Brain Benefits for the Holidays? Stuff the Stocking with Video Games

Title Post: Brain Benefits for the Holidays? Stuff the Stocking with Video Games
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Ryan Gosling Looks to 'The Place Beyond the Pines'

Ryan Gosling wants to provide for the son he just discovered he had with Eva Mendes, so naturally he decides to rob a bunch of banks. And Bradley Cooper is a rookie cop, also a father, who bumps up against corruption in the ranks. Both of their characters are heading for a violent collision in The Place Beyond the Pines, and we've got a first look at the dramatic trailer.

Related: Ryan Gosling to Make Directorial Debut

Ryan and Bradley's forceful confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud in the epic thriller that traces the intersecting lives of fathers and sons, cops and robbers, heroes and villains.

Related: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams Get Close in 'Blue Valentine'

In theaters March 29, 2013, The Place Beyond the Pines reunites Ryan with his Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfranc and features supporting turns by Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne and Ray Liotta.

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Watch and remember some of the memorable stories of 2012

2012 is on its last hoorah as the New Year approaches.

To commemorate the changing of the guards, The New York Post took a look back at some of the most memorable moments we caught on video.

Actress Lindsay Lohan kept Page Six busy this year as she became a a frequent visitor of the NYPD. On one occasion, she allegedly clipped a pedestrian with her SUV on her way to a club. A couple of months later, a woman claimed the actress punched her at a Manhattan lounge.

But, it wasn’t all bad news for Lohan. She gained a sister when her father, Michael, officially discovered he was the father of 17-year-old Ashley Horn.

Lilo wasn’t the only celebrity allegedly behaving badly in New York. Witnesses say Hip-Hop stars Chris Brown and Drake were involved in a bottle-throwing melee at the club W.I.P. that led to some injuries.

In more somber news, Superstorm Sandy destroyed thousands of homes in the Northeast and killed dozens of people.

It was also a feel-good sports year in New York. The Giants won the Super Bowl, New Yorkers helped represent Team USA at the Olympics and, in a short NBA season, Linsanity rushed through the city. Then, just as fast, Jeremy Lin blew out of town.

The year also saw, the end of Twinkies, a man with the tallest Mohawk in history, the end of MTV’s Jersey Shore, nude body paint arrests, fights over a anti-Jihad subway poster and more.

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013.

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Brazilian carrier now offering daily flights at MIA

Brazilian budget airline GOL is now offering daily flights between Miami International Airport and Sao Paulo. The scheduled service started Dec. 15.

The airline had been offering weekly charter flights since July.

GOL is the third airline to fly daily between Miami and Sao Paulo, along with American Airlines and TAM. Brazil is the airport’s top international market; last year, more than 1.4 million passengers flew between Miami and seven destinations in the country.

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Teen charged in bus shooting remains on house arrest

When 20 school children were shot and killed in Newtown, Conn. last Friday morning, few people in South Florida felt the pain as deeply in her heart as Ady Guzman-DeJesus.

Exactly a month ago, Guzman-DeJesus, just like many of the Connecticut parents, sent her daughter off to school. And hours, later, her daughter, 13, was fatally shot by a young man wielding a gun that had been stored in his mother’s Homestead home.

“I was in the car when I heard about the shootings on the radio,” Guzman-DeJesus recalled. “Everything just came back to me. I began crying and shaking so badly that my friend had to come and help me out of my car.’’

Guzman-DeJesus said she posted some condolences on Sandy Hook Elementary school’s Facebook page.

“I just wanted to tell them that I knew how they felt,’’ she said.

Guzman-DeJesus, in Miami-Dade court Thursday, wept at the memory, as prosecutors agreed to allow her daughter’s shooter, 15-year-old Jordyn Alexander Howe, to be released from juvenile detention where he had been held since the Nov. 20 killing. Howe, who did not appear in court, was ordered to remain on house arrest, monitored by an ankle device, pending his next hearing set for Jan. 23.

Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus, whose nickname was “Jina,” was killed when Howe packed a .40-caliber pistol in his backpack and took it out on the school bus transporting kids to three charter schools in Southwest Miami-Dade. The gun went off, striking Lourdes in the neck. Howe, a student at Somerset Academy Silver Palms, faces charges of manslaughter and carrying a concealed weapon.

The incident happened as the bus was driving children near SW 296 Street and SW 137 Avenue in Homestead. Lourdes, a student at Palm Glades Preparatory Academy, was shot in front of her 7-year-old sister. About seven other students were on the bus when the gun went off, police said.

Prosecutors on Thursday asked the judge for 30 additional days to decide whether to charge Howe as an adult. Judge Richard Hersch agreed to the extension, warning Howe’s public defender that if the teen violated the terms of his release, he would be taken into custody.

