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Apple started selling the Apple iPhone nine years ago today. Here is what Apple's press release had to say: iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. iPhone combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device - a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps. iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication...

Wood-fired pizza is bad for the environment, according to science erwrer43535dfs34.jpg Is Brazil's love of authentic wood-fired pizza wrecking havoc on the environment? (iStock) If you love wood-fired pizza or wood-smoked barbecue, then go outside right now and peel that “Go Green” bumper sticker off your Prius. Science says your favorite foods may be major causes of environment pollution. A study conducted by 10 air pollution experts from seven universities has found that burning wood to cook your trendy kale-and-feta pie or your old-fashioned Texas brisket is polluting the air we breathe. The collaborative study, whose findings have been published...

Billionaire Carl Icahn, who last year produced a video warning of the “danger ahead” for the US economy, may need to focus on fixing his own publicly listed company. Standard & Poor’s warned Friday that the activist investor’s $6.3 billion holding company was in danger of being downgraded to junk after taking a big hit on energy and commodity bets. The credit ratings firm placed Icahn Enterprises on watch with “negative implications,” adding there is “at least a one-in-two likelihood that we may lower the ratings within the next 90 days.”

Computer automated hedge fund strategies weren't the only winners amid recent volatility. Hedge funds also appear to have timed oil’s recent slump and rebound. That's according to Bloomberg's Moming Zhou, who reports  that hedge fund significantly curbed their bearish positions in crude oil just after it fell to a 12-year low last week -- and then rebounded in its biggest jump since 2008. While oil had a brutal start to 2016 after a disappointing 2015 showing, many are coming around to the idea of a recovery in prices, as Citi argued it could be the trade of the year, some...

Apple on Monday said it's on pace to beat last year's iPhone first-weekend record, and the stock opened higher on the news. "Customer response to iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus has been extremely positive and preorders this weekend were very strong around the world," the company said in a statement. "We are on pace to beat last year's 10 million unit first-weekend record when the new iPhones go on sale Sept. 25." According to an iPhone Inventory blog which tracks the back-order status of the various iPhone models, the wait time for the big-screen iPhone 6S Plus in China...

The Apple Watch Edition is Apple's 18k gold version of the Apple Watch, and I had an interesting opportunity to wear one for review, think a whole lot about it, and then take it to the heart of Swiss watchmaking country to see what the locals felt about it.I’ve written a lot about the Apple Watch because, frankly, I think there is a lot to say. This product is a mixture of luxury watch universe elements and wearable technology concepts. Together, this makes for a unique item that also happens to have a unique wearing experience. My goal is to...

Over the weekend we talked about the Illinois state supreme court decision which effectively terminated any effort to reform the state’s collapsing public worker union pension system and how it was endangering the future stability of the Land of Lincoln. The city of Chicago has the exact same problems, though on a more localized level. With debts in the hundreds of billions of dollars and tax rates which are already driving away businesses and residents alike, the iron grip of the unions on not just the legislature, but the state constitution itself is turning into an albatross around the...

A major rating agency downgraded the city of Chicago's creditworthiness two notches to junk status, a move likely to increase the city's borrowing costs and make investors skittish as the financial world reacts to last week's Illinois Supreme Court ruling that bodes ill for city efforts to resolve its massive pension fund shortfall. Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating on bond issues backed by property, sales and fuel tax revenue to Ba1, one notch below investment grade, from Baa2, specifically citing last week's Supreme Court ruling on an attempt to cut state pension costs. Moody's calls the Ba1...

A hundred years from now, humans may remember 2014 as the year that we first learned that we may have irreversibly destabilized the great ice sheet of West Antarctica, and thus set in motion more than 10 feet of sea level rise. Meanwhile, 2015 could be the year of the double whammy — when we learned the same about one gigantic glacier of East Antarctica, which could set in motion roughly the same amount all over again. Northern hemisphere residents and Americans in particular should take note — when the bottom of the world loses vast amounts of ice, those...

Freepers, please accept this as a warning to avoid purchasing firearms manufactured by Cobra Enterprises of Salt Lake City UT. I will summarize my experience in the hopes that you will not repeat my experience. In early February 2015 I purchased a Cobra Enterprises Big Bore derringer (CB9) in 9mm. After completing the purchase through my favorite FFL dealer I took my new pistol home only to discover that once loaded the barrels would not lock into firing position. Unable to trouble shoot the problem myself I had to spend $68 to send the pistol back to Cobra Enterprises for...

