Rupert Murdoch Slammed for Controversial NY Post Cover Showing Man Before His Death

Gorgeous and Green, the annual fundraiser for Global Green, takes place at the Bently Reserve on December 11, 2012.

Faconnable recently opened its doors for supporters of Children of Shelters. Their annual fundraiser “Jingle & Mingle” takes place December 6, 2012.

Located at 2724 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, this beautiful 1894 Queen Anne mansion has gone on the market with an asking price of $30 million.

San Francisco Parks Alliance and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department recently hosted Party for the Parks at the Anglers Lodge in Golden Gate Park.

Black Waverly Side Chairs, Pair

Clean lines and a minimalist yet traditional silhouette make these steel chairs wonderfully versatile; they’ll easily complement classic or modern decor …

Lexington Bench, Black

Black leather and dark birch come together in this bench, which artfully combines classic tufting and nail-head trim with graceful curved legs. Use …

Lexington Bench, Cream

Cream-colored leather and dark birch come together in this bench, which artfully combines classic tufting and nail-head trim with graceful curved legs. Use …

David Easton Jaipur Zigzag Rug, Mauve

The diffusion of weaving crafts along the Silk Route inspired legendary designer David Easton to create his Indian Sojourn collection. …

The long-running Voyager 1 Spacecraft of NASA reportedly entered a new layer of the solar system of which scientists are unaware.   NASA scientists have now named this area “Magnetic Highway” and further claimed it is the final stop before the interstellar space. The astounding scientific discovery was made known to the public on Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, California. “We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space.

Australian customers are starting to question Telstra ‘s network capability after experiencing poor 3G network performance mainly in the south-west. The telecommunications supplier Telstra confirmed that its network is indeed congested at the central business district in Melbourne. Customers, who raised their concerns on the Australian broadband forum Whirlpool, also encountered call dropouts and failure to make calls at certain times of the day. Mike Wright, Executive Director of Networks and Access Technologies at Telstra, stated the company is working hard to fix the problem. “We do get some areas of the network from time to time where it runs a bit hotter than we’d like. We’ve got a couple of new towers due for completion in that area over the next month to two months and we think that we’ll be able to deal with that hot spot there,” Wright said.

Technology giant Apple successfully rules with its top-selling handset iPhone 5. However, HTC Windows Phone 8X steps up to the competition. Will the HTC 8X smart phone take away the crown from iPhone 5? HTC 8X device, with 16GB built-in storage capacity plus restructured mobile operating system, is a comparatively good demonstration of what Microsoft delivers to the market. The device uses plain fonts and lines in creating a clean 2D user interface of tiles.

Nokia Corp.  informed on the 4 th  of December that it signed an agreement to sell and lease back its headquarters located in Espoo, Finland. The Nokia Corp.’s decision to sell the headquarters comes as the Finish mobile maker is struggling due to tough economic conditions and strong competition in the market. Exilion Capital Oy, the Finland-based software consultancy firm, acquired the Nokia Corp.’s headquarters for approximately €170 million, or $222 million.

Investor optimism about the outlook and prospects for Australian equities is somewhat tempered in the short term, as macroeconomic headwinds such as the fiscal cliff in the US remain in the news. But general optimism rules for what is likely going to happen in equity markets next year. There’s probably no better signal to illustrate this (cautious) optimism than the fact cash on the sidelines seems to be gradually moving back into equities again. The Results of the November Australian Investor Sentiment Survey from the Australian Investors’ Association and FNArena show the average cash in investment portfolios has sunk to the lowest level for the year. At 21%, the average cash on the sidelines is now back at levels last seen in July 2011, though still high by historical standards.

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Hagel, whose appointment would give Obama’s reshuffled second-term Cabinet a bipartisan cast, met the Democratic president at the White House this week to discuss a post on his national security team. But there was no sign that Obama had decided on any of the key nominations he will put forth. Obama is still deliberating whether to unveil his top national security appointments, likely to include a new CIA director, in a single high-profile package this month or to name them one-by-one, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Other top contenders to replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are believed to include former senior Pentagon official Michele Flournoy, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Democratic Senator John Kerry. Complicating matters, Obama is also deciding whether to nominate Kerry as secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton, or to go with Susan Rice, embattled U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In yesterday’s Daily Reckoning  we promised to tell you today why people stop believing what they believe . We believe what we’re going to show is bound to offend you, or at least some of you. But it’s a big, bad world and a challenging idea never hurt anyone’s feelings. Or if it did, that’s too bad. The free world is a rough and tumble place, and you don’t have the right to not be offended.

Reality villain Kristin Cavallari has revealed that while “The Hills” was fake her feud with Lauren “L.C.” Conrad was very real. The California native explained on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” Monday night that her relationship with Justin Bobby was all an act. Cavallari was notorious on “The Hills” for being the “bad girl” and being able to get any guy she wanted. Most figured that the popular reality show on MTV might have been dramatized a little, but Cavallari explained that the show was actually “pretty fake” and that she was “pretty much coached on what to say and do.” When the 25-year-old blonde was asked who she regretted dating more, Justin “Bobby” Brescia or Brody Jenner and she replied, “No one.