Nigeria frees 234 more children, women from Boko Haram stronghold
Abuja (AFP) – Nigeria has freed another 234 women and children from Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest, the military said Friday.The defence headquarters said in a statement the hostages were rescued on Thursday through the Kawuri and Konduga end of Sambisa forest.Some 500 women and children have already been rescued by the military in the past few days.Join the conversation about this story »
The Milwaukee Bucks rebuilt their team in 12 months and now they have the most interesting young core in the NBA
Though the Milwaukee Bucks’ season ended Thursday night with a 120-66 beatdown to the Chicago Bulls, they began a successful rebuild quicker than anyone imagined this season. In 2013-14, the Bucks had the worst record in the league, finishing 15-67. In one year, the Bucks became the sixth seed in the East, winning a respectable 41 games despite low expectations. The Bucks have essentially established a core of young, long, versatile, gifted defensive players that they hope to mold and build around in the coming years. While they’re still a long way from being championship contenders, their early growth makes them one of the most interesting teams in the NBA. The face of that core is “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, a 20-year-old forward with the skillset…
Actress Blake Lively has a lot to say about women in the tech industry
Actress Blake Lively is perhaps most well known for her starring role on “Gossip Girl” or her marriage to Ryan Reynolds, with whom she just had a baby, but the 27-year-old insists she is an entrepreneur and businesswoman at heart. Last July, Lively launched Preserve, an e-commerce site devoted to “the stories and creations of artisans.” The site sells things like $495 hand-painted boyfriend jeans, a $40 salt collection, and a $90 rainbow-colored, confetti lantern. Lively says she is involved in everything from photography to raising capital for the site, while at the same time maintaining her day job as an actress. While press surrounding the launch of Lively’s …
Here’s what happened when scientists blasted mouse brains with radiation to simulate what it’d be like to get hit with a cosmic ray
The vacuum of space is filled with dangerous radiation that can seep through spacecraft, spacesuits, and even the bodies of astronauts, and scientists are trying to figure out the risks it poses for humans traveling beyond Earth’s protective atmosphere. So if we ever want to send humans to Mars, scientists need to know what would happen to us if we get hit with radiation from a cosmic ray or a solar flare. To get some insight, scientists exposed mice brains to radiation blasts designed to mimic a cosmic ray in a new study published May 1 in the journal Science Advances. Results showed that the mice experienced major brain inflammation that interrupted the ability of their neurons to communicate with each other. That seriously messed…
People are dishing on Twitter about how much money they make
For May Day, a programmer named Lauren Voswinkel suggested a hashtag, #talkpay, at the site Model View Culture. Voswinkel is encouraging others to be open about what they do and how much they get paid for it, in part to help with transparency in the notoriously white male industry. Predictably, the replies are mostly from tech workers, which means the salaries skew higher than in other industries. But a lot of people seem to be happy to share. #talkpay ’98-’04 net 0 consulting (no bnft); ’05 @$70k bns, bnft. 10y gradual increased (ask + perform) to’14 @$140k. Now $60k grant + bnfts — Livia Labate…
Warren Buffett has been writing investor letters for 50 years – here are the 5 best
Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders comes out soon, and it’s guaranteed to be a must-read. But Buffett’s entire archive of letters make for great reading. So what ones should you read? To get a handle on this, we talked to software developer and Warren Buffett aficionado Steve Ritter, who has read every letter and goes to Berkshire’s annual meetings each year. He gave us his top 5 must-reads. Buffett’s 1977 letter is the earliest one available in the Berkshire Hathaway online archive. Right away, …
How Robert Downey Jr. got a shirt of Bruce Lee DJing into ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
Warning: If you haven’t seen “Avengers: Age of Ultron” there are spoilers ahead! Halfway through “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” when it looks like The Avengers have their backs against the wall, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) begins to devise a plan to gain the upper hand with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). What he’s wearing is likely to be the must-have T-shirt of the summer. As the two speak, Stark is seen casually wearing a gray tee sporting a shirtless, DJing Bruce Lee rocking sunglasses from behind a turntable. The visual is so striking that when it comes on screen, it’s difficult to look at anything …
Twitter is in talks to buy mobile news app Circa (TWTR)
