Woods makes short work at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tiger Woods never looked so irritated winning a golf tournament so comfortably.

His record eighth victory at Torrey Pines was all but over when Woods ripped a 5-iron from 244 yards over the corner of a bunker and onto the green at the par-5 13th hole, setting up a two-putt birdie that gave him an eight shot lead in the Farmers Insurance Open.

At least he had plenty of time to savor this victory. The final five holes felt like they took forever.

Woods twirled his club on the tee and leaned on it in the fairway as the final round dragged on. He lost rhythm and appeared to lose interest, and it showed. A bogey from the bunker on the 14th. A tee shot that caromed off a eucalyptus tree on the 15th hole that led to double bogey. A tee shot he popped up on the 17th hole that left him 50 yards behind the other players and led to another bogey.

"It got a little ugly at the end," Woods said. "I started losing patience a little bit with the slow play."

No matter. It only affected the margin, not the outcome. Woods had to settle for an even-par 72 that gave him a four-shot win over defending champion Brandt Snedeker and Josh Teater, who each had a 69.

For a tour that has been criticized for slow play, this wasn't an ideal start to the network portion of its schedule. With Woods virtually a lock to win, CBS Sports wanted the final round to resume Monday later than normal so that it could be televised in late afternoon on the East Coast. Play was so slow that CBS went over its allotted time.

Woods, meanwhile, had the ideal start to his tour season.

Only a week earlier, he missed the cut in Abu Dhabi, in part because of a two-shot penalty assessed after his second round for taking an illegal drop. Woods had never missed the cut on the European Tour, and he had never started his season with the weekend off.

He might have been the only one who didn't panic.

Woods seized control with a 65 on the North Course at Torrey Pines, the spent the rest of the week pulling away from the field until no one could catch him.

"I don't know if anybody would have beaten him this week," said Nick Watney, who got within five shots of Woods when the tournament was still undecided until making three bogeys on his next five holes. "He's definitely on his game."

It's still too early to figure out the state of his game, especially in relation to Rory McIlroy, who also missed the cut in Abu Dhabi.

Torrey Pines is a public course that Woods treats like his private domain. He won the tournament for the seventh time, one short of the PGA Tour record for most wins in a single event. Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times. Woods won for the eighth time at Torrey Pines, including the 2008 U.S. Open, and that's a PGA Tour record that Woods previously shared with ... himself. He also has won seven times at Firestone and Bay Hill.

"I think he wanted to send a message," said Hunter Mahan, who shares a swing coach with Woods. "I think deep down he did. You play some games to try to motivate yourself. There's been so much talk about Rory. Rory is now with Nike. That would be my guess."

And it was his 75th win on the PGA Tour, seven short of the record held by Snead. Woods has won 23 of those tournaments by at least four shots.

"I'm excited the way I played all week," Woods said. "I hit the ball well — pretty much did everything well and built myself a nice little cushion. I had some mistakes at the end, but all my good play before that allowed me to afford those mistakes."

Woods mostly had reason to be excited about his short game.

In the third round Sunday, he was furious with himself for going long on the par-3 eighth green, without much green between his ball and the hole. Woods hit a chip solidly, with just enough loft, to leave himself a tap-in par. In the conclusion of the final round Monday, he pulled his tee shot into a bad spot in the bunker on the par-3 11th. The lie was good, but he had to aim well left, meaning his legs were spread wide on the slope of the sand.

He blasted it out with his 60-degree wedge to a top shelf, and then watched it feed down a slope to the right. It lost pace at the end or it might have gone in.

It looked good for television. It was a difficult shot, but not impossible.

But Woods believes those are the shots he wasn't converting a year ago. And that's one reason his outlook was so bright on the rest of the year, even after having to cope with so much fog along the Pacific bluffs.

He played the par 5s in 12 under for the lead — that alone would have been enough to win — and attributed that to his short game.

