Sometimes a disruptive idea is so good, it's co-opted by giants, making that original startup irrelevant. Last year, Foursquare was named a CNBC Disruptor for revolutionizing the power of location with its mobile check-ins. The company allowed users to connect with friends nearby, creating an app that's sticky—encouraging users to open up and log in multiple times a day. The business potential was huge: Foursquare's clients, including Starbucks, Best Buy, and American Express, could use it to target deals based on a specific location.

Narrowly targeted local ads and offers are so compelling a range of Internet giants have adopted them. Facebook launched a check-in service in 2010. The next year, Google launched a product that invited users to "check in" for deals. In the past few years, Groupon has moved away from the deal-a-day model to increasingly focus on mobile deals based on location. The fact that all these services that people already use started incorporating location stunted Foursquare's growth.

Read MoreThe big money fueling big money ideas

So this spring, Foursquare admitted it needed a change and split into two apps. The new Foursquare app is ditching check-ins to instead focus on local recommendations to compete with Yelp. The other app, called Swarm, will maintain that check-in capability and will show which friends are nearby.

Foursquare is just one of many examples of start-ups whose idea is co-opted, and rendered redundant, or even worse, irrelevant. Another innovative idea, newsreader Flipboard, has seen that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: Facebook's Paper app has adopted many of its tools to flip between articles, and LinkedIn purchased a similar newsreader app, Pulse, last April.

Summary: Just because an idea is smart and disruptive, doesn't mean it'll work. Here are the tales of woe for three Silicon Valley darlings.


* France has said will scrap the subsidies

* Japan holding out for continuing financial support

* Issue is an embarrassment ahead of U.N. climate summit

BRUSSELS, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Rich nations are stubbornly divided ahead of talks in Paris on Thursday to seek a deal to phase out coal subsidies in a foretaste of the difficulty of agreeing on action to curb global warming at a U.N. summit later this year.

France, host of the U.N. climate summit, has piled on the political pressure to restrict a type of subsidy that helps nations export technology for power generation from coal, the most polluting of the fossil fuels.

Two days after confirmation of EU regulatory approval for U.S. firm General Electric's takeover of Alstom , France's big manufacturer of coal plant technology, French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said the government would scrap coal export credits.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has been trying to broker a phase-out for more than a year and holds new talks on Thursday.

It has said it wants an agreement this month, but EU sources say it might have to arrange more talks and time is running out.

"It's a total stand-off," one source said on condition of anonymity.

The problems in solving the coal export financing issue highlight the difficulty of brokering a much wider deal at U.N. talks in Paris starting on Nov. 30.

Even Germany, which led G7 calls for a tough stance on climate change, is heeding industry pressure to maintain support for coal.

Within the OECD, it is Japan, the biggest user of export credits that help companies such as Toshiba Corp to sell coal technology abroad, that has led resistance.

A Japanese position paper, seen by Reuters, said scrapping OECD-sanctioned export credits linked to high standards could mean other countries deploy less efficient technology that would increase emissions.

It also disputed arguments from the World Bank that coal should only be the fuel of last resort for poor nations with no other source of power.

"There are many countries that include coal-fired power generation in their national energy mix for energy security and energy access reasons and they are found not only among middle income countries but also among high income countries," the paper said.

Representing the biggest bloc within the 34-member OECD, EU officials have been seeking to agree a compromise EU position to galvanise the talks.

No one from Luxembourg, current holder of the EU presidency, which is leading the efforts, was available for comment.

EU sources said compromise discussions are focused on whether coal export credits could continue even for exports to well-off nations provided they are conditional on the use of the most efficient, lower-carbon technology.

Environmental campaigners say such a weak stance would badly damage the credibility of EU claims that it leads the fight against climate change.

(Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Paris; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Summary: *France has said will scrap the subsidies. BRUSSELS, Sept 14- Rich nations are stubbornly divided ahead of talks in Paris on Thursday to seek a deal to phase out coal subsidies in a foretaste of the difficulty of agreeing on action to curb global warming at a U.N. summit later this year. Two days after confirmation of EU regulatory approval for U.S. firm General...


01/27/2016 AT 07:00 PM EST

It's been nearly 40 years since a 9-year-old fan shared his Coca-Cola with Pittsburgh Steelers star "Mean" Joe Greene in one of the most famous commercials in Super Bowl history. Now the unlikely duo are reunited in a new video honoring the iconic ad and their enduring bond.

In the clip, which was shot for the upcoming

special on CBS, the NFL legend and the all-grown-up Tommy Okon meet at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas. As the two reminisce about filming the Clio Award-winning commercial, which debuted in October 1979 and was notably aired again during Super Bowl XIV in 1980, Greene recalls the

bottles of Coke he had to drink to get it right.

"I didn't know any better. I chugged the doggone thing over and over and over," Greene says.

Asked why he thinks people connected with the commercial, however, Greene points his finger at Okon. "I don't know about that," demurs Okon, who counts the former defensive tackle as "one of his oldest friends." "I think the people that created it wrote a great commercial that really tells a story ... that commercial's kind of what Joe is: tough, football player, who's a nice guy."

"Mean" Joe Greene (left) and Tommy Okon in 1979

In the spot, "Mean Joe Greene," which was part of the "Have a Coke and a Smile" ad campaign, a 9-year-old Okon offers the injured and dejected football star a Coke after a rough game. Greene downs the drink and appears instantly rejuvenated, tossing the young fan his team jersey with the now-famous tagline, "Hey kid, catch!"

Tommy Okon (left) and "Mean" Joe Greene in 2016

Greene gets sentimental when he and Okon re-enact the commercial in the new video. "Still special, after all these years," he says as he wipes tears from his eyes.

"Not so mean," Tommy says, patting his friend on the back. "Not so mean, this guy."

will air on CBS on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. ET.

Summary: "I chugged the doggone thing over and over and over," Joe Greene says of drinking Coca-Colas for his iconic ad


3D Systems, whose shares fell as much as 16.6 percent, has been investing heavily in increasing capacity at metal printer maker Phenix Systems, which it acquired in July last year.

"We are disappointed that we failed to fully capitalize on the robust demand for our direct metal and consumer products during the quarter," Chief Executive Abraham Reichental said in a statement.

The company said sales of its design, manufacturing and healthcare products could not compensate for the revenue loss from manufacturing constraints for its metal printers as well as a delay in availability of its consumer products.

Read MoreIBM is no longer a technology company: Mark Cuban

"...the concern at this point is whether there is underlying execution problem that could drive further disappointment in the upcoming quarters," Pacific Crest analyst Weston Twigg told Reuters.

The company's attempts to increase its manufacturing capacity have weighed on its gross margins.

"We view this as a temporary speedbump and one that was more related to short-term execution than any fundamental structural issue in the business," Reichental said on a conference call.

Summary: 3D Systems slashed its full-year revenue forecast as it struggles with manufacturing constraints.


Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in November's Paris attacks, has been charged with attempted murder in Belgium during a police shootout in Brussels three days before his arrest.

Abdeslam, who is due to be extradited to France in the next few weeks over his part in the attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people, appeared before a Belgian judge on Thursday.

Four police officers were wounded and an Islamist gunman was killed in the shootout at a suspected militant safe house in the Brussels district of Forest on March 15.

Investigators found fingerprints of Abdeslam, who was born in Belgium to Moroccan-born parents, at the scene.

"He was charged with attempted murder over the shooting in Forest," a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutors said, adding that he did not believe charging Abdeslam would delay his extradition to France.

Abdeslam has told a magistrate he had planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium in Paris on November 13, but backed out at the last minute.

He has also told investigators he arranged logistics for the Paris attacks.

Abdeslam's elder brother Brahim, a Brussels barkeeper, blew himself up outside a Parisian cafe on the night of the attacks.

Salah Abdeslam's lawyer has said his client has admitted being in Paris during the attacks, but has given no further details.

Summary: A man accused of being a key figure behind the attacks in France in November has been charged with attempted murder following a police shootout in Belgium.


"He thinks differently. He sees the world and he sees the future in a very clear way and he executes unlike anyone we've seen," said Jurvetson, a partner at DFJ Venture, a venture capital firm. "And so whether it's Tesla, Space X, Solar City, which he helped form with his cousins, and two other start-ups before that, including PayPal, the guy's had more success in more industries than any entrepreneur I know of on the planet."

To Jurvetson, Musk is a "remarkable" person who he thinks could go down "as one of the most important entrepreneurs in U.S. history." Jurvetson has so much faith in Musk that he told "Squawk Alley" his firm would "probably want to support just about anything he did."

Indeed, Jurvetson has long put his support behind Musk. Jurvetson was an early investor in Musk's Tesla Motors and was, in fact, the first person to own a Tesla vehicle. He's also a board member at Tesla, as well as Musk's Space X.

From safety recalls to critical reviews and a heavy short position, there have been bumps along the way for electric car maker Tesla Motors. Though "it's inevitable" that someday all vehicles will be electric, Tesla's biggest headwinds so far has been concerns over price and the battery's range, Jurvetson said.

But "range isn't really a problem, it's a perceived problem" because the average driver doesn't really go that far and superchargers are available for cross-country trips, he said.

Price will be a "slower story" over the next five to 10 years, though, as the automaker works to reduce costs of its offerings. Still, Tesla's Model S is less expensive than the Ford Taurus "if you own it for seven years and look at all the costs; savings on energy and almost no maintenance."

On Space X, Jurvetson said it's a "spectacular" company that does more than $5 billion in business and has turned a profit for six consecutive years.

"They look to be the future of the U.S. space program, not only for bringing cargo to the space station, but the future of carrying our astronauts to space. They intend to colonize Mars," he said. "This is a company that if it realizes its aspirations, truly it will be a breathtaking example of American entrepreneurship."

