Is the 'old man' haircut the solution for misbehaving kids? -

Is the 'old man' haircut the solution for misbehaving kids? - 

Never has a single haircut caused such a fuss.

Some call it the "Benjamin Button Special;" others the "old man" cut.

In either case, it's supposed to be the cure for a misbehaving boy. A little bit of shame to get him back on track.

"So you wana act grown...well now you can look grown too," Russell Fredrick posted on the Facebook page for his A-1 Kutz barbershop in Snellville, Georgia, near Atlanta.

The mother of a 10-year-old took Fredrick up on his offer. The 'after' photos show a boy who looks like a little old man with a pronounced bald spot.

Fredrick's post has gone viral on Facebook and Instagram, generating worldwide media coverage -- both cheers and jeers.

"If my kid's grades fell, I'd do this to him, too," said a Facebook post by Marla-Eyvette Massie.

But Samuel Thomas Duncan was not amused. "I'd rather punish a child at home and keep it a private matter than let someone else humiliate that child publicly," he said.

Fredrick said he's not surprised by all the attention the new coif is getting.

"Because a lot of people are at a loss of how to discipline kids, you can't whup 'em anymore, like we used to, as children," the barber said. "It works."

Childhood as source
The inspiration came from Fredrick's own life, when he was having trouble last year with his 12-year-old son, CNN affiliate WXIA reports.

The frustrated dad told him to quit acting up in school "like an old foolish man."

Fredrick shaved his son's head bald and then showed him a picture of an old bald man, like the character in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"I showed him and I told him, this is your next one if you keep it up," Fredrick told him. "He didn't want it, so he got his act together."

Learning a lesson?
Not familiar with the plot of "Benjamin Button?" Benjamin begins life as an old man and ages in reverse.

A-1 Kutz offers the "Benjamin Button Special" for free, but usually it doesn't come to that. One look at the picture of the first recipient of the "old man" cut is enough to do the trick.

As for the young man who got "the special," he says he's learned his lesson, according to Fredrick, and has a nice new cut to go with his new attitude.

Read more - 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/us/feat-barber-shames-misbehaving-kids/index.html

Toronto is officially the best city in the world -

Toronto is officially the best city in the world - 

Toronto is the world's best city to live in, according to research looking at a range of factors including safety, cost of living and liveability.

According to analysis carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit of 36 major cities, Canada's economic powerhouse finished top.

While it wasn't named first in any of the specific rankings, a strong performance overall placed Toronto top. It came eighth in the safety index and fourth in terms of liveability.

Tokyo is named the safest city in the world. Even though it is home to 30 million people and is one of the biggest cities in the world, the Japanese capital sees very little crime and violence.

With a traditionally well-ordered, hierarchical society, Japan has one of the lowest murder rates in the world, with the use of drugs particularly low. Another Japanese city, Osaka, was ranked third safest city in the world. 

Toronto was only placed outside of the top ten in one category: cost of living. Unsurprisingly, London scored poorly in this too, coming around halfway down, alongside South Korea’s capital, Seoul.

Melbourne came top in the liveability ranking, and Hong Kong was one of five to score highest in Food Security.

Read more - 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/toronto-is-officially-the-best-city-in-the-world-according-to-the-economist-10012681.html

In Denmark You Are Now Paid To Take Out A Mortgage - the negative rate mortgage is now a reality -

In Denmark You Are Now Paid To Take Out A Mortgage - the negative rate mortgage is now a reality - 

With NIRP raging in the Eurozone and over €1.5 trillion in European government bonds trading with negative yields, many were wondering when any of this perverted bond generosity will spill over to other debtors, not just Europe's insolvent governments (who can only print negative interest debt because of the ECB's backstop that it will buy any piece of garbage for sale in the doomed monetary union). In fact just earlier today we, rhetorically, asked a logical - in as much as nothing is logical in the new normal - question: 


Little did we know that just minutes after our tweet, we would learn that at least one place is already paying homeowners to take out a mortgage. That's right - the negative rate mortgage is now a reality.

Thanks of Mario Draghi's generosity with "other generations' slavery", and following 3 consecutive rate cuts by the Danish Central Bank, a local bank - Nordea Credit - is now offering a mortgage with a negative interest rate! This means, according to DR.dk, that Nordea have had to pay instead of charging interest to to a handful of customers, says housing economist at Nordea Kredit, Lise Nytoft Bergmann for Finance.

