Vatican computer expert convicted in leaks case

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican court on Saturday found Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert, guilty of obstruction of justice in the investigation of leaks of sensitive papal documents to the media by Pope Benedict's former butler.

The same court which last month convicted Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's former butler, gave Sciarpelletti a two-month suspended sentence.

Sciarpelletti had been charged with aiding and abetting Gabriele in leaking the document.

But the court decided that he was guilty only of obstruction of justice because he had changed his version of events several times during the investigation.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.

One of the pope's closest household assistants, Gabriele admitted leaking the documents in what he said was an attempt to help disclose corruption and "evil" in the headquarters of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic faith.

Sciarpelletti spent one night in a Vatican jail cell on May 25, two days after Gabriele was arrested when police searched the former butler's home and found many copies of papal documents, some alleging infighting in the papal court and corruption at the highest levels of the church.

When Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's desk in the Secretariat of State - the nerve center of the Holy See's administration - they found a closed envelope addressed to Gabriele marked "personal".

It contained documentation relating to a chapter in a book about Vatican corruption and intrigue written by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who had received confidential documents from Gabriele.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-computer-expert-convicted-vatican-leaks-case-124939752.html

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Beautiful Places To Stay In London With Budget Pocket

Jesmond Hotel

Jesmond is the run by the Beynon family and one of best budgeted hotels in London and located to nearby attractions British Museum, Oxford Street, Theater land and Trafalgar Square and walking distance from UCL and British Library.

The hotel is gracefully endowed throughout. The conventional English garden is the USP of the hotel, premeditated and fashioned by family members.

Arosfa Hotel
The family run hotel is situated in the heart of central London and neighbor to few of the London landmarks including The British Library, The British Museum with world class shopping streets and famous theaters.

This magnificent hotel is a great place for tourist and business travelers, with top quality bed & breakfast. The rooms are compact but very neat and tidy, equipped with Wi-Fi and color TV.

Hotel 55

The hotel is well connected and just 30 minutes from Heathrow and Piccadilly Line from Londons West End. It is the ideal place for business and leisure trip, with well civilized elegant rooms.

There are 26 contemporary rooms which are well designed and modern. It is well equipped with air condition, flat screen TV, free Wi-Fi, direct dial telephone, tea and coffee machines.

Arran House hotel

The hotel has been operated by a small family from more than 30 years. This building is 200 year old Georgian town House located in the heart of Literary Bloomsbury ad walking distance from British Museum, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street for shopping, cinema, theaters.

The rooms are well furnished with amenities like English breakfast, TV Lounge, Tea and coffee machines, Color TV and fridge facilities available to the guests.

Twenty Nevern Square

The hotel is very well designed with simplicity, situated in a near Earls Court Exhibition Centre and Tube station. The hotel believes in delivering the best within the budget and can be afforded by the mass.

It has 20 well designed rooms with hand carved furniture. The bathrooms have beautiful marble flooring which is marked with luxury. The room features safety deposit box, Trouser Press, Wooden Parquet floor, Shower, Hairdryer, Free Toiletries, Telephone, Radio, Flat screen TV with Satellite channels, Tea and Coffee machines and iPod Docking system.

Avo Hotel

The hotel is suggested for guests, traveling for work or leisure as it is walking distance from Liverpool St, Bank and Canary Wharf with other attractions and hotspot.

The rooms are beautifully designed in a modern style. This hotel has contemporary feel which makes the guests comfortable and pleasant. Most of the rooms have big king sized beds with luxury toiletries, Wi-Fi, air condition, hairdryers with docking system.

Ibis Style

The Norfolk house hotel is a 2* hotel situated in Greater London. It has a coffee shop with bar and function facilities for up to 100 guests. This hotel is an ideal getaway from the chaos and can be marked as an epitome of peace and relaxation. This hotel offers free car parking and 24 hour reception service.

About the Author:
London Budgeted hotels are the best option for the tourists, though they dont provide the lavish amenities but can certainly accommodate in a neat and tidy place with basic amenities.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Beautiful-Places-To-Stay-In-London-With-Budget-Pocket-/4260111

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Dot Earth Blog: Will Storm's Wall Street Impact Influence U.S. Climate Policy?

