Friday, November 30, 2012

iTunes 11 now available to download: fresh design, more iCloud features

iTunes 11 screen cap

Apple's thoroughly re-engineered iTunes is now ready for you to try. The desktop download includes a new MiniPlayer for playing tracks in a widget-sized window, an "Up Next" feature for cueing up songs and viewing what's next at a glance, and -- if you can't decide which tune to rack up -- Apple's software will now offer "instant recommendations" of its own. iTunes 11 will also endeavor to relocate your position within a song, movie or TV shows if your media consumption ever gets interrupted. Finally, iCloud integration will allow you to play back your library on any device, while an offline option should allow in-flight or underground listening sessions to continue without a hitch.

Jon Fingas contributed to this report.

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Source: Apple

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/itunes-11/

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10 Tips to Help You Find the Right Boarding Facility For Your Horse ...

Choosing the right boarding facility for your horse is almost as complicated as choosing your own accommodations. Care, thought and research has to be put into the matter because your horse,s life and well being depends on the choices you make. Here are a few tips to help simplify the matter for you:

1. The Facility: Take a good look at the facility. Ask to see the stables, the tack room, the paddocks and any other areas around the facility. The facility should be clean, airy and not smell of manure or ammonia. The stables should be light and airy and away from any drafts.

2. The Managers: Talk to the owners or manager. They should appear knowledgeable and helpful and ask if any staff members remain overnight to monitor the horses.

3. Training: Find out if the facility offers any training for you or your horse. Professional training services can be very beneficial if your horse is green or has any vices.

4. The Horses: Take a look at the horses. Are they calm and clean? Horses can tell a lot about how they feel about their environment by the way they behave. Do they have proper bedding under them? Are the stables clean? Try to talk to other owners and ask them about their opinion of the facility.

5. Turnout Times: Find out about the facilities turnout routine. Horses need to spend time out in a paddock, this is important for their mental and physical wellbeing.

6. Additional Services: Ask about extra services such as veterinary care, shoeing, de-worming and vaccinations. Ask about the vet the facility uses and how they handle emergencies.

7. Location: The location of the facility is very important. Is it close to where you live? Is it easily accessible? Is it close to urban areas? 8. Opening Hours: Find out when the facility is open and decide whether their operating hours are convenient for you.

9. Costs and Contracts: Ask about monthly expenses and costs and read any contracts closely. Some facilities may seem cheaper than others but may have hidden fees, so make sure you read the contract properly and don?t be afraid to ask if there?s something you don?t understand.

10. Arenas and Riding Areas: A good choice of facility will include an indoor and outdoor riding area. If you choose a stable that is too close to the city, you may discover that hacking areas are limited.

Make sure you do your homework properly, research and try to get word of mouth recommendations from family and friends, use online resources to help find reputable stables on the internet.

Stal Amani is an impeccable equestrian centre complete with three indoor and outdoor arenas. We regularly hold show jumping and dressage competitions from novice up to Grand Prix level and due to our central location in Belgium, the facility is ideal for foreign competitors looking for a temporary or permanent base in Europe. We are minutes away from Herentals. For more information please visit: http://www.stalamani.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josie_Amani

Source: http://pet.mypkweb.com/10-tips-to-help-you-find-the-right-boarding-facility-for-your-horse-2/

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Microsoft confirms Surface with Windows 8 Pro pricing: starting at $899 for 64GB version, shipping in January

Microsoft confirms Surface with Windows 8 Pro pricing starting at $899 for 64GB version

Details on the Pro variety of Microsoft's Surface tablet have been hard to come by since the company first announced it back in June, but it's filled in some big ones today. It's confirmed in a blog post that the device will start at $899 for the 64GB model, with the 128GB version setting you back $999. Both of those are what's Microsoft's dubbing the "standalone" model, which means you'll get a Surface pen/stylus, but have to shell out extra for a Touch or Type Cover (each over $100). Both will be available in January, although there's no specific date or word on pre-orders yet.

As you can see, the device looks similar to the Surface RT, including the same "VaporMg" casing and built-in kickstand, and it also boasts a 10.6-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. A key difference with that latter bit, though, is that the screen packs a full 1920 x 1080 resolution as opposed to the 1366 x 768 found on the RT model. You'll also get a third-gen Core i5 processor with 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (no more specifics on that just yet), 4GB of RAM, a Mini DisplayPort that can output a 2560 x 1440 resolution, a full-size USB 3.0 port and, of course, Windows 8 Pro with support for all your traditional desktop applications. All that expectedly makes the tablet itself a bit heftier than its RT-based counterpart -- it's just over half-an-inch thick and weighs in at two pounds on the nose.

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Source: Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/mDQZQ-DQUb4/

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Give the Gift of Home this Holiday Season | St. Bernard Project

As you and your colleagues prepare for this time of celebration and thanksgiving, we at St. Bernard Project would like to ask you to remember those hard-working families who are still struggling to rebuild their homes ? families who have not celebrated a holiday at home for eight years. This year, your company can help our clients ? all of them homeowners who have done their best to rebuild after Katrina ? come home
for the holidays.

In lieu of holiday gifts to your clients, please consider making a donation to SBP in their honor. In return for your commitment to help bring families home, SBP will provide you with the following:

  • A holiday card sent on your behalf, acknowledging your gift to SBP in your clients? honor
  • Stories, photos and updates on the family your business sponsors, opportunities for hands-on volunteer days rebuilding ?your? home, plus an invitation to the family?s Welcome?Home Party!
  • Recognition of your ?Home for the Holidays? participation on SBP?s social media platforms

Every donation brings us closer to our goal of complete recovery. To residents of New Orleans, home has always meant security, family, togetherness, and independence ? the roots run deep here. Please help bring hardworking families home this holiday season.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS ? $25,000+

Sponsorship at this level funds rebuilding for a client?s home. Currently there are 130 families on our waiting list who need funds to begin construction on their home. Your sponsorship here allows SBP to move these families off our waiting list?and into construction.

FOUNDATION LEVEL SUPPORT ? $10,000

Sponsorship at this level supports nearly half of the building supplies for an average sized home.

SUSTAINER LEVEL SUPPORT ? $5,000

Sponsorship at this level funds a VeteransCorps member for a 10-month term; or buys appliances for four families? homes.

