Mac users are finally living in the future Twitter promised them back in August. The micro-blogging service recently updated the Tweetdeck Mac app to include the dedicated composition field the web and Chrome app got a few months ago, as well as auto-suggested hashtags and usernames. What's more, ...
With Red Bull[1] poised to wrap up their fourth consecutive world championship the battle to be ‘best of the rest’ is far from settled.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus are vying for second place in the constructors’ championship which brings rich financial rewards as well as prestige.
The extra income would be welcomed by any of the teams but particularly Lotus, who are operating on a considerably smaller budget than their well-heeled rivals.
Further back in the championship Sauber’s resurgence could see them rise as high as fifth. Who will come out on top?
Here’s how many points Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus have scored so far this year:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |
| Ferrari | 30 | 40 | 73 | 77 | 117 | 123 | 145 | 168 | 180 | 194 | 218 | 248 | 274 | 284 | 297 | ||||
| Mercedes | 10 | 37 | 52 | 64 | 72 | 109 | 134 | 171 | 183 | 208 | 235 | 245 | 267 | 283 | 287 | ||||
| Lotus | 26 | 40 | 60 | 93 | 111 | 112 | 114 | 124 | 157 | 183 | 187 | 191 | 206 | 239 | 264 |
Maximum points remaining: 172
There’s been little to separate Ferrari from Mercedes in the contest for second place in the championship for the last four races.
Mercedes can usually rely on having better qualifying pace but the Ferraris come one strong in race conditions – as was clear at Singapore. In Japan Lewis Hamilton’s[2] first lap misfortune and Nico Rosberg’s hasty departure from the pits saw Mercedes squander vital points in their battle with Ferrari.
But the last two races saw Lotus take points off both teams which has brought them firmly back into contention for the runner-up spot. There are two main reasons for Lotus’s rise.
The first is the improving form of Romain Grosjean[3], who has out-qualified Kimi Raikkonen more often than not in recent races and led almost half the race in Japan.
Lotus are also suspected of gaining a similar advantage to Red Bull from the mapping of their Renault engine. Mercedes believe Renault have found a way of legally enhancing their car’s traction.
These two factors could prove decisive over the final races. Having lost Raikkonen along with technical figures James Allison and Dirk de Beer to Ferrari, Lotus could be about to have the last laugh this year.
Here’s how many points McLaren, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso have scored so far this year:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |
| McLaren | 2 | 4 | 14 | 23 | 29 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 49 | 57 | 65 | 66 | 76 | 81 | 83 | ||||
| Force India | 10 | 10 | 14 | 26 | 32 | 44 | 51 | 59 | 59 | 59 | 61 | 61 | 62 | 62 | 62 | ||||
| Sauber | 0 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 17 | 19 | 31 | 45 | ||||
| Toro Rosso | 0 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
Sauber’s[4] return to form will be a cause for sleepless nights at Force India.
The Swiss team is in a similar situation to Lotus – as well as making gains with their car in recent races, their championship situation has been bolstered by the improving form of their second driver.
In their case it is Esteban Gutierrez[5] who scored the first points of his F1 career with a highly credible seventh place at Suzuka, behind team mate Nico Hulkeneerg.
Hulkenberg’s star is also rising. Since missing out on a switch to Ferrari he has produced giant-killing performances in Italy and Korea.
The Hungaroring was a turning point for the team as a new aerodynamic upgrade arrived and coincided with Pirelli’s changes to the tyre construction. Both have clearly been to their benefit, and the latter has clearly disadvantaged Force India, who look set to follow Toro Rosso in being overhauled by Sauber.
McLaren’s hold on fifth place may not be secure, especially if Sauber repeat their Japanese feat of getting both their cars home in front of the silver ones.
Who do you think will come out on top in these three-way battles? Cast your votes in the polls below and have your say in the comments.
Who will finish second in the constructors' championship?
Total Voters: 249
Who will finish fifth in the constructors' championship?
Total Voters: 245
An F1 Fanatic account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here[6] or read more about registering here[7].
Images © Lotus/LAT, Daimler/Hoch Zwei, Sauber
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — With the advent of same-sex marriage in New Jersey, couples are thrilled and, in many cases, confused about how to proceed.
