Coming soon to Facebook- more action, battle games






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – When nWay began a trial of its dark, sci-fi combat game “ChronoBlade” on Facebook last year, the San Francisco-based startup felt sure it had a hit on its hands.


“First of all, what comes is, ‘Wow, I had no idea you could actually do a game of this quality on Facebook,’” said Dave Jones, Chief Creative Officer of nWay, who has worked on “Grand Theft Auto.”






Then came some resistance: Jones admits some potential investors and partners questioned how an action-focused game with slick graphics can play to a Facebook audience more accustomed to “Farmville” and other less time-consuming casual games. Others wondered how the game — which launches this spring — would gain significant users and revenue on the social network.


But Facebook Inc is betting nWay and a clutch of other developers this year can extend console-style action games beyond Microsoft Corp‘s Xbox or Sony Corp’s PlayStation onto the world’s largest social network.


Facebook is spearheading the launch of 10 high-quality games created by third-party developers in 2013 that squarely target so-called hardcore gamers, an atypical audience overlooked thus far against the wealth of family-friendly offerings like Zynga Inc’s “Farmville” that now dominate the social network’s gaming landscape.


The effort, which began late last year but will accelerate in 2013, is part of Facebook’s ongoing objective of making sure its 1 billion-plus users log in and spend more time on the network, which in turn boosts ad revenue. Facebook also takes a cut of its applications’ revenue.


Facebook’s push into action and battle games follows a meeting in January between companies that make games like “first-person shooters” and Vice President Joe Biden to look for ways to curb gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.


Based on the console gaming industry experience, hardcore gamers — typically men 18 to 30 years old — spend more time and effort to master fast-paced games such as first-person shooters (Microsoft’s “Halo”) or real-time strategy games (Activision Blizzard’s “StarCraft”).


“You’ll see a whole set of games hitting in the next two quarters in particular and throughout the year that really start to redefine what people think of Facebook games,” Sean Ryan, head of game partnerships at Facebook said in an interview.


Facebook will embrace games from “casual all the way up through first-person shooters, massively multiplayer online games, real-time strategy games – all those types of more core player-versus-player games.”


Just as hardcore gamers interact online and form clans in multiplayer games on console game networks like Xbox LIVE, Facebook can be that social layer needed to foster such gaming communities that help popularize titles, Jones said.


GAMING POPULATION


Over a quarter of Facebook’s 1.06 billion monthly active users play games, one of the largest gaming communities in the industry, and the social network hopes that can grow.


Facebook also aims to make more revenue from games. Revenue from the area was flat in the fourth quarter from a year ago, the company said on Wednesday without providing details.


The 8-year-old social network takes a 30 percent revenue share from game developers who offer their product free but then charge for virtual goods — like ammunition and power boosts.


On Wednesday, Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts on a post-earnings conference call that its “games ecosystem continues to show healthy signs of diversification” and suggested that games revenue would grow with increasing user engagement.


To grow its gaming business, Facebook has invested time and resources to work with developers since the summer to bring titles like u4iA’s first-person shooter “Offensive Combat” and Plaruim’s real-time strategy game “Stormfall: Age of War” alive, Ryan said.


“It doesn’t mean we’re walking away from other games, but there’s no question our focus for 2013 much of it will be about becoming a better platform for core gamers and developers who make those games.”


To help users discover them, Facebook added new action and strategy games categories on its App Center that also shows you friends from your list playing those games. It brought back notification messages from game apps — a feature that had been removed because users found the annoying — with certain restrictions that stop developers from spamming a gamer.


Developers also rely on word-of-mouth publicity and ads on Facebook’s advertising platform to draw in prospective gamers.


“Stormfall” has a player base of 4.5 million and hardcore games were proving to be far more lucrative, said Gabi Shalel, chief marketing officer Of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Plarium.


“Hardcore gamers pay more, play more and generate higher average revenue per user than traditional casual games.”


Kixeye, which makes the warfare-strategy game “War Commander,” said its gamers spend 20 times more than players of social games, helping it stay profitable over the past three years.


Going forward, nWay’s Jones says Facebook must have a defining title that comes along that establishes it as a hardcore gaming spot for gamers.


“Like ‘Super Mario’ did for Nintendo or ‘Halo’ on Microsoft, I think it just takes one title to come along, sort of as a benchmark to legitimize the whole thing,” he said.


(Reporting By Malathi Nayak; editing by Andrew Hay)


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Wispelwey: Loneliness of the long-distance cellist






LEIDEN, Netherlands (Reuters) – Dutch cellist Peter Wispelwey has recorded the haunting, delightful and soul-uplifting Bach Six Suites for Solo Cello three times and still he’s not finished.