FRIEND OF SBP ? $2,500

Sponsorship at this level provides drywall for an entire home.

To give the gift of home this holiday season, please contact Ann?Williams at ann.williams@stbernardproject.org or 504.457.8661.

Source: http://www.stbernardproject.org/2012/news/give-the-gift-of-home-this-holiday-season/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=give-the-gift-of-home-this-holiday-season

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Business student restores historical post into fair trade store | The ...

What started as a class assignment for senior business major Nicole Johnny has turned into a revolutionary way to bring a community together and implement a lifelong dream. Johnny was assigned to write a business plan for her International Business class, but she did not stop there.

?
Johnny started her own fair trade store in her hometown Crystal, N.M., which is part of the Navajo Nation. Johnny is currently developing the start-up of her own trading post, which will serve as a gathering place, an educational arena, and an outlet for arts and crafts as well as a job source for the Navajo people.

?
Merging her business skills with her love for her culture, Johnny has cast an innovative vision. She grew up in the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico and spent her childhood exploring the outdoors all the while learning to appreciate her heritage. Both of her parents obtained college degrees and started their own businesses on the reservation.

?
Johnny watched her grandmother weave when she was growing up, and now she weaves herself. However, when she watched her grandmother sell rugs to non-Navajo store owners, she would see the rugs being resold for two or three times the price the next day. Johnny saw this as unfair, which is why she decided to do something about it.

?
After completing her class assignment, Johnny reworked it from an international scale to a real-life working business plan.

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The trading post will have a coffee shop to serve local students from the tribal college and a small library to serve students attending boarding school. The shop will also function as a store for local artists to sell their crafts. Among these functions, the shop will also be a cultural museum for others to learn about the Navajo culture.

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?It?s a place where the community can share its history and beauty for everyone who wants to experience and learn about the Navajo culture,? Johnny said.

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After Johnny developed her business venture and established her vision for the trading post, she had to deal with the practicalities of starting her own business.

?
?I submitted this version to the Navajo Nation Economic Development Committee,? Johnny said. ?I?m sure I was the youngest person who walked into their building with a business plan and I?m sure that someone thought I was too young. But they gave my business plan a look, suggested areas where I could revise it, and they liked it.?

?
The hard-working business student? obtained the support of her community for the project ? the very people she desires to serve.

?
Johnny is currently researching ways to fund the project and writing grant proposals to get her trading post up and running. She also is looking into the legal aspect of the business and working towards obtaining all the required clearances needed. These include permits to utilize the building safely and to legally serve and sell food. Johnny is working with Dr. Daniel Kipley of the APU School of Business and Management to help with the logistics of the venture.

?
Although Johnny is excited about starting her own business, this year has not been one without pain. Her father passed away unexpectedly this past summer, and she misses the comfort and understanding of her tribe while she attends college in California. Instead of taking a leave of absence, Johnny decided to stay and graduate on time.

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?He was looking forward to my graduation, and I know he would want me to continue and finish,? Johnny said.

?
Johnny is not going to let struggles stand in the way of achieving her dream even though this committed student has faced adversity. Johnny draws inspiration from her Navajo culture.

?
?After 500 years of cultural genocide and massacres, we remain,? Johnny said.
The Navajo Nation still faces many issues from job shortages to alcoholism. But Johnny acknowledges that her generation is a part of a positive change for her people.

?
?We?re survivors. And even though my trading post is a small contribution, it?s a part of this change,? Johnny said.? ?I refuse to let my culture, traditions, language and people be forgotten.?

Source: http://www.theclause.org/2012/11/business-student-restores-historical-post-into-fair-trade-store/

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Syria rebels kill ruling party official with bomb

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels have bombed the house of a top member of the president's ruling Baath party in the south, and activists say he was killed.

Rebels detonated a car bomb near the house of Hussein Rifai in the city of Daraa, killing him and three of his bodyguards Thursday, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory relies on reports from the ground.

The official SANA news agency reported the bombing in Daraa but did not say if Rifai was among those killed.

Daraa is the birthplace of the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Rebels fighting to topple him have frequently targeted members of his regime since the revolt started in March 2011.

The uprising became a civil war that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-kill-ruling-party-official-bomb-104437352.html

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Solving the Childhood Obesity Puzzle, One Piece at a Time | BU ...

The complex problems surrounding childhood obesity are the focus of SSW Assistant Professor Daniel Miller?s research.

There are many reasons why people are obese. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates that one-third of Americans are obese, attributes the epidemic to genes, diet, socioeconomic status, environment, and lifestyle, among other things. At BU, dozens of researchers are searching for a better understanding of the causes of, and for solutions to, a health problem associated with heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, and whose medical costs were $147 billion in 2008. In this four-part series, BU Today looks at their work in progress.

The statistics on childhood obesity are grim. In 1974, only about 5 percent of American children were obese. Today that number is 16.9 percent. If you include kids who are overweight as well, the number reaches 31 percent. Children who are overweight or obese often have a host of health problems, from type 2 diabetes and asthma to high blood pressure and depression. They are also more likely to be overweight as adults. But the scariest thing of all is that nobody knows what has caused the epidemic or how to reverse the trend.

Daniel Miller, a School of Social Work assistant professor, has spent his career trying to figure that out. There are plenty of places to point the finger: too many video games and television, not enough school recess, ads for sugary cereals that target kids, high-fructose corn syrup, and super-sized fries. But none of these things can be the sole culprit. Complex problems like childhood obesity have no easy cause and no easy solution. ?I think that we get into trouble when we try to default into simple explanations about what?s causing a very complicated thing,? says Miller. ?It?s a lot of stuff together.?

Miller, a policy analyst, pores over huge sets of data, looking at different pieces of the obesity puzzle and trying to get a sense of the whole picture. He doesn?t have any answers?yet. But his long-term goal is to construct what he calls the ?social ecology? of child obesity, putting the whole puzzle together and helping to influence policies that can change it.

His first foray into obesity began during his doctoral research on working mothers and how their employment may affect their families? health. (Fathers? employment seems to have little effect on child obesity, by the way.) ?We know obesity has increased over time. What else has increased over time? Maternal employment,? says Miller. Other studies had suggested that the two trends were connected. He decided to investigate.

