Apple, Samsung patent trial kicks off, billions at stake

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Jury selection began on Monday in a high-stakes U.S. patent battle between Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the culmination of more than a year of pretrial jousting with billions of dollars in the balance.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war around the world, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

The fight began last year when Apple sued Samsung in a San Jose, California, federal court, accusing the South Korean company of slavishly copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung countersued.

The stakes are high, with Samsung facing potential U.S. sales bans of its Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers, and Apple in a pivotal test of its worldwide patent litigation strategy.

Long lines outside the federal courthouse in San Jose marked the beginning of the trial as lawyers, media and observers flooded the building to watch the proceedings.

A 10-member jury will hear evidence over at least four weeks, and it must reach a unanimous decision for Apple or Samsung to prevail on any of their claims.

That the jurors will hail from Silicon Valley, where Apple is an icon and major employer, will be something for Samsung to consider during the jury selection, said James Dobson, a jury consultant with Empirical Creative.

"Although certainly if I were Samsung, I would be concerned about what prospective jurors think about Apple, given that it's a huge employer there," Dobson said, "by and large jurors want to do the right thing and decide the case on the merits."

It has been tough going so far for Samsung in the case. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh halted U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, giving Apple a significant early win. This was followed by a pretrial ban on the Galaxy Nexus phone. Samsung has appealed both orders.

The trial is expected to last at least four weeks.

The case is U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, No. 11-1846.

(Reporting by Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-samsung-patent-trial-set-kick-off-billions-070347770--sector.html

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A Story of Modern Day Gaming ? Console Wars | AnlenSoft

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Traditionally gamers attribute the advent of gaming to the PC platform. Although it is true to a certain extent, video gaming itself dates back to early 50s. While the first game was a really simple version of Tic-Tac-Toe, Noughts and Crosses, gaming has now evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry.

In these modern times, gaming consoles have invaded our living rooms and has become an integral part of our life. Today, we are going to take a look back at the evolution of consoles over the years.

Early Birds

Odyssey

Gaming consoles go back to the early ?70s with the Magnavox Odyssey being the first of the many. Impressed with the Spacewars! demonstration, Ralph Baer set out to create the world?s most pristine console. Little did he know that his invention was going to rule the world. If you?re curious, Ralph received the National Medal of Technology for inventing the home console for video games.

Presidential honor

Odyssey had a lot of potential, but their poor marketing strategy took them down. It was Atari who took this concept to the masses with their hugely popular Arcade game ? Pong. On seeing this, Atari decided to take it the next level with Atari Pong, under the Sear Tele games label. This version of pong had an on-screen scorecard and an enticing sound whenever the paddle meets the ball. Needless to say, it was a huge success and many competitors followed, leaving the market flooded with consoles.

Cartridges and the Great Video Game Crash

Breaking from the Pong console culture, Fairchild came up with an innovative cartridge based console system, VES, in 1976. The console had a programmable microprocessor, while the cartridges only needed a single ROM with the instruction sets. This was a huge step at that time and literally set the tune for the industry for the time to come.

Atari 2600

Realizing that single game consoles are a thing of the past, Atari too came up with their legendary Atari 2600 or Atari VCS, as it was called then, in 1977 just before the first video game crash. Most of those single game devices kept piling on and the developers had no options than to sell them at a discounted price. It resulted in a heavy loss, and most companies filed for bankruptcy. Only the cash rich Atari and Magnavox were able to stem the tide.

The Rise and Fall Phoenixes

The first signs of revival appeared when Fairchild VES registered a profit in 1978. On seeing this, Magnavox added a programmable cartridge based gaming system to the Odyssey portfolio. Later that year, Atari ported their hugely successful arcade game Space Invaders to a cartridge. This spurred up the sales of Atari 2600 and gave the market a much-needed boost. This era also saw gory ad wars fought among major players.

The market again faced a huge crash in 1983. While the rise of home computers did have an impact, the poor quality of games made things worse. Atari built a lot of hype around E.T, which turned out to be a disaster. Atari lost millions of dollars, while many other developers lost their livelihood. Some even moved out of the console segment to other segments like home computer gaming. While the industry revived itself eventually, Atari was never been able to reach its former glory.

Welcome to the Seven Kingdoms

Dear mario, I spent half my childhood saving your queen

The market continued to be dull until Nintendo entrusted us with the daunting task of rescuing Mario?s princess. Nintendo improved the quality of gaming with its 8-bit beauty, the NES, which was the first to support high resolution spritess and tiled backgrounds.

Launched as Famicom in Japan, it gave us a lot of awesome games like Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye, but due to a faulty chip, the initial iteration was not received well. However, the astute minds at Nintendo realized this quick enough and replaced all the faulty consoles with new ones. Reassured buyers went on to buy this in huge numbers for friends and family, making it a huge success.

NES

Back in America, the video gaming culture was declining and the likes of Atari did not have a clue on how to take it forward. Nintendo sensed an opportunity and closed in on the kill. They signed up a deal with Atari to bring Famicom across continents, but it fell through due to various reasons. Running out of patience, Nintendo decided to go solo despite many misgivings. The console or The Control Deck, as Nintendo preferred to call it, saw the light of the day in the year 1985, heralding a new era of gaming. The package itself was handcrafted with so many accessories like Zapper to attract youngsters, with my favourite being R.O.B, the toy robot.

While Nintendo was ruling the whole of Japan and America, Sega took consoles to Europe, and was fairly successful too. Despite having lower end hardware specs compared to the NES, Sega?s Master System was able to achieve higher scrolling performance. It went on to sell 13 million consoles worldwide.

Atari 7800

Atari finally released the 7800 series, with joysticks, in 1986. Powered by Atari?s custom-built 650C CPU, it was not able to compete with the other powerhouses. It was originally slated to replace the Atari 5200 in the ?80s, before the market crash but the project was shelved due to several reasons.

It was only after their fallout with Nintendo did they decide to dust off the old project. It was the first console to have backward compatibility without any additional modules and it was ranked #17 in the IGN?s list of game systems. However, they weren?t able to penetrate the market, thanks to the heavy competition put up by other vendors. Delaying the release and low-end hardware specs did not make things any easier. Even still, Atari managed to sell 4 million devices worldwide.

Many epic games like the Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear appeared during this era. We also saw a glimpse of primitive RPG?s. With 8bit computing, the scope of video gaming had improved rapidly, and for the first time focus of the industry shifted towards quality gameplay from quantity. However, the defining moment didn?t arrive until handheld devices made a strong presence. Nintendo?s GameBoy literally setup this platform single handedly, and continued to be on the top until Sony?s PSP took over in the early 2000s.

A Japanese Invasion

Now that Atari was virtually routed, the fight was getting intense between Nintendo and Sega. This time Sega caught Nintendo sleeping, and launched the first of the successful next generation monsters powered by 16-bit chips. Amid much fanfare, the device was first introduced in the spring of ?88 in Japan, and in North America, 4 months later.