Miami-Dade police detectives continue their investigation. After the shooting, they said it appeared that Howe had taken the gun from his parents’ closet and had brought it to school at least once before. The day of the shooting, he was on the bus, showing the gun to another student when it suddenly discharged. Thus far, no charges have been brought against his parents.

Under Florida’s Child Access Prevention Law, it is a felony for a gun owner to leave a firearm where a child can access it, brandish it in public or use it to harm another person.

Gun law expert Jon Gutmacher said that by the time a child is 15, however, they are old enough to know not to bring a gun to school.

“It’s obviously a tragedy. You have a child who takes possession of a highly dangerous instrument. He knows he’s committing a crime and knows it at that age. A weapon doesn’t fire itself. It’s a .40-caliber semi-automatic… and it takes somebody to pull the trigger,’’ said Gutmacher, an NRA firearms trainer and attorney.

However, sources close to the case said Howe had a younger sibling in the home. Gutmacher said if there is a child under the age of 12 in the home, parents should have had the gun locked in a safe.

Howe’s family thus far have declined comment on the case. The gun allegedly was owned by Howe’s stepfather.

“This gun was not in a secure place, there is a younger child in that house, and the parents had the responsibility to keep that gun locked up,’’ said DeJesus family spokesman Ron Book, a lobbyist and child-safety advocate.

“A lot of people are talking around the country today about added laws that ought to be passed,’’ he said.

“But we’ve got laws in place that should have protected this parent and her children and we expect justice to be done and for him to be charged as an adult.’’

Ady Guzman-DeJesus said she believes that God will guide investigators to do the right thing. But, she said, she believes the boy who killed her daughter should be punished.

“He just has to pay,’’ she said.

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RIM loses BlackBerry subscribers for first time

TORONTO (AP) — Research In Motion‘s stock plunged in after-hours trading Thursday after the BlackBerry maker said it plans to change the way it charges fees.

RIM also announced that it lost subscribers for the first time in the latest quarter, as the global number of BlackBerry users dipped to 79 million.

In a rare positive sign, the Canadian company added to its cash position during the quarter as it prepared to launch new smartphones on Jan. 30. The new devices are deemed critical to the company’s survival.

RIM’s stock initially jumped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on that news, but then fell $ 1.48, or 10.4 percent, to $ 12.65 after RIM said on a conference call that it won’t generate as much revenue from telecommunications carriers once it releases the new BlackBerry 10 platform.

RIM is changing the way it charges service fees, putting an important source of revenue at risk. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said only subscribers who want enhanced security will pay fees under the new system.

“Other subscribers who do not utilize such services are expected to generate less or no service revenue,” Heins said. “The mix in level of service fees revenue will change going forward and will be under pressure over the next year during this transition.”

RIM’s stock had been on a three-month rally that has seen the stock more than double from its lowest level since 2003.

But Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said BlackBerry 10 will change RIM’s services revenue model dramatically. He said that instead of getting about $ 6 per device each month from carriers and users RIM could get as little as zero.

“That’s what turned the stock from being up 10 percent to being down 10 percent,” Walkley said. “That’s been part of our worry. How do they come back with a new platform and get carriers to continue to share the higher revenue —which sounds like they are not going to— and then subsidize the phone to make it affordable for consumers and enterprises.”

“People are seeing that the services revenue has a lot of risk to it now with the BlackBerry 10 migration.”

Three months ago, RIM had 80 million subscribers. Analysts said the loss of 1 million subscribers was expected. Once coveted symbols of an always-connected lifestyle, BlackBerry phones have lost their luster to Apple’s iPhone and phones that run on Google’s Android software.

RIM is banking its future on its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 platform, which is meant to offer the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand.

“We believe the company has stabilized and will turn the corner in the next year,” Heins said. He noted that the company’s cash holdings grew by $ 600 million in the quarter to $ 2.9 billion, even after the funding of all its restructuring costs. RIM previously announced 5,000 layoffs this year.

Heins said subscribers in North America showed the largest decline, but said there is growth overseas.

Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial, said before the conference call that the company bought itself more time.

“It doesn’t mean (BlackBerry) 10 will gain traction. A lot of people said 10 would be DOA, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case,” he said.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek also earlier called the results better than expected, noting that RIM added a significant amount of cash. RIM will need the money to advertise the new BlackBerrys and operating system.

Misek also called it a positive development that RIM said there would not be another delay to BlackBerry 10.

“The success or failure of this company will be on BlackBerry 10,” Misek said.