I encourage you to read Tina Rosenberg?s Fixes post, ?A Change in the Weather on Wall Street.?

The piece nicely summarizes why this storm, unlike other recent weather disasters with a climate-change component, has prompted so many politicians, including President Obama, to end their self-imposed silence on global warming. One reason, she writes, is that it disrupted the lives of Wall Street titans along with the common folk in the region. That cut through the reality of the rich-poor ?climate divide.?

So climate may no longer be the ?C word.? As Rosenberg writes, that?s energizing climate campaigners, including Betsy Taylor, a strategist for foundations and nonprofit groups:

This year, the extreme weather began to change American views again ? even before Hurricane Sandy. Numerous surveys ? here?s?one from George Mason and Yale universities?? show that Americans now overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and caused by humans, and that it threatens people in the United States.?Another survey?by the same organizations found that a political position in favor of climate action wins votes among Democratic and Independent voters, and does little harm with Republican voters.

Taylor commissioned a national survey about climate change, and from that wrote?a strategy paper?for advocates of action:

  1. Talk about American patriotism. Americans don?t shrink from a fight. Don?t underestimate Americans and what we can do.
  2. Talk about the world we are leaving our children.
  3. Talk about the role of oil money.

Taylor says Hurricane Sandy has now added new arguments. One is that climate change is not just a threat for people elsewhere, in the future. It?s here and now. Hurricane Katrina affected a part of the country that was largely poor, black and far from the centers of power. Not Sandy. ?To have Hurricane Sandy hit where many powerful people live?You?re going to have lots of Republicans and Democrats sitting without water and light saying we can?t ignore this,? she said. ?It?s a tremendous new opportunity for us to break the stranglehold on Washington.?

The other new argument is economic. Until this year, the political calculus about climate change had only one side. The oil and coal companies made sure everyone knew about the costs of action. But few people mentioned the costs of inaction. Now they cannot be ignored.

But will this shift in perceptions and evidence affect prospects for meaningful action on greenhouse gases ? which of course is a much tougher challenge than the near-term imperative of girding against future damage from such storms?

The piece makes the case for a yes answer.

I agree that breaking the silence is valuable (I long thought President Obama?s climate sidesteps were a problem). And I see opportunities to build, locally and nationally, from concern about vulnerability to climate and coastal hazards to the challenge of moving beyond widespread dependence on coal and oil.

But a closer look at the tail end of Rosenberg?s piece shows why no one should expect an easier path ahead than in previous years. (And the issues go far deeper than reform of the Senate.) Here?s a deconstruction of a few sections, first on the role of greenhouse-driven warming in causing such losses and the impact of a greenhouse policy on stemming them:

Natural disasters have been around a lot longer than man-made carbon emissions, and the destruction from extreme weather we are seeing today is due only in part to climate change. (How large a part? Depends on whom you ask.)

It might be too late ? we could spend hundreds of billions on cutting carbon emissions and end up getting nothing for it in terms of reducing climate change.

Indeed, in the case of Hurricane Sandy, any role for greenhouse gases was a background influence,?even according to Kevin Trenberth?of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who?s been one of the most vocal scientists using extreme weather to make a case for emissions action. But of course, the extent of destruction from the storm surge came because a tiny bit of extra sea height can hugely amplify a storm?s impact.

In the end, there?s sufficient nuance in the science that a disaster of this sort can, like a?Rorschach inkblot, be what anyone with a predisposition on global warming wants it to be. This was one point made by the climate communicator and campaigner George Marshall here earlier this week.

And Rosenberg?s second point, that even a perfect greenhouse policy is unlikely to have a measurable influence on such threats, is buttressed by Brad Plumer?s relevant recent Washington Post analysis of how little even aggressive carbon dioxide reductions would affect the pace at which sea levels rise: ?Can we stop the seas from rising? Yes, but less than you think.?

