Reality check! TV genre fans neurotic, extroverts

By Courtney Hazlett, TODAY

Ratings show us that Americans hunger for reality TV about as much as Honey Boo Boo?s family craves their infamous ketchup-and-butter-topped ?sketti.? But while we think we?ve come to know the people on the small screen in shows as varied as ?Teen Mom? and ?Deadliest Catch,? what do we know about the viewers who regularly tune in??

TODAY.com surveyed nearly 19,000 people and found those who watch reality TV consider themselves more extroverted, more neurotic, and say that they have lower self-esteem than folks who aren?t fans of the genre.

AP (2), Getty Images

Three big stars of reality TV who generate a fair share of viewer reaction are, from left, Honey Boo Boo, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, and Kim Kardashian.

Although both watchers and non-watchers of the genre report relatively high levels of self-esteem, the survey revealed that some viewers actively turn to reality shows to make them feel better about their own lives.

Feeling untidy because of those couple of dishes left in the sink? That?s nothing compared to what you?ll see on A&E?s ?Hoarders.?

"That?s clearly about schadenfreude?-- taking pleasure in the misfortune of others,? psychiatrist and frequent TODAY contributor Dr. Gail Saltz says. ?On the one hand, what?s wrong with feeling a little better about your house when you see someone on TV with a mess and 50 cats? On the other, it?s not a helpful defense mechanism when you have your own things going on that you should be attending to.?

Seventy percent of reality TV fans reported being extroverts compared to 59 percent of non-watchers. And 24 percent of those viewers considered themselves neurotic, compared to only 14 percent of non-watchers, the survey revealed.

?Extroverts are people who gain a lot of what they want from the outside world. Obviously watching someone else?s world is exactly that,? Saltz said. ?Neurotic people tend to be worried about how others will judge them. Then you have ?Here Comes Honey Boo Boo? -- here?s the family who?s the epitome of ?we don?t care.? That would be an enjoyable thing to watch for a person who?s walking around thinking ?I have to think about what people say.??

As one fan of the show wrote: ?It?s totally hysterical. I laugh the whole time. They have absolutely no embarrassment about anything they do and show you can be happy with very little. Sweet people.? Gross ... but sweet.?

Watching people pick through piles of garbage on ?Hoarders? may seem like a considerable decline in the evolution of the reality genre ? especially for those who grew up on the simple joy of ?Survivor.? But while competition shows certainly paved the way for unscripted programming, the TODAY survey was focused on shows like ?Real Housewives? and ?Teen Mom? -- a subset of programming where there?s no elimination along the way and no prize at the end.?

So what else did the survey tell us about the genre so many publicly snicker at, but privately watch?

• ?Deadliest Catch??-- chronicling the high-seas adventures of crab fishermen -- is the most popular show among men, which might not come as a surprise. But the second-most popular among men? The ?Real Housewives? franchise.
• ?Keeping Up With the Kardashians? and the ?Real Housewives? franchise were the two most popular shows among women.
• Women are more likely than men to watch reality programming (49 percent of women versus 24 percent of men.)
• Younger people were much more likely to watch: 19- 29-year-olds made up 70 percent of respondents.?

And sorry, Snooki, but shows like "Jersey Shore" support the concept that some reality TV leaves viewers are appalled but unable to look away. ?I like watching the train wreck,? was the common refrain.

But the allure of the train wreck only goes so far. For as pervasive as the programming seems to be, there are plenty of people not watching, and they?re not afraid to say exactly why.

?I think reality show(s) are the stupidest thing ever created for TV and a blight on society,? a non-viewer said in the survey. ?I believe [reality TV] is contributing to the dumbing down of our country and promotes bad and immoral behavior,? said another.

While there?s ample opportunity on some shows to watch pretty awful behavior, that doesn?t mean that it?s taking down civilization as a whole, one uncouth incident at a time.

Julie Klausner, who recaps ?Real Housewives of New Jersey? and ?Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? for New York magazine, said, ?I know a lot of smart people who watch ?Housewives? and ?Honey Boo Boo,? and we all have a very specific sense of status, which is, we know when it's not OK to laugh at somebody, and when it makes sense to root for them.?

Regardless of whether you think reality television can be painted with a single brush, either good or bad, the truth is millions of people continue to tune in. In 2011, ?Jersey Shore? was the most-watched cable series on television, averaging 9.3 million viewers per episode. Each new episode of ?Here Comes Honey Boo Boo? draws about a million viewers, and that number doesn?t count the number of people who watch (or re-watch) the reruns.

The laws of television programming -- if it rates, run it -- reign supreme. Until that kind of viewing trend changes, the genre probably isn?t going away.

But that doesn?t mean the makers of such programming are in a hurry to talk it up. Numerous reality TV producers and executives for the networks that run the shows were asked to comment about TODAY?s survey findings. Everyone declined.

We who watch might be as much to blame as the people who participate in the shows. David Frederick, professor of psychology at Chapman University and consultant on the TODAY survey, points out that ?we are likely hardwired to seek out information on how other people deal with conflicts, family, friends and mating.?

?Reality TV provides one source of information regarding what makes some people more susceptible to being manipulated, what makes them more prestigious, and how to survive in dangerous situations,? Frederick said. ?These shows appeal to?a very basic human need for information about social relationships.?

Decades ago, the social relationships before us -- on television at least -- might have come from the family sitcom, but the days of ?Leave it to Beaver? and even ?Friends? are long behind us. For now, for better or worse, that torch has been passed.

So for the Kardashians, the various real housewives, and you, too, ?Giuliana and Bill? -- you have our attention. Behave wisely.

Want to defend your reality-TV-watching habit, or take issue with the genre? Join the discussion on Facebook.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/11/29/15459956-reality-check-for-reality-tv-fans-youre-more-neurotic?lite

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Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification: An Online Game for

Original Paper

Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification: An Online Game for Analyzing Images of Infected Thick Blood Smears

Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz^1,2, PhD; Asier Arranz³, MEng; John Frean^4,5, MBBCh, MMed

¹Biomedical Image Technologies group, DIE, ETSI Telecomunicaci?n, Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid, CEI Moncloa UPM-UCM, Madrid, Spain
²Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, CIBER-BBN, Madrid, Spain
³Nebutek Soluciones SL, Vizcaya, Spain
⁴National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
⁵School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Corresponding Author:
Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz, PhD

Biomedical Image Technologies group
DIE, ETSI Telecomunicaci?n
Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid, CEI Moncloa UPM-UCM
ETSIT, Av. Complutense 30
Madrid, 28040
Spain
Phone: 34 913366827
Fax: 34 913367323
Email:

