Amazon.com sales jump 22% but profit drops 45% in fourth quarter

Amazon.com Inc. saw big sales during the holiday season, reporting Tuesday that fourth-quarter revenue rose 22% to $21.27 billion from a year earlier.

But the Internet retail giant's sales and earnings missed Wall Street's estimates. Profit for the three months that ended Dec. 31 declined 45% to $97 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with $177 million, or 38 cents, in the same quarter of 2011.

Analysts had expected the e-commerce company to post revenue of $22.26 billion and earnings of 27 cents a share.

Nonetheless, Amazon's stock surged in after-hours trading, rising more than 9% on signs the company's operating margins were improving. During regular trading before earnings were released, shares closed down $15.69, or 5.7%, at $260.35.

Operating income was a highlight of the company's quarterly results, increasing 56% to $405 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $260 million a year earlier.

For the current quarter, Amazon expects sales of $15 billion to $16.6 billion, a 14% to 26% growth from the first quarter of 2012.

It was a good Christmas for Amazon's Kindle family. The company said that for the second year in a row, its tablet was the most popular item for customers, with the Kindle Fire HD the "No. 1 bestselling, most gifted and most wished-for product" across the company's merchandise lineup.

"At year-end, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle held the top four spots on the Amazon worldwide bestseller charts since launch," the company said.

As is typical for Amazon, it did not break out sales figures for its tablets and e-readers.

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, said the company had seen huge growth in its electronic book business as consumers shift to digital texts.

"We're now seeing the transition we've been expecting," he said in a statement. "After five years, eBooks is a multibillion-dollar category for us and growing fast — up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We're excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle."

Amazon also said its digital media selection grew to more 23 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audio books, apps and games in 2012, an increase from 19 million at the end of 2011.

andrea.chang@latimes.com

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Reporters tweet the Los Angeles mayoral debate

About L.A. Now

L.A. Now is the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news section for Southern California. It is produced by more than 80 reporters and editors in The Times’ Metro section, reporting from the paper’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters as well as bureaus in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Riverside, Ventura and West Los Angeles.

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His cat, his lunch and a high five: Harper’s day chronicled on Twitter

OTTAWA – One of the cardinal rules of social media: no one cares what you had for lunch. Unless, perhaps, you’re the prime minister.

The people behind Stephen Harper‘s Twitter account are using the first day of Parliament’s winter sitting to provide an intimate look at how the prime minister spends his day.

The posts include a video of Harper’s ride to work, photos of breakfast with his cat Stanley and a lunch that included fruit and a Diet Coke at his desk.

The behind-the-scenes look is the latest move by Harper’s team to bolster his presence on social media platforms.

Digital public affairs analyst Mark Blevis says it’s likely an effort to rebrand Harper in the lead-up to the next election, where he’ll face off against politicians far more adept online.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Conference suggests ways Broadway can be better

NEW YORK (AP) — A conference on how to make the Broadway experience better for theatergoers has come up with some prescriptions: Be brave in the stories that are told onstage and embrace youth and technology.

"Broadway, I don't think, has boldly gone where it needs to," said "Star Trek" actor George Takei, riffing off his old show's motto. "I have a sense that Broadway hasn't entered into the 21st century."

The second TEDxBroadway conference on Monday brought together 16 speakers — producers, marketers, entrepreneurs, academics and artists — to try to answer the question: "What is the best Broadway can be?"

"We use the word 'best' because the goal of today is to go right past better all the way to the extent of what is possible, even if it seems a little bit outlandish," said co-organizer Jim McCarthy, the CEO of Goldstar, a ticket retailer.

TEDx events are independently organized but inspired by the nonprofit group TED — standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design — that started in 1984 as a conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading." Video of the Broadway event will be made available to the public.

While the health of Broadway is good, with shows yielding a record $1.14 billion in grosses last season, some speakers noted that total attendance — 12.3 million last season — hasn't kept pace, meaning Broadway isn't always attracting new customers.

Three speakers — one the sister of Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg — argued that new technology means the stage experience doesn't need to be confined to the four walls of the theater and so can grow new audiences.