His next, he says, is his “Lost in Translation” version, referring to the Bill Murray movie about an actor coming to terms with an alien culture in Tokyo.






Wispelwey is doing the same, flying into the Japanese capital for recording sessions in the early morning hours.


When it is released, he wants to strew CDs of portions of the Bach suites around Tokyo for people to find them, he told Reuters over a three-course dinner served during intervals as he performed in this Dutch university town.


“That’s my ideal,” he said. “I want the Tokyo preludes, the Tokyo gigues, the Tokyo allemandes.”


At this stage in his career, the 50-year-old Wispelwey who first fell in love with the cello’s growling sound at the age of two while listening to an amateur quartet in which his father played violin, can be indulged.


Growing up in a small country at a time when it did not have much of an established conservatory tradition, he more or less is a self-made cellist, though he has had several of the world’s best teachers, among them compatriot Anner Bylsma.


He made his name in the Netherlands by putting on recitals in his late teens of all the mainstream repertoire for solo cello, renting the hall himself, getting the tickets distributed and playing it all from memory.


He got his international credentials with his first 1990 recording of the Bach suites, for the Channel Classics label, which became one of the gold-standard versions.


His latest, and third version, is unique for tuning his baroque cello, with gut rather than modern steel strings, to a much lower pitch than A at 440 hertz, or slightly higher, which is the standard for modern orchestras, pianos, wind instruments and pretty much everything.


Wispelwey has done it at 397 hertz, a full tone below the modern A tuning, and a semitone, or half tone, below the usual baroque A which is 415 hertz.


There are theoretical reasons, including evidence it was the pitch Bach would have known. But more importantly, the sound world is different.


“If the general public comes in to hear the Bach suites on a baroque cello they need almost an hour just to adjust to that sound world and it’s not surprising,” he said, between gulps of food and before taking a shower to refresh for the continuation of one of the most demanding recital programs, for soloist and audience alike.


“We’re used to a steely, projecting laser beam of a sound and this has shades, it has color and it has the overtones. That’s why we can hear it. It has this very particular shine. but it’s a shine of nobility.”


Here’s what else he had to say about Bach’s appeal today, the mystical “Black Sarabande” and why it can sometimes seem a bit lonely being a cello soloist:


Q: What is it about Bach’s music, written in the early 18th century, that speaks to us three centuries later with such power, if not to say God-like authority?


A: “One is the magic of Bach. Even in the sparse notes of the cellos suites there is a narrative and it becomes more hypnotic the less you hear and the less you hear it filled in. It’s the hypnotic element of being carried away by so little. That said, the concentration of the listener is tunneled and first there’s an emotion of being narrowed but then the opposite happens.


“After an hour that tunnel gives suddenly way to the biggest panorama you’d ever want to see. It starts meaning everything, the small world becomes the big world and everything starts shining and becoming meaningful…Bach’s brain was all over the place all the time. That’s why we’re so eternally intrigued at what kind of creativity was at work there.”


Q: In the Suite No. 5, there’s a movement you call the “Black Sarabande”. Why?


A: “It’s painful, not nice. There is comfort in it but death is there. It’s about blackness, about dust and with the gut C string it sounds like dust, it sounds like throwing something into the grave or a last breath – it’s all there. The first four bars are a sort of solar system, all those notes hanging in space but they are somehow related…It’s dark and light and death and life. It’s so simple that its meaning expands in space. The simpler it is the more meaningful it seems to be.”


Q: Of course you don’t play only Bach – though you play these suites a lot. Two days from now you are doing a Schubert program and you also play modern composers like Ligeti and Crumb. Is it hard finding sufficient repertoire for an instrument which, let’s face it, has never been as big a crowd pleaser as the violin?


A: “It (Bach) does sound like you are playing really serious, profound music, so that’s good, and the other thing of course is the cello repertoire is so small that when we have six pieces by the greatest composer of all time, well, then, of course… There are 15 great cello concertos against 40 great violin concertos. The cello was emancipated (from its accompaniment role) late. Then look at the 20th century. We have Mstislav Rostropovich and suddenly we get this tsunami by the great composers…”


(Editing by Paul Casciato)


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Auvi-Q Challenges EpiPen With a New Shape and Size





Twin brothers Eric and Evan Edwards grew up with serious food allergies and were under doctor’s orders to carry their medicine everywhere they went.




But as they entered their teenage years in suburban Virginia, they found the advice increasingly hard to follow. The device they carried to inject the medicine, known as an EpiPen, was shaped like a large felt-tip marker and they would frequently forget it. As the twins entered college, they found themselves thinking there had to be a better way.


This week, the brothers’ invention — a slimmer device shaped like a smartphone — hit pharmacy shelves nationwide, the culmination of a single-minded quest that began 15 years ago and ended in a $230 million licensing deal with the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.


