kicks in 120 days after the fiscal year in which a company exceeds the shareholder threshold for the first time.

Facebook's fiscal year ends Dec. 31, so it has until late April 2012 to comply with this requirement, having hit the 500-shareholder threshold last year. Because it typically takes three or four months after filing paperwork to issue the IPO, a Wednesday filing would allow it to meet the deadline. If it happens in May, it could become a lucrative birthday gift for Zuckerberg, who will turn 28 that month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-27-Facebook-IPO/id-94b267e008b7400e87aa43a66f26c3bd

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Mayor unveils Lebanon's new tagline & logo

Sporting a Penn State football jersey in keeping with the event's halftime-party theme, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello stands before a screen showing the city s new logo and tagline Lebanon: The place to grow shortly after introducing them Wednesday night in HACC-Lebanon s multipurpose room. (John Latimer / Lebanon Daily News)

You won't find any reference to bologna in Lebanon's new catch phrase.

The city's new tagline - "Lebanon: The place to grow" - was announced Wednesday night by Mayor Sherry Capello.

The mayor's announcement was made in HACC-Lebanon's multipurpose room, which was decorated to reflect a Super Bowl halftime party theme. The room was filled with community leaders and invited guests, including many local elected officials.

In keeping with the sports-like atmosphere, the Lebanon High School cheerleaders lent their voices to the celebration, and many guests wore the jersey of their favorite team - including Capello, who sported a Penn State football jersey.

The tagline and logo - a red outline of the city's skyline above the word Lebanon - were the creations of a steering committee of about a dozen community volunteers who worked several months on the project, Capello explained.

The group formed its message by focusing on four of the city's best attributes - business, education, family life and community, the mayor said.

"Our tagline .... is not quite the big city flashy sort of tagline," Capello said. "However, it does reflect our vision statement and what you can get if you come to live in or visit Lebanon."

The tagline will not be part of a big marketing campaign, but it will be used to identify the city on places like its Website and letterhead, the mayor said.

The announcement of the tagline and logo were the finishing touches to a process that began a year ago when Capello invited community members to develop a vision for the city.

Four meetings were held at HACC during which the city's strengths and weaknesses were identified and discussed. A public survey was also conducted to gauge public sentiments.

The result was a lengthy vision statement, a portion of which identified Lebanon as a place with "a perfect blend of urban flair and rural character (with) a walkable urban center that embraces its historic charm and integrity while meeting the contemporary needs of a 21st Century economy."

While that process was guided by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center - a nonprofit organization with a track record of helping other cities develop revitalization strategies - Capello stressed that the tagline was a homegrown effort created and refined by Lebanon residents.

"We did what is right for us. What fits us," she said.

Capello gave credit to Jack Cantwell for coming up with the basic idea.

Owner of SkyLimit Marketing, Cantwell is a marketing specialist who has developed taglines and messaging for dozens of companies during a lengthy career.

After the celebration, Cantwell explained that good taglines need to have a positive message and be targeted towards the right audience - in the city's case, families and business owners.

"We built the line around grow, because it is a positive word and it is a reflection of the future, and positivity," Cantwell said. "We are a very solid, traditional community that sees the future as something special and positive. And we are happy to be here because this is the lifestyle we enjoy, and you can't find it anyplace else."

When campaigning for mayor in 2009, Capello promised to change the city's image and said creating a tagline was one way she would attempt to do it. Wednesday night, she said she was pleased with the results.

"If you want to elevate the standard of living of our residents and build our businesses, we must counter unproductive stereotypes about our city," Capello said. "We are going to change our image. We will promote the quality and benefits that are good to be associated with. Our tagline is credible, sustainable and matches the reality of our place."

johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149

Source: http://www.ldnews.com/ci_19822169?source=rss_viewed

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Ne-Yo wants to integrate music as new Motown VP (AP)

NEW YORK ? Ne-Yo has a dream: He believes the record industry is segregated, and has hopes of changing that as the new senior vice president of artists and repertoire for Motown Records.

Even though Motown's legend is rooted in black music, it was music that appealed to everyone, helping to unite a nation in sometimes divisive times. As a top exec at Motown, Ne-Yo wants to unite people musically once again.

"I want to get back to a place where everybody's listening to the same thing no matter what race, color, creed you are," the Grammy-winning singer said in an interview Wednesday after Universal Music made the announcement. "(Now) there's music that's specifically for black people and there's music that's specifically for white people, and I feel like the essence of ... music is lost when you do that."

The 32-year-old Grammy winner, who has multiple hits of his own and has also written smashes for others like Rihanna and Beyonce, says he is looking to sign artists that have a drive and a tremendous work ethic, not just one-hit wonders.