Summary: "The guy's had more success in more industries than any entrepreneur I know of on the planet," says tech investor Steve Jurvetson.


05/04/2016 AT 03:00 PM EDT

Ever since the dawn of, well, song, people have been mishearing lyrics.

Sometimes, that's the fault of the lyricist, who may have put two conflicting syllables end-to-end. Sometimes it's the fault of how the singer may or may not be enunciating or pronouncing an otherwise distinguishable word (e.g. "Surfbort" in "Drunk in Love"). But for whatever the reason, it's a topic that continues to fascinate.

Per Reddit, here are the most hilarious frequently-misheard song lyrics and, where necessary, the actual lyrics.

"Hold me closer, Tony Danza" (Or, "Count the head lice on the highway")

"Hold me closer, tiny dancer" and "Count the headlights on the highway"

"Everybody in the club eatin' chips"

"Everybody in the club gettin' tipsy"

"You can call me green bean"

"You can call me queen bee"

"Concrete jungle wet dream tomato"

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of"

"Got a lot of Starbucks lovers"

"Got a long list of ex-lovers"

"Taco party, taco party, taco party, taco part-ay"

"I talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it"

"I'm gonna love you like a bad widdle baby"

"I'm gonna love you like a black widow, baby"

"I spoke to Joyce in the morning, I spoke to Joyce at night / I spoke to Joyce in the afternoon, it makes me feel alright"

All that, but with "I smoke to joints" instead of that nice line about Joyce.

"I set fire to Lorraine"

"I set fire to the rain"

"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, singing hey-o, Gaileo"

"Singing hey-o, gotta let go"

"Now I'm feeling so fly like a cheese stick"

The uh, title of the song.

Summary: Why does Adele want to set fire to Lorraine?


The former head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn — who once seemed headed for the French presidency — was acquitted on Friday of so-called “aggravated pimping” charges for his regular sex orgies in the French city of Lille, ending a series of sex-related trials against him, and leaving the French to wonder where the fine line is drawn between France’s sexual tolerance and impunity under the law.

That debate, over whether powerful French men inevitably escape punishment for their sexual transgressions, is far from over. But for now, Strauss-Kahn’s four-year legal ordeals are indeed behind him. He may have been acquitted but no one thinks he is innocent.

On Friday the prosecutor in the Lille trial concluded that the actions of DSK, as Strauss-Kahn is known, fell on the side of sexual liberty. Strauss-Kahn was charged with aiding and abetting prostitution with seven women, by attending numerous orgies with prostitutes in Lille hotels — a practice he continued in Washington during his tenure as Director General of the IMF, which is based in the U.S. capital. The charges that Strauss-Kahn faced in Lille carried a punishment of 10 years in jail and a €1.5 million ($1.7 million) fine. But in the end, prosecutor Federic Fevre said the group did not appear to have acted criminally, and that they were simply trying to “satisfy egos, ambitions and quite simply physical desires.” In an interview with BBC Newsnight that aired on Thursday, Fevre said, “Everyone is allowed to lead the sexual life they wish so long as that remains within the boundaries of the law.”

The right to a private life, and to indulge his outsized sexual habits, has been DSK’s defense since back in May, 2011, when New York police hauled him off an Air France plane and into Rikers Island prison, and charged him with the sexual assault and attempted rape of Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan.

That arrest had momentous consequences in France, effectively rewriting the country’s political history. Strauss-Kahn, now 66, was the most popular candidate for president at the time, and his New York arrest led to now-President François Hollande winning the election in 2012. The DSK trial in New York also unleashed other charges in France itself. A young French journalist accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her while she was interviewing him in a Paris apartment in 2002. Soon after, Lille prosecutors charged him and 13 others with organizing regular orgies that included — according to two prostitutes — Strauss-Kahn forcing them to have anal sex against their will. The only defendant convicted was Rene Kojfer, the former public-relations chief of the Carlton Hotel in Lille, where many of the orgies took place.

Strauss-Kahn has now been cleared of all charges, settling grievances out of court for undisclosed sums of money with both the New York hotel maid and the young French journalist. For the once-powerful politician, his defense was based on the claim that all the liaisons were between consenting adults.

During the past month, DSK has cast himself as a man whose sexual appetites and unusual practices are simply outside the normal spectrum but which appeal to some women. He insisted he did not know that his sexual partners in the champagne-soaked orgies were paid, assuming that they were simply there for “excitement and adventure” like himself. And while he admitted he could “be a bit brutal with women,” he told the court, “I must have a sexuality which compared to average men is more rough. Women have the right not to like that whether they are prostitutes or not.”

Yet the trial’s lurid details have jolted even the French, who are accustomed to their leaders’ sexual adventures. Extramarital affairs have been a feature of virtually every French president; the late president François Mitterrand even had a daughter out of wedlock during the 1980s. And very few French media reported on Strauss-Kahn’s sexual affairs until his New York arrest, despite the fact that Paris was abuzz with rumors of DSK’s swinger lifestyle while he was Finance Minister in the 1990s. Even then-President Nicolas Sarkozy warned DSK about staying out of legal trouble in Washington while he was running the IMF in the midst of the global financial crisis.

In some ways, the DSK drama has changed that French casual attitude to their leaders’ sex lives, or at least, the secrecy around them. Last year, the French press feasted for months on Hollande’s affair with French actress Julie Gayet and his break-up with his longtime partner Valerie Trierweiler. And even friends of Strauss-Kahn expressed being disturbed by the Lille orgies. “He can be considered a libertine and that is permitted in France,” Ivan Levaï, a friend of Strauss-Kahn, told the French channel BFM on Friday. “But not pimping.”

Even so, French women have wondered whether Strauss-Kahn might ever have faced trial in France, had it not been for the New York arrest that set off a series of charges against him back home. “Most people said it would have been stifled, he would not have been arrested, because people love the allowances we make for rich and powerful people,” French feminist writer Christine Delphy told BBC Newsnight on Thursday. “In fact there is impunity from the police, from the justice, from the media. Powerful men will not be convicted.”

On a daily level, in fact, sexual harassment continues among politicians, according to French political journalists. Last month 40 prominent French women journalists published an enraged letter in the paper Libération, saying that there was a widespread culture of harassment of them among the men they regularly interview. “We thought the DSK affair had put the macho habits on the path of extinction,” they wrote, saying that instead, politicians sent suggestive text messages, proposed dinner, and made condescending comments during press conferences, like describing an interjection as a “real girl’s question.” Much is couched as “schoolboy humor” or “the French art of seduction,” apparently believing that that excused their behavior, said the letter

Strauss-Kahn is now left to watch this debate from the outside. Exiled from politics, and a seen as toxic presence by the Socialist Party of which he is a member, he has started a business consultancy, with the Serbian government and others as clients. “We can talk about lost honor,” Levaï told BFM. “And to reclaim his honor and dignity, that could take years.” These are years he once hoped to spend inside the Elysée Palace, the residence of the French President.

Summary: Dominique Strauss-Kahn was going to be President. Now he symbolises one of the worst aspects of French political culture


Forty-three years after Joseph J. Rochefort broke the Japanese code that helped the United States win the Battle of Midway, the former naval officer is to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

It will be given posthumously. Captain Rochefort, who was denied the medal twice during his lifetime and ousted as an intelligence officer after he was first nominated for it, died in 1976.

Military and civilian historians say the Navy's decision to award the medal, one of the highest honors available to a noncombatant, will help rectify a longstanding wrong.

A World War II Feud

Beyond that, however, they say the award has helped bring to light the bitter feuding within the Navy's World War II intelligence operations.

''Not only was Captain Rochefort removed from his intelligence command in Pearl Harbor soon after the Battle of Midway,'' said Capt. Roger Pineau, the well-known naval historian, ''but the Washington intelligence community, which was wrong about the time and place the Japanese would strike after Pearl Harbor, tried to take credit for Rochefort's code breaks and accurate intelligence evaluation of Japanese objectives.''

A spokesman for the Navy said the award to Captain Rochefort was based ''solely on the merits of the case.'' But several Rochefort supporters said the award was being given because much of the information in a new book, which gives details of Captain Rochefort's case and the machinations within the Navy intelligence community, had already found its way into military circles. The book is ''And I Was There'' (William Morrow & Company), the posthumous memoirs of Rear Adm. Edwin T. Layton, the Pacific Fleet's intelligence officer from 1940 until the surrender of Japan. Admiral Layton died in April 1984 and the book was completed by Captain Pineau and John Costello, a British historian who has written many books about World War II.

The publication date of the book, with an initial press run of 100,000 copies, is Dec. 7, the 44th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Admiral Layton was one of the few people present during both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the ceremony of Japanese surrender aboard the Missouri. In 1983, he was persuaded to write his memoirs after the gradual release of classified documents in the National Archives.

Among the documents were more than 300,000 decoded Japanese military and diplomatic messages, which form the basis of the book's detailed description of the secret radio surveillance of Japanese communications beginning in 1920.

Captain Rochefort was at the center of that radio surveillance.

''He was a Japanese linguist, an intelligence analyst and a cryptologist, all the skills that enabled him to bring together the missing bits and pieces,'' said Rear Adm. Donald M. Showers, who worked for Captain Rochefort in 1942 and who successfully petitioned for the Distinguished Service Medal on his behalf.

Installed in June 1941 as officer in charge of the Combat Intelligence Unit - Station Hypo - at Pearl Harbor, one of three stations where intercepted Japanese radio messages were sent for deciphering and translating, Captain Rochefort forged a small, dedicated team of analysts.

