Google Reader Is Gone: Can Facebook Take Advantage?

The following video is from Friday's installment of The Motley Fool's Weekly Tech Review, in which host Chris Hill and analysts Eric Bleeker and Jason Moser take a look at the biggest stories driving the tech sector this week.

Google recently cancelled its Google Reader service, leaving behind a large group of dedicated users feeling the loss. In this segment, Eric and Jason discuss Facebook's efforts to step in and fill this space with its own newsreader. Could this be a meaningful driver of traffic for Facebook? Eric also looks at just how well Facebook's ads are performing at the moment.

The full video is available here.

Believe it or not, most of our digital lives are controlled by just a handful of technology companies. This battle can only have one winner, so the question is, "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" In a special report from The Motley Fool, we give you that name for free. Simply click here for instant access.

The relevant video segment can be found between 0:00 and 4:06.

The article Google Reader Is Gone: Can Facebook Take Advantage? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Chris Hill and Eric Bleeker, CFA, have no position in any stocks mentioned. Jason Moser owns shares of LinkedIn. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright ? 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/06/29/google-reader-is-gone-can-facebook-take-advantage/

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Tour de France perseveres through 100 years of wars, doping, and hooliganism

The century-old cycling race remains popular in France, even after the Lance Armstrong era.

By Sara Miller Llana,?Staff writer / June 29, 2013

A combination photo shows four stained-glass windows by artist and former French cyclist Henry Anglade inside the Notre-Dame des Cyclistes (Our Lady of Cyclists) chapel near the village of Labastide-d'Armagnac in Landes, southwestern France Thursday. The Tour de France begins today, offering a unique window into the country.

Regis Duvignau/Reuters

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As the Tour de France opens for the 100th time today, it would be logical to believe it?s in a fight for its survival.

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The 100th edition happens to be the first since disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong finally admitted ? after years of lawyer-defended denials ? that he?s doped, including for each of the consecutive seven years he won the Tour de France. The race?s official victory list has gaping holes where he and others? titles have been stripped over doping.

But the race is just as popular as ever. Networks around the world will be broadcasting the full nine stages into 190 countries, while some 12 million people are expected to crowd the route, in tiny picturesque villages and dramatic mountain passes across France, to catch a glimpse of British rider Chris Froome or Spaniard Alberto Contador whizzing by. Most of the revelers will be French, as the Tour de France has been firmly stitched into the fabric of a French summer.

In fact, if the 100th edition shows anything, says Bill McGann, co-author of "The Story of the Tour de France," it?s the staying power of a sporting event that, from its inception, was a wild success but has overcome, also from its outset, chronic cases of cheating, bad sportsmanship, and questionable ethics.

?It seems to have an extraordinary resilience,? says Mr. McGann, "which at its core is about the adaptability of the Tour de France."

A long, checkered history

The Tour was born of a publicity gimmick. In 1903, in an effort to boost circulation of the sports newspaper L?Auto, journalist Geo Lefevre proposed an idea to his editor Henri Desgrange that many bosses would have dismissed outright: to create a cycling race from Paris to Lyon, to Marseille to Toulouse, to Bordeaux to Nantes, and back to Paris.

Cycling at the time was like soccer in Europe today, having many avid fans. But a week before the proposed race, only 15 people had signed up. So Mr. Desgrange made last minute changes to the itinerary and prize money and finally garnered 60 starters. On July 1, 1903, at 3:16 p.m., they started off on a 2,428-kilometer (1,500-mile) course that wound its way around France and has since become the greatest stage race in the world.

Held every year since (except during the two World Wars), it was, from its start, the ultimate litmus test of strength and endurance. But it has also, from the very beginning, always been marred by scandal and events that nearly put it under.

In just the second year of the race, which drew 88 starters, it was already so popular that it provoked the kind of hooliganism that plays out in soccer stadiums today. Spectators spread nails across the roadway and physically attacked riders, who themselves sought advantage in any number of ways, including jumping on trains and cars to get ahead.

In November 1904, the French Cycling Union disqualified the first four riders who finished the Tour, according to the history amassed by McGann, amid a chronicle of antics that would have undermined the race?s credibility from the outset if it hadn?t been so compelling to spectators.

It is, of course, doping that has dogged the legitimacy of the race for the past quarter century, though the problem is not so new. As far back as 1924, two brothers, Henri and Francis Pelissier, told a journalist that they regularly took cocaine, chloroform, and many pills to get an edge. ?We run on dynamite," Francis famously said.

But doping has come to be forever epitomized by Mr. Armstrong?s fall from the king of the Tour to its ultimate rebel. He admitted in August to using performance-enhancing drugs in what he described as a cycling culture where ambition and cutting edge chemicals made this the status quo. He admitted on Oprah Winfrey in January that doping was as routine as "air in our tires or water in our bottles.?

The scandals, which persist today with questions over how clean cycling really is, have turned some fans forever off ? those who feel that it?s not genuine sportsmanship but more akin to the trickery of professional wrestling that?s now playing out on the back roads and mountains of Europe.

And the Tour de France has acknowledged the taint. Still, ?The Tour will be stronger than doping and cheating,? said Jean-Etienne Amaury, president of the company that owns the Tour, at the unveiling of the 2013 itinerary last October in Paris.

A window onto France

Many, like McGann, agree with that statement. For millions of fans, doping is not the main plot line, just part of a story that?s bigger than any one rider or team or scandal. It?s part of the ritual of France that has spanned generations. If in the beginning whole villages, from the butcher to schoolchildren, to the priest and postman, came out to watch, today some 12 million follow in their footsteps ? 80 percent of whom are French ? drawn to the roadsides each summer for a free, three-week affair. They spend on average six hours watching the race, according to Tour de France statistics, many of them with picnics in hand.

Spectators were once drawn to the Tour de France for very different reasons, says Christopher Thompson, the author of "The Tour de France: A Cultural History."

In 1903, France was still reeling from military defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Over time, organizers and journalists used the Tour de France as a vehicle to create role models of toughness and resilience for young French men that endured through the World Wars.