"My short game was back to how I know it can be," Woods said. "My shots that I hit, especially out of these nasty little lies, I hit some really good ones this week. And that allowed me to save some pars, make some birdies, and move my way up the board. And basically, that's what I did."

Woods figures his swing change under Sean Foley took root at some point last year, but that he had devoted so much time to the swing that he neglected his wedges. Now that he is practicing more on his short game, he expects better results — turning a 74 into a 70, and not losing leads at the majors, like he did twice last year.

Still, the season is young.

Any measure of Woods likely will have to wait until the road to the Masters gets going during the Florida Swing. Woods headed home to Florida on Monday night and is not expected to return until the Match Play Championship in Arizona a month from now. McIlroy also isn't expected to play until then, and match play being such a fickle format, the better gauge could come in the Honda Classic and at Doral.

Woods, however, likes where he is headed.

Torrey Pines is a good omen for the rest of his year. Whenever he starts a PGA Tour season with a win at Torrey, he tends to have big years — eight wins and two majors in 2006, seven wins and a major in 2007, four wins in only six starts in 2008.

Where will this lead?

"Does it feel good? Yes. Does it give me confidence? Absolutely," Woods said. "But as far as the other stuff, as I said, I'm excited about this year. I'm excited about what I'm doing with Sean and some of the things that I've built. This is a nice way to start the year."

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Why haven't we learned from fires?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pyrotechnics, overcrowding, poor exits have contributed to tragic fires in recent years


• You would think the world would have learned from past incidents, John Barylick says


• Concertgoers have to be their own fire marshals, he says

Editor's note: John Barylick, author of "Killer Show," a book on the 2003 Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, is an attorney who represented victims in wrongful death and personal injury cases arising from the fire.

(CNN) -- Sunday morning we awoke to breaking news of another tragic nightclub fire, this time in Brazil. At last report the death toll exceeded 230.

This tragedy is not without precedent. Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of a similar nightclub fire in Rhode Island. At this sad time, it's appropriate to reflect on what we've learned from club fires -- and what we haven't.

Rhode Island's Station nightclub fire of 2003, in which 100 concertgoers lost their lives, began when fireworks set off by Great White, an 80s heavy metal band, ignited flammable packing foam on the club's walls.

Deadly blazes: Nightclub tragedies in recent history

John Barylick

Panicked patrons stampeded toward the club's main exit, and a fatal pileup ensued. Contributing to the tragedy were illegal use of pyrotechnics, overcrowding and a wall covering that would have failed even the most rudimentary flammability tests.

Video images of the Station fire were broadcast worldwide: A concert begins; the crowd's mood changes from merry, to curious, to concerned, to horrified -- in less than a minute. You'd think the world would have learned from it. You would be wrong.

The following year, the Republica Cromanon nightclub in Argentina went up in flames, killing 194 people. The club was made to hold about 1,000 people, but it was estimated that more than 3,000 fans were packed inside the night of the fire, which began when fans began lighting flares that caught the roof on fire.

Echoes of the past: Rhode Island victims 'can't help but watch'

Then, in January 2009, at least 64 New Year's revelers lost their lives in a nightclub in Bangkok, Thailand, after fire ignited its ceiling. Many were crushed in a rush to get out of the club. In December of that same year, a fire in a Russian nightclub, ignited by pyrotechnics, killed 156 people. Overcrowding, poor exits, and indoor fireworks all played roles in these tragedies; yet no one bothered to learn from mistakes of the past.

While responsibility for concert disasters unquestionably lies with venue operators, performers and promoters, ultimately, we, as patrons of clubs and concerts, can enhance our own safety by taking a few simple steps. The National Fire Protection Association urges concertgoers to:

• Be observant. Is the concert venue rundown or well-maintained? Does the staff look well-trained?

• As you proceed to your seat, observe how long the process takes. Could you reverse it in a hurry? Do you pass through pinch points? Is furniture in the way?