He provided daily intelligence analyses to Admiral Layton, then a lieutenant commander. Admiral Layton, in turn, conveyed them to Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Their efforts paid off in late May 1942 when, in translating the latest Japanese naval code, the Rochefort team succeeded - despite claims from Washington intelligence officials that it could not be done - in cracking the codes revealing the time, date and place of the planned invasion of Midway Island.

Washington, by contrast, had said the target was likely to be Johnston Island or the West Coast of the United States, and later than the date of the actual attack.

Acting on Rochefort's analysis, Admiral Nimitz dispatched three carriers to positions northeast of Midway, out of range of Japanese observation planes. The ensuing three-day battle crippled the Japanese fleet and, at a time when the Pacific War still hung in the balance, turned the tide in favor of the United States.

Immediately after the Battle of Midway, Admiral Nimitz recommended the Distinguished Service Medal for Captain Rochefort but the Navy Department turned it down - ostensibly because Washington and the Phillipines had also had a hand in the intelligence triumph.

''But this was a subterfuge,'' said Mr. Costello. ''To award Rochefort the medal would amount to an admission that Washington had committed an intelligence blunder.''

'He Was Yanked Out of There'

The Navy would not comment on the earlier decisions not to award the medal. But Arthur Davidson Baker 3d, an official adviser to Navy Secretary John Lehman Jr., said this was the first time such a proposal had come before Mr. Lehman, who has held the Navy post since 1981.

However, he added, ''Somebody sure as hell did Rochefort in, because he was yanked out of there.''

Admiral Nimitz's recommendation of the medal for Captain Rochefort was turned down by Adm. Ernest J. King, chief of naval of operations, who is now dead.


Dole Food said on Friday the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating a deadly Listeria monocytogenes outbreak linked to packaged salad products from its processing plant in Springfield, Ohio.

Dole, the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producer, said in a statement the agency recently contacted the company and “we will be … cooperating with the DOJ to answer questions and address any concerns.”

Listeria, a common bacterium that can be either harmless or pathogenic, can enter a processing facility via raw produce or other materials, and form colonies. Thirty-three people in the United States and Canada fell ill in the outbreak from May 2015 to February 2016. All were hospitalized and four died.

For more on Listeria, watch:

Dole said on Jan. 22 it had temporarily suspended operations at the Springfield plant. It also issued recalls on all salad products packaged at the facility.

The plant reopened on April 21.

Plant officials found evidence of Listeria contamination there as early as July 2014, Food Safety News (FSN) reported on Friday.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection report obtained by FSN and reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed that Dole’s tests of surfaces at the plant came back positive for Listeria on nine separate occasions in 2014 and 2015.

Dole said in its statement that the report dealt with issues that had already been corrected.

Fruit Products Sold at Walgreens Recalled For Possible Glass Fragments

The report, dated Feb. 5, said the plant’s third-party laboratory had notified Dole about positive Listeria test results from internal samples taken on Jan. 5 and 7. But it did not say whether testing was done to determine whether the bacteria posed a threat.

“If you have ongoing, persistent contamination, that can indicate that you have a sanitation problem,” Craig Hedberg, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, said in a phone interview on Friday.

The FDA inspected the plant five times in January and February 2016. Product samples collected at various stages of salad processing on Jan. 16 tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, a strain that can cause severe illness, the report said.

On Jan. 26, Dole told inspectors the company was aware that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had found Listeria monocytogenes in four salad product samples collected by the agency earlier that month, according to the report.

The samples found by FDA and CFIA were genetic matches to those taken from multiple individuals who fell ill during the outbreak.

Summary: Dole's salad products are the latest sources of Listeria outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada.


Shares of United Parcel Service are sinking Tuesday after the package delivery company posted a higher quarterly profit, but also said its revenue in the quarter was hurt by the strong U.S. dollar, and reiterated its full-year earnings outlook.

During a conference call with analysts, executives at the Atlanta-based company said that package volumes during this year’s key holiday peak season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s should rise 10 percent.

UPS UPS said that on Dec. 22, its anticipated peak day, it expects to ship 36 million packages, or around double its daily average. After two years of disappointing fourth-quarter results, UPS is under pressure to deliver this Christmas.

Chief Executive David Abney told analysts that thanks to additional capacity in its network and selective price increases to “provide excellent service at an appropriate cost.”

The world’s largest package delivery company is often seen as a barometer of U.S. economic health. Abney said the company has seen some softness in the U.S. economy and that the strength of the U.S. dollar would continue to impact exports, as would soft global demand.

UPS said that without the impact of the U.S. currency on its results, third-quarter revenue would have been up for the quarter. UPS also said that lower fuel surcharge revenue had weighed on results.

UPS reported third-quarter net profit of $1.26 billion, or $1.39 per share, up 4 percent from $1.21 billion, or $1.32 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected earnings per share of $1.37.

UPS said that it expects full-year earnings per share to come in at the high end of its previously-announced forecast of a range from $5.05 to $5.30. The company said earnings per share should rise in the “low double digits” in the fourth quarter versus the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter fell slightly to $14.24 billion from $14.29 a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue for the quarter of $14.43 billion.

The company said on a currency-neutral basis, its revenue would have been up 1.8 percent. The strong U.S. dollar means that sales overseas are lower when translated into dollars.

Summary: Package delivery company is seen as a barometer of U.S. economic health.


Joerg Platzer, a German who owns the Room 77 restaurant in Berlin's hip Kreuzberg section, has lost his appetite for euros. Instead, he has put a large fraction of his money into

"What the euro crisis and possible breakdown does is make people think about alternative [currencies] that can be used to maintain business and that cannot be manipulated by any central organization whatsoever," he told

And Bitcoin, as unorthodox as it may sound, was

to be just such an alternative.

It's not so surprising that a growing number of Europeans whose countries are in dire fiscal straits are moving their money from banks to Bitcoins. The eurozone is in

; Greece is starring in its own

. And just last week, the euro overtook the British pound as the second-most common currency that bitcoins are traded against (after the U.S. dollar, which has 72% of the market thanks to its large community of early adopters).

Euro hit 9% of the Bitcoin market thanks to an uptick in buyers from Greece, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, according to Charlie Shrem, CEO of BitInstant, a New York company that allows clients to move money between Bitcoin and other currencies. Shrem's firm attributes the recent rise in euros exchanged for bitcoins to the worsening crisis in Europe and people seeking financial asylum in digital form.

, will people increasingly find it high time to bank in the cloud.

Quite simply, Bitcoins are an encrypted digital currency that can be freely exchanged between people or between consumers and merchants. Businesses like Bitcoin because it allows them to avoid paying credit card fees of up to 3% on transactions. Consumers get to dodge the costs normally associated with currency exchanges. It's only available for use in a handful of physical locations in cities around the world (it's mostly used via Internet), but a major use for it has been for conversions -- you can buy Bitcoins and then exchange them for another currency at no charge.

Bitcoin is in some senses a financial island removed from the vicissitudes and consequences of a traditional banking system. It's neither controlled by central banks nor governments, and thus not vulnerable to larger-scale shifts like changing interest rates or the rampant inflation of countries in decline.

But Bitcoin's isolation from geopolitical turmoil has been its true selling point for those in Europe.

"I have Greek friends who fear that Greece will drop out of the euro, and all of their money will be converted to the drachma," Shrem said. "And then even a cup of coffee would get pretty expensive for them, because inflation will skyrocket like what we saw in Zimbabwe."

Bitcoin was trading at about $5.26 in on Jan. 1, and bolstered by fears about the euro, its value had risen 19% to $6.28 on Monday. The euro, by contrast, dropped from $1.29 on January 1 to around $1.25, a 3% decline. In fact, Bitcoin performed better than any major asset class in the world in 2011, up 1,700%.

Jon Matonis, a Bitcoin consultant and digital currency specialist, believes moving toward Bitcoin is a smart strategy, advocating any exit from fiat currencies as a step in the right direction.

"It's like musical chairs," he said, "And when the music stops playing, the mad rush out of fiat will begin because a 'paper' con game can turn on a dime." That uncertainty in the value of a fiat currency, especially in the euro, stands in contrast to Bitcoin, which Matonis describes as "an open-source neutral method of going from paper euros to a nonpolitical unit of value in electronic form."

But is a digital currency safe? Hackers have tapped into Bitcoin exchanges, exacerbating fears that the fully-online currency might not be such a sure bet.

Last June, Mount Gox, a major Bitcoin exchange, was compromised, and a cyber attack this May against the Bitcoin exchange Bitcoinica resulted in 18,000 stolen bitcoins (about $90,000). These events have further reinforced some security experts' preference for traditional banking, according to Marc Vael, director of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association: Even though the eurozone is experiencing turbulent times, all EU governments guarantee banks deposits and savings accounts for up to 100,000 euros.

"The existing banking system, including online banking possibilities, still protects citizens even when money gets stolen out of their account," Vael said. "Keeping money under EU-regulated financial institutions is the safest option for EU citizens."

But as the euro's problems deepen, people are putting less faith in it, and hoping the security technology of Bitcoin exchanges is enough.

"It's as safe as the cryptography," Matonis said. "And the cryptography has been peer-reviewed, and it currently enjoys the mathematical trust of the cryptography community."

"These individuals moving their value from euros to Bitcoin are trusting the cryptographic algorithms," Matonis said. "If they store the private keys themselves, then they do not even have to trust a third-party entity."

Though Matonis believes that traditional banking is "in decline" and that Bitcoin possesses important advantages for Europeans at the moment, the digital currency hasn't necessarily proven itself as a fully universal platform.

"What is disputed is the efficiency of a distributed system and perfect application to a scaleable monetary or payment function," Matoris said.

Currently, for example, Bitcoin's current market cap is only the equivalent of $50 million -- a drop in the ocean of the world's money supply.