?They generated the image of [the riders] as heroic, tough? people who could overcome terrible difficulties,? says Mr. Thompson, a professor of French history at Ball State University. ?It came to be experienced by the public as an extraordinary epic, where racers struggled over bad roads, in terrible weather conditions, up extraordinarily high mountains, and down dangerous descents.?

After World War II, and more recently because of the doping scandal, the riders themselves are no longer national role models. And the Tour has grown into a huge international sporting event, with broadcasters, racers, and sponsors from across the globe. But it's still a window onto the geography, cuisine, and diversity of France. ?Many French people watch the Tour, though they are casual cycling fans at best, for the extraordinary images of various parts of France, the beautiful castles, valleys, towns way up in mountains, and the extraordinary vistas,? says Thompson.

And of course there are the many million who tune in because they are fans who are in awe of the brute force or subtle intellect that the Tour demands, says McGann. Most know that doping still goes on, but they are willing to employ the "suspension of disbelief.?

?I think sports spectators are in general very forgiving,? he says. ?We groan and gnash our teeth, and then the first of July get the TV turned on, and can?t wait to sit down.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/tLMVZ6fuxz4/Tour-de-France-perseveres-through-100-years-of-wars-doping-and-hooliganism

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Remember When The Sony Walkman Was Considered High-Tech?

Do you remember a time when the Sony Walkman was as high-tech as the iPhone 5? Even though we have the modern advantage of rechargeable batteries, the idea of having a portable cassette or CD player today seems laughable. However, when the transistor radio was invented in the 1950?s, the world suddenly had an idea that music could be handheld. Inventions like the boom box dominated certain decades, but it was the introduction of the Walkman by Sony in 1979 that would shape music listening for the next twenty years.

A Brief History Of The Walkman

Despite the fact that Sony launched the product, the actual inventor of the portable personal stereo audio cassette player was a man named Andreas Pavel. He filed a patent for a device he called a ?Stereobelt? in 1977. Since Pavel?s patent was rejected by the United States, Sony was able to gain a market there with their Walkman model. However, Pavel eventually reclaimed his financial losses from Sony and gained the title of ?Original Inventor of the Personal Stereo.? Nevertheless, it was Sony that made the Walkman popular. For the record, the first Sony Walkman was released in 1979.

The Walkman Takes Over America

Over the course of the 1980?s, the Sony Walkman became a household name. In fact, when other brands picked up the manufacturing of personal stereo products, consumers would still refer to it as their Walkman despite the fact it was not made by Sony. Similar to the way smartphones are regarded today, children in the 1980?s were usually encouraged to avoid using a Walkman because the first models were easy to break. In the mid-1980?s, Sony resolved this issue by producing a line of Walkman toys for children called My First Sony. This was one of many ways that Sony responded to the complaints of their customers. Other examples of improvements to the original design include their slim-line, waterproof and battery-efficient models.

The Walkman Goes Solar

Available in white or yellow, the solar revolution was part of the Walkman history. In 1987 when the Solar Walkman was released on the market, the solar-powered calculator was already prominent. Clearly, the WMF107 Solar Walkman was one of the next steps in getting rid of the need to buy AA batteries every week. Sadly, the Solar Walkman was never perfected, and the unit would not work at full capacity unless the sun was extremely bright. The first run model was also expensive for consumers and the rechargeable battery was difficult to care for.

The Walkman Says Good-Bye

Despite its absence in the modern marketplace, this product did not decline in popularity as early as you think. After decades of being a sought-after piece of technology, Sony finally announced that it would cease production of the device. It made one final batch of Walkmans, and then told the press that these were the final units. By the end of 2011, the days of the Walkman were drawn to a close. There are still many models for sale throughout the world, but you can no longer buy them from the manufacturer. Sony has stated in several reports that the main cause of decline for this product was the invention of the MP3 player.

And with that, the world says good-bye to another great must-have piece of technology.

This piece was written by Pete Salinsky, a freelance writer based in Baton Rouge, LA. Pete enjoys writing about gadgets, gadget accessories, computers, cell phones and other associated topics; those searching for iPad accessories should check out the Kensington iPad cover from kensington.com.

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Source: http://www.guysgab.com/remember-when-the-sony-walkman-was-considered-high-tech/

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Trapped in Transit: Orwellian Moscow airport hotel

SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT (AP) ? "An interesting route, Mr. Phillips," says the airport transit desk employee. "This activity makes for suspicion."

It was the start of an Orwellian adventure in which I deliberately got myself sequestered in the hopes of finding Edward Snowden at Moscow's main airport.

The experience leaves me feeling that if the NSA leaker is indeed in the transit zone of the airport, as President Vladimir Putin claims, he may already have a taste of what it's like to be in prison.

Snowden is possibly holed up in the wing of an airport hotel reserved for travelers in transit who don't have visas to enter Russia. The Novotel's main building, located outside the airport, has a plush lobby with a fountain, a trendy bar and luxury shops. One wing, however, lies within the airport's transit zone ? a kind of international limbo that is not officially Russian territory.

And that's where Snowden, whose U.S. passport has been revoked, may be hiding.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Eastern Europe News Director Ian Phillips flew from his home base of Prague in the Czech Republic to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the goal of getting to the bottom of the mystery of fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden. What followed was a surreal 21 hours.

___

The woman at the transit desk raises an eyebrow and stares at my flight itinerary, which includes a 21-hour layover in Moscow before a connection to Ukraine. "Why would ANYONE stay here in transit for so long? There are so many earlier connections you could have taken. This is strange behavior."

After a nearly two-hour wait inside the terminal, a bus picks me up ? only me ? from the transit area. We drive slowly across the tarmac, through a barrier, past electronic gates covered in barbed wire and security cameras.

The main part of the Novotel is out of bounds. My allotted wing feels like a lockup: You are obliged to stay in your room, except for brief walks along the corridor. Three cameras track your movements along the hallway and beam the images back to a multiscreen monitor. It's comforting to see a sign instructing me that, in case of an emergency, the locks on heavily fortified doors leading to the elevators will open.

