Social Security Calculator

Social Security Calculator It's difficult to plan for retirement when you can't predict the precise amount of your Social Security checks. A new tool is available to more accurately estimate what your Social Security benefits will be.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue unveiled a new online calculator yesterday. The Retirement Estimator allows you to test out retirement options such as various retirement dates or expected future earnings. You can also calculate what your benefit will be if you begin collecting at age 62, wait until your full retirement age, or further delay claiming until age 70. The future benefit amount is adjusted for inflation.

The online Social Security benefit estimates are tied to your actual earning record, so you have to enter a little bit of personal information. But the calculator replaces an older online calculator that required the user to type in a large portion of their earnings history, which was time consuming and difficult to do if accurate records of income were not kept. The new tool also one-ups the annual paper Social Security benefit estimate you receive in the mail, which is also based on your prior earnings but assumes that your salary stays the same until retirement. Benefit estimates will be more accurate for people closer to retirement age who can better predict their future earnings.

The new calculator follows a redesign of the Social Security Web page. In the fall, a new online Social Security application that will reduce the average filing time from 45 minutes to about 15 minutes will become available, Astrue says. "These initiatives will help us better handle the baby boomer wave and make it easier for the public to do business with us online."

Original Source : http://www.usnews.com/blogs/planning-to-retire/2008/7/22/social-security-unveils-a-new-online-calculator.html

Empire Of The Sun

Empire Of The SunEmpire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Although like Ballard's earlier short story, "The Dead Time," published in the anthology Myths of the Near Future, it is essentially fiction, like the earlier story it draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II.

Ballard later wrote a sequel, entitled The Kindness of Women.

Plot

The novel recounts the story of a young English boy, Jim Graham (Ballard's first and middle names are James Graham), who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese occupy the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents.

He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food, but is soon picked up by the Japanese and interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center.

Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safe place for him in these times.

Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death.

Original Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Sun

Jalapeño Pepper Tests Positive For Salmonella

Jalapeño Pepper Tests Positive For Salmonella

FDA Investigation Turns Up Contaminated Pepper Grown in Mexico, Processed in Texas

A fresh jalapeño pepper grown in Mexico and processed in Texas has tested positive for the strain of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,200 people in recent months, food safety and health officials said today.

An FDA investigation into what caused salmonella illnesses has turned up a contaminated pepper grown in Mexico and processed in Texas.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for foods, David Acheson, said there has been a "significant break in the salmonella investigation," stressing, however, that the probe is ongoing.

As a result of the finding, the FDA is asking people nationwide to avoid eating fresh jalapeño peppers, serrano peppers and foods made with fresh jalapeño peppers. Pickled and preserved jalapeños are still safe to eat.

The pepper that tested positive was obtained at a produce distribution center called Agricola Zaragosa, in McAllen,Texas, officials said. That distribution center has since recalled all peppers that passed through its plant. All the other samples that have since been taken at that facility have tested negative for the outbreak, the FDA said.

Original Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5419513&page=1

Charles Schwab

Online Brokers Gain Assets At Wirehouses' Expense

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- As wirehouse brokerage firms narrow their focus to the truly wealthy, assets from some "mass affluent" clients are migrating to online brokers.

Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) added a combined $30 billion in net new assets this quarter, boosting their quarterly earnings.

They may be benefiting from a shift in how the brokerage industry works. Traditional brokers are shifting from making money on transactions to a fee- based business model, making wealthier clients particularly desirable.

That leaves opportunities for the online brokers, who may be able to snare some of the smaller clients' assets - or, on occasion, the clients themselves.

"As the full-service firms go higher and higher upstream, there is a bigger segment of the market (with) significant assets that aren't as attractive" to the big brokerage firms, said James McGovern, a vice president at Corporate Insight, a financial services research and consulting firm. "That's where companies like Fidelity, Schwab, or Ameritrade can attract clients."

On Wednesday, Charles Schwab posted second-quarter earnings slightly ahead of analysts' estimates. The San Francisco online broker added $26 billion in new assets in the quarter. Schwab said its total client assets rose 1% over the previous year, to $1.4 trillion, as it added $10 billion in net new assets in June alone.

Rival TD Ameritrade, which is transforming its business focus from retail trading to asset gathering, added $4 billion in net new assets in the second quarter, for a year-to-date increase of $20 billion. The company's total client assets were $309.2 billion as of June 30 - a 4% increase year-over-year.