The product, called the Auvi-Q, boldly challenges the superiority of the EpiPen at a time when food allergies among children and teenagers are on the rise. Sanofi and the Edwards brothers clearly hope it will appeal to a gadget-hungry generation with its compact, rectangular design and automated voice instructions that guide a user through the injection process. Both the Auvi-Q and EpiPen contain the drug epinephrine, which can halt a severe allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis.


Evan Edwards said the device was special because it was designed by people who were intimately familiar with patients’ needs. “This wasn’t just an invention,” he said. “This was something that I knew I was going to carry with me every single day.”


Mylan Inc., which sells the EpiPen, has recently stepped up its marketing of the device and this week showed no signs of backing down. In an interview this week, Mylan’s chief executive took issue with claims that up to two-thirds of EpiPen users do not carry their devices, saying the company would take “appropriate action” to challenge the claims.


Heather Bresch, the chief executive, said she welcomed efforts by Sanofi to raise awareness about the dangers of severe allergic reactions. “However, we certainly don’t condone or find it acceptable to do it in a misleading way, and that’s what we believe they’re doing,” she said.


A spokeswoman for Sanofi said the company stood by its claims.


Energized by their idea to create a new epinephrine device, the twins split up to attend college but geared their studies to their single-minded goal. Evan chose engineering, studying at the University of Virginia. Eric pursued a medical path, eventually earning a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University.


“We would choose our courses out of the undergraduate bulletin,” Eric said. “You take this; I’ll take that.”


One of the courses Evan chose was an invention and design class taught by Larry G. Richards, an engineering professor at the University of Virginia, where students were encouraged to share their ideas with each other. “Evan came to us early in the semester and said, ‘I’ve got this really great idea,’ ” Mr. Richards recalled. “He told us the idea and I said, ‘Evan, this is too good to share with the students in the class. You want to protect your intellectual property here.’ ”


Working with Mr. Richards and another professor, Evan continued to refine the idea, earning a grant for college inventors that provided initial start-up financing for their project. After college, the brothers founded a company, Intelliject, to bring their idea to market, relying on early investments from family and friends.


The product evolved as the years passed, retaining its rectangular profile but picking up other features along the way. Eric had the idea of adding voice instructions to help others use the device in situations where they might be too panicked to read written instructions. A retractable needle was also added later, with the thought that patients would be more comfortable if they didn’t have to see it.


Intelliject licensed the product to Sanofi in 2009, a deal that included an initial payment of $25 million and up to $205 million in future milestone payments and royalties. The Food and Drug Administration approved the Auvi-Q last summer.


The Auvi-Q has created a stir among allergy sufferers, including bloggers and others who have praised its compact design and “cool” factor. Sanofi also cited internal market surveys that show up to two-thirds of patients do not regularly carry their epinephrine injectors, and about half of parents said they feared others would not be able to properly use their child’s injector in the event of an emergency.


“Anaphylaxis is scary enough,” Evan Edwards said, referring to the severe reaction that can be set off by allergens. “But the treatment shouldn’t be.”


Ms. Bresch, the Mylan chief executive, noted that Sanofi did not provide studies showing users would be any more likely to carry the Auvi-Q. She also cited a marketing study conducted in Canada on Sanofi’s behalf that found 84 percent of participants knew how to use an auto-injector.


“EpiPen has been tried and true for 25 years,” Ms. Bresch said, and argued that her product’s distinctive shape worked to its advantage. “It’s not easily confused with a BlackBerry or your phone in your purse or your backpack.”


Other online commenters wondered if younger children might lose the Auvi-Q because of its size. It is smaller than a deck of cards.


Sanofi has set a price for the Auvi-Q that is comparable to the EpiPen, charging $240 for two auto-injectors and a training device. Lori Lukus, a Sanofi spokeswoman, said the company’s market research indicated that a “large percentage” of insurers would cover the product.


Still, the Auvi-Q faces long odds: several other companies have tried and failed to challenge the dominance of the EpiPen. Last year, the manufacturer of the only competing products on the market, the Adrenaclick and Twinject, announced it would stop making them.


One allergy specialist, Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, said the Auvi-Q could provide an alternative for patients who have complained over the years about the EpiPen’s bulky size. He said some have already asked about it.


“People might find it easier to have that in a pocket compared to carrying a giant Magic Marker,” said Dr. Sicherer, a researcher at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.


Still, he noted that he had seen several EpiPen competitors come and go. In the past, when he presented patients with alternatives, “the patients have mostly been more comfortable taking the EpiPen.”


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 1, 2013

An earlier version of this article used an outdated company name on first reference. It is Sanofi, not Sanofi-Aventis. The company changed its name in 2011.