When I try to leave my room, the guard outside springs to his feet. I ask him why room service isn't responding and if there's any other way to get food. He growls: "Extension 70!" I rile him by asking about the Wi-Fi, which isn't working: "Extension 75!" he snarls.

"Don't worry, Mr. Phillips," the transit desk employee had said. "We have all your details and information. We will come and get you from your room at 6 p.m. on Friday, one hour before your connecting flight."

Now it's midnight, and I'm getting edgy. I feel trapped inside my airless room, whose double windows are tightly sealed. And the room is extortionate: It costs $300 a night, with a surcharge of 50 percent slapped on because I will be staying past noon.

("Can't I just wait in the lobby after midday?" I asked the receptionist at check-in. "Of course not," she retorted. "You have no visa. You will stay until you are picked up.")

I look out the window. If Snowden is here and has the same view, he can see the approach to the departures terminal at the airport. A large billboard shows a red 4x4 vehicle driving along an ocean road. A parking lot below is filled with vehicles. A man in green overalls is watering a patch of parched grass. Vehicles whizz in and out of the airport.

A maid has just brought a tea bag. She puts a tick against the room number on the three-page document on her trolley. On it, there are no guest names, only numbers ? and departure dates. A quick look suggests there are perhaps a few dozen people staying here. A couple of rooms on my floor have tell-tale signs of occupancy ? food trays lying outside from the night before.

But no sign of Snowden.

The guard allows me to stretch my legs in the corridor. The signs on the wall rub things in. Under a pretty picture of the Moscow skyline and Red Square, a message reads: "Should you wish to see the full range of facilities offered by our hotel during your next stay, we strongly recommend you to get a visa before flying to Moscow."

A fleeting glimpse of a possible change of scene: a set of guidelines posted on the wall say I can go out for a smoke!

Rule No. 6: "It is possible to go and smoke one time per hour for 5 minutes in the beginning of each hour escorted by security service."

I don't smoke, but this would be a way to escape this floor. But when I ask him to take me down, the security guard scoffs. "No!" he says flatly.

I call the front desk. "You need a visa to go outside and smoke, Mr. Phillips" the receptionist says.

If he's here, Snowden has access to a few international TV stations. He also has a fair amount of options with room service ? the only source of food in this wing. But after almost a week, he might be getting bored. And he'd need a credit card or a lot of Russian cash. A selection:

Buffalo mozzarella and pesto dressing starter? 720 rubles (about $20).

Ribeye steak: 1,500 rubles (about $50).

Bottle of Brunello di Montalcino red wine: 5,280 rubles ($165).

A miniature bottle of Hennessy XO cognac: 2,420 rubles ($80).

I've called all the 37 rooms on my floor in hopes of reaching Snowden. No reply except for when I get my security guard.

The floor above? A similarly futile attempt.

I only reach a handful of tired and irritated Russians who growl "Da? Da? Da?" ? "Yes? Yes? Yes?"

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trapped-transit-orwellian-moscow-airport-hotel-152338275.html

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American killed in Egypt protests, US official confirms

AFP-Getty Images

Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi burn a Freedom and Justice Party office Friday in Alexandria, Egypt.

By M. Alex Johnson and Jeff Black, NBC News

A U.S. citizen killed on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt, site of anti-government protests, was identified as Andrew Pochter, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo told NBC News on Saturday.

Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, said the 21-year-old student was from Chevy Chase, Md.

In a statement, the school said Pochter was an intern at AMIDEAST, a nonprofit group not affiliated with Kenyon that is engaged in international education, training and development.

"We are providing appropriate consular assistance from our Embassy in Cairo and our Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department," a State Department said.

Al Jazeera and Reuters, both quoting doctors and Egyptian security officials, and the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported Friday that Pochter died from a stab wound to the chest in Alexandria.

Gen. Amin Ezzeddin, a senior security official in Alexandria, told Reuters that the American was using a mobile phone camera near an office of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood as it was being attacked by protesters. He died at a military hospital, Ezzeddin said.

At least 80 other people have been wounded in the Alexandria protests, MENA reported.

The protests are part of the buildup to nationwide "June 30" demonstrations marking a year since Morsi's election. Morsis opponents hope to force early presidential elections, citing a range of social and economic issues.

Morsi's supporters have promised that they will also take to the streets to defend the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.

"There are no services. We can't find diesel or gasoline," Mohamed Abdel Latif, an accountant, told Reuters. "We elected Morsi, but this is enough."

Charlene Gubash of NBC News contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.

Related:

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 4:45 PM EDT

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Eminem Gets 'Open And Forthcoming' About Addiction In 'How To Make Money Selling Drugs'

Director tells MTV News about Eminem's "arresting" interview in "Drugs" doc.
By James Montgomery

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709793/eminem-how-to-make-money-selling-drugs-director.jhtml

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Virginia Tech Names New Baseball Coach

Patrick Mason, a college assistant coach for 17 years, is Virginia Tech's new baseball coach.

Mason replaces Pete Hughes, who left after seven seasons to take the same job at Oklahoma.

Mason has spent the last three years on Hughes' staff, working as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.

Athletic director Jim Weaver says Mason is "the consummate baseball man" and that elevating him to the top spot makes sense because it should help preserve 10 commitments the Hokies have received for the two seasons ahead. He says Hughes told him of his intentions to leave on Wednesday morning and acted quickly to keep Mason on the staff.

Mason says after 17 years as an assistant, "I am ready to accept the challenge" of running his own program.

Source: http://www.whsv.com/sports/headlines/Virginia-Tech-Names-New-Baseball-Coach-213398831.html

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Rescuers: American schooner sank

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Rescue crews searching for a classic American schooner carrying seven people believe the boat sank between New Zealand and Australia, although they haven't given up hope of finding survivors.

A third day of aerial searches Friday turned up no sign of the 85-year-old wooden sailboat or its crew. Named Nina, the boat left New Zealand on May 29 bound for Australia. The last know contact with the crew was on June 4. Rescuers were alerted the boat was missing on June 14, but weren't unduly worried at first because the emergency locator beacon had not been activated.