• Once seated, take note of the nearest exit. (In an emergency, most people try to exit by the door they entered, which is usually not the closest, and is always overcrowded.) Then, share the location of that nearest exit with your entire party. Agree that at the first sign of trouble, you will all proceed to it without delay.

• Once the show begins, remain vigilant. If you think there's a problem, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Do not stay to "get your money's worth" despite concerns about safety. Do not remain to locate that jacket or bag you placed somewhere. No concert is worth your life. Better to read about an incident the next day than be counted as one of its statistics.

Read more: How to protect yourself in a crowd

To be sure, all fire codes must be vigorously enforced, and club and concert hall operators must be held to the highest standards. A first step is banning indoor pyrotechnics in all but the largest, stadium-type venues.

But, ultimately, we are our own best "fire marshals" when it comes to avoiding, and escaping, dangerous situations. We can still enjoy shows. But it is up to us to look out for our own safety.

In coming days, Rhode Islanders will follow the unfolding news from Brazil with a sense of queasy deja vu -- the rising body counts, the victim identification process, the grieving families, and the assigning (and dodging) of blame. If only they had learned from our tragedy.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Barylick.

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How Fox Searchlight made the biggest deal at Sundance $9.75 million on an egg sandwich

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – The biggest sale at Sundance this year – “The Way, Way Back” – began with a promise and ended with a fried egg sandwich.

Producer Kevin J. Walsh, a former assistant to Scott Rudin, told the agents selling his movie that he’d make everyone food if they closed a big deal. But before he could cook, a bidding war broke out that would pit the favored Fox Searchlight against a half-dozen other studios, including Lionsgate, Paramount, Magnolia, FilmDistrict and Open Road.

Fox Searchlight won out and paid one of the highest prices for a Sundance movie in recent years – $ 9.75 million – for the story of an alienated 14-year-old (“The Killing’s” Liam James) on summer vacation.

The one big thing in their favor: Once “The Way, Way Back” premiered on Monday, everyone knew it would sell. The film not only drew a standing ovation, but almost every distributor stayed through the Q&A session with the filmmakers – a “rare” occasion, as one person close to the deal told TheWrap.

Fox Searchlight was an early starter out of the gate. It had already won an Oscar with Rash and Faxon, who co-wrote Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants.”

And at one point it was going to produce the film, back when Shawn Levy was going to direct and it was called “The Way Back.” Rash and Faxon’s script had charted on the 2007 Black List, which ranks the industry’s favorite unproduced screenplays.

The project stalled. Levy moved on to other films, and the script bounced around until Walsh came aboard as producer and decided Faxon and Rash should direct.

In hopes of sealing the deal, Searchlight sent more than a dozen of its executives to the Sundance debut, many of whom began firing off ardent emails to the filmmakers after they had seen it.

“They came wanting to love that movie, and they were going overboard in an impressive way,” a person with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. “Multiple people at the company talked about how much they loved the film. It still didn’t mean they’d get it. Sometimes you have a distributor who does all that to justify lowballing.”

But Searchlight didn’t have a clear field. As the filmmakers attended an after party at the Grey Goose Blue Door on Main Street, several other distributors circled. These ranged from the massive, Paramount and Warner Bros., to the very large Lionsgate, to the medium-sized FilmDistrict, Open Road and Magnolia.

Another factor was that rival agencies CAA and WME had to play nice. The movie was written and directed by CAA‘s Faxon and Rash and stars WME clients Steve Carell and Toni Collette.

Around 7 p.m., the dealmakers retired to the WME house, where the discussions began. Alexis Garcia, Deb McIntosh and Graham Taylor from WME would handle the deal with Laura Lewis and Dina Kuperstock from CAA.

“We had some in-person meetings, some phone calls and a lot of the offers were apples and oranges,” Tom Rice of Sycamore Pictures, which produced and co-financed the movie with OddLot Entertainment, told TheWrap.

Fox Searchlight was an early starter out of the gate. It had already won an Oscar with Rash and Faxon, who co-wrote Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants.”