"I definitely plan on making sure the people I bring to the industry are going to be an asset to the industry as opposed to a liability," said Ne-Yo, who also has his own label imprint called Compound Entertainment. "It's more than `She looks good in a short skirt' or `He looks good with his shirt off' ? it's about somebody that has a talent."

Ne-Yo, who is planning to release his fifth album this summer, will also move to the Motown Records roster. He has released his four albums on Island Def Jam Music Group; both Motown and Def Jam are subsidiaries of Universal Music.

He's also an actor: Ne-Yo appears in the new George Lucas film "Red Tails" about the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first black fighter pilots to serve in the U.S. military. It debuted at No. 2 with $19.2 million last weekend, despite some concerns that a black-themed film would not appeal to a mainstream audience.

"It always feels good to beat the odds," he said.

____

Online:

http://www.neyothegentleman.com/

___

Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mo/us_music_ne_yo

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UK could send military assets to Strait of Hormuz (AP)

LONDON ? Britain could send further military assets to the Strait of Hormuz to deter any attempt by Iran to block Persian Gulf oil tanker traffic, the country's defense secretary said Tuesday, as Tehran appeared to shrug off a new European Union ban on the purchase of Iranian oil.

Philip Hammond told reporters that two British and French warships and the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln had entered the Gulf on Sunday to show Tehran they would not tolerate any interference with global shipping.

Iranian leaders repeated long-standing threats to close off the Strait, which handles a fifth of the world's oil, after the European Union imposed the embargo Monday as part of sanctions to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country's controversial nuclear program.

But, other Iranian officials took a slightly different tack Tuesday, arguing that the sanctions simply would not work.

"The world economy is not such that a decision can deprive a country of its existence," the country's intelligence chief Heidar Moslehi was quoted Tuesday by the state IRNA news agency as saying.

During talks in London on Tuesday, Australia said it would also sign up to the embargo ? though acknowledged it currently has negligible oil imports from Iran.

The three warships ? which included Britain's HMS Argyll frigate ? that entered the Gulf on Sunday had sent "a clear signal about the resolve of the international community to defend the right of free passage through international waters," Hammond said.

"We also maintain mine-counter measures vessels in the Gulf, which are an important part of the overall allied presence there, and of course the U.K. has a contingent capability to reinforce that presence should at any time it be considered necessary to do so," he said.

Britain's defense ministry declined to offer specific detail on what assets and personnel are currently in the Persian Gulf, but said it had about 1,500 Navy personnel in the region east of Suez, which includes the Middle East and Indian Ocean.

Four anti-mine vessels are based out of Bahrain, while Britain also has two frigates ? including HMS Argyll ? three support ships, a survey vessel and one hunter-killer nuclear submarine in the region, the ministry said.

The United States and allies have already warned they would take swift action against any Iranian moves to choke off the 30-mile (50-kilometer) wide Strait of Hormuz.

At the center of the dispute is international concern over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is aimed at providing civilian power. The U.S. and other nations accuse Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons, and Tehran is now under several rounds of U.N. sanctions over its failures to be forthcoming about its work.

Hammond said recently that Iran was "working flat out" to produce a nuclear weapon.

Australia's foreign minister Kevin Rudd, in London with Australian defense minister Stephen Smith for talks with British counterparts, said his country would join the EU's oil embargo.

"We in Australia will undertake precisely the same parallel actions in Australia," Rudd said. "The reason is very clear ? the message needs to be delivered to the people of Iran, the wider political elites of Iran, as well as the government of Iran that their behavior is globally unacceptable."

Iran responded angrily to the new EU sanctions Monday, with two lawmakers escalating threats that their country would close the Strait of Hormuz. Lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said Iran had the right to shutter Hormuz in retaliation and that the closure was increasingly probable, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

"In case of threat, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is one of Iran's rights," Falahatpisheh was quoted as saying. "So far, Iran has not used this privilege."

Some commentators are declaring that Iran should cut the flow of crude even before the new measures go into effect in July, to punish Europe, while others say the embargo is a "gift" which will allow the country to diversity its economy.

"Ineffective Western sanctions are not a threat to us, but an opportunity that has brought a lot of benefits," Moslehi said at a gathering in the central city of Isfahan late Monday.

The measures, approved in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products. Existing contracts with Iran will be allowed to run until July.

Iran's Oil Ministry said the country can find new markets.

"Iran can easily find new customers for its oil," Mohsen Qamsari, a senior ministry official, was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying. "The National Iranian Oil Company has adopted the necessary measures to replace its oil exports in 2012."

