Posted by Ali Stevens on Sunday, December 30, 2012 ??
USA is reporting that Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid will be fired tomorrow.? Hear more on WKOK today and tomorrow on Fox Sports Radio.
Source: http://wkok.info/news/news-news/reid-out-as-eagles-coach/
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Edit ruthlessly.?
Good writing requires great editing.? This was instilled in me during my undergraduate academic work in English and reinforced throughout my professional career writing for journals and trade publications.? My initial presentation drafts tried to cover far more major themes than the final version.? Even it might have tried to do too much given the time constraints.My editing process consisted of asking myself four questions repeatedly:??
It was great to speak with attendees after my talk and hear them bring up specific examples of what resonated with them: some mentioned the Edward deBono quote about crayons, some spoke about the bagged lettuce example, some noted Sondheim and George Seurat references.? I had chosen each of these metaphors or stories as memorable anchors to encapsulate the major points I was trying to make.?
Honor your voice.?
My work is almost always experiential and interactive: it's what I am known for contributing.? But I initially told myself there was no way to bring that to play in a 10-minute stage presentation with 500 people.? So my first presentation design included nothing of the sort, and I hated it.? It felt flat.? Worse yet, it didn?t feel like me and I knew I wouldn?t enjoy giving it.
Talking with a few colleagues helped me see a way into bringing more of who I am and what I believe into the presentation.? This resulted in the silent opening, perhaps the most terrifying 40 seconds I?ve ever had speaking in public.? But it achieved my primary objective: turning passive spectators into engaged learners while illustrating the main theme of my talk.? It was counterintuitive and somewhat risky, but thankfully, it worked pretty well.?
Preparation can vary.
In talking with the other speakers, I was fascinated at the varied approaches they had used to prepare their presentation: writing it out almost verbatim, using a lengthy slide deck to tell the story, rehearsing repeatedly in front of family and friends.? Some people are great at making intensely rehearsed remarks seem fresh.? I'm not.
So my approach was somewhat different.? The first and only time I went through the entire talk was the day I actually delivered it at the conference. (I've yet to watch the video of it and most likely never will). Being present is a key part of my commitment as a facilitator, and as a speaker I didn?t want to be so scripted and polished that the talk could almost be delivered on autopilot.
Instead, my rehearsal consisted of crafting the language around what I labeled ?set pieces,? the key one or two minute segments in which each thought or story was introduced.? I then ran through those enough times to get a feel for the words and the rhythm that mattered most.? I wanted their transitions and connections to simply emerge from me onstage guided by what felt right in the moment.
While slightly unorthodox in approach, I hadn?t really been too concerned about it until I received this text from a friend a few days before the event:
How goes the preparation for what might be the most important 600 seconds of your entire professional career?
(Note to self: get new friends in 2013.? LOL).
My friend was joking, of course.? It?s not like I was speaking on the mainstage at the TED Conference in Long Beach (um, Chris Anderson, I?m available though). And I?ve long believed that what a speaker should fear most is not an appropriate level of nervousness or performance anxiety when heading onstage, but instead, the absence of it.? The moment we think we have it all figured out ... that nothing can go wrong ... is the moment that everything unravels.? This is as true for speaking on a stage as it is interacting with a friend or colleague. You can't rehearse authenticity.Good speaking (or facilitating) is ultimately about good relationships.? Good relationships require being human.? So whether it is the stage at a conference or the stage on which you appear in life, it?s not about performing: it?s about you.? Share your story.? Speak on your terms.? What others make of it is beyond your control.?
And that is the ultimate lesson I hope never to forget.
Source: http://www.ideaarchitects.org/2012/12/what-i-learned-from-speaking-at-tedx.html
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/filmtotaal/posts/573599722666912
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It says my camcorder is compatible but i still get crashes, especially on any movie over 20 minutes or more.? Is my 2 gig of ram to blame?? I can go to 3gig max.? Would a Solid State Drive help?? my current drive is 120gig. Should i move all of my other files to my external hard drive?? I was thinking about getting a 240gig Solid state drive from crucial.? any ideas on this or any other upgrades.
Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4650313
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The Budget Control Act of 2011 was enacted due to the failure of the 111th Congress to pass a Federal Budget and therefore as a compromise to resolve a dispute concerning the public debt ceiling. Deficit spending previously appropriated by Congress was bringing the federal government's total debt close to the statutory ceiling. Republicans in Congress refused to approve an increase in the ceiling unless there were deep spending cuts in order to come closer to a balanced budget and reduce the amount of national debt that was accruing. The Budget Control Act included an immediate increase in the debt ceiling, along with a mechanism for facilitating two additional increases. It also provided for automatic spending cuts to begin on January 2, 2013.
The year-over-year changes for fiscal years 2012?2013 include a 19.63% increase in tax revenue and 0.25% reduction in spending. These changes would return tax revenue to approximately its historical average of 18% GDP, while continuing to spend at dollar levels held approximately the same since 2009. Some major programs, like Social Security, Medicaid, federal pay (including military pay and pensions), and veterans' benefits, are exempted from the spending cuts. Spending for federal agencies and cabinet departments would be reduced through broad, shallow cuts referred to as budget sequestration.
The projected effects of these changes have led to calls both inside and outside of Congress to extend some or all of the tax cuts, and to replace the across-the-board reductions with more targeted cutbacks. It has been speculated that any change is unlikely to come until the period roughly between the 2012 federal elections and the end of the year. Additionally, the debate may be exacerbated by the expectation that the debt ceiling is expected to be reached before the end of 2012, unless "extraordinary measures" are used. Nearly all proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff involve extending certain parts of the 2010 Tax Relief Act or changing the 2011 Budget Control Act or both, thus making the deficit larger by reducing taxes and/or increasing spending.
