Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Banding Hemorrhoids Pain ? Health & Fitness

Jenny asks…Just had rubber band ligation for hemorrhoids??I had it a few hours ago, im in so much pain, I took 2 panadols, it still hurts, infact I just feel like I want to take a massive poo but i cant, ive tried 3 times already, nothing comes out, I feel like I cant sleep until I go, what kind of home made laxatives can I make quickly to go? Im in so much pain please help! answers:If you can get to the shop ? look in your supermarket for herbalax ? its usually in the health food ? (MAKE

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Source: http://healthfitnessbloginfo.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/banding-hemorrhoids-pain-2/

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tread softly on my adoption | A Deeper Story

I?m adopted. I adopted my two children. There ? all my cards on the table. Now let me share the quickest way to undermine that sacrament which bookends my experience of family ? say it?s not natural.

I?ve heard it more than once, but read it more often now that blogs abound and adoption talk moves like a spark through dry brush. Adoption is harder because it?s not natural, so be patient through the process ? that?s what they say. It always surprises me they put their names on the post, don?t cover up with a bandit?s bandana or whisper it in a dark corner of an abandoned house. The most sacred element of my life is so easily diminished with so few words ? not natural.

If the holy scrolls in a synagogue were stolen, the cross in a church sanctuary pulled from the wall and defaced or the minarets of a mosque tagged, we?d all cry desecration! Local reporters would gather, scribble in tiny pocket-sized pads and rally the community to action. But call adoption unnatural or second best and all you get are sympathetic nods. My holy of holies gutted and no one?s outraged, no one notices, people even dare to applaud.

I know they mean well. But the message good but not natural doesn?t ring true to those who drink from the chalice daily, imbibing the family grace with each swill. We don?t feel unnatural in our God-ordained family. Most of us are naked and unashamed in our homes, crawling under the covers with our mothers and wrestling barefoot with our siblings and laughing with our super-hero fathers. We?re at home where we belong, naturally.

In my home, ringed by adoption goodness, I am many things: tantrum-wrangler, nightmare-whisperer, band-aid dispenser. I am oatmeal-maker, bedside-intercessor, conversation-partner, affirmation-muse and a conveyer belt of hugs, kisses and cheeky squeezes. I am not, however, unnatural. I?m not a second-hand mother, a lesser choice for these babes of mine. Nor was my own mother anything less than a natural fit for me. When God?s in the family way it might look mysterious, but never unnatural.

Family living doesn?t come easy ? the tumble of personalities, insecurities and contending wills. We each struggle with identity issues, questioning our worth, wondering if we can contribute something of value to the world. What parent, adoptive or not, hasn?t had to battle personal anxieties while fortifying the healthy identity of their child? Isn?t this par for the course in family formation? Iron on iron, friction forging character and undaunted acceptance culling a child capable of self-love ? this is indigenous to every family, right?

There?s one concession I?m willing to consider ? maybe we are not only natural, but also supranatural. The company of the adopted live beyond the most elementary understanding of nature as mere biology. We know bone-deep that we are connected, part of God?s larger Family Tree that supersedes bloodlines, ethnicity or nationality. Our shared humanity bonds us, our commitment to love without condition and weather life?s storms together creates true belonging which is hallmark to any real family.

It would do my soul good if people accepted adoption as sacramental, not unnatural. It would be a balm to my bruised heart to hear people try and voice the mystery of how God shapes families in unique ways to His glory, to His redemptive purpose. It would sound more truthful if we all admitted that struggle and sacrament are a natural part of family life.

Adoption has created a sacred space in my life, a realization that family is a gift. As adopted child and adoptive mother, I know my life to be wonderfully natural and then some. Oh, I wish those looking from the outside would tread softly?

Source: http://deeperstory.com/tread-softly-on-my-adoption/

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Will Sandy spark an electoral storm? - The Term ... - Fortune Finance

By Daryl G. Jones, Hedgeye

FORTUNE -- For many on the eastern seaboard this morning, the power being out is no joke. By some estimates the total number without power exceeds some 8 million people.?I think the best thing you can say when a storm like this occurs is that it could have been worse. From what I can tell, the government, which we are sometimes apt to criticize, did an excellent job getting in front of Sandy and sending out appropriate warnings. That said, New Jersey Governor Christie unfortunately may have made a major political mistake in canceling Halloween. He has clearly now completely lost the 12 and under demographic.

