Well: Straining to Hear and Fend Off Dementia

At a party the other night, a fund-raiser for a literary magazine, I found myself in conversation with a well-known author whose work I greatly admire. I use the term “conversation” loosely. I couldn’t hear a word he said. But worse, the effort I was making to hear was using up so much brain power that I completely forgot the titles of his books.A senior moment? Maybe. (I’m 65.) But for me, it’s complicated...

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DealBook: Societe Generale to Restructure After 4th-Quarter Loss

5:05 a.m. | Updated PARIS – Société Générale, one of the largest French banks, posted a larger fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday than the market had expected and said it would restructure to cut costs and simplify operations.The bank reported a net loss of 476 million euros ($640 million), compared with a profit of 100 million euros in the period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected...

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Why Software Developers Should Learn the Thriller Dance

As the CEO of Urban Airship — a Portland, Oregon company that offers tools for building mobile software applications — Scott Kveton oversees a team of 121 employees, including 75 developers and other technical types. One afternoon, Barb Stark walked into his office, and in typical fashion, she unloaded a plan to further the education of these hard-core programmers. “I need you to just say...

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How Oscar played matchmaker for a Scandinavian mutual admiration society

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Two Scandinavian directors.Nikolaj Arcel, nominated for his smart Danish costume drama “A Royal Affair,” and Espen Sandberg, the co-director with Joachim Roenning of the Norwegian epic “Kon-Tiki,” had never met before this awards season – but when both films were nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes, the two men began to find themselves at the same events in Los Angeles,...

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Well: Straining to Hear and Fend Off Dementia

At a party the other night, a fund-raiser for a literary magazine, I found myself in conversation with a well-known author whose work I greatly admire. I use the term “conversation” loosely. I couldn’t hear a word he said. But worse, the effort I was making to hear was using up so much brain power that I completely forgot the titles of his books.A senior moment? Maybe. (I’m 65.) But for me, it’s complicated...

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DealBook: Nexen Secures U.S. Approval of Its Sale to Cnooc

Nexen said on Tuesday that it had received the last regulatory approval needed for its $15 billion sale to a major Chinese oil company, after the Obama administration declared the deal free from national security concerns.With all necessary regulatory approvals in place, Nexen is set to become the latest acquisition by the Chinese oil industry, as the country seeks more and more sources of oil and...

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Grammys 2013: Fun., Mumford, Gotye lead a newer generation

Grammy Awards voters gave their top honor to British roots music band Mumford & Sons for their album "Babel" on Sunday at...

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Judge Dismisses Axl Rose's $20M <cite>Guitar Hero</cite> Lawsuit

Two years ago, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose brought a $20 million lawsuit against Guitar Hero III maker Activision for the inclusion of his former bandmate Slash in the 2007 videogame. Rose claimed that his deal with the company to license the song “Welcome to the Jungle” for use in the game included a promise from Activision that no images of Slash would be used...

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Mother’s obsessive love exposed in Romanian movie at Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) – Actress Luminita Gheorghiu plays a domineering mother trying to save her son from jail in “Child’s Pose”, a stark family drama from Romania competing in this year’s Berlin film festival.The movie, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, shines an unforgiving light on the casual corruption and flashy materialism of post-communist Romania’s upper middle class which expects to be able to buy...

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Catholic Bishops Reject Contraception Compromise

The bishops said they would continue fighting the federal mandate in court. The administration said the proposal, issued last Friday, would guarantee free employee coverage of birth control “while respecting religious concerns” of organizations that objected to paying or providing for it. The bishops said the proposal seemed to address part of their concern about the definition of religious...

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