In late February 2012, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, popularized the term "fiscal cliff" for this crisis. Before the House Financial Services Committee he described that "a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases" would take place on January 1, 2013.
Some analysts have argued that fiscal slope or fiscal hill would be more appropriate terminology because while the cumulative economic effect over all of 2013 would be substantial, it would not be felt immediately but rather gradually as the weeks and months went by.
On August 2, 2011, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 as part of an agreement to resolve the debt-ceiling crisis. The Act provided for a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "super committee") to produce legislation by late November that would decrease the deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years. If the committee failed to do so, as it in fact had failed to do, another part of the Act directs automatic across-the-board cuts (known as "sequestrations"), split evenly between defense and domestic spending, beginning January 2, 2013. Also, the Affordable Care Act imposed new taxes on families making more than $250,000 a year ($200,000 for individuals) starting at the same time.
At the end of 2011, the patch to the AMT exemptions expired. Technically, the AMT thresholds immediately reverted to their 2000 tax year levels, a drop of 26% for single people and 40% for married couples. Anyone over these reduced thresholds at the end of 2012 would be subject to the AMT. Therefore, more taxpayers would pay more unless some legislation was passed (as was done in 2007) that affects the exemptions retroactively.
Expiration of measures delaying the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate from going into effect (the "doc fix"), as extended by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (MCTRJCA);
Without new legislation, these provisions would automatically go into effect on January 1 or 2, 2013, except for the Alternative Minimum Tax growth, which would be changed retroactively. Some provisions would increase taxes (the expiration of the Bush and FICA payroll tax cuts and the new Affordable Care tax and AMT thresholds) while others would reduce spending (sequestration, expiration of unemployment benefits and implementation of the Medicare SGR).
Proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff involve repealing legislation containing certain of these provisions or passing new legislation to extend provisions that are due to expire. Different proposals may include changes to some or all of the above provisions. For example, the Congressional Budget Office's "Alternative Fiscal Scenario" includes only the first four items above. Changes to other provisions are also sometimes included in such proposals; for example, changing the original caps on discretionary appropriations contained in 2011's Budget Control Act, indexing the AMT exemptions for inflation or the wholesale or partial reform of the tax laws or entitlement programs.
The alternative fiscal scenario. Higher deficits and debt but lower taxes and higher spending.
These paint starkly different fiscal futures. If Congress and the President do not act, allowing tax cuts to expire and mandated spending cuts to be implemented, the next decade will more closely resemble the baseline projection. If they act to extend current policies, keeping lower tax rates in place and postponing or preventing the spending cuts, the next decade will more closely resemble the alternate fiscal scenario.
Baseline projection. The CBO has been publishing baseline projections since 1985. Under "the baseline", tax cuts are allowed to expire and spending cuts are implemented in 2013, resulting in higher tax revenues plus lower spending, deficits, debt and interest for the next decade and beyond. Future deficits would be reduced from an estimated 8.5% of GDP in 2011 to 1.2% by 2021. Revenues would rise towards 24% GDP, versus the historical average 18% GDP.
The total deficit reduction or debt avoidance over ten years could be as high as $7.1 trillion, versus the $10?11 trillion debt increases if current policies are extended. In other words, roughly 70% of debt increases projected over the next 10 years could be avoided by allowing laws on the books during 2012 to be implemented.
CBO estimates under the baseline projection that public debt rises from 69% GDP in 2011 to 84% by 2035. In the long run, lower deficits and debt should lead to relatively higher growth estimates. But, in the short run, real GDP growth in 2013 would likely be reduced to 0.5% from 1.1%. This would mean a high probability of recession (a 1.3% GDP contraction) during the first half of the year followed by 2.3% growth in the second half.
Alternate fiscal scenario. If Congress "avoids" the fiscal cliff, the future more closely resembles the continuation of 2012 policies, described by the CBO's "alternative fiscal scenario." This scenario involves extending the Bush income tax cuts, restricting the reach of the AMT, and keeping Medicare reimbursement rates at the current level (the so-called "doc fix", versus declining by one-third as mandated under current law). Revenues are assumed to remain around the historical average 18% GDP. Under this scenario, public debt rises from 69% GDP in 2011 to 100% by 2021 and approaches 190% by 2035. This scenario has considerably higher debt and interest payments than the baseline projection, but short-term impact on the economy is avoided.
CBO estimates that if the baseline scenario is allowed to take effect in 2013, it would reduce federal spending by $103 billion and increase tax revenues by $399 billion (and another $105 billion "mostly in revenue") through September 2013 (the end of FY2013). This would amount to a net total of $560 billion, roughly half the $1.2 trillion FY2011 deficit. The White House estimates that a family of four with an income of $50,000 to $85,000 would pay an additional $2,200 in federal taxes.
The CBO has identified the following metrics for its baseline and alternative scenarios for the period starting January 2013:
Therefore, since the total US public debt was approximately $11.053 trillion as of July 2012, the public debt would climb by the end of FY2013 to either $11.664 trillion (if Congress does nothing, allowing current law to take effect) or $12.224 trillion (if the fiscal cliff is avoided, extending current tax and spending policies into the future), all other considerations remaining the same. This difference amounts to 5.07% of the federal debt in nine months.