Rosenberg then provides a fresh framing of the economic argument for action against the argument favored by many of those favoring sustained dependence on fossil fuels:

Or the reverse ? we could invest now in setting the United States on a greener path, and reap the benefits for generations. What Hurricane Sandy has made plain is that there is a balance. We?re already paying for climate change, and that tax is only going to rise. Advocates for action can make the same argument as those who mock climate change: to do nothing is to be anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-American values.

Framing climate-change costs as the equivalent of a hidden rising tax could be useful in debates over a climate response.

But this wouldn?t preclude the inevitable fight over the costs and benefits of continued reliance on fossil fuels.

In revealing that the policy debate will inevitably come down to finding a balance, Rosenberg?s piece helpfully reminds readers that climate science only frames this question, but does not offer a clear answer on what to do.

This is the difference between scientific description of a problem and prescriptions for addressing it ? the philosopher David Hume?s ?is-ought? divide. As the climate scientist Ken Caldeira (who studied philosophy in college) reminded me years ago, ?You can?t get an ought from an is.?

Also relevant is this thought from Richard Betts, a climatologist for Britain?s climate agency:

Asking a climate scientist to define a ?safe? or ?dangerous? level of global warming is like asking a weather forecaster to decide whether you should cancel your wedding, school sports day, or other event because he?s issued a severe weather warning. [Relevant post]

So, I encourage you to consider Rosenberg?s column ? not to mention Naomi Klein?s potent post-Sandy indictment of ?disaster capitalism? in The Nation ? with these ideas in mind as you weigh next steps on American climate policy.

Whether or not you or I like it, the path forward will remain largely shaped by a perpetual ??slo-mo pushmi-pullyu fight? that is only partly determined by who has more money and influence (although those forces are real).

Our divergent value sets, from liberal to libertarian (social scientists use terms like communitarian and individualist to describe the same range), guarantee division on where to set the balance.

And therein lies just one of the reasons climate policy is ?beyond super wicked,? as I?ve said before. Just ?super wicked? is bad enough, as Richard Lazarus of Harvard Law School explained in an important paper several years ago that had this sub-heading: ?Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future.?

Just reading that line gives you a good sense of how hard this will be.

Watch this video of this week?s Duke University debate between carbon campaigner Bill McKibben and carbon defender Alex Epstein to see how this plays out.

Who won?

Given that they argued their positions using entirely different framings of costs and benefits, victory is in the eyes of the viewer.

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/will-storms-wall-street-impact-influence-u-s-carbon-policy/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Getting Christmas Card Ready Brightside ... - The House of Smiths

Can you feel it?

Christmas is almost here! Yes, we still have Thanksgiving and believe me, I haven't forgotten about that amazingly-wonderful holiday (more on that next week), but there ARE those few important things that require quite a bit of planning prior to Christmas... and family holiday cards is probably the highest on my list. If you've been following us for a while, then you probably already know that the only company we work with, to do our formal announcements or invitations, is Brightside Prints.?I've tried my hardest, but seriously couldn't hold out any longer, I HAD to share their new, adorable holiday card designs for 2012!

They've even added additional designs just for holiday parties!

I love them!... for a lot of the same reasons that I always do; amazing designs that are both on-trend, yet still classically beautiful and timeless.

I really can't express enough how MUCH I recommend and endorse this amazing company, started by Jill Means and her?impeccable?design talent. Each time I've ordered from Brightside Prints I'm blown away by the attention to detail and quality. This isn't your typical card or announcement that you order online, and here's why:

Professional Designs & Exceptional Quality:

Brightside Prints features fresh and modern designs from an all-women team of professional designers. Every order is prepared by a real human graphic designer, to make each detail perfect! Designs are printed using a state-of-the-art press, the highest quality, eco-friendly papers and Brightside Prints provides a custom design experience and complimentary printing on the back of every card... which by the way, makes it SO much cuter!

I still swoon over these mini Valentines Day cards that we ordered from Brightside Prints last year. They turned out perfectly and the girls were SO excited to have their pictures to hand out to their friends... and (ehhem) cute boys, with their candy.