And at one point it was going to produce the film, back when Shawn Levy was going to direct and it was called “The Way Back.” Rash and Faxon’s script had charted on the 2007 Black List, which ranks the industry’s favorite unproduced screenplays.

The project stalled. Levy moved on to other films, and the script bounced around until Walsh came aboard as producer and decided Faxon and Rash should direct.

In hopes of sealing the deal, Searchlight sent more than a dozen of its executives to the Sundance debut, many of whom began firing off ardent emails to the filmmakers after they had seen it.

“They came wanting to love that movie, and they were going overboard in an impressive way,” a person with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. “Multiple people at the company talked about how much they loved the film. It still didn’t mean they’d get it. Sometimes you have a distributor who does all that to justify lowballing.”

But Searchlight didn’t have a clear field. As the filmmakers attended an after party at the Grey Goose Blue Door on Main Street, several other distributors circled. These ranged from the massive, Paramount and Warner Bros., to the very large Lionsgate, to the medium-sized FilmDistrict, Open Road and Magnolia.

Another factor was that rival agencies CAA and WME had to play nice. The movie was written and directed by CAA‘s Faxon and Rash and stars WME clients Steve Carell and Toni Collette.

Around 7 p.m., the dealmakers retired to the WME house, where the discussions began. Alexis Garcia, Deb McIntosh and Graham Taylor from WME would handle the deal with Laura Lewis and Dina Kuperstock from CAA.

“We had some in-person meetings, some phone calls and a lot of the offers were apples and oranges,” Tom Rice of Sycamore Pictures, which produced and co-financed the movie with OddLot Entertainment, told TheWrap.

“When we went over there, we didn’t tell them it was exclusive. But quickly getting there, it was clear they were intending to make it work as quickly as possible,” an individual close to the deal said. “And it still dragged out for several hours.”

As they haggled over numbers, the two sides moved in and out of the condo. The agents would move while Fox talked about it. The Fox team had to move when the agents wanted to call people back at the WME house.

Meanwhile, over the night, Searchlight increased its offer significantly. Making a big bet on the first-time directors, $ 9.75 million, at 4:30 a.m. it finally closed one of the richest deals in Sundance history.

“Fox Searchlight considers Jim and Nat a real part of their family,” Rice said. “They made their interest known for a long time.”

The deal done, the negotiating team headed back to the WME house to play pool, listen to music, drink champagne and down vodka. Whiskey would have been ideal given the frigid weather, but Utah’s Byzantine liquor laws had dashed the hopes of a late-night liquor run. The local whiskey from High West Distillery would have to wait.

“We didn’t plan ahead for celebrations, and it isn’t too easy to improvise in Park City,” one person there recalled.

With a couple hours until the papers would be signed, pre-planned improvisation would have to do.

And Walsh made good on his promise: Fried egg sandwiches with asparagus.

“We cracked a bottle of champagne at about 6 a.m.,” he said. Good morning.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Philips to exit hi-fis and video

29 January 2013 Last updated at 03:03 ET

Dutch electronics giant Philips is to sell off its home entertainment business, including hi-fis and DVD players, to Japan’s Funai Electric.

Funai will pay 150m euros ($ 200m; £130m) and a regular brand licensing fee to take on the product lines.

The company wants to focus on its healthcare, light bulbs and home appliances businesses as part of its “Accelerate!” restructuring plan.

Philips also reported a 355m-euro loss for the last three months of 2012.

The loss was in line with expectations and was largely due to a 509m-euro fine imposed on the company last year by the European Commission for participating in a cartel to fix prices in the television business.

Philips announced last year that it was transferring its loss-making television unit to a new joint venture arrangement with Hong Kong’s TPV.

Its latest divestments will not happen immediately – its audio business will pass to Funai in the latter half of this year, while the transfer of its video business will not take place until 2017.

The Dutch firm’s underlying profitability in the last quarter – net of the fine and various restructuring costs – improved to 875m euros, beating the expectations of most market analysts.