Under current laws scheduled to take effect by the end of 2012, the total 2013 deficit will be $612 billion, as opposed to $1,171 billion for the previous year. The chart at the right contains a breakdown of the currently authorized reductions to the FY2013 deficit. The total of this chart is $606 billion but this is without considering economic feedback. Reduced taxes and increased spending, due to the 1.3% contraction in the first half of 2013, as well as other constraints, are expected to decrease the savings by $47 billion, giving a net total of $560 billion in deficit reduction during FY2013.
The effect on both defense and non-defense discretionary spending will be significant if the cliff is not avoided. Cuts totaling $110 billion per year will be applied from 2013 to 2022, split evenly ($55 billion each) to defense and non-defense discretionary spending. For scale, discretionary funding for 2011 totaled $1,277 billion: budget authority of $712 billion for defense and funding totaling $566 billion for non-defense activities.
During 2013, defense and non-defense discretionary spending would be maintained around 2012 levels due to the sequester. However, the spending begins to rise thereafter, but not at the pace projected prior to the sequester. In other words, the trajectory of spending increases is reduced, but spending is not frozen at 2012 levels. Defense and non-defense discretionary spending increases from 2013?2021 would be about 1.5% annually, significantly below the prior decade.
For example, according to the CBO Historical Tables, defense spending (including overseas contingency operations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) grew from $295 billion in 2000 to $700 billion in 2011, an annual growth rate of 8.2%. Non-defense discretionary spending grew at a 6.6% annual rate during that time, from $320 billion to $646 billion.
The austerity represented by the sequester is not unprecedented; from 1990?1999, defense spending actually declined by about 1% annually, from $300 billion to $276 billion, although non-defense discretionary spending grew by 4.5% annually, rising from $200 to $297 billion.
The CBO estimated the possible impact on defense spending in October 2011 testimony: "Compliance with the caps on discretionary funding could occur through many different combinations of defense and non-defense funding. For example, defense and nondefense appropriations might be cut proportionally relative to the funding that would be necessary to keep pace with inflation. In that case, funding for defense programs apart from overseas contingency operations would drop from $552 billion in 2011 to $538 billion in 2012 before rising again and reaching $637 billion in 2021 (see Table 3).
Between 2012 and 2021, such funding would be $445 billion less than the amount that would occur if the amount of funding for 2011 grew at the rate of inflation. When measured as a share of GDP, funding for defense would decline by about 1 percentage point from 2011 to 2021, or by more than one-fourth (see Table 5). Funding for defense in 2021 (excluding overseas contingency operations) would represent 2.7 percent of GDP; by comparison, annual funding for defense (excluding overseas contingency operations) has averaged 3.4 percent of GDP during the past decade."
The CBO estimated the possible impact on non-defense discretionary spending in October 2011 testimony: "If defense and nondefense appropriations were cut proportionally relative to the funding that would be necessary to keep pace with inflation, nondefense budget authority would decrease from $511 billion in 2011 to $505 billion in 2012 before rising again and reaching $597 billion in 2021 (see Table 4). Between 2012 and 2021, budget authority for nondefense purposes would be $418 billion less than the amount that would be provided if funding grew at the rate of inflation after 2011. Under an assumption that the obligation limitations for certain transportation programs grow over time at the rate of inflation, nondefense funding in 2021 would represent 2.8 percent of GDP; by comparison, such funding has averaged 4.1 percent of GDP during the past decade (see Figure 6)."
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! Income Level / Filing status ! Single ! MarriedFiling Jointly |- | $50,000 | $1,576 / 18% | $1,870 / 26% |- | $100,000 | $4,076 / 17% | $3,272 / 17% |- | $150,000 | $5,850 / 15% | $5,046 / 15% |- | $200,000 | $7,350 / 13% | $6,546 / 14% |}
Financial news networks CNBC and CNBC.com are launching a network-wide initiative aimed at calling attention to the fiscal situation. The network?s campaign is called ?RISE ABOVE?, a call to action appealing to everyone to rise above partisan political views in an effort to come to agreement on a plan that tackles both the long and short term challenges to the American economy. CNBC plans to engage business leaders, politicians and viewers through a series of programming efforts designed to increase the understanding of the core issues and to raise the level of dialogue beyond the rhetoric and talking points that have saturated media coverage of the 'fiscal cliff.'
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated in October 2012: ?Sequestration in 2013 will lead to a reduction of $1.2 trillion in the federal government?s discretionary spending, with half of that coming from the defense budget. Such deep across-the-board cuts in defense spending will not only wreak havoc on the economy of military-connected communities such as Huntsville but will also "do great damage" to the U.S. military, homeland security, aviation programs and other government entities that keep America strong at home and overseas.?
Congressional Republicans have proposed that the Bush tax cuts be extended in their entirety. In August 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that extending these tax cuts for the 2013?2022 time period would add $3.18 trillion to the national debt relative to the current law baseline, comprising $2.74 trillion in foregone tax revenue plus another $0.44 trillion for interest and debt service costs.
On July 25, 2012, the U.S. Senate voted 51?48 to pass a bill supporting the President's tax proposal which extended cuts for most taxpayers, while rejecting the Republican proposal of extending the tax cuts for all 45?54. The U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 170?257, the President's tax proposal on August 1, 2012.
As of November 1, 2012, a group of senators, now called the Gang of Eight, composed of Democratic Whip Richard J. Durbin D-Il., Finance Committee member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Sen. Michael F. Bennet, D-Colo., Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., Finance member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., have been working since 2011 but "[have] so far failed to reach an agreement after more than a year of talks." Because of the number of spending cuts and tax changes, at least half a dozen committees, such as the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, might want to weigh in on the bill.