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Apple phones outsell Samsung in the U.S. in the fourth quarter









Bolstered by sales of its iPhone 5, Apple sold more mobile phones in the U.S. in the fourth quarter than any other maker, including its rival Samsung.


It marks the first time since 2008 that Samsung was not the top phone seller in a quarter.


Still, Samsung retained its crown for all of 2012, selling 53 million devices. Apple was second with 43.7 million phones sold.





For the fourth quarter, Apple sold 17.7 million units, or 34% of the phones sold in the quarter, according to a report released Friday morning by Strategy Analytics. That was up from 12.8 million devices sold in the year-earlier period.

Samsung was next with 16.8 million phones, or 32% of all phones sold in the quarter. Total sales  represented an increase for Samsung, which sold 13.5 million phones a year earlier. 


QUIZ: Test your Apple knowledge


"This was a good performance from Samsung, as its market share (of phones sold in the fourth quarter) rose 5 points from 27% a year earlier, but it was not enough to hold off a surging Apple," the report says.


Samsung "will surely be keen to recapture that title in 2013 by launching improved new models such as the rumored Galaxy S4," the report says. 


Third place in the U.S. was LG, which sold 6.9 million phones, 9% of all phones sold during the fourth quarter.


ALSO:


Viewing Twitter photos now faster and easier


BlackBerry 10 gets mostly high marks in early reviews


Mobile social networking app Path settles with FTC for $800,000





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Hadiya Pendleton: Slain girl made anti-gang video

Four years ago Hadiya Pendleton, then in sixth grade at Carter G. Woodson Elementary School, made an anti-gang video with fellow students. She was fatally shot this week.









The sixth-grader can barely keep from smiling, self-conscious in front of the camera as she delivers a very serious message.

"Hi, my name is Hadiya. This commercial is informational for you and your future children," she begins. "So many children out there are in gangs and it's your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future."






The video then shows shots of a boy slumped in a stairwell, another boy sprawled against a locker, a girl lying on the floor against a wall as a classmate next to Hadiya says, "So many children in the world have died from gang violence. More than 500 children have died from being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Four years after Hadiya Pendleton made that public service video at Carter G. Woodson Elementary School, police are saying the same thing about her.

Hadiya had just finished her final exams at King Prep High School, where she was a sophomore, and was hanging out with friends from the school's volleyball team when she was gunned down in a park in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue. Thursday afternoon, police announced the reward for information leading to an arrest in the shooting had increased to $24,000, up from $11,000 announced Wednesday.

Hadiya and the others had sought shelter from a rainstorm under a canopy at the park around 2:20 p.m. Tuesday when a gunman jumped a fence, ran toward them and opened fire, police said.

As the teens scattered, Hadiya and two teenage boys were shot. Hadiya was hit in the back and pronounced dead at Comer Children's Hospital less than an hour after the shooting. The wounds suffered by the boys were not life-threatening.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy stressed that neither Hadiya nor anyone in the group she was with were involved with gangs. But it appears the gunman mistook the students for members of a rival gang, he said. The shooter was last seen fleeing in a white Nissan.

“These were good kids by everything that I learned," McCarthy said at a Wednesday news conference, where a reward of $11,000 was announced. "Wrong place at the wrong time.”

Hadiya was shot a little more than a week after performing with the King College Prep band in Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities. The shooting occurred in a park about a mile north of Obama's Kenwood home.

The shooting has drawn the attention of both the White House, which is pushing for national gun control, and City Hall as Chicago closes on a violent January. Hadiya was the 42nd homicide victim this year in the city, where killings last year climbed above 500.

Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, pleaded for someone to step forward and bring the 15-year-old's killer to justice.

"She was destined for great things," he said.

Hadiya was a majorette with the band at King, one of the city's elite selective-enrollment schools. She dreamed of going to Northwestern University and talked about becoming a pharmacist or a journalist, maybe a lawyer.

Police have reported no arrests.



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U.S. tablet shipments soar during holidays, threaten to surpass PCs






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook’s prediction that tablets would one day outsell personal computers appears to be coming true.


Holiday season shipments of tablet computers touched a record 52.5 million, up 75 percent from a year ago, as consumers snapped up a wide range of the touch-enabled mobile devices and lower priced offerings, according to International Data Corp (IDC), which tracks both markets.






Growth of the tablet market handily outpaced that of personal computers, with PC shipments sliding 6.4 percent to 89.8 million in the October-December period.


In another sign of the rise of tablets, Apple, the No. 1 seller of tablets, shipped 22 million of them in the fourth quarter, compared with 15 million personal computers shipped by No. 1 PC seller Hewlett-Packard Co during the same period.