From a global macro perspective, the key question relating to Sandy is what, if any, impact it will have on the election. It seems in the short term, the storm has caused President Obama to pull back on his campaign schedule, while the Romney/Ryan team is staying at it in Ohio and Wisconsin today. At this juncture of the election, it's not clear if another couple of campaign stops really matter.

In terms of real time impact from the storm, Intrade barely budged overnight, which suggests neither candidate will really get a meaningful bounce from anything Sandy related. So we go back to a Presidential race that is increasingly becoming too close to call. On a national poll level, Romney remains with the ever so slight edge, but his major issue remains Ohio.

MORE:?Sandy Stimulus? Don't bet on it.

If we take the average of the last 10 polls in Ohio, Obama has an advantage of +1.9. Even as one-off polls can be wildly inaccurate, historically the averages of polls have been a pretty good indicator of outcomes. So, even if the undecided voters swing meaningfully to Romney at this point, Obama appears to have enough of an edge in polls to win Ohio. As a result, Romney's chance of an electoral college victory appears almost impossible. The question, of course, is can we believe the Ohio polls?

That last statement is certainly not me trying to be a conspiracy theorist, but rather just to highlight some clear discrepancies among the Ohio polls. If we dig deeper into the Ohio polls, we get some color on what could be the major wild card of this election, which is that there is some serious skew in the polls. I'll give you a couple of examples related to Ohio:

  • A recent poll from Gravis marketing, has Obama with a +1 point lead on Romney, but the sample has 40% Democrats, 32% Republicans and 28% Independents;
  • In another recent poll from Public Policy Polling, the poll has Obama with a +4 lead, but the sample is 43% Democrats, 35% Republicans and 21% Independents; and
  • Finally, a recent Ohio Newspaper Poll has the raced tied, but the sample was 47% Democrats, 44% Republican and 10% Independents.

Clearly, turnout is the major wild card in Ohio and a factor the polls are not modeling with any consistency.

The other wild card is the economy. We did a call with Professor Ken Bickers from Colorado who has accurately modeled Presidential election outcomes going back to 1980 based on state level economic data. His analysis shows that Romney should win in a veritable landslide of 330 electoral college votes. Watch his presentation here.

Similar to dealing with Sandy, the best thing for most of us will be when this election is behind us. It is time for American politicians to start working together again, just as all Americans do in times of national need. To that end, I'd like to leave you with a quote from both President Obama and Governor Romney.

"The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and at the foundation, the pre-eminence of family."
-Governor Mitt Romney

"And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation."
-President Barack Obama

Follow Daryl Jones on Twitter?@HedgeyeDJ

Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/30/sandy-election/

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Friday, October 26, 2012

Why China can't do Gangnam Style ? Global Public Square - CNN ...

"Fareed Zakaria GPS" this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.

The Gangnam Style phenomenon has been an astonishment to anyone involved in culture in Asia, The New Yorker?s Evan Osnos tells Fareed Zakaria in a GPS web extra.

?This is not a video that anyone expected to be a success. It didn?t come out of the main cultural industry in Korea. This thing came out of nowhere and it?s a phenomenon. The question is, why? And the answer actually tells you a lot about China today,? Osnos says.

?The reason it has been so successful is that it laughs at itself ? it has a great sense of humor and it?s making fun of the enormous pop industry in Korea, which is big business, it?s very successful around the world. In China today, the problem ultimately, culturally, for people that are involved in the arts ? whether it?s music or filmmaking ? is that if you do anything that is truly radical that is making people uncomfortable, then there are so many points when the system will intervene.?

Watch the video for the full take.

Source: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/25/why-china-cant-do-gangnam-style/

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It's Officially The 1980s ... At Least For Action Heroes

Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to 'Conan' and the brand-new 'Die Hard' trailer prove we're on the brink of an '80s-action-movie comeback.
By Kevin P. Sullivan


Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original "Conan the Barbarian"
Photo: Universal Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696328/a-good-day-to-die-hard-trailer-1980s-action-movie.jhtml

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Sprint reports Q3 2012 'earnings,' posts $767 million loss

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse

Sprint has released its Q3 2012 earnings today, and things aren't looking too great. Right off the top, Sprint posted a $767 million net loss for the quarter on $7.3 billion in revenues. That's an increase in losses from the previous year, where Sprint only lost $301 million. Revenues, fortunately, are up 6-percent year-over-year.