The six Americans on board include captain David Dyche, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, and their son David, 17. Also aboard was their friend Evi Nemeth, 73, a man aged 28, a woman aged 18, and a British man aged 35.

The leader of Friday's search efforts, Neville Blakemore at New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre, said it's now logical to assume the 70-foot (21-meter) boat sank in a storm but added it's possible some crew members survived either in the life raft that was aboard or by making land.

On the day the boat went missing, a storm hit the area with winds gusting up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour and waves of up to 8 meters (26 feet).

Blakemore said the Southern Hemisphere winter months tend to produce the year's worst storms, although he added that he wouldn't normally expect a sturdy and well-maintained craft like the Nina to sink in a storm like the one in early June.

Friday's search focused on the coastline around northern New Zealand, including the small Three Kings Islands. Rescuers were looking for wreckage or the life raft.

Blakemore said plane searches earlier this week covered a wide band of ocean between New Zealand and Australia. He said searchers were considering their options for the weekend.

He said the logical conclusion is that the boat sank rapidly, preventing the crew from activating the locator beacon or using other devices aboard including a satellite phone and a spot beacon. He said that unlike many locator beacons, the one aboard the Nina is not activated by water pressure and wouldn't start automatically if the boat sank.

Dyche is a qualified captain and he and his family are experienced sailors. Blakemore said the family had been sailing around the world for several years and were often joined on different legs by friends and sailors they met along the way.

Susan Payne, harbor master of the St. Andrews Marina near Panama City, Florida, said the couple left Panama City in the Nina a couple of years ago and sailed to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut where they prepared for the trip.

New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt was the last person known to have been in contact with the schooner, when the boat was about 370 nautical miles west of New Zealand.

He said Nemeth called him by satellite phone June 3 and said: "The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?"

He advised them to head south and brace for the storm.

The next day he got a text, the last known communication: "ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ... EVI"

McDavitt said he advised the crew to stay put and ride out the storm another day. He continued sending messages the next few days but didn't hear back. Friends of the crew got in touch with McDavitt soon after that, and then alerted authorities.

___

Associated Press writer Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rescuers-believe-american-schooner-carrying-7-sank-053935827.html

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Senate on verge of historic immigration vote

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate stood poised Thursday to approve historic immigration legislation opening the door to U.S. citizenship to millions and promising a dramatic build-up of manpower and technology along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The vote on final passage of the White House-backed bill was expected as early as Thursday afternoon, after a series of test votes so far this week demonstrated supporters command a bipartisan majority well over the 60 votes needed to secure passage and send the bill to the House. First must come two more procedural tests set for Thursday morning.

"It's landmark legislation that will secure our borders and help 11 million people get right with the law," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor Thursday ahead of the votes.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., countered that the bill doesn't ensure true border security since people here illegally can obtain a provisional legal status under the legislation before any security goals are accomplished. "This bill may pass the Senate today, but not with my vote. And in its current form, it won't become law," McConnell said.

Supporters posted 67 votes or more on each of three procedural tests Wednesday. More than a dozen Republicans sided with Democrats on each, ensuring bipartisan support that the bill's backers hope will change minds in the House.

The outlook there is uncertain. Many House conservatives oppose the pathway to citizenship at the center of the Senate bill. And many prefer a piecemeal approach rather than a sweeping bill like the one the Senate is producing.

The House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of a piece-by-piece effort, turning its attention Thursday to a bill on high-skilled workers.

On Wednesday the committee signed off on legislation establishing a system to require all employers to check their workers' legal status on a faster timeframe than the Senate bill contemplates. And last week it approved two other measures, one establishing a new agricultural guest worker program and a second making illegal presence in the country a federal crime, instead of a civil offense as it is now.

None of the bills weighed by the Judiciary Committee contemplate a path to citizenship or even legalization for the millions already here.

At its core, the legislation in the Senate includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration, while at the same time it offers a chance at citizenship to the 11 million immigrants now living in the country unlawfully.

It provides for 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, requires the completion of 700 miles of fencing and requires an array of high-tech devices to be deployed to secure the border with Mexico. Those security changes would be accomplished over a decade and would have to be in place before anyone in provisional legal status could obtain a permanent resident green card.

Businesses would be required to check on the legal status of prospective employees. Other provisions would expand the number of visas for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program.

The basic legislation was drafted by four Democrats and four Republicans who met privately for months to produce a rare bipartisan compromise in a polarized Senate. They fended off unwanted changes in the Senate Judiciary Committee and then were involved in negotiations with Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee on a package of tougher border security provisions that swelled support among Republicans.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-verge-historic-immigration-vote-061838460.html

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National Secular Society - EU adopts guidelines on freedom of ...

This week, the European Union's Council of Foreign Affairs adopted a report offering guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief. The aim of the guidelines is to promote the fundamental human right to freedom of religion or belief in countries beyond EU borders.

In its report, the EU proclaims impartiality on religion and belief, and commits to protect people's rights rather than any particular belief system; where, "international human rights law protects individuals, not Religion or Belief per se". It notes that the free exercise of religion and belief "directly contributes to democracy, development, rule of law, peace and stability", and makes specific mention of the need to protect those who change or leave their religion and those with non-theistic or atheistic beliefs.

The guidelines also explicitly oppose any religious justification to restrictions on other fundamental rights and to violence against women, children, members of religious minorities and persons on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. They point out that there are some practices, associated with the manifestation of a religion or belief (or perceived as such), which may constitute violations of human rights. The fact that the right to freedom of religion or belief is sometimes invoked to justify violations of other human rights is an EU concern; it states that, whilst it is "committed to the robust protection and promotion of freedom of religion or belief in all parts of the world", such justifications can never legitimise the undermining of human rights

During the original drafting of the guidelines in the European Parliament, there had been reference to a right to conscientious objection in relation to "morally sensitive matters"; this was eventually deleted, instead restricting conscientious objection to military service only.