Advocates and others are claiming that the state of New Jersey did not give ample instructions to town clerks and others on how to administer marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Same-sex marriages were scheduled to begin Monday at 12:01 a.m. The New Jersey Supreme Court last week refused to delay a lower court order for the state to start recognizing marriages. The case, however, is still on appeal.
Several couples planned to marry minutes after the state began recognizing the unions. Yet other said they had not been able to get a license. New Jersey law requires that couples wait three days between obtaining a license and getting married.
"There's a lot of mass confusion and it boils down to the fact that the state should have issued guidance a week ago," said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality.
Stevenson said he has 15 volunteer lawyers who are scrambling to find judges who are willing to waive the three-day requirement for couples.
"We're hoping to make miracles happen, but I wish we didn't have to," he said.
Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden, two plaintiffs in the lawsuit that brought same-sex marriage to the state, said they have not been able to get a license to wed.
The couple said the clerk in their hometown of Aberdeen told them Friday that she could not issue them a marriage license without further instruction from the state.
Gov. Chris Christie had instructed the Department of Health to cooperate with municipalities to issue licenses. The clerk did not immediately return a call to comment Sunday. A Christie spokesman did not return an email seeking comment.
"It's just very frustrating after being made to wait for so many years. The state had an order from a judge. It's clear they did nothing to prepare and to communicate," Karen Nicholson-McFadden said. "It's terrible. It sucks some of the joy out of Friday," when the court made its ruling.
The couple plans to try again for a license Monday and get married as soon as they can. They've been together for 24 years and have two children.
"We will do it as soon as we can because we've waited for so long. You don't want to tempt fate," Karen Nicholson-McFadden said. "You want to make sure the moment you can you have every one of these benefits and protections and then we go into party planning mode."
Two other plaintiffs, Louise Walpin and Marsha Shapiro, planned to seal their 24-year union with a midnight wedding at the home of state Sen. Ray Lesniak, a sponsor of the vetoed gay marriage law. Another state lawmaker who's been a longtime advocate for same-sex marriage, Sen. Loretta Weinberg, is to walk the couple down the aisle.
Little seems to have changed since the court's decision Friday. On the New Jersey Department of Health's website under "How to Apply for a Marriage License," requirements include "Be of the opposite sex."
Mayors in cities and towns including Newark, Jersey City, Asbury Park and Lambertville plan to open City Hall late Sunday and marry couples as soon as possible.
But confusion reigned Friday when applying for licenses, and Stevenson said he expects to see far more weddings in the coming week.
"If they could, hundreds and hundreds of couples would get married tonight," Stevenson said Sunday. "But with this waiting period, it's not going to be as many as they hoped."
There is now also a push in the state legislature to gather enough votes to override Christie's veto of a same-sex marriage bill. Christie does not support same-sex marriage and has said he wants to put the issue on the ballot.
Democratic Sen. Ray Lesniak said even though the Supreme Court's decision was unanimous and strongly worded, there is a chance it could be overturned. By codifying same-sex marriage into law, it would add another layer of protection.
"There's also a limbo period now," he said. "Yes, it's easy for us to say a strongly worded unanimous decision by the supreme court on this day leaves little chance that this decision will be overturned, but by an override we will eliminate any change."
___
Associated Press writer Angela Delli Santi contributed to this report.
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By Valerie Volcovici and Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear a challenge to part of the Obama administration's first wave of regulations aimed at tackling climate change, accepting its biggest environmental case in six years.
The court said it would not review the underlying determination that greenhouse gases are a public health concern or a separate regulation that limits greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
The single question the court will consider is whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency correctly determined that its decision to regulate motor vehicle emissions automatically gave it the authority to regulate emissions from stationary sources such as power plants and oil refineries.
Industry groups applauded the high court for considering placing a check on what they call regulatory overreach while environmentalists took comfort from the narrowness of the question the court agreed to consider.
Oral arguments are likely to be heard early in the new year with a ruling issued by the end of June.