To do so, he crunched data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which is run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, examining data on working mothers. Miller?s results were intriguing, but not straightforward. He found that children were more likely to be overweight at ages 9 to 11 and 12 to 14 when their mothers worked. But mom working when the kids were younger?ages six to eight?led to a decreased risk for obesity. In another study, which Miller coauthored with Wen-Jui Han of New York University, he found that children whose mothers worked either a few years or many years at nonstandard shifts were more likely to be overweight or obese at age 13 to 14. What?s going on? Miller isn?t sure, but he suspects that when a mother is working, younger children are being closely monitored by someone. Older kids, however, are more likely to be home alone, munching chips in front of the TV.

Boston University BU, Daniel Miller research, childhood obesity, socioeconomic contributors obesity epidemic trend, Social Work, Boston Medical Center BMC

Miller pores over huge sets of data, looking at different pieces of the obesity puzzle and trying to get a sense of the whole picture. Photo by Michael Malyszko

Other factors are at play, Miller adds, and they probably come down to choice, especially when it comes to shift work. If a mother works odd hours so she can make breakfast and walk the children to school, that?s an advantage for the kids. But if a mother has to work a poorly paid, stressful, or exhausting night shift, she may not have the time or energy to cook healthy meals or take the kids to the park.

Miller is quick to point out that his work is not about blaming working mothers for childhood obesity. ?It?s not that working moms say, ?Okay, now I?ve finished up my work. I?m going to make all these unhealthy choices for my family,?? he says. ?It?s just that the way that our society is structured, it doesn?t support the working activities of mothers.?

And, he adds, even today, the brunt of housework and child care still falls to mothers.

?We?re not exactly clear about the story of how maternal employment gets to child obesity,? Miller says, but ?it?s pretty clear that it has something to do with what happens at home.? He points out that it?s usually?although not always?moms who set the rules at home when it comes to meals, screen time, and eating behavior. ?We?re still stuck in this relic of older, familiar patterns,? he says. ?It persists today.?

Miller?s latest work, conducted with Sunny Shin, another SSW assistant professor, moves away from working mothers to focus on another question: whether physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect may lead to childhood obesity.

Shin and Miller examined data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), which collected data from 8,471 children and parents at four points in their lives. They found that kids who were abused or neglected were more likely to have higher body mass indexes as adolescents. This wasn?t particularly surprising, but as Miller notes, the results could have easily pointed the other way. ?If a child is abused or neglected, they could have an eating disorder, not be fed correctly, or be malnourished,? he says.

But not all the trends were clear. ?There was one thing that surprised me a lot,? says Shin. ?We looked at all different combinations of different types of abuse. We expected that kids who had experienced all three things?physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect?would develop obesity, but that was not the case.? In other words, the most abused and neglected kids were the least likely to be overweight.

One explanation, says Shin, is that the chronically abused, extremely high-risk children got a lot of attention from child protective services very early on, and this intervention helped save them from some of the long-term effects of abuse. ?Maybe the system is working, in some way,? she says.

This research on abuse and neglect is leading Miller to think about how the body responds to stress, and whether that may play a role in obesity. ?Kids that are maltreated are exposed to tremendous duress and stress,? he notes. ?And there?s very clear findings from the literature that stress is awful for you?it can harm your body.? Miller suspects prolonged stress may lead to biological and behavioral changes that promote obesity. So far, he says, there?s little data to back up the idea, so the area is ripe for study.

Where will Miller?s work lead? Hopefully, he says, to comprehensive policies that can fight childhood obesity from multiple angles. In the end, any new policies to tackle obesity will have to be coordinated and comprehensive in order to succeed, he says, and will have to account for the way a child?s environment affects both biology and behavior. ?That?s the way that has to be framed,? Miller says. ?It?s not that you?re making bad choices. It?s just that your choices are constrained by an environment that doesn?t allow you to make good choices all the time.?

It?s not an easy answer. But in the end, it may be the only answer that works.

Next, in part three of our series, is fat the cure for obesity?

Barbara Moran (COM?96) is a science writer in Brookline, Mass. She can be reached through her website, WrittenByBarbaraMoran.com.

Source: http://www.bu.edu/today/2012/solving-the-childhood-obesity-puzzle-one-piece-at-a-time/

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violation hulda: cbc news: Eco-Innovation Observatory launches ...

The Eco-Innovation Observatory (EIO) would like to invite you to share your views on the role of eco-innovation in the shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon Europe. We would like to consult representatives from academia, business, civil society and public administration by taking part in our questionnaire. Your insights will be used in the upcoming reports of the Observatory, including our final flagship annual publication. The survey has only three questions and is entirely anonymous.

Please follow this link to the questionnaire.

For more information on the Eco-Innovation Observatory, see www.eco-innovation.eu

?>

Source: http://seri.at/resource-use/2012/11/15/eco-innovation-observatory-launches-online-questionnaire/

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Wall Street opens lower on 'cliff' worry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for a third consecutive decline, as investors remained on edge given the lack of details on U.S. budget, or so-called fiscal cliff, talks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 53.22 points, or 0.41 percent, to 12,824.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 7.44 points, or 0.53 percent, to 1,391.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 15.70 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,952.09.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-opens-lower-cliff-worry-144156952--finance.html

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Obama spoke with House Speaker Boehner, others on "fiscal cliff"

Country music titan Dolly Parton is anything but shy.In an exclusive interview with "Nightline," Parton dished about her love life (including those rumors that she is secretly gay), losing a drag queen lookalike contest and building an entertainment empire estimated at half a billion dollars.Watch the full story on "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 p.m. ETIn her long reign as a country music legend, Parton, now 66, has done it all. In her new motivational memoir, "Dream More," which will be released on Nov. 27, Parton talks about growing up dirt poor in Sevierville, Tenn. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-spoke-house-speaker-boehner-others-fiscal-cliff-195112713--business.html

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US twin astronaut, Russian to spend year in orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A former space shuttle commander whose twin brother is married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attempt the longest spaceflight ever by an American.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2015.

Both countries' space agencies announced the names of the two veteran spacefliers on Monday. The extended mission was approved almost two months ago to provide a medical foundation for future missions around the moon, as well as far-flung trips to asteroids and Mars.

Both men already have lived aboard the space station for six months. NASA wanted experienced space station astronauts to streamline the amount of training necessary for a one-year stint. Officials had said the list of candidates was very short. They will begin training next year.