When President Obama was reelected in 2012, MSNBC was “leaning forward” and smiling wide as Obama 2.0 propelled it to record ratings and a firm grasp on the No. 2 spot in cable news. Over two years later, the network has fallen backwards. January ratings revealed double-digit declines compared with January, 2014 in all ratings measurements. During the day, MSNBC was down 20 percent in viewers and 37 percent in the advertising-coveted 25-54 demo. In primetime, it fell 23 percent in viewers and 39 percent in demo.

L.A. comedian and Kindergarten of Eden author Evan Sayet has announced a speaking tour of the Southern states as he prepares for his appearance at CPAC 2015 in late February. Organizations interested in taking advantage of his plans to drive across the country are encouraged to contact him at contactevansayet@gmail.com to enjoy a world class speaker at substantially reduced speaking fees. Learn more about him at www.evansayet.com Writing on his Public Facebook page, Sayet said, "Looking to go on the road soon. Starting right after the New Year and just getting in the car and driving east on a southern...

Ratings company Moody's on Tuesday slashed Puerto Rico's debt rating by three notches into even deeper junk status after the US territory passed a debt-restructuring law. Moody's Investors Service cut the rating to "B2" from "Ba2" and said the outlook was negative, indicating further downgrades were possible. Now dubbed the "Greece of the Caribbean," the archipelago is, like Greece, reeling under massive debt. Over the past decade, the commonwealth's debt has doubled to nearly $70 billion and investors are growing increasingly worried the government is running out of cash. In a bid for debt relief, the Puerto Rican authorities recently...

A man was killed by a mob Monday in Koudougou, a town in central Burkina Faso, after being accused of making another man’s penis “disappear”. It was not an isolated incident: there has been an increase in the number of these strange accusations being made in recent weeks.This lynching took place in the 10th district of Koudougou, in the city’s west. It all started with a fight at a restaurant between two men: one accused the other of having cast a spell on him simply by touching him. The first man, a local mechanic, claimed that his penis had been...

'Junk' DNA Keeps Your Heart Beating by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. * A new research study has shown that large regions of the human genome, once thought to be useless junk, work to keep your heart functioning properly.1 When these areas of the genome malfunction, cardiovascular failure is often outcome, showing the importance of every piece of God's handiwork. The human genome is composed of more than just DNA sequences that produce proteins. In fact, only about 2% to 3% of the genome directly encodes information specifying the sequence of proteins. Despite this small percentage, about 80 to 90% of the...

Marty Resnick installed his sculpture on the grounds of Kingsborough Community College before moving in 1975 to live off the land in Southeast Ohio. The origins of the scrap metal artwork puzzled faculty members for decades.Friends of an enigmatic artist have solved a Manhattan Beach whodunit that has stumped locals for four decades. A rusting sculpture on the campus of Kingsborough Community College has puzzled faculty members who long ago had lost the identity of its creator — if they had it to begin with. “When they were doing the inventory they had no record of the sculpture,” Kingsborough Art...

A major flaw in Apple Inc software for mobile devices could allow hackers to intercept email and other communications that are meant to be encrypted, the company said on Friday, and experts said Mac computers were even more exposed. If attackers have access to a mobile user's network, such as by sharing the same unsecured wireless service offered by a restaurant, they could see or alter exchanges between the user and protected sites such as Gmail and Facebook. Governments with access to telecom carrier data could do the same. ... "It's as bad as you could imagine, that's all I...

The Michelle Obama-backed Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act and its restrictive regulations mandating the number of calories and nutrients in every kid’s meal have caused school districts to lose money due to a huge drop in school lunch sales. While a few school districts are opting out of the program altogether, others have been subsidizing their operating losses with increased sales of fatty, sugary, calorie-laden junk food. The Daily Caller is not making this up. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports on the many ways that the ironclad law of unintended consequences is playing havoc with the National School Lunch Program...

Dennis Rodman wants a Nobel Peace Prize for his NBA diplomacy Dennis Rodman sat down with Sports Illustrated’s Franz Lidz to talk about his controversial trip to North Korea, saying that his efforts in world diplomacy should be enough to earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. “My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries,” he said. “Why it’s been left to me to smooth things over, I don’t know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it’s the black guy’s [Obama’s] job. But I’ll tell you this: If I don’t finish in...

‘(36)(A) The term ‘junk gun’ means-- ‘(i) a handgun that is not a sporting handgun; and