David Sabel, who has helped drive the National Theatre of Great Britain into the digital age, pointed out that broadcasts of his stage shows on movie screens across the world haven't dampened demand at the box office and have actually have themselves become profitable.

"I think in our business, digital is uniquely not a threat but an opportunity," he said. "What if we could open it up and invite a much greater audience in to speak with us?"

Randi Zuckerberg said the Broadway community could increase visibility by having auditions for minor parts via YouTube, have live tweeters backstage, offer crowd funding to knit people to productions, give walk-on parts for influential figures or even make the Playbills electronic.

"Why should Broadway be limited by physical space? By ticket prices? By the same shows, over and over?" she asked. "Instead of having just a small sliver of the world come to Broadway, why not bring a small piece of Broadway to the entire world?"

And Internet guru Josh Harris said producers need to open the entire process to the outside world, including video cameras backstage to capture actors getting ready and even having the orchestra pit filled with people interacting with the audience via their electronic devices.

The annual gathering centered on Broadway is the brainchild of three men: McCarthy; Ken Davenport, a writer and producer; and Damian Bazadona, the founder of Situation Interactive. It drew 400 people to the off-Broadway complex New World Stages and into the theater where "Avenue Q" usually plays.

Takei in the past few years has grown 3.3 million Facebook friends and leveraged them into audience members to "Allegiance," his new musical about Japanese-Americans during World War II,

"If I can do it, Broadway certainly can," the 65-year-old said. "Broadway is at its best when it embraces all of the technological advancements of the time and starts making a lot of friends on social media. Then, as we say on 'Star Trek,' Broadway will live long and prosper."

Thomas Schumacher, the president of the Disney Theatrical Group, slammed the pretentious way some in the theatrical community look at more mainstream shows and scoffed at their disdain for making the audience experience more fun.

"Populism has its own manifest destiny and we need to embrace that," said Schumacher, who called for a big tent of theatrical options on Broadway and especially shows for children who will return as adults. "What I ask you to do is embrace this audience and maybe even embrace the sippy cup."

Terry Teachout, drama critic at The Wall Street Journal, soberly pointed out that 75 percent of all Broadway shows fail and then asked that more producers roll the dice on quality.

"If you can't count on getting rich, then forget playing it safe. Why not take a shot at being great?" he asked. "If there's ever a time for you to shoot high, this is it. Don't start out settling for safe. Gamble on great."

Kristoffer Diaz, the playwright of the Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity," urged producers to embrace different voices, as they did with "In the Heights" and "Rent."

"Women, writers of color, transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual — we need to keep hearing these stories. We need to hear them on Broadway," he said. "It becomes a lot harder to dismiss somebody out of hand if you've spent a couple of hours investing in their story."

Two speakers with specialty knowledge outside Broadway urged the community to not just focus on putting on a great show.

Susan Reilly Salgado, who has worked with famed restaurant owner Danny Meyer, said his success is not only about creating tasty dishes. Meyer, she said, makes the whole evening fun.

"To say that, in a restaurant, it's all about the food discounts everyone else who touches the customer experience," she said. "The best way to get people to come back to you over and over is to create an all-encompassing experience."

Erin Hoover, the vice president of design for Westin and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, said Broadway theaters could take a page out of the innovations brought to hotel lobbies, which are now comfortable, inviting and offer new sources of revenue. "The experience for the show really starts at the door."

Customer service was also a theme touched on by Zachary A. Schmahl, an actor-turned-baker who created Schmackary's Cookies in his apartment and has watched it grow into a thriving business.

"Customer service is something that people are missing in New York," he said. "It's so important in our single-serving culture to be that business that has a heart and a soul alongside a quality product."

One returning speaker was Vincent Gassetto, the principal of a high-performing public middle school in a tough area of the Bronx, who urged those in attendance to make sure Broadway was on the radar of his best and brightest students.

"It's in everybody in this room's best interest that they have an awareness of this industry or we're never going to win that talent war," he said. "We're all going to be competing for them."

Though the speakers came from different backgrounds and emphasized different prescriptions, they did seem to agree with Daryl Roth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning producer of seven plays, including "Clybourne Park." She challenged the crowd to think of Broadway in more than just dollars and cents.

