LinkedIn beats Street, outstrips social media rivals

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – LinkedIn Corp extended its hot streak on Thursday, announcing both blow-out quarterly profits and a bullish forecast for the new year that exceeded Wall Street’s already lofty expectations.

The results reaffirmed the “professional” social network’s reputation as a fast-growing but sure-footed business — and the star exception in a mostly disappointing social media sector.

Excluding certain items, net income was $ 40.2 million, or 35 cents a share, well above the 19 cents expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The results meant LinkedIn beat analyst estimates for the seventh quarter in a row and sent shares of the company, which have doubled in the past 12 months, soaring 9 percent higher to $ 135 after hours.

Revenue rose a better-than-expected 81 percent from a year ago to $ 303.6 million, as millions of new job seekers and corporate recruiters around the world signed up with LinkedIn to post resumes or poach competitors’ employees.

The company offered bullish forecasts for the first quarter as well, projecting revenue between $ 305 million and $ 310 million, above analyst estimates of $ 301 million.

“You can pick out a lot of things that were great, from customer adds to accelerating revenue to growth in international,” said Kerry Rice, an analyst at Needham & Co. “On top of that, guidance is pretty outstanding. And from a historical perspective, they’ll likely beat those numbers too.”

TURBOCHARGED GROWTH

Founded by former PayPal employees in 2002, LinkedIn remains one of the most profitable Web companies, with gross margins approaching 90 percent.

At a time when Facebook Inc stock trades 25 percent below its initial public offering price and basic questions loom over the business models of online gaming group Zynga Inc and daily deals company Groupon Inc, LinkedIn has proved it can consistently make money by selling access to its 200 million users’ resumes since it went public in May 2011 at $ 45 a share.

The size of LinkedIn’s user base has reinforced its position against competitors, few of whom pose a serious challenge. Facebook only recently announced a “Jobs Board” tool in November. And on Thursday, shares of Monster Worldwide Inc fell 7 percent after the human resources company reported a quarterly loss and said it would pull out of several countries.

Analysts in recent months, however, have begun to question how long LinkedIn can sustain its turbocharged growth as it becomes saturated in some U.S. markets.

On Thursday’s earnings call, company executives said the majority of LinkedIn’s users are now based outside of the United States, and the company is aggressively targeting job markets in Hong Kong and Brazil.

Sales from international markets more than doubled over the past year to $ 114.6 million, or 38 percent of total revenue in the quarter, the company said.

In response to a slowdown in user growth and the slide in page views, LinkedIn has introduced some social media features to encourage visitors to click more on its site, as opposed to uploading their resumes and never coming back.

LinkedIn has introduced personal blogs by successful businesspeople like Sir Richard Branson, whom users can “follow” for updates.

Chief Executive Jeff Weiner told analysts on Thursday’s earnings call that the blog series, called “Influencers,” has exceeded expectations and now features contributions from business luminaries like GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt and investor Mark Cuban.

Other social mechanics, such as a recent addition that encouraged users to endorse their colleagues for their professional skills, also helped keep users coming back to the site more frequently, Weiner said.

The endorsements feature had the effect of “creating the right kind of viral loops,” he said.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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India Ink: Power Outage at Delhi Airport Affects Flights

An electrical power failure at the Indian capital’s main airport disrupted the radar system on Friday, delaying some flights.

“There was a power failure,” which was rectified quickly, said Harbhajan Singh, the public relations officer of the Airports Authority of India.

He explained that the Indira Gandhi International Airport has a three-tier system for electricity so when the power went out, the airport switched from the main supply to one of its two standby sources. The Airports Authority said in a statement that the power supply switched over from 12:21 p.m. to 12:31 p.m., but travelers reported experiencing much longer delays.

The power failure affected the servers that control the radar system, said Arun Mishra, director general of Civil Aviation, the regulatory body for airlines.

Mr. Mishra said the servers were affected for about 30 minutes in the morning, starting from about 6:50 a.m.

The Airports Authority of India denied in a statement that the radar system had failed, saying that flight arrivals had continued normally, although a few departures were delayed.