Completely Custom:

Every design is tailored to fit your style. You choose the colors, wording and your custom backer can feature a coordinating pattern, more photos, directions, letter, or message. PERFECT for a family update on the back of a holiday card!

When I worked with Brightside on Aubrielle's Fairy Ballerina birthday party?invitations, I was SO happy with how patient and quick my designer was. Even silly things, like changing specific fonts to exactly what I wanted were not a problem. As someone who is really specific about design... I LOVED that.

More to Love:

Brightside Prints gives you lots of additional options with bamboo paper, pearl paper, double thick, or die cuts. Also, coordinating products including labels, tags, thank you cards, and colored envelopes can be ordered through them! It's all the little extras that make a special?occasion really?"special"... don't you think?

Last year my Mom ordered a really fun family Christmas card with a collage of photos from Brightside Prints...

...but we couldn't get our act together in time to send out a formal Christmas card for our little family of five, like I wanted to and that's why THIS year I'm thinking WAY ahead.

We have family pictures scheduled with the oh-so-talented Laci Davis, who took our last set of stunning family photos, in a few days and I'm exhausted! I mentioned this on our Facebook page earlier, but I'll say it again... pulling family photo shoot outfits together is hard! I did tons of research and it's all just confusing. Coordinate but don't match; use prints, but not too many; wear bold colors, but don't go crazy; make it look effortless.

*faint*

I'm trying to come at this task like I would if I were decorating a room (because it seems to be following the same rules), but the RIGHT clothes are SO much harder to come by than a cute pillow or the perfect lamp.

Here's what we've got so far, minus a colorful tie and a few other accessories.

Oh... and yes, don't worry, Cason's going to be wearing pants too.?whew!

:)

Do you send out a holiday card each year? Have you got the perfect photo ready yet?

Well, if you answered yes, then I've got an awesome deal for ya!

Brightside Prints is offering FREE coordinating address labels with every holiday order before November 15th!

AND

An additional 10% off all products with the discount code?"smiths"?

... which is always good to use, and never expires!

I'm beyond excited to get these pictures taken, so that we can switch out our old ones in our photo gallery for new ones AND use one of the shots for the perfect Christmas card! I seriously can't wait to show you how it all turns out. Eeee!

Wish us luck!

Source: http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2012/11/getting-christmas-card-ready-brightside.html

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Small Business Financing Options For Those With Not So Great Credit

If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner who does not have good personal credit but you need a small business loan of some kind to start, build, or grow your business then there?s good and bad news for you.

We?re really not here to talk about the bad news because you already know the bad news.? It?s tough ? some would say impossible ? to get financing when your personal credit is ?not so great.?? After all, it?s been tough enough since The Great Recession for people with ?good? credit to get financing.

bad credit financing

Just to clarify, we?re talking about debt financing and not equity financing.? This post will not cover equity financing options such as venture capital, private equity, angel investors, or the three F?s (friends/family/fools).

Before we get started, let?s review a couple important truths:

  • One is that your personal credit is either an asset or a liability.? It?s not neutral because, if you?re like most of us, you?ll want or need credit to do things like buy homes, obtain credit cards, get business financing, etc.? Your credit is not neutral, it?s either an asset or a liability.? If it?s an asset then keep it that way and if it?s a liability then don?t be guilty of the definition of insanity and continue doing the same things you?ve always done and then expect different results.? Do something about it.
  • Two, you may want to consider an ownership strategy if you are married and your spouse has better credit than you.? More about husband & wife ?insider? tips here.

Now, let?s dive into the best small business financing options for people with ?not so great? credit:

ROB?s (Rollover as Business Startups)

This works for both new and established businesses.? If you have an IRA, 401k, or other qualified retirement vehicle then you may be able to roll some or all of those funds into your new business entity.? You?ll need a C-corp and this strategy should only be executed by a qualified and experienced company or attorney.? There are no monthly payment requirements but be sure you have good people who properly set this up for you so you don?t run into IRS compliance issues.