Now onto the good (or at least better) news. A large portion of this quarter's losses can be blamed on accelerated depreciation of assets mostly related to Sprint's "Network Vision" project. On the customer side, Sprint postpaid subscriber numbers were up (for the 10th consecutive quarter), and churn was down. It also noted that the carrier surpassed the 1 million LTE smartphone sales number prior to the iPhone 5 launching, which Sprint sold nearly 1.5 million of.

You can take a look at the full press release at the source link below.

Source: Sprint Newsroom



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/r7ABENWho74/story01.htm

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Fortune Girls, Inc. Is on To Something: Girl Power | Makes Me ...

This is not a sponsored post, but as the father of a little girl who is bubbling with confidence I am always on the lookout for ways to nurture that and never let it subside. When Fortune Girls, Inc. approached me I couldn't resist but helping them to share their story. Please continue reading...

How Two Women and a Girl became Fortune Girls

What do you get when you take a girl who has a special gift of drawing, combined with a Mom who discovers her daughter's gift and infuses her professional gift of designing in it, and two Moms who are determined to make a difference in the lives of girls? You get Fortune Girls!

Fortune Girls is the creation of a tween girl Madison Ruiz and her Mom Barbara Clarke Ruiz. It all began when Madison wanted some art on her walls, and her Mom decided to take Madison's drawings, color over them, and the beautiful, bright and whimsical Fortune Girls characters were born! Not long after that one of Barbara's friends, Lisa Osinloye, visited their house and asked, "Why aren't these girls on t-shirts?" This was the question that got the entrepreneurial wheels in motion. Seven Fortune Girls pictures were produced and sold out in one week at a cost of $75.00 apiece. The Fortune Girls were no longer just a hunch, but a viable brand that could used as an aid to empower girls.

Barbara partnered with Co-Founder Lisa, and together they've developed and built a multi-media brand that is dedicated to the empowerment of tween girls age 6-12, building self confidence and self esteem in our girls. Fortune Girls will scale to include a website experience with lots of content and games, television, film, gaming apps for tablets and mobile, music, publishing, dolls, toys, licensing and merchandising deals.

Fortune Girls was named the 'Next Hottest Tween Brand' at the Youth Mega Marketing Event, and reached over 4 million girls through a first of its kind initiative with Girl Scouts USA. Fortune Girls was selected out of hundreds of established brands for the Teen Choice Awards coveted Celebrity Gift Bag. Celebrities and their kids went home with Fortune Girls goodies!

So what is Fortune Girls? Rather, who are the Fortune Girls?

Wouldn't it be great if every girl could grow up believing in themselves and their dreams?

The Fortune Girls brand, co-created by a tween and her Mom, its characters, its concept, its mission? seeks to empower young girls and encourage them to think beyond themselves --- effecting positive change, both large and small, in their local communities and around the world.

Fortune Girls seeks to empower tween girls, ages 6-12, in an online environment via interactive animated characters who promote positive images of girls in the classroom, on the athletic field, spending time with their friends, in their communities and pursuing their dreams.

The Fortune Girls --- Wow Girl Pink, Flame, Cinderita, AyakoLove, Taj, Ashna, Savvy and Margaux will provide guidance and inspiration to get through life?s bumpy roads, help build self-esteem, and encourage our global citizens to have a positive outlook on their lives, goals and achievements all while having fun!

Watch our video to meet the "original" Fortune Girl at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2145929840306

To learn more about Fortune Girls and the powerhouse team behind the brand, please Like us on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/FortuneGirls --- we promise you'll fall for the Fortune Girls as much as we do. And please share this with your friends, family and most importantly the tween(s) in your life!

Thank you and we hope to see you and your Tweens on Facebook!