But increasing competition means that Apple’s one-time stranglehold on the tablet market continues to loosen. The market share of its iPad fell to 43.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 51.7 percent the previous year, IDC said.


Samsung Electronics, the No. 2 seller of tablets with its flagship Galaxy brand, captured 15.1 percent of the market, more than double its 7.3 percent share a year earlier.


Software maker Microsoft Corp, which launched its Surface with Windows RT tablet during the holidays, shipped about 900,000 units, IDC said.


Microsoft has been banking on Surface to showcase its new Windows 8 software to compete with Google Inc‘s Android-based tablets and the iPad.


Amazon.com Inc, despite having a wider range of products for the holidays, saw its share slip to 11.5 percent from 15.9 percent. Asian manufacturer Asus, which makes the Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet, saw a its share increase to 5.8 percent from 2 percent, IDC said.


IDC’s figures underscore the sliding fortunes of PC makers such as HP and Dell Inc, which is now in the process of taking itself private.


“New product launches from the category’s top vendors, as well as new entrant Microsoft, led to a surge in consumer interest and very robust shipments totals during the holiday season,” said Tom Mainelli, research director, tablets, at IDC.


“The record-breaking quarter stands in stark contrast to the PC market, which saw shipments decline during the quarter for the first time in more than five years,” Mainelli said.


(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)


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Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace in talks for Soviet thriller






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace are in talks to star in “Child 44,” a thriller that Ridley Scott and Michael Costigan are producing for Scott Free Productions, individuals with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. “Safe House” filmmaker Daniel Espinosa will direct from a script by Richard Price, who is adapting Tom Rob Smith‘s novel.


Set in Josef Stalin‘s Soviet Union, the story follows Leo Demidov, a disgraced intelligence agent investigating a series of child murders. The paranoid Soviet government then becomes suspicious of his investigation.






The book, the first in a trilogy, is based on the true story of Ukrainian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.


Hardy will play the officer and Rapace his wife.


The actors will first shoot “Animal Rescue,” a drama that Michael Roskam is directing for Fox Searchlight. Hardy, fresh off a year in big films such as ‘The Dark Knight Rises,” just wrapped “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Rapace, who appeared in 2012′s “Prometheus,” will next be seen in “Dead Man Down.”


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Well: Waiting for Alzheimer's to Begin

My gray matter might be waning. Then again, it might not be. But I swear that I can feel memories — as I’m making them — slide off a neuron and into a tangle of plaque. I steel myself for those moments to come when I won’t remember what just went into my head.

I’m not losing track of my car keys, which is pretty standard in aging minds. Nor have I ever forgotten to turn off the oven after use, common in menopausal women. I can always find my car in the parking lot, although lots of “normal” folk can’t.

Rather, I suddenly can’t remember the name of someone with whom I’ve worked for years. I cover by saying “sir” or “madam” like the Southerner I am, even though I live in Vermont and grown people here don’t use such terms. Better to think I’m quirky than losing my faculties. Sometimes I’ll send myself an e-mail to-do reminder and then, seconds later, find myself thrilled to see a new entry pop into my inbox. Oops, it’s from me. Worse yet, a massage therapist kicked me out of her practice for missing three appointments. I didn’t recall making any of them. There must another Nancy.

Am I losing track of me?

Equally worrisome are the memories increasingly coming to the fore. Magically, these random recollections manage to circumnavigate my imagined build-up of beta-amyloid en route to delivering vivid images of my father’s first steps down his path of forgetting. He was the same age I am now, which is 46.

“How old are you?” I recall him asking me back then. Some years later, he began calling me every Dec. 28 to say, “Happy birthday,” instead of on the correct date, Dec. 27. The 28th had been his grandmother’s birthday.

The chasms were small at first. Explainable. Dismissible. When he crossed the street without looking both ways, we chalked it up to his well-cultivated, absent-minded professor persona. But the chasms grew into sinkholes, and eventually quicksand. When we took him to get new pants one day, he kept trying on the same ones he wore to the store.

“I like these slacks,” he’d say, over and over again, as he repeatedly pulled his pair up and down.

My dad died of Alzheimer’s last April at age 73 — the same age at which his father succumbed to the same disease. My dad ended up choosing neurology as his profession after witnessing the very beginning of his own dad’s forgetting.

Decades later, grandfather’s atrophied brain found its way into a jar on my father’s office desk. Was it meant to be an ever-present reminder of Alzheimer’s effect? Or was it a crystal ball sent to warn of genetic fate? My father the doctor never said, nor did he ever mention, that it was his father’s gray matter floating in that pool of formaldehyde.