"If we share the deep belief that theater matters, that theater can change us and ultimately change the world, then isn't that the best Broadway can be?" Roth asked.

___

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Personal Health: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

Since the start of the 21st century, Americans have made great progress in controlling high blood pressure, though it remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

Now 48 percent of the more than 76 million adults with hypertension have it under control, up from 29 percent in 2000.

But that means more than half, including many receiving treatment, have blood pressure that remains too high to be healthy. (A normal blood pressure is lower than 120 over 80.) With a plethora of drugs available to normalize blood pressure, why are so many people still at increased risk of disease, disability and premature death? Hypertension experts offer a few common, and correctable, reasons:

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Jane Brody speaks about hypertension.

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¶ About 20 percent of affected adults don’t know they have high blood pressure, perhaps because they never or rarely see a doctor who checks their pressure.

¶ Of the 80 percent who are aware of their condition, some don’t appreciate how serious it can be and fail to get treated, even when their doctors say they should.

¶ Some who have been treated develop bothersome side effects, causing them to abandon therapy or to use it haphazardly.

¶ Many others do little to change lifestyle factors, like obesity, lack of exercise and a high-salt diet, that can make hypertension harder to control.

Dr. Samuel J. Mann, a hypertension specialist and professor of clinical medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College, adds another factor that may be the most important. Of the 71 percent of people with hypertension who are currently being treated, too many are taking the wrong drugs or the wrong dosages of the right ones.

Dr. Mann, author of “Hypertension and You: Old Drugs, New Drugs, and the Right Drugs for Your High Blood Pressure,” says that doctors should take into account the underlying causes of each patient’s blood pressure problem and the side effects that may prompt patients to abandon therapy. He has found that when treatment is tailored to the individual, nearly all cases of high blood pressure can be brought and kept under control with available drugs.

Plus, he said in an interview, it can be done with minimal, if any, side effects and at a reasonable cost.

“For most people, no new drugs need to be developed,” Dr. Mann said. “What we need, in terms of medication, is already out there. We just need to use it better.”

But many doctors who are generalists do not understand the “intricacies and nuances” of the dozens of available medications to determine which is appropriate to a certain patient.

“Prescribing the same medication to patient after patient just does not cut it,” Dr. Mann wrote in his book.

The trick to prescribing the best treatment for each patient is to first determine which of three mechanisms, or combination of mechanisms, is responsible for a patient’s hypertension, he said.

¶ Salt-sensitive hypertension, more common in older people and African-Americans, responds well to diuretics and calcium channel blockers.

¶ Hypertension driven by the kidney hormone renin responds best to ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, as well as direct renin inhibitors and beta-blockers.

¶ Neurogenic hypertension is a product of the sympathetic nervous system and is best treated with beta-blockers, alpha-blockers and drugs like clonidine.

According to Dr. Mann, neurogenic hypertension results from repressed emotions. He has found that many patients with it suffered trauma early in life or abuse. They seem calm and content on the surface but continually suppress their distress, he said.

One of Dr. Mann’s patients had had high blood pressure since her late 20s that remained well-controlled by the three drugs her family doctor prescribed. Then in her 40s, periodic checks showed it was often too high. When taking more of the prescribed medication did not result in lasting control, she sought Dr. Mann’s help.

After a thorough work-up, he said she had a textbook case of neurogenic hypertension, was taking too much medication and needed different drugs. Her condition soon became far better managed, with side effects she could easily tolerate, and she no longer feared she would die young of a heart attack or stroke.

But most patients should not have to consult a specialist. They can be well-treated by an internist or family physician who approaches the condition systematically, Dr. Mann said. Patients should be started on low doses of one or more drugs, including a diuretic; the dosage or number of drugs can be slowly increased as needed to achieve a normal pressure.

Specialists, he said, are most useful for treating the 10 percent to 15 percent of patients with so-called resistant hypertension that remains uncontrolled despite treatment with three drugs, including a diuretic, and for those whose treatment is effective but causing distressing side effects.

Hypertension sometimes fails to respond to routine care, he noted, because it results from an underlying medical problem that needs to be addressed.