A spokesman from Air India said that four of the national air carrier’s flights were delayed by 10 minutes because of the radar problem.

Two New York Times reporters aboard an Allahabad-bound flight operated by the domestic airline Spicejet had to wait for an hour and a half on the runway before the plane took off from the Delhi airport.

The same airport last month handled 73 flights within an hour, which is believed to be a record for an Indian airport, according to a Press Trust of India report.

Spokespersons at the ministries of Civil Aviation and Home Affairs said that they had no immediate information about the power failure.

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Euro near two-week low, shares up on rekindled rate cut hopes

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares rose and the euro hovered near a two-week low on Friday after the European Central Bank rekindled expectations that it could cut interest rates again.

Strong Chinese trade data also helped lift optimism about global growth prospects, boosting oil, copper and Asian shares, while the yen rose sharply after Japan's finance minister said the currency's recent drop had been overdone.

The ECB left rates at a record low 0.75 percent on Thursday but the bank's President Mario Draghi levered the door to a cut back open by saying it would monitor whether the euro's rise over recent months could push inflation below its comfort zone.

European shares were enjoying their best session of an otherwise low-key week as midday approached, on the hopes lower borrowing rates -- or at least the threat of them -- would reverse some of the 8 percent trade-weighted rise in the euro since August.

"The ECB had quite an impact on the euro-dollar and the positive Chinese data we have had has helped shares," said ABN Amro economist Aline Schuiling.

"Draghi signaled quite clearly yesterday that with the rise in the euro, the risks to price stability are to the downside. We expect the dollar to continue to strengthen, but if that reverses then markets would price in a rate cut."

London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up 0.5, 0.6 and 0.2 percent respectively by 1100 GMT pushing the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.fteu3> up 0.5 percent, though it was still on course for its second consecutive weekly fall.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady start on Wall Street.<.n/>

Draghi said the euro's recent surge was a sign of a return of confidence, but cautioned: "We certainly want to see whether the appreciation is sustained and will alter our risk assessment as far as price stability is concerned."

The comments saw the currency tumble to $1.33705, the lowest since January 25, although a modest mid-morning rebound lifted it back to $1.3404. It had earlier also hit a two-week low against sterling and a one-week low versus the yen.

The yen, the other key focus of foreign exchange markets following the push by Japan's government to ease monetary policy, rose sharply after the country's finance minister said the currency's recent drop had been overdone.

The euro fell 1.5 percent against the yen to 123.54 yen with traders reporting selling by Asian funds. The dollar shed 1 percent to hit a session low of 92.17 yen as a U.S.-based investor sold the greenback.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Helping to bolster strengthening global growth hopes, China said its exports grew 25 percent in January from a year ago, the strongest showing since April 2011 and well ahead of market expectations, while imports also beat forecasts, surging 28.8 percent on the year.

It lifted commodities, including copper, which ended a four day losing streak. Brent crude oil edged towards $118 per barrel.

Brent has gained over the last three weeks as positive data suggested the global economy had turned a corner, which augurs well for fuel demand, while supply worries stemming from tensions in the Middle East have also supported prices.

Earlier MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> added 0.3 percent and Australian shares rallied 0.7 percent to 34-month highs. Chinese markets are closed next week for the Lunar New Year holiday, while Hong Kong will resume trading on Thursday. Despite Friday's rises, MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus> was on course for a weekly fall of about one percent, which would be its biggest drop since November and the first weekly decline of 2013.

However, the global index is still up four percent for the year to date and is not far from its best levels since mid-2008.

"China's economic conditions are improving and the trade data confirms the continuation of a recovery trend. Not just the trade data but retail, production and investment flows clearly show that the economy bottomed out in the third quarter last year," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

BANK REPAYMENTS

Money markets rates reversed some of their recent gains following Draghi's insistence that the ECB's policy will remain accommodative.

The central bank also said on Friday that banks will return another 5 billion euros of its crisis loans next week, suggesting the initial flood of repayments has turned into a steady trickle.