Gina McCarthy, the EPA administrator, said in a statement that the court was taking up a "very narrow legal question" that would not substantially weaken the Obama administration's climate-change agenda.
EPA regulations are among President Barack Obama's most significant measures to address climate change.
A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the rules, issued by the EPA under the Clean Air Act, in 2012. The regulations allowed for greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from a wide range of sources to be regulated for the first time.
By agreeing to hear a consolidated challenge from states and business groups, the court could be getting set to limit the reach of its groundbreaking 2007 ruling, Massachusetts v. EPA, in which it held on a 5-4 vote that carbon was a pollutant that could potentially be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
The court rejected outright three of the nine petitions that sought Supreme Court review, including one filed by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, that questioned whether the EPA appropriately weighed climate change science.
The legal question, crafted by the court itself from those raised in the six petitions it agreed to review, indicates the court does not plan to revisit the underlying reasoning behind Massachusetts v. EPA but will weigh whether the EPA went further than allowed under the act.
Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said the court did not dispute the scientific basis underpinning the EPA'S greenhouse gas regulations or its industry-backed vehicle emissions standards, but focused on the most legally shaky challenges buried in the various petitions.
The legal question is "appropriately limited," Adler said.
SOMETHING FOR BOTH SIDES
Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which filed one of the petitions the court agreed to hear, said the group has from the beginning argued "that the Clean Air Act is the wrong vehicle to regulate greenhouse gases and that EPA exceeded its regulatory authority under the act."
Eric Groten, a partner at law firm Vinson and Elkins, which represents the industry-backed Coalition for Responsible Regulation, said the court's acceptance of some of the petitions raises the key question of how easily the EPA can use its authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
"This bodes well for efforts to cauterize the damage, as the court will consider whether EPA needs to legally and factually justify each action taken to regulate GHG, or whether it can just wave Massachusetts v. EPA as a magic wand and conjure what it wishes," Groten said. His client's petition was one of those rejected.
Environmental lawyers stressed that because the justices will assess only one of the many legal questions raised in the petitions, it will only have a limited impact on EPA's broader goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest contributor to climate change.
U.S. natural gas futures were little changed on Tuesday despite the news. Prices matched Monday's nearly four-month spot chart high of $3.855 per mmBtu in overnight trading before being hit by some profit-taking. The most current contract is up more than 9 percent in just over a week.
REGULATORY AGENDA
Tuesday's decision does not affect the agency's ability to require power plants to install the best available technology to reduce emissions. It could, though, impede the EPA's ability to require new or modified facilities, such as refineries or power plants, to obtain emissions permits.
Come June, the EPA is due to propose a major rule that would limit the amount of greenhouse gases the country's existing fleet of more than 1,000 power plants can emit.
The American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group that along with manufacturing interests filed one of the petitions, said the fact that EPA regulations for cars automatically triggered further regulation of other sources of greenhouse gas emissions was an "overstep" of the agency's authority under the Clean Air Act.
"The EPA is seeking to regulate U.S. manufacturing in a way that Congress never planned and never intended," said Harry Ng, American Petroleum Institute vice president and general counsel.
Whatever the court eventually decides, the EPA's ability to use the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions from power plants and other stationary sources is not under threat, environmental lawyers say.
Even if the court ruled for petitioners, most power plants and refineries would still be required to install best available control technology to limit greenhouse gases, said Sean Donahue, a lawyer representing environmental groups at Donahue & Goldberg.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Valerie Volcovici, additional reporting by Eileen Houlihan; Editing by Ros Krasny, Howard Goller, Prudence Crowther and Lisa Shumaker)
Rick Floyd/NBC
"Off Their Rockers"
Lifetime is reviving Betty White's Off Their Rockers.
The female-skewing cable network has picked up 20 original half-hour episodes of the hidden-camera series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.
White will return to host the third season of the series in 2014. A formal premiere date has not yet been determined.
STORY: NBC Cancels Betty White's 'Off Their Rockers'
The deal with producer Kinetic Content brings new episodes of the series to Lifetime, which has aired off-network repeats.