“Some patients are on a lot of blood pressure drugs — four or five — who probably don’t need so many, and if they do, the question is why,” Dr. Mann said.

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How to Measure Your Blood Pressure

Mistaken readings, which can occur in doctors’ offices as well as at home, can result in misdiagnosis of hypertension and improper treatment. Dr. Samuel J. Mann, of Weill Cornell Medical College, suggests these guidelines to reduce the risk of errors:

¶ Use an automatic monitor rather than a manual one, and check the accuracy of your home monitor at the doctor’s office.

¶ Use a monitor with an arm cuff, not a wrist or finger cuff, and use a large cuff if you have a large arm.

¶ Sit quietly for a few minutes, without talking, after putting on the cuff and before checking your pressure.

¶ Check your pressure in one arm only, and take three readings (not more) one or two minutes apart.

¶ Measure your blood pressure no more than twice a week unless you have severe hypertension or are changing medications.

¶ Check your pressure at random, ordinary times of the day, not just when you think it is high.

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At Warner Bros., new CEO's first task is to bring peace to studio

In taking the reins of Warner Bros., one of Kevin Tsujihara's first tasks will be returning calm to a studio that has been racked by divisions and infighting.

Although Warner was Hollywood's No. 1 supplier of television shows, No. 1 in the home video market and No. 2 at the box office last year, the rivalry between Tsujihara and two other executives for the top job created tensions on the studio's Burbank lot and uncertainty among its partners throughout the entertainment industry.

On Monday, as word spread that Tsujihara had been named chief executive, many in Hollywood immediately began asking what his appointment would mean for the two rivals: Television Group President Bruce Rosenblum and Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov.

Experts said that lingering resentments are an unavoidable outcome of the public two-year competition that Jeff Bewkes, CEO of parent company Time Warner Inc., held for the studio's top spot.

"One of the reasons a lot of people don't recommend this process is you end up winning with one executive and losing with the others," said Edward Lawler, a professor at USC's Marshall School of Business. "You can try to keep the people who lose out by changing their titles or giving them more money, but it's not easy to retain them."

Tsujihara said in an interview that he hoped both Rosenblum and Robinov would stay with Warner and expressed an openness to reshaping the studio in a way that could give both more responsibility.

"I think that over the coming weeks we're going to continue conversations about defining their roles and defining the organization in a way that makes sense for the company," he said. "They're both talented executives and both are my friends."

One of the reasons that Tsujihara was selected, according to company insiders, was that Bewkes and Warner Chairman Barry Meyer, who is retiring at year's end after 14 years at the helm, decided that a power-sharing arrangement would be untenable.

"There always has to be a boss," said Bob Daly, former Warner chairman who left the studio in 1999 after nearly two decades on the job.

With his lack of experience in TV and film production, and relatively few relationships with creators in both fields, Tsujihara will need to rely on Robinov and Rosenblum to succeed in his new job.

Although Tsujihara gets along well with Robinov, he has developed a contentious relationship with Rosenblum in recent years, according to numerous people who know both but were not authorized to speak publicly. Tsujihara said such accusations were "overblown."

The TV group produces just over half of Warner's profits, which had led many inside and outside the studio to believe Rosenblum had the inside line for the top job. In a statement, he conceded he was disappointed but said, "Warner Bros. is a unique and special place and I know it will be in good hands with Kevin at the helm."

Some have speculated that when Rosenblum's contract expires in August, he might seek a new position within Time Warner or, more likely, outside the company.

Robinov did not address his own feelings in a statement, saying only that he and Tsujihara "are both good friends and colleagues and I think he's an excellent choice for the job."

But Robinov previously has made no secret of his desire to run a studio and could bolt if he were able to secure such a position elsewhere.

Among the three, Robinov and Rosenblum have clashed the most. If Robinov or Rosenblum would have landed the top job, the other would have been likely to leave.

"By the first of the year, everyone will be rowing in the right direction," Daly predicted. But "any time you take a company that has been so stable and make a major change, there could be other effects."

Executives at Warner learned of the decision Monday. Some allies of the two losing candidates were disappointed after being told the results by Meyer. But the prevailing feeling appeared to be relief that the new CEO has the professional background and personal skills to rise above the long-running fray.