Sega Genesis, or better known as Sega Mega drive outside the US, was modeled closely around Sega?s 16-bit Arcade architecture. The sales were slow initially, but with successive release of ported arcade super hit games like Altered Beast, Ghouls n? Ghosts, proved its power and there was a spur in sales. Sega later ported Sonic the Hedgedog to its collection to compete with Mario and won that battle as well.

Mega Drive

Actually, Nintendo launched the first 16-bit gaming console, a full year before the Mega Drive. They came up with TurboGrafx-16, in collaboration with Hudson Soft and it was the first of the cavemen to use a CD-ROM. It did receive some initial attention, and even held the record for the world?s smallest game console but it lacked support from third party developers.

Moreover, the CD ROM was available as an add-on initially, and most of the popular games were available only on this new format. There was a huge shortage for this and a disaster was imminent. By the time Nintendo woke up, Sega swept them clean under their carpet, with some aggressive marketing.

?Genesis does what Nintendon?t?

Nintendo was struggling for to survive, while the board was fighting as to whether to launch a new productor not. Finally they made up their mind and unveiled the Super NES in 1991. Having burnt their finger in their previous attempt, Nintendo retained most of their revered developers. Initially only Super Mario World and F-Zero was available, but they were well received. This gave them enough boost to match up to Sega?s might. But the main battle was yet to be fought.

Wrapping up

Consoles have come a long way from being a mere ports of the arcades, but things were about to get better with the rise of alternate media, and of course, the Xbox. We?ll be talking more about that, and explore what?s on the store for the future, in the next part.

The list here is no way complete. I?ve focused on the most important inventions that changed the landmark of our Gaming Industry. I?m sure there are many other awesome devices, which were left out.

Which was the first console that you?ve ever played? We?d love to hear from you, and do share your thoughts by joining us in the discussion below. Thanks a lot for reading and stay tuned.

Original Post

By Vasudevan Krishnamoorthy - Windows.AppStorm

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Source: http://anlensoft.com/a-story-of-modern-day-gaming-console-wars-130184.php3

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Learning To Stay And Love In The Development Of Self And Social ...

Whenever you love someone you do not love him or her all of the time. It is inconceivable to like someone precisely the same all of the time. When you claim to love somebody in this sense you doing nothing however pretending. This might be thought of as telling a lie.

It?s not simple to learn to live and love. This requires loads of delicate skills. People are very fragile. Relationships that begin out as joyous often ended in despair or bitterness. Many women and men discover that at a while they have grow to be very captivated by strangers. After a week or so the relationship ends in disillusionment, questioning what they saw within the different person. Many relationships are began from the worry of being alone melancholy or loneliness. All of these relationships are threatened and don?t change into peaceful or lasting relationships.

There is no being with no relationship. From the very starting women and men had that sense of need and relatedness. Even at beginning there is a sense of dependency for another. Example of this might related to a newborn and it is mother. This is when the primary coupling takes place. As life goes on, people start to act like spiders. They begin weaving one relationship after another until they create an internet of relationships or a pattern.

As a child if you are denied love, you slip into psychosis. Once you turn out to be an grownup, you tend to depend upon interacting for better joy and togetherness. That is typically taken for granted. It is vitally unhappy whenever you cease and think that even in determined instances such as demise, divorce or bodily separations that humans proceed to engage in inconsiderate and idle behaviors. This only causes further isolation.

Your life should be spent attempting to form and understand what a lasting relationship is and love the attempts that you just succeeded in. Even when you find yourself concerned in on a regular basis procuring you?re engaged in relating. Increasingly alternatives to relate are being taken away from humans. Simply look outside. It is not secure to even stroll your neighborhood sidewalks attributable to fear.

A loving relationship is a part of the development of social self. A loving relationship evokes health and growth. Before a relationship can kind and achieve success one should perceive the way it works. Take the necessary time to study a failed relationship. Know that a loving relationship cannot be taken for granted. This only leads to ache and heartache. Do you know whether you desire a primary or secondary relationship?

Major Relationship is usually outlined as the closest particular person in whom you like to narrate to on regular foundation in your every day life.

Secondary Relationship is will be defined as the person during which you select to relate to, or forced into doing so on a routine schedule with less intensity on the day after day relationship.

The first relationship could include a husband and wife. Others could think of their relations as their main relationship. Single men and women may discover the alternative intercourse their primary relationship. Some people take into account their pets their primary relationship

Affection, compassion and communication are the up most essential in major relationships. There are others that will damage a relationship equivalent to an absence of communication, jealousy, and lack or respect.

Within the secondary relationship communication ranks very high. A few of the following are simply as important. Honesty Forgiveness Affection Understanding Respect Sense of humor Acceptance Features that may destroy a relationship is likely to be found below. Lack of communication Dishonesty Lack of forgiving Lack of understanding Being judgmental In having a loving relationship amongst humans, whether it is wives and husbands, lovers, children, coworkers otherwise you?re nearest neighbor it?s apparent that it requires numerous abilities and behavior. Search deep in your heart for the love of one other before coming into any relationships.

If for any reason you desire further points on how to heal a broken heart read Mable R. Mcquitty?s site there?s plenty of details not covered on this page, take a look at Author?s blog to uncover added details.

Source: http://blog.1stfind.com/?p=317530&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=learning-to-stay-and-love-in-the-development-of-self-and-social-setting

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US coach meets with Solo over Twitter rant

MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Hope Solo met with the coach and captains of the U.S. women's soccer team Sunday to discuss her latest outburst of candor, a Twitter rant that did no good for the image of the squad and distracted from preparations for the upcoming game against North Korea in the Olympic tournament.

Coach Pia Sundhage said Solo will not be disciplined for the series of tweets that criticized former U.S. player Brandi Chastain's commentary during the NBC broadcast of the Americans' 3-0 win over Colombia on Saturday.

"We had a conversation: If you look at the women's national team, what do you want (people) to see? What do you want them to hear?" Sundhage told reporters at the team hotel. "And that's where we do have a choice - as players, coaches, staff, the way we respond to certain things."

Solo rattled off four tweets following Saturday's game, upset over Chastain's criticisms of the team's defensive play.

"Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game," tweeted Solo. She also told Chastain to "lay off commentating about defending" and goalkeeping "until you get more educated" and "the game has changed from a decade ago."

Those are hardly the type of positive comments the naturally upbeat Sundhage likes to hear, especially in the middle of one of the sport's biggest showcases.

"On the field, it's OK to make a mistake. There's no such thing as a perfect game," Sundhage said. "And sometimes you make a mistake outside the field as well. Myself as well. I've regretted that I've said that or whatever, but at the end of the day if you have good teammates and recognize it and say something that we are proud of, then it is easier to prepare for the next game - because it's all about the next game."

The meeting with Solo took place after the team arrived in Manchester, where the Americans (2-0) will play the North Koreans on Tuesday in a game that will determine pairings for the quarterfinals. Co-captain Abby Wambach said the meeting lasted about five minutes.