"Their skills and previous experience aboard the space station align with the mission's requirements," Bill Gerstenmaier, head of human exploration for NASA, said in a statement. "The one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space and will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low-Earth orbit."

Kelly's identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, retired from the astronaut corps last year and moved to Tucson, Ariz., his wife's hometown. The former congresswoman was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in January 2011, while Scott Kelly was living aboard the space station.

NASA said neither crew member was available Monday to comment and that news conferences would be held next week to outline the mission.

Astronauts normally spend about four to six months aboard the space station. The longest an American lived there was seven months, several years back.

Russia, though, will continue to hold the world space endurance record.

Four cosmonauts spent at least a year aboard the old Mir space station. A Russian physician, Valery Polyakov, logged nearly 15 continuous months there in the mid-1990s.

Boris Morukov, head of the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, Russia's main space medicine research center, told the Interfax news agency that communications and food rations for Kelly and Kornienko may be limited during their yearlong mission to better simulate interplanetary travel.

Kelly and Kornienko will launch aboard a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan. Americans must buy seats on Russian spacecraft now that NASA's shuttles have retired to museums, until private U.S. companies have vessels capable of carrying human passengers. That's still four or five years off.

Kelly is a 48-year-old, divorced Navy captain with two daughters. Kornienko, 52, a rocket engineer, is married with a daughter.

"We have chosen the most responsible, skilled and enthusiastic crew members to expand space exploration, and we have full confidence in them," Russian Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said in the announcement.

___

AP writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-twin-astronaut-russian-spend-orbit-171859046.html

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Buzz kill: US won't send Andrew W.K. to Bahrain

(AP) ? Andrew W.K. won't be taking his party to Bahrain after all.

The American performer announced on his website that he had been named a cultural ambassador to Bahrain, where he'd promote "partying and world peace."

He had been tentatively invited by the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain to visit the country, but the State Department had second thoughts.

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday that the invitation to 33-year-old singer of songs including "Party Til You Puke" had been rescinded by senior U.S. officials because they deemed him an inappropriate choice for outreach in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

Andrew W.K. describes himself as a singer-songwriter and motivational speaker, among other things.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-26-People-Andrew%20WK/id-a9f401657ad04b00a23fadb60021ba38

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Graham Daesler: Cutters' Way - The Mysterious Art of Film Editing

Cutters' Way: The Mysterious Art of Film Editing
by Graham Daesler
Bright Lights Film Journal

...

Porter's experiments, however fumbling they appear in hindsight, point us to a curious quandary at the heart of filmmaking: what is it that makes cutting work? How is it that we accept such a violent transition ? whether it be from a wide shot to a close-up, from Paris to the Sahara desert, or from the seventeenth century to the present ? as a cut? "Nothing in our day-to-day experience seems to prepare us for such a thing," Walter Murch observes. "From the moment we get up in the morning until we close our eyes at night, the visual reality we perceive is a continuous stream of linked images: In fact, for millions of years ? tens, hundreds of millions of years ? life on Earth has experienced the world in this way. Then suddenly, at the beginning of the twentieth century, human beings were confronted with something else ? edited film."11 What prepared them for this? Not painting, not theater, not even literature, cinematic as some of Dickens's scenes now appear. Murch speculates that it was dreams. "We accept the cut because it resembles the way images are juxtaposed in our dreams," he writes. "In the darkness of the theater, we say to ourselves, in effect, 'This looks like reality, but it cannot be reality because it is so visually discontinuous; therefore, it must be a dream.'"12 Director John Huston saw it differently. Cinema, he said, was not just a reflection of our dream lives but the very essence of conscious thought, with its fitful jumble of visuals and sound: "To me the perfect film is as though it were unwinding behind your eyes, and your eyes were projecting it themselves, so that you were seeing what you wished to see. It's like thought. It's the closest to thought process of any art."13 Watch the final moments of his film The Dead (1987) and you'll have some idea of what he's talking about. As Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann) gazes out the frosty filigree of his Dublin window, somberly musing on the emptiness of his life, the film, with no more than a few simple cuts, slips aboard his stream of consciousness as it glides from thought to thought: from past memories to future projections to the lonely churchyard on the hill where his wife's lover lies buried.

The first person to truly discover this cinematic language was D. W. Griffith, who was to early cinema what Jane Austen was to the English novel. He saw what Porter failed to see in The Life of an American Fireman: that you could crosscut between different points of view in a scene to create suspense. Perhaps his most signal technique, for which he is still remembered today, is the accelerated pace of cutting that he used during moments of heightened tension, as in The Lonely Villa (1909), The Lonedale Operator (1911), and The Birth of a Nation (1915), rapidly cutting between heroes and villains during chases and rescues. In this manner, he showed that, with some clever editing, he could subjugate time to his demands, either drawing it out for suspense or speeding it up for sudden denouement. Likewise, he dispensed with the custom, so reminiscent of the stage, of beginning a scene when a character enters a room, cutting instead at the moment of the important action, thereby accelerating the pace of the story. To show characters in thought, he used close-ups and cutaways (from a man's face, for example, to a shot of his sweetheart miles away) rather than the cartoonish dream balloons employed by previous filmmakers. Not only did this last technique prove that simple cuts could simulate consciousness, it established a dividing line between screen acting and stage acting that still exists to this day. In a tight close-up, a good actor need only think a thought to express it, rather than histrionically projecting to the back rows of the theater.

Early film cutting was a sometimes excruciating process. Editors viewed their movies in negative, making it difficult to tell one take from the next. Lacking any numbers on the film to guide them, they were forced to pore over millions of frames by hand, using minute alterations in the image to find their bearings. "Sometimes there'd be a tiny pinpoint on the negative and then you knew you were right," Margaret Booth recalls. "But it was very tedious work. Close-ups of Lillian Gish in Orphans of the Storm would go on for miles, and they'd be very similar."14 Most prohibitive, though, was the equipment, or rather the shocking lack of equipment. The essential tools of the trade consisted of a rewind bench, a magnifying glass, and an ordinary pair of scissors. The only way you could see the film in motion was to screen it, so editors took to pulling the film through their fingers to simulate movement. The work must have been exceedingly tiresome, yet it evokes a wonderful image, like some kind of strange tailor's shop, with reams of footage dangling from the walls and the editors, strands of film clenched in their teeth, unspooling bolts of celluloid before their eyes. If they wanted three seconds of footage, they held the film to the tip of their nose and pulled it out to the length of their arm. If they wanted to view it in progress, they hauled it into the projection room and screened it, then carried it back to the editing table to get chopped up some more.