Equipment Financing

This works for both new and established businesses.? You?re looking for a non-bank equipment finance company here.? There are many of them out there who will lend you the funds you need to buy construction equipment, medical equipment, tractor trailers, aircraft, printing equipment, etc.? The list goes on.? They look for clients with damaged credit and what you?ll need in return is very simple.? You either need a larger down payment or collateral or both.

These lenders like to lend based on the ?auction value? of the equipment you?re buying and/or the auction value of some equipment you already own.? Although it goes without saying, you should expect to pay a higher cost for these loans.

Factoring

This works for established businesses only.? It?s simple here too.? If you have an aging report or book of receivables then there are lenders out there who will buy your receivables at a discount (some or all of your receivables).

Qualifying for factoring is all about the company who owes you the money.? If the lender believes they will pay, then you?ll probably get your financing.? However, if it?s Uncle Louie from Louie, Inc. who owes you $100,000 you probably won?t be able to finance that one.? I?m sure you get the idea.

The lender will check things like business credit reports on the company who owes your invoice(s), make verification phone calls, etc. but it?s a quick solution and there are thousands of businesses all over the country who do this very successfully.

Merchant Cash Advances

Also known as MCA?s, works for established businesses only.? This is probably one of my least-favorite forms of financing because it?s so expensive but there is a time and a place for it.

We?re talking about the Wild West of financing here though.? If you?re working with a trusted small business loan professional then you?re probably okay but these loans are a dangerous combination of two things ? they are costly to the business owner and lucrative to the brokers who sell them.? They are tough on cash flow no matter how you slice it but if you can absorb the high-cost and the short repayment term and advance your organization then this is an option.

To give you some perspective, our company takes in around 5,000 requests for financing per year and in the last 2 years, you can count the number of MCA?s we?ve done in the single digits. ?For each of those clients it was a means to an end to achieve a larger goal.? They?re an option, but use them wisely.

Purchase Order Financing

Also known as PO Financing, works for established businesses only.? Of these five lending solutions this one is done with the least frequency.? However, it?s a great option when you have a large order you need to fulfill from a large customer.

For example, if Target gives you an order for 500,000 of your widgets to go in all their stores on the east coast, then you?ll need to manufacture and ship those widgets to them before they ever pay you.? You will also need to pay all your people or the manufacturer for the production.? That can get expensive and many business owners have had their growth halted simply because they couldn?t afford to fulfill a big order.

With PO Financing, as long as you have a credit-worthy buyer, you can finance that entire order and ensure that your business grows and that you can develop the relationship with the buyer for future orders.

And there you have it.? These are not the ?only? ways to obtain financing if you are a small business owner with damaged personal credit, but these are likely your best options ? or they are at least the most commonly used financing vehicles for people with ?not so great? credit.?The list could certainly be longer.

So how have you creatively financed your business growth?

Credit Problems Photo via Shutterstock


About Tom Gazaway

Tom Gazaway Tom Gazaway is President of Hawkeye Management, a firm that specializes in unsecured business credit lines for small business owners. Through their pre-qualification process and detailed analytics, they match small business owners with lenders who will issue business credit without collateral. Tom also blogs at The Small Business Lending Blog.

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Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/11/small-business-bad-credit-financing-options.html

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Two years out, patients receiving stem cell therapy show sustained heart function improvement, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2012) ? For a phase I clinical trial, these results are the Holy Grail. Yet researchers from the University of Louisville and Brigham and Women's Hospital reported just such almost-never-attained data.

In a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial session on Nov. 6 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2012 meeting, Roberto Bolli, M.D., of the University of Louisville and Piero Anversa, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, presented data from their groundbreaking research in the use of autologous adult stem cells with patients who had previous heart attacks.

They report that after two years, all patients receiving the stem cell therapy show improvement in heart function, with an overall 12.9 absolute unit increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a standard measure of heart function that shows the amount of blood ejected from the left ventricle during a heartbeat. No adverse effects resulting from the therapy were seen. Moreover, MRIs performed on nine patients in the trial showed evidence of myocardial regeneration -- new heart tissue replacing former dead tissue killed by heart attack.