However, chief executive Frans van Houten said he expected sales to remain subdued in the first half of this year, because of the “challenging market” in the US and Europe, which account for well over half of Philips’ revenues.

BBC News – Business

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Project Management Software Project Insight Announces Version 10.1

IRVINE, CA–(Marketwire – Jan 29, 2013) – Project management software, Project Insight, announces the release of version 10.1. This popular online project and portfolio management solution is designed for mixed project teams, having robust features that satisfy experienced project managers, yet remaining easy for new team members to adopt. The new features are designed to provide mission critical information more readily, and include: agile burn down charts, S-curves, saved dashboards, new graphical charts and more.

As agile methodology grows in popularity, Project Insight adds new agile features to version 10.1 of the project software. Managers can now track burned hours and create a burn down chart at the project level. New S-curve graphs help management measure a project’s performance over time by showing planned versus actuals as they accumulate.

Because team members often fulfill more than one role for their organizations, users may save multiple preferred dashboards for rapid access to the right information. The dashboard may be changed with just one click. The dashboard offers 20 new graphical charts that may be included on a user’s customizable dashboard.

Additional features that increase the usability of Project Insight include:

• RSS feeds - team members may opt to have notifications, tasks and other assignments available in an RSS feed


• Customizable nightly emails – teams may brand their alerts and nightly emails using HTML


• Embedded training videos – new team members will find instructional videos in the software to make learning and adopting the solution easier

About Project Insight
Project Insight, project and portfolio management software, is powerful for project managers, easy for everyone. Project Insight offers a SaaS edition as well as an on-premise edition. Project Insight’s software supports The Project Management Institute, Inc.’s (PMI) standards, and is compliant with the PMBOK® Guide. Project Insight and Metafuse are registered trademarks of Metafuse, Inc. Other brands are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Marketwire News Archive – Yahoo! Finance

Title Post: Project Management Software Project Insight Announces Version 10.1
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Stock index futures point to slightly lower start

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent.

Futures for the Dow Jones were flat, while contracts on the Nasdaq 100 shed 0.2 percent at 04.47 a.m. EST.

European shares edged up to hover near two-year highs, with strong earnings reports and a brightening economic outlook lifting sentiment, although technical factors could limit gains in the near term.

Yahoo Inc said it forecasts a modest uptick in revenue for the current year, sending shares in the Internet group 3 percent higher in after hours trade.

The second-largest U.S. automaker, Ford, is expected to report earnings per share of $0.26, up from $0.20 one year earlier, when it unveils fourth-quarter results at 1200 GMT. Ford, which is heavily reliant on its pickup trucks for profits, is bound to benefit from an uptick in construction this year.

Drugmaker Pfizer is expected to report EPS of $0.44, down from $0.50 in the previous year, on plunging U.S. sales of its Lipitor cholesterol drug - which is facing generic competition since November 2011 - and disappointing demand for its Prevnar vaccine against childhood infections.

Online retailer Amazon.com reports results for the holiday quarter. They were expected to show strong sales growth, tempered by little to no profit as the world's largest Internet retailer spent heavily on its Kindle mobile gadget platform, cloud computing service and its rapidly expanding chain of shipping warehouses.

Standard & Poor's releases its S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for November at 1400 GMT. Prices are expected to have continued their recovery, up 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, pointing to a housing market that is mending.

The Conference Board releases January consumer confidence figures at 1500 GMT, expected to have fallen to 64 from 65.1. The market will be looking for any impact from the "fiscal cliff" debate or the payroll tax increases at the beginning of the year.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee begins two days of meetings on interest rates. Traders speculated more solid U.S. growth indicators might see the Fed pull back on its aggressive easing stimulus, which has played a key role in fuelling an equity market rally since the second half of last year.

Elon Musk has long considered Tesla Motors Inc the bold, nimble answer to the auto industry's cautious culture. Now the electric car maker's top executive has extended his help to another industrial giant: Boeing Co .