All this changed with the invention of the Moviola in 1919. A chunky, frog-green machine with foot pedals to run the film and a four-inch spy hole to view it, the Moviola was the brainchild of Iwan Serrurier, a Dutch-born electrical engineer who designed the contraption on a whim, as a diversion from his job at the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in Pasadena. Originally, Serrurier tried to sell his gadget as a home-entertainment device (the name itself, Moviola, was chosen for its happy harmony with Victrola, the popular phonograph), but, at $600, it was too expensive for most families in 1920 to afford. Then in 1924, Serrurier ran across an editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios who suggested he adapt it as an editing table for the movie industry. Serrurier "roughed together" a model that very weekend, turning it on its side and attaching a viewing lens and a hand crank he'd lifted from a clock.16 With that, the first editing machine was born. It arrived just in time, too. With the coming of sound, there was no way an editor, no matter how sharp-eyed, could sync sound to silent lips. To accomplish this aural feat, the Moviola was simply fitted with an additional sprocket for the soundtrack to run on, making possible the explosion of talkies that burst from Hollywood, beginning in 1927. After that, the device changed little. It was hefty, ugly, noisy (more than one editor compared the clanking it made to a sewing machine) and, because of its tilted viewer, required the user to sit hunched over all day at a forty-five-degree angle. Yet it remained the mainstay of the film industry for the next seventy years, an unequivocal, if curious, testament to its durability, almost as if the Model T had persisted as the car-of-choice until the new millennium.

To Read the Entire Essay

Source: http://dialogic.blogspot.com/2012/11/graham-daesler-cutters-way-mysterious.html

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Jude Law in 'Anna Karenina' does well at box office as 'Breaking Dawn' breaks records

Jude Law stars in 'Anna Karenina,' which performed well in a limited release during Thanksgiving weekend.? 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 2' had a boffo opening which ranks eighth on all-time debuts.

By David Germain,?Associated Press / November 26, 2012

Jude Law (l.) and Keira Knightley (r.) star in 'Anna Karenina.'

Laurie Sparham/Focus Features/AP

Enlarge

The sun has set on the "Twilight" franchise with one last blockbuster opening for the supernatural romance.

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"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 2" sucked up $141.3 million domestically over opening weekend and $199.6 million more overseas for a worldwide debut of $340.9 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The finale ranks eighth on the list of all-time domestic debuts, and leaves "Twilight" with three of the top-10 openings, joining 2009's "New Moon" (No. 7 with $142.8 million) and last year's "Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" (No. 9 with $138.1 million).

Last May's "The Avengers" is No. 1 with $207.4 million. "Batman" is the only other franchise with more than one top-10 opening: last July's "The Dark Knight Rises" (No. 3 with $160.9 million) and 2008's "The Dark Knight" (No. 4 with $158.4 million).

Though "Twilight" still is a female-driven franchise, with girls and women making up 79 percent of the opening-weekend audience, the finale drew the biggest male crowds in the series. Action-minded guys had more to root for in the finale as Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner join in a colossal battle to end the story of warring vampires and werewolves.

"Our male audience particularly has enjoyed this film," said Richie Fay, head of distribution for Lionsgate, whose Summit Entertainment banner releases the "Twilight" movies. "With the action scenes in this one, we're hoping the holdover business will reflect the fact that males have kind of found it out."

The movie also helped lift Lionsgate into the big leagues among Hollywood studios. Paced by its $400 million smash with "The Hunger Games" and now the "Twilight" finale, Lionsgate surpassed $1 billion at the domestic box office for the first time.

Some box-office watchers had expected the last "Twilight" movie to open with a franchise record the way the "Harry Potter" finale did last year with $169.2 million, the second-best domestic debut on the charts.

"I thought that for the final installment, it might eclipse the franchise record, but to look at $141.3 million and say that's a disappointment, that's kind of crazy," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "It's one of the most consistently performing franchises of all time."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DXOJCq89KzU/Jude-Law-in-Anna-Karenina-does-well-at-box-office-as-Breaking-Dawn-breaks-records

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November Friday Night Hoop Lights | Hoop | Play | Fitness | Health ...

by brngckn on November 26, 2012

What is Friday Night Hoop Lights?

Once a month we get together to play with our LED and glow hoops and flow toys. It's a social & sharing opportunity. Meet other hoopers, share hooping tips, play, dance, move your body, make new friends ? it's always a good time.

We meet rain or shine under the cover of The Street of Dreams Palapa at 12802 McSwain in Cypress, TX. Just look for the spinning hoops under the giant grass hut behind the giraffes. Please park in the Tennis Ranch lot across the road.?

The next Friday NIght Hoop Lights happens Friday, November 30 at 7 PM! CLICK HERE for details.

Bring water, your hoops, your friends and family and join us!

Kirsten Tucker is a certified Level 1-3 Hoopnotica hoopdance instructor, Level 1-2 BodyHoops instructor, HoopChi certified instructor, Hoop Revolution mentor, Master T-Tapp Trainer/Trainer Mentor, 11 year personal trainer, play advocate & Certified Laughter Leader. She offers hoop classes and training in NW Houston and worldwide. Founder of Hoopy Thoughts hoop Meetup group, she thinks hoopy thoughts every day.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Source: http://www.hoopythoughts.com/november-hoop-lights

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

How to Fix a String of Christmas Lights

You're not alone on this one. At some terrible moment in early- to mid-December, we can almost hear the collective sigh of dismay as good people around this land untangle and plug in strings of bad mini lights. Above the din we also hear a few expletives, because the mass-produced sets can be pricey. Your impulse to fix them is noble, but the task should not be undertaken lightly (sorry, unavoidable pun), because the strands contain scores, if not hundreds, of tiny incandescent bulbs. Which one is the culprit? Or are there several burnouts?

Regardless, don't give up. With a few handy tools and a modicum of holiday spirit, mini lights can be repaired.