"The trial shows the feasibility of isolating and expanding autologous stem cells from virtually every patient," said Bolli, who is the Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute Distinguished Chair in Cardiology and director of the Institute for Molecular Cardiology in the Department of Medicine at UofL. "The results suggest that this therapy has a potent, beneficial effect on cardiac function that warrants further study."

"In all patients, cells with high regenerative reserve were obtained and employed therapeutically," said Anversa, professor of Anaesthesia and Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "Our efforts to carefully characterize the phenotype and growth properties of the cardiac stem cells may have contributed to these initial positive results."

The trial -- called SCIPIO for Stem Cell Infusion in Patients with Ischemic CardiOmyopathy -- was a randomized open-label trial of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in patients who were diagnosed with heart failure following a myocardial infarction and had a LVEF of 40 percent or lower; the normal LVEF is 50 percent or higher.

The investigators harvested the CSCs, referred to as "c-kit positive" cells because they express the c-kit protein on their surface, from 33 patients during coronary artery bypass surgery. The stem cells were purified and processed in Anversa's lab in Boston so that they could multiply. Once an adequate number of stem cells was produced -- about one million for each patient -- Bolli's team in Louisville reintroduced them into the region of the patient's heart that had been scarred by the heart attack.

The researchers reported that in the 20 patients receiving CSCs, LVEF increased from 29 percent to 36 percent at four months following infusion. None of the 13 control patients in the trial received CSCs and this group showed, on average, no improvement.

The beneficial effect of the CSCs persisted and became progressively greater at the one- and two-year mark following infusion. At the one-year mark following infusion, LVEF increased by 8.1 percent, and at the two-year mark, by 12.9 percent.

Nine patients in the trial were able to undergo magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts that showed a profound reduction in the size of the infarct, that area of the heart that is dead tissue as a result of the heart attack, and an increase in viable tissue.

The MRIs showed that the infarct size was at 33.9 grams prior to treatment and 18.2 grams at two years. The MRIs also showed that viable left ventricle tissue increased, from 146.3 to 164.2 grams. The remaining patients in the trial were not able to undergo MRIs because they had previously implanted devices that interfered with the procedure.

One patient, Jim Dearing of Louisville, showed no trace of the two heart attacks he suffered prior to participating in the trial. Echocardiograms performed in 2011 and 2012 showed his ejection fraction went from 38 percent to 58 percent and his heart is working normally.

"Anyone who looks at his heart now would not imagine that this patient was (ever) in heart failure or that he had a heart attack," Bolli said.

"What's striking is that we are seeing what appears to be a long-lasting improvement in function," Anversa said.

The researchers plan to follow the study cohort for two more years and with funding, expand their research. "The findings warrant larger, phase 2 studies," Bolli said. "If the larger studies continue to confirm our findings, we potentially have a cure for heart failure because we will have something that conceivably, for the first time, actually regenerates dead heart tissue."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Louisville.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/1i5s11zZpP0/121106143537.htm

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AOL Posts Higher Than Expected Profits And ... - Business Insider

Artie Minson and Tim Armstrong

?

AOL reported Q3 earnings this morning.?

The company beat profit and revenue expectations. But it did so thanks to growth of search ads and its ad network, not because of its core domestic display ad business which shrank 3% year-over-year.?

Overall, it's more positive plodding.

Investors who have seen the stock explode in value this year thanks to a massive patent sale and huge buybacks won't mind it ? for now.

Here are the key numbers:

  • Advertising revenue grew 7% to $340 million, up from $317 million during the same quarter a year ago.
  • Total revenue was $531.7 million, flat y/y. Analyst expectations averaged $521 million.
  • EPS grew to $.22 from a loss of $.02 y/y. Analyst expectations averaged $.17.
  • Domestic display advertising shrank 3% y/y, offset by search and third-party ad growth.