NBC aired the first two seasons of the series, which featured White overseeing the elderly playing pranks on younger folks in a hidden-camera fashion similar to Candid Camera. The show launched with a preview in April 2012 timed to an NBC special tribute for White's 90th birthday earning 12 million total viewers.
Following its 12-episode run from January to May 2012, NBC renewed the series for a second run of 14 installments, which started with back-to-back airings in January into February with its final four episodes airing March 19, June 25 and July 9.
PHOTOS: Behind-the-Scenes With Betty White and TV's Hilarious Comedy Actresses
Rockers' most recent in-season run -- which was used to help fill holes on the network and often held up well -- averaged a 1.5 rating with adults 18-49 and 5.3 million viewers. The series failed to really see an uptick when factoring in Live+Seven-Day numbers as the show didn't traditionally perform well with the DVR crowd.
Rockers marks the latest series to be spared the ax at Lifetime. The cable network revived America's Most Wanted for a 25th season after Fox dropped the John Walsh crime-fighting series after 24 runs. (Lifetime ultimately canceled the series in March.) The network also picked up ABC's Devious Maidsafter the network originally passed on the Marc Cherry drama. That series has already been renewed for a second season.
White is repped by APA.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
Star Chloë Grace Moretz and director Kimberly Peirce talk about their take on one of the most memorable scenes in horror history.
By Charles Webb
In regards to both starter Pokémon and the Legendary Pokémon, you will have first choice and I will choose mine once the final winner of the little mini-contest for the 1x1 partner slot is filled. Your profile will be finalized and submitted and I will then fill out the rest of the missing info regarding my starter and Legendary choice once you have done so for yourselves.
"Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf"
Chinese TV stations have halted broadcasting of the country's most popular animated series, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, after numerous complaints that the show was too violent for its young audience.
It tells a story of a group of cheerful goats living on a meadow and a woebegone grey wolf's repeated doomed efforts to slaughter them.
PHOTOS: Cut, Censored, Changed: 10 Hollywood Films Tweaked for International Release
Among the broadcasters stopping the show are Zhejiang TV, while Beijing TV said it was unclear whether the show would resume after the summer break.
The violence on the show has prompted numerous online calls for a classification system for animated TV shows to protect children from harmful content.
Xinwenlianbo, China's most-watched TV news program on the state broadcaster CCTV, singled out Pleasant Goat for criticism saying the language was inappropriate and the violent behavior appalling.
CCTV cited copycat violence cases, where children imitated the characters. In one case in April, a 10-year-old boy in Jiangsu province reportedly set fire to two brothers, aged eight and four, after getting the idea from the TV show. The boys were badly burned.
The producers, Guangdong-based Creative Power Entertaining, said they would spend more than 10 million yuan ($1.63 million) on fixing the show, including episodes already aired, although they denied this had anything to do with the copycat violence issues.
"Cartoons have a social responsibility but they are not for educating people," a spokesperson told local media. "We have already started adapting the cartoon step by step and we are planning to invest hundreds of millions of yuan," the company said, adding that it backed efforts by the government to regulate the industry better.
PHOTOS: Studios' New Box Office Pain: Homegrown Films Are Beating Tentpoles Overseas
China's top media watchdog, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, is coming up with new animation content standards which it will be released by the end of the year.
The watchdog rules will include a ban on violence, following consultation with numerous Chinese animation companies, including Creative Power Entertaining.
"There is scope for improvement and we are willing to take on social responsibility. Our target has been always young children and we want good interaction. Creative Power Entertaining has never done any adult stuff and we don't have any violent language. Even though it's about the wolf catching the goat, in the end the goat always wins. There is lots of fighting and violence in Tom & Jerry and Kung Fu Panda."
The show, which has run around 1,000 episodes, is by far the most popular Chinese animated TV show since it debuted in 2005.
Before Pleasant Goat, Chinese animation struggled and was routinely outdone by Spongebob Squarepants.
The franchise has also been an enormous success because, unusually in piracy-heavy China, it has managed to succeed in marketing merchandise.
The first movie in the franchise, The Super Snail Adventure, was released in 2009, and broke the domestic box-office record for a Chinese animated film. The fifth installment, I Love Wolffy 2, took in nearly $7 million in its first week when it was released in August.