---

ABSTRACT

Background: There are 600,000 new malaria cases daily worldwide. The gold standard for estimating the parasite burden and the corresponding severity of the disease consists in manually counting the number of parasites in blood smears through a microscope, a process that can take more than 20 minutes of an expert microscopist?s time.
Objective: This research tests the feasibility of a crowdsourced approach to malaria image analysis. In particular, we investigated whether anonymous volunteers with no prior experience would be able to count malaria parasites in digitized images of thick blood smears by playing a Web-based game.
Methods: The experimental system consisted of a Web-based game where online volunteers were tasked with detecting parasites in digitized blood sample images coupled with a decision algorithm that combined the analyses from several players to produce an improved collective detection outcome. Data were collected through the MalariaSpot website. Random images of thick blood films containing Plasmodium falciparum at medium to low parasitemias, acquired by conventional optical microscopy, were presented to players. In the game, players had to find and tag as many parasites as possible in 1 minute. In the event that players found all the parasites present in the image, they were presented with a new image. In order to combine the choices of different players into a single crowd decision, we implemented an image processing pipeline and a quorum algorithm that judged a parasite tagged when a group of players agreed on its position.
Results: Over 1 month, anonymous players from 95 countries played more than 12,000 games and generated a database of more than 270,000 clicks on the test images. Results revealed that combining 22 games from nonexpert players achieved a parasite counting accuracy higher than 99%. This performance could be obtained also by combining 13 games from players trained for 1 minute. Exhaustive computations measured the parasite counting accuracy for all players as a function of the number of games considered and the experience of the players. In addition, we propose a mathematical equation that accurately models the collective parasite counting performance.
Conclusions: This research validates the online gaming approach for crowdsourced counting of malaria parasites in images of thick blood films. The findings support the conclusion that nonexperts are able to rapidly learn how to identify the typical features of malaria parasites in digitized thick blood samples and that combining the analyses of several users provides similar parasite counting accuracy rates as those of expert microscopists. This experiment illustrates the potential of the crowdsourced gaming approach for performing routine malaria parasite quantification, and more generally for solving biomedical image analysis problems, with future potential for telediagnosis related to global health challenges.

(J Med Internet Res 2012;14(6):e167)
doi:10.2196/jmir.2338

KEYWORDS

Crowdsourcing; Malaria; Image Analysis; Games for Health; Telepathology

Crowdsourcing methodologies leveraging the contributions of citizen scientists connected via the Internet have recently proved to be of great value to solve certain scientific challenges involving ?big data? analysis that cannot be entirely automated [1]. In the GalaxyZoo project, citizen scientists classified imagery of hundreds of thousands of galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope archive [2]. Crowdsourced contributions can be achieved with different motivation strategies, such as micropayments or games. The ?serious games? concept refers to an intention not only to entertain users, but also to train or educate them [3]. The ?gamification? [4] of the crowdsourcing approach enables a higher motivation of the participants and, using the Internet as a vehicle, untaps an underexploited resource for scientific research [5,6]: it is estimated that 3 billion hours per week are spent playing computer and videogames worldwide [7]. For instance, Fold-It, an online game where players solve 3-dimensional puzzles by folding protein structures, has resulted in several breakthrough scientific discoveries [8-10]. Another recent growing trend is the use of crowdsourcing techniques for participatory health research studies in which individuals report in real time a variety of health conditions [11], providing a promising complement to traditional clinical trials. Considering crowdsourced image analysis, collective processing has been recently explored for earthquake damage assessment from remote sensing imagery [12]. However, this methodology has not yet been mainstreamed for biomedical image analysis.

In this context, analysis of microscopic images of malaria-infected blood samples is an appealing goal. Worldwide, there are more than 200 million malaria cases and approximately 800,000 deaths annually, mainly in children [13,14]. Careful optical microscopic examination of a well-stained blood film remains the gold standard for malaria diagnosis [15]. Confirmation of a negative diagnosis is ultimately dependent on the technician?s expertise and can take up to 20 minutes. In addition, as malaria prevalence decreases in one specific place over time, microscopy technician skills may now be needed in other regions. Fast, cheap, ubiquitous, and accurate diagnosis is a priority in the Agenda for Malaria Eradication [16]. Although automated processing methodologies have been used extensively for the analysis of digitized blood smears [17,18], currently there are no completely automated image processing systems that can achieve perfect parasite recognition [19-24]. The main problem in computer-aided malaria diagnosis is that algorithms are usually not very robust with respect to the variable appearance of the parasites and changing image acquisition conditions.

The goal of this research was to test the feasibility of a crowdcomputing approach for malaria parasite quantification in which nonexperts count parasites in digitized thick blood smears through an online game (crowdsourcing) and a decision algorithm combines the data generated by several players in order to achieve a collective detection with a higher accuracy rate than an individual analysis. This idea?gaming for distributed malaria image analysis?has been also explored in a recent study by Mavandadi et al [25], in parallel to and independently of this study. These researchers designed a video game and a processing pipeline to investigate whether nonexperts can assess if a single-cell image extracted from a digitized thin blood sample is infected with malaria or not. Although this study and the present research share a similar vision and goal, the research questions posed and solutions adopted differ substantially in terms of the data analyzed, the nature of the participants, the main task required of them, and the processing methodologies.

The proposed system in this study provides a new tool for parasite counting, but not malaria diagnosis, which is a more complex problem [26]. For this purpose, the microscopist protocol will need to be translated completely into a gaming protocol, including assessing the presence or absence of parasites, the parasite species, and growth stages and prognostic markers, such as schizonts or gametocytes, or pigment load. In the long run, crowdsourced remote telediagnosis from images acquired with optical microscopy and distributed worldwide through the Internet and possibly with systems that integrate the microscope into mobile phones [27,28], might have a potential impact for malaria-endemic countries because diagnosis availability and its cost could be optimized. However, in addition to the need for conventional laboratory processing and imaging equipment to prepare the material to a sufficiently high standard, this kind of analysis will require a communications infrastructure with enough bandwidth to distribute the images over the Internet and a critical number of online participants in order to ensure timely analysis of the images.

This work presents a proof-of-concept system that explores the feasibility of an online game-based, crowdsourced solution for malaria parasite quantitation in digitized images of thick blood smears.

We selected an image database of malaria-positive blood films that had been previously analyzed by experts to generate gold standards. These images were then incorporated into an online game. The player?s task was to click on the parasites. When a player found all the parasites present in 1 image (constituting a level) within a limited amount of time, the game continued by presenting a new image. Otherwise, the game was over. All the players? clicks were registered in a database. After 1 month, all the collected data was preprocessed in order to group all the clicks that players placed around the different objects in the image: parasites, white blood cells (leukocytes), and background noise. Finally, an algorithm that combined the different games to increase accuracy was developed and evaluated.

Ethics Statement

The malaria images used in this research were previously used to evaluate automated image analysis methods [20]. Original blood samples and resultant test images were collected and used with ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (protocol number M051126). No new ethical review board approval was required since the digital images used in our work were not linked to any patient data or diagnosis and were digitally shared for microscopic training evaluation purposes. The data analyzed in this research were anonymously produced by online volunteers who agreed to play an Internet game. The participants were informed of the research purposes of the game on the game webpage.