From DR, google-translated:

The interest rate has balanced around 0 in a level between minus 0.03 percent plus 0.03 percent. Most have paid a modest positive interest rate, but there are so few who have had a negative rate. It is quite an unusual situation, says Lise Nytoft Bergmann.

It is residential customers who have chosen to stick with F1-loan that now benefit from the negative interest rate. F1 loan form has otherwise been strong returns in recent years in favor of fixed interest loan.

Although interest rates are negative, it is not something that can be felt by customers as contributions and other costs continue to be paid. In turn, interest will be deducted from the contribution.

Precisely because it is an unusual situation, Nordea Kredit's IT systems are not geared to the situation when the computers are only used to collect interest.

Lise Nytoft Bergmann says that there is no cause for concern, and that the new situation can be handled, "but sometimes we have to use duct tape and paste."
This is just the beginning: according the Danish media outlet, as a result of variable-refinancing, as recently as a week from now "a greater share of customers could have a negative rate."

Mortgage Denmark is one of the mortgage banks, where F1 rate also is close to zero, and here you are very excited about the upcoming negotiations, says Christian Hilligsøe Heinig, chief economist of the Mortgage Denmark.

We have an auction just around the corner and it is very exciting to see how interest rates are going. We can go and get negative interest rates, says Christian Hilligsøe Heinig to JP Financial.
And just like that, first in Denmark, and soon everywhere else in Europe, a situation has now emerged where savers who pay the bank to hold their cash courtesy of negative deposit rates, are directly funding the negative interest rate paid to those who wish to take out debt. In fact, the more debt the greater the saver-subsidized windfall.

That all this will end in blood and a lot of tears is clear to anyone but the most tenured economists, however in the meantime, we can't wait to take advantage of the humorous opportunities that Europe (and soon Japan and the US) will provide in the coming months, as spending profligacy will be directly subsidized and funded by the insolvent monetary system, while responsible behavior and well-paid labor will be punished, first with negative rates and soon thereafter: with threats, both theoretical and practical, of bodily harm.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-30/denmark-you-are-now-paid-take-out-mortgage

People keep pulling the fire alarm in the Patriots' hotel in the middle of the night -

People keep pulling the fire alarm in the Patriots' hotel in the middle of the night - 

For the second time in three nights, the New England Patriots were awoken in their hotel by a false fire alarm. On Tuesday, the alarm sounded at 1:30 a.m. for approximately 10 minutes. The incident was deemed an “anomaly” by the hotel according to Jeff Darlington, and was quickly forgotten amid the hustle and bustle of media day.

But Thursday morning, the alarm sounded once more. This time coming just before 5 a.m., which is really the worst time.


Sure it’s an annoyance at 1:30 a.m., but you can still get a proper REM cycle in afterwards and be fine in the morning. But at 5 a.m., what’s the point? You’re up and there’s nothing you can do about it. This means that the fire alarm pullers are getting smarter, and gaining self awareness. Soon, they will be able to target specific rooms and initiate strategic ding-dong-ditches or place orders for unwanted room service.

It’s also shocking that the NFL has been silent on the matter. Ted Wells should have started his investigation into Fire Alarmgate hours ago.

Read more - 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/people-keep-pulling-the-fire-alarm-in-the-patriots-hotel-in-the-middle-of-the-night

Hedge Fund Manager Loses 99.8% In 9 Months, Tells Investors He Is "Sorry" For "Overzealousness" -

Hedge Fund Manager Loses 99.8% In 9 Months, Tells Investors He Is "Sorry" For "Overzealousness" - 

Day after day, mainstream media proclaimed December the month to be in stocks: seasonals, Santa Claus rally, and performance-chasing funds would 'guarantee' upside. For Owen Li, former Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon Group trader, and the clients of his Canarsie Capital hedge fund, December 2014 will never be forgotten. According to CNBC, from around $100 million in AUM in March 2014, Li told investors in a letter, the fund had lost all but $200,000 and he was "truly sorry," for "acting overzealously" in the last 3 weeks.

Lawrence Delevingne reports:

A hedge fund manager told clients he is "truly sorry" for losing virtually all their money.

Owen Li, the founder of Canarsie Capital in New York, said Tuesday that he had lost all but $200,000 of the firm's capital—down from the roughly $100 million it ran as of late March 2014.