Twitter is in serious acquisition talks with mobile news app Circa, sources with knowledge of the discussions told Business Insider. No deal has been finalized and Twitter is just one acquisition route that Circa is exploring, the sources said. It’s unclear what Circa’s valuation is; the startup has raised nearly $6 million since its 2011 launch. Circa, which produces brief news stories for mobile devices, was founded by Matt Galligan. It has a long list of early-stage investors including Path CEO David Morin, Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg, and Quotidian Ventures. Fortune’s Dan Primack previously reported that…
Manny Pacquiao turned down $40 million from Floyd Mayweather in 2012, and it was a genius move
Two years after negotiations for a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight blew up in 2010, the two fighters again failed to make a fight happen in 2012. Mayweather, in what he would later call Pacquiao’s last chance to make the fight, offered Pacquiao $40 million straight-up to fight him. “I got on the phone with Manny. I done my homework, and seen what he was used to making in big fights. So the offer that I gave him. I offered him $40 …
This is what today’s Bridgegate charges mean for Chris Christie
On Friday, federal prosecutors announced three former officials linked to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will face criminal charges as a result of the so-called “Bridgegate” scandal. However, the major question is obviously what this means for Christie, a potential 2016 presidential candidate. While the scandal has clearly tarnished the governor’s reputation, as of now, it appears that, legally, Christie is out of the woods. At a press conference after the charges were revealed, US Attorney Paul Fishman repeatedly declined to say Christie has been “cleared” in the investigation. At the same time, he also said the current evidence indicates there will not be charges against the governor or anyone else. “Based …
Freddie Gray’s family reacts to police being charged: ‘We were shocked, but it was a good shock’
Freddie Gray’s family heard that criminal charges would be brought against several police officers in the same way that the public did: by watching it on TV. In a press conference on Friday, Gray family attorney William Murphy Jr. said the state attorney’s announcement of criminal charges for six Baltimore police officers allegedly responsible for Gray’s death surprised the family. “We were shocked, but it was a good shock,” Murphy said. “Today has given the Gray family a measure of hope,” Murphy said. Gray suffered fatal injuries while in police custody, sparking protests and an investigation by the state attorney, who announced charges against the officers on Friday. …
Cops charged in Freddie Gray’s death have lower bails than teen who turned himself in for rioting
The Baltimore cops charged in the death of Freddie Gray have bails set lower than a teenager who turned himself in for rioting over the death, court records reviewed by Business Insider have revealed. The bail for 18-year-old Allen Bullock — who turned himself in for rioting over Gray’s death — has been set at $500,000. Meanwhile, Officer Caesar Goodson, whose most serious charge is second-degree murder, has a bail set at $350,000. The other charges faced by the Goodson include manslaughter, second-degree assault, two vehicular manslaughter charges, and misconduct in office. Sergeant Alicia White faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, and misconduct…
Carl Icahn is getting personal on TV this weekend
Carl Icahn is appearing on Wall Street Week on Sunday, and the word is that he’s going to get pretty candid about his life. Wall Street Week, revamped from its retro PBS iteration by investment firm SkyBridge Capital, premiered just two weeks ago, but already it’s hosted some serious guests. In week one, Double Line Capital’s Jeff Gundlach sat in for the half hour. The week after, it was JANA Partners’ Barry Rosenstein. Icahn does a load of media, but he usually calls in to CNBC and Bloomberg. It’s rare for him to actually show up in a studio and let everyone see his face. So this could be interesting. You can catch it on Fox affiliates in major cities at 11:00 am EST on Sunday, or stream …
19 reasons why you should book your next trip to Milan
There’s no better time to book a vacation to Milan, Italy. The city is gearing up for Expo2015, a global showcase that kicks off May 1 and is expected to draw more than 20 million visitors. Flights to Milan from the US are regularly cheaper than they are to other European cities. And with the euro near an all-time low, US visitors can take advantage of the shopping, dining, and nightlife the city has to offer. Bottom line — if you see a great deal on a flight to Milan, book it. There’s …
What’s Driving Performance During This Rally?
The average stock in the S&P 500 fell 2.91{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} in January, but the average stock is up 5{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} since then. So which stocks have led the way higher, and which ones are underperforming? Below we have run our decile analysis on the S&P 500 to find out. To run the analysis, we break the S&P 500 into deciles (10 groups of 50 stocks each) based on various stock characteristics like market cap, valuation, yield, short interest, institutional ownership, international revenue exposure…
Happy Birthday Bull?