On November 28, 2012, certain Republicans, such as Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), support "modifying tax expenditures as a way to raise revenue."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is Obama's lead negotiator about the fiscal cliff and the increase in the 2013 debt limit.
As of November 30, 2012, Obama is supporting an undeclared amount of spending cuts, $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over ten years, and cuts of $400 billion from Medicare and other benefit programs over a decade. Also, Obama wants to include "an extension of the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut" and spend "at least $50 billion" in 2013 "to boost the economy."
Category:Government finances in the United States Category:Presidency of Barack Obama Category:112th United States Congress
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I?ve actually done quite a bit of work in elderly communities and I?ve always brought up the subject about death.? And most them really don?t want to think about it.? I spoke to one woman who said, ?Well, I?ll deal with it when I get there.?? I talked to my minister and he said, ?Well, I hope that I?ll be surprised!?? And so there is this ingrained inability to talk about death and I think it comes from the fact that maybe a century ago people were very much more in touch with death.? The life span was shorter, people died at home, we saw the bodies.? Midwives whose job was to birth children also came in and prepared the bodies for death and there were lots of tracks about living with dying.? Death was all around them.? With the advent of the modern medicine, people die mostly at hospitals, they don?t die at home and many times you don?t even have a chance to be with the body before the mortuary comes and picks it up.? We have become almost passive observes of death instead of involved loving people around those that are our family members or friends.
What I want people to feel is that death ? like birth, is a key rite of passage and you don?t want to just ignore it or miss it, because when one sits with a friend who is making the transition it is a transcendent moment and we don?t want to lose that. We don?t want to be onlookers outside the door waiting for it to happen.?To die consciously is to approach death having prepared yourself on a physical, emotional and spiritual level and I think that kind of preparation can go on at any time.? Not just when we are at the point of dying.
At death the chakras begin to loosen from the body and the chakras are what hold the energy body to the physical body. So as they loosen, we do something called the great death spiral, which is to help that process.? In a healthy body, that isn?t at the point of death, the chakras?s rotate clockwise during the day and bring energy into the body and then at night, they rotate counterclockwise expelling the dense or toxic energy and it?s a great system.? As we age, the chakras begin to accumulate more dense energy and more toxins, partly because of the environments we live in these days, and so to clean the chakra?s keeps you in a lighter situation so that at the point of death the spiritual part of you, the etheric part of you will leave easily and smoothly. Then the great death spiral goes through and closes those chakras and seals them, essentially anoints them so that the energy body doesn?t try to come back to the physical body because it?s no longer a useful vehicle.? It?s not that this is new information but it is something that people can do themselves.? They don?t have to wait for a person who is a priest or minister to do it for them.
When I was taking the training there were a number of oncology nurses who spoke about the fact that many of their patients and sometimes children, were left alone because their parents could not deal with the sadness.? They wanted to know how they could be a support to the people so you know your friends and your advocates come in a lot of different forms at the end life and thank heavens for nurses like that but also for friends. ?I think it?s really important to find someone whose going to be your advocate, because you won?t be able to be your advocate indefinitely so make sure there is someone there to speak for you.? There are emotional and spiritual issues to deal with also and one of the things we feel strongly about is that don?t leave any unfinished business.? When you lift off you don?t want to be dragged back here because of forgiveness that you didn?t ask for, or forgiveness you didn?t give ? have you told all the people you love, how much you love them.? Do it all, say it all.? Don?t leave anything unsaid. Don?t put it off because we never know how long we are going to be here so really dying consciously is beginning to live consciously in the present.?
I think we are going to have a very different view of death simply as a transition to a different level of consciousness.?I think we are in a period of great, new, and exciting beginnings about who we are and what our purpose is here. ?If you realize that when you die, you are taking a lot of stuff with you, I think that people will begin to live differently.
Most of Western culture has forgotten how to die with grace and dignity. We shuttle our dying loved ones to hospitals where extraordinary measures are taken to prolong life at all costs. The atmosphere is often filled with fear and unresolved issues. Yet death is the ultimate journey of liberation. Ideally, we want to complete unfinished business and prepare to journey home as cleanly and simply as possible. This program offers simple practices for closure, dignity and peace at the end of a person?s life.
Elsa Bowman is a certified teacher for the Dying Consciously program, a subsidiary of the Institute of Energy Medicine in Park City, Utah. She holds degrees from Pomona College and Yale University and is currently affiliated with the Center for Spiritual Living, Tacoma. A former educator and administrator, she has also trained as a shaman. Her research includes various spiritual and indigenous wisdom traditions, adult development and the arts. She has presented workshops throughout the US, and her writings have appeared in USA Today, Puget Soundings, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Source: http://womenofwisdom.org/the-gift-of-dying-consciously-interview-with-elsa-bowman/
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In the few years I've been in Silicon Valley, if someone asked me to sum up -- in one word -- what defined and dominated consumer technology applications during that time, I'd have no choice but to answer: "Photos." Now, it's easy for others to sit back and roll their eyes at the thought of it. "Why not solve big problems?," an aggravated chorus might wail. Looking back over this time period, the big events touching on digital pictures gained outsized attention: The launch of iPhone 4, with its incredible camera; the meteoric rise and acquisition of Instagram; the technical achievement unlocked by Lytro; the influence of the Pinterest design on nearly every e-commerce site; our narcissistic addiction to Timehop or delight in depositing checks through our bank's mobile app; today's fascination with exploding pictures, courtesy of Snapchat; and on the horizon, one of the most anticipated interface advancements: Google Glass.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Gl6Bo874bFw/
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Criminals are using a new Internet Explorer security hole to attack Windows computers in targeted attacks, though the vulnerability could end up being more widely exploited. While IE9 and IE10 are not affected, versions IE6, IE7, and IE8 are. It?s great to see that the latest versions of IE are immune, but this new vulnerability is still bad news for Windows XP users and earlier since they cannot upgrade to more recent versions of Microsoft?s browser.