The team said will Solo be available for comment Monday, following a walkthrough at Old Trafford. She did take to Twitter again on Sunday, however, to respond to a reporter's tweet that she wouldn't be disciplined.

"discipline? Ha! For what! Never even a topic! We talked about our team deserving the best!" she tweeted.

Chastain, one of the most accomplished players in U.S. team history, refused to be drawn into the fray.

"I'm here to do my job, which is to be an honest and objective journalist at the Olympics, nothing more than that," said Chastain, who earned 192 caps from 1988-2004 and is best known for scoring the decisive penalty kick in the World Cup final in 1999.

Wambach said the meeting focused on the goal of maintaining a "bubble" around the team during the Olympics.

"We just wanted to get on the same page on the things that we are focused on," Wambach said. "And the things that we're going to be talking about, whether it be in the media or behind closed doors with your teammates. ... We have to appreciate different people's personalities and their opinions. However, we also want to create a bubble. We want to create some sort of symmetry in terms of what we're doing here and why we're here, and that's what we're all about."

Wambach also noted that TV commentators have nothing to do with winning gold medals.

"At the end of the day, none of it matters," Wambach said. "Because what really does matter is the results."

Sundhage said she didn't tell Solo to stop tweeting or to tone it down.

"I don't punish people," Sundhage said. "And I don't know what's right and wrong."

Five years ago, Solo expressed an opinion that made her the recipient of the starkest punishment ever dealt to a U.S. women's national team player. She was essentially kicked off the squad at the 2007 World Cup after she criticized then-coach Greg Ryan for benching her for the semifinals.

She made her way back onto the team to become arguably the best goalkeeper in team history, anchoring the gold-medal run at the 2008 Olympics and winning the golden glove award for top goalie at last year's World Cup in Germany.

Now she's a media superstar, highlighted by her appearance on "Dancing With the Stars" last fall, and she hasn't stopped making waves. Three weeks ago, she had what is believed to be the first positive drug test in the history of the program, receiving a warning over the banned substance Canrenone. She said it resulted from a premenstrual medication prescribed by her doctor.

Solo was also one of several athletes quoted extensively in an ESPN The Magazine story about sex in the athletes village during the Beijing Olympics and has also been promoting her book "A Memoir of Hope," scheduled for release two days after the London Games.

Nevertheless, Sundhage said she's not concerned about Solo's focus.

"Hope is different," Sundhage said. "What I see is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. If you look back, she's been dancing with the stars, she'd been in a lot of media, she's done this and that, and you would think, 'Well, will she ever come back to the game and will this be a distraction?' If you look at the way she played the first two games, I would say no. She's ready. She prepared. She wants to win, and she know what she needs to do."

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/07/29/hope-solo-brandi-chastain-twitter.ap/index.html?eref=si_latest

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NASA to athletic Mars rover: 'Stick the landing'

This artists rendering provided by NASA shows the Mars Rover, Curiosity. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/NASA)

This artists rendering provided by NASA shows the Mars Rover, Curiosity. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/NASA)

FILE - In this 2011 file artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, a "sky crane" lowers the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover onto the surface of Mars. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech, file)

FILE - In this 2011 artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover examines a rock on Mars. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech, file)

FILE - This Sept. 16, 2010 file photo shows engineers working on the Mars rover Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)

In this July 25, 2012 photo, Rob Manning, chief engineer, speaks to media at NASA Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Wednesday, July 25, 2012. Beside Manning is a model of the Mars rover, Curiosity. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? It's NASA's most ambitious and expensive Mars mission yet ? and it begins with the red planet arrival late Sunday of the smartest interplanetary rover ever built. Also the most athletic.

Like an Olympic gymnast, it needs to "stick the landing."

It won't be easy. The complicated touchdown NASA designed for the Curiosity rover is so risky it's been described as "seven minutes of terror" ? the time it takes to go from 13,000 mph to a complete stop.

Scientists and engineers will be waiting anxiously 154 million miles away as the spacecraft plunges through Mars' thin atmosphere, and in a new twist, attempts to slowly lower the rover to the bottom of a crater with cables.

By the time Earthlings receive first word of its fate, it will have planted six wheels on the ground ? or tumbled itself into a metal graveyard.

If it succeeds, a video camera aboard the rover will have captured the most dramatic minutes for the first filming of a landing on another planet.

"It would be a major technological step forward if it works. It's a big gamble," said American University space policy analyst Howard McCurdy.

The future direction of Mars exploration is hanging on the outcome of this $2.5 billion science project to determine whether the environment was once suitable for microbes to live. Previous missions have found ice and signs that water once flowed. Curiosity will drill into rocks and soil in search of carbon and other elements.

Named for the Roman god of war, Mars is unforgiving with a hostile history of swallowing man-made spacecraft. It's tough to fly there and even tougher to touch down. More than half of humanity's attempts to land on Mars have ended in disaster. Only the U.S. has tasted success, but there's no guarantee this time.

"You've done everything that you can think of to ensure mission success, but Mars can still throw you a curve," said former NASA Mars czar Scott Hubbard who now teaches at Stanford University.

The Mini Cooper-sized spacecraft traveled 8? months to reach Mars. In a sort of celestial acrobatics, Curiosity will twist, turn and perform other maneuvers throughout the seven-minute thrill ride to the surface.

Why is NASA attempting such a daredevil move? It had little choice. Earlier spacecraft dropped to the Martian surface like a rock, swaddled in airbags, and bounced to a stop. Such was the case with the much smaller and lighter rovers Spirit and Opportunity in 2004.

At nearly 2,000 pounds, Curiosity is too heavy, so engineers had to come up with a new way to land. Friction from the thin atmosphere isn't enough to slow down the spacecraft without some help.

During its fiery plunge, Curiosity brakes by executing a series of S-curves ? similar to how the space shuttle re-entered Earth's atmosphere. At 900 mph, it unfurls its huge parachute. It then sheds the heat shield that took the brunt of the atmospheric friction and switches on its ground-sensing radar.

A mile from the surface, Curiosity jettisons the parachute and fires up its rocket-powered backpack to slow it down until it hovers. Cables unspool from the backpack and slowly lower the rover ? at less than 2 mph. The cables keep the rocket engines from getting too close and kicking up dust.

Once the rover senses touchdown, the cords are cut.

Even if the intricate choreography goes according to script, a freak dust storm, sudden gust of wind or other problem can mar the landing.

"The degree of difficulty is above a 10," said Adam Steltzner, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission.

It takes 14 minutes for radio signals on Mars to travel to Earth. The lag means Curiosity will already be alive or dead by the time mission control finds out.

The rover's landing target is Gale Crater near the Martian equator. It's an ancient depression about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined with a 3-mile-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor.

Scientists know Gale was once waterlogged. Images from space reveal mineral signatures of clays and sulfate salts, which form in the presence of water, in older layers near the bottom of the mountain.