On Monday, you’ll likely hear lots of talk about the 6th birthday of the current bull market that began on 3/9/09. But keep in mind that unless we make a new high on Monday, the bull market won’t actually be six years old. Right now the top of the bull market is the closing high from this past Monday (3/2), and the bull market won’t officially be six years old until it takes out those highs. One thing that is certain is that Monday will mark the six…
Historical Bull Markets for the S&P 500
In this week’s Bespoke Report, we published the table below ahead of Monday’s six-year anniversary of the S&P 500’s 3/9/09 bear market low. As we noted Friday, the bull market will have to celebrate its sixth birthday retroactively unless a new closing high is made on Monday. The generally accepted measure for a bull market is a rally of at least 20{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} that was preceded by a decline of at least 20{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} (based on closing prices). Using this calculation, below are two tables showing historical bull markets for the S&P 500 going back to 1928. The table on the left shows bull markets by date (oldest to most recent), while the table on the right shows bull markets by length (from longest…
Bespoke’s Model Stock Portfolio
At the end of each week’s Bespoke Report newsletter, we publish an updated snapshot of our Bespoke Model Stock Portfolio. Below is a snapshot of the portfolio with sector weightings and performance numbers included, but the individual stocks are blocked out. Interested in seeing the actual stocks that make up the Bespoke Model Stock Portfolio? Sign up for a 5-day free trial to our Bespoke Premium service and gain access now.
Bespoke’s Model Stock Portfolio: 3/13/15
The Bespoke Model Portfolio gained again this week and is now up 8.7{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} year-to-date. To gain access to the portfolio, simply sign up for a 5-day free trial to one of our subscription services. You’ll find it at the end of our just-published Bespoke Report newsletter. You can sign up today using our “End of Winter” special to get a 10{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475}+ discount on your new membership. Simply enter “spring” in the coupon code section of our Subscribe page.
S&P 500 Higher or Lower from Here?
The market managed a nice gain to end the week and is now up solidly in April. So which way will the market head from here? Please take part in our Bespoke Market Poll below by letting us know whether you think the S&P 500 will be higher or lower one month from now. We’ll report back with the results on Monday before the open. Have a great weekend! On a side note, be sure to sign up for a 5-day free trial to get an inside look at our member offerings. If you like the content we provide on Twitter @bespokeinvest and at our free Think B.I….
Sam’s Club Rolls Out New Services for Small Business Owners
Sam’s Club has made an effort to bolster its business amid increasing pressure from rival Costco.With a goal of increasing loyalty of small business owners, the chain, a subsidiary of Walmart, is offering five new services for small business owners, which it claims can save members up to $2,300 per year:1. Identity Theft: Provided by LifeLock, members will save up to 25 percent on annual support.2. Accounting services: Through a partnership with 1-800Accountant, Sam’s Club members will have access to bookkeeping services for as little as $29 a month.3. Business Lending Center: Sam’s Club will team up with loan marketplace Lending Club to…
The 10 Best Cities to Live in as an Entrepreneur
At the end of last year, NerdWallet did some thorough research in order to identify the best places for entrepreneurs to live in the United States. In determining these cities, they took several factors into consideration, including cost of living, networking opportunities, the state of the local economy and the ability to secure investment. Let’s take a look at which cities stacked up on top. Omaha, NebraskaWould you believe that Omaha isn’t the only city in Nebraska to make it on this list? There are a number of reasons for…
An Inexpensive and Intuitive Way to Get Into Mobile Apps
There can be no doubt that mobile apps are one of the most exciting business opportunities out there. With a captive consumer base that can purchase your creations at the click of a button, it’s no wonder that countless entrepreneurs are flocking to the mobile app business.You’ve probably read all about the phenomenon of Flappy Bird, which was gripping the world at the end of last year and the beginning of this one. If you haven’t, Flappy Bird was a simple ad-supported game where you helped a small bird stay aloft while dodging an endless stream of obstacles. You may not have read, though, about how the Flappy Bird phenomenon ended: The game’s…
Own an OsteoStrong Franchise
OsteoStrong is a new natural way to achieve strong bones, better balance, stronger muscles and pain-free joints and back. The OsteoStrong franchise opportunity is perfect for anyone interested in natural, wellness-based systems seeking to own their own business.Founder and President Kyle Zagrodzky started OsteoStrong with the idea that he wanted to help people in a way that was beneficial to all ages and types of people.OsteoStrong was founded in 2011 and by 2014 OS has become the fastest growing franchise in Tennessee, and one of the top 100 fastest growing franchises in the country with 500 locations slated…