Using the jarred brain as a teaching tool, my dad showed my 8-year-old self the difference between frontal and temporal lobes. He also pointed out how brains with Alzheimer’s disease become smaller, and how wide grooves develop in the cerebral cortex. But only after his death — and my mother’s confession about whose brain occupied that jar — did I figure out that my father was quite literally demonstrating how this disease runs through our heads.

Has my forgetting begun?

I called my dad’s neurologist. To find out if I was in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s, he would have to look for proteins in my blood or spinal fluid and employ expensive neuroimaging tests. If he found any indication of onset, the only option would be experimental trials.

But documented confirmation of a diseased brain would break my still hopeful heart. I’d walk around with the scarlet letter “A” etched on the inside of my forehead — obstructing how I view every situation instead of the intermittent clouding I currently experience.

“You’re still grieving your father,” the doctor said at the end of our call. “Sadness and depression affect the memory, too. Let’s wait and see.”

It certainly didn’t help matters that two people at my father’s funeral made some insensitive remarks.

“Nancy, you must be scared to death.”

“Is it hard knowing the same thing probably will happen to you?”

Maybe the real question is what to do when the forgetting begins. My dad started taking 70 supplements a day in hopes of saving his mind. He begged me to kill him if he wound up like his father. He retired from his practice and spent all day in a chair doing puzzles. He stopped making new memories in an all-out effort to preserve the ones he already had.

Maybe his approach wasn’t the answer.

Just before his death — his brain a fraction of its former self — my father managed to offer up a final lesson. I was visiting him in the memory-care center when he got a strange look on his face. I figured it was gas. But then his eyes lit up and a big grin overtook him, and he looked right at me and said, “Funny how things turn out.”

An unforgettable moment?

I can only hope.



Nancy Stearns Bercaw is a writer in Vermont. Her book, “Brain in a Jar: A Daughter’s Journey Through Her Father’s Memory,” will be published in April 2013 by Broadstone.

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Former Peregrine CEO Wasendorf gets 50 years in prison









A U.S. judge on Thursday sentenced the founder of Peregrine Financial Group to 50 years in prison for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the brokerage, saying his customers would probably never recover the money they lost.

Russell Wasendorf Sr., who had tried to kill himself just before the fraud was uncovered, received the maximum sentence allowed by law and was ordered to pay $215.5 million in restitution for his nearly 20-year scheme.

Wasendorf's fraud was revealed in 2012, triggering the collapse of the brokerage and further shaking investors' confidence in the U.S. futures industry, already rattled by the failure of larger rival M.F. Global.

"I'm very sorry for the financial and emotional damage I've caused to investors and employees of Peregrine Financial Group," Wasendorf said in a feeble voice at a sentencing hearing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "I feel I fully deserve whatever sentence I am given… My guilt is such I will accept that sentence."

Chief Judge Linda Reade of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Iowa said former Peregrine customers will probably never get all their money back.

Wasendorf, 64, admitted last July that he had bilked tens of thousands of clients over a period of nearly 20 years, faking bank statements and lying to federal regulators, employees and his closest family members.

As regulators closed in on the fraud, Wasendorf made a botched suicide attempt outside his $24-million headquarters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which investigators say was financed with money siphoned from customers.

Peregrine Financial, known as PFGBest, quickly collapsed, and 24,000 former customers are still missing most of the money they had invested with the firm.

Wasendorf pleaded guilty in September to embezzling more than $100 million. Prosecutors said the amount stolen was more like $215 million.

"The lengthy prison sentence imposed today is just punishment for a con man who built a business on smoke and mirrors," said Acting U.S. Attorney Sean Berry.

PLEAS FOR LENIENCY

Supporters of the disgraced executive had asked Reade for leniency, arguing that Wasendorf is in frail health and that he had helped others even in the midst of his 20-year fraud.

Wasendorf, wearing an orange sweatshirt, looked gaunt in court after spending six months in isolation in a county jail.

He has been sick in jail, and doctors found a tumor on or near his pancreas, according to testimony from his pastor, Linda Livingston of Ascension Lutheran Church. Wasendorf's mother died of pancreatic cancer, but it is unknown whether Wasendorf's tumor is cancerous, she said.

U.S. prosecutors said the large loss, the sophisticated nature of the crime, and the sheer number of victims justified Wasendorf spending the rest of his life behind bars.

"The defendant spent like he was the richest man in the world," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said in court.

Peregrine's collapse dealt a blow to confidence in the U.S futures industry, already reeling from $1.6 billion hole in customer pockets left when giant brokerage MF Global failed nine months earlier.

Futures traders had never before suffered such large losses as a result of a brokerage failure.

Despite his misdeeds, Wasendorf "did do some positive things for the community," said former U.S. Congressman David Nagle from Iowa, who spoke up for the fallen CEO in court.

Nagle, who helped Wasendorf win zoning approval for Peregrine's environmentally-friendly headquarters, asked the judge for leniency.