?We are actively investigating reports of a small, targeted issue affecting Internet Explorer 6-8,? Dustin Childs of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing told TNW. ?We will take appropriate action to help keep customers protected once our analysis is complete. People using Internet Explorer 9-10 are not impacted.?
The IE zero-day flaw first came to light after report surfaced that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) had been hacked. A closer look by security firm FireEye led to the discovery that the CFR site had been compromised and was hosting malicious content as early as on December 21.
?The Council on Foreign Relations? website security team is aware of the issue and is currently investigating the situation,? CFR spokesperson David Mikhail told The Washington Free Beacon on Thursday. ?We are also working to mitigate the possibility for future events of this sort.?
The malicious JavaScript in question only served the exploit code to browsers whose language was either English (U.S.), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Japanese, Korean, or Russian. Once the initial checks passed, the JavaScript proceeded to load an Adobe Flash file named ?today.swf.? This file ultimately triggered a heap spray in IE and downloaded a file named ?xsainfo.jpg.?
More details of the vulnerability are available at the CERT Knowledgebase ( VU#154201). Here?s the full technical description:
Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a use-after-free vulnerability in the mshtml CDwnBindInfo object. Specially-crafted JavaScript can cause Internet Explorer to create a CDoc object that contains a CDwnBindInfo object. This object may be freed without removing its pointer, resulting in a state where Internet Explorer may attempt to CALL an invalid memory address. Combined with heap spraying or other techniques, an attacker may be able to place arbitrary code at this address. This vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild, using Adobe Flash to achieve a heap spray and Java to provide Return Oriented Programming (ROP) gadgets.
Since there is no patch available, the note recommends a few workarounds: use the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), disable the Flash ActiveX control in IE, and disable Java in IE. We recommend avoiding the use of IE8 or earlier by either upgrading to IE9/IE10, or simply using a different browser such as Google Chrome.
Image credit: Miguel Saavedra
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWebPortugal/~3/0m958iw-j9A/
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, heads the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Sitting left is Cabinet minister Moshe Kachlon, and Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser, right. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, heads the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Sitting left is Cabinet minister Moshe Kachlon, and Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser, right. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's president and prime minister are trading charges over making peace with the Palestinians.
President Shimon Peres told a summit of international ambassadors and diplomats Sunday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is a reliable peace partner. He said Israeli diplomacy must change "from an aggressive approach to a moderate approach of dialogue."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party and his hawkish election partner released a statement calling the Israeli president out of touch and labeling the Palestinian president a "peace rejecter."
Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Netanyahu is expected to win Jan. 22 elections, and the hard-line bloc maintains a lead over dovish parties. The statement from Netanyahu's party said Peres' remarks in front of a diplomatic audience represent a political stance that encourages international condemnation of Israel.
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The countdown is on. You probably have an outfit ready for New Year's Eve, but what's your hair game plan for the big night? Updos seem an obvious choice, but not all styles work for every hair length.
Super-short hair can be a little tricky, but as we see in this video from Elle, it's quite simple to sleekly tuck it back without using a million bobby pins. Start by spraying in dry shampoo to create a little texture -- this will keep hair from slipping out. Then pull everything back into a low twist, but leave a little volume on top. Employ an extra-large hair pin, which will firmly anchor the style in place.
A soft, romantic option for mid-length hair is a faux bob. The key is making it subtly disheveled, which lends a understated sexiness to the style. Find chin-grazing layers around the crown of the head. Leaving those loose, pull the rest of the hair into a low ponytail. Use a bobby pin to tuck and effectively hide the ponytail underneath -- this creates the faux bob. Next, use a 1-inch curling iron to give the front pieces a bit of wave. Tousle hair all over to make sure there are loose strands all around, as well as ensuring the ponytail is still concealed.
For ladies with long hair, a classic chignon might be an evening standby, but swap in something a little unexpected with a deep-parted side braid. Begin by parting hair to one side, then securing a low-slung ponytail on the opposite side. Split the ponytail in two sections, then braid each one. Add a little glamour by wrapping a sparkly necklace into the two braids. Secure at the bottom. Finish the look by pulling loose layers from the front to cover the hair elastic.
Need NYE makeup ideas? Scroll through our gallery below.
Want more HuffPost Style beauty content? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram at @HuffPostBeauty.?(For everything else check out our main HuffPost Style?Twitter,?Tumblr,?Pinterest?and Instagram @HuffPostStyle.)
Do you have a beauty story idea or tip? Email us at stylesubmissions@huffingtonpost.com. (PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/short-hairstyles-long-hairstyles-updos_n_2375947.html
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It?s time to look back on the biggest trends for gaming in 2012. These are the macro oceans where the micro companies swam. If you?re guiding a game company, it?s always good to know whether you?re moving with the tide or against it.
In contrast to our article on the biggest game stories of the year, these aren?t individual events affecting a single company. These trends surfaced multiple times during the year with different companies. But the patterns were similar and, when viewed as a group of related events, they signaled something larger happening. We?ll try to explain why these trends mattered.
Mobile becomes the major platform to targetMobile game companies were once too small to be noticed. But with more than 821 million smartphones and tablets selling this year (according to market researcher Gartner), the mobile game market is too big to ignore now. New devices like the iPad Mini will only make the this market more interesting.