In the bond market, benchmark German Bund futures continued to push higher as Draghi's cautious tone on the euro zone's economy underpinned demand for low risk assets.

Nagging concerns about political stability in Spain and Italy were piling pressure on higher-yielding peripheral bonds to the benefit of Bunds, overshadowing an Irish bank debt deal that will cut Dublin's borrowing costs over the next decade.

"On the 10-year Spanish bonds, we could go significantly above 5.50 percent and reach the 5.60 area and it can be quite fast and on the BTP 4.70-75 area could be reached as well," BNP Paribas strategist Patrick Jacq said.

But "On a longer-term view we still expect market friendly outcomes of the political issues and the setbacks offer some opportunities to enter long positions."

Spanish 10-year yields were last at 5.42 percent while equivalent Italian yields were about 1 basis point up at 4.58 percent.

(Additional reporting by Richard Hubbard and Emelia Sithole-Matarise; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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India Ink: Economic Growth in India to Fall to Five Percent

India’s Gross Domestic Product is expected to drop significantly to 5 percent for the fiscal year ending in March 2013, according to advance estimates released by India’s Central Statistics Office on Thursday, declining from 6.2 percent growth rate seen in 2011-2012.

The estimate by the Central Statistics Office represents a marked drop from earlier growth projections issued by the government for this year. In January, the central bank projected G.D.P. growth of 5.5 percent for the current fiscal year, a decline from an earlier estimate of 5.8 percent.

The provisional estimates are contingent upon the “anticipated level of agricultural and industrial production, analysis of budget estimates of government expenditure and performance of key sectors like, railways, transport other than railways, communication, banking and insurance, available so far,” the report said.

According to the preliminary data released on Thursday, national income registered a growth rate of 4.2 percent in the current fiscal year as compared to 6.1 percent in the previous year, and per capita income grew at a rate of 2.9 percent as compared to 4.7 percent growth last year. Meanwhile, capital investment in the country is expected to drop to 2.48 percent from 4.39 percent in the previous year.

Slow growth may be attributed to the sluggish performance of the manufacturing, agriculture and services sector. The manufacturing sector is expected to grow by 1.9 percent this year, while India’s farm sector is projected to grow at an estimated 1.8 percent.

The services sector saw a decline in its growth rate from previous years, expanding by 6.6 percent, the lowest in over a decade. Other sectors that are expected to have performed relatively poorly include electricity, gas & water supply (4.9 percent growth) and mining and quarrying (0.4 percent growth).

Sectors that have performed relatively well with a growth rate of over 5 percent are construction, the trade, hotels, transport and communication sector, the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector, and the community, social and personal services sector.

As India prepares to for a national election in 2014, slowing economic growth is putting pressure on the current government to push for reform. The projection of 5 percent GDP growth is the lowest figure since 2002-2003 when the GDP grew at 4 percent, after which the Indian economy has grown at an average of 6 percent each year.

This year, the government has taken measures to rein in the fiscal deficit to 5.3 percent of  GDP, has raised the price of fertilizer and diesel, and has allowed further foreign investment in the retail sector by opening up the insurance, pension and aviation sectors for foreign investment. On Jan. 29, India’s central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nine months to fuel higher growth.

If India continues on the reform path, analysts believe that strong growth will resume in the coming year.

“The government’s advance estimates for real GDP growth at 4.9% is disappointing, especially coming on the back of a downward revision in growth for FY2012 from 6.5 percent to 6.2 percent,” said Ms. Bhupali Gursale, an economist at Angel Broking. “On a positive note though, with the government pushing ahead its reform agenda, the outlook for growth in FY2014 is likely to improve.”

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Bethenny Frankel's 'Happy' Night Out in N.Y.C.

Caught in the Act

02/07/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

Bethenny Frankel

Justin Steffman/Splash News Online

It's business as usual for Bethenny Frankel.

The reality TV star stepped out for dinner at Indochine in New York on Monday night.

Dressed all in black, the "very chic"-looking Skinnygirl mogul dined at a table in the center of the restaurant with a gentleman around 8 p.m.