"I think Kevin is a stabilizing choice," said a senior executive who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. "It gets us away from worrying about the film division vs. the TV division. It allows us to focus on moving forward instead of treading water and stagnating."

Added another: "Kevin is perhaps the most likely to extend olive branches and collaborate."

Tsujihara will also face a number of strategic challenges that the studio has been unable to resolve in part because of the uncertainty over who would be its leader. They include signing new contracts of key executives who report to Robinov and Rosenblum and trying to renew a deal with financing and production partner Legendary Pictures, which expires at the end of this year.

ben.fritz@latimes.com

meg.james@latimes.com

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Live updates: 'Argo' wins top SAG Award; Day-Lewis, Lawrence win

Ben Affleck's “Argo” seems to be unstoppable. The film about a CIA plot to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980 won the 19th Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday night for ensemble in a motion picture.

The win came hours after the film, which also stars Affleck, took the Producers Guild Award on Saturday night — an honor that is one of the leading indicators of Oscar gold. Two weeks ago, “Argo” won the Golden Globe for best dramatic motion picture, one of the many honors it has recently picked up this season.

 “Argo” heads into next month's Academy Awards with momentum — and seven nominations, including best picture, supporting actor for Alan Arkin, and adapted screenplay. (Shockingly, Affleck was not nominated for a directing Oscar, even though he received a Directors Guild of America nomination and won the Golden Globe for director.)

PHOTOS: SAG Awards red carpet

The outlook seems equally golden for Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway, whose Golden Globe awards two weeks ago were followed Sunday night with SAG awards.

Day-Lewis won the trophy — and a standing ovation — for lead actor as the nation’s 16th president in “Lincoln.” Lawrence won her award for female actor playing a young widow in the quirky romantic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook.” Hathaway took the SAG award for female actor in a supporting role as the tragic Fantine in “Les Miserables.”

Tommy Lee Jones won his first major award of the season for male supporting actor for “Lincoln.” Jones is also nominated for an Academy Award for supporting actor.

SAG 2013: Winners | Show highlights | Complete list | Red carpet

The SAG movie wins offered a rare moment of clarity as the highly unpredictable awards season enters its final stretch, culminating with the Academy Awards on Feb. 24. 

A SAG win does not guarantee Oscar gold, but history suggests it's nearly impossible to win an Academy Award in the acting categories without a SAG nomination.

 On the television side of the awards ceremony, it was a three-peat night for Claire Danes, Julianne Moore, Kevin Costner and the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.”

FULL COVERAGE: SAG Awards 2013 

The performers made it a clean sweep by winning the Emmy, the Golden Globe and the SAG award.

Danes won for female actor in a drama series for Showtime’s political thriller “Homeland.” Moore’s uncanny performance as 2008 Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin in HBO’s “Game Change” earned her female actor in a television movie or miniseries. And Costner nabbed male actor in a television movie or miniseries for History’s “Hatfields & McCoys.”

“Modern Family,” meanwhile, earned its third consecutive SAG award for ensemble in a comedy series.

PHOTOS: SAG Award nominees & winners

 Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey earned a great parting gift when they won for their lead roles in a comedy series for NBC's “30 Rock.” Fey used the win to ask people to tune in at 8 Thursday night for the series’ one-hour finale, opposite the highly rated CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”

“Just tape ‘The Big Bang Theory’ for once, for crying out loud!” Fey pleaded.

Bryan Cranston won for male actor in a drama series for “Breaking Bad.” “It is so good to be bad,” purred Cranston as he picked up the honor. And PBS’ “Downton Abbey” won for ensemble in a drama series.

SAG 2013: Winners | Show highlights | Complete list | Red carpet

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Vine Has a Porn Problem Because Of Course It Does

It’s actually pretty surprising that it took everyone three days to figure out that Twitter’s new cell phone camera-powered video sharing app, Vine, is perfect for porn. Vine has it all. It can record reasonably high quality videos of anything you want, on-the-go, and post it publicly for all the Internet to see. You add hashtags so that people can easily find special interest content. There’s even a little comments section so that you can share your thoughts about the distinctively addictive six-second loops. Heck, we’d be surprised if people didn’t immediately start to post pictures of their genitals doing what genitals do. They probably did, actually. Everyone else was just too busy watching pictures of their friends pets and children to notice.