In its promotion and protection of the freedom of religion or belief abroad, the EU is strong on freedom of speech; it opposes any attempt to criminalize freedom of expression on religious grounds, and remarks that the right to freedom of religion or belief does not include the right to have a religion or a belief that is immune from criticism or ridicule. It also notes that laws criminalizing blasphemy in non-EU states should be repealed.

However, as the European Humanist Federation (EHF) has pointed out, whilst these guidelines are forceful on criticizing blasphemy laws abroad, it should be noted that blasphemy is still outlawed in some EU member states. The EHF has urged the EU to "adopt a coherent position on blasphemy and to encourage Members States to abolish blasphemy laws", as has been previously recommended by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Venice Commission.

Source: http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/06/eu-adopts-guidelines-on-freedom-of-religion-or-belief

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Real Estate & Mortgage Sales Tip ? The Keys to Great Marketing | I ...

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Pre-caffeine tech: Instagram fight, insane TVs?

Technology

Helen A.S. Popkin NBC News

June 25, 2013 at 9:34 AM ET

io9.com

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning.

Are beetles really stoking Colorado fires? Let's find out, while we look at some pictures of bugs!

Finally! Real-life super-powered 'exosuit': Better, faster, stronger ... softer!

Ellen Page, star of "Juno" and a bunch of other movies, says this video game totally "ripped off" her likeness.

Yoinks! Facebook Reader won't Be the Google replacement of your dreams.

That said, why does everyone except Google want to build a reader?

People freaking out over Mark Zuckerberg's dog don't seem to know that's what those kind of dogs look like when they grow up.

Here's the latest on Bitcoin blah blah blah.

Are people with laptops and big phones more assertive than iPod and feature-phone users? Yes, according to this survey.

Instagram fight! Instagram fight! Rihanna and Liz Jones in an Instagram fight!

In closing: The Most Insane Television Sets in History!

Compiled by Helen A.S. Popkin, who invites you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2dde6c6e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cpre0Ecaffeine0Etech0Einstagram0Efight0Einsane0Etvs0E6C10A435781/story01.htm

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Is Anthony Kennedy 'the first gay justice'? (CNN)

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America's deadliest soldier or stolen valor?

Sgt. Dillard Johnson's new memoir claims he killed 2,746?insurgents in Iraq. Some who served with him express doubts.

By Dan Murphy,?Staff writer / June 26, 2013

One thing that's certain is that it was a tough fight.

John Moore/AP

Enlarge

A new war memoir, "Carnivore" by Dillard Johnson, makes some rather extraordinary claims, according to media appearances and promotional material from publisher HarperCollins. But it's looking likely that these claims are exaggerated, and in some eyes are veering towards stolen valor territory.

Skip to next paragraph Dan Murphy

Staff writer

Dan Murphy is a staff writer for the Monitor's international desk, focused on the Middle East.?Murphy, who has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and more than a dozen other countries, writes and edits Backchannels. The focus? War and international relations, leaning toward things Middle East.

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The book is subtitled "A memoir by one of the Deadliest American Soldiers of All Time" and in it Sgt. 1st Class Johnson and his co-author write that he had 2,746 "confirmed" enemy kills during his time serving in Iraq, with 121 of those "confirmed sniper kills, the most ever publicly reported by a US Army soldier."

But his claims have sent the online veteran community into an uproar, with many vets calling them implausible and some men who served with him saying his statements are downright falsehoods. He served as a commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle with the 3rd Squadron, 7th US Cavalry, which took the lead in the charge to Baghdad after US forces went over the berm to invade Iraq in March 2003.

"I don?t want to take away from what [Johnson] did do, he did do great things: led a platoon, completed the missions," Brad Spaid tells the Monitor. He is a former staff sergeant who served with Johnson in Iraq and now has a civilian job with the Veteran's Administration and has read the book. "We lost some really good NCOs, guys that we really looked up to, and we feel that ? on Facebook and blogs other vets are coming out and calling us out and calling us liars and idiots, and it takes away from what we really did?. We don?t want to become a laughing stock, we want to be remembered for what we did and move on."?

That Sergeant?Johnson (who received a Silver Star) and his fellows in the 7th Cavalry faced heavy fighting and performed admirably in Iraq is beyond question. The brief unit history on their website recounts that "combat operations for Operation Iraqi Freedom began on March 20th when the squadron crossed into Iraq as the lead element of the [3rd Infantry Division]. The Squadron attacked to Baghdad fighting both the Republican Guard and the Saddam Fedayeen. It was the longest cavalry charge in the history of the world and it ended in the capture of Baghdad."

But while I haven't yet read the book, the headline claim is an extraordinary one, based on my five years covering the Iraq war between 2003 and 2008. An ounce of common sense also comes into play.?

In late 2007, after Johnson had left Iraq, statistics provided to USA Today by the US-led coalition, estimated that 19,429 militants had been killed by all coalition forces, including Iraqi ones, since the start of the war in 2003. Johnson's claimed "confirmed kills" of 2,746 would amount to 14 percent of all those deaths, an astonishing number for a single soldier who did not serve in the hottest battles of the post-invasion war.

His statement is even more remarkable when compared to the brief history given at the unit's home page, which recounts that "by the time the Squadron had redeployed it had killed 2,200 Iraqi personnel, 64 tanks, 41 armored vehicles, numerous active air defense systems, as well as trucks and civilian vehicles used as suicide bombers."

The squadron experienced heavy fighting between the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 and when it left in August. It returned to Iraq for 12 months in 2005. Former Staff Sgt. Brad Spaid, who was with the 3/7th's Apache Troop in Iraq in '03 and with the Crazy Horse Troop that Johnson belonged to in '05, estimates that they only had about six engagements during that second deployment with at most five to six insurgents killed in each one. Yet Johnson's confirmed kills claim is 124 percent of the total on the unit's history page for 2003 and, by Mr. Spaid's reckoning, would still be well above 100 percent of the total if he claimed every single kill made in 2005.?