During its two-year exploration, the plutonium-powered Curiosity will climb the lower mountain flanks to probe the deposits. As sophisticated as the rover is, it cannot search for life. Instead, it carries a toolbox including a power drill, rock-zapping laser and mobile chemistry lab to sniff for organic compounds, considered the chemical building blocks of life. It also has cameras to take panoramic photos.

Humans have been mesmerized by the fourth rock from the sun since the 19th century when American astronomer Percival Lowell, peering through a telescope, theorized that intelligent beings carved what looked like irrigation canals. Scientists now think that if life existed on Mars ? a big if ? it would be in the form of microbes.

Curiosity will explore whether the crater ever had the right environment for microorganisms to take hold.

Even before landing, it got busy taking radiation readings in space during its 352-million-mile cruise ? information that should help its handlers back home determine the radiation risk to astronauts who eventually travel to the red planet.

Curiosity's journey has been fraught with bumps. Since NASA had never built such a complicated machine before, work took longer than expected and costs soared. Curiosity was supposed to launch in 2009 and land in 2010, but the mission ? already $1 billion over budget ? was pushed back two years.

The delay created a cascade. Burdened with budget woes, NASA reneged on a partnership with the European Space Agency to land a drill-toting spacecraft in 2018. The space agency is in the midst of revamping its Mars exploration program that will hinge heavily on whether Curiosity succeeds.

The extra time allowed engineers to test and re-test the rover and all its parts, taking a spacecraft stunt double to the Mojave Desert as if it were Mars. For the past several months, engineers held dress rehearsals at the sprawling JPL campus 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles in anticipation of landing day when they will carry on a decades-old tradition of passing out "good luck" peanuts.

Practice is over. It's show time. To Mars or bust.

___

Follow Alicia Chang's Mars coverage at: http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-07-30-Mars%20Curiosity/id-2a44fc9d25be461f84a9725e21c39525

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How Marine Boat Insurance Works | Content for Reprint

Author: Tony Lord | Total views: 15 Comments: 0
Word Count: 694 Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 3:05 AM

If you are familiar with motor insurance policies then most of the ideas behind that hold over to the marine watercraft insurance world. But there are numerous important distinctions and this article is here to help you understand the vital ins and outs of marine boat insurance. Reading this before confirming your insurance contract can save you thousands of dollars in premiums or provide you much better payments in the event of a claim.

A fundamental point about boat insurance is that just about all marine policies are formulated as "All Risks" plans. However, the thinking is not over yet as "All Risks" only stands for all risks ? aside from the detailed exclusions and for stipulated boat usage and inside of a given region or water type. So some extra work is required to guarantee that risks to which you could be exposed are either acceptable to you or are not on the company's yacht insurance exclusions list.

Very occasionally a boat policy quote may be provided for "named perils" and will protect the most frequent hazards such as fire, theft and weather effects. Policies like these are able to charge substantially reduced premiums ? but that is due to the fact that you, as the watercraft owner, are left substantially more vulnerable than with a standard policy. An example of this could be a claim arising from vandalism where no theft or fire has happened. Any such policy requires very careful examination before it is embraced.

Exclusions are a vital aspect for you to consider your boat's policy proposal for long lasting confidence, and also one of the main differentiators between policies and insurance providers. With an 'All Risks' watercraft insurance policy everything is protected apart from those items and causes listed, so some thorough reviewing is required. Each and every firm seems to employ a unique lineup of exceptions, so in this article are several common ones for you to take into account.

Losses brought on by or arising from wear and tear, routine deterioration, attacks by marine life and insects as well as mold and mildew and weathering are commonly excluded from your watercraft's insurance cover. Having said that, on new craft (up to four or five years old) you may have the chance to negotiate 'new for old' on particular objects. Other hull areas frequently omitted are blistering and osmosis in fiberglass, deficiencies in initial design or fabrication and corrosion.

Your motor and power train is an very expensive part of your motor boat and it is not unheard of to find exclusions in this area of boat or yacht insurance. Failure of individual components is not an uncommon exclusion, however consequential damage ought to be included. So, as an example, if your oil pump breaks down it would not be covered, but the repair works to the other parts of the engine should be.

But your boat almost definitely does not live its entire existence on the water. Here's yet another area where organizations differ in their approach to marine insurance exclusions. Think about lifting the boat from the water. Who insures your sail boat whist it sits in the sling and being brought up by a crane? Don't presume or suppose, slides here are not unfamiliar and, if they occur, are generally catastrophic with respect to the boat.

Then there's the on-land storage. Though the boat is safely and securely propped over the winter on the hard standing , who deals with damages to your fixtures and furnishing caused by over wintering creatures who identify a warm spot on board shielded from the elements? Check your marine insurance does!

And then finally there's over land transportation. Exclusion riders here on your boat insurance should have very thorough checking to make certain this hazardous aspect of your boating life is appropriately addressed. It doesn't matter if it a jetski hauled at the rear of your automobile or a large luxury yacht on a low loader, make sure you obtain the correct boat insurance cover in place.

To your boating enjoyment!

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Both these companies make great products, but they do so utilizing completely different technologies So which is best, and further more which is the better choice when considering purchasing a dive watch

by: J Allen on: Tue, 5 Feb 2008

2: The Role of Agility Training for Tennis Players

Agility is such an important component when it comes to an athlete being fast. Tennis requires the athlete to be fast over short distances, in multiple directions and have the ability to develop explo

by: articles44 on: Fri, 24 Aug 2007

3: What 2008 Snowboard Binding is Right for You?

It is recommended that you buy boots before purchasing a pair of snowboard bindings. Finding the best-fitted boots makes it easier for you, since you can fit your snowboard bindings snugly without worrying about the shoes being too big or too small.

by: Valheru75 on: Sat, 10 Nov 2007

4: Which Tennis Strings Will Take Your Tennis Game to the Next Level

Strings have been one of the hottest topics of discussion on the pro tour in recent years. Most specifically how the Luxilon strings have become such powerful method of improving player performance.

by: articles44 on: Fri, 5 Sep 2008

5: List of Famous Horse Races of All Time

There are many horse races, but there are also horse races that are famous. With the growth of this sport, a lot of horse races will push through. But for now, is the famous horse races.

by: Simon Skinner on: Fri, 27 Mar 2009

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/recreation-and-leisure/sports/how-marine-boat-insurance-works.htm

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Brightest and hottest stars have close, turbulent relationships, study suggets

The brightest and hottest stars in our galaxy tend to have short, violent lives, often drawing gas from each other and frequently merging to form a single star, a new study indicates.

By Denise Chow,?Space.com / July 26, 2012

Artist's impression of a vampire star and its victim.

L. Cal?ada/S.E. de Mink/ESO

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A surprising number of massive stars in our Milky Way galaxy are part of close stellar duos, a new study finds, but most of these companion stars have turbulent relationships ? with one "vampire star" sucking gas from the other, or the two stars violently merging to form a single star.