Some 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue comes from oil exports, and analysts say that any sanctions affecting its ability to export oil would hit its economy hard. With about 4 million barrels per day, Iran is the second largest producer in OPEC. It exports about 2 million barrels a day and consumes the rest domestically.

The EU has been importing about 450,000 barrels of oil per day from Iran, making up 18 percent of Iran's oil exports.

Some in Iran said the country should stop selling oil to Europe now, instead of July, to punish the bloc before it can find suppliers to replace Iranian crude oil in the midst of winter.

"The Iranian people now expect that the flow of black gold to Europe be cut before it can find a replacement for Iranian oil," state radio said in a commentary Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Meera Selva in London contributed to this report

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran

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Gadhafi fighters seize control of Libyan town

By msnbc.com news services

TRIPOLI - Supporters of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi seized control of the town of Bani Walid on Monday after clashes with a militia loyal to the new government in which four people were killed, witnesses told Reuters.

The violence was bad enough that authorities in Tripoli felt forced to dispatch dozens of revolutionary fighters to Bani Walid, the Guardian reported, quoting brigade commander Saddam Abdel-Zein.


A resident of Bani Walid, about 120 miles south-east of Tripoli, said the sides fought using heavy weaponry, including 106 mm anti-tank weapons, and that 20 people were wounded.

Another witness told Reuters the fighting had now stopped but that Gadhafi loyalists were in control of the town center, where they were flying green flags, a symbol of allegiance to the ousted administration.

"They control the town now. They are roaming the town," said the witness, a fighter with the 28th May militia which was fighting the Gadhafi loyalists.

Bani Walid, base of the powerful Warfallah tribe, was one of the last towns in Libya to surrender to the anti-Gadhafi rebellion last year. Many people there oppose the country's new leadership.

The uprising in Bani Walid could not come at a worse time for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). It is already reeling from violent protests in the eastern city of Benghazi and the resignation of its second most senior official.

An air force official told Reuters that jets were being mobilized to fly to Bani Walid. In Tripoli, there were signs of security being tightened, Reuters reporters in the city said. ?

Fighters "massacred"
The violence in Bani Walid was sparked when members of the May 28 militia arrested some Gadhafi loyalists.

That prompted other supporters of the former leader, who was captured and killed in October, to attack the militia's garrison in the town, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"They massacred men at the doors of the militia headquarters," said the resident.

Libya's interim leaders declare independence from 42 years of rule by Moammar Gadhafi, whose cause of death remains under investigation. NBC's Adrienne Mong reports.

During Libya's nine-month civil war, anti-Gadhafi rebels fought for months to take Bani Walid.

Local tribal elders eventually agreed to let NTC fighters enter the town, but relations have been uneasy since and there have been occasional flare-ups of violence.

In November last year, several people were killed in Bani Walid when a militia group from Tripoli's Souq al-Juma district arrived in the town to try to arrest some local men.

Taking back control of the town will be challenging because it has natural defenses. Anyone approaching from the north has to descend into a deep valley and then climb up the other side, giving defenders an advantage.

It was this landscape, in part, that prevented anti-Gadhafi militias from taking the town during the civil war, despite the fact they were heavily armed and had superior numbers.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10217480-gadhafi-fighters-seize-control-of-libyan-town

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Investing Advice: Twenty Common Sense Rules You Need To Follow

I get a lot of inquiries about investment help from people that aren't suitable for what I do or people who simply don't yet meet our minimums.? I hate having to turn folks away, especially loyal readers or people that truly need assistance and can't find anywhere to get it in an unbiased way.

So with that in mind, I'm laying out my?Twenty Common Sense Investing Rules.? Please understand that these are not intended to be taken as?Iron Law?applicable in all situations nor are they meant to be specifically geared toward any one person.? This list of rules is simply my accumulated common sense, learned in victory and defeat (lots of defeat) and it can be applied to a plain vanilla portfolio within one day.

The below is for ordinary investors, not professional traders or those aspiring to become professional traders...

1.? Buy mid-sized and large stocks that are growing earnings and revenue

2. Buy large and mega-sized stocks that are paying consistent dividends and have low debt-to-equity ratios

3. Read the news on your stocks once a week maximum, once a month minimum

4. The moment a stock disappoints you or makes you wish you hadn't bought it, sell it.? Immediately and regardless of price.? Life is too short to hope a bad decision reverses itself

5. Don't get?In or Out of the market, but modulate your exposure up and down as a function of what you think is happening.? Your guess based on all the available news and indicators is as good as anyone else's - and it is?more important?than anyone else's for sure because it is your money on the line