In 2010, The Walt Disney Company secured a license to broadcast 100 episodes of the show on its Disney Channel in 46 countries and regions.
Nuclear negotiators from six world powers and Iran head to Geneva for talks surrounded by more optimism than has been seen in years. Positive rhetoric from the new administration of President Hasan Rouhani has raised hopes that diplomacy may once again be ascendant instead of sanctions and threats of military action. Analysts say the trick will be getting the slow-moving negotiating process to respond before these expectations fade. Much will depend on the West's, and especially Washington's, willingness to consider leaving low-level uranium enrichment in Iran's hands, and on whether Congress can be persuaded to hold off on more punitive sanctions that could derail the diplomatic effort.
Palestinian travelers wait to cross into Egypt at the Rafah crossing terminal in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 8.
To get a small sense of Fida'a Abuassi's odyssey, start on June 28, days before the Egyptian coup. She had just returned to the Gaza Strip via Cairo after spending last year in New York on the U.S. government-sponsored Fulbright student program.
"I came back to Gaza, and then they declared that they will close the border until further notice," she says.
There are only two legal ways in and out of the Gaza Strip. Egypt runs one, and has sharply restricted crossings after the military takeover in July, citing security. Israel tightly controls the other. Abuassi's first challenge was getting permission from Israel to go to an interview for a student visa at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.
"I thought it was really, really impossible," she says. "Because when I got my first visa, I was denied the access to go to my appointment twice by Israel."
This year she got lucky: a permit to enter Israel for a day, and a quick interview at the U.S. consulate that left plenty of time for sightseeing in Jerusalem.
"Being there was just like amazing," she recalls. "I was taking pictures of every single corner. I was a flying bird, just like going everywhere."
That was mid-July. Abuassi finally got a visa 10 days before her master's program started in August at the University of Indianapolis. Now she just needed to get to an airport. The Egyptian border was jammed with thousands of travelers stuck in Gaza. She applied again to Israel, but after several weeks, she was denied permission to use that crossing. She said she felt helpless.
Fida'a Abuassi activates her cell phone at a shop in Chicago.
Fida'a Abuassi activates her cell phone at a shop in Chicago.
"I feel like my life is all about permits, all about endless papers, all about borders, all about complications," she says. "And I have to give reasons, why I would travel. But I've been out of Gaza and I know what it's like to be free."
The date she was due to enter the U.S. had been extended once and was now about to expire. On Monday, Oct. 7, she decided to try to leave through Egypt.
She went to the border, but it was closed that day. She said she'd try again the next day — if it was open.
"Once I get to the U.S., I'll just explain why I was late," she said.
The next day, Abuassi snagged a spot in line.
"I was lucky today, they called my name," she said. "But I'm on the last bus."
She spent that day in a parking lot, and the next day, too. On Thursday, no students were allowed to cross, only pilgrims traveling to Mecca. The border is always closed Friday. Finally, last Saturday, Abuassi was on the first bus.
By nightfall she was camped at the Cairo airport. Eight hours of waiting, a flight to Turkey, then Chicago. Entering the U.S. went more smoothly than any other junction in her journey. This story tells only some of the twists and turns.
"It wasn't an easy task," she says. "It was really, really, a long, long, long journey; a long struggle. I hope it's over."
When asked if she'll go home next summer, she replies: "No, no no."
Abuassi's first class is Wednesday night, a seminar on international terrorism. The crossing between Gaza and Egypt is closed all this week for the Muslim holiday of Eid.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German opposition parties on Tuesday accused Angela Merkel of pandering to the car lobby, after her conservatives received major donations from the family that controls BMW, just as Berlin was lobbying against tougher EU caps on carbon emissions.
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) said the three donations made on October 9 and totaling 690,000 euros "have no connection to any political decisions".
The funds came days before European Union environment ministers backed German demands to scrap a deal to cap EU car emissions that Berlin had argued would cost jobs and damage its premium auto makers.
The donations came from Johanna Quandt, the widow of industrialist Herbert Quandt who is credited with transforming BMW, and her children Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten. The family owns almost 47 percent of BMW.