But even as its future -- not just as a monetary escape route but also as a common currency -- remains uncertain, the digital trend has gained at least some traction. Consumers are using "linden dollars," the currency used in the online game Second Life, across the Internet as a true digital currency,

The Canadian Mint earlier this year also instituted MintChip, its digital form of money.

Platzer, the German restaurateur who has moved his money to bitcoins, views this change an inevitable part of our digital world.

"Cryptocurrency not only does not have the disadvantages of centralized currencies which led to the current crises," he said, "It also suits the requirements of an information society much better than the money from the Industrial Age."


For a real taste of Joffrey's gamey pigeon pie, use squab instead of chicken. And be sure to have a sword handy for slicing it.

Servings: Makes one 9" pie

Filling 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 large onions, thinly sliced Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper 1 Fresno chile or red jalapeño, thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, finely grated 1 sprig thyme 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons raw or light brown sugar 2 1/2 pounds ground pork 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley 1 tablespoon finely chopped sage 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme 1/2 teaspoon ground mace 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger Pinch of ground cloves (optional) 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3/4-inch strips

Dough 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons Kosher salt 1 1/2 cups schmaltz or vegetable shortening

Assembly 8 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, divided 1 cup dried apricots, chopped, divided 1 large egg Whole grain mustard, cherry tomatoes, cornichon, pickled onion, stilton cheese, clothbound cheddar (optional; for serving)

Special equipment A 9-inch springform pan

Filling Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to soften, 5-7 minutes. Stir in chiles, garlic, and thyme, scraping up browned bits, until liquid is evaporated and onion is very soft and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool; set aside until ready to use.

Meanwhile, mix pork, parsley, sage, thyme, mace, allspice, ginger, cloves, if using, 1 Tbsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper in a large bowl. Chill until ready to use.

Toss chicken with 2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper in another large bowl. Chill until ready to use.

Dough Whisk flour and salt in a large bowl; make a well in the center. Bring schmaltz and 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan and immediately pour into well. Mis with a wooden spoon until dough comes together. Using your hands, knead until no lumps of flour remain (dough will seem wet and oily but not sticky; that's okay). Let sit 30 minutes.

Assembly Preheat oven to 400°. Place large pieces of parchment, slightly overlapping, on a clean work surface. Transfer dough to parchment. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut off one-third of dough wrap in plastic and cover with a towel to keep warm. Roll out remaining dough to a 17" round. Using parchment, transfer dough to springform pan, lifting up edges to allow dough to slump down into pan. Press evenly into sides and bottom edge of pan. Trim dough, leaving a 1" overhand; reserve scraps for decorating.

Evenly arrange one-third of prosciutto over bottom of crust. Place a clean piece of parchment on work surface. Divide chilled pork mixture into thirds, then roll into balls. Flatten 1 pork ball to an 8" disk. Using parchment, invert pork mixture onto prosciutto. Press down to flatten and cover surface completely (this is key for a cleanly defined visible layer in finished pie). Top with half of the chicken in an even layer, then cover with half of the onion mixture. Top evenly with half of the apricots. Repeat process, starting with prosciutto and ending with apricots. Top apricots with remaining pork mixture and cover with remaining prosciutto.

Place a clean piece of parchment on work surface. Roll out reserved dough to an 11" round. Using parchment, carefully drape round over filling. Trim edges, leaving a 1" overhand. reserve scraps for decorating. Fold overhand of top crust underneath overhand of bottom crust and press to seal. Crimp as desired. Cut 6 slits in the center (forming a star) to vent. Beat egg with 1 Tbsp. water in a small bowl. Brush top crust with egg wash. Roll out scraps to a 1/4" thickness and decorate pie, if desired. Brush decorations with egg wash.

Transfer pan to a rimmed baking sheet to catch any drips and bake 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325° and continue to bake until crust is a deep golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the pie registers 150° (the temperature will continue to rise after pie comes out of the oven), 2-2 1/2 hours.

Let cool in pan 2 hours. Remove outer ring, then chill pie, uncovered, 8 hours (this will help filling set and makes slicing easier). Transfer to a platter or board. Serve cold or at room temperature with mustard, tomatoes, cornichon, onion, stilton, and clothbound cheddar alongside, if desired.

Do ahead: Pie can be made 3 days ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and chill.

More from Bon Appetit: 35 Make-Ahead Breakfasts so You Can Sleep in and Eat Well All Week Our 50 Favorite Weeknight Dinners 24 Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Cook

Summary: Make this delicious pie from the hit television series 'Game of Thrones' and show your friends what a superfan dinner party you can throw.


Looking for a roundup of the latest and most important news from the automotive world? You’ve found it in the Daily Drive-Thru. Check it out every weekday to see what you missed and what you need to know.

We’ll make all your wildest dreams come true, as long as your wildest dream is being up to date on the latest car news.

FOLLOW DAILY NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK. 'LIKE' US HERE.

Speaking of dreams that probably won’t become reality, Toyota and Subaru have teamed up to create a two-door hot hatch concept that is making car nerds everywhere salivate. Created by Toyota’s Australian design team, the Toyota GT86 Shooting Brake is an 86 (known, for now, as a the Scion FR-S in the States and built on the same frame as a Subaru BRZ) with a hatchback rear.

Despite its popularity among auto aficionados, the Shooting Brake, like most hatchbacks, would probably be quite polarizing among the general U.S. car-buying population, with admires being drawn to its functional sportiness and detractors being unable to get past the roadster in the front, wagon in the back design. We will probably never know, though, as the Toyota has said the GT86 concept will remain just a concept.

Just days after U.S. regulators announced a 40 million-unit recall on Takata airbags, Honda has announced a preemptive recall of its own, consisting of 20 million Takata airbags installed in its vehicles. This effort is expected to cost Honda $1.87 billion.

Last the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that 40 million airbag inflators would need to be recalled in addition 28.8 million units that have already been called back. The bags in question contain faulty hardware wit a tendency of exploding and hurling shrapnel at drivers, a malfunction that has killed 10 and injured more than 100.

Last month was a big month for selling big vehicles. Nearly three in five light vehicles (59.3 percent, to be exact) sold last month were trucks, making for the biggest disparity between truck sales and car sales in a given month this year. Market observers speculate that bigger vehicles are still selling like hotcakes because of relatively low gas prices in the U.S.

The total truck sales figure was not limited to pickups, but rather every style of vehicle based on a truck platform, including SUVs, crossovers and vans. However, the top three best-selling vehicles were all pickups: the Ford F-150 with 70,774, the Chevrolet Silverado 49,990 and the Ram pickup 41,079.

Just because the U.S. and Iran hashed out their differing nuclear philosophies, doesn’t mean there isn’t some bad blood between the two countries. American companies are allowed to sell vehicles in Iran now that trade sanctions have been lifted, but last week Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Chevrolet cars, the brand was nixed from the approved import list.

The Ayatollah had this to say about the brand that once described itself as being as American as baseball, hotdogs and apple pie: "Even the Americans are not interested in buying such cars because of their weight and high fuel consumption. Why should we import the cars from a bankrupt American factory? This is very odd.”

Volvo will be issuing $570.4 million- (500 million euro-) worth of bonds in the near future, marking the Swedish carmaker’s first dalliance with the corporate bond market. The money raised will go toward “general corporate purposes and are aimed at increasing the company’s financial flexibility and diversifying its funding sources,” according to Volvo.

From the sounds of it, all that investment into car safety and autonomous driving is taking its toll on Volvo, or perhaps the company just wants more money with which to expand. Either way, if Volvo achieves its goal of cutting accident-related deaths and injuries in its vehicles to zero by 2020, it might not be a bad investment. Volvo will begin a roadshow to make pitches to potential investors Monday.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.

Summary: We've also got red-hot truck sales in April, a Chevy ban in Iran, and more in today's Daily Drive-Thru.


That is the modest end of the dining-alone section. Solo eating is also the perfect opportunity to indulge more expensive tastes.

Eating caviar in a restaurant or supplying it for a group of people is extravagant to the point of recklessness. Buying a small tin and demolishing it entirely yourself is hedonistic heaven. I love these pancakes with caviar. Unlike regular blini, they do not need yeast, so they take only a few minutes to rustle up. I think of them as potato pancakes, but actually they use only a little potato starch, not real potatoes. They are very plain and not enormously potatoey, but they are the best carrier imaginable for anything salty. (Try them with sour cream and lox.)

This mixture makes an awful lot of little pancakes, and even I can't eat that many in one sitting, so I suggest freezing what you do not eat. When you need a lift one evening, you will know that you just need to open a tin of caviar, microwave the little pancakes, and superdeluxe culinary salvation will be pretty well instantly to hand.

Time: 10 to 15 minutes

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 5-ounce chicken breast, sliced into strips to yield about 3/4 cup

1 tablespoon sake, sherry or white wine

1/4 cup baby corn in 1-inch pieces

1 long red chili, seeded and finely sliced into rings

1 scallion, finely sliced into rings

8 ounces fresh or cooked udon noodles

1/2 cup sugar snap peas.

1. In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, heat chicken broth. In a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat, cook chicken strips without any oil until they are opaque, then add soy sauce and sake, allowing them to reduce slightly. Add chicken and sauce to broth.

2. Increase heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Add ginger, corn, chili, scallion, spinach, noodles and peas. Simmer mixture for a minute or two until vegetables are tender and noodles, if fresh, have cooked, or if cooked, are reheated. Serve.

POTATO AND ONION HASH WITH A FRIED EGG

1 medium onion, sliced into half-moons

2 cups (1 10-ounce) waxy potato, with skin, diced into 1/2-inch pieces

1. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, and add oil. When oil is hot, add onion and a sprinkling of salt. Stir until onion begins to soften, about 1 minute.