Image Database

The image database was compiled from 28 Giemsa-stained thick films made from blood infected with malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) parasites, acquired using a 50? objective in a conventional laboratory optical microscope. Medium to low parasitemia images were selected for the game because of its design (1-minute games) and the fact that discrepancies between automatic counting methodologies and manual expert counting tend to be greater in low parasitemia cases. A gold standard mask image was generated for each of the 28 images to evaluate player performance.

Game Architecture

The objective of the MalariaSpot game was to tag as many parasites as possible in an image in 1 minute. The instructions?what is a parasite and what it is not?were briefly explained in the splash screen of the game website (Figure 1a). During the game, if the player found all the parasites in 1 image in the allowed time, a new image was presented (Figure 1b). Therefore, a player could analyze several images (levels) in a single game. In order to reinforce the game?s addictive nature, the players were given continuous feedback: each click was compared with the gold standard and an icon was placed immediately at the tag position to indicate a correct or incorrect selection. In addition, if the player misidentified an object and clicked in a wrong location (eg, on a leukocyte), the player was penalized by reducing the remaining time available to solve the level. Players were confronted with different, randomly selected test images. The difficulty of the levels increased as the time penalty for wrong tags grew with each level. As a motivation strategy, at the end of the game players were invited to register and provide their name, email address, and country in order to be included in the table of high scorers depicting the top daily, weekly, and monthly players.

Source: http://www.jmir.org/2012/6/e167/

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Al-Qaeda's East Africa network 'regrouping, rearming in northern Somalia'

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Source: http://www.newsxs.com/en/go/10210234/3463/

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Roche, Novartis Showcase Game-Changing Breast Cancer Drug Data

Roche and Novartis (NYSE: NVS??) put out new data yesterday on two treatments that promise to fundamentally reshape the way the majority of breast cancer patients are treated. Roche clearly impressed specialists and analysts with the news that pertuzumab combined with Herceptin and chemotherapy checked tumor development for a median of slightly more than six months -- from 8.5 months to 12.4 months. And Novartis's Afinitor demonstrated a four-month delay in disease progression among metastatic patients.

"These are two new therapies, targeted therapies, that will change the standard of care for women with metastatic disease," Jose Baselga, chief of oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author for both studies, tells Bloomberg. "They are elegant, they are hypothesis-driven and they are working through well-known mechanisms."

Afinitor is already approved for other cancers, following Novartis's game plan for mapping a path to a steadily growing marketplace. But it was the experimental pertuzumab that had gripped the attention of the field in the lead-up to the big San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The treatment offers a second pathway to managing HER2-positive breast cancer, which is present in about one in four cases. By offering a much-improved combination therapy for breast cancer, Roche puts itself on the road to an approval that could gain an additional $2 billion a year in revenue while guarding itself against any new biosimilars of Herceptin.

"These are among the most significant findings in drugs for metastatic cancer in the past five years," Dana-Farber's Eric Winer tells The Wall Street Journal. But Roche and Novartis still have a ways to go before they complete their case on breast cancer. The gold standard for cancer data is an overall survival rate, and investigators are still piecing that picture together. Roche has already filed for an approval of pertruzumab in Europe and is expected to file soon in the U.S.

This article originally published here. Get your free daily biotech briefing here.

Related Articles:

• Roche preps full data on blockbuster hopeful for breast cancer
• Afinitor data could be 'game-changer' in breast cancer
• Roche gearing up to seek approvals of breast cancer treatment

Source: http://stocks-broker.blogspot.com/2012/11/roche-novartis-showcase-game-changing.html

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Report: Extending jobless benefits creates jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Congressional Budget Office says extending the current level of long-term unemployment benefits for another year would add 300,000 jobs to the economy.

A report from the nonpartisan office estimates that preserving jobless benefits would cost the government $30 billion. But it would also lead to more spending by the unemployed, boosting demand for goods and services and creating new jobs.

Federal long-term unemployment benefits are set to expire on Dec. 29 unless Congress approves an extension. Democrats have called for reauthorization of extended benefits, but Republicans are generally opposed.

Regular jobless benefits generally last up to 26 weeks for eligible workers who lose their job and are seeking employment. Since 2008, the federal government has offered up to 47 weeks of additional benefits.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-11-29-Unemployment%20Benefits/id-40cff00a601e4f629e5814ee7f4070f9

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SC State Housing Launches New Tax Credit Program | MidlandsBiz

SC State Housing Launches New Tax Credit Program

Nov 27, 2012

?Significant savings benefits for qualified homebuyers
?
COLUMBIA, SC - November 27, 2012 - South Carolina homebuyers now have a powerful new tool to make their mortgages more affordable and save thousands of dollars each year that would have otherwise been paid in taxes. The SC Mortgage Tax Credit Program is a Mortgage Credit Certificate Program administered by the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (SC State Housing) that provides a federal income tax credit to qualified homebuyers of up to $2,000 per calendar year for every year they occupy the home as their primary residence*.
?
The SC Mortgage Tax Credit Program will allow qualified homebuyers to save thousands of dollars in mortgage interest payments by taking a tax credit of 30 percent on their federal income tax ? up to a maximum of $2000 per calendar year.? This could result in substantial savings over the life of a mortgage loan ? savings that the homeowner can keep, rather than paying in taxes.
?
Spend A Little! Save A Lot!
The cost of the SC Mortgage Tax Credit is just $500, with lenders being able to charge up to an additional $200 processing fee. The cost of obtaining the credit can be paid by the seller of the home as well.
?
Who Qualifies?
To qualify, a homebuyer must meet certain conditions:

• The homebuyer is purchasing a primary residence in South Carolina; AND
• The homebuyer is a first-time homebuyer, has not owned a home in the last three years, or buys a home in a ?targeted? county; AND
• The homebuyer occupies the home as a primary residence; AND
• Household income** falls within the limits established for the county in which the primary residence is being purchased; AND
• The purchase price** is within the limits established for the county in which the primary residence is being purchased.

**Household income limits and home purchase price limits vary by household size and by county. ?
The home may be new construction or an existing single-family home.
?
What Type of Loan Can It Be Used With?
The SC Mortgage Tax Credit may be used with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, conventional, fixed rate, adjustable rate, FHA, VA and USDA-Rural Development financing.? It is not available for SC State Housing bond-financed loans, FHA 203(k) or USDA 502 direct loans.
?
How Does Someone Qualify?
The program is available to homebuyers through a statewide network of qualified lenders. Contact a qualified lender today to determine if you qualify. The lender will submit the application on behalf of the homebuyer. A list of qualified lenders can be found at www.SCHousing.com/MortgageTaxCredit.
?
How Does a Lender Become Approved to Offer the Program?
To become a qualified SC Mortgage Tax Credit lending partner, lenders may complete an application and agreement, which can be found at www.SCHousing.com/Lending_Partners or contact Claude Spurlock at 803.896.9396 or Claude.Spurlock@SCHousing.com.
?
For additional information regarding the SC Mortgage Tax Credit Program, please visit www.SCHousing.com/MortgageTaxCredit.
About SC State Housing?For over forty years, SC State Housing has created quality affordable housing opportunities for the citizens of South Carolina.? The agency?s vision is that all residents have the opportunity to live in safe, decent and affordable housing.? The agency administers a number of Federal and State programs directed at low and low-to-moderate income South Carolinians.? SC State Housing is self-sustaining and receives no state appropriations.? For more information, visit www.SCHousing.com.