Juergen Trittin, former co-leader of the Greens, wrote on Twitter that the family had "bought Merkel's climate policy on October 9 for 690,000 euros".
Social Democrat Joachim Poss wrote that the short period between the donation and Merkel's backing for the car industry were "grist to the mill for all those critical of party donations."
A spokesman for the Quandts said they had decided in January to donate to the CDU but waited until October to transfer the money because they did not want to get involved in campaigning for Germany's September 22 election.
The payments were registered with parliament, as required for all personal donations to parties of more than 50,000 euros.
Carmakers Daimler and BMW produce heavier and relatively less fuel-efficient vehicles, meaning they would find it challenging to meet the proposed cap on carbon emissions of 95 grams per kilometer for all new cars from 2020, analysts say.
The CDU said the Quandt family had supported it with donations for years, regardless of whether they were in government. The three family members had also each given the party 150,000 euros after the 2009 election, which saw Merkel enter a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Merkel's conservatives emerged as the dominant force in last month's election but need a partner. They are talking to both the SPD and the Greens, with the former seen as the most likely partner. The Greens are strongly in favor of limiting CO2 emissions to 95 grams per kilometer.
(Writing by Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; editing by Andrew Roche)
The TV Guide
Last night a group of friends (including Sarah, Mark, Agnes Ken — and Adriana in spirit) and I made our way downtown to root for the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Game 5 of their playoff series with the Boston Red Sox. Altho the game didn’t go our way, we all had a lot of fun rooting for the Tigers in person. Ken managed to secure a set of great seats for the game and we did our best to rally and cheer for the Tigers all night long. We ended up losing by just one run but, as I said, we all had a blast at the game together.
Today will be a fun and bizzy day. First, I’ll be meeting up with PITNB reader Erin at Oakland University where she asked me to speak to her class about the blog. I’ll have more deets on that tomorrow :) Later on, I’ll be heading to Cobo Hall to pick up my race materials for the Detroit Marathon on Sunday. Tonight … I’m not sure yet. I may try to make it out to Ann Arbor but I’m not sure yet. I need to start eating and resting for the big race on Sunday morning. So much to do beforehand tho, so … I’m off. I hope you are having a great Friday! It’s a new weekend, y’all. Make the most of it!!
By Soham Chatterjee
(Reuters) - Google Inc shares jumped to an all-time high above $1000 after the search engine giant reported a surge in mobile and video advertising that helped drive quarterly revenue up 23 percent.
At least 16 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock to between $880 and $1,220, with Deutsche Bank bumping up its target price by 26 percent.
The shares rose 13 percent to $1007.40 after the opening bell on the Nasdaq, before easing back a few dollars.
Google said paid clicks increased by a quarter in the three months ended September 30, from a year earlier, the highest rate of growth in the past year.
This offset an 8 percent fall in average cost-per-click, the price advertisers pay Google when consumers click on their ads.
"We view solid paid clicks growth to be a good indicator of demand, driven by the continued shift to mobile," J.P. Morgan analysts said. They had expected 21.5 percent growth.
In contrast, analysts say Yahoo, which this week reported a tepid quarter, has lost market share in display and search advertising in the face of strong competition from Facebook Inc and Google.
Google shares have climbed 38 percent this year, rewarding investors such as Fidelity Investments' $101 billion Contrafund.
Contrafund added to its stake in Google in the third quarter and got a big lift from the surging performance of Facebook and Tesla Motors Inc as well. The fund, managed by star stock picker Will Danoff, returned 8.94 percent in the third quarter, easily beating the 5.24 percent advance of the S&P 500 Index.
Facebook is expected to report its third-quarter results on October 30.
To counter declines in cost-per-click rates, Google rolled out in February a service to help advertisers market through a mix of smartphones, tablets and desktops.
The J.P. Morgan analysts said this drive was a major opportunity for Google in the upcoming holiday season.
Analysts also highlighted Google's ability to generate revenue from its video-streaming website, YouTube.
YouTube branded video-ads grew more than 75 percent in the quarter, from a year earlier, with 40 percent of traffic now coming from mobile devices.