~ Barbara Clarke-Ruiz & Lisa Osinloye


Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

Source: http://www.makesmewannaholler.com/2012/10/Effectively-Using-Animation-To-Foster-Girl-Empowerment.html

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Sales Manager: Holiday Inn Express Leeds - Leeds (LS10 ...

Salary:?Competitive Salary plus great benefits

Location:?Leeds (LS10)

Job reference:?Caterer

Employer Type:?Hotel

Recruiter:?BDL Management Ltd

Date posted:?24/10/12 18:00:18

Contact:?Paula Sherratt

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Sales Manager at the award winning Holiday Inn Express Leeds

Part of the BDL Hotel Group, Holiday Inn Express Leeds is located at Clarence Dock and comprises of 130 stylish en-suite bedrooms, and 3 modern purpose built meeting rooms. Due to its location the hotel has a great mix of both business and leisure guests.

Reporting directly to the Hotel General Manager and with support from the Area Director of Sales, the main purpose of your role will be to manage and influence the Sales/Marketing/Conference and Events activities to produce the required levels of room nights and meetings at required rates in order to achieve the anticipated revenue projections stated in the Hotel Budget. You will also be tasked with the on target generation of new business from the chosen market segments, generation of the annual sales and marketing plan and ensuring all income streams are achieved through its successful implementation.

Other responsibilities will include:
? Managing the on-going planning and market research where necessary to supplement the existing Sales and Marketing Plan
? Being proactively involved in sales within the local and regional market place, including working closely with the IHG Hotels and BDL Group Sales Team
? Relevant aspects of marketing to assist with Event and food and beverage areas
? Develop relationships with existing clients maximising potential revenue
? Research and secure new business to match the Hotels business needs
? Manage and take ownership of the RFP process
? Take ownership of the Salesforce Account Management system
? Be an inspiration to others through demonstrating excellent sales and marketing ability and maintaining the highest of standards at all times
?
To be successful in your application for the position of Sales Manager, you must possess the following:
? Proven ability within a corporate sales Management role, ideally from a full service hotel environment
? Drive to meet and exceed set targets, with previous proven experience of doing so
? Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
? Exceptional presentation skills
? Excellent personal organisation and a drive to get things right first time
? Superb attention to detail
? Full drivers licence

Source: http://www.caterer.com/JobSeeking/Sales-Manager-Holiday-Inn-Express-Leeds_job54913014

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Tuesday?s ETF Chart To Watch: MSCI Canada Index Fund (EWC)

Stocks kicked off the week on shaky footing as major equity indexes struggled to hold above key support levels following Friday?s massive sell-off. Markets briefly peered into positive territory Monday morning as elections in Spain over the weekend restored bailout?hopes for the debt-burdened nation. Better-than-expected earnings from Caterpillar?received?little to no attention as profit-taking pressures broadly dominated markets throughout the entire session?[see also ETF Insider: Buy On This Dip With Caution].

Earnings season continues full steam ahead at home, while on the international front the Bank of Canada interest rate decision comes into the spotlight later today. As such, our ETF to watch for the day is the iShares MSCI Canada Index Fund [etf ticker='EWC' ratings='true'], which may see an increase in trading?activity?following the economic commentary issued after the rate decision; analyst are largely expecting for the nation?s benchmark rate to remain unchanged at 1.0%?[see also Free Report: How To Buy The Right ETF Every Time].

Chart To Watch

Following its bull-run since bottoming out in July of this year, this ETF appears to be trading in a ?sweet spot? from a technical perspective. Notice how this ETF has been oscillating between the $29 and $28 levels since hitting $29.63 a share on September 14, 2012; EWC recently failed to summit the $29.50 level, and proceeded to decline towards support closer to the $28 mark. Seeing as this fund is currently trading near the bottom-half of its short-term range, seasoned traders may wish to jump in at current levels in anticipation of it bouncing higher, just as it has previously done so?[see Canada ETFs: 9 Ways To Play].

Click to Enlarge

While it?s encouraging to see this ETF trading above its 200-day moving average (yellow line), conservative investors may wish to hold off from jumping in long as EWC has posted lower-highs since its most recent peak at $29.63 a share?[see our?ETF Technical Trading FAQ].