To be sure, the real number of militants killed by US forces in Iraq is essentially unknown, any statistics a combination of guesswork made amid the haze of battle when units were running on to the next engagement, not spending time counting up dead bodies and figuring out who delivered the shot that struck them down. A press contact for HarperCollins' William Morrow imprint, which published "Carnivore," had not returned a call for comment at the time of publication.

Whatever the uncertainty around body counts, the claims invite incredulity, and will raise doubts about any other claims made in the book, which is currently being heavily promoted by the NewsCorp media empire. NewsCorp owns HarperCollins and the tone of NewsCorp's news properties about the book has been gushing and uncritical. For instance the company's New York Post carried an "exclusive" on June 23 that begins:

With 2,746 confirmed kills, Sgt. 1st Class Dillard Johnson is the deadliest American soldier on record ??and maybe the most humble.

As a commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle nicknamed ?Carnivore,? Johnson, 48, helped lead the ground assault during Operation Iraqi Freedom, overwhelming the enemy with a relentless show of military might that left a trail of dead in his wake.

Johnson was obliged to report confirmed kills to his superiors, cataloging the dead in a green journal that revealed the astonishing tally ? which only began to come light as he and co-writer James Tarr were researching his exploits for his memoir.

And here's a partial transcript of his appearance on Fox and Friends yesterday morning (titled: "True stories from one of America's deadliest soldiers") with the interviewer in full "hooah!" mode (the transcript is mine; I've summarized the interviewer's comments):

Interviewer: "Hear this incredible story, and meet this incredible man. With 2,746 confirmed kills Army Sgt. 1st Class Dillard CJ Johnson is one of the deadliest American soldiers on record..."

Johnson: "I've just always been lucky I guess, you know, it's better to be lucky than good. I grew up and I always wanted to be Sgt. Rock, Sgt. Fury from the comic books and I believe in America and what it stands for."

Interviewer: You've got 100 plus sniper kills, why did you write this book?

Johnson: I wrote this book "because I kept winding up in other books and magazines and stuff over an insert from 'On Point.'?It was out there in public domain, and all these other writers kept using it. And Charlie Horse really deserves, Crazy Horse, the unit I was in, really deserves the credit for what went on over there as far as the battle and the confirmed kills.?And the confirmed kills aren't as if I went out there and actually counted bodies to go through this ??a lot of them are attributed from the book 'On Point' and the other ones are when I actually did battlefield assessment to give my commander an evaluation of what was going on out there. But there were other troopers that did as much as I did or even more out there with it."

Interviewer: What should people understand about our fighting men and women?

Johnson: "They should really know that there's nobody out there doing this for a paycheck. They're doing it for love of country and love of their fellow soldier and they're putting their entire life on hold and their life at risk every day so that people can enjoy the freedoms that they have.... I don't think people really understand, you know, when we go to war with someone else, they don't understand what that country was like and everything else. America has been very fortunate as far as how our civilians act and everything else and we don't have the same culture that these other countries do, and all we can really do when we go to these other countries [is] give them a fighting chance, you know, for democracy..."

Dennis Goulet, who was the leader of the troop's 4th platoon (Johnson was the 3rd platoon's sergeant), writes that he doesn't believe Johnson's sniper claims, particularly an account of killing two insurgents at a range of 852 meters. "I can tell you ... the man was no sniper," he writes in an e-mail. "The only weapon system he had that could reach that far would be the Barrett or the Bradley gun. I was either with him on every mission and if I wasn't with him, every enemy engagement would have to be reported to the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) and it's not like he was out there by himself."

A Dec. 14, 2005 release put out by a public affairs officer for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team appears to say that Johnson killed two Iraqi insurgents at 852 meters in an engagement at Salman Pak, just south of Baghdad. (I write "appears" only because I can only find the release on unofficial sites like this one, not on official military sites, but it looks legitimate). But neither Mr. Goulet nor Spaid has any recollection of this achievement.

Goulet says the .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle the unit carried was "seldom used" and doesn't recall Johnson killing anyone with it. I'm "not trying to discredit the man's service to the country, but there are hundreds of others that deserve recognition for their service, to include five men who lost their lives in 2005. It's about all who served in 3-7, NOT Johnson," writes Goulet.

Spaid says there are other elements in the book that ring false to him. In the book, Johnson recounts firing 7,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition from his Bradley Fighting Vehicle (nicknamed "Carnivore" and so yielding the title of the book) and dismounting to fight hand-to-hand. Spaid says at the time the heavy armor unit was not trained for that kind of infantry fighting and doubts that happened, recalling that he was only issued a 9mm pistol "with about 27 rounds" at the time. "We never dismounted, we were heavy armor."

Spaid says he checked with the Master Sergeant responsible for tracking ammunition used during that deployment ??an important job since guns require maintenance after firing a certain number of those rounds and could explode, injuring or killing their crew, if they didn't get it. He says the sergeant told him "for Johnson to go through 7,000 depleted uranium rounds, that would have been 1/3 of what we?d been given for the entire invasion to be split between 50 or 60 Bradleys." He also points out that a Bradley carrying that many rounds would be physically impossible.

Other stories he casts doubt on include Johnson's claim that he cut through a 220 volt cable with a small knife to darken an Iraqi hut he was hiding in when insurgents entered. "That area where he was ??there wasn't electricity," says Spaid. "And I've been to college, I think that many volts would melt a knife that size, even if it was insulated, not just leave a few nicks."

The tales of the 7th Cavalry in Iraq are filled with heroism, tragedy, and obstacles overcome, and I hope to revisit some of those stories later this week so that it isn't all about Johnson.

But as the saying goes, the first casualty when war comes is truth. Sometimes the casualties continue to accrue long after the guns have fallen silent.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gQWX_90OwL0/America-s-deadliest-soldier-or-stolen-valor

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Michelle Obama Joins Instagram, Posts Photo From Africa

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/michelle-obama-joins-instagram-posts-photo-from-africa/

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The Cutlery You Use Changes the Way Your Food Tastes

Be careful next time you reach for a spoon: your choice of cutlery could significantly affect the way your food tastes.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ShhsP1T34Ls/the-cutlery-you-use-changes-the-way-your-food-tastes-583459658

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Weiner, Frontrunner (talking-points-memo)

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The China Edit | Gieves & Hawkes, Rising Retail Rents, I.T's New ...