"We are seeing our clients bring more of their money to us," said TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Joe Moglia during a Thursday conference call with analysts. "That is probably coming from full-commission firms."

For TD Ameritrade, its asset-gathering strategy means targeting mass affluent investors, which it defines to include those with between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets.

"I just think the industry itself - Schwab, Fidelity, Ameritrade, and even E* Trade (ETFC) - is improving" its products, said FBR Capital Markets analyst Matt Snowling.

He added that a recent push toward more banking and portfolio allocation services has made the online brokers more competitive with big brokerage firms.

"They are making it easier and easier to aggregate more of your assets in one place," he said.

Big securities firms insist they aren't ignoring these smaller clients. Citigroup Inc.'s (C) Smith Barney unit has a platform for what it calls emerging affluent clients - those with less than $500,000 in investable assets.

The service, myFi, which is short for "My Financial Life," offers checking accounts, debt consolidation, and financial advice.

UBS Wealth Management US, a unit of UBS AG (UBS), also has in recent months set up an Investment Center where financial advisors provide services over the phone for clients who have $1,000 to $250,000 in assets.

Analysts say brokerage firms are still at the top of the competitive landscape.

"What you aren't seeing is somebody at Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley saying I'm going to move my business and take it to Ameritrade," said Mike Carrier, a stock analyst at UBS.

However, while the clients themselves may not be heading to the likes of TD Ameritrade, some of their money at the margin is going there.

At Schwab, its leading position in servicing registered investment advisors gives it the ability to add not only assets, but also new clients who use financial advisors.

"Right now, because of the difficulties in the capital markets with the wirehouses, I think Schwab is getting more of their assets on the retail side and on the RIA side, Carrier said.

TD Ameritrade hopes to pick up some of those clients as well. Its purchase of TD Waterhouse Group Inc. in 2006 gave the company access to a national network of registered investment advisors.

Original Source : http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807210920DOWJONESDJONLINE000275_FORTUNE5.htm

AAPL Down

AAPL

Shares in AAPL plummeted more than 10% in after hours trading, following the release of Apple's third quarter financial results. As of this writing, shares traded at US$147.56 per share, down $18.73 (-11.26%), with investors seemingly worried about Apple's September quarter guidance. The stock had posted a small gain in the last hour of the regular trading session.

Apple announced a record June quarter, with revenue of $7.45 billion and profits on $1.07 billion. The company grew iPod sales, and saw a record quarter for Macintosh unit sales. While those results beat analyst consensus of $1.07 per share in earnings, with revenue of $7.36 billion, Apple disappointed with its 4th quarter guidance.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced guidance of $7.8 billion in revenue, with earnings of $1 per share. Wall Street had been looking for $8.3 billion in revenue with earnings of $1.23 per share. The after hours market took that guidance as a disappointment, sending the shares lower.

The after hours market only affects those shares actually traded during the after hours session, but it can be an indication of which direction the market will head once the next regular trading session opens. News from events that take place after the markets close are what tend to have the biggest effect on any stock's after hours activity.

Historically both after hours gains and losses have tended to be more extreme than regular trading activity during that next session. The Mac Observer will be watching the markets Tuesday morning to report on Apple's activity.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.

Original Source : http://www.macobserver.com/stockwatch/2008/07/21.4.shtml

Radovan Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has long been one of the most wanted men in the world.

His arrest has come after nearly 13 years on the run - during which time Serbia has come under increasing international pressure to catch him.

Accused of leading the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, he has twice been indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The UN says his forces killed at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".

He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.

After the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war, the former nationalist president went into hiding - possibly in the mountainous south-eastern area of the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia - protected by paramilitaries.

If The Hague was a real juridical body I would be ready to go there... but it is a political body that has been created to blame the Serbs Radovan Karadzic

International pressure to capture Mr Karadzic mounted in spring 2005 when several of his former generals surrendered and a video of Bosnian Serb soldiers shooting captives from Srebrenica shocked television viewers in former Yugoslavia.

Belgrade announced several arrests in connection with the video, which was first shown during the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

In early 2007, Nato troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina raided the homes of Mr Karadic's children, saying they believed Sasa and Sonja Karadzic to be part of a network supporting their father.

Mr Karadzic has denied the charges against him and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.

"If The Hague was a real juridical body I would be ready to go there to testify or do so on television, but it is a political body that has been created to blame the Serbs," he told the UK-based Times newspaper in February 1996.

'Head of state'

Mr Karadzic was born in 1945 in a stable in Savnik, Montenegro.