2. Add potato and cayenne to pan. Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes and onions are tender, caramelized and lightly browned, 30 minutes.

3. Push potato and onion hash to one side of pan, and increase heat. Crack egg into pan, and cook to taste. Spoon potatoes and onions on plate, and top with egg.

Time: 15 to 20 minutes

1 tablespoon melted butter, more for greasing griddle

Caviar and sour cream for serving.

1. In mixing bowl, combine potato starch, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In separate bowl, mix buttermilk, egg and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and whisk into a batter.

2. Place a griddle or skillet over medium heat, and brush with melted butter. When griddle is hot, spoon scant tablespoons of batter onto it, about 2 inches apart. After a few minutes pancakes will rise. There will not be many bubbles on the surface. When bottoms are set and golden brown, flip them over, and cook until the other side is golden brown. Serve with caviar and sour cream. Pancakes may be frozen.

Summary: Nigella Lawson article on pleasure of cooking for one; recipes for chicken noodle soup, potato and onion hash with fried egg, and tiny pancakes for caviar; photos (M)


06/22/2016 AT 04:00 PM EDT

is best known as the YouTube sensation

, boasting 2.9 million channel subscribers.

But what fuels the 32-year-old the most is her past as a misfit growing up in rural Washington County, Pa.

"I've always loved technology. Growing up, I loved Nintendo and video games. I made my first website in sixth grade," Ezarik says in the current issue of PEOPLE. "I was the only girl in my computer programming class."

But the Internet changed all that for Ezarik, who now hopes to return the favor.

"I grew up in the middle of nowhere, I didn't find other people who liked what I liked – especially girls. So being able to connect to people all across the world was life-changing," says the online star. "Now no one has to feel alone."

Summary: "I was the only girl in my computer programming class," she says


SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education says a South Carolina school district has agreed to let a transgender elementary school student use the restroom with which she identifies.

Transgender issues have been widely debated in recent months, and President Barack Obama's administration has directed public schools to allow transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

US President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Leadership Gala in New York, June 23, 2011. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images

The Department's Office for Civil Rights said in a statement that Dorchester District 2 had violated Title IX, which protects students from sex-based discrimination. The district originally denied the student access to the girls' bathroom because she is transgender, according to the office.

The district has agreed to comply with Title IX requirements, the office said.

The voluntary resolution calls for the district to revise its policies and procedures to include gender-based discrimination as a form of discrimination based on sex and to provide training to administrators on the subject, among other measures.

"I commend (the district) for committing to protect the civil rights of all students and ensuring that all students have equal access to education programs and activities," said assistant secretary for civil rights Catherine E. Lhamon.

District 2 officials didn't immediately comment on the agreement.

In April, nearby Berkeley County said students could use the restroom with which they identify.

DENVER, CO-June 24, 2013: Six-year-old Coy Mathis, along side her mother, was front and center during a press conference on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol to announce that the Colorado Civil Rights Division has ruled in favor of Coy Mathis, whose school had barred her from using the girls bathroom at her elementary school because she is transgender, June 24, 2013. Coy was labeled male at birth, but has always known that she is a girl, which she has expressed since she was 18 months old.(Photo By RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images) RJ Sangosti / Denver Post via Getty Images

Melissa Moore, executive director of We Are Family, a nonprofit that provides support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, said she hopes school districts will develop their own policies protecting transgender students, or risk facing a lawsuit like the one in Dorchester 2.

Summary: The U.S. Department of Education says a South Carolina school district has agreed to let a transgender elementary school student use the restroom with which she identifies. The Department's Office for Civil Rights said in a statement that Dorchester District 2 had violated Title IX, which protects students from sex-based discrimination.


But Mr. Haidle has invited us down a rabbit hole that really leads nowhere. In between the tea parties and naughty games of doctor, Lucy carries on so many complex conversations about concepts (suicide, infidelity) blatantly beyond a 4-year-old's intellectual capacity that her nightmare world retains no grip on our imaginations or our emotions. It is too palpably shaped by the playwright, not by his character. (The snarky, portentous epigraphs for each scene do not help: "III. Concerning countless more hardships which Lucy endured with regard to her imaginary friends, if you can even call them that," runs one.)

The director, Michael Greif, and the actors bring a frenzied sense of fun to the play's lighter moments. It's hard to resist the sugar-shock food fight that Larry and Lucy embark on during a respite from their more sinister games, with Larry's somewhat more anodyne imaginary companions, a potty-mouthed cactus and sunflower, joining in. As Mr. Marmalade, Mr. Hall is flesh-crawlingly watchable as he twitches suddenly between roles as teddy bear in a business suit and abusive beast. In her Off Broadway debut, Ms. Gummer (a daughter of Meryl Streep) pouts and chirps childishly and effectively, even if she cannot mask the contradictions of her character.

But the gruesome excesses of Mr. Haidle's plot strike too many unearned sour notes. In exaggerating Lucy's self-inflicted emotional torture to spark spasms of nervous laughter, Mr. Haidle sacrifices the chance to explore his dark subject matter honestly. And you don't have to be a prig to wish that a playwright dealing with the idea of children's suffering would demonstrate an awareness that the subject is sadly not as far-fetched as the loopy tone would suggest.

Mr. Haidle does strive to end the play on a note of tentative hope. After Lucy has finally exorcised her demon, she is seen frolicking outdoors with Larry in a merry game of dodge ball, free at last from the terrors of her diseased imagination. But hold on, Mr. Haidle -- dodge ball as a healing balm for toddler angst? In my experience, that infernal game was more likely to be the cause of trauma, not the cure for it. Heck, I've still got the emotional scars to prove it.

"Mr. Marmalade" continues at the Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan, through Jan. 29, 2006; (212) 719-1300.

By Noah Haidle; directed by Michael Greif; sets by Allen Moyer; costumes by Constance Hoffman; lighting by Kevin Adams; original musical compositions, Michael Friedman; sound by Walter Trarbach and Tony Smolenski IV; production stage manager, Lori M. Doyle; production manager, Kai Brothers; general manager, Don-Scott Cooper; associate artistic director, Scott Ellis. Presented by the Roundabout Theater Company, Todd Haimes, artistic director; Harold Wolpert, managing director; Julia C. Levy, executive director. At the Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street,Manhattan; (212) 719-1300. Through Jan. 29. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

WITH: Mamie Gummer (Lucy), Michael C. Hall (Mr. Marmalade), Virginia Louise Smith (Sookie/Emily/Sunflower), David Costabile (Bradley), Michael Chernus (George/Cactus/Bob) and Pablo Schreiber (Larry).

Summary: Charles Isherwood reviews Roundabout Theater Co production of Noah Haidle play Mr Marmalade, directed by Michael Greif; Mamie Gummer and Michael C Hall star; photos (M)


In Los Angeles they're referred to as the mannequins -- those ageless thespians whose misadventures with Botox have left their faces temporarily stripped of expression. And despite Hollywood's insatiable demand for fresh features and unfurrowed brows, they have triggered a Botox backlash, with a number of directors finally speaking out. ''I love Sergio Leone crop shots,'' declares Allen Hughes, who with his brother, Albert, directed ''American Pimp.'' ''But sometimes you can't shoot as close as you want because it starts to looks fake.''

Wary of the Stepford look, many potential mannequins are sticking with the needles but throwing out the syringe. At the moment, L.A.'s hottest treatment is Dr. Mao's acupuncture face lift.

''If an actress is working on a movie, she might come in every day for a month before shooting,'' says Dr. Mao -- his full name is Dr. Maoshing Ni -- the acupuncturist at the Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica. Patients wait as long as six weeks to see Dr. Mao, paying $110 a session for the privilege.

The doctor -- handsome and 39 -- doesn't have a wrinkle on his face. His waiting room is filled with people who look young, healthy and relaxed, but not overly relaxed in that airbrushed Hollywood way.

''We can slow down the aging process and in some cases reverse it,'' Dr. Mao informs me as he turns his well-trained eye in my direction. Carefully examining the deepening road map on my forehead, Dr. Mao seems confident that he can ''at least soften some of the lines.''

''Let me see your tongue,'' he says, and then stares at it closely. Diagnosing ''a little stress,'' he inserts a hair-thin needle into my scalp. Slowly, I begin to relax. As he starts on my forehead, he explains: ''It tightens the skin, the skin tone and the muscle tone.''

In the next five minutes, he painlessly glides 30 needles into my face, so quickly and with such precision that it's like watching a magician.

''Enjoy your rest,'' Dr. Mao says before leaving the room and turning down the lights.

Forty-five minutes later, he returns to take out the needles. I rush to a nearby mirror to check out the results. Though the changes are not extraordinary, I look a little more relaxed -- tighter around my eyes and forehead.

Dr. Mao says it takes about three months of weekly visits to see a drastic difference. ''People will start noticing and say: 'Hey, you look great. What's happening?' And yet they can't quite put their finger on what's changed. It's subtle.''

In a society where immediate gratification is the norm, a few months of pinpricks may be a hard sell. But Dr. Mao's face lift may just stir a countercultural revolution.

Summary: Susan Campos article on undergoing accupuncture as alternative to Botox to smooth facial lines; photo (M)


Can McDonald's (MCD) be fixed? That's the question haunting the company as CEO Don Thompson stepped down Thursday.

Thompson was in the top spot for less than three years, not much time for a chief executive to make a dent. But the company's board couldn't sit there as sales plunged, particularly in the all-important U.S. market. Ultimately, the CEO has to take the fall when business stalls.

Now, chief brand officer Steve Easterbrook will become CEO, and he has a tall order ahead: make McDonald's relevant again. If he can do that, the sales slump will reverse and the stock price will be reinvigorated.

