Young Americans just aren’t watching TV like they used to. Put another way, the older you get, the more you watch, according to a report due out today from Deloitte indicating that ‘Millennials,’ the generation of 14- to 25-year-olds, watches just 10.5 hours of TV a week. That compares to 15.1 hours for those belonging to Generation X (ages 26-42), 19.2 hours for Baby Boomers (43-61) and 21.5 hours for Matures (62-75). Lest one assume Millennials are shunning broadcast and cable in favor of watching DVDs on their TV screens — they’re not. They spend less time watching DVDs of movies and TV shows on television sets, 4.8 hours a week, than do Gen Xers. They are, though, spending more time watching DVDs on a computer — 1.9 hours a week — than any other age group. But while Millennials are watching the least amount of TV, they are spending the most time with media in general, making that up with video games, music and the Internet. Just don’t expect them to spend too much time worrying about such things as news and current events, according to the Deloitte study dubbed ‘The State of […]
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, as expected, announced new protections on Thursday for health care providers who oppose abortion and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds. ‘Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a statement on his department’s Web site. The rule prohibits recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and health care aides who refuse to take part in procedures because of their convictions, and it bars hospitals, clinics, doctors’ office and pharmacies from forcing their employees to assist in programs and activities financed by the department. ‘This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience, Mr. Leavitt said. The Bush administration had signaled its intention to issue the measures, which are part of a flurry of regulations it is announcing before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The new president will be able to undo the regulations, and is virtually certain to, given his previous comments on the issue. But undoing them will be a time-consuming process. […]
BOSTON — A law designed to protect uninsured Americans who lose a television or other valuables to thieves could provide a glimmer of relief for thousands of investors burned by possibly one of Wall Street’s biggest frauds. Investors swindled by former Nasdaq Chairman Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud are exploring ways to recoup at least some of their money through so-called ‘theft loss’ deductions or other tax refunds. Those tax-code features could help shell-shocked investors recover potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, lawyers and tax advisors say. ‘Just from watching the TV, I can see this is a theft,’ said Robert Willens, a New York tax adviser. ‘And theft losses are treated much more favorably than most other losses are treated for tax purposes.’ Theft-loss provisions were intended to help uninsured people whose property was stolen, damaged or destroyed in an accident or by an act of nature — from storms to earthquakes. But they also apply to fraud-related investments. Taxpayers can deduct theft losses if they exceed 10 percent of their adjusted gross income in the year the fraud was discovered, which is 2008. Given the massive scale of fraud, losses for […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe your old truck isn’t responsible for destroying the planet after all. New climate change scenarios quantify the idea that oil is only a small component of the total global warming problem - the real problem is coal. If the world replaced all of its oil usage with carbon-neutral energy sources, ecologist Kenneth Caldeira of Stanford University calculated that it would only buy us about 10 years before coal emissions warmed the planet to what many scientists consider dangerous levels. ‘There’s an order of magnitude more coal than oil. So, whether there is a little more oil or a little less oil will change the details in, say, when we reach two degrees warming, but it doesn’t change the overall picture,’ Caldeira said Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting. Many of the efforts to ‘green’ our world’s infrastructure have focused on the importance of changing the world’s transportation systems. Indeed, one of the images of environmental destruction is the car-choked freeways of Los Angeles - and hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius have become a badge of environmental pride. But as the latest projections show, when it comes to global […]
Ruth Madoff, the 67-year-old wife of alleged fraud mastermind Bernard Madoff, is being investigated by U.S. regulators over whether she helped maintain secret records used in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, a person familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission, combing through files at her husband’s New York firm, found evidence she may have helped track payments, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. Two people with knowledge of the probe said on Dec. 14 that the agency is also examining why her name appears on related transactions. ‘She’s not charged with anything, said Ira ‘Ike Sorkin, a New York attorney at Dickstein Shapiro LLP, which represents the couple. ‘The SEC has not sought to freeze her assets. She’s under no bail conditions. Authorities haven’t accused Ruth Madoff of wrongdoing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein, who is overseeing criminal proceedings against her husband, today ordered the couple to surrender their passports. Bernard Madoff’s wife and brother, Peter, were the only people willing to sign a $10 million bond to secure his release. Ruth Madoff is seeking to hire her own lawyer, a person familiar with the matter said. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