Pentagon and industry officials said on Monday a manufacturing problem was the most likely cause of an engine failure that led to the grounding of all 25 Marine Corps versions of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet 10 days ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed down 14.05 points, or 0.10 percent, at 13,881.93 on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.78 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,500.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 4.59 points, or 0.15 percent, at 3,154.30.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Tiger headed toward another win at Torrey

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Pacific air was so cold at the end of a 10-hour day at Torrey Pines that Tiger Woods thrust both hands in the front pockets of his rain pants as he walked off the course at the Farmers Insurance Open.

It was a fitting image. Woods made a marathon day look like he was out for a stroll.

Staked to a two-shot lead going into the third round of this fog-delayed tournament, Woods drove the ball where he was aiming and was hardly ever out of position. Even with a bogey on the final hole — the easiest on the back nine — Woods still had a 3-under 69 and expanded his lead by two shots.

In the seven holes he played in the fourth round later Sunday afternoon, Woods hit the ball all over the course and still made three birdies to add two more strokes to his lead.

Thanks to the fog that wiped out an entire day of golf on Saturday, the Farmers Insurance Open didn't stand a chance of finishing on Sunday.

Woods just made it look like it was over.

He had a six-shot lead with 11 holes to play going into the conclusion of the final round on Monday. The two guys chasing him were Brandt Snedeker, the defending champion, and Nick Watney, who won at Torrey Pines in 2008. Neither was waving a white flag. Both understood how much the odds were stacked against them.

"I've got a guy at the top of the leaderboard that doesn't like giving up leads," Snedeker said. "So I have to go catch him."

"All we can do tomorrow is go out and try to make him think about it a little bit and see what happens," Watney said.

And then there was Erik Compton, a two-time heart transplant recipient who had a birdie-eagle finish in the third round that put him in third place through 54 holes, still five shots behind Woods. Someone asked Compton about trying to chase Woods. He laughed.

"I'm trying to chase myself," he said.

Woods was at 17-under par for the tournament, and more than just a six-shot lead was in his corner.

He finished the third round at 14-under 202, making it the 16th time on the PGA Tour that he had at least a four-shot lead going into the final round. His record on the PGA Tour with the outright lead after 54 holes is 38-2, the exceptions being Ed Fiori in 1996 when Woods was a 20-year-old rookie and Y.E. Yang in the 2009 PGA Championship.

Woods attributed his big lead to the "whole package."

"I've driven the ball well, I've hit my irons well, and I've chipped and putted well," he said. "Well, I've hit good putts. They all haven't gone in."

Woods has a good history of Monday finishes, starting with Torrey Pines. It was on this course along the coast north of La Jolla that Woods won a 19-hole playoff against Rocco Mediate to capture the 2008 U.S. Open for his 14th major.

He also won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on a Monday in 2000 when he rallied from seven shots behind with seven holes to play. He won his lone title in The Players Championship on a Monday, along with a five-shot win in the Memorial in 2000, and a scheduled Monday finish in the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston.

Woods even gets to sleep in.

A Monday finish because of weather typically resumes in the morning so players can get to the next tournament. CBS Sports, however, decided it wanted to televise the conclusion, and so play won't begin until 2 p.m. EST. That decision might have been based on Woods being headed toward victory — just a hunch.

Woods already has won seven times at Torrey Pines, including the U.S. Open. That matches his PGA Tour record at Bay Hill and Firestone (Sam Snead won the Greensboro Open eight times, four each on a different course).

The tournament isn't over, and Woods doesn't see it that way.

"I've got to continue with executing my game plan. That's the idea," he said. "I've got 11 holes to play, and I've got to play them well."

He seized control with his 69 in the third round that gave him a four-shot lead, and he might have put this away in the two hours he played before darkness stopped play.