"I take responsibility for this terrible outcome," Li wrote in a letter to investors obtained by CNBC.com

"My only hope is that you understand that I acted in an attempt—however misguided—to generate higher returns for the fund and its investors. But even so, I acted overzealously, causing you devastating losses for which there is no excuse," he added.

...

Li said in the letter that he made a series of "aggressive transactions" over the last three weeks to make up for poor returns in December. He said he bet on stock price options, predicated on the broader market rising. But stock indexes instead fell, causing the huge losses along with several undisclosed direct investments, according to the note.
Li is a former trader at Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon Group, which collapsed amid insider trading charges.

Li's lieutenant at Canarsie is Ken deRegt, who joined in 2013 after having retiring as the global head of fixed income sales and trading at Morgan Stanley.



To Mr. Li's less than sophisticated investors we have a short clip summarizing what just happened:



As for Mr. Li, we look forward to his next "hedge" fund reincarnation so that we too can give him some of our money to manage because it really is not easy to find someone who can blow through $100 million in less than a year. And who knows: if someone is willing to fund a guy that dumb and that clueless, next time he actually is due to hit it out of the ballpark.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-21/hedge-fund-manager-loses-998-9-months-tells-investors-he-sorry-overzealousness

STUDY: Circumcision carried out before age of 5 'can increase risk of autism by 46%'... -

STUDY: Circumcision carried out before age of 5 'can increase risk of autism by 46%'... - 

Boys who are circumcised before the age of five are more likely to develop autism, a study has suggested. 

Autism is a disability that affects people's communication and behaviour and, according to the paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in January, circumcised boys are more likely "than intact boys" to develop ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). 

Researchers at Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, consulted the national registers to analyse information of 342,877 boys born in Denmark between 1994 and 2003.

"With a total of 4,986 ASD cases, our study showed that regardless of cultural background circumcised boys were more likely than intact boys to develop ASD before age 10 years," the paper said.

The study concluded that circumcision increased the risk of developing ASD by 46%.

Researchers explained that the link between circumcision and autism could be caused by the pain felt during the procedure.

According to some, painful experiences in babies "have been shown in animal and human studies to be associated with long-term alterations in pain perception, a characteristic often encountered among children with ASD." 

Others, however, have criticised the report linking circumcision to autism.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Dr Douglas S Diekema, a pediatrician at the University of Washington in Seattle, warned that people should be careful when drawing conclusions after reading the report, which "raises questions for further study, but does not provide answers. Correlation does not imply or prove causation."

Diekema also explained that if there was a link between circumcision and autism, then the rate of the latter would have fallen in recent decades given that less boys are circumcised now - but in fact the opposite is true. 

Dr Howard Cohen, a Mohel (Jewish person trained to carry out circumcision) for the London and South East UK Jewish community, wrote in the Jewish News Online: "The wrong type of study was done to explore whether a causative link exists.

"Observational studies can suggest associations but cannot explain the mechanisms of diseases. The authors seemingly failed to grasp both what autism is or what happens at a circumcision."

The latest research has further ignited the long debate on circumcision. 

Supporters of this practice argue that circumcision helps reduce risks of infection, some cancers and also the transmission of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).

Side-effects of circumcision can include pain, bruising and swelling of the skin around the penis, formation of abnormal scar tissue and damage to the urethra. Opponents argue that this practice can also cause negative effects on sexual health and emotional, sexual and social negative side effects that are visible only after childhood. 

Last April, a joint US and Australia study claimed that the benefits of circumcision exceed the risks "a hundreds times over" and that the practice has no adverse effect on sexual function, sensitivity or pleasure. 

In May 2014, however, a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics said that risk of circumcision side effects are 20 times greater if boys are subjected to this practice after the first year of birth. 

Circumcision is very controversial in some countries, which have banned it. A report published by the European Council in 2013 called the practice a human rights violation.

In 2012, Germany criminalised circumcision if it is carried out for religious purposes.

Medical associations in Sweden and Denmark urged for non-medical circumcision of boys to be banned and last October a survey revealed that almost three quarters of Danes want the practice to be abolished. 

Read more - 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/circumcision-carried-out-before-age-5-can-increase-risk-autism-by-46-1484448

FACEBOOK cited in third of all divorce cases... - cheating and old flames -

FACEBOOK cited in third of all divorce cases... - cheating and old flames - 

Facebook unwittingly provides evidence of infidelity and new relationships, helps track people’s movements and records expenditure on everything from cars to holidays

Facebook is now cited in a third of all divorce cases, research has shown.