But although the evening "didn't look romantic," an onlooker tells PEOPLE, Frankel, who recently separated from husband Jason Hoppy, "did look refreshed and happy to be out and about."

As Frankel and her companion – a middle-aged balding man – enjoyed their meals, the pair was "deep in conversation that looked fairly serious," the source adds. "She seemed very focused on whatever they were discussing."

– Jennifer Garcia

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

___

JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Stock index futures signal mixed open

PARIS (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Thursday. Futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.05 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.07 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.05 percent at 0933 GMT.

European shares steadied on Thursday as investors awaited the European Central Bank's policy meeting later in the day and President Mario Draghi's views on the region's growth prospects.

Draghi faces a grilling over the euro's sharp rise and his connection to an Italian banking scandal at the ECB meeting where interest rates are almost certain to be unchanged.

Visa Inc's quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates for the ninth consecutive quarter.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp on Wednesday reported higher quarterly revenue and profit on strong growth at its cable assets including its Regional Sports and FX networks.

Boeing Co is working on battery design changes that would minimize fire risks on its grounded 787 Dreamliner and could have the passenger jet flying again as soon as March, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc forecast sales growth for the current quarter that is slightly lower than analysts expected as retailers work through unsold inventory of its products after a slower-than-expected holiday season.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd , the main manufacturer of Apple Inc products, said on Thursday consolidated January sales dropped 8.19 percent from a year earlier.

A U.S. judge threw out a lawsuit from South Korea's Woori Bank accusing Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit of misleading investors about the riskiness of collateralized debt obligations, saying the suit had missed a deadline under South Korean law.

CVS Caremark Corp said on Wednesday it bought Drogaria Onofre, Brazil's eighth-largest drugstore chain last week, marking the first time the drugstore and pharmacy services company has ventured outside the United States.

Michael Dell and his investment firm are putting up $750 million in cash toward the $24.4 billion purchase of Dell Inc to help bankroll the largest private equity-backed buyout since the financial crisis.

Yelp Inc posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss and its shares fell 6 percent in after-market trading as the consumer review website faces competition from Facebook Inc .

Chipmaker TriQuint Semiconductor Inc forecast current-quarter results below analysts' estimates after some orders were pulled into the fourth quarter, sending its shares down 8 percent.

Allstate Corp's quarterly profit fell 45 percent on losses from superstorm Sandy, but the home and auto insurer said it has paid out about 95 percent of Sandy claims and is seeing rate increases across businesses.

Herbalife Inc disclosed more information on Wednesday about how much its U.S. distributors earn, looking to provide more clarity as it defends its business model from critics like billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

On the macro front, investors awaited weekly jobless claims, due at 1330 GMT, as well as quarterly data on productivity and unit labor costs, also due at 1330 GMT.

Among the companies set to report results on Thursday feature Coca-Cola Enterprises , Hasbro, Inc. , Philip Morris International and Sprint Nextel Corp. .

U.S. stocks ended mostly flat on Wednesday, taking another pause in the recent rally that has driven the S&P 500 to five-year highs, as transportation and technology shares lost ground.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 7.22 points, or 0.05 percent, at 13,986.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 0.83 points, or 0.05 percent, at 1,512.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 3.10 points, or 0.10 percent, at 3,168.48.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; editing by Stephen Nisbet)

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BlackBerry wants developers ready for the Q10, releases new developer phone with QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry (BBRY) hasn’t yet announced launch details for its second BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10, but it still wants to make sure that developers are ready for the new phone once it becomes available. Apropos, the vendor on Tuesday announced a new “Dev Alpha C” developer handset that features a QWERTY keyboard and the same display dimensions as the upcoming BlackBerry Q10. The handset will allow developers to get acclimated with the BlackBerry 10/QWERTY combination and prep apps that work as well with the Q10 as they do on the BlackBerry Z10.

[More from BGR: Google’s big potential problem: The ‘Galaxy’ brand is starting to beat the ‘Android’ brand]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ipswich Journal: Paul Mason Is One-Third the Man He Used to Be

Paul Nixon Photography

Paul Mason in 2012, two years after gastric bypass surgery stripped him of the unofficial title of “the world’s fattest man.”