Rovio hit the big time with more than a billion copies of Angry Birds downloaded (it launched Angry Birds Star Wars, pictured at top, this year). Zynga shifted gear in a big way into mobile games, but so far it hasn?t been able to extend its dominance in Facebook games to mobile. With a wide-open market up for grabs, everybody is entering it. That includes entertainment giants such as Disney, which had five No. 1 hits in the past year, as well as established mobile leaders such as Electronic Arts and Gameloft. Joining the party is a raft of new startups. It?s also increasingly common to see established companies such as King.com test their ideas on social networks?and then launch the successes on mobile.
Companies are following the users, with 44 percent of people now playing mobile games. ?Mobile first? is becoming a more common strategy, and 42 percent of game startups are now focused on mobile gaming. In this environment, getting lots of users matters as does monetization strategy. No longer can developers rely on just getting lucky. But getting repeat hits is a great challenge. If your company hasn?t expanded into mobile, you may have a new chief executive officer soon.
Crowdfunding revives midsized developersA slowdown in venture capital funding (in the wake of Zynga?s market crash) meant that developers had to get money from somewhere. Many of them turned to Kickstarter, the crowdfunding site that allowed them to raise money from fans. The site churned out millions of dollars in funds for midsized developers who couldn?t get money from publishers. These developers ? from Tim Schafer?s Double Fine Productions (Schafer is pictured right) to Brian Fargo?s inXile Entertainment ? had big fan followings that allowed them to tap the crowd.
The amount of funding raised was impressive, with Ouya leading the way at $8.3 million for its Android-based game console. But there were plenty of Kickstarter campaigns that failed. In all of 2011, game companies raised $3.6 million on Kickstarter. In 2012, more than $50 million had been raised as of August. The success of Kickstarter led to new game-focused crowdfunding sites such as Gambitious and Gamesplanet Lab. Chris Roberts tried a hybrid of a Kickstarter campaign and a fundraiser on his own site for Star Citizen. If these crowdfunding methods take off, developers will have more alternatives beyond traditional game publishers when it comes to funding their creative visions. Crowdfunding could disrupt venture capitalists, or at least keep them more honest.
Game studios cut back as the console cycle comes to an endRetail game sales fell at double-digit percentages compared to the previous year for practically every month of 2012, and that was the case even though 2011 sales weren?t anything to brag about. Nintendo recognized the pattern and launched its Wii U console just in time. But Microsoft and Sony waited, and that has made life tough for a lot of traditional game studios.
Layoffs were the result. Job cuts spread far and wide, hitting companies including Microsoft, Glu Mobile, Foundation 9?s Backbone Entertainment, EA-BioWare, PopCap Games, Trion, Petroglyph, THQ, Sega, and?Blizzard Entertainment.
The game industry has always been about winners and losers. These companies cut their losses and positioned themselves for the road ahead.
Cloud gaming has a mixed yearOnLive carried the flag for cloud gaming for many years. In 2010, it launched a cloud gaming service that?would allow people with low-end computers to play high-end games that were processed in a data center and then streamed as videos to the players? screens. The cloud would allow players to log into their games from anywhere and play as long as they had a good Internet connection. OnLive beat its milestones and surprised the skeptics for a while, but it?hit the wall in August, running out of money. The company changed hands and suffered a big setback.
Fortunately, rival Gaikai managed a great exit, selling out to Sony for $380 million.?By year end, CiiNow revived hopes by raising money from Advanced Micro Devices for its cloud gaming software, aimed at heading off some of the problems that OnLive encountered. Playcast took cloud gaming services into international markets, and Big Fish Games launched a casual cloud gaming service.
Gamification pumps upGamification is defined as using game-like mechanics to increase the engagement of nongame mechanics. Market researcher Gartner warned that 80 percent of gamification efforts could fail.?But that rate isn?t so scary considering the percentage of games that fail. But the fact that Gartner cared about gamification at all was a sign of growing awareness.
Many hope that gamification will catch on big time in the enterprise. Consulting firm?Capgemini offered a big endorsement?when it said it would help companies gamify their sales and other processes. Gamification services firm Badgeville scored $25 million in funding as its business took off. As more corporations adopt gamification, the culture of game playing will spread far and wide. It could also take off in fields such as?sales, marketing, web design, fitness, and?education. Gamification is cutting through the hype, and it could gather further momentum in the coming year as long as companies stay focused on real business.
Social casino games spread like wildfireSocial casino games gained traction this year, fueled by investor speculation that such games could benefit from the coming legalization of online gambling in the U.S. There are a lot of barriers to be overcome in this quest, but that didn?t deter the hopeful.
Zynga has the largest social casino game with Zynga Poker, with 31 million monthly active users. But it got a lot of company after the Justice Department unexpectedly broke down one barrier when it ruled a year ago that online gambling could be legal in the U.S. as long as states passed laws permitting it. In January, IGT paid $500 million for Double Down Interactive, a social gaming company with only 70 employees.
After that, dozens of new startups received funding for their social casino and sports-betting games. Analysts report that social casino games will generate?$1.6 billion in revenue?this year, and that will steadily grow over the next several years.?Betable has cut deals?with five social casino game companies to convert their titles into real-money gambling games. The company tracks more than 2,000 social casino games worldwide. Zynga?s stumbles slowed down the enthusiasm, but Facebook embraced the trend too when it allowed Gamesys to launch a real-money gambling Bingo game on Facebook in the United Kingdom.
Zynga?s crash took some of the air out of this bubble, but many are still betting that online gambling will give a big boost to the social casino game companies, and visa versa.?Zynga itself is betting big?on online gambling, and?so is Facebook. We?ll find out next year if this trend has staying power.