But how to do it? That's a riddle Thompson could not solve. McDonald's is a complex company, too massive and too entrenched to adapt to change easily. And yet Easterbrook must begin an overhaul that makes sense and sees results. Shareholders are losing patience and the competition is always on the move.

Here are five problem areas that Easterbrook must fix at McDonald's:

1. Playing it both ways. This may be the key issue at the chain. Critics say that McDonald's can't make healthy food and that it can't attract millennials. But that's not necessarily true. The company has an army of market researchers, business development executives and food scientists. McDonald's could easily push out customized, gourmet food at a high price point and ramp up the marketing to draw in younger people and more health-conscious eaters.

But that's not the problem. The real issue is attracting two groups of diners without alienating either one. The first group is McDonald's core audience, the folks who love the chain for what it is and who don't want to see change. Many of them can't afford higher prices. This group is tremendously important, and is why McDonald's continues to be the No. 1 fast food chain by a wide margin.

The second group includes those who think McDonald's isn't healthy or tasty enough. These are the customers who drive past the Golden Arches to Five Guys, Panera (PNRA), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). They need a reason to come back to McDonald's, and so far they aren't motivated.

Easterbrook will have to walk a fine line to satisfy both of these groups.

2. McDonald's lacks an "it" menu item. When was the last time McDonald's had a blockbuster menu item on its hands? Analysts tell The Wall Street Journal it hasn't happened since 2003, when the McGriddle pancake sandwiches debuted.

Fast-food chains need a menu boost now and then to drive excitement. Look at how the Doritos Locos Tacos turned around Taco Bell's U.S. business. And Wendy's (WEN) Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger was a huge hit for the company. Chipotle is making a big deal of its new vegetarian Sofritas.

McDonald's tried chicken wings, which were an overpriced flop. It canceled its Fruit & Walnut Salads. Its experiments with other items have slowed down drive-thru service and unnecessarily complicated the kitchens at its restaurants.

In other words, when was the last time you've heard anyone say, "Let's go to McDonald's to try the new (fill in the blank)?" That just doesn't happen anymore.

3. Appeasing the franchisees. McDonald's franchisees have been in a foul mood lately. That much was apparent in the latest franchisee survey by Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski. He got an earful about what needs to change from the franchisees who work in the trenches every day.

About 80 percent of McDonald's 14,300 U.S. restaurants are franchised. The franchisees' business outlook was significantly below what Kalinowski usually sees, MarketWatch reports. They also said their relationship with the company was below average.

"We are going in so many directions at once it makes my head spin," one franchisee said in the survey. Another said morale is at the lowest in more than 20 years. "From an operator's perspective, the financial future looks grim," another added.

Franchisees are the foundation on which McDonald's operates, and Easterbrook needs to mend fences with them soon.

4. Foreign markets are losing steam. McDonald's efforts to expand globally have been set back by one scandal after another in recent years. In China, an undercover television investigation last year claimed a company vendor was supplying expired meat. That was a blow to the chain, which until then had developed a reputation for using quality ingredients.

The company has also run into problems in Japan, where it recalled Chicken McNuggets nationwide after a customer found a piece of vinyl in his. A few weeks earlier, McDonald's had to ration french fries nationwide because a contract dispute with U.S. dock workers delayed potato shipments.

McDonald's was very popular in Russia until it got caught up in the political tension between the country and the U.S. Russian officials began questioning the quality of food at the company's restaurants, with 200 out of 440 becoming the subject of a government probe last fall, The Financial Times reports. Nine restaurants were closed at the time, but have since reopened.

And in Latin America, the company that operates McDonald's restaurants has seen slumping sales. Restaurants in Venezuela ran out of potatoes and began serving fried flatbreads instead.

5. Beating the competition. McDonald's didn't have much competition on a nationwide level years ago. But it's a whole new world now, with rivals constantly upping their game when it comes to quality and taste.

Now, there are places like Habit Burger Grill (HABT), a chain that scored the top ranking on a recent Consumer Reports reader survey for best burgers. The California chain has expanded to Arizona and New Jersey, and is planning to move into Florida and Nevada soon.

Cult favorite In-N-Out has three ingredients in its french fries - potatoes, salt and oil -- compared with 19 in McDonald's. Another favorite, Shake Shack (SHAK), will start trading on Friday in an initial public offering that values the chain at about $750 million.

And don't forget about Five Guys, Whataburger and even Sonic (SONC), which has seen its stock price soar 75 percent over the last year. McDonald's also has to deal with the rising fast-casual chains that are gobbling up diners' business?

Can McDonald's stand out in that crowded field? That's what Easterbrook will need to find out.

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: A management change alone won't revive the world's largest restaurant chain -- here's what it must do to get cooking again


They say beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and for 18 years of

's life, the beholder was Phillip Garrido, the man who kidnapped her from a bus stop in 1991.

, the 36-year-old kidnapping survivor describes how her "sense of beauty" was "tainted" by her years under Garrido's control.

"When a psycho grown-up man that has kidnapped you and taken you away from everything you have known and loved forces you to 'dress up' and put on makeup for his personal fantasies ... your viewpoint can change," she writes. "I know mine has."

Jaycee Dugard on the cover of PEOPLE

Dugard recalls one night when her captor dressed her up and tears began to stream down her face. "I was smearing the makeup job he had done on me, but I just could not hold the tears back. I could tell he was agitated, and I knew I had to stop crying. I was scared of what would happen if I didn't."

Finally Garrido asked her why she was crying.

"I told him I felt ugly," Dugard writes. "I remember he looked at me and said, 'You look beautiful. Here, I will show you. Look into the mirror.' "

"Well, I looked. I don't doubt that he thought I was pretty that night," Dugard continues. "His creation. The girl he took from the bus stop. A girl he controlled and could be anything he wanted â¦ all I saw was a very frightened girl who I didn't even recognize with mascara running down her cheeks and the saddest face I had ever glimpsed staring back at me."

Dugard was freed in 2009 and has spent the last seven years rebuilding her life – and redefining what it means to be beautiful.

"When I look in the mirror now, I don't see the ugly broken child I was and who Phillip tried his best to create because he thought that was beautiful. No, I don't see her. I just simply see the beauty in me."

is due out July 12.

Summary: Jaycee Dugard recalls how her captor forced her to "'dress up' and put on makeup for his personal fantasies"


Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

Rusty Burrell, left, served as bailiff during the trials of Charles Manson, Patty Hearst and Caryl Chessman. He is shown in a publicity photo for "The People's Court," with Judge Joseph Wapner and court reporter Doug Llewellyn, right. Lorimar photo via Associated Press

Rusty Burrell, left, served as bailiff during the trials of Charles Manson, Patty Hearst and Caryl Chessman. He is shown in a publicity photo for "The People's Court," with Judge Joseph Wapner and court

Rusty Burrell -- 'People's Court' bailiff kept judicious order

2002-04-20 04:00:00 PDT Los Angeles -- As a sheriff's deputy in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Rusty Burrell served as bailiff during the trials of Caryl Chessman, Charles Manson, Patty Hearst and other high-profile cases.

But for millions of Americans, Mr. Burrell was best known as the affable, silver-haired bailiff in the courtroom of Judge Joseph Wapner on TV's "The People's Court."

Mr. Burrell died Monday of lung cancer at his home in Rosemead. He was 76.

Mr. Burrell spent 25 of his 31 years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as a bailiff in the court system, including working in Wapner's Los Angeles Superior Court courtroom.

Mr. Burrell had just retired in 1981, when he was asked to serve as bailiff on the "The People's Court." The syndicated series featured real plaintiffs and defendants who had taken their grievances to small claims courts in Los Angeles and then agreed to have their cases heard by the retired Judge Wapner for a swift disposition of their claims on national TV.

The series ran until 1993.

In 1998, Mr. Burrell returned to a TV courtroom to serve as bailiff on "Judge Wapner's Animal Court" on cable's Animal Planet network.

"I told the producer I wouldn't do it without him," Wapner said at the time.

"He's the salt of the earth. He knows how to deal with people, and he has such a great sense of humor."

Mr. Burrell, a native of Metropolis, Ill., lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II. After his discharge, he played baseball for a couple of years in the St. Louis Browns' farm system.

"He came out (to Los Angeles) to play ball and stayed," said Mr. Burrell's son, Larry, adding that one of his father's friends, a former police officer working as a store security guard in Pomona, suggested he join the department.

After a short time with the Pomona Police Department, Mr. Burrell switched to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department in 1950 for the higher pay: $290 instead of $200 a month.

When Mr. Burrell began appearing on "The People's Court," he was no stranger to television.

He already had served as the original bailiff on the syndicated television series "Divorce Court" in the 1950s. The show featured a real attorney playing the judge and real lawyers but used actors as litigants.

The show's producers had been talking to Mr. Burrell about being an adviser on the show.

"He was a good-looking guy, and they just decided to put him on the show," said Larry Burrell. "My dad was in charge of getting the attorneys to be on the show."

During his years with the Sheriff's Department, Mr. Burrell also moonlighted as a bit actor in a number of television shows such as "General Hospital" and movies, including "Take Her, She's Mine," starring James Stewart,

and "Fate Is the Hunter," starring Glenn Ford.

While working as a bailiff, Mr. Burrell accompanied Chessman, the-so-called "Red Light Bandit" and serial rapist who was executed in 1960, to the law library every day. And during the Manson trial, Mr. Burrell guarded the notorious cult leader, recalling "that was me sitting right beside him all the time."

