Facebook’s SnapChat-Style Sexting App Is Called Poke (Seriously)

Oh, well would you look at Facebook, trying to make a Christmas funny with its SnapChat copycat app. It’s called Poke! Get it? Because SnapChat is what the kids are all using for their sexting these days, apparently, and Poke — you know, that once kinda flirty Facebook future that’s now pretty much useless — can kind of do the same thing, and it kind of sounds like some bad sexual pun, too! Funny,...

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UK’s Kate and William to spend Christmas Day with her parents

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate will spend Christmas Day with her parents, their office said on Saturday, in a break with the tradition of royals joining Queen Elizabeth at her country estate at Sandringham.The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate in private with Carole and Michael Middleton at their home in the village of Bucklebury, about 50 miles west...

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Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan’s war on polio

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers’ pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week.“I have seen so...

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The Hedge Fund Hunger Games

The first idea that Tim Harrington, Brian Tomeo, and Spencer Deering had for a business was to gather up brand-new hedge funds and nurture them. They’d invite them to make use of their office in Miami Beach, where they could get advice, legal help, expensive software, and eventually an introduction to investors, with the three benefactors collecting a fee. The second idea, the one the trio went with,...

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent...

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Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ

(Reuters) – Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed “X-phone”, aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.Google acquired Motorola in May for $ 12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple...

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Spectrum Pharma’s blood cancer drug meets trial goal

(Reuters) – Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc said a mid-stage trial of its experimental blood cancer drug met the main goal of reducing the size of tumors.The biotechnology company‘s shares, which have fallen about 22 percent over the past 12 months, were up about 3 percent at $ 11.60 in morning trade on the Nasdaq and touched a high of $ 11.75 .The drug, belinostat, was tested in patients with relapsed...

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The Year’s Best & Worst Investments

WinnersBest International Stock (+283%): India consumes more than $ 20 billion worth of whiskey each year—the most in the world—and United Spirits (UNSP) is the nation’s largest distiller. The company’s sales doubled in four years. The United Kingdom’s Diageo (DEO) bought a controlling stake in United Spirits in November. Best U.S. Large-Cap Stock (+224%): The good news for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals...

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing...

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Reacting to users’ outcry, Facebook’s Instagram reverts to prior policy on advertising

SAN FRANCISCO – Instagram has abandoned wording in its new terms-of-service agreement that sparked outcry from users concerned it meant their photos could appear in advertisements.In a blog post late Thursday, the popular mobile photo-sharing service says it has reverted to language in the advertising section of its terms of service that appeared when it was launched in October 2010.Instagram is now...

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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with ‘Jack Reacher’?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paramount hopes it’s launching a franchise with “Jack Reacher,” the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn’t the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” to see how it might work. That film opened to $ 12 million on December...

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Women’s Excellence in Endometriosis: Introducing a Specialized Center Treating Pelvic Pain, Painful Intercourse, and Painful Menstrual Periods in Oakland County, MI

Endometriosis is a painful, sometimes disabling disease that attacks a woman’s reproductive tract and other pelvic organs and can ultimately lead to infertility and chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Women’s Excellence in Endometriosis is a one-of-a-kind, specialty center for woman suffering with the disease and its painful sequelae.Oakland County, MI (PRWEB) December 20, 2012Women with chronic pelvic pain...

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Europe Needs Less Financial Integration, Not More

“More Europe” is always the solution when leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk about Europe’s slow-burning financial crisis. To qualify for emergency aid, they say, countries like Greece and Spain must surrender control of their banks and budgets to supra-national authorities. Another brick of the “more Europe” edifice was cemented into place on Dec. 13 when finance ministers of...

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Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria’s tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad‘s air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say...

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New Online Privacy Loophole Lets Facebook Advertise to Kids

Mark Zuckerberg‘s been eager to find a way to get more kids on Facebook for years, and on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission handed it to him on a platter. That might be overstating it a little bit. It’s more like the FTC served it to him on a platter covered in plastic wrap with a note attached that says “Do not open.” Nevertheless, should Facebook decided to see what’s inside, experts in online...

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HIV cases decline for black women, increase for gay men: CDC

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Fewer black women in the United States are being infected with HIV, but the number of young gay and bisexual men infected is rising, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.Between 2008 and 2010, the number of newly infected black women dropped 21 percent, according to the CDC report. Yet despite the decline, they still accounted for 70 percent of all new...

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