First step: diagnosis. You need to figure out if it's actually a bad bulb causing the malfunction or something else. Keep in mind that smaller sets are wired in series?that is, the electrical current must pass through each individual bulb in order to complete the circuit and illuminate the set. Larger strings often feature two or more series circuits wired in parallel, which explains why sometimes just a section of the strand won't light up. Often, simply replacing a bad bulb will fix the entire set or at least a section of it.

But locating the faulty bulb can be tricky. You'll need either a set of basic electrician's tools or the LightKeeper Pro ($19.95; lightkeeperpro.com), a dedicated tool that combines a voltage detector, a bulb remover, bulb and fuse testers, and a shunt repairer. More on that later.

If you're lucky, simply plugging in the mini lights will reveal a bad bulb. "Bad" may just mean it needs to be seated more firmly in its socket. In any case, you can remove and test a bulb using the LightKeeper Pro or a multimeter. If you install a new one, make sure it has the proper voltage rating or you risk damaging the whole set.

Fixing a string of lights isn't always that simple. All or part of it may be dark because of a broken filament or a sketchy shunt (see glossary). If a bulb's filament breaks, the shunt is supposed to redirect current through the base of the bulb, maintaining the electrical circuit. You can fix a faulty shunt with the LightKeeper Pro. Simply plug in the strand, remove a bulb that's in or near the darkened section, and insert the tool into the bulb's socket. Pulling the trigger activates a piezo circuit, which sends a high-energy pulse through the set. After about 20 pulses, any faulty shunt should be activated.

If you're still having trouble locating where the circuit is broken, try using a voltage detector. There's one built into the LightKeeper Pro, or you can use an electrician's model. Still nothing? Check the fuse located behind a small sliding panel on the male end of the plug. If it's fried (you can check it with the LightKeeper Pro), be sure to replace it with a new one of the correct rating, which should be indicated on the plug. And if all else fails, buying a new string may be irksome, but at least it'll keep some small part of your holidays bright.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/electrical-plumbing/how-to-fix-a-string-of-christmas-lights-14774047?src=rss

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Communication Gadgets | Hugo Hosting

Interaction is one of the main issues we cannot are living with no. Precisely how really should we convey ourselves, send details, or even speak to any person without speaking? Due to its importance, our methods of connection has been improved by specialists and inventors. These varieties of frequent platforms are the types that people use everyday so that you can converse with every single other and in fact, we can not actually photograph existence with out these. Under are a number of with the frequent mediums that individuals use when speaking to one particular one more.

The Web ? This is the most recent and greatest method concerning conversation nowadays. Using the laptop or computer, men and women are ready to hook up to other individuals all around the world. In addition you will get practically anything that you seek out for through the internet.
Telephones ? Though this device is sort of previous currently, it is nonetheless being used right now. Telephones experienced been really between the most historical signifies of connection. However, since the technology is growing, the particular telephones these days carry out far better when compared to these of the early moments.
Radio ? These sorts of gizmos had been utilized by way of the earlier situations. This gadget nevertheless, can only carry out fast communications in just a specified assortment. Today, radios are still becoming used by certain individuals and even employed by youngsters for fun.
Cell telephones ? The real bodily appearance of the cell mobile phone is in truth connected to the telephone. Nevertheless, this doesn?t have any chord and you might deliver it where ever you go.
Cell Cellular telephones ? Encouraged from the cellular phone, one more higher-technological gadget was invented. The extremely 1st sets of cell phones had been actually fairly simple mixed both the characteristics of the pager and a cell mobile phone. By making use of the mobile mobile phone, you can deliver messages which are what we call text messaging. You might also get in touch with folks with this gadget presented that you have acquired adequate cellular phone load balance. Nevertheless, individuals have been not truly that pleased by these functions which directed specialists and inventors to include much more and a lot more applications into it. Presently, a complex mobile phone currently attributes a entrance and back again digital digicam, camcorder, online games as properly as other engaging applications, tone recorder, ipod, television, radio, and internet accessibility.

Specialists and also experts carry on to be looking for choice suggestions to make our methods of relationship wider. Even so, we could moreover talk about the views and ideas in relation to this particular theme. For this purpose, there are a lot of community forums nowadays where we could specifically take portion in. Some of these are composed of mobile cellphone forums, cellphone forums, and all types of other dialogue boards with regards to conversation.

Related posts:

  1. Samsung Mobile Phones : Exemplary Gadgets Serving Communication
  2. Mobile phones ? A must communication tool
  3. Cheap Mobile Contracts: Making Communication Inexpensive
  4. Cheap Mobile Phones- making communication easy
  5. Mobile Phones? Efficient COmmunicating gadgets

Source: http://www.hugohosting.com/communication-gadgets.html

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Electricity Sector Council now Electricity Human Resources Canada ...

November 22, 2012 - With a new name, new website and ?refocused direction?, Electricity Human Resources Canada (EHRC)?formerly Electricity Sector Council (ESC)?has ?doubled down on its efforts to keep the lights on in Canada?.
?Our new strategic direction reflects EHRC?s desire to become an even more important resource to the electricity industry,? said CEO Michelle Branigan. ?Industry expressed overwhelming support for our work, for our ability to connect stakeholders. And now they want more.?

EHRC claims itself the authority on human resources in Canada?s electricity industry. For the last eight years, it has provided the industry with research on labour market issues and tools to address skill shortages.

?We?ll continue to provide invaluable labour market intelligence and practical workplace support. And the industry will look to us as a hub for research, learning and networking,? added Branigan.

Since its inception in 2005, EHRC (then ESC) relied on operational funding from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada through the federal Sector Council Program. But recent budget cuts meant the end of government funding to all sector councils. As of next year, the organization had to become self-sufficient.

Norm Fraser, COO of Hydro Ottawa and chair of EHRC?s board, acknowledged the value that EHRC brings to the electricity industry: ?EHRC connects all the players in the industry-business, labour, government and academia. By refocusing, the organization will become an even more effective partner to industry, helping address the human resource challenges it faces. The industry has two key drivers that will impact on its ability to provide reliable service: massive impending retirements and the need to maintain and build infrastructure.?

?Over the next few years? said Branigan, ?EHRC will continue to expand the services and research it provides to the electricity industry, and ensure HR needs, resources and strategies are effectively communicated to the industry at large?.