CEO Armstrong's canned quote:

"We just reported the best relative revenue performance in seven years and the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year profit growth, exceeding our expectations," said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO. "We have positioned AOL for growth in 2013 and beyond with consumer and advertiser demand growing for our premium content and innovative products, video, services and ad formats."

Highlights fom the release:

--12% Adjusted OIBDA Growth Marks the Second Consecutive Quarter of Year-Over-Year Growth

--8% Search and Contextual Revenue Growth Represents the First Growth Quarter in Over 3 Years

--Subscription Revenue Trends Improve Meaningfully With The Lowest Rate of Decline in Over 6 Years

--AOL Properties Unique Visitors Grew 4% from Q3 2011

--Reported EPS of $0.22 Compares to a Loss Per Share of $0.02 in Q3 2011

--23% Growth in Cash Provided by Operating Activities Drives 27% Free Cash Flow Growth

--AOL Is Positioned to Reduce its Shares Outstanding By Approximately 30% From Its High by Year-End

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-aol-earnings-2012-11

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Emotional Vernon Davis Catch Caps Six Year 49er Journey

The game winning catch by Vernon Davis that ended with the 49ers tight end crying in Coach Jim Harbaugh's arms last Saturday was the culmination of six years of maturation and leadership that has his San Francisco 49ers one game away from their first Super Bowl appearance since 1995.

San Francisco began its final drive 85 yards from paydirt with just 97 seconds remaining in regulation. The favored Saints had just gone ahead 32-29 after an 88 yard drive of their own which culminated in a 62 yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to his own tight end, Jimmy Graham.

On the final drive, Smith connected with Davis on two big plays. A 40 yard gain put the 49ers in position to tie the game with a field goal, and a 14 yard scoring pass with nine seconds to go won it.

The Vernon Davis touchdown catch was reminiscent of Terrell Owens's playoff-game-winning catch in 1999 against the Giants which capped a comeback from 16 points down in the fourth quarter and also stirred memories of the Joe Montana-Dwight Clark play that beat Dallas in the 1981 NFC Championship Game and kick started a 20 year dynasty that featured five Super Bowl championships.

The Montana-Clark play has been dubbed "The Catch," while Vernon Davis refers to his play last week as "The Grab."

"History was going through my mind," said Davis, who finished Saturday's game with seven receptions for 180 yards and two touchdowns. "Us against 'No.' Us against 'Can't.' It was a very emotional game."

Vernon Davis came off the field in tears and was greeted on the sidelines with a bear hug from Harbaugh. This was quite a contrast from three years ago when he was banished from the field by then Head Coach Mike Singletary for boneheaded play and a lackadaisical attitude.


That incident took place in October 2008 in Singletary's first game as 49ers head coach in a 31-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Vernon Davis, who was the 49ers first round draft pick and third overall in 2006, was seen as a talented player who did not work hard enough and was not a good teammate. The banishment by Singletary seemed to wake him up.

A year later, Vernon Davis was awarded the Len Eshmont Award by his teammates as the 49ers' most inspirational and courageous player. Singletary had demanded that Davis grow up, and the player responded. "He was always getting on me for everything," Davis said in 2009. "But I think Singletary is always right. That's why I trust him. I'm just grateful that I have somebody around to push me."

And although Singletary was fired after 15 games in 2010, the contribution he made towards Davis's maturity continues to pay off.

"Along the way there has been a lot of doubt," Davis has said. But now, with Harbaugh's leadership, the resurrection of quarterback Alex Smith, a matured Pro Bowl veteran in Davis and one of the stingiest defenses in the NFL, the doubt is gone.

San Francisco will host the NFC Championship Game Sunday against a team it has already beaten this season. And if the 49ers can again top the Giants they will take on the winner of the Baltimore-New England AFC title game in the Super Bowl.

Another big game from Vernon Davis can put him and his teammates on the plane to Indianapolis for the Feb. 5 tilt that is annually the biggest sporting event in America.

An appearance in that game would complete the Vernon Davis transformation.

Source: http://www.artipot.com/articles/1425043/emotional-vernon-davis-catch-caps-six-year-49er-journey.htm

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