Online triple-A games gain critical massWhen League of Legends debuted in 2010, it started a revolution that drew hardcore gamers away from their consoles to play an online battle arena game. It grew and grew, and publisher Riot Games was acquired by China?s Tencent for nearly $400 million. The hardcore online tank-battle game World of Tanks, published by Wargaming, grew by more than 27 million players this year to more than 45 million by the end of 2012. Those titles were helped along by livestreaming on Twitch, and they developed big followings among fans who played the games in eSports tournaments.
That made everybody stand at attention. New hardcore online game companies such as Meteor Entertainment, the publisher of Hawken,
have jumped on the opportunity. More promising hardcore online titles are on the way from companies such as Rumble Entertainment, Crytek, and others. These?are the games that will give $60 console titles a run for their money, and they may prove very disruptive in the long run.
Not all the hardcore titles have caught traction. Microsoft?s Flight simulation game didn?t catch hold as a free-to-play title, and it came crashing down to earth.
MMOs go free to playMassively multiplayer online games lived off the subscriptions of gamers for years. World of Warcraft soared past 12 million?subscribers in 2011. But in 2012, gamers warmed up to the attractions of free-to-play games, where users play for free?and pay real money for virtual goods. No longer were they willing to pay $10 or $15 a month. One after another, the marquee?MMOs moved to free to play.
These included Dungeons & Dragons, Everquest, Vanguard, Star Trek Online, and others. Blizzard made the first 20?levels of World of Warcraft available as a free-to-play title. And even Star Wars: The Old Republic, developed over six years?at a cost of more than $200 million, was forced to go free to play. World of Warcraft has slipped to 10 million subscribers,?and it may not be long before it too will have to go the same route. The competition in the online world is stiff, and it?remains to be seen if the free-to-play gamers will spend enough to make these games viable. But there?s no turning back.
Third party game publishing migrates to mobileTo increase their chances of getting a hit amid a sea of mobile games, publishers are setting up more third-party services in order to scoop up the talented developers who prefer to work on the outside. As its core casual games market slowed down, Zynga moved fast to set up?third-party publishing?for both social network and mobile games. Its slate of titles included midcore titles such as Row Sham Bow that were outside of Zynga?s core focus.
Third-party alliances were a popular way to make strategic moves. Activision moved into mobile by setting up a third-party mobile game publishing platform operating in a partnership with Flurry.?Red Robot Labs?(founders pictured right) set up a publishing operation based on its successful location-based mobile gaming platform.?Playsino?set up a third-party operation for casino games. TinyCo, Tapjoy, and many others also set up similar platforms.
The pattern reflected the need to diversify beyond a company?s core development teams. The third-party publishing made sense for developers who wanted to stay independent but take advantage of a partner?s distribution reach. This third-party publishing is a great way to play the field and play it safe at the same time.
Gaming goes globalPeter Relan, the chairman of incubator YouWeb and its portfolio company CrowdStar,?argued?that companies could reach billion users by leveraging social, mobile, and international game markets. Many other game leaders realized that, and 2012 was the year when they expanded far and wide beyond the usual international markets. Gaming took off in Brazil, Russia, China, and India. But the market in Turkey and the Middle East gave rise to strong companies such as?Peak Games.
Japan?s Gree and DeNA expanded into the West, spending heavily on acquisitions. By the end of the third quarter, DeNA was generating $627 million in revenue per quarter, so it had lots of cash to throw around. Tencent, the huge social media company in China, expanded into the West by taking a stake in Epic Games, the creator of the Gears of War console series. And likewise, industry leaders like?Electronic Arts?took their games into China via relations with Tencent.
Companies that go global have an extra leg to stand on when times get tough. Zynga failed in Japan. Had it succeeded, it might have withstood the financial storm that struck when its core Facebook market slowed.
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/28/the-biggest-gaming-trends-of-2012/
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COLIN SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ
HANDS-FREE: Nelson city councillors Mike Ward left, Gail Collingwood and Derek Shaw do not own cellphones.
In a society which has forced dependence on cars and cellular communications, three city councillors refuse to succumb.
Perhaps they do not know what they are missing, or maybe that is the point.
Councillors Mike Ward, Derek Shaw and Gail Collingwood do not own cellphones, and the first two do not hold a driver's licence. Pedal-power or walking has long been the preferred mode of transport, while email has become the communications mode of choice for all three.
As a former parliamentarian Mr Ward once had a cellphone. An attempt to switch it to a private plan might have worked had he held a driver's licence.
"I went to the store in Nelson to renew the contract but they said I needed photo ID. I said, ?what do you mean, I was only drinking coffee with you the day before'.
"Because I don't have a licence, I took a clipping of a newspaper article that had a photo of me in it but they wouldn't accept it."
The final blow was when Mr Ward dropped the Blackberry in a puddle, and drowned it.
"I don't find it inconvenient. I'll always stop what I'm doing to talk to people if they want to drop into my studio.
"Because I don't have a cellphone I do what I've done forever - I let people know where I'm going."
The Hardy St studio is where Mr Ward now spends large parts of each day as a jewellery artist and preparing for council. Unlike Mr Shaw, he does have an answering machine on his home phone, but hardly ever clears his messages.
Mr Ward said he never got around to learning to drive.
"I once had a lesson with my mother when I was young but it was a bit chaotic. It wasn't much fun - maybe I was poorly co-ordinated or something.
"My younger brother went to sea and he owned a Morris 8 which he said I could drive, but I just never got around to it."