6. You should be willing to take a 20% drawdown on every dollar you have in the stock market.? Obviously being down 20% is not the goal, but it's the reality - it can happen at any time.? It's not a permanent loss but you need to invest as though it could be

7. Don't buy stocks trading over 30 times earnings or under 7 times earnings - something is wrong in both cases

8. Don't buy stocks with market caps under $500 million unless you are playing and can afford to lose 100% of that money

9. Sell any stock with a controversial development or red flag no matter what.? Let someone else be the hero that swoops in on a mispriced, misunderstood security.? You can cheer them on from the safety of the sidelines.? Earnings restatements, auditor resignations, massive unexpected earnings misses, filing delays, fraud allegations etc are all automatic sells.? Let's not act like there aren't 8000 other stocks to choose from in the market

10. Use ETFs to own sectors that are in favor as opposed to individual stocks, when a huge positive trend becomes apparent - you'll get the upside without the single-stock risk.? The aging population and increasing demand for energy are big, fat pitches - it's hard to swing and miss if you own big swathes of these industries via an ETF, make your life easier

11. Avoid all mutual funds except for asset allocators (balanced funds or go-anywhere can be very useful for investors).? Anything based on a discipline (value, growth) or a sector (tech, financial) or a cap size (large, small) is going to underperform its benchmark over the long-term, mean revert versus its peers and cost you more than you need to spend in internal expenses.? This is?fact?not opinion

12. Don't try to be a trader unless that's going to be your full-time gig.? Trading as a hobby is not the same as being a trader - and it's less fun than you might think.? If you've decided to become a trader, find a method and stick with it until you?can do it regularly

13. Pay no attention to people who are always pessimistic.? The dirty secret is that even when things are terrible, they aren't that bad.? 2008 was the worst sell-off and economic conundrum in 70 years and it only took 18 months for the market? to come all the way back.? If you fell asleep in 2007 and woke up now five years later, your diversified portfolio including dividend? income and unrealized gains/losses looks like nothing ever happened at all

14. Pay no attention to people who are always optimistic.? They are selling something.? if someone can't admit that things suck every once in a while, their cheerfulness has an ulterior motive.? Or they belong in an insane asylum

15. The financial media wants you to think you are missing out on something and that you need to tune in or click to get up to speed.? Pay attention only if you are generally interested and get some entertainment value out of it, most of the time the headlines and segments are dreamed up by editors and producers who need something interesting to talk about each day.? And that's fine, everybody has to earn a living - but don't think anyone is keeping you informed as a public service

16. Don't follow gurus. Don't buy software.? Don't buy DVDs. Don't listen to "Gut Traders". Read books by and about people who've been successful in the market - but only if you're interested. They won't help you become a better investor if you don't care that much to begin with

17. Remind yourself about the difference between investors and traders: Investors make trades when necessary, traders make trades in the course of doing business - that is what they do for a living and your goals are different than theirs.? You don't get paid out on closed positions or a daily p&l statement.

18. Don't trade for excitement even though trading can be exciting at times

19. Don't trade angry or for revenge (this motherf*cking stock owes me!)

20. When you finally do become wealthy, hire other people to do this for you and watch them.? Go about enjoying the short time we all have left on earth away from the screen. Kiss your kids and play tennis and read books and? get drunk during the day just because and go to Australia for a month and buy that car you drove in high school - fix it up and take your sweetheart for a ride. Don't spend that time reading about inverse correlations between German bund yields and the gold/oil ratio.? Because that's all masturbation and really, who gives a sh*t?

Look, the market always goes up given enough time.? It is very hard to find a decade during which returns were negative even though we're just coming off one now.? Stocks go up three out of four years and declines of twenty percent peak-to-trough are extremely rare (declines of 50% are even rarer still and are?always?a buying opportunity).? So for new or smaller investors?the name of the game is to stay in, do smart things while you're in and avoid blowing up.

It's that simple.

This post originally appeared at The Reformed Broker.?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-20-common-sense-investing-rules-will-give-you-a-huge-leg-up-on-the-competition-2012-1

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Tracy Morgan of '30 Rock' out of Utah hospital (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan has been released from a hospital after collapsing during the Sundance Film Festival, and he says he'll be back at work Tuesday.

Morgan's publicist, Lewis Kay, confirmed Monday that the actor left the Park City Medical Center after he suffered from exhaustion and altitude Sunday night in Park City, where the elevation is 7,000 feet.

Morgan posted a comment Monday on Twitter that the high altitude "shook up this kid from Brooklyn."

"Superman ran into a little kryptonite," he quipped.

He also said on Twitter that he would be back to work Tuesday on "30 Rock."