RELATED: The Chinese Want to Know Why Their News Is on Twitter and They Aren’t

But alas, by Sunday everyone had noticed. Although it had already been mentioned on smaller tech blogs, the Vine porn problem started to become widely known after New York Times reporter Nick Bilton tweeted, “Friend: ‘So are people using Vine for porn yet?’ Me: “‘Nah, I don’t think so.’ Friend: ‘Check the hashtag #porn.” Both: “Holy ****!’” And the thing is, he’s totally right. TechCrunch published a post on the NSFW trick — #NSFW works for porn seekers, too, by the way — broaching the topic of Apple‘s App Store coming down hard on the adult-only content. It’s against the rules, see, and Apple has a history of yanking apps that become magnets for all things naughty. The Verge followed up a few minutes later with the headline, “Apple has a porn problem, and it’s about the get worse.”

RELATED: How Not to Get Censored on Twitter

This got us thinking: These App Store restrictions on pornographic content have been around as long as the App Store. Surely in the past five or so years, the moderators know a porn magnet when they see one. Vine is hardly the first video-sharing app to make it through the approval process, not to mention the many photo-sharing apps. (And Apple’s certainly not afraid of enforcing those rules, as we learned when it yanked the 500px app after it started to become home to “pornographic images and material.”) It’s no anomaly that Vine made through, though. As virtually every new video- or photo-sharing service has shown us since the dawn of the Internet, from Flickr to ChatRoulette, it’s very difficult to keep these sites or apps G-rated. So the companies either learn how to police it well, like Flickr does, or they wither and die, as ChatRoulette did.

RELATED: Twitter’s New Hashtag Project Sounds Risky

So it’s hard to believe that the App Store didn’t consider the fact that people might upload pictures of their penises to Vine. It’s more likely that they did and decided to see how Twitter would deal with it, when it became a problem. After all, Vine is not going to be the last video-sharing app to be built and it certainly won’t be the last porn-friendly app to be built either. So Twitter gets to play guinea pig and navigate the tricky terrain of moderating user-generated content in real time. It’s a good thing they already have a boatload of experience doing that on Twitter! See, look how fast they came up with a solution. A company statement reads:

RELATED: The Good, the Bad, and the Fuzzy of Twitter’s New Censorship Rules

Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video.

Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated.

Twitter being Twitter — that is, big proponents of the free flow of information — they stop short of defining “inappropriate” in Vine’s terms and conditions. Unlike Twitter, which has been free to operate on the whole of the Internet, however, Vine lives in Apple’s house now. If Twitter’s hands off policy doesn’t do enough to keep smut off the iPhone, Apple will surely pull the plug, and then, well — then we’ll be back to where we were last week.

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'Argo,' Lawrence, Day-Lewis win at SAG

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The CIA thriller "Argo" continues to steamroll through awards season, winning the top honor for overall cast performance at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

SAG's lead-acting honors Sunday went to Jennifer Lawrence for her role as a troubled widow in a shaky new relationship in the lost-souls romance "Silver Linings Playbook" and Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War epic "Lincoln."

Anne Hathaway of "Les Miserables" and Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln" won the supporting-acting honors.

"It occurred to me — it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln," said Day-Lewis, a solid front-runner to join an exclusive list of three-time acting Oscar winners. "And therefore, somehow it is only so fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again."

It was a brisk, businesslike and fairly bland evening as the actors union handed out honors to a predictable lineup of winners who generally had triumphed at earlier Hollywood ceremonies or past SAG shows.

The SAG cast win came a day after "Argo" claimed the top honor from the Producers Guild of America, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Academy Awards. "Argo" also was a surprise victor two weeks ago at the Golden Globes, where it won best drama and director for Ben Affleck.

The awards momentum positions "Argo" for a rare feat at the Feb. 24 Oscars, where it could become just the fourth film in 85 years to be named best picture without a nomination for its director.

"To me this has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie," said Affleck, who also stars in "Argo" and accepted the SAG prize alongside his cast.