"Who wants to defend the magnitude of the crimes Mr. Wasendorf committed?" he said. "But good people do bad things."

Wasendorf was well known for donating to local charities before his empire came crashing down.

However, he built his reputation for generosity using money stolen from his customers, Judge Reade said, adding that the donations likely lessened Wasendorf's feelings of guilt.

Peregrine customers "unwittingly funded the charities, but it was Mr. Wasendorf who took the credit," she said.

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$11K reward offered in slaying of girl 'destined for great things'









With outrage over his daughter's death spreading from City Hall to the White House, Nathaniel Pendleton made a public plea Wednesday for someone to step forward and bring the 15-year-old's killer to justice.

"They took the light of my life," Pendleton said at a news conference, where a $11,000 reward was announced for information about Tuesday's slaying of Hadiya Pendleton. "This guy, whoever he was, the gunman, man, you took the light of my life. Just look at yourself and just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a non-violent person."

Shaking his head and collecting himself, he continued, "This kid didn't like violence at all, didn't even like to fight, avoided a fight, moved away from anything that was not positive. She was a majorette, just came back from the inauguration. She was destined for great things and you stripped that from her."

Hadiya, who last week performed at President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities, was killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of students at Harsh Park, just blocks from King College Prep and about a mile from Obama's home in Kenwood on the South Side.

Presidential spokeman Jay Carney, asked about Hadiya's death Wednesday, said it was a “terrible tragedy” any time a young person is struck down “with so much of their life ahead of them.”

“The president and first lady's thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” he said. “All of our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”

Carney, asked about a petition urging President Barack Obama to attend Pendleton’s funeral, said he was not aware of the petition and had no scheduling announcements to make.

When asked if Obama had reached out to Pendleton’s family, Carney said he had no communications to share with reporters.

Carney also said that when Obama talks about gun violence in America he is not talking only about Newtown (Conn.) or Aurora (Colo.) or Oak Creek (Wis.) or Virginia Tech, but to shootings in Chicago and other parts of the country.

He added that while "we may not be able to prevent every act of gun violence. . .we need to take action to reduce gun violence” and “make sure that we’re doing everything we can in a responsible way to reduce this violence, to protect our children, including Hadiya Pendleton and others.”

Hadiya's death also came up at a news conference by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a particularly violent January in Chicago draws to a close.

Emanuel called Hadiya "what is best in our city" and urged anyone with information about the slaying to come forward.

"If anybody has any information, you are not a snitch, you're a citizen," the mayor said. "You're a good citizen in good standing if you help."

The mayor said he talked this morning with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, "going over what we need to do, what differences we have to do, what other tactics we have to adopt." He did not say what plans he and McCarthy discussed.

Later, McCarthy appeared with Hadiya's father at a news conference at Harsh Park to announce the reward.

"The fact is, at this point, we have very little to go on. The fact is that somebody knows something," he said, surrounded by family members and community leaders.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church on the South Side, said the reward will be "a bounty out on the head of a killer before you kill somebody else.

"Your butt needs to be in jail," he said. "Somebody knows. . .right now, sitting in their home some young person knows, some young friend of theirs knows, some parent knows, some adult knows. Where are you?"

Pfleger compared Hadiya's slaying to the mass murder of school children in Newtown, Conn. "We should be just as outraged," he said.

Hadiya was hanging out with her volleyball team at Harsh Park after taking exams Tuesday afternoon. About a dozen teens had taken shelter under a canopy during a rainstorm when a boy or man jumped a fence in the park, ran toward them and opened fire around 2:20 p.m., police said.

Hadiya was wounded in the back and a 16-year-old boy -- also a student at King -- was shot in the leg, police said. The attacker got into an auto and fled, police said. No arrests have been reported.

Today, Hadiya's family was inside their South Side home exchanging stories about her quirks and sense of humor.

Ten-year-old Nathaniel Pendleton Jr. recalled the way his big sister would often greet him with a few gentle slaps on his cheeks whenever she came home from school.

"She said it was with love," he said.

Nathaniel etched "I miss you" and "I love you" on his arm Wednesday. "It's very painful to see your big sister get slaughtered," the soft-spoken Nathaniel said, tearing up as he went through photos of his big sister on his phone.


His father said he would miss Hadiya's bright smile the most. He said the family had been saving up for her upcoming trip to Paris and was excited to see her go abroad.

"I just knew she wanted to go and I knew it was a very good opportunity for her. . .to get cultured," Pendleton Sr. said.

The father said he didn't get a chance to speak to his daughter on the day she died. He was headed to Hadiya's godfather's house when he learned of the shooting.

Pendleton said he did not fear for his daughter's safety around the school.