?Styled in Britain, Owned In China? (New York Times)

?For more than two centuries, Gieves & Hawkes at No. 1 Savile Row in London has been creating suits for the men of the British royal family ? including the dark navy one that Prince William wore 2010 to announce his engagement to Kate Middleton. Yet today, in the upscale IFC Mall in Hong Kong, it is common to see a customer from mainland China trying on a double-breasted blazer similar to one owned by the prince and happily paying 12,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $1,550, for it. This quintessential British brand, owned by Trinity Limited of China, now has its largest customer base in China and has been gathering a tailor?s knowledge of these new clients? ?I want to maintain the British aristocratic accent but move the collection in a more international direction,? said Jason Basmajian, former artistic director of the Italian men?s wear house Brioni, who was appointed creative director of Gieves & Hawkes early this year.?

?Shop Rents Driven by Cashed-up Youth? (South China Morning Post)

?Shop rents in most mainland cities are expected to increase steadily as retail sales continue to grow on the back of a vast market of young, fashion-conscious shoppers who are willing to spend a significant proportion of their monthly incomes in stores, says property consultancy CBRE.?The trend will not be confined to the first-tier cities, and tier-two cities, which are on the radar of international retailers, are expected to see a steady rise in new entrants to their retail markets.?

?Hong Kong?s I.T Limited Will Open Three New Mainland China Outlets? (China Retail News)

?Hong Kong fashion apparel retailer I.T Limited plans to invest HKD300 million to enhance its position in Hong Kong while expanding its business map in mainland China by opening three new stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin in July 2013.?In addition, its new store in Chengdu is expected to open at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. The group?s largest project in 2013 is the new Galeries Lafayette project, which will be open in September in Beijing.?Located in Xidan, the new Galeries Lafayette is a joint operating project by I.T Limited and Galeries Lafayette Group. With an area of five million square feet, the new Galeries Lafayette department store will have specialty stores of various brands, including Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Chloe, and Givenchy. Those stores will cover 70% of the total area; while the remaining 30% will display products and brands sold via I.T.?By opening four new stores, I.T will have 11 stores in mainland China.?

?The ?China Price? Is Not Right? (Jing Daily)

?Foreign brands in China are expensive. This is not just in relation to China?s lower income level: due to a mixture of duties, taxes, logistics costs, and price positioning, the price of foreign brands in China typically ranges from 30 to 80 percent more expensive than in their home markets.?Among China?s sophisticated consumers, the price gap between China and the rest of the world has become common knowledge?especially among the aspirational and affluent white-collar workers who are expected to drive growth in the premium and luxury segments.?These consumers are increasingly global and savvy in their purchasing behavior, have the opportunity to shop abroad, and are increasingly doing so. In an ongoing SmithStreet study of Chinese luxury customers in Europe, for example, every single respondent has essentially stopped buying luxury goods in mainland China, citing price as the primary (and typically solitary) reason.?

?Americans Exit Harrods Top 10 As Chinese Flock To London Store? (Bloomberg)

?The days of Americans being the biggest overseas shoppers at London?s Harrods store are over.?While seven years ago U.S. visitors were the top foreign spenders at the purveyor of luxury fashions and specialty teas, they are now outnumbered by wealthy customers from China and the Middle East, according to Managing Director Michael Ward. ?It is probable today that America will not feature in our top 10 of overseas customers because of the growth of the east and the mineral- and oil-rich nations,? Ward, who has been in charge for more than seven years, said in an interview in his office at the 164-year-old store. China is ?by far No. 1.??

?

?

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/06/the-china-edit-gieves-hawkes-rising-retail-rents-i-t-to-open-three-new-mainland-outlets-the-china-price-chinese-flock-to-harrods.html

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Polling the Public About Investing Is Loads of Fun! | The Big Picture

Back in August of 2011,?Gallup decided to do what they do best ? which is poll the American public for their thoughts. In this instance, it was their thoughts on investing.

The questions asked was simply: What do you think is the best long term investment?

Their answers were very instructive: 34% of Americans said gold is the best long-term investment. Real estate came in second at 19% with stocks at 17% in third, and bonds at 10%.

Of course, the public has the tendency to emphasize what just happened, rather than what is likely to happen. We need to keep that in mind when we look at how well the public has done since then.

Let?s start with the public?s then favorite investment, Gold:? As a reminder, the shiny yellow metal was approaching an all time high of $1900 per ounce, in August 2011, about to embark on a 35% crash, still in progress.

?

Gold (GLD ETF)

?

How about Equities? They were the 3rd of the 4 investments ? how has the public done with that pick? As the chart below shows, not too well. Back in August 2011, the SPX was around 1100. Its since rallied 50% (including the recent sell off since May).

?

S&P500

?

Note that the S&P500 was not the best performing index ? others, notably Russell 2000, have done much better. But since its the benchmark, I chose that chart.? Nice call, Public! (not).

The masses, believe it or not, got their least favorite asset class, Bonds wrong too. Despite the incredible run up in yields this month, bond prices are still above (and yields below) where they were in August 2011.

?

Treasury Bonds

?

The public did get one things right ? Real Estate has been rallying since 2011. It was their second favorite asset class behind gold.? The Vanguard REIT index is up about 30% since then ? so they did manage to pick one asset class out of 4 that worked out.

?

?

The public has spoken! As a reminder, you might want to avoid following their advice . . .

?

Previously:
Best Investment According to the Public? Gold (May 3rd, 2012)

Source:
Americans Choose Gold as the Best Long-Term Investment
Men, seniors, middle-income Americans, and Republicans are more enamored with gold
by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist
http://www.gallup.com/poll/149195/americans-choose-gold-best-long-term-investment.aspx

Category: Cognitive Foibles, Contrary Indicators, Investing, Really, really bad calls

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Source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/06/polling-the-public-loads-of-fun/

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Three planets in habitable zone of nearby star: Gliese 667c reexamined

June 25, 2013 ? A team of astronomers has combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data from HARPS at ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, to reveal a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.