A directing nomination at the Oscars usually goes hand in hand with a best-picture win. When Affleck was snubbed for a directing slot, awards analysts initially were counting "Argo" out for the best-picture Oscar, along with Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables," which also missed out on directing nominations.

Only once in modern times has a film won best picture without a directing nomination, with 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." The other two times came in the show's early years, at the first Oscars in 1929 with "Wings" and for 1932's "Grand Hotel."

But "Argo" has proven a resilient crowd-pleaser, dominating at awards shows since then over Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," which leads the Oscars with 12 nominations.

The cast prize at SAG adds some weight to the Oscar prospects for "Argo," though the guild honor has a spotty record at forecasting eventual best-picture winners. Only eight of 17 times since the guild added the category has the cast winner gone on to take the best-picture Oscar. "The Help" won the guild's cast prize last year, while Oscar voters named "The Artist" as best picture.

The next playoff round before the Oscars is Saturday's Directors Guild of America Awards, where Affleck, Bigelow, Spielberg and Hooper all are nominated, along with Ang Lee for "Life of Pi." The winner there typically goes on to triumph with directing and best-picture Oscars, but only Spielberg and Lee are nominated for both the Directors Guild and Oscar prizes this time, throwing the awards picture into a muddle.

Sunday's acting prizes solidify those categories, though. "Silver Linings" star Lawrence won a Golden Globe and has become one of Hollywood's hottest talents, with part two of her blockbuster franchise, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," due out in November.

"Now I have this naked statue that means some of you even voted for me, and that is an indescribable feeling," Lawrence said after explaining she earned her SAG card at age 14 by filming a spot for MTV.

Hathaway won for her role as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution in the adaptation of the stage musical based on Victor Hugo's epic novel. Her win came over four past Oscar recipients — Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman and Maggie Smith.

"I'm just thrilled I have dental," Hathaway said. "I got my SAG card when I was 14. It felt like the beginning of the world. I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor. ... Thank you for nominating me alongside incredible women and incredible performances."

Jones, who was not at the show, won for his turn as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens in the Civil War epic. The win improves his odds to become a two-time Academy Award winner. He previously won a supporting-actor Oscar for "The Fugitive."

Day-Lewis, a two-time Oscar winner for "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood," could become the fifth actor to earn three Oscars, along with Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan. Katharine Hepburn has the acting record with four Oscars.

Backstage at SAG, Day-Lewis was hardly ready to predict a third Oscar win.

"There's a good chance I won't. I feel the same way at all these occasions. Mostly, we're traveling as a group, the fellow nominees, give or take one here or there," Day-Lewis said. "I would happily recognize any single one person whose name is called."

On SAG's television side, with "30 Rock" ending its run, its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin won the SAG awards for best comedy performers. It was Baldwin's seventh-straight win, while Fey earned her fifth SAG prize.

"Oh, my God. It's ridiculous," Baldwin said. "It's the end of our show, which is sad. Everybody is sad about that. It was the greatest experience I've ever had."

Fey gave a plug for the show's finale airing Thursday, noting that it's up against "The Big Bang Theory."

"Just tape 'The Big Bang Theory' for once, for crying out loud," Fey said.

"Modern Family" won for best overall cast in a TV comedy show. Accepting for the cast, "Modern Family" co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson offered thanks to the makers of "30 Rock" and another departing series, "The Office," saying "you all have set the comedy bar so high."

Ferguson joked that if the "30 Rock" or "The Office" stars need jobs, they should contact the "Modern Family" casting director.

The TV drama acting awards went to Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad."

"It is so good to be bad," Cranston said.

"Downton Abbey" won the TV drama cast award.

Julianne Moore's turn as Sarah Palin in "Game Change" earned her the TV prize for best actress in a movie or miniseries. Kevin Costner won for best actor in a movie or miniseries for "Hatfields & McCoys."

Fey, who memorably spoofed Palin herself in "Saturday Night Live" sketches, said backstage that Moore's performance was "incredible. She really disappeared into the character, she did a real film acting job. You wouldn't want a sketch acting job in that movie."