Outlook

If the Bank of Canada issues a?surprisingly?pessimistic?outlook, EWC could face major headwinds; in terms of downside, the first level of support for this ETF comes in at $28 a share followed by the $27 level. A bullish economic outlook, on the other hand, may encourage buying; in terms of upside, this ETF has major resistance just shy of the $29.50 level.?As always, investors of all experience levels are advised to use stop-loss orders and practice disciplined profit-taking techniques.

Follow me on Twitter?@SBojinov

[For more ETF analysis, make sure to sign up for our?free ETF newsletter?or try a?free seven day trial to ETFdb Pro]

Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Read more posts on ETF Database ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/tuesdays-etf-chart-to-watch-msci-canada-index-fund-ewc-2012-10

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

?Beetlejuice? sparks? Meteor shower brings 'shooting stars' and 'earthgrazers'

The increasing intensity of the annual Orionid meteor shower will be on full display Saturday night and Sunday morning as most of the US faces a cold, clear, moonless night ? the perfect celestial screen.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / October 20, 2012

A shooting star above the Montebello Open Space Preserve in Palo Alto, Calif. Streaking fireballs lighting up the skies are part of a major meteor shower, and the show is just getting started.

Phil Terzian/AP

Enlarge

Projected clear skies and low moonlight across much of the country Saturday night and Sunday morning will help fans of celestial phenomena witness a peak of whizzing visitors across the sky as part of the annual Orionid meteor shower.

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Sky gazers can expect as many as 60 meteors an hour as the earth crashes into icy remnants abandoned by Halley?s Comet when it shot by the planet in 1986. The meteor shower will originate near the orange-glowing Betelgeuse star that makes up the right shoulder of Orion (The Hunter), most easily found by his conspicuous belt of stars.

The objects are boulders of ice and rock breaking into the atmosphere at about 148,000 miles per hour. Most sizzle and burn, creating ?shooting stars? and even ?earthgrazers? that span the sky. Larger chunks may actually explode into fireballs loud enough to hear down here on earth.

RECOMMENDED:?Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz

(A large chunk of asteroid that entered the atmosphere and exploded just off the coast of northern California on Wednesday, in some cases shaking houses, was likely not part of the Orionids, NASA says.)

According to Weather.com, large sections of the Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, and Coastal West are likely to see crystal clear skies overnight. The moon has just begun to wax, meaning moonlight interference will be low.

Philosophers have long pondered the stars, but the Orionids usually inspire poetics even among the country?s most hardened space scientists. (For others who want to gush or chat, NASA will have its experts on hand starting Saturday night at this link.)

?The Orionid meteor shower isn?t the strongest, but it?s one of the most beautiful showers of the year,? says Bill Cooke, head of NASA?s Meteoroid Environment Office.

Tony Phillips, who blogs at spaceweather.com, explains why in a NASA post.

?The shower is framed by some of the brightest stars and planets in the heavens,? he writes. ?Constellations such as Taurus, Gemini, and Orion provide a glittering backdrop for the display. But that?s not all. This year, Venus and Jupiter have moved into position with Sirius, the Dog Star, to form a bright triangle in the eastern pre-dawn sky. On the morning of Oct 21st, blazing pieces of Halley?s Comet will cut straight through the heart of this celestial triad.?

NASA has a few suggestions for how to optimize the show. The best display is likely to be two hours before sunrise, when Orion will be straight overhead. The meteors will burst from near Betelgeuse, but will spray across the entire sky. And remember: don?t blink.

?Be prepared for speed,? says Mr. Cooke, according to NASA. ?Only the November Leonids are faster.?

RECOMMENDED:?Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/FVE7dcstmiU/Beetlejuice-sparks-Meteor-shower-brings-shooting-stars-and-earthgrazers

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95% Argo

All Critics (191) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (182) | Rotten (9)

'Argo' is one of the best movies of the year.

Argo has that solid, kick-the-tires feel of those studio films from the 70s that were about something but also entertained. Only it's as laugh outright amusing as it is sobering.

The movieland satire is laid on thick, but it's also deadly accurate. Schlock has never seemed so patriotic, and Arkin and Goodman have rarely been so good.

Argo is a rollicking yarn, easily the most cohesive and technically accomplished of Affleck's three films so far, but a part of me wishes the director hadn't cast himself in the lead role.