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Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile studied massive O-type stars, which are very hot and incredibly bright. These stars, which have surface temperatures of more than 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius) live short, violent lives, but they play key roles in the evolution of galaxies.

The researchers discovered that more than 70 percent of these massive stars have close companions, making up so-called binary systems in which two stars orbit each other.

While this percentage is far more than was previously expected, the astronomers were more surprised to find that majority of these stellar pairs have tumultuous relationships with one another, said study co-author Selma de Mink, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

"We already knew that massive stars are very often in binaries," de Mink told SPACE.com. "What is very surprising to us is that they're so close, and such a large fraction is interacting. If a star has a companion so close next to it, it will have a very different evolutionary path. Before, this was very complicated for us to model, so we were hoping it was a minority of stars. But, if 70 percent of massive stars are behaving like this, we really need to change how we view these stars." [Top 10 Star Mysteries]

Studying stellar behemoths

Type O stars drive galaxy evolution, but these stellar giants can also exhibit extreme behavior, garnering the nickname "vampire stars" for the way they suck matter from neighboring companions.

"These stars are absolute behemoths," study lead author Hugues Sana, of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, said in a statement. "They have 15 or more times the mass of our sun and can be up to a million times brighter."

These massive stars typically end their lives in violent explosions, such as core-collapse supernovas or gamma-ray bursts, which are so luminous they can be observed throughout most of the universe.

For the new study, the astronomers analyzed the light coming from 71 O-type stars ? a mix of single and binary stars ? in six different star clusters, all located roughly 6,000 light-years away.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/IEVgZWttwF8/Brightest-and-hottest-stars-have-close-turbulent-relationships-study-suggets

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Evan Jones / Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said freshman TEs Evan

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Source: http://www.fantasysp.com/player/cfb/Evan_Jones/2346105/michigan-state-head-coach-mark-dantonio-said-freshman-tes-evan

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Igniting Your Business Spark ? hot news

Entrepreneurialism and business go hand in hand, and igniting your initial business spark and passion is an important process in getting any business venture off the ground. Without that spark of entrepreneurialism, no business venture could ever take off, and no business risks would be taken, resulting in fewer large entities and ultimately fewer jobs. Thus entrepreneurialism is fundamental to the success of our society and the economy as a whole. But how do you go about igniting your spark of entrepreneurialism to get things off the ground? What???s more, how can your business benefit from entrepreneurialism and innovation through its business areas?

Entrepreneurialism is essential to the success of business. Your business can only survive long term by adopting an entrepreneurialism approach to how decisions are made. Entrepreneurialism states that a business must be dynamic and responsive to change, and this requires a constant spark of entrepreneurialism to maintain throughout any organisation. As a business owner, it???s up to you to show those sparks of entrepreneurialism to get your business moving and competing with rival business owners within your industry. It???s up to you to innovate and challenge the perceptions and limitations within your industry to gain a competitive edge and to boost your chances of success.

Entrepreneurialism impacts on whether your business takes risks or rejects them. Depending on whether you???re passionate about the approach of entrepreneurialism, your business may or may not pursue the risky strategies that can deliver significant returns, provided the increased risks are minimised. Hence adopting an entrepreneurial approach can bring increase rewards to your business, provided you???re willing to run the natural increased risks associated accordingly.

Igniting that spark of entrepreneurialism can give your business an injection of life, and can lead you to pursue more adventurous sales avenues and cost cutting methods. After a period of stagnation, finding something to reignite your spark can work wonders for your business. It might be as a result of some failure, or some sign of success, but no matter what the stimulus, your spark must be diverted into profitable channels for your business, and you will notice a resulting improvement in sales and profits as a consequence. Entrepreneurialism is a power tool to have on your side, and that passion and confidence keen entrepreneurialism brings can be particularly effective in helping your business to flourish.

Igniting that spark of entrepreneurialism is key to the success and future growth of business, as well as your short term profitability. Without that initial motivation to go forward, take the risk and get involved in business, and to continue this spirit through the initial years and further beyond, no venture could ever get started or grow to any significant degree. Thus entrepreneurialism is vital in any business getting off the ground, and in achieving any level of success or growth. Without entrepreneurialism, you wouldn???t be prepared to risk losing your full time income, and in making this step to forgo employment you???ll be embodying that spirit of entrepreneurialism so important to your overall success.

Source: http://hotnews.blogspages.com/2012/07/28/igniting-your-business-spark-2/

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The Olympics and bare feet: What have we learned?

Friday, July 27, 2012

Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila made history when he earned a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. His speed and agility won him the gold, but it was barefoot running that made him a legend.

When the shoes Bikila was given for the race didn't fit comfortably, he ditched them for his bare feet. After all, that's the way he had trained for the Olympics in his homeland.

Racing shoeless led to success for Bikila, and now, more than 50 years later, runners are continuing to take barefoot strides. Several Olympic runners have followed Bikila and nationally the trend has exploded over the past decade. There's even a national association dedicated to barefoot running. However, scientists are stuck on whether it either prevents or increases injuries.

"Bikila may have been on to something," said Carey Rothschild, an instructor of physical therapy at the University of Central Florida in Orlando who specializes in orthopedic sports injuries. "The research is really not conclusive on whether one approach is better than the other. But what is clear is that it's really a matter of developing a good running form and sticking to it, not suddenly changing it."

Rothschild, a 12-year runner who has completed the Boston Marathon three times, reviewed research and found injuries happened with or without shoes. So she conducted a survey with the help of the Track Shack in Orlando to get to the bottom of the controversy.

What she found was striking.

Most people said they turned to barefoot running in the hopes of improving performance and reducing injuries. Ironically, those who said they never tried it avoided it for fear it would cause injuries and slow their times.

However, research shows that there are risks to running no matter what someone puts on his or her feet.

Barefoot runners tend to land on their mid or forefoot as opposed to the heel, which good athletic shoes try to cushion.

Some studies suggest that barefoot running causes a higher level of stress fractures on the front part of the foot and increased soreness in the calves. But runners who wear athletic shoes can also suffer everything from knee injuries to hip problems, related to repeated stress from impact forces at the heel.

"There is no perfect recipe," said Rothschild, a resident of Winter Park.

In a paper publishing in the August edition of the Journal of Strength And Conditioning, Rothschild reviews the research and provides a guide for those who want to explore barefoot running as a way to train for marathons. It's a 10-12 week program that slowly eases people who run in shoes onto their bare feet.

She suggests getting a thorough physical examination and biomechanical assessment from a physical therapist or other trained professional so that strength and flexibility deficits can be identified and addressed first. That should be done before gradually transitioning to bare feet.

"The bottom line is that when a runner goes from shoes to no shoes, their body may not automatically change its gait," Rothschild said. "But there are ways to help make that transition smoother and lower the risk of injuries."

The researcher concludes that barefoot running in and of itself is neither good nor bad. As with running in shoes, proper training and conditioning are essential.

However, Rothschild does offer a warning.

Anyone with lower extremity or deformity or with a disease that creates a lack of sensation on the feet should probably avoid barefoot running because they can't necessarily feel injuries resulting from running on hard surfaces.