*As long as the Mortgage Credit Certificate has not been revoked.

Source: http://www.midlandsbiz.com/articles/12673/

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MediaPortal posts 2.0 alpha media hub and new remote apps, teases 1.3 beta with Titan

Home theater PC owners only just recovering from their turkey or tofu comas will have some updating to do -- MediaPortal has been busy. The experimenters among us will most likely want to jump straight into the promised MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha Autumn, which carries new visual layouts and video backgrounds, a news plugin and a party-friendly music player. New versions of remote tools like aMPdroid, MPExtended, WebMediaPortal and WifiRemote bring their own slew of upgrades, such as HTTP Live Streaming in MPExtended or a "what's new" interface in aMPdroid. We'll readily admit that our eye is most drawn to the yet-to-be-launched MediaPortal 1.3 beta's addition of the Titan skin you see up above: going beyond what we saw in October, the extra-polished look goes a long way towards accommodating newcomers and the style-conscious. We're still waiting on publicly accessible 1.3 beta code, but everything else is waiting for open-source media hubs at the included links.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Software, HD

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Source: MediaPortal (1), (2), (3)

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iPad mini, iMac to remain in short supply until next year

Apple's retail stores were bustling with shoppers this Black Friday, but this year, its iPad tablet won the day as the favorite mobile device for online shoppers to use while buying other things. Mobile shopping overall was on the rise this year, acc ...

Source: http://www.cliqz.com/dld/c/62864.html

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5 Ways To Make Use Of Auto Responders For Business | WFHO ...

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Source: http://workfromhomeoklahoma.com/5-ways-to-make-use-of-auto-responders-for-business/

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We find the lack of Angry Birds Star Wars on the Droid DNA ... disturbing

What's a guy got to do to fling some birds in high-definition on the Verizon Droid DNA? As has been the case since its release on Nov. 16, Angry Birds Star Wars HD (see our review) continues to crash and burn on the DNA. No option to report an error, no asking if we'd like to wait or force close the app. Just tap the first level, and the whole game disappears quicker than you can say "Hey, wasn't Alderaan around here somewhere?" 

User reviews are echoing what we've seen. Crashes on the first level on the Droid DNA. We've reached out to the developer through its support channels and will update if we ever hear back.

Help us, Rovio. You're our only hope.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/2tY_h7dbTf4/story01.htm

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Netflix announces new deal with Warner, will deliver popular content to Canadian streamers

History would kindly tell us that this isn't the very first deal Netflix and Warner Bros. have struck in past months -- and, well, chances are it won't be the last one either. Earlier today, the streaming giant announced it had reached a new agreement with the California-based studio which will bring a hefty amount of new content to subscribers in Canada. Starting January of next year, Netflix streamers in the Great White North can start watching TV shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Fringe and Pretty Little Liars, as well as films like The Hangover Part II, Horrible Bosses and even the critically-acclaimed blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises -- although these movies will come "for a limited period following their pay television window." There's still some time before the deal bears fruit, so perhaps the next few weeks could be used to start clearing that overloaded Instant Queue of yours.

Continue reading Netflix announces new deal with Warner, will deliver popular content to Canadian streamers

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Netflix

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/26/netflix-warner-bros-deal-canada/

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The Big Data Fallacy And Why We Need To Collect Even Bigger Data

Editor?s note:?Dr.?Michael Wu is the Principal Scientist of Analytics at?Lithium?where he is currently applying data-driven methodologies to investigate and understand the complex dynamics of the social Web. The value of any data is only as valuable as the information and insights we can extract from it. It is the information and insights that will help us make better decisions and give us a competitive edge. The promise of big data is that one could glean lots of information and gain many valuable insights. However, people often don?t realize that data and information are not the same. Even if you are able to extract information from your big data, not all of it will be insightful and valuable.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MjTcLNRH5X8/

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Goodbye Clinton? President Obama prepares for cabinet shuffle

As President Obama prepares for his second term, preparations have begun for the traditional shuffling of the Cabinet.

Top priority for the president: filling slots for those top officials heading - if not running - for the door: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.

To replace Clinton, Democratic insiders suggest that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Susan Rice is the frontrunner, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also a viable candidate.

Rice has been harshly criticized by Republicans for the erroneous comments she made on Sunday news talk shows after the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, comments that were based on intelligence reports that falsely blamed the attack on a protest against an anti-Muslim video. When the president, during his recent press conference, offered a vociferous defense of Rice, many of those close to him began to suspect he was tipping his hand as to what he might decide.

To replace Geithner at Treasury, White House chief of staff Jack Lew is thought to have the inside track if he wants it, with other possibilities including Neal Wolin, the current deputy secretary of the Treasury and Lael Brainaed, current under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.

Other informed sources suggest that there is consideration being given to a business/CEO type such as investor Roger Altman, former Time/Warner chair Richard Parsons, and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg.

Those are the two most pressing jobs to fill, with Clinton exhausted from a long stretch in government - eight years as first lady, eight as senator, and four as secretary of state - and the president having personally promised Geithner's wife that he could leave as soon as possible after the election.

Any of the business/CEO types being discussed for treasury secretary could also serve as secretary of commerce, a position that for the Obama administration has proved as troublesome as the role of drummer in Spinal Tap. Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management & Budget, is said to be under consideration.

It's too flip to refer to it as a consolation prize, but informed sources say that - with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also planning on leaving - Kerry could be offered the position secretary of defense if he wants it, though the Massachusetts senator has suggested he only wants State. Another option, Michelle Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense for Policy, would be the first female to serve in that position. There was some discussion of National Security Adviser Tom Donilon moving across the river, but it seems clear, sources say, that he's staying where he is.

If Lew leaves to take the position at Treasury, some possible replacements for him as chief of staff include deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough or Vice President Biden's current chief of staff Ron Klain. Tom Nides, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, has also been discussed.

President Obama's senior adviser David Plouffe has also long discussed leaving the White House. There are many options to fill his shoes, including the elevation of communications director Dan Pfeiffer. Also possible: bringing back former press secretary Robert Gibbs, or former deputy chief of staff/campaign manager Jim Messina. Another option might be to bring in some of the people who were part of the messaging shop in the campaign - David Simus, who served as director of opinion research for the campaign, or Larry Grisolano, who did ads for campaign.

- Jake Tapper

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/president-obama-prepares-cabinet-shuffle-114517521--abc-news-politics.html

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Black Friday sales online top $1 billion for 1st time: comScore

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday.

Online sales jumped 26 percent on Black Friday to $1.04 billion from sales of $816 million on the corresponding day last year, according to comScore data.

Amazon.com was the most-visited retail website on Black Friday, and it also posted the highest year-over-year visitor growth rate among the top five retailers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc's website was second, followed by sites run by Best Buy Co., Target Corp. and Apple Inc, comScore noted.