Mr Shaw chose not to have a cellphone because he does not need one. He said people got by without them before, but accepted they were good for keeping in touch with the children. If his partner did not have one then he probably would.
"Everyone else in the household has one so I figured I don't need one. I spend enough on communications, with two landlines, broadband and facsimile.
"Most people either fax or email me - I prefer email so I can respond in my own time."
Mr Shaw does not drive either. The family car is driven by his partner.
As a student Mr Shaw once held a motorbike licence, but let it lapse.
"I did resolve once to get a licence when there was a particular time I needed one when it proved inconvenient not to have one."
Those were the days of young children. "I decided I'd sit the test in Southland when we were down there on holiday, but when I got there the office was closed for a time and not open until after we were due to leave Invercargill.
"I took that as a sign I could do without it."
He takes their youngest son to athletics at Saxton Field on the tandem pushbike, but on the whole he did not think their children had been too disadvantaged. The elder two do not drive either.
"I admit it would be handy being able to share the drive to and from Invercargill though."
Mrs Collingwood felt she managed fine without a cellphone, as people seemed to prefer to use email anyway.
"I just felt I could manage without one. I have friends who have one in the event they're needed in an emergency, but they never switch them on. If there was an emergency no-one would be able to contact them."
Mrs Collingwood said she was "not a complete luddite", and rattled off the things she did like about mobile phones, like all the apps.
Tasman district counterparts all had cellphones and all drove a vehicle, which was essential because of the distances involved in getting around the district. Cellphones were also an essential tool in their roles, spokesman Chris Choat said.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/8125242/Mobile-just-don-t-ring-or-text
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria faces "hell" if no deal is struck to end 21 months of bloodshed, an international mediator said on Saturday, but his talks in Russia brought no sign of a breakthrough after a week of intense diplomacy.
U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both said there was still a chance for a negotiated solution to the conflict, which has killed more than 44,000 people and set world powers against one another.
But Lavrov repeated Russia's stance that President Bashar al-Assad's removal cannot be a precondition for a political solution, saying that such demands were "wrong" and that the opposition's refusal to talk to the government was a "dead end".
Brahimi said: "If the only alternative is really hell or a political process, then all of us must work ceaselessly for a political process. It is difficult, it is very complicated, but there is no other choice."
Lavrov issued a similar exhortation in a joint appearance at an ornate mansion where he meets foreign dignitaries, saying: "The chance for a political settlement remains and it is our obligation to make maximal use of that chance."
But no major new initiatives were announced and Lavrov, whose country has vetoed three United Nations Security Council resolutions meant to put pressure on Assad, gave no indication it would back down from that stance.
"When the opposition says only Assad's exit will allow it to begin a dialogue about the future of its own country, we think this is wrong, we think this is rather counterproductive," he said. "The costs of this precondition are more and more lives of Syrian citizens."
Russia has tried to distance itself from Assad for months and seems to have stepped up its calls for a peaceful resolution as the rebels have gained ground against government forces in the conflict, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011 but which has descended into a civil war.
However, Lavrov noted that Assad has said publicly and privately that he would not go, adding that Russia "does not have the ability to change this".
Brahimi is trying to build on a plan agreed in Geneva in June by the United States, Russia and other powers that called for a transitional government but left Assad's role unclear. The United States said the agreement sent a clear signal that Assad should step down, but Russia said it did nothing of the kind.
"The core of that political process ... is and must be the Geneva agreement," said Brahimi, who took over as the U.N.-Arab League envoy after Kofi Annan quit in frustration at divisions among world powers, chiefly the United States and Russia, and the failure of the Geneva accord to bring a resolution closer.
"There may be one or two little adjustments to make here and there, but it is a reasonable basis for a political process that will help the Syrian people," he said, without elaborating.
TALKING ABOUT TALKS
Brahimi said a plan to resolve the conflict could eventually go to the U.N. Security Council for backing, but only if there was confidence it would be effective.
"What we need to have is a resolution that can work, and I think it is possible to get to that stage if we continue to talk," he said.
The Algerian envoy, who met Assad and others on a five-day trip to Syria this week, is to meet senior U.S. and Russian diplomats together in the coming weeks, after two such meetings this month that produced no signs of a breakthrough.
In Damascus on Thursday, Brahimi called for a transitional government to rule until elections in Syria and said only substantial change would meet demands of ordinary Syrians, but did not specify who could be part of such a body.
A spokesman for the opposition National Coalition said on Friday the coalition "will not negotiate with the Assad regime", and its leader rebuffed Russia's first invitation for talks.
The leader, Moaz Alkhatib, said he would not travel to Moscow and issued conditions for talks, demanding that Lavrov apologies for Russia's support for Assad and that Moscow issue a clear call for him to step down.
Lavrov testily rejected those demands, saying the opposition "should think not of their ambitions but about the Syrian people". Nevertheless, he reiterated Russia's readiness to hold the meeting somewhere outside its territory.
"If they think that Russia can play any kind of role in this drama, then they should meet with us," Lavrov said.
Syria has been a major buyer of Russian arms and hosts a modest naval maintenance facility on the Mediterranean that is Russia's only military base outside the former Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russian vetoes and opposition to U.N. sanctions against Syria are driven by the principle of non-interference in sovereign states. He has accused Washington of using human rights concerns to justify efforts to impose its will around the world.
Putin has emphasized that Moscow will not allow a repeat in Syria of last year's events in Libya, where NATO intervention, authorized by the U.N. Security Council after Russia abstained from a vote, helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hopes-syria-breakthrough-faint-u-n-envoy-visits-085239379.html
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