RIM posted net income of $ 14 million, or 3 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 1. That compares with a profit of $ 265 million, or 51 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

The latest figure includes a favorable tax settlement. Excluding that adjustment, RIM lost 22 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a wider loss of 27 cents.

RIM reported revenue of $ 2.7 billion, down 47 percent from a year ago.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: RIM loses BlackBerry subscribers for first time
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Beauty Pageant Bloopers

Twenty-year-old Boston University student Olivia Culpo became the first American in a more than 10 years to wear the Miss Universe crown on Wednesday night, but her road to victory did come with a few potholes.

RELATED: Who Is Miss Universe Olivia Culpo?

If you watched closely, you would've seen Culpo trip, ever so slightly, during the evening gown competition.

While Culpo's slip went unnoticed by most, other beauty pageant contestants have not been as fortunate. Click the video to see the most notorious slips, stammers and stumbles of past beauty contests.

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Bernie Madoff's brother gets 10-year sentence

The brother of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff has been sentenced in New York to 10 years in prison for crimes committed in the shadow of his notorious sibling.

Peter Madoff was sentenced Thursday after victims described their anguish at losing their life savings in the Ponzi scheme. The sentence was announced in a crowded Manhattan courtroom by Judge Laura Taylor Swain six months after Madoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and falsifying books and records. He agreed then to serve 10 years in prison. It was four years ago this month that his brother revealed his multi-decade fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of their $20 billion investment. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term.

Peter Madoff says he did not know of the fraud but committed other crimes.

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John Fumagalli succeeds Sheldon Anderson at Northern Trust Florida

Northern Trust has named John Fumagalli President of Northern Trust in Florida. Fumagalli succeeds well-known banker Sheldon Anderson, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

A Northern Trust veteran, Fumagalli joined Northern Trust in Chicago in 1989. In the years since he was served as President and CEO of Northern Trust in Missouri, President and CEO for the Southwest Florida region and regional head of West Florida. In his new position, he oversees Northern Trust’s 22 offices across the state.

Anderson, who has served as Chairman and CEO of Northern Trust’s Southeast Region since 2009, will retire on December 31, 2012. He will continue in a new capacity as Chairman of Northern Trust’s Florida Advisory Board.

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Miami-Dade elections report: County to blame for some problems

The waits of up to seven hours at some Miami-Dade polls during last month’s presidential election occurred in part because the county failed to estimate how much time it would take to fill out 10- to 12-page ballots, did not open more early-voting sites and decided not draw new precincts this year as planned, a report issued Wednesday concluded.

A last-minute surge in absentee ballots that overwhelmed the elections department staff, and a 12-hour Election Day breakdown of a machine that sorts the ballots also delayed the final results tally by two days, according to the department’s after-action report.

Wednesday’s report was the first comprehensive document outlining all of the factors that contributed to troubles in Miami-Dade. State officials, local elected leaders and county administrators have been piecing it together since the Nov. 6 election.

Some of the blame lies with Florida lawmakers, who placed 11 lengthy constitutional amendments on the ballot and cut the number of early-voting days to eight from 14.

But the 53-page report, while not providing any explicit mea culpas, also places responsibility on the county’s election department, run by Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s appointed elections supervisor, Penelope Townsley.

“It was a combination of factors,” Gimenez told The Miami Herald Wednesday evening. “But I can’t put the blame on any one person or one entity. The blame can go all the way around.”

The report points to seven key factors that affected the election, which was budgeted to cost $11.3 million:

• The length of the ballot: The ballot ran 10 to 12 pages, largely thanks to 11 state constitutional amendments and, though the report doesn’t mention them, 10 county charter questions.

• How long it took voters to fill out their ballots: While the department focused on educating voters, an estimate of the average voting time “may have yielded a better gauge for managing the wait times.”

• The number of early-voting sites: The state limits the sites to elections offices, city halls and public libraries. Miami-Dade could have opened more sites, but it budgeted for and stuck with its traditional 20 sites.

• Processing absentee ballots: Miami-Dade received a record number of absentee ballots — including more than 55,000 on Election Day and the day before — which take longer to tabulate because they require workers to verify individual signatures. There were glitches with the post office, only 60 of 150 hired seasonal workers assigned to open ballots showed up to work, and the machine that sorts ballots broke down for 12 hours beginning at 2:30 a.m. Election Day, further delaying the vote count.

• Delays at polling places: Miami-Dade checks in voters manually, using paper voter registries, on Election Day, instead of using quicker and more accurate (and more expensive) electronic registries available at early-voting sites.• Not reprecincting: Though the department had planned to draw new precincts, following once-a-decade legislative redistricting, it ultimately decided not to because the mayor and several commissioners feared new polling places would confuse voters. More than a quarter of the county’s voters would have been relocated, according to the report.

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