Digital content and subscriptions, including e-books, digital music and video, was the fastest-growing retail category online, with sales up 29 percent versus Black Friday last year, according to comScore data.

E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection.

ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic in physical retail stores, estimated Black Friday sales at $11.2 billion, down 1.8 percent from the same day last year.

"Online has been around 9 percent of total holiday sales, but it could breach 10 percent for the first time this season," said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more on websites, including Amazon.com and eBay.com.

ComScore expects online retail spending to rise 17 percent to $43.4 billion through the whole holiday season. That is above the 15 percent increase last season and ahead of the retail industry's expectation for a 4.1 percent increase in overall spending this holiday.

CYBER MONDAY OUTLOOK

It's not clear yet whether strong Black Friday sales online will weaken growth on Cyber Monday, which has been the biggest e-commerce day in the United States in recent years.

"Cyber Monday will be a big day, but not as much of a big day as it has been in the past," said Mia Shernoff, executive vice president for Chase Paymentech, a payment-processing unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.. "Faster broadband Internet connections in the office used to drive this. But now many consumers have faster connections at home and smart phones and tablets - they don't have to wait."

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said Cyber Monday online sales may reach $1.5 billion this year. That would be up 20 percent from the corresponding day last year - slower year-over-year growth than Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

More than 129 million Americans plan to shop online on Cyber Monday, up from almost 123 million on the same day last year, according to a survey conducted in recent days for the National Retail Federation.

The group also expects 85 percent of retailers to have a special promotion for Cyber Monday.

Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, will launch Cyber Monday deals at midnight on Sunday. The company is planning a limited time Cyber Monday promotion for its 7 inch Kindle Fire tablet, offering it at $129 instead of the regular $159, a spokesman said on Sunday.

MOBILE SHOPPING GROWTH

A big source of online shopping growth this holiday season has come from increased use of smart phones, which let people buy online even when they are in physical stores, and by tablet computers, which have spurred more online shopping in the evenings, Wingo and others said.

Mobile devices accounted for 26 percent of visits to retail websites and 16 percent of purchases on Black Friday. That was up from 18.1 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, on the same day last year, according to International Business Machines, which analyzes online traffic and transactions from 500 U.S. retailers.

More than 20 million shoppers plan to use mobile devices on Cyber Monday, up from 17.8 million a year ago, the NRF said.

AMAZON AND eBAY

Amazon and eBay benefit from increased use of mobile devices for shopping because they are consistently the top two online retail destinations for mobile users, ChannelAdvisor's Wingo said.

Amazon.com was the most visited retail website on Black Friday, with more than 28 million visits, according to Hitwise.

Worth noting: eBay runs one of the largest online marketplaces, rather than being a retailer, so its online traffic was not reported by Hitwise. However, eBay said the volume of mobile transactions on its marketplace jumped 153 percent on Black Friday from a year earlier.

ChannelAdvisor clients' same-store sales on Amazon.com shot up 43 percent on Saturday, compared with a year earlier. Last year's year-over-year growth was 49 percent on the Saturday following Black Friday.

Client same-store sales on eBay's marketplace rose 36 percent on Saturday, compared with a year earlier. Last year's year-over-year growth was 12 percent, according to ChannelAdvisor.

PRICE PRESSURE

While mobile devices may be good for sales, they may not be so good for retail profit margins. Smart phones give shoppers real-time access to product prices online, potentially exacerbating the usual holiday discounting and price wars.

Black Friday online transactions jumped almost 30 percent, but the average ticket price was down more than 11 percent, according to Chase Paymentech, which reports data from its 50 largest e-commerce merchant clients.

"It's driving prices down," Shernoff said. "Consumers are checking prices in stores and showing the retailer, and the retailer will succumb to the lowest price online so they don't lose the consumer."

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/black-friday-sales-online-top-1-billion-first-165326723--sector.html

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Holiday shopping season off to record start

FILE -In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, Black Friday shoppers pour into the Valley River Center mall for the Midnight Madness sale, in Eugene, Ore. U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Brian Davies)

FILE -In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, Black Friday shoppers pour into the Valley River Center mall for the Midnight Madness sale, in Eugene, Ore. U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Brian Davies)

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012, file photo, shoppers wait on a check-out line in the Times Square Toys-R-Us store after doors were opened to the public at 8 p.m., in New York. U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? If you make holiday shopping convenient, Americans will come in droves.

It's estimated that U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options.

All told, a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the four-day weekend starting on Thanksgiving, up 9.2 percent of last year, according to a survey of 4,000 shoppers that was conducted by research firm BIGinsight for the trade group. Americans spent more too: The average holiday shopper spent $423 over the entire weekend, up from $398 last year. Total spending over the four-day weekend totaled $59.1 billion, up 12.8 percent from 2011.

Caitlyn Maguire, 21, was one of the shoppers that took advantage of all the new conveniences of shopping this year. Maguire, who lives in New York, began buying on Thanksgiving night at Target's East Harlem store. During the two-hour wait in line, she also bought items on her iPhone on Amazon.com. On Friday, she picked up a few toys at Toys R Us. And on Saturday she was out at the stores again.

"I'm basically done," said Maguire, who spent about $400 over the weekend.

The results for the weekend appear to show that retailers' efforts to make shopping effortless for U.S. consumers during the holiday shopping season worked. Retailers upped the ante in order to give Americans more reasons to shop. Stores feared that consumers might not spend because of the weak job market and worries that tax increases and budget cuts will take effect if Congress fails to reach a budget deal by January.

Retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue in November and December, were hoping Thanksgiving openings and other incentives would help boost what's expected to be a difficult holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation estimates that overall sales in November and December will rise 4.1 percent this year to $586.1 billion. That's more than a percentage point lower than the growth in each of the past two years, and the smallest increase since 2009, when sales were nearly flat.

Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, said retailers can be encouraged by the first weekend of the holiday shopping season.

"Retailers and consumers both won this weekend, especially on Thanksgiving," he said.

Here were the trends that emerged over the weekend:

? Online wave: According to comScore, which tracks online spending, online sales rose 26 percent to $1.04 billion on Black Friday compared with a year ago. On Thanksgiving, online sales rose 32 percent from last year to $633 million. And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion.

? Thanksgiving shopping: Many stores, including Toys R Us and Target, opened on Thanksgiving evening this year. No data is out yet about how much shoppers spent on that day, but it appears that consumers took advantage of the earlier start: According to the National Retail Federation's survey, the number of people who shopped on Thanksgiving rose 23.1 percent. That compares with a 3.1 percent increase for Black Friday.

Linda and James Michaels of Portland, Ore., were among those shopping on Thanksgiving. They hit up the big sales on the day and got everything they were hoping for that night.

They picked up remote control cars and some Mickey Mouse items on sale at Toys R Us. Then they went a few doors down to Target and scored the last Operation game on sale for $7. They were even able to pick up some pajamas and shoes along the way for the kids. In total they spent about $300.

"I felt lucky that I caught the deals and there was no craziness, no fighting," said Linda Michaels. "I was nervous."