Gliese 667C is a very well-studied star. Just over one third of the mass of the Sun, it is part of a triple star system known as Gliese 667 (also referred to as GJ 667), 22 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). This is quite close to us -- within the Sun's neighbourhood -- and much closer than the star systems investigated using telescopes such as the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.

Previous studies of Gliese 667C had found that the star hosts three planets with one of them in the habitable zone. Now, a team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escud? of the University of G?ttingen, Germany and Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, has reexamined the system. They have added new HARPS observations, along with data from ESO's Very Large Telescope, the W.M. Keck Observatory and the Magellan Telescopes, to the already existing picture [1]. The team has found evidence for up to seven planets around the star [2].

These planets orbit the third fainter star of a triple star system. Viewed from one of these newly found planets the two other suns would look like a pair of very bright stars visible in the daytime and at night they would provide as much illumination as the full Moon. The new planets completely fill up the habitable zone of Gliese 667C, as there are no more stable orbits in which a planet could exist at the right distance to it.

"We knew that the star had three planets from previous studies, so we wanted to see whether there were any more," says Tuomi. "By adding some new observations and revisiting existing data we were able to confirm these three and confidently reveal several more. Finding three low-mass planets in the star's habitable zone is very exciting!"

Three of these planets are confirmed to be super-Earths -- planets more massive than Earth, but less massive than planets like Uranus or Neptune -- that are within their star's habitable zone, a thin shell around a star in which water may be present in liquid form if conditions are right. This is the first time that three such planets have been spotted orbiting in this zone in the same system [3].

"The number of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy is much greater if we can expect to find several of them around each low-mass star -- instead of looking at ten stars to look for a single potentially habitable planet, we now know we can look at just one star and find several of them," adds co-author Rory Barnes (University of Washington, USA).

Compact systems around Sun-like stars have been found to be abundant in the Milky Way. Around such stars, planets orbiting close to the parent star are very hot and are unlikely to be habitable. But this is not true for cooler and dimmer stars such as Gliese 667C. In this case the habitable zone lies entirely within an orbit the size of Mercury's, much closer in than for our Sun. The Gliese 667C system is the first example of a system where such a low-mass star is seen to host several potentially rocky planets in the habitable zone.

The ESO scientist responsible for HARPS, Gaspare Lo Curto, remarks: "This exciting result was largely made possible by the power of HARPS and its associated software and it also underlines the value of the ESO archive. It is very good to also see several independent research groups exploiting this unique instrument and achieving the ultimate precision."

And Anglada-Escud? concludes: "These new results highlight how valuable it can be to re-analyse data in this way and combine results from different teams on different telescopes."

Notes

[1] The team used data from the UVES spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile (to determine the properties of the star accurately), the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) at the 6.5-metre Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the HIRES spectrograph mounted on the Keck 10-metre telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii as well as extensive previous data from HARPS (the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) at ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile (gathered through the M dwarf programme led by X. Bonfils and M. Mayor 2003-2010.

[2] The team looked at radial velocity data of Gliese 667C, a method often used to hunt for exoplanets. They performed a robust Bayesian statistical analysis to spot the signals of the planets. The first five signals are very confident, while the sixth is tentative, and seventh more tentative still. This system consists of three habitable-zone super-Earths, two hot planets further in, and two cooler planets further out. The planets in the habitable zone and those closer to the star are expected to always have the same side facing the star, so that their day and year will be the same lengths, with one side in perpetual sunshine and the other always night.

[3] In the Solar System Venus orbits close to the inner edge of the habitable zone and Mars close to the outer edge. The precise extent of the habitable zone depends on many factors.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/DpMy_6AWEjY/130625073544.htm

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US consumer confidence at five-year high in June

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' confidence in the economy rose to its highest level in more than five years, bolstered by a more optimistic outlook for hiring.

The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index jumped to 81.4 in June. That's the best reading since January 2008. And it is up from May's reading of 74.3, which was revised slightly downward from 76.2.

Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

The report shows consumers are more positive about current economic conditions and have a more optimistic view of the economy and job market in the next six months.

Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said that "suggests the pace of growth is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up."

Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, nearly matching the average monthly gain for the past year. That's enough to slowly lower the unemployment rate. The rate ticked up to 7.6 percent last month but has fallen 0.6 percentage points in the past year.

More Americans see signs of hiring taking place. Nearly 12 percent describe the number of jobs available as "plentiful," the most since September 2008.

And nearly 20 percent of consumers expect there will be more jobs in six months, while only 16.1 percent expect fewer jobs. That's the first time those expecting more jobs have outnumbered those expecting fewer since February 2012.

Rising home prices are also likely making Americans feel wealthier and more confident about spending. Home prices jumped 12.1 percent in April compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, also released Tuesday.

Slightly more consumers said they planned to buy a car in the next six months. The percentage saying they planned to buy a home also ticked up.

Americans have been resilient this year, despite tax increases and steep government spending cuts. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in two years in the first three months of the year. That helped the overall economy grow at a 2.4 percent annual pace during the January-March quarter.

Economists forecast that overall economic growth is slowing to a 2 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, in part because they expect consumers have eased up on spending from the robust first-quarter pace.

Despite the recent gains, the confidence index remains well below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy ? a level it hasn't reached since the Great Recession began in December 2007.

So far, reports on consumer spending for the second quarter have been mixed. In April, consumer spending fell as income was unchanged. But spending appears to have rebounded in May, based on a preliminary report on retail sales. Americans spent more on cars, home improvements and sporting goods, boosting retail sales 0.6 percent.

The Commerce Department will release a more complete report on May consumer spending and income on Thursday.

The Conference Board survey is conducted in the first half of the month. So the June report didn't capture the impact of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments last week after the Fed's policy meeting.

Bernanke said the Fed could begin to slow its bond purchases by the end of the year. Since then, stocks have plunged and interest rates have spiked.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-consumer-confidence-five-high-june-140911097.html

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