"We estimate that Google's key YouTube asset generated approximately $4 billion in revenue in 2012, positioning Google extremely well for the strong growth in video advertising," RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote in a note.
Analysts at Jefferies said Google is best positioned to benefit in mobile with one billion Android activations. The company sells applications and content through its Google Play Store.
The Mountain View, California-based company - known for its Google Maps service, Chrome browser and Nexus line of smartphones and tablets - reported a 32 percent jump in revenue from the rest of world (excluding UK) during the quarter with growth coming from Japan, South Korea and Australia.
" is an encouraging bright spot. Google should be a good play off any European and Emerging Markets recovery," analysts at RBC Capital markets said.
"We think the worst is behind Google from a sentiment perspective," Deutsche Bank analysts said.
(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Rodney Joyce)
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 17-Oct-2013
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American Geosciences Institute
Alexandria, VA - The Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding at the American Geosciences Institute has released a landmark report on the status of Earth Science education in U.S. middle and high schools, describing in detail significant gaps between identified priorities and lagging practice.
The report, "Earth and Space Sciences Education in U.S. Secondary Schools: Key Indicators and Trends," offers baseline data on indicators of the subject's status since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in April 2013. Establishing clear aims for the subject, the NGSS state that the Earth and Space Sciences should have equal status with the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Technology, and Engineering. However, the report shows that school districts and other organizations fail to assign the Earth Sciences this status.
Only one of the nation's 50 states requires a year-long Earth/Environmental Science course for high school graduation, whereas 32 states require a Life Science course, and 27 require a Physical Science course, according to the report. Only six states require that students are taught Earth Science concepts as part of their graduation requirements. Detailed and analyzed are key indicators including:
Recommendations for better treatment of Earth Science subject matter include changes in the subject's relevance to graduation requirements, the discipline's presence on assessments, designation of Earth Science courses as laboratory courses, and establishment of an Advanced Placement Earth Science program.
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The 2013 report is the first original offering of the Center, which launched an online hub of geoscience education and outreach resources on October 16, 2013. The site can be found at http://www.geocntr.org, and the report at http://bit.ly/19UBQMt.
The report is being launched as part of Earth Science Week, the international celebration of the Earth Sciences that is organized by AGI and reaches over 50 million people with geoscience resources and information each year. Updated editions of the report are planned to be released annually during Earth Science Week, each October, to gauge changes in the status of Earth science nationwide.
The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geosciences education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 17-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Ann Benbow
aeb@agiweb.org
703-379-2480
American Geosciences Institute
Alexandria, VA - The Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding at the American Geosciences Institute has released a landmark report on the status of Earth Science education in U.S. middle and high schools, describing in detail significant gaps between identified priorities and lagging practice.
The report, "Earth and Space Sciences Education in U.S. Secondary Schools: Key Indicators and Trends," offers baseline data on indicators of the subject's status since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in April 2013. Establishing clear aims for the subject, the NGSS state that the Earth and Space Sciences should have equal status with the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Technology, and Engineering. However, the report shows that school districts and other organizations fail to assign the Earth Sciences this status.
Only one of the nation's 50 states requires a year-long Earth/Environmental Science course for high school graduation, whereas 32 states require a Life Science course, and 27 require a Physical Science course, according to the report. Only six states require that students are taught Earth Science concepts as part of their graduation requirements. Detailed and analyzed are key indicators including:
Recommendations for better treatment of Earth Science subject matter include changes in the subject's relevance to graduation requirements, the discipline's presence on assessments, designation of Earth Science courses as laboratory courses, and establishment of an Advanced Placement Earth Science program.
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The 2013 report is the first original offering of the Center, which launched an online hub of geoscience education and outreach resources on October 16, 2013. The site can be found at http://www.geocntr.org, and the report at http://bit.ly/19UBQMt.
The report is being launched as part of Earth Science Week, the international celebration of the Earth Sciences that is organized by AGI and reaches over 50 million people with geoscience resources and information each year. Updated editions of the report are planned to be released annually during Earth Science Week, each October, to gauge changes in the status of Earth science nationwide.
The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geosciences education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.
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