KARADZIC'S CV 1945: Born in Montenegro 1960: Moves to Sarajevo 1968: Publishes collection of poetry 1971: Graduates in medicine 1983: Becomes team psychologist for Red Star Belgrade football club 1990: Becomes president of SDS party 1992-1995: Bosnian war 2008: Arrested in Serbia

His father, Vuk, had been a member of the Chetniks - Serb nationalist guerrillas who fought against both Nazi occupiers and Tito's communist partisans in World War II - and was in jail for much of his son's childhood.

His mother, Jovanka Karadzic, described her son as loyal, and a hard worker who used to help her in the home and in the field. She said he was a serious boy who was respectful towards the elderly and helped his school friends with their homework.

In 1960 he moved to Sarajevo, where he later met his wife, Ljiljana, graduated as a doctor, and became a psychologist in a city hospital.

He also became a poet and fell under the influence of the Serb nationalist writer Dobrica Cosic, who encouraged him to go into politics.

Years later, after working briefly for the Green Party, he helped set up the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) - formed in 1990 in response to the rise of national and Croat parties in Bosnia and dedicated to the goal of a Greater Serbia.

Less than two years later, as Bosnia-Hercegovina gained recognition as an independent state, he declared the creation of the independent Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina (later renamed Republika Srpska) with its capital in Sarajevo, and himself as head of state.

He was jointly indicted in 1995 along with the Bosnian Serb military leader, Ratko Mladic, for alleged war crimes they committed during the 1992-95 war.

He was obliged to step down as president of the SDS in 1996 as the West threatened sanctions against Republika Srpska, and later went into hiding.

On the run in October 2004 he managed to get a book published by a former associate, Miroslav Toholj. Miraculous Chronicles of the Night, set in 1980s Yugoslavia, tells the story of a man jailed by mistake after the death of former Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito.

In May 2005, investigators reported two separate sightings of Radovan Karadzic - allegedly with his wife Ljiljana in south-eastern Bosnia and then with his brother Luka in Belgrade - as his mother was dying of cancer in Niksic, Montenegro.

Original Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/876084.stm

Kodak EasyShare Z1275

Kodak EasyShare Z1275

Kodak Z1275 Easyshare 12 MegaPixel 5x Optical Zoom Image Stabilized Digital Camera

Includes Kodak Easyshare Z1275 Zoom Digital Camera (SD memory card is a separate purchase), Kodak AA Oxy-Alkaline Digital Camera Batteries, USB cable, Wrist strap, Getting Started Guide with Kodak Easyshare Software, Custom camera insert for separately purchased Kodak Easyshare Camera and Printer Docks.

* Kodak Z1275 Easyshare Digital Camera combines user friendly features with 12 megapixels and high ISO capability for shooting in bad lighting.

* 12 MP captures every detail with outstanding resolution.

* Images print up to 30 x 40 in. (76 x 102 cm).

* 5X optical zoom, professional-quality SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON Optical Zoom Lens, plus 5X digital zoom.

* 2.5 in. (6.4 cm) wide angle tion color display.

* View vertical or horizontal images right-side-up with the orientation sensor.

* Review mode magnifies up to 8X.

* Fast scroll through pictures.

* 64 MB internal memory.

* Kodak Z1275 digital camera accepts separately purchased SDHC/SD/MMC memory cards.

* Digital image stabilization.

* KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology.

* Smart scene mode.

* Panorama stitch mode.

* Shutter speed 1/2-1/2000 sec. in smart scene mode and 8-1/1000 in manual mode.

* Auto focus zones: continuous AF, single AF, TTL multi-zone AF (5 zones), (4) center zone AF.

* ISO sensitivity auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200.

* Metering modes: multi-pattern, center-weighted, spot.

* Compensation +/-2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps.

* Bracketing +/-2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps, 3 images.

* White balance auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade.

* Flash Modes: auto, red eye reduction, fill, off.

* Drive modes: single shot, first burst (1.7 fps, 3 frames), last burst (1.7 fps, last 3 frames), self timer (10 sec.), delay shutter, 2 sec. two-shots self-timer.

* Shooting modes: smart scene, SCN, P (program), M (manual), video capture, high ISO, digital image stabilization.

* Scene modes: portrait, sports, landscape, close-up, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text/document, fireworks, flower, manner/museum, self-portrait, children, backlight, panning, candlelight, sunset, panorama stitch.

* Click to capture Manufacturer 1 Year Limited Warranty.

Kodak EasyShare Z1275