ShopperTrak, which analyzes customer traffic at 40,000 U.S. stores, plans to release sales data for Thanksgiving later this week, but the firm is estimating that retailers generated $700 million in sales on the holiday.

? Black Friday flop: It appears that the Thanksgiving openings may have hurt sales on the day after.

Black Friday is still expected to be the biggest shopping day of the year, but sales on that day slipped to $11.2 billion, down 1.8 percent from last year, according to ShopperTrak. That's below ShopperTrak's estimate that Black Friday sales would rise 3.8 percent to $11.4 billion.

Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers, which operates 28 malls across the country, said that Thanksgiving openings hurt business. Based on a sampling of 10 malls, sales growth was unchanged up to mid-single digits on Friday, and unchanged up to low single digit on Saturday.

"It was a different feeling," she said. "It was a good Black Friday, but I don't think it was great."

The disappointing sales on Black Friday may have been the result of shoppers like Miguel Garcia, a 40-year-old office coordinator.

"I can't deal with all that craziness," said Garcia, who was at a Target in the Bronx borough of New York City on Saturday. "Compared to what I saw on TV yesterday, this is so much more comfortable and relaxed. I can actually think straight and compare prices."

___

AP writers Rodrigue Ngowi in Watertown, Mass., Juan Carolos Llorca in El Paso, Texas, and Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-25-US--Holiday%20Shopping/id-3049224b6ab249fe89c2f0b09bc92678

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S.O.S - Safety of the Ship Ahoy!

Ahoy! Captain, setting sail? Checked the direction of the wind? Have you restocked your supplies? How's she doing? Are you sure she'll be fine on these waters? Positive? You can never be too sure when braving any kind of waters, even in a pond. Many a time it has happened that unsuspecting individuals find themselves neck deep, and no one to hear their distress signal. Although it is for cases like these it is advised to learn how to swim, the loss of a trusted boat, hurts nothing less than the loss of a lover.

It is for prevention of that feeling of loss and also of a sizable investment, that it is all the more necessary to get proper services from authorized dealers with safe, reliable and sturdy gear/equipment. Although good dealers are difficult to come across, here is a quick guide which will make it a lot easier and allow you and your dearest to freely set sail with no worries.

Quick guide for safely setting sail
Surfing the webpage
Checking the vendor's webpage is a quick and easy way to check their products and service offerings. Don't be carried away by classy or edited images. In this case of products a simple authentic picture of the product will tell you more about what you're looking at and is more beneficial than images which are for representation purposes only.

Get some feedback
In case you are buying a boat or getting some servicing its always a good thing to ask around for some feedback. Checking reviews from a local directory or on the internet is a good option, but when dealing with boats and the like, personally talking to previous customers will give you a clearer picture of your supplier and what you can expect.

Comparing with peers
The best comes at a price, but that shouldn't mean you go for the highest bid. Contrasting and comparing various products from a number of suppliers will not only give you a good deal but also provide you with some basic understanding to judge a good supplier.

HIN
This is a must know for any captain-to-be, H.I.N stands for Hull identification number and can be found on the transom (the stern of the vessel). Federal requirements dictate that every boat (apart from antiques and pirate ships) should have a HIN for safety purposes. The HIN is a twelve digit alphanumeric code consisting of the manufacturer's details, the hull serial number and date of certification and acts as a good check for legitimacy.

It's called due diligence
A corporate term, this means that before buying, exchanging or making any kind of deal the buyer should thoroughly inspect what he's getting and only upon being fully satisfied should move forward with the deal. If you are not sure then consult someone who will give you a fair opinion, for as they say "better be sure than stuck in deep water".

With good judgment and research there is a high possibility that you will come ashore at the right marine store, where you can trust them to please your boat the way she pleases you.

With good judgment and research there is a high possibility that you will come ashore at Stow Away Marine, where you can trust us to please your boat the way she pleases you. http://www.StowAwaymarine.net

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/sos-safety-of-the-ship-ahoy--304204

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Bolt, Felix named IAAF World Athletes of the Year

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Usain Bolt won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award for the fourth time Saturday after defending his 100 and 200 meter gold medals at last summer's Olympic Games in London.

The Jamaican sprinter, who beat out American hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan runner David Rudisha, had previously won the award in 2008, 2009, and 2011.

"For me this is a great honor to win a fourth time. I really worked hard and I was really focused this year. This season was one of my toughest. I had my ups and downs, even though we don't like to talk about them," said Bolt, who thanked his coach and the fans at the Olympics.

"The London games were magnificent. Fans were there in the stadium from 10 in the morning. I had never seen anything like that."

Sprinter Allyson Felix of the United States took home the women's award.

In 2003, Bolt and Felix won the Rising Star awards for the most promising young athletes of the year.

"Nine years ago I was here with Allyson, now I am back, that means I am getting old, which is slightly worrying," said the 26-year-old Bolt. "But I will continue to work hard."

Felix won the 200-meter gold medal in London after settling for silver four years earlier in Beijing.

"My biggest defeats have come at the Olympic Games. After Beijing I was devastated, I had worked as hard as possible but I came up short," she said. "But I decided to rededicate myself even harder and it was a blessing in disguise. I was able to work harder than ever before and finally it all came together."

The other finalists for the women's award were New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams and British heptathlete Jessica Ennis ? both gold medalists in London.

Merritt won the Inspiration Award for his season, which included a gold medal and a world record in the 110-meter hurdles.

Rudisha, who was named Athlete of the Year in 2010, won the Performance of the Year award for his record-setting gold medal run in the 800 meters.

Javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Bahamas sprinter Anthonique Strachan won the Rising Star awards.

The awards were announced on the final day of the IAAF's 100th anniversary celebration.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bolt-felix-named-iaaf-world-athletes-143737704--spt.html

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Reasons to Outsource | City Business Community

Another way to extend your capacity is outsourcing. Outsourcing consists of arranging for some of your work to be performed by another person or business. It enables you to focus on your own core competencies while gaining access to expertise in other areas. The reasons why you may want to outsource some activities include cost savings, skills, flexibility, innovation and experience.

Cost savings

The main reason for outsourcing is to save money. Outsourcing may be cheaper than doing something yourself because the supplier has economies of scale, giving you cheaper access to their technology or expertise. Without having to make a large front-end investment, you can also undertake new projects without a big financial risk.

Skills

One of the limitations of going solo is that you may not have all of the skills necessary for a particular job. Outsourcing is a way to gain access to people with the right skills without having to hire staff.

Flexibility

Outsourcing can make your operation more flexible by giving you quick access to short-term resources. For example, outsourcing enables you to bid for several jobs at once without worrying about how you will handle all the work if you get it.

Innovation

Innovation is often the hallmark of a successful solo business. However, sometimes the ideas stay submerged in your subconscious. One way to get a fresh viewpoint is to outsource part of the job to someone who can innovate for you.

Experience

Outsourcing is a way to bring the benefits of another person?s experience into your operation. If you do not have enough experience to confidently take on a job, then outsourcing will not only get the job done, but you will also gain additional experience in the process.