He badly missed the first fairway to the left, but had a gap through the Torrey pines to the green and had a two-putt par. He missed his next shot so far to the left that the ball wound up in the first cut of the adjacent sixth fairway. He still managed a simple up-and-down for par.

After a 10-foot birdie on the par-3 third, Woods couldn't afford to go left off the tee again because of the PGA Tour's largest water hazard — the Pacific Ocean. So he went miles right, beyond a cart path, a tree blocking his way to the green. He hit a cut shot that came up safely short of the green, and then chipped in from 40 feet for birdie.

"I was able to play those holes in 2-under par," Woods said. "And then I hit three great drives right in a row."

One of them wasn't that great — it was in the right rough, the ball so buried that from 214 yards that Woods hit a 5-wood. It scooted down the fairway and onto the green, setting up a two-putt birdie the stretched his lead to six shots. And after another good drive, the horn sounded to stop play. Because it was due to weather, Woods was able to finish the hole, and he two-putted for par.

Eleven holes on Monday were all that were keeping him from his 75th career win on the PGA Tour, and delivering a message to the rest of golf that there could be more of this to follow no matter what the golf course.

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Why haven't we learned from fires?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pyrotechnics, overcrowding, poor exits have contributed to tragic fires in recent years


• You would think the world would have learned from past incidents, John Barylick says


• Concertgoers have to be their own fire marshals, he says

Editor's note: John Barylick, author of "Killer Show," a book on the 2003 Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, is an attorney who represented victims in wrongful death and personal injury cases arising from the fire.

(CNN) -- Sunday morning we awoke to breaking news of another tragic nightclub fire, this time in Brazil. At last report the death toll exceeded 230.

This tragedy is not without precedent. Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of a similar nightclub fire in Rhode Island. At this sad time, it's appropriate to reflect on what we've learned from club fires -- and what we haven't.

Rhode Island's Station nightclub fire of 2003, in which 100 concertgoers lost their lives, began when fireworks set off by Great White, an 80s heavy metal band, ignited flammable packing foam on the club's walls.

John Barylick

Panicked patrons stampeded toward the club's main exit, and a fatal pileup ensued. Contributing to the tragedy were illegal use of pyrotechnics, overcrowding and a wall covering that would have failed even the most rudimentary flammability tests.

Video images of the Station fire were broadcast worldwide: A concert begins; the crowd's mood changes from merry, to curious, to concerned, to horrified -- in less than a minute. You'd think the world would have learned from it. You would be wrong.

Deadly blazes: Nightclub tragedies in recent history

The following year, the Republica Cromanon nightclub in Argentina went up in flames, killing 194 people. The club was made to hold about 1,000 people, but it was estimated that more than 3,000 fans were packed inside the night of the fire, which began when fans began lighting flares that caught the roof on fire.

Then, in January 2009, at least 64 New Year's revelers lost their lives in a nightclub in Bangkok, Thailand, after fire ignited its ceiling. Many were crushed in a rush to get out of the club. In December of that same year, a fire in a Russian nightclub, ignited by pyrotechnics, killed 156 people. Overcrowding, poor exits, and indoor fireworks all played roles in these tragedies; yet no one bothered to learn from mistakes of the past.

While responsibility for concert disasters unquestionably lies with venue operators, performers and promoters, ultimately, we, as patrons of clubs and concerts, can enhance our own safety by taking a few simple steps. The National Fire Protection Association urges concertgoers to:

• Be observant. Is the concert venue rundown or well-maintained? Does the staff look well-trained?

• As you proceed to your seat, observe how long the process takes. Could you reverse it in a hurry? Do you pass through pinch points? Is furniture in the way?

• Once seated, take note of the nearest exit. (In an emergency, most people try to exit by the door they entered, which is usually not the closest, and is always overcrowded.) Then, share the location of that nearest exit with your entire party. Agree that at the first sign of trouble, you will all proceed to it without delay.

• Once the show begins, remain vigilant. If you think there's a problem, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Do not stay to "get your money's worth" despite concerns about safety. Do not remain to locate that jacket or bag you placed somewhere. No concert is worth your life. Better to read about an incident the next day than be counted as one of its statistics.