###

University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu

Thanks to University of Central Florida for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/122119/The_Olympics_and_bare_feet__What_have_we_learned_

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House to vote on drought relief, farm bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House, under pressure to extend relief to drought-hit farmers and ranchers before Congress begins its summer recess, is expected to take up legislation next week to revive several expired disaster assistance programs.

The legislation slated to reach the House floor as early as Wednesday would also extend for one year the five-year farm and food act that is set to expire at the end of September.

"It is critical that we provide certainty to our producers and address the devastating drought conditions that are affecting most of the country, and I look forward to supporting and advancing this legislation," said Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

The legislation would still have to be considered by the Senate before Congress leaves at the end of the week for a five-week recess.

The disaster relief would revive programs that were part of the 2008 farm bill but which expired last year. In particular they affect cattle, pork and other livestock producers who generally do not participate in the federally subsidized insurance programs that will partially shield corn, soybean and other crop producers from drought damage.

The cost of the legislation, which also covers farm-raised fish and tree disaster-assistance, was put at $621 million when stretched out over 10 years. That will be paid for by reductions in conservation programs and direct payments to farmers.

New five-year farm bills passed by the Senate in June and by the House Agriculture Committee earlier this month would eliminate direct payments, under which farmers are paid even when they don't plant a crop, to be replaced by new price and revenue support programs . Those direct payments, now costing about $5 billion a year, would continue if the one-year extension is enacted.

House Republican leaders have been reluctant to bring the new farm bill to the floor because of concerns it could go down to an embarrassing defeat. Some GOP conservatives object to the high cost ? nearly $100 billion a year with 80 percent of that going to the food stamp program that now helps feed some 46 million people ? while some Democrats oppose the bill because it would cut about $1.6 billion a year from the food stamp program.

But farm groups, as well as the Obama administration, have been pressing the House to act, citing the crisis over the drought as reason to put new farm policy into place as soon as possible. The House and Senate farm bills also restore the expired disaster relief programs.

"America's farmers need a new farm bill that will allow them the ability to make sound business decisions for the next five years," National Corn Growers Association President Garry Niemeyer said in a statement. "An extension of current law fails to provide the needed level of certainty."

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, went to the Senate floor on Thursday to criticize plans for a one-year extension.

"They want to extend the farm bill for another year, with no deficit reduction, no reform, no certainty for farmers ... I think that would be a disaster."

But there is also the possibility that the House disaster relief package could be used as a vehicle for the House and Senate to begin negotiations on a compromise farm bill that could be considered in September, before the current bill expires.

The top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, said he was "against an extension and will remain opposed until I receive assurances that this is the path to conference a five-year farm bill with the Senate. Farmers need the certainty of a five-year farm bill."

The bills passed by the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee are similar in many ways, although they do have some differences in new commodity support programs. The House measure would save $3.5 billion a year over the current farm bill by ending some subsidy and conservation programs and reducing food stamp spending by $1.6 billion a year. The Senate bill calls for $2.3 billion in similar cuts, with only $400 million of that from the food stamp program.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-vote-drought-relief-farm-bill-202743501.html

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Whenever Can i Turn to an advertisement Asbestos Roofing - Arty Apt

Before, asbestos has been popular because of its fire-retardant character, cost, and its effortless accessibility dynamics. Many different items have been made from mesothelioma in all areas of producing including roofing shingles, concrete, insulating material, rooftops, and also pipes as well as had been set up in homes and also companies throughout Australia. Regrettably, wonderful the excellent properties, there?s a very damaging aspect to presenting mesothelioma.

Asbestos is a vitamin which is composed of tiny fibrous contaminants that can grow to be airborne if the asbestos fiber is damaged or perhaps disturbed. These contaminants, whilst invisible towards the human eye, may be breathed in as well as eventually breathed in to the lung area creating serious breathing diseases as well as illness, such as mesothelioma and also cancer of the lung.

Whenever in case you phone business asbestos experts?
On the initial signal or even suspicion regarding exposure-In the situation of asbestos, when involved you need to seek the help of a professional commercial roofing contractor. Just a professional roofing company may properly determine if any kind of exposure has occurred as well as what the level from the damages are, after which they can provide you assistance in regards to what type of repair will be best.

Whenever staff commence to grumble regarding wellness problems-If you might have experienced an abrupt increase in workers compensation claims submitted based on breathing ailments you then needs to have the dwelling predicted. Although there may not be a primary connection, it will be to your advantage to ascertain the office is protected as well as free of asbestos exposure.

The dwelling offers continual serious architectural damage- Regardless of whether your building has suffered extreme damage from Nature or even because of human contact, you need to have the structure checked out. Mesothelioma harm might not often be noticeable towards the eye and will easily be discovered by the trained eye of your asbestos professional.

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This entry was posted in blog and tagged roofing company, roofing marin county. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

Source: http://artyapt.com/blog/whenever-can-i-turn-to-an-advertisement-asbestos-roofing-company/

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Q&A with Big Cave Games - what it's like jumping from console to mobile development

Big Cave Games kicks off their inaugural iOS title today, ORC: Vengeance. It's a polished dungeon-crawling hack-and-slash adventure, which you can read more about in our review over here. After hearing about the fledgling studio's history in PC and console games, we decided to toss a few questions their way.?

Mind telling us a bit about yourselves, where you're from, and Big Cave Games?

Andrew: My professional career started out in the business world, and then I decided I wanted to be a game developer. I?ve since been developing games professionally for about 15 years. I?ve worked on all sorts of games in programmer and lead programmer capacities, RTS as well as first person shooter games. I?ve worked at 7th Level, Ion Storm, a small startup doing Pocket PC stuff and Disney games, and finally at id Software where I worked on Rage and idTech5. There I met Ryan where we took the ultimate leap of faith to go ?indie?, start Big Cave and work on ORC for Chillingo.

Ryan: I started in the industry working at Treyarch on the Call of Duty franchise. That was an excellent learning experience working with a large team, short development cycle, and a huge franchise. Andrew and I worked together at id Software on RAGE for consoles and PC. Working with new technology and a new IP, this expanded my design and art capabilities and was once again an excellent learning experience.

Shortly after RAGE shipped, Andrew and I left id and formed Big Cave Games. We had a very simple mission statement: make games people want to play. While we are sure every game studio has that hidden somewhere in their mission statement, we really focused on it from the start. ORC came about from us wanting to play an original action RPG built for mobile devices. We figured others wanted to as well, and that gave us extreme motivation to make the game.

Having worked on both sides of the fence, how much do you see mobile competing with PC and console gaming, either for developer or player?interest?

Ryan: A few guys can crank out a decent game in a few months and compete on the App Store next to some of the biggest publishers in gaming. You can't do that in the console space. Typically, console games require millions in production and marketing costs, along with years of development time. So for developers, mobile is competing with console in that a lot of developers are quite interested in simplifying things and working on smaller projects.