If nothing else, it proves that every so often, the CIA can pull something off - and that yes, Canadians are just about the nicest people on the planet.

The film is a whopper of a tale, one designed for Oscar nominations, Best Picture and Best Director among them.

An ingeniously conceived thriller that's almost as much about our collective love of cinema as it is a tricky international incident.

Suspenseful movie based on a true incident; Ben Affleck's stock rises as an actor and director.

It not only confirms Affleck as one of the few A-listers to have made a credible transition to behind the camera, but that he's one of the most exciting mainstream directors around, full stop.

Affleck's seamless melding of intense thrills in Tehran and biting humour in California makes for a wholly satisfying movie.

The use of dramatic licence in the finale is too obvious but aside, Argo is a solid dramatic thriller that is informative, entertaining and gripping.

The film has heart and brains as well as balls, the screenplay delivering a clear and strong story without sacrificing either political or personal context

As a real life human drama, it is extraordinary. As a thrilling movie experience, it is unmissable

A thoroughly enjoyable, well put together movie that flies by, works well and largely succeeds at what it is trying to accomplish. Also one of those movies where it feels like "I should LOVE it - but don't."

It's okay to take a few liberties in the name of a good story

A funny trip to Hollywood and gripping escape from Tehran.

The scenes involving Goodman and Arkin are ribald and laugh-out-loud funny. You couldn't ask for two more expert actors to play these jaded movie veterans.

If there's one lesson to be gleaned from director Ben Affleck's relentlessly tense, painstakingly detailed Argo, it's that we should consider the possibility that our history has been manipulated more than many of us would care to admit.

Argo smacks of being another dreary Oscar contender but in actuality it's destined to be one of the fall's most purely enjoyable films.

Ar-go see them in action.

... a crackling good suspense thriller ...

I was literally in tears for parts of Argo, a purely physical reaction, not an emotional one, to deal with the tension... That isn't only some serious movie magic, it's a downright master class in suspense filmmaking from director Ben Affleck.

Under its own terms as an upscale mainstream thriller, it's a total success. This is classy moviemaking, from its well-observed performances to immaculate eye for period detail.

a crackerjack based-on-a-true story thriller that finally allows actor/director Ben Affleck to demonstrate his behind-the-camera muscles in a location other than his native Boston

[A] perfectly lovely, immensely watchable, intermittently shallow, and slightly bloated thriller.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/argo_2012/

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'The Hobbit' to be released in Dolby Atmos

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Middle-earth will sound more realistic in "The Hobbit."

Dolby Laboratories Inc. and director Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production announced Wednesday that "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" will be mixed and released in Dolby Atmos, the company's immersive new sound system that features two extra arrays of overhead speakers and the ability to direct sounds to individual speakers inside movie theaters.

"(Jackson) felt it was going to make a big difference in how he tells stories," said Stuart Bowling, Dolby's senior technical marketing manager. "He doesn't want people to just go and observe his movies. He wants you to feel like you're part of the experience of the stories that's he's trying to tell on the screen and allow you to be part of Middle-earth."

The director of the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" films adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of Bilbo Baggins, set in the fictional realm of Middle-earth 60 years before "The Lord of the Rings." Besides the standard 2-D format, Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures are releasing the series in high-frame-rate 3-D, IMAX and other 3-D formats.

Bowling said Dolby's goal is to have the Atmos platform installed in 80 to 100 theaters in time for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 14.

The second and third films, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," are set for release Dec. 13, 2013, and July 18, 2014.

Other movies slated to be released in the Atmos format include Fox's "Chasing Mavericks" and "Life of Pi." Disney-Pixar's "Brave" was the first film to debut with the audio format earlier this year.

Bowling said the company expects more than 15 films to be released in Atmos next year and hoped to have the system in 1,000 theaters by the end of next year.

"Dolby Atmos is fantastic from a sound quality position," said John Neill, head of sound at Park Road Post Production. "We can now hear full range surround speakers, meaning that when we pan from the front to surround, the sound does not change in quality. The overhead speakers give us the opportunity to place the theater patron really in the location."