"He used to tell me, 'Rusty, why don't you let me go?' And I'd say, 'Charlie, you know I can't do that.' And he said, 'You know, I could get up and walk out of here any time I want.' And I said, 'Charlie, you won't even get to the door.' "

Summary: The syndicated series featured real plaintiffs and defendants who had taken their grievances to small claims courts in Los Angeles and then agreed to have their cases heard by the retired Judge Wapner for a swift disposition of their claims on national TV.  In 1998, Mr. Burrell returned to a TV courtroom to serve as bailiff on "Judge Wapner's Animal Court" on cable's Animal Planet network.  After his discharge, he played baseball for a couple of years in the St. Louis Browns' farm system.  During his years with the Sheriff's Department, Mr. Burrell also moonlighted as a bit actor in a number of television shows such as "General Hospital" and movies, including "Take Her, She's Mine," starring James Stewart,  While working as a bailiff, Mr. Burrell accompanied Chessman, the-so-called "Red Light Bandit" and serial rapist who was executed in 1960, to the law library every day.  [...] during the Manson trial, Mr. Burrell guarded the notorious cult leader, recalling "that was me sitting right beside him all the time."


COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Sept. 15— From Morgan Bulkeley in 1876 to Leonard Coleman in 1999, from Ban Johnson in 1901 to Gene Budig in 1999, the National and American Leagues have had presidents who operated offices separate and apart from one another. No longer.

Major league club owners voted unanimously today to abandon the traditional arrangement and consolidate all operating functions in the commissioner's office.

''This is an historic moment that many have felt was long overdue,'' said Commissioner Bud Selig, who spearheaded the move to consolidate such matters as umpiring, scheduling and discipline. At the same time, Selig stressed that the leagues would remain separate and competitive on the field.

The move, which apparently generated little or no opposition among owners but drew a negative vote in the executive council from Coleman, was the primary piece of business the owners conducted, but also among the least controversial.

The owners, meeting near the Hall of Fame at the Otesaga Hotel, declined to approve the sale of the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals, causing concern about the future of both franchises. They took no vote on the sale of the Montreal Expos, who asked for a delay, but they approved the $67 million transfer of the controlling ownership shares of the Cincinnati Reds from the controversial Marge Schott to Carl Lindner, a billionaire Cincinnati businessman (Chiquita bananas), who has been a limited partner.

In announcing the act of centralization, Selig said that Budig has been offered the role of senior vice president for educational and government affairs in baseball and confirmed that Coleman was resigning as the National League president after the season. But, Selig added, Coleman will serve as senior adviser to the commissioner and president of Major League Baseball charities.

''I did not want to serve in a ceremonial post or be a figurehead,'' Coleman said. Earning a $650,000 salary in his sixth year as National League president, Coleman, who is black, has been the most outspoken advocate within baseball for the hiring of members of minority groups in decision-making positions.

At least two of the functions that have heretofore been handled by the league presidents will have to be negotiated with baseball's players and umpires unions. Placing the umpires under the supervision of the commissioner's office is expected to be an issue in the upcoming negotiations for a new labor agreement to replace the current one, which expires Dec. 31. The umpires' lawyer, Richie Phillips, maintains that the move constitutes a change in terms and working conditions. Centralization was one of the issues that triggered the recent dispute that led to the loss of jobs for 22 umpires.

The players' labor representatives have said a change in meting out disciplinary measures for players must also be negotiated. ''This is all about eliminating redundancy and being more efficient in the league office,'' Jerry Colangelo, managing partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, said. ''Baseball's unique with two leagues. I know there's tradition involved, but I don't think this takes anything away from it.''

Sandy Alderson, executive vice president for baseball operations in the commissioner's office, is expected to oversee much of the consolidation. He will most likely have umpiring supervisors working under him, and baseball will very likely name someone to be the official who determines discipline for on-field personnel, as other leagues have.

Selig, at a news conference following the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, ticked off ways in which the leagues will remain separate and retain their identities: the All-Star Game, the World Series, league records, the debate among fans over which league is better. The American League's designated hitter will not be affected by today's change.

Baseball, Selig said, ''has had to re-evaluate how it operates its business off the field.'' Separate functions, he added, have ''become an encumbrance that inhibits sound and timely decisions.''

''We're getting ready for the 21st century,'' Selig said.

Some of his constituent teams, however, may go limping into the next century. Miles Prentice, a New York lawyer, heads a group of 42 investors who have agreed to buy the Royals for $75 million, but the owners voted, 29-1 today, with the Royals being the one, to ask the Royals to consider other alternatives.

The owners voted by 28-2 (the Athletics and the Chicago Cubs cast the no votes) to take no action on the $122.4 million sale of the Athletics until a Selig task force completes its study of baseball economics.


It turns out that unicorns aren't all that mythical or rare, at least when it comes to the modern meaning of the word.

These days, unicorns are private companies that have valuations of at least $1 billion. They're the type of hot startups that make investors salivate at their growth potential, prompting them to pour in more venture capital in the hopes of chasing down a mythical monstrous return.

While the name connotes something rare and beautiful, this kind of unicorn is becoming increasingly common, thanks to a surge in investment capital not only from venture capital firms, but hedge funds, corporations and high-net-worth individuals like Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

That's evident in the number of newly christened unicorns this year. A new report from CB Insights and KPMG finds 23 unicorns across the globe, with 17 based in the U.S.

"There's a big demand for companies that are growing really fast and tackling these big opportunities," said Anand Sanwal, chief executive of CB Insights. "There aren't many companies like that, and as a result, you end up with these mega-financing rounds. A lot of them are now driven by hedge funds, corporations and atypical investors."

With more investors chasing the hottest private companies, that has led to higher and higher valuations, and the creation of "uber Unicorns," or private businesses with valuations of at least $10 billion. The market has become so hot that it's raising questions about whether the tech industry -- which tends to produce more unicorns than other industries -- is in the midst of another bubble.

So far, investors remain hopeful that valuations will keep rising, at least in the private arena. The public markets haven't been as receptive to IPOs and newly public companies as in past years, as evidenced by companies such as Etsy (ETSY), the online craft marketplace that's lost 19 percent of its market value since going public in April.

"There are people who say they're worried or that the markets are overheated," Sanwal said. Still, he said he's not seeing evidence of a slowdown.

But there are company-specific risks, such as when a once-hot startup fails to deliver on its promise to revolutionize its industry. Questions have been raised about Theranos, for instance, the biotech startup that promises to quickly process blood tests from patients' finger-pricks. But The Wall Street Journal has reported that only a fraction of its tests sold to consumers use its new technology.

When it comes to unicorns that turn out to be goats, the damage might not be as widespread as with failures in the public markets, given that it's only VCs and wealthy investors who may lose their well-tailored shirts.

Read on about the top 13 private companies by valuation.

Summary: Thanks to generous venture capital, these companies' values have skyrocketed, but is that creating a bubble?


By AMY FORLITI MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A roundup of fan comment on Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson's indictment on a child abuse charge, gathered outside TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday, when the Vikings lost 30-7 to New England:

Andy Chadwick, 34, Henderson, Minnesota:

Chadwick said that even though he is not anti-spanking, he was disturbed by the allegations and some punishment of Peterson is warranted.

"I think the threat of being spanked is more of what was a deterrent for me when I was a kid. ... When you start actually hitting your kids with objects that are causing bruises and open wounds - (it) definitely crosses a line."

But Chadwick said Peterson deserves a second chance.

"I think we live in a pretty forgiving society and ... I don't think he's a maniac or a sociopath. I think if he can change his ways, I don't have any reason to believe he shouldn't be playing in the NFL."

Liz Pushing, 43, of Minneapolis:

"I think we need to wait for all the facts to come out before we react, given that what we've seen at this point is still just a small portion of the evidence."

Nick Novak, 29, a season ticket-holder from Roseville:

Novak said when he first heard of the incident, it sounded like a regular spanking, but his view changed as he learned more.

"I don't think he was trying to abuse his child," Novak said. "I think he was trying to punish the child for wrongdoing. . He did cross a line though."

Novak said he likes Peterson, and his opinion of him won't change until more details come out. He said there are still a lot of unknowns.

"Maybe he has a history of this, we don't know. From an outside view, I thought Adrian Peterson was a great guy, but maybe he has, ah, maybe he's doing this a lot. And if not, then we'll find out and he can play again. But if this is a common thing for him, where he's doing this all the time, we probably won't be seeing too much of him anymore."

Novak added: "This is definitely the worst week the NFL has ever seen."

Rachel Fricke, 30, a season ticket-holder and Peterson fan from Brooklyn Center:

"I think it was a simple mistake," she said, adding that it was a spanking that went a little too far. "I think he knew what he did was wrong. I'm still going to support him because I think it was a simple mistake."

Scott Asplund, also known as Skolt Scott, who had his face painted purple and yellow and wore Vikings horn, and carried a shield and fake sword.

"We've got to let things just settle and work their course. Peterson, to his credit, has been doing everything to cooperate."

Asplund said the issue is not one of domestic violence, but is a parenting issue.

"What concerns me is this was already talked and met about down there, and now it's popping up again. Why is that? That's a question to me, the timing of this whole thing."

Asplund said it was probably good for Peterson to sit out Sunday's game.

"It's a huge distraction kind of thing. So in some sense, for the sake of the team and his teammates, and just a sense of focus, it's probably OK that he's out. For himself, this has to be a huge distraction and a concern too."

David Gunderson, who also wore the Vikings horns and facepaint:

"It's a parental issue," Gunderson said. "Personally, I think it's a personal matter and shouldn't even be in the ... media. ... Nor should he be deactivated for this game because it did make it into the media."


Meanwhile, an executive at Germany’s central bank added his voice to calls for the London exchange’s euro-denominated clearing business to move within the borders of the European Union.

Andreas Dombret, who sits on the Bundesbank’s executive board, said that the Brexit vote “has given positive impetus to, and even bolstered, the economic rationale behind such a merger” as a bridge between the two countries.