Mobile has been great for gaming. It has introduced gaming to a lot of new people while also giving everyone a new way to play games. It remains to be seen whether or not mobile can compete with consoles. We live in a very busy world where often times we can't make it to our consoles or PCs to play games. A lot of people have turned to their phones for their quick gaming fix.

How long did it take for you to develop ORC: Vengeance? How does that compare to the usual PC/console production cycle? What kind of tools did?you use?

Andrew: Too long! Big Cave Games is a two-man team (Ryan and myself), and along the way we hired some excellent contractors to help with music, sound and character models. We had initially planned to ?crank out? a game in three to five months, but we soon realized we wouldn?t make that, or if we did, we wouldn?t be making the game we really wanted to make. In the end it took us about eleven months. We decided pretty early on that we wanted to put all we had into ORC since we knew we really only had one chance at it. That meant making sure everything about the game was highly polished? graphics, story, gameplay, controls, music, sound, voice acting, etc. It all had to be top notch. Chillingo?s expertise really helped us out there.

Because our backgrounds came from the console/PC industry, we were basically ?noobs? when it came to the mobile market. We knew what we wanted to make, Chillingo offered input on what the mobile market expected and demanded. In fact we reworked the entire game?s UI based on some of their early feedback as well as dropped in a few last minute features they really thought we should ship with. In the end I think we ended up with a game that is highly polished and feels like it was built specifically for mobile devices.

Developing ORC involved many, many long days, nights and weekends of effort. It was different from games we?d worked on in the past because this was our game and our vision. The weeks and eventually the months just flew by, but we enjoyed working on the game. We set out not wanting to build our own engine so early on we chose to use Unity 3D. It?s an excellent product for building iOS games and essentially a one-button click to put the game on your iPhone. Up front we built some custom tools and game systems that would easily allow us to set up and tweak gameplay and game levels. We had to work as efficiently as possible since we were only two guys.

?

There's obviously a lot of inspiration from classic PC action-RPGs in ORC, but there was also a lot of compromise for the mobile experience. Which?factors needed the most adaption?

Ryan: There were a couple things we decided very early on, before we even began to develop ORC. One, the game had to control well for the touchscreen device. Two, we must consider that the player may only have a few minutes at a time to play, so let's design around that. Action RPGs like ORC typically require a lot of mouse clicking and a lot of time, so we knew we had to tackle this correctly.

Control wise, we took an opposite approach of the furious clicking. We wanted more automation so the player wasn't covering the screen all the time. One simple tap to move and initiate attacks, and simple gestures to perform high-powered skills. We also added auto-run to move through the levels quickly without covering the screen. All of this combined resulted in a very simple and elegant control system that we are very happy with!

Our philosophy regarding player time was simple: pickup and play for five minutes, or sit down for fifty. ORC has a nice Checkpoint system that allows for that. The game saves often and quickly, and if you have iCloud, will sync with it. Play ORC on the go, then come home to your iPad and continue where you left off. It's really nice.

How has it been developing for iOS so far? Is it easy to work with Apple? Are you looking at Android and if so, is piracy a concern?

Andrew: There really haven?t been any hurdles developing for iOS. There?s a nice simplicity involved with making games for a standardized platform like iOS. While Unity 3D does insulate you from a lot of the details involved with creating an iOS game, we considered that a good thing. It gave us more time to focus on gameplay, fun and user experience instead of how best to render triangles, play back sounds, etc. We spent some time up front figuring out what the capabilities of the iOS devices were, and that probably saved us a lot of time on the back end.

Chillingo has handled all the interactions with Apple, and that has been nice being able to rely on them for that because that was just one less thing for us to worry about. I?m sure ORC will eventually make it to Android devices. Unity 3D makes that pretty easy, however, concrete plans for getting it there haven?t been discussed yet.

What can we expect next from you guys? Expansions for ORC? Other platforms? Multiplayer maybe? Or are you looking at new projects?altogether?

Andrew: We?ll have to see what happens. It?s our hope our Warchief can continue the fight against the undead for a long time.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/HDHE6-iJASU/story01.htm

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Ninety arrested in nationwide synthetic drug crackdown

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal agents arrested more than 90 people and seized about 5 million packets of synthetic drugs - known on the street as "bath salts," "K2" and "Spice" - in the first U.S. nationwide crackdown on "designer drugs," the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday.

The DEA said the haul from multi-agency raids in more than 100 U.S. cities included 4.8 million packets of synthetic cannabis, 167,000 packets of "bath salts" and more than $36 million in cash.

Operation Log Jam, which involved the DEA, five federal agencies, state and local police, "has disrupted the entire illegal industry, from manufacturers to retailers," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a statement.

"Together with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, we are committed to targeting these new and emerging drugs with every scientific, legislative and investigative tool at our disposal," she said.

Synthetic drugs - with street names like "bath salts" or "plant food" - mimic more traditional illegal narcotics like cocaine, LSD, MDMA and methamphetamine, and have rapidly grown in popularity, the DEA said.

Bath salts have been blamed in several incidents of erratic and violent behavior around the country.

Smokable herbal blends marketed as "Spice," "K2," "Blaze," and "Red X Dawn" and labeled as incense contain illegal psychoactive compounds that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. They have become popular among teens and young adults, the DEA statement said.

(Reporting By Paul Eckert; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-arrests-90-nationwide-synthetic-drug-crackdown-003920970.html

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How to Use Email Marketing to Increase Your Business Profits ...

An email list is a vital tool for any type of business. No matter what field you are in, from selling industrial products to selling ad clicks on a website, there are two factors which can make the difference between making a huge profit or going out of business ? the ability to create repeat customers and maintaining effective lead follow-up.

Businesses sink many thousands of dollars into advertising every year yet rarely have a method to track that advertising to see how well it worked. Brick and mortar businesses use the Yellow Pages, newspaper ads, radio and television advertising, along with websites and the costs of promoting them. A great deal of money goes into drawing the attention of potential customers to each business. Even purely online business owners such as website publishers and affiliate marketers spend money and time driving traffic to their websites. Most of these businesses frequently ignore one of the easiest and most inexpensive methods for making a profit from all this advertising. That method is email marketing.

Effective email marketing is not the same as direct mail marketing where you purchase a list of names and addresses and bombard them with mail. Email marketing has two huge advantages over direct mail marketing. Email is very inexpensive and it also allows you to have customers choose for themselves whether to receive your emails. You aren?t just blindly sending mail to someone who might have expressed an interest in some product related to your field. With a direct mail list, that is exactly what you are, in fact, doing. With email, customers and potential customers ?opt-in? to receive your messages.

An email list is vital to maintaining a relationship with customers over time, or building trust with a potential new customer. Most businesses do a very poor job keeping in contact with people who have already purchased goods or services from them. A satisfied customer is the very best source there is for new sales and new customer referrals. Keeping a customer is infinitely less difficult than attracting that customer in the first place.