A survey of legal firms’ caseloads revealed the social network is increasingly relied upon as proof of inappropriate behaviour.

Facebook unwittingly provides evidence of infidelity and new relationships, helps track people’s movements and records expenditure on everything from cars to holidays.

Leeds law firm Lake Legal said many cases revolved around social media users who got back in touch with old flames they hadn’t heard from in years.

Managing partner Lyn Ayrton said: “Social media provides an ongoing log of our lives. The sharing of written posts and pictures, often with geo-tagging, provides a record of activities that can be used in a court case.

“Often, if a partner refers to an impending bonus, a new job offer, or plans for a holiday, it may provide evidence that they are not telling the truth about their financial position. At the very least, it could call their credibility into question.

“It’s like having a massive public noticeboard.

“Somebody said she was not in a relationship with anybody new but then posted a message inviting everybody to a housewarming party for her and her boyfriend.”

Specialists at the firm examined over 200 cases and found Facebook was used by legal teams in just over a third of cases.

Julian Hawkhead, a managing partner at Stowe Family Law, said: “Photographs and comments made on these forums can be used as evidence of relationships or of a lifestyle which contradicts what people will otherwise try to portray.

“We regularly find clients coming to us with information they have found which is available in the public domain with proof of a relationship.

“However, the Internet can also provide a useful source of other information. Our in-house forensic accountancy team will often find rich pickings in gathering financial information through a Google search about a party, their location, where they have been and what they are doing with their lives.

“People need greater awareness of what information they are leaving about themselves on the Internet which is otherwise waiting to be found at the touch of a button.”

Read more -

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/facebook-now-crops-up-third-5011205

Facebook "likes" can tell more about your personality than your closest companions, a recent study shows -

Facebook "likes" can tell more about your personality than your closest companions, a recent study shows - 

The Facebook pages you "like" can give a more accurate analysis of your personality than the people closest to you, a study shows.

In a study at Cambridge University's Psychometrics Centre, 86,220 Facebook users completed a 100-item personality questionnaire that provided scores for traits including openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Researchers also accessed and analyzed pages users liked. The study showed certain likes equated to higher levels of particular traits. For example, if a user liked the artist Salvador Dali or the TED website, it is likely he or she is more "open." If a user liked pages about dancing, he or she would likely be more extroverted.

Then results of the personality questionnaire were compared with judgments of friends and family members using a shorter version of the test.

It turned out that software predicted personalities better than colleagues, friends, siblings and parents. Analyzing 10 likes, researchers were able to predict more accurately a person's personality than a work colleague could. With 70 likes, they provided better matches of the person's traits than friends. With 150 likes, they outperformed siblings and parents in outlining the person's character. With 300 likes, they were able to surpass spouses.

Given that the average person on Facebook has 227 pages they like, researchers concluded that the social networking site might give a better portrayal of a user's traits than the people closest to the person.

In addition to personality, the pages liked on Facebook enabled estimations of a user's age, relationship status, intelligence levels, life satisfaction, political and religious beliefs and education.

"In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological traits and react accordingly, leading to the emergence of emotionally intelligent and socially skilled machines," said Wu Youyou, who conducted the study. 

"In this context, the human-computer interactions depicted in science fiction films such as "Her" seem to be within our reach."

Read more - 

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/world/2015/01/182_171770.html

Senator’s husband stands to profit big from government deal - set to pocket about $1 Billion in commission -

Senator’s husband stands to profit big from government deal - set to pocket about $1 Billion in commission - 

Ever wonder how lowly paid lawmakers leave office filthy rich?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing how it’s done.
The US Postal Service plans to sell 56 buildings — so it can lease space more expensively — and the real estate company of the California senator’s husband, Richard Blum, is set to pocket about $1 billion in commissions.
Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014.
This feat of federal spousal support was ignored by the media after Feinstein’s office said the senator, whose wealth is pegged at $70 million, had nothing to do with the USPS decisions.
When the national debt is $18 trillion, a billion seems like small change.