“The parties concerned need to find a governance structure which balances all reasonable interests - even at the expense of synergies,” he said. “Furthermore, I am convinced that, in the medium term, euro clearing cannot take place to the existing extent in London - Frankfurt would be the more appropriate alternative.”

French president Francois Hollande and the head of the German finance regulator are among the senior figures raising the prospect of settling euro trades solely within the eurozone, despite Britain’s victory in the courts last year to protect its right to clear euro trades.

The Belgian finance minister has written to the EU competition watchdog to raise his concerns, according to Reuters. "I am also concerned that the high level of concentration of trading and euro clearing activities in one group could be detrimental both to the desirable competitive environment as to financial stability," wrote Johan van Overtveldt.

Providing they can secure regulatory support, Deutsche Boerse and the LSE aim to complete the merger by early 2017.

Summary: Deutsche Boerse has reached the halfway point in signing up investors to support its merger with the London Stock Exchange, enabling a wave of investors tied up in tracker funds to join in to back the deal.


PHILADELPHIA – Still reeling from the chaos surrounding last weekend’s Nevada Democratic State Convention, party officials considered new guidelines Friday that would bar interruptions of any kind at upcoming state conventions.

Last week’s unrest was on everyone’s mind at a meeting here of State Democratic Party chairmen, who rallied around Roberta Lange, the Nevada chair who has received death threats from supporters of Bernie Sanders.

“Any one of us could be Roberta one day,” Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. “But none of us are going to stand for it.”

In a speech dedicated almost entirely to projecting confidence that the party will ultimately unify, Wasserman Schultz drew on her experience as a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter in 2008.

“To say that I was not very well-liked by then-Sen. Obama’s supporters would be an understatement. Despised might be more accurate,” Wasserman Schultz said. “I share that story with you because I want to remind everyone that we have been down this road before.”

RELATED: Bernie Sanders under fire after Nevada convention chaos

She mocked the “media’s love affair with notions of party discord” and said she was “confident that we will channel the passion and energy from our primary into unity behind a common purpose.”

Last week’s convention in Las Vegas devolved into chaos. Sanders supporters loudly objected to the procedure, claiming their supporters were being disenfranchised. It stretched on for hours as officials lost control, before security finally shut down the event. Unrest continued the next day when the Democratic Party’s headquarters were vandalized by graffiti and Lange received threats.

The incident has led Democrats to worry about unrest at the Democratic National Convention, which will take place here in July. Some Sanders supporters have already promised protests.

Sanders supporters loudly objected to the procedure, claiming their supporters were being disenfranchised.

As state party chairs, they were also worried about the dozen or so state conventions that will occur before the national event. Some expressed particular concern about Wyoming’s convention, scheduled for next week.

“The experience of the Nevada Convention demands that action be taken,” said Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire party chairman, who also serves as president of the Association of State Democratic Party Chairs.

He said every state party was “stunned and saddened” by what happened in Nevada, but that state was not alone in seeing “bad behavior” at party events.

Buckley called on the Sanders campaign, along with the Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, to agree to eight new guidelines to ensure peace at upcoming state conventions.

The guidelines called for cost sharing for extra security, more meetings to hammer out issues ahead of time and for senior officials with both campaigns to be on the floor of the convention to help reign in supporters if need be.

He also called on all parties to agree that conventions should proceed “without interruption or interference of any manner,” including “auditory or visual distractions.”

Jaxon Ravens, the chairman of the Washington State Party, added that party officials should take extra safety and security precautions at state party offices.

Several party chairs stood to publicly thank Lange. “It’s not about Nevada any more, it’s about all of us,” she replied.

Lange told MSNBC that she is still receiving threats from Sanders supporters and fears for her safety. She said she has yet to hear from the Sanders campaign.

Clinton campaign manage Robby Mook briefly addressed the group Friday and will speak again Saturday. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver was scheduled to appear, but canceled, several sources said. Sanders’ political director addressed the group Thursday.

Summary: Democratic Party officials considered new guidelines Friday that would bar interruptions of any kind at upcoming state conventions.


WASHINGTON — In December 2014, a middle-aged man driving a car in Dijon, France, mowed down more than a dozen pedestrians within 30 minutes, occasionally shouting Islamic slogans from his window.

The chief prosecutor in Dijon described the attacks, which left 13 injured but no one dead, as the work of a mentally unbalanced man whose motivations were vague and “hardly coherent.”

A year and a half later, after Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel slaughtered dozens of people when he drove a 19-ton refrigerated truck through a Bastille Day celebration on Thursday in Nice, France, the authorities did not hesitate to call it an act of Islamic terrorism. The attacker had a record of petty crime but no obvious ties to a terrorist group, yet the French prime minister swiftly said Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel was “a terrorist probably linked to radical Islam one way or another.”

The age of the Islamic State, in which the tools of terrorism appear increasingly crude and haphazard, has led to a reimagining of the common notion of who is and who is not a terrorist.

Instances of wanton violence by deranged attackers — whether in Nice or in Orlando, Fla. — are swiftly judged to be the work of terrorists. These judgments occur even when there is little immediate evidence that the attackers had direct ties to terrorist groups and when they do not fit a classic definition of terrorists as those who use violence to advance a political agenda.

“A lot of this stuff is at the fringes of what we would historically think of as terrorism,” said Daniel Benjamin, a former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and a professor at Dartmouth College. But, he said, “the Islamic State and jihadism has become a kind of refuge for some unstable people who are at the end of their rope and decide they can redeem their screwed-up lives” by dying in the name of a cause.

Mr. Benjamin said this also led the news media and government officials to treat violence like the Nice attack differently from other mass attacks, like shootings at schools and churches that have been carried out by non-Muslims.

“If there is a mass killing and there is a Muslim involved, all of a sudden it is by definition terrorism,” he said.

The spectrum of terrorism is widening and now includes attacks loosely inspired by the Islamic State, those carried out by its affiliate groups and attacks directed by the group’s leadership. All have drawn public condemnation and concern, but the plots organized and executed by the Islamic State usually prompt greater concern from the authorities.

On Saturday, a bulletin on the Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency channel described Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel as a “soldier of the Islamic State” who answered a call to attack nations involved in the military campaign against the group. But the bulletin gave no specifics about the extent of the attacker’s ties to the terrorist network.

On one hand, there is now good reason for government officials to make immediate assumptions after some mass killings that the Islamic State has played a role, however indirect. The group’s ideology, spread widely through social media and slick propaganda videos, appears to have inspired a scourge of violence for more than a year: including the shooting in December in San Bernardino, Calif.; the mass killings last month at a gay nightclub in Orlando; and the deadly attack early this month at a cafe in Bangladesh. These were in addition to attacks that top Islamic State operatives apparently planned directly, like the Paris assaults in November and the Brussels bombings in March.

In September 2014, the spokesman for the Islamic State put out a call for the group’s followers to attack Westerners by any means possible, and to do so without awaiting further instructions from the group’s leaders.

“Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him,” the spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, said during a 42-minute recorded statement.

At the same time, governments also see a benefit in linking the Islamic State to what are sometimes random and unconnected acts of violence. It is a way to project order amid chaos, and to try to assure jittery citizens that there is a strategy to end the violence. For example, in the days since the Nice attack, French officials have pledged to increase the resources that the country is devoting to the bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“Even if Daesh doesn’t do the organizing, Daesh inspires this terrorist spirit against which we are fighting,” the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Saturday, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Similarly, American officials have cited progress in the military campaign as a measure of success in draining the Islamic State’s power, resources and influence. Brett H. McGurk, President Obama’s special envoy in the fight against the Islamic State, recently told Congress that the group had lost 47 percent of its territory in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria: territory used to extract oil from the ground and taxes from residents, as well as to plot attacks against the West. Top representatives of nations participating in the bombing campaign will meet this week in Washington to assess the progress in the fight.

But terrorism experts caution that because the Islamic State seems to have broad appeal to the mentally unbalanced, the displaced and others on the fringes of society, there are limits to how much any military campaign in Syria and Iraq can reduce violence carried out in other countries on the group’s behalf.

William McCants, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The ISIS Apocalypse,” said there was a large cadre of “men and women who have no organizational ties to ISIS but murder in its name.” These irreligious criminals and social misfits, whom he described as “ISIS-ish,” are “rebels looking for a cause,” he said.

During congressional testimony last week, Nicholas J. Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, gave a sober assessment of the broad campaign against the Islamic State. “It is our judgment that ISIL’s ability to carry out terrorist attacks in Syria, Iraq and abroad has not to date been significantly diminished,” he said.

“Either lone actors or small, insular groups continue to gravitate toward simple tactics that do not require advance skills or outside training,” he said.

The murderous truck-driving rampage by Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a Tunisian living in France, is the embodiment of this phenomenon. The authorities in France are still trying to piece together what direct ties, if any, Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel had to the Islamic State.

On Saturday, the Islamic State’s Bayan radio station said Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel had used “a new tactic” to wreak havoc.

“The crusader countries know that no matter how much they enforce their security measures and procedures, it will not stop the mujahedeen from striking,” the station said.

Such ominous warnings about indiscriminate violence create formidable challenges for world leaders, who must strike a balance of raising awareness about the terrorist threat without gratuitously stoking fears.

“As for how governments can calm their citizens, I’m at a loss,” Mr. McCants said. “Every attack is discussed endlessly on television and social media, which heightens fear of future attacks, makes citizens scared of one another” and puts pressure on governments to look tough, he said.

And, he added, it “gives politicians a cudgel to club their governing opponents when they don’t react strongly enough.”

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the nationality of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. He was a Tunisian living in France, not a Tunisian-born Frenchman.

Summary: Instances of wanton violence have been swiftly judged to be the work of terrorists, even when there is little evidence of direct ties to terrorist groups.