IPSWICH, England — Who knows what the worst moment was for Paul Mason — there were so many awful milestones, as he grew fatter and fatter — but a good bet might be when he became too vast to leave his room. To get him to the hospital for a hernia operation, the local fire department had to knock down a wall and extricate him with a forklift.

That was nearly a decade ago, when Mr. Mason weighed about 980 pounds, and the spectacle made him the object of fascinated horror, a freak-show exhibit. The British news media, which likes a superlative, appointed him “the world’s fattest man.”

Now the narrative has shifted to one of redemption and second chances. Since a gastric bypass operation in 2010, Mr. Mason, 52 years old and 6-foot-4, has lost nearly two-thirds of his body weight, putting him at about 336 pounds — still obese, but within the realm of plausibility. He is talking about starting a jewelry business.

“My meals are a lot different now than they used to be,” Mr. Mason said during a recent interview in his one-story apartment in a cheerful public housing complex here. For one thing, he no longer eats around the clock. “Food is a necessity, but now I don’t let it control my life anymore,” he said.

But the road to a new life is uphill and paved with sharp objects. When he answered the door, Mr. Mason did not walk; he glided in an electric wheelchair.

And though Mr. Mason looks perfectly normal from the chest up, horrible vestiges of his past stick to him, literally, in the form of a huge mass of loose skin choking him like a straitjacket. Folds and folds of it encircle his torso and sit on his lap, like an unwanted package someone has set there; more folds encase his legs. All told, he reckons, the excess weighs more than 100 pounds.

As he waits to see if anyone will agree to perform the complex operation to remove the skin, Mr. Mason has plenty of time to ponder how he got to where he is. He was born in Ipswich and had a childhood marked by two things, he says: the verbal and physical abuse of his father, a military policeman turned security guard; and three years of sexual abuse, starting when he was 6, by a relative in her 20s who lived in the house and shared his bed. He told no one until decades later.

After he left school, Mr. Mason took a job as a postal worker and became engaged to a woman more than 20 years older than him. “I thought it would be for life, but she just turned around one day and said, ‘No, I don’t want to see you anymore — goodbye,’ ” he said.

His father died, and he returned home to care for his arthritic mother, who was in a wheelchair. “I still had all these things going around in my head from my childhood,” he said. “Food replaced the love I didn’t get from my parents.” When he left the Royal Mail in 1986, he said, he weighed 364 pounds.

Then things spun out of control. Mr. Mason tried to eat himself into oblivion. He spent every available penny of his and his mother’s social security checks on food. He stopped paying the mortgage. The bank repossessed their house, and the council found them a smaller place to live. All the while, he ate the way a locust eats — indiscriminately, voraciously, ingesting perhaps 20,000 calories a day. First he could no longer manage the stairs; then he could no longer get out of his room. He stayed in bed, on and off, for most of the last decade.

Social service workers did everything for him, including changing his incontinence pads. A network of local convenience stores and fast-food restaurants kept the food coming nonstop — burgers, french fries, fish and chips, even about $22 worth of chocolate bars a day.

“They didn’t deliver bags of crisps,” he said of potato chips. “They delivered cartons.”

His life became a cycle: eat, doze, eat, eat, eat. “You didn’t sleep a normal sleep,” he said. “You’d be awake most of the night eating and snacking. You totally forgot about everything else. You lose all your dignity, all your self-respect. It all goes, and all you focus on is getting your next fix.”

He added, “It was quite a lonely time, really.”

He got infections a lot and was transported to the hospital — first in a laundry van, then on the back of a truck and finally on the forklift. For 18 months after a hernia operation in 2003, he lived in the hospital and in an old people’s home — where he was not allowed to leave his room — while the local government found him a house that could accommodate all the special equipment he needed.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 6, 2013

The headline on an earlier version of this article misstated Paul Mason’s current weight relative to what he weighed nearly a decade ago. He is now about one-third, not two-thirds, the weight he was then.

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