In addition, an email list simplifies the task of following up on potential customers who have expressed an interest in purchasing. With vast amounts of information at their fingertips online, potential customers today often spend extra time thinking over whether to make that purchase or not. When interested customers opt-in to a business?s email list, the business has the opportunity to educate them over time and be easy for the customer to find once they decide to make a purchase.

A huge percentage of the public now uses smart phones, tablet PCs and laptop computers to check their email throughout the day. This makes email marketing more effective than it has ever been. No longer do people check email only once a day. If they receive and email from a business they are interested in, they usually see the email right away.

One of the most useful features of using email marketing to follow up on customers and leads is that the results are much easier to measure than traditional forms of marketing. Modern email marketing companies make tracking open rates, clicks and sales from email very easy. A business no longer has to guess how well a promotion is doing at bringing in business.

Email marketing can be one of the most effective, easily measured, and least expensive marketing methods for any type of business. In today?s tough economy, every business has to make tough choices on how best to spend their advertising dollars. Without marketing, no business can survive. Building an email marketing list has become vital for every business today.

from your own site.

Source: http://www.internetmarketingwebsites.com/how-to-use-email-marketing-to-increase-your-business-profits

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Geek Girl On The Street Reports: Joe Peacock Needs to STFU ...

Kate Kotler writes for Bleeding Cool;

*Made you look.

Yes, Bleeding Cool, I went there. I reached back to one of my most contentious columns for this headline because I knew ? KNEW ? it would make you all click through and read what I have to say.

And, as I am having the strongest reaction as I have had in a year to Joe Peacock?s CNN blog post about geek girls I felt it was really really important to get you read this column by whatever means necessary.

For those of you who have not read Joe?s CNN opus ragging on booth babes, Olivia Munn and Frag Dolls, let me sum up the thesis for you: Our friend Joe is complaining about the fact that multi-billion dollar corporations like FOX, FX and Maxim hire scantily clad women to pimp their products and hang all over geek boys at cons and con related parties. He is complaining about young women ? who have been inundated with images of ?what?s hot, what?s cool? all their lives by the mainstream media ? following in the example of said scantily clad women and putting on scantily clad costumes of their own creation and parading around cons with the objective of getting male attention.

In essence, he is complaining about a problem which has been created by? wait for it? men.

And, in the process, he ?slut shames? women who choose to express their own sexuality via cosplay (regardless of the underlying intent, it?s their choice and fuck you for telling them what is or is not right in that arena, it?s their body) and the experiential learning which comes with that process? which is in the end, controlled by the reactions of men.

What do I mean by this? Well, simple: If hot girls who got dressed up and went to comic cons weren?t drooled over by tons of men and made to feel important, they wouldn?t do it.

If multi-billion dollar entertainment companies didn?t see men drooling all over scantily clad women pimping their products, they wouldn?t hire them to pimp those products in the first place.

The true problem is that corporate culture ? based on the knowledge that some men sexually desire women that look a particular way and that some male geeks have money ? take advantage of and exploit those known factors by hiring sexually attractive women to pimp their products in attempts to devoid said geeky men of said money. Instead of addressing this and the underlying societal causes of this trope, Joe blames the women who the perpetrator companies employ.

Does anyone else see anything really wrong with that besides me?

Here?s the thing: Whether they are a 13 yo making their first foray onto the floor in a Slave Leia costume, or a 25 year old model from LA hired to dress up and hand out fliers outside Hall H ? women, in general, have been inundated since birth, practically, with the greater societal message that to be pretty, sexy, hot, attractive is what we value from women.

Having, myself, had the experience of being a 13 yo girl trying to figure out how I fit into society AND an actress in LA who was hired to ?sexy cosplay? at corporate events ? I cannot tell you how hard it is to figure out who you are as person in the face of that constant messaging. And, then, upon deciding that who you are and what you value doesn?t fit with what you?re being told to be ? to throw off ?societal norms? in order to walk your own path through life.

So many women try to do this and are unable to do so. So many women don?t even try. I can say from experience it?s a life-long journey.

And, though I am a decade and a half away from the unhealthy, misguided, neurotic, insecure girl who -after a year and a half trying to fit a round peg into a square hole of being an actress in LA- packed up her Toyota Camry and said ?Fuck you, Hollywood and your obscene ideas about what it is to be a woman ? this is not who I am, this is not who I want to be? I still struggle on this journey every-single-day.

As do most of the strong, feisty, awesome geek girls I know.

It is hard to be a woman with geeky interests. To be so is to have to be stronger, better, faster than all the guys around you. To be so is to have to fight the off girl-on-girl violence of your peers. To be so is to have to constantly justify your ?geek cred? to everyone. To be so is to have to justify that you are a geek, even in the face of being attractive.

Then to have yet another loudmouthed boy-geek douchebag jump on a mainstream media outlet and tell us what is and isn?t geek? And then to tell us that it?s our fault that women with pr0n star proportions are hired by certain companies to represent their geeky products?

Joe, you?re gonna be lucky if any of the ?legit? geek girls you know ever speak to you again. For realzie. What a load of misogynist crap.

Yes, I used the M word. Yes, I mean it. I?m fucking tired of geeky guys whining when girls call them out on misogynist behavior. I?m sick of the counter cry of ?misandry!? I?m sick of dudes telling me what feminism is and isn?t. I?m sick of geeky guys telling women who can and cannot be a geek girl.

Here?s the bottom line: You dudes have penises. White dudes with penises have held all the political power and monetary privilege, since, well ? the beginning of time. It is a fact. You can argue until you?re blue in the face about that. And, you?ll still be wrong. And, while it is true that misandry exists, it is no where as prevalent in pop-culture as misogynist bullshit towards women is. Period, end of story ? I won?t even debate this with you guys.

I am tired of people like Joe Peacock ?shaming? women like Olivia Munn (who, admittedly isn?t the uber-geekiest lady on the planet, but she?s sharp as a tack and geeky in her own way) for having the temerity to build a career out of the demand society has expressed for her.

Wanna know when companies like FOX, FX and Maxim will stop employing big boobed, scantily clad hotties to pimp their products, Joe?

Simple answer: When men (and some ladies) stop buying into that trope. It?s supply and demand, my friend, and you cannot blame the women -geek or not- who go after that kind of attention or job, because as a society we?ve spent their whole lives telling them that is what is valuable, that is what is important.

As a geek woman, I reject what Joe says about how to judge a ?bona fide geek girl.? I believe there is enough room in the geek girl pantheon for all women -even booth babes and Ms. USA. And, Joe, honestly I think you are just as bad Ryan Perez (who you call out in your post) in the fact that you just, simply, don?t know what the fuck you?re talking about.

Kate Kotler is the author of the Geek Girl on the Street Reports column for Bleeding Cool and the host of the Comix Chix podcast soon to launch. A Chicago based freelance writer, you can read Kate?s personal musings on her website and follow her on Twitter.

Source: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/25/geek-girl-on-the-street-reports-joe-peacock-needs-to-stfu/

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