"She had good energy, very good energy," he said. "And the thing is. . .You don't expect good energy to attract bad energy. Never in a million years I thought I would get this call."


Kimiko Pettis, Hadiya's 32-year-old aunt, laughed when she talked about her niece's goofy personality. "We really miss her," Pettis said. "She was a remarkable young lady and such a great asset to our family."

Hadiya was a busy but lighthearted teen, always trying to get a laugh from her family. Just Tuesday, she put on what she thought was a "fabulous outfit" and make-up before school.

"She popped out of the bathroom saying. 'I'm ready!' " Pettis said, throwing her arms in the air.

Pettis said her niece loved Coldplay and Maroon 5. "You could not find any urban music on her phone," Pettis said with a laugh. "And she had two left feet."

Last year, Hadiya traveled with her school band to perform at Marti Gras in New Orleans, Pettis said. Last week, she had performed at Obama’s inauguration festivities. This year's travel plans included Dublin and Paris with the band, her aunt said, a trip she was very much looking forward to.

Though only a sophomore, Hadiya had aspirations to become a pharmacist or a journalist, Pettis said. Because she couldn't decide, family encouraged her to do both with a possible double major. She had interest in attending Northwestern University, her aunt said.

Hadiya was such a whirlwind of activity, relatives would jokingly tell her to slow down.

"There were a lot of good opportunities that were coming her way. She was just taking them all,” said Lakeisha Stewart, 37, Hadiya’s godmother. "She was the kid who you had to say, ‘Slow down, you can’t do everything.' "

Just last week, at the inauguration, Hadiya sent her godparents a text and a photo of her and her teammates in Washington, D.C., Stewart said.  She had not gotten the chance to talk to Hadiya about the details of the trip since she returned from the East Coast.

Hadiya’s parents made sure she stayed involved in school, said her godfather, Damon Stewart, 36, an attorney and Chicago police officer. He said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Her life was dominated by her activities and the things she was into,” he said.

“I’ve known this little girl her entire life," added Lakeisha Stewart. "I can’t think of a moment that this child did anything wrong. She always strived to do the right thing."

At King today, Bria Carter and two friends said the halls of the school were unusually quiet as students mourned Hadiya’s death.

"People are crying at school," said Carter, 17, a friend of Hadiya. "Those who knew her are so hurt.

"She was an amazing person -- always positive," Carter said. "She was one of those people everyone loved. She was the sweetest thing."

Brothers Addison and Zion Morgan said many of their classmates took to social media Tuesday night to express their emotions.

"Based off of the tweets, everyone is surprised and shocked by this," said senior Addison Morgan, 17.

Freshman Zion Morgan, 15, said he was in a U.S. History class with Hadiya.  "She was always smiling," Zion Morgan said. "She would always raise her hand in class."

School Principal Shontae Higginbottom said Hadiya was well-loved at the school, and students and staff are devastated.

"This is a great loss to us, she was a wonderful student. She was well-loved by her friends, well-adored by her teachers. We are going to miss her. Our hearts are so heavy, we have to stop the violence, we have to save our children," said Higginbottom.

At the park, neighbors along the well-maintained North Kenwood block could not remember any trouble there before.

The small park's bright blue and orange playground equipment is often used by toddlers down the street, a neighbor said, but otherwise remains quiet.

A neighbor, who declined to be named, lives next door to the park and said it's a "perfect neighborhood."

Teens and older children are not often visitors of the park, he said. The block is filled with "Harvard attorneys," "business owners" and other executives, the neighbor said. "No one knows about our block," he said. "It's a quiet place."

Hadiya's godmother agreed. “It amazed me when I found out what park it was," she said. "Nothing I have ever heard ever goes on over there.”

The shooting occurred about a mile from Obama's Kenwood home, but Emanuel said the circumstances do not carry symbolic significance.

"It's not the mile from a house. Wherever it happens in the city of Chicago is where I consider it," the mayor said while talking to reporters at a news conference about a West Humboldt Park company building new seats for CTA buses.

"While you may say it's a mile from the president's house, my view is, it's in the city of Chicago, regardless of where it happens," Emanuel added.

Ald. Will Burns, 4th, appearing with McCarthy, noted that the community and King Prep have steadily improved over the last 20 years.

"King High School went from being one of the worst high schools in the city of Chicago to being a selective enrollment high school," he said. "These young people were going to one of the best schools in the city of Chicago and they were spending their time in a park, which is what parks are there for, for young people to enjoy themselves and recreate and do something positive."

"This is not my community, these are not the people I know and love," he said referring to the killer. "No gang controls this ward."








Tribune reporters Carlos Sadovi and Christi Parsons contributed.


Chicagobreaking@tribune.com


Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking





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