Jackson shot "The Hobbit" in 3-D and at 48 frames a second, twice the speed that's been the standard since the 1920s. He received a mixed reception for high-frame-rate preview footage of "The Hobbit" at the Cinema Con theater owner's convention last year. Some thought the images were too clear and realistic, taking away from the magic of the film medium.

___

Online:

http://www.thehobbit.com

___

Follow AP entertainment writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hobbit-released-dolby-atmos-070312203.html

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Apple, Microsoft gambling on a growing taste for tablets

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Monday Highlights: Anticipation high for Apple's expected iPad mini unveiling on Tuesday in an event seen focusing on iPad's educational value; John Paczkowski at AllThingsD notes Shaw Wu stating the iPad mini will be priced aggressively, but at top of its class; however, if priced at $250 would be considered a "barnburner"; PC market likely victim of the mini; case makers seem to be convinced of the new tablet's unveiling in a 7" size; stock rises in trading, target recalibrated to $840; good news for Apple from Tokyo court which rejected Samsung request for iPhone injunction; Mactuts+ helps you understand Power Nap on your Mac; California Theatre all gussied up for Apple's Oct 23 event; two AT&T iPhone owners suing Apple over iPhones being locked to AT&T's network; Apple to Samsung over display manufacturing: "You're fired." Samsung: "Oh yeah, well I quit"; report suggests iPad mini costs Apple $200 to build; Register Hardware reviews new iPod touch, but concerned it may be killed with iPad mini, cheap tablets; Robert Guerra sent us his blog posting in which he notes iPhone 5 GSM connectivity problems in both the UK, and with some Verizon users; Macworld's Dan Moren on Passbook's slow adoption, sees biggest challenge for Apple is "connecting it to other companies"; Ars Technica's Jaqui Cheng on Apple's secretive garden which is plagued by leaks, notes employees say it's not "coming from inside the house".

Tuesday's MacUpdate Promo offers 30% savings on Pins 1.4. "Pins keeps all your bookmarks in one place! Pins is the easy and beautiful bookmarks manager your Mac: it is the organized, taggable, searchable, syncable, shareable, visual library for all your needs."

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  • "Apple Preps California Theatre for Oct. 23 'iPad Mini' Event"?The Next Web?7:45 AM
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  • "Apple's venue all dressed up for 'little' event on Tuesday"?CNET News?2:10 PM
  • "California Theater All Dressed Up & Ready for Apple (Photos)"?The Mac Observer?7:52 PM
  • "Apple, Microsoft gambling on a growing taste for tablets"?The Globe and Mail [Free Registration Required]?11:01 AM
  • "Microsoft vs. Apple goes up another level"?Miami Herald?8:32 AM
  • "A Detailed Look At How Much Money Foxconn Employees Are Paid For Making iPhones" [Video Report]?Business Insider?3:48 PM
  • "iPhone Becomes Mobile Device Of Choice For U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement"?TechCrunch?1:48 PM
  • "Federal agency to switch to iPhone, drop BlackBerry"?Reuters?3:47 PM
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  • "Paid iBookstore content now live in New Zealand, 17 other countries"?TUAW?3:57 PM
  • "Live Blog: Apple's More to Show event"?Macworld?3:46 PM
  • "Apple Special Event Live Blog"?Mac|Life?2:08 PM
  • "Apple's October 23 event liveblog: 'a little more to show you'"?Ars Technica?11:01 AM
  • "List of Sites Liveblogging Apple's Press Event on October 23rd, 2012"?Your Mac Life?3:51 PM
Non-Apple News
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  • "Ericsson launches world's first WebRTC-compatible mobile browser with Bowser"?Techworld?11:39 AM
  • "Vidyo Takes On Polycom By Launching Browser-Based Telepresence And A $750 Executive Desktop System"?TechCrunch?11:35 AM
  • "Twitter Poaches Former Google Exec Matt Derella As New Director Of Agency Business Development"?TechCrunch?11:34 AM
  • "RIM CIO aims to reassure unhappy enterprise BlackBerry users"?Computerworld?11:21 AM
  • "Motorola's answer to Jelly Bean upgrade woes: $100 off a new phone"?ZDNet?12:02 PM
  • "Video-sharing applications put users in the picture"?Reuters?10:10 AM
  • "Acer Profit Misses Estimates as Market Share, Sales Decline"?Bloomberg?9:58 AM
  • "Yahoo CEO to make first earnings report: Investors looking for clues on Mayer's long-term vision for company"?MarketWatch?9:46 AM
  • "LG's H160 Windows 8 tablet has a pop out keyboard"?TG Daily?11:47 AM
  • "Joanna Shields leaves Facebook to join UK's Tech City"?BBC?10:16 AM
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  • "Google expected to launch Samsung 10 tablet and LG Nexus 4 smartphone next week"?Computerworld?10:31 AM
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Publications/Podcasts
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Price Trackers/Deals
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Deal Brothers Daily Deal: Mac mini 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5:? $1189.00 Delivered