Related posts:

1. Planning for Temporary Staff The key to getting the most from a temp agency...
2. Judging the Results from Temporary Staff How much can you expect from a temp? Most temps...
3. Extending Personal Capacity One of the great limitations of going solo is that...
4. Hiring Temporary Employees through Temp Agencies (2) Some temp agencies will provide a whole team of people...
5. Selecting a Temporary Agency There is greater choice of temp agencies in the capital...

Source: http://www.citypoop.com/2012/11/reasons-to-outsource/

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Online Marketing News: Create A Content Matrix, Pinterest Images ...

Content Marketing Media Matrix For Small Businesses

This new infographic from PRWeb provides a guide to finding what type of content is best for promoting your business depending on your audience as well as you?re services or products. ?Use this infographic to find out what will work best for your content marketing strategy.

DMA Finds Marketers Bullish on Growth of Digital and Direct Marketing
According to this recent article, 75% of marketers say that they?re bullish about growth prospects for digital and direct marketing. ?This is slightly up from a previous survey taken 2nd quarter, in which 72% said that they were bullish about growth prospects. ?Via BtoB.

5 Tips for Creating Pinterest Images That People Love to Share
Good images on social sites like Pinterest can increase your traffic, get you a higher number of pins and repins, and ultimately improve your presence on Pinterest. ?This article shares 5 tips for creating Pinterest-friendly images. ?Via Social Media Examiner.

Yahoo?s Ad Sell-Through Rate on Its Log-in Page Has Plummeted
A recent report shows that Yahoo?s log-in page ? where users sign into their Yahoo services and email ? only had an ad present for 47% of the days in the first half of fourth quarter. ?Via Adage.

Longer Online Videos Beg for New Ad Strategy
Online audiences are not only consuming more and more videos, they?re staying glued to the screen for much longer. ?This presents a new opportunity for advertisers and marketers to rethink their ad strategies. ?Via ClickZ.

TopRank Team News

Jolina Pettice ? Reality Check: Is Small Business Saturday Actually Working?
As we head into the shopping season, we have been discussing with many of our small business clients how to take advantage of Small Business Saturday.?From campaigns to email marketing to content; are you counting on Small Business Saturday to drive sales and acquire new customers??Check out this post from Inc. about the inception of this movement and whether it?s proving effective for the small business owner.?Via Inc.

Rob Bayne -?Majestic SEO New Feature: Bucket Lists!? Don?t Just See Links, Manage Them
If you are doing Penguin analysis, link building, or competitor research, a new feature of MajesticSEO you will probably want to become familiar with is the bucket list.? Similar to making something a favorite or bookmarking, adding a link to your bucket allows you to not only keep track of that link, but also to run bulk reports and comparisons on everything in your bucket. ?Via Majestic SEO.

Brian Larson ? Are You Paying Too Much for Your PPC Keywords?
Bid management tools can be critical to keeping SEM costs in check by effectively managing keyword bids. But alas, not all tools are created equal. Search Engine Land analyzes Forrester?s research on the best PPC bid management providers in this post from Chris Sherman. Is your provider on the list? ?Via Search Engine Land.

Sam Giehll ? Marketing and Thanksgiving: A Tempest of Myths and Facts
When it comes to your metrics and marketing efforts, there is a fine line between fact and myth. This post addresses facts ? like the existence of social media ROI ? and wraps them up in a metaphorical Thanksgiving themed bow. An excellent read for the holiday, or any day. ?Via Adobe.

Evan Prokop ? Mobile Proves to Be Incredibly Profitable for Auto Dealers
Summary: A recent study showed that an astonishing 40% of people searching for cars on mobile end up buying a car the same day and 36 percent within the hour.? Interestingly, only 1% of mobile users reported using an auto industry app. ?Via Search Engine Watch.

Time to Weigh In:?What types of images have you found appeal most to your Pinterest audience, Facebook Fans, and Twitter Followers? ?How do you think Yahoo?s low ad sales will affect the number of people using their service? ?Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

---

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TopRank? Online Marketing Newsletter.

? Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Online Marketing News: Create A Content Matrix, Pinterest Images Tips, Video Ad Strategy, Yahoo Ads Plummet | http://www.toprankblog.com

This entry was posted on November 23, 2012 at 5:10 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Posted in Online Marketing by Ashley Zeckman

Source: http://internetwebsitedesign.biz/online-marketing/online-marketing-news-create-a-content-matrix-pinterest-images-tips-video-ad-strategy-yahoo-ads-plummet

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Economics Professor James J. Heckman Stresses Early Childhood ...

Investing in preventative, data-driven early childhood education is the most cost-effective way to grow the nation?s economy, a Nobel Laureate in economics said Thursday evening.

?It?s more important than ever before to have an empirically grounded public policy,? said James J. Heckman, Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.

Heckman delivered the keynote address titled ?Building a Productive Workforce and Strengthening the Economy from Birth? to about 275 residents at Unity Temple in Oak Park. He spoke at the invitation of the Collaboration for Early Childhood Education, a public-private partnership made up of more than 40 local agencies.

An expert in the economics of human development, Heckman said politicians who set public policy for the past 50 years have been misguided in their efforts to address social problems one at a time, rather than holistically.

?Fragmented solutions don?t work, and the problems need to be addressed at the core level,? he said.

Armed with statistics looking at income, educational attainment and the role of parents, Heckman said the gap in socially relevant skills between the advantaged and the disadvantaged ?opens up very early in the lives of children.? Attempts to close the gap through anti-poverty initiatives, programs to improve cognition or book learning, and crime interventions haven?t been as successful and have even led to declines in some indicators, such as high school graduation rates.

The skills that need to be developed, Heckman said, are softer skills, such as perseverance, attention, self-discipline, motivation and self-confidence. Investing in programs that develop these skills, he added, would be socially fair, promote equal opportunity and have a greater return on investment.

?It sounds soft and fuzzy, but we have research that these skills are important and can be produced,? he said.

In fact, the annual rate of return on a proper investment in early childhood education would be between 6 percent and 10 percent, much higher than the 0 percent return of a training program such as Job Corps, he said.

?It?s cheaper and more effective to give the kids money and put it in a passbook account than to reduce classroom size by five students,? he said.

But the family ? particularly the mother ? most influences the outcome of the child, Heckman insisted.

?Any policy investing in children should be investing in families,? he said.

Heckman praised Oak Park and its residents for thinking beyond the usual solutions and trying to think outside the box with initiatives such as the collaborative, which has a goal of spending $1.5 million to bolster early childhood programs. However, Heckman said he feared that even $280 spent on each of the 5,400 pre-school-age children living in Oak Park might not be enough.

During opening comments, Village President David Pope noted that early childhood education could be crucial to reducing Oak Park?s expenditures. Of the police department?s $18 million budget, about 75 percent, or $14 million, is spent on interaction with youth, he said.

?We have a huge challenge in Oak Park with the children who come into our schools with the kind of deficits many of them face,? he said.

?