Visit the new website at http://www.electricityhr.ca.

Source: http://www.ebmag.com/Industry-News/electricity-sector-council-now-electricity-human-resources-canada.html

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Two Free Tickets To Le Web And Here?s A Discount Code For TC Readers

logo (2)LeWeb Paris in December is getting closer and conference organizers?Loic and Geraldine Le Meur have put together a schedule featuring great speakers and companies around the theme of 'The Internet of Things'. And two lucky TechCrunch readers will be able to come for free. Just explain in the comments below this post why you should win and we'll pick the best two. If you aren't that lucky, TechCrunch readers can still grab a 300 euro discount using the code TechCrunch.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eutXNJSp3i4/

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France's Sarkozy questioned over campaign funds

PARIS (AP) ? He faces the possibility of charges on allegations he took advantage of an aging heiress to get envelopes stuffed with illegal cash for his presidential campaign. His party is mired in an internal feud. And still France's conservatives see Nicolas Sarkozy as their best hope to return to power.

It's a sign of how polarizing the former president is for the French: Many were suspicious of his close ties to the wealthy and threw him out of office; supporters see him as the only person able to save the country's economy and wish he'd return. On Thursday, the former president was named a key ? and potentially indictable ? witness after 12 hours before a judge to answer questions about whether he accepted illegal campaign donations from the 90-year-old L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.

Bettencourt's former accountant told police she handed over ?150,000 ($192,000) in cash she was told would be passed on to Sarkozy's campaign treasurer. In July, a magistrate ordered the seizure of Sarkozy's diaries, including his calendars.

The sum, although it pales in comparison to U.S. campaign funding amounts, shocked many French citizens because spending on political campaigns is tightly limited here. Individual campaign contributions to candidates are limited to ?4,600 ($5,930), and no candidate can spend more than ?22 million ($28 million) on an entire presidential campaign.

By comparison, an estimated total of $4 billion (?3 billion) was spent on campaigning for this year's U.S. presidential elections, and in the final months of the campaign each candidate was pulling in upward of $100 million (?77 million).

The investigation that has ensnared Sarkozy centers on the finances of Bettencourt, Europe's richest woman and the focus of a long-running family feud over her fortune. Bettencourt, who was reported to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, has since been placed under legal protection.

Sarkozy's election loss in May cost him his immunity from prosecution. By July, his offices had been raided. The Bordeaux prosecutor, Claude Lapland, told the Sipa news agency after Thursday's hearing that Sarkozy was given the status of what in France is known as an "assisting witness," with the possibility of facing charges later on allegations of abusing someone in an impaired state, swindling and abuse of confidence.

"Given the extremely strict rules and controls, illegal financing is completely impossible," said Claude Gueant, who was Sarkozy's campaign director at the time, chief of staff and later his interior minister.

Sarkozy entered the Bordeaux courthouse Thursday without notice after a decoy vehicle lured away the cameras hoping to catch him on the way in, according to the Sipa news agency. He and his lawyer met privately with investigating judges, who handed Sarkozy the special witness status.

They stopped short of filing preliminary charges, as some had expected, and his lawyer Thierry Herzog called the decision a "victory" for the former president. The status is somewhere between a simple witness and a formal suspect.

Herzog tried to tamp down interest in the case, saying on RTL radio Thursday night that the affair "no longer exists."

Sarkozy ally Patrick Balkany, a legislator and mayor, said on BFM television that he spoke to the ex-president after the hearing and "he was content."

Bettencourt's money was contested long before Sarkozy entered the picture. Her daughter accused a celebrity photographer of abusing her mother's alleged mental frailty - and bilking the elder heiress out of ?1 billion ($1.3 billion) in cash and artworks. The elder Bettencourt's ex-butler leaked details of household conversations, including one in which the mother seems confused about whether or not she gave an island in the Seychelles to the photographer as a gift.

The island has since been sold off to a wildlife preservation organization. The photographer and an asset manager for Bettencourt face criminal charges of taking advantage of the L'Oreal heiress. And Bettencourt herself has been placed under legal protection of her relatives, including the daughter who first brought the case to light.

As the scandal grew, the French economy stalled, and French voters tossed Sarkozy and his conservative UMP party into the political wilderness. And now the internal vote to replace the ex-president as party leader has descended into bitter allegations of questionable vote counts, leaving the party in chaos.

A poll released Thursday showed that a majority among the conservative UMP party think Sarkozy would be the best presidential candidate for the 2017 elections ? nearly double the percentages of those who backed the two men now wrestling for power.

The person mediating the party dispute is Alain Juppe, a former prime minister who was convicted in 2004 in an illegal party financing scheme and has since bounced back as a power broker in the conservative party.

Former President Jacques Chirac, another conservative caught in that same scandal, is the only French leader since World War II-era Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain to be charged or convicted of a crime.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/frances-sarkozy-questioned-over-campaign-funds-234403413.html

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Kurdish fighters gather in disputed area in Iraq

(AP) ? The commander of Kurdish forces dispatched fighters to a disputed northern area of Iraq Wednesday, as tensions mounted between Iraq's central government and the Kurdish-ruled autonomous region.

Neighboring Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the Iraqi government was steering the country to civil war. Such a conflict could spill across the border.

Peshmerga commander Mahmoud Sankawi said forces were shifted to the Khanaqin area overnight from the nearby town of Kifri. He did not specify how many men or armored vehicles were involved. Sankawi said he did not coordinate with Iraqi forces, nor inform them of the troop movements.

"It is well known to them," Sankawi said.

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces control security in the Kurdish autonomous region, but are also present in disputed areas.

The movement of Kurdish forces came a day after the government sent tanks and armored personnel carriers to the Kirkuk area, some 60 miles away. That area is claimed by both sides.

Tensions have been sharply increasing since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formed a new military command last month to oversee Baghdad-run security forces bordering the Kurdish region, including disputed areas claimed by Iraqi Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds ? especially the areas surrounding Mosul and Kirkuk.

U.S. forces once supervised the area, helping Kurdish and Arab security forces form joint patrols.

Any deterioration into actual fighting in the broad swath of northern Iraq could spread into Turkey, which has a large Kurdish minority. On Wednesday, the Turkish prime minister said his government feared the Iraqi central government was dragging the country toward internal conflict.