Read more -

http://pagesix.com/2015/01/16/senators-husband-stands-to-profit-from-government-deal/?_ga=1.137700920.922370688.1421462337

New DNA technique may reveal face of killer in unsolved double-murder -

New DNA technique may reveal face of killer in unsolved double-murder - 

There were no witnesses to the gruesome murder of a South Carolina mother and her 3-year-old daughter inside a busy apartment complex four years ago. But a new technology that can create an image of someone using DNA samples left at crime scenes might bring police closer to catching the killer.

Reston, Va.-based Parabon Nanolabs, with funding from the Department of Defense, has debuted a breakthrough type of analysis called DNA phenotyping which the company says can predict a person's physical appearance from the tiniest DNA samples, like a speck of blood or strand of hair.

The DNA phenotyping service, commercially known as "Snapshot," could put a face on millions of unsolved cases, including international ones, and generate investigative leads when the trail has gone cold.

"This is particularly useful when there are no witnesses, no hits in the DNA database and nothing to go on," Dr. Ellen McRae Greytak, Parabon's director of bioinformatics, told FoxNews.com.

"This is particularly useful when there are no witnesses, no hits in the DNA database and nothing to go on."
- Dr. Ellen McRae Greytak, Parabon Nanolabs

"Traditional forensic analysis treats DNA as a fingerprint, whereas Snapshot treats it as a blueprint -- a genetic description of a person from which physical appearance can be inferred," Greytak said.

Parabon's new technology reads the parts of the human genome that code for the differences in physical appearance between people. Snapshot is able to predict such critical traits as skin color, hair color, eye color and face shape. It can also predict the individual's ancestry as well as highly-detailed traits, like freckles.

Using sophisticated computer algorithms that have been trained on thousands of reference samples, Snapshot translates this raw genetic code into predictions of physical traits. These are then combined to create a composite profile, or "digital mugshot" of an unknown suspect -- with remarkable accuracy, according to the company.

"Traits are generally predicted with more than 80 percent confidence, and importantly, Snapshot also reports which phenotypes can be excluded with more than 95 percent confidence," said Greytak.

While developing the technology, the company "made thousands of predictions on people who we knew" to ensure accuracy, she said. 

The investigator or crime lab sends evidence or extracted DNA to a Snapshot partner lab, where the DNA is run on a genotyping machine to produce the genetic information, according to the company. This genetic information is then securely transferred to Parabon, where an analyst runs it through Snapshot's predictive models to produce a prediction. A report of the results is then delivered to the agency that requested it.

The new DNA analysis, however, is not able to predict age and height -- traits Greytak described as "very complex."

For investigators in Columbia, S.C., a digital mugshot created by the company might provide a break in a 4-year-old double homicide that remains unsolved.

The bodies of 25-year-old Candra Alston and her 3-year-old daughter Malaysia Boykin were found inside their home at the Brook Pines Apartments in Columbia on Jan. 9, 2011. There were no signs of forced entry, leading police to believe Alston and her daughter knew the killer or killers.

Police have not disclosed how the mother and child died, only saying Alston and her daughter were killed by different means. A laptop, Gucci purse and trash can were stolen from the apartment, as well as gifts the 3-year-old had received for Christmas.

The one clue detectives had was an unspecified DNA sample left at the crime scene.   

Throughout the course of the investigation, police interviewed close to 200 people, 150 of whom submitted their DNA to authorities. But none of the samples proved to be a match, according to Mark Vinson, a cold case investigator with the Columbia, S.C., Police Department.

The police department then turned to Parabon's DNA phenotyping to create a facial image based on DNA left at the crime scene. Vinson said the computer-generated photo is a "person of interest" in the murders.

"This is DNA from just one person and it’s possible more than one person was involved," Vinson told FoxNews.com. The person of interest is dark-skinned with brown hair and brown eyes. The picture does not indicate an exact age, so the individual could be older than he appears.

Parabon tested their predictions against known photographs, such as this one.
"We suspect the child also knew the person who did this, which might explain why she was killed," Vinson noted.

"We're very hopeful this composite

could be the thing that prompts someone to come forward," he said.

While several agencies are now using Snapshot to help solve cold cases, including international ones, the Columbia, S.C. Police Department is first in the nation to publicly release a digital image generated by the new DNA analysis.

Anyone with information on the murders of Alston and her daughter is urged to contact CRIMESTOPPERS at 888-CRIME-SC or log onto www.midlandscrimestoppers.com.

Read more -

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/14/new-dna-technique-could-put-face-on-unsolved-double-murder/