Read more: How to protect yourself in a crowd

To be sure, all fire codes must be vigorously enforced, and club and concert hall operators must be held to the highest standards. A first step is banning indoor pyrotechnics in all but the largest, stadium-type venues.

But, ultimately, we are our own best "fire marshals" when it comes to avoiding, and escaping, dangerous situations. We can still enjoy shows. But it is up to us to look out for our own safety.

In coming days, Rhode Islanders will follow the unfolding news from Brazil with a sense of queasy deja vu -- the rising body counts, the victim identification process, the grieving families, and the assigning (and dodging) of blame. If only they had learned from our tragedy.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Barylick.

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Japan raises growth forecast as yen slides

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s government has raised its growth forecast, predicting the economy will expand 2.5 percent in the coming fiscal year, thanks to a weakening yen and improved global demand for exports.

The Cabinet office said Monday that expectations the weaker yen will boost exports and fatten manufacturers’ earnings prompted the revision from the earlier estimated 1.7 percent growth in fiscal 2013, which begins April 1.

The consumer price index is forecast to rise 0.5 percent, less than the inflation target of 2 percent. Inflation-adjusted growth for this fiscal year is estimated at 1.0 percent.

The revised forecasts assume the yen will average 87.8 yen per U.S. dollar in fiscal 2013, compared with 81.9 yen per dollar for this fiscal year.

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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App reveals chefs’ favorite hot spots

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) – Where do top-rated chefs, sommeliers and bartenders hang out during their time off? A new app uncovers their favorite restaurants, bars and shops in cities around the world, from high-end eateries to dive bars.

The app, Find. Eat. Drink., for iPhones provides recommendations from industry experts. It includes suggestions from Fergus Henderson, the English chef who popularized nose-to-tail dining and the Roca brothers, who run El Celler de Can Roca in Spain, which Restaurant magazine dubbed the second-best eatery in the world.

“The idea was to reach out to people within the culinary community that were doing interesting and unique work, and who were passionate about what they do,” said Robin Dorian, co-founder of Find. Eat. Drink., who is based in New York.

Chef Richard Blais, of television’s “Top Chef” and “Blais Off,” recommends a rotisserie chicken restaurant in a strip mall in Atlanta, and Floyd Cardoz, winner of “Top Chef Masters” Season 3, gives the thumbs up for a dosa restaurant in New York.

“You eat out of Styrofoam, but the food is incredibly delicious,” he said in his recommendation for the Dosa Hutt.

Suggestions are made based on the user’s location and can be viewed on a map. They are also filtered by price and user ratings.

The app can be used to research a city before setting off and to collect venues by creating customized lists within the app. It includes recommendations for more than 2,000 establishments in 120 cities around the world.

“If you go, for instance, to Chinatown in New York, there’s all these places, so it kind of takes that guesswork out and makes it easy to go off the beaten track,” Dorian explained.

Dorian got the idea for the company from an experience she had as a Food Network television producer and host. After a day of filming, a chef took her to a restaurant in New York, and she was amazed by the number of chefs she spotted there who were customers.

“I was wondering, ‘How come all the chefs know to go here?’” she said.

In addition to restaurants and bars, there are also recommendations for Asian grocers and wine, cheese, candy and salt shops.

“It’s about checking out places that inspire them – more interesting, ethnic unique places. That’s how they eat and how they travel,” she said.

Reservations can also be made at select restaurants from the app, which is available worldwide.

A similar app for iPhones called Chefs Feed provides a visual way of scanning photos of restaurant dishes recommended by top chefs.

The app has more than 600 chefs recommending dishes through the app, including Napa’s Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se, Los Angeles’ Wolfgang Puck of Spago and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, and New York’s Mario Batali of Babbo and Lupa.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Jan Paschal)

Yahoo! Finance – Personal Finance

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