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Non-Apple
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Humor/Cartoons
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  • "Bill Gates: 'Windows 8 Is Key To Where Personal Computing Is Going'"?TechCrunch?11:35 AM
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  • "Windows 8: 8 things you should know about Microsoft's upcoming operating system"?VentureBeat [Free Registration Required]?9:47 AM
  • "Analysis: Most companies won't be early adopters of Windows 8"?Reuters?10:03 AM
  • "Windows 8 An Enterprise Dud: Salesforce.com's Benioff/Salesforce.com's CEO says 'there will be no Windows 8 upgrade cycle' as enterprises embrace social, mobile, and device diversity."?InformationWeek?10:11 AM
  • "Windows 8 will mark 'the end' of the Microsoft OS, says Salesforce.com CEO Benioff"?Techworld?11:38 AM
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  • "How the tablet is saving the PC"?Fortune?9:55 AM
? ?

Source: http://www.macsurfer.com/redirr.php?u=732610

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Grandmas made humans live longer: Chimp lifespan evolves into human longevity, computer simulation shows

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) ? Computer simulations provide new mathematical support for the "grandmother hypothesis" -- a famous theory that humans evolved longer adult lifespans than apes because grandmothers helped feed their grandchildren.

"Grandmothering was the initial step toward making us who we are," says Kristen Hawkes, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah and senior author of the new study published Oct. 24 by the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The simulations indicate that with only a little bit of grandmothering -- and without any assumptions about human brain size -- animals with chimpanzee lifespans evolve in less than 60,000 years so they have a human lifespan. Female chimps rarely live past child-bearing years, usually into their 30s and sometimes their 40s. Human females often live decades past their child-bearing years.

The findings showed that from the time adulthood is reached, the simulated creatures lived another 25 years like chimps, yet after 24,000 to 60,000 years of grandmothers caring for grandchildren, the creatures who reached adulthood lived another 49 years -- as do human hunter-gatherers.

The grandmother hypothesis says that when grandmothers help feed their grandchildren after weaning, their daughters can produce more children at shorter intervals; the children become younger at weaning but older when they first can feed themselves and when they reach adulthood; and women end up with postmenopausal lifespans just like ours.

By allowing their daughters to have more children, a few ancestral females who lived long enough to become grandmothers passed their longevity genes to more descendants, who had longer adult lifespans as a result.

Hawkes conducted the new study with first author and mathematical biologist Peter Kim, a former University of Utah postdoctoral researcher now on the University of Sydney faculty, and James Coxworth, a University of Utah doctoral student in anthropology. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

How Grandmothering Came to Be

Hawkes, University of Utah anthropologist James O'Connell and UCLA anthropologist Nicholas Blurton Jones formally proposed the grandmother hypothesis in 1997, and it has been debated ever since. Once major criticism was that it lacked a mathematical underpinning -- something the new study sought to provide.

The hypothesis stemmed from observations by Hawkes and O'Connell in the 1980s when they lived with Tanzania's Hazda hunter-gatherer people and watched older women spend their days collecting tubers and other foods for their grandchildren. Except for humans, all other primates and mammals collect their own food after weaning.

But as human ancestors evolved in Africa during the past 2 million years, the environment changed, growing drier with more open grasslands and fewer forests -- forests where newly weaned infants could collect and eat fleshy fruits on their own.

"So moms had two choices," Hawkes says. "They could either follow the retreating forests, where foods were available that weaned infants could collect, or continue to feed the kids after the kids are weaned. That is a problem for mothers because it means you can't have the next