By Rebecca Bibbs?

Source:?River Forest Leaves -?http://goo.gl/iRNtH

?

Source: http://www.childup.com/blog/economics-professor-james-j-heckman-stresses-early-childhood-education/

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Teen lifts Thanksgiving spirits in Sandy-hit hometown

John Makely / NBC News

Standing in front of what remains of his aunt's house, Matt Petronis takes in the burned section of Breezy Point, N.Y., where more than 100 homes were destroyed by fire at the height of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29. It was his first day back in his hometown from college since the storm.

By Bob Sullivan

Matthew Petronis sat in his dorm room on Oct. 29, watching TV in horror as "my childhood burned down."

Petronis had spent the past three summers working as a lifeguard on Breezy Point beach, and had spent the first 19 years of his life learning how to walk, read, swim and throw a baseball in the idyllic Queens, N.Y., neighborhood. A sophomore at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., he thought he was a safe distance from Sandy's unforgiving storm surge. But as the first reports of a devastating fire on Breezy Point began to circulate, fear gripped him. His schools, his friends, almost everything he knew was there. He'd celebrated all 18 of his Thanksgiving Days with family there.?

As the night wore on, it became apparent that the combination of wind, water and fire had dealt Breezy Point a potentially mortal blow. He felt helpless in his dorm room -- but not for long.

---

A star pitcher at Xaverian High School near Breezy Point, Petronis is now a promising southpaw on the Catholic University pitching staff. So he knows a little about working his way out of trouble.

Despite outcries from some workers, the holiday shopping season starts tonight as Walmart, Sears, Target and more prepare to open for Black Friday sales as early as 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

Only a few hours after the near destruction of his community, Petronis set up the first fundraiser to help the neighborhood get off the mat. Before people routed by Sandy could even begin to assess the damage, he had embraced the new form of crowd-sourced charity and set up an online-donation tool at WePay.com.?Within hours, he'd raised a few thousand dollars. He topped $10,000 ?a couple of days later.?

Offers started pouring in, not just money. Accountants and lawyers offered to help him set up nonprofit status, which was granted by the IRS this week. Others offered to come to Breezy Point and help with reconstruction. Architects, carpenters, construction workers and good-hearted volunteers from across the country have offered to come for a week or two to Queens and help anyway they can. Petronis is managing both the money and the volunteers.

"People are running marathons to raise money for us, having free concerts for us. It's just crazy," Petronis said this week. In a way, the teenager has been the most personal link between Breezy Point, the most local of neighborhoods, and the outside world, full of folks desperate to help resurrect this treasured place.??

John Makely / NBC News

Matt Petronis waits for the bank to open in Breezy Point to set up the account for the donations he has received to help rebuild Breezy Point on Wednesday.

By Thanksgiving morning, nearly 1,400 donors had driven the fund above $78,000, all generated by a few creative clicks on a keyboard. Unlike other Sandy recovery funds, the money Petronis is collecting will go directly toward rebuilding Breezy Point.

In some ways, Petronis is lucky. His family ? his parents, two brothers and two cousins they took in who recently lost their parents ? has been squeezed into a studio basement apartment in Brooklyn for three weeks, looking for a more permanent place to live. Petronis' dorm room seems like a luxury accommodation in contrast. Naturally, he feels guilty about that -- but his life is hardly easy at the moment. He's juggling classes, mandatory study hall for baseball, keeping up with his family's rebuilding issues and managing the donations and volunteers.

"In other words, he's using business management major skills in a pretty useful way," said Catholic University baseball Coach Ross Natoli. "He's a free spirit, yet a caring kid. He has that New York can-do attitude. He's a terrific teammate."

In fact, the entire Petronis family knows something about being team players, Natoli said. Not only do they attend many games -- both home and away -- but Petronis' father, without being asked, started buying lunch for the players during long doubleheaders last year. Doubleheaders at smaller colleges tend to be long, inglorious affairs, often lasting 5 hours or more.??

"When you play a sport in college you try to emphasize importance of what it really means to care about teammates and have their back," Ross said. "Matt is one of those guys. What he's done has not surprised me."

Petronis' fund did so well because he set it up quickly, taking advantage of all the publicity that Breezy Point received in the immediate aftermath of the storm. It's now the main gift-giving tool for outsiders who want to help Breezy Point. The money will be given to the Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund, to be administered by a seven-member board of directors.

"He did all this on his own, it's as simple as that," said Steven Greenburg, who will chair the disaster relief fund. "What he's done is magnificent, and a perfect example of what we do here in Breezy Point. It's just nice to see young people step up like this."

The money will be doled out to people who apply for it using anonymous forms, Greenburg said.

John Makely / NBC News

Matt Petronis gets a hug from Anne-Marie Willis at the Catholic Club, which has been turned into a distrubution center for donated supplies. Petronis celebrated his Catholic confirmation in the building.

"We have to do it that way, because everyone knows everyone on Breezy Point," he said.

For Petronis, the fight is personal.

"The place where I grew up during my childhood is almost gone, but that is not the case for the children that are growing up now," he wrote on the wepay.com page. "They deserve to enjoy the same little piece of paradise I enjoyed when I was younger, so this is not just only for Breezy. It?s for the younger generation as well that I want to have the same childhood, but better."

The last few weeks of the fall semester -- the crush between Thanksgiving and Christmas, tend to be the busiest time in a student's calendar. But despite the papers and exams staring him down, Petronis went home Thanksgiving week to help with the cleanup. It was the first time he'd seen the destruction of his family?s Beach Road house in person.

Read more of NBC News' coverage of Breezy Point

"You just stare at in disbelief. I have so many emotions going through my mind," he said. "But there are so many positive things going on, and I really just want to help out, so I?m going to stay positive."

Petronis, who appeared in three games last year as a Catholic University freshman, had a disappointing end to his fall baseball season, pitching in a 2-1 loss to the Naval Academy. But one gets a sense there are a lot of wins in his future.

Already, Thanksgiving week has brought good things to his family. On Wednesday, Petronis was helping move furniture into a new apartment the family had just scored in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, not too far from Breezy Point. There, they'll be able to find a little more normalcy while they plan to rebuild their home and their lives. But the new apartment isn't nearly big enough for a family gathering so, for the first time, they'll be eating turkey dinner outside New York City ? at an uncle's home on Long Island.

"It's going to be weird, switching it up is odd. But we will be around family, and that's what Thanksgiving is about," he said. And he vows Sandy will be just a bump in the road, that holidays will come to Breezy Point again.

To give to the Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund, visit Petronis' WePay website at:

https://www.wepay.com/x4c0ok9/donations/hurricane-sandy-raising-money-for-breezy-point

Or http://breezypointdisasterrelief.org/

Or send a check to:

Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund/C/O The Law Office of Lee and Kane
2175 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Other places you can donate for Sandy relief, or offer help:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14805994-sandys-aftermath-how-you-can-help?lite

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Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/22/15341712-what-thanksgiving-is-all-about-breezy-point-teen-raises-80k-lifting-spirits-in-devastated-hometown?lite

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