"Now, our fears are slowly coming true," Erdogan said. "The regime is trying to take things toward a civil war."

The Iraqi commander of the newly formed Dijla Joint Military Command, now overseeing government forces in disputed areas, said they would not back down from a confrontation.

"We are closely watching them. We are not afraid of them," said Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir al-Zaidi. "The Iraqi army must be responsible for Iraqi security and its sovereignty."

Iraqi government officials were unavailable for comment.

On Friday, a shootout between Iraqi police and Kurdish guards in a disputed northern city left a civilian dead and four policemen wounded.

It was the first clash with casualties between the two sides for years, despite disputes over land, natural resources and power sharing since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled longtime dictator Saddam Hussein.

___

Additional reporting by Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-21-Iraq/id-83405687dc3f46d5aa78f90ed19e86cf

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

This Insane Image Shows How Many Planes Are in the Air Right Now for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving means turkey. Thanksgiving means football. Thanksgiving also means a helluva lot of people taking a helluva lot of flights to get home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. According to Flightradar24.com, this image shows how many planes that are in the air right now. It's insane. Safe travels, everybody. [Flight Radar 24 via @BuzzFeedAndrew] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/SrUCfFr1wKQ/this-insane-image-shows-how-many-planes-are-in-the-air-right-now-for-thanksgiving

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Don't Tackle SEO Needs Alone

Search engine optimization is a critical factor when attempting to gain a favourable rating from the various Internet search engines. While it may be tempting to tackle your site?s SEO needs yourself, it could also be a mistake that could cost your businesses? online reputation. By allowing an SEO firm to put their expertise to work for you, you can rest easy knowing that experts trained to maximize your online presence are handcrafting your businesses? online reputation. Before sinking money and time into a self-directed effort, explore the benefits of using a reputable SEO Company and Web design Melbourne firm. One of the greatest benefits to hiring an SEO Company is that you can expect results faster than if you attempt to do it yourself. The staffs at an SEO Company stays up to date with the latest SEO trends and puts that knowledge to work for your business. They can also evaluate your current site and work with your existing Web design Melbourne firm to determine if any structural changes need to be done in order to further boost the popularity of your site. You have enough to think about, let trained SEO experts lend you a hand by increasing your company?s online visibility, and therefore your bottom dollar. An experienced Web design Melbourne firm and SEO Company will also be able to establish or develop your company?s online brand. This is a key factor to ensuring your company has a solid foot in online marketing. All of the actions that take place under the name of your company greatly impact the reputation of your company. By using a firm that specializes in SEO, you can rest easy knowing that all of the actions taken will build a trustworthy image for your company that will help excel your business and take its success to new heights. Don?t risk your sites reputation. Hire an experienced SEO Company and Web design Melbourne firm so you can save yourself time, money and worry in the future. When developing an online presence it is crucial that you use proper tactics that will help build the credibility and reputation of your companies? online presence. By leaving the hard decisions up to the experts at an SEO Company, you can focus on your business and relieve yourself of worry. Contact a reputable SEO and Web design Melbourne firm today so you can begin growing your business and achieve the success you have always dreamed of.

Source: http://www.parttimecashconnection.com/home-based-web-business/dont-tackle-seo-needs-alone/

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Relationships After Vsg - VerticalSleeveTalk

Posted Yesterday, 1:06 PM

The book spoken about above is called 5 love languages, it's ok. I highly recamend love and respect though or the love dare. They turn the focus around,??instead of wishing your spouse would change, you change and in the process of loving her better she awakens and slowly becomes exactly who you need. Wishing she would be different while growing bitter will never be as effective as serving her and changing the environment that she lives in. Kill her indifference with kindness and sacrifice. Fight for your marraige! Nothing worth having comes easy!

Source: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/59397-relationships-after-vsg/

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Fraud fighter: 'Faked research is endemic in China'

Shi-min Fang tells us how risking his life and libel writs to expose scientific misconduct in his native China has just won him the inaugural Maddox prize

You've just won the inaugural Maddox prize, awarded for your continuing work exposing scientific misconduct in China despite the threats you face. How does that feel?
I am thrilled and honoured. There are many people who are supporting me and fighting with me, so I consider this award as an acknowledgement of all our efforts, not just mine.

What prompted you to start challenging dubious pseudoscientific claims in China?
In 1998, after eight years studying in the US, I returned to China and was shocked to see it was deluged with pseudosciences, superstitions and scientific misconduct.

What action did you decide to take?
I had created a Chinese website called New Threads in 1994 when I was a graduate student at Michigan State University as a forum for sharing Chinese classics and literature. From 2000, I started to publish articles on the site fighting scientific misconduct and fraud. Eventually, New Threads became a flagship for those fighting pseudoscience, misconduct, fraud and corruption among the Chinese science community.

Are dubious claims a big problem in China?
The majority of cases exposed are plagiarism, the exaggeration of academic credentials and faked research papers, which are endemic in China.

Tell me about some of them.
A typical case was the nucleic acid "nutrition" scheme - supplements promoted to boost energy levels in the tired, pregnant and old. It involved more than a dozen Chinese biochemists and was the first that brought wide media coverage, both domestically and internationally. New Threads has exposed more than 1000 cases of scientific fraud.

Why is science fraud such a problem in China?
It is the result of interactions between totalitarianism, the lack of freedom of speech, press and academic research, extreme capitalism that tries to commercialise everything including science and education, traditional culture, the lack of scientific spirit, the culture of saving face and so on. It's also because there is not a credible official channel to report, investigate and punish academic misconduct. The cheaters don't have to worry they will someday be caught and punished.

What have been the worst moments?
I have been sued more than 10 times. Because the Chinese legal system is very corrupt and a ruling is not always made according to the evidence, it is not surprising that I have lost some libel cases even though I did nothing wrong. In one of these, a local court at Wuhan ordered me to pay 40,000 yuan in compensation and transferred the money from my wife's account. I have also narrowly escaped from an attack with pepper spray and a hammer.

Has it been worth it?
Yes. I fully understand the risk I am facing and am willing to take it. What troubles me most is that my wife and my young daughter also have to endure vituperation and personal attacks.

Profile

Shi-min Fang has held research posts at the University of Rochester, New York, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He is now a freelance science writer

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