Earlier, the James Bond adventure "Skyfall" and the fantasy series "Game of Thrones" picked up prizes for best stunt work, honors announced on the red carpet before the official SAG Awards ceremony.

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award was Dick Van Dyke, who presented the same prize last year to his "The Dick Van Dyke Show" co-star, Mary Tyler Moore.

After waiting on stage for a prolonged standing ovation to end, Van Dyke said, "That does an old man a lot of good."

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Associated Press writers Beth Harris, Christy Lemire and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

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Dave Purchase, Who Led Needle-Exchange Movement, Dies at 73

Dave Purchase, a bearded biker who 24 years ago began handing out sterile syringes to prevent AIDS among drug addicts on the streets of Tacoma, Wash., and went on to become a national leader of the needle-exchange movement, died on Jan. 21 in Tacoma. He was 73.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said his son, Dylan.

With a borrowed television tray and a folding chair that he set up on a downtown street steps away from a heroin den, Mr. Purchase began handing out syringes, bottles of bleach, cotton swabs and condoms in the summer of 1988. Within five months he had exchanged 13,000 clean needles (most of them bought at his own expense) for dirty ones — and was gaining wide attention from the news media.

“How does this work?” a toothless addict asked him, The New York Times reported in January 1989.

“You give me an old one, I give you a sterile one, and it keeps your butt alive,” Mr. Purchase responded.

Mr. Purchase would trade as many as 10 needles at a time, while also handing out cookies and mittens.

By 1993 he had founded both the Point Defiance AIDS Project, with support from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and the North American Syringe Exchange Network. The network, which buys syringes wholesale and sells them at cost to programs across the country, now distributes more than 15 million syringes annually.

Articles over the years have cited Mr. Purchase’s 1988 street-corner operation as the first exchange in the nation. Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes alternatives to harsh legal treatment of drug users, could not confirm that.

“Whether or not he was literally the first to hand out syringes to stop AIDS, he was undoubtedly the godfather of needle exchange in America,” Mr. Nadelmann said in an interview. “He was a mentor and adviser to activists and public health workers around the world.”

In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when many critics argued that needle exchanges encouraged drug use, Mr. Purchase “was able to get political acceptance in Tacoma and obtain public funding,” said Don Des Jarlais, the director of research for the Chemical Dependency Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

When Mr. Purchase set up shop, he was without official government sanction or financial backing and, he said, was prepared to go to jail for 90 days for the misdemeanor offense of possessing drug paraphernalia. But he soon received support from the Tacoma police chief, Ray Fjetland, who suspended enforcement of the syringe law.

Mr. Purchase also worked closely with the county health department. The program became something of a model.

By 2011, according to a survey by Dr. Des Jarlais, there were 197 known needle-exchange programs in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That year, those exchanges distributed more than 36 million syringes.

“Given that over the course of the epidemic there have been several million people who injected drugs,” Dr. Des Jarlais said, “the efforts of Dave and people like him have literally saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”

In a way, David Joe Purchase found his calling on a Harley-Davidson. Born in Tacoma on Aug. 29, 1939, to Kenneth and Bernice Purchase, he was something of a rebel as a youngster. He worked at several jobs after dropping out of college.

“My dad was a biker, with the big beard, the black leather jacket,” Mr. Purchase’s son said. “Because of that look, he started assisting a friend who was a drug counselor who would send him around town when clients went missing — into bars, down an alley.”

Mr. Purchase was nearly killed in 1983 when a drunken driver crashed into his motorcycle. After a long rehabilitation, he returned to work as a drug counselor and soon realized that many of his clients were dying of AIDS. He used $3,000 from a settlement from the accident to buy syringes and set up his table.

Mr. Purchase’s marriages, to Sally Riewald and Sue Powers, ended in divorce. Beside his son, he is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Rebecca Ford; two stepsons, Blake Barry and Kelly Powers; a stepdaughter, Krista Townsend; a sister, Karen Robinson; and three step-grandchildren.

In 2006, Mr. Purchase told The News Tribune in Tacoma that he would never consider giving up his work.

“I’d have to live with that,” he said. “This is life and death. There were unnecessary deaths, unnecessary and preventable deaths.”

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