Ron Nyswaner, co-director of the Sundance film "Predisposed," in which the actor stars, said Morgan's collapse resulted from "altitude sickness combined with his diabetes. And he hadn't eaten. He hadn't had enough water."

Kay said hospital officials report no drugs or alcohol were found in Morgan's system.

Morgan had been attending an event for the Creative Coalition at which he had just received an award.

In "Predisposed," which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo, Morgan plays a drug dealer caught up in the push-and-pull between a piano prodigy and his troubled mother.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_en_mu/us_film_sundance_tracy_morgan

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No. 2 Kentucky holds on to beat Alabama, 77-71 (AP)

LEXINGTON, Ky. ? Alabama's plan to beat Kentucky involved swarming freshman Anthony Davis.

The only place he and the rest of the Wildcats found some elbow room was at the free-throw line.

Terrence Jones scored 15 points and No. 2 Kentucky hit all eight of its free throws in the final minute to hold on to beat Alabama 77-71 on Saturday for the Wildcats' 47th straight home victory.

"That's one of the more physical games I've played. It's going to get worse. I've just got to fight through it," said Davis, who finished 2 of 10 from the field and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line for 11 points. "There's going to be other teams just like that. There's not going to be any games off ? Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia. They're all going to be games where we have to come out and be physical."

Kentucky (19-1, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) took the lead for good early in the first half, but Alabama's Trevor Releford scored all 17 of his points in the second half to keep the Crimson Tide (13-6, 2-3) close until the end.

"We came into the game and we knew we had to be physical and hit them because they're athletic and long in the front court," Alabama's JaMychal Green said. "Our focus mainly was hitting them, being physical and rebounding."

All of Alabama's hitting turned into foul shots and the teams combined for 45 fouls called.

Jones made Kentucky's final field goal with 6:57 left, but the Wildcats hit 23 of 29 second-half free-throw attempts and scored their final 15 points from the free-throw line.

Green had 22 points and 12 rebounds and Trevor Lacey added 10 points for Alabama, which lost its third in a row, but may have provided a blueprint for how to slow the Wildcats.

"I always kept a body on Davis if he rolled to the goal because we watched him play," Green said. "We saw a lot of lobs and dunks, so we knew that's how he scored. We just kept him off the boards."

But not out of the box score.

Leading 75-71 in the closing seconds, Davis blocked his fourth shot of the game and grabbed his ninth rebound when Charles Hankerson drove into the lane. Davis was fouled with 4.5 seconds left and made both his free throws for the final margin.

"Somebody's hip was on him 24-7 until the game ended," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "As a matter of fact, they put a hip on him in the postgame handshake, too."

That provided the Wildcats' other opportunities to score.

Doron Lamb had 14 points, freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 13, Darius Miller 11 and freshman Marquis Teague 10 for the Wildcats.

With 1:06 left, Kidd-Gilchrist fouled out trying to stop Andrew Steele, who hit two free throws that cut Kentucky's lead to 69-67.

The teams traded free throws with Miller making two foul shots and Green added two more with 37 seconds to play. Teague hit two and Steele answered with two more when Lamb fouled him on the inbounds pass with 24 seconds to go that cut it to 73-71.

But Miller hit two more free throws with 14 seconds to play before Davis' block. He set the school's single-season block record in Kentucky's previous win against Arkansas and added to his nation's leading blocks total.

"It was a rough game," said Davis, who has 93 blocks this year. "We had to fight through it, grind it out and that's what we did."

Releford rallied the Crimson Tide and Alabama trailed 49-48 with 12:37 left, but never took the lead despite Releford's scooping layup just beyond Davis' attempted block off the glass and then his floater that rattled around the rim and fell that cut Kentucky's lead to 55-52.

Jones' jumper made it 62-57 with 6:57 left, but Kentucky wouldn't score again from the field. The Wildcats fouled out Alabama's leading scorer and rebounder Tony Mitchell with 5:32 left.

Mitchell scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting for his second straight subpar performance after failing to score in 31 minutes in a loss to Vanderbilt.

Kentucky lost to Alabama last year on the road, but avenged it with a victory in the SEC tournament and got off to a fast start against the Crimson Tide in this one, too.

After Alabama took an early 5-1 lead, Kidd-Gilchrist sparked Kentucky on a 15-3 run that they never relinquish.

Davis missed his first seven shots before he followed up a miss by Teague with a dunk that gave Kentucky a five-point lead. The Wildcats maintained that advantage, taking a 37-32 lead into the break that they managed to hold onto throughout the foul-filled second half.

"Especially at the start, we weren't able to play through the physical play," Calipari said. "Until we learn to do that, every team's going to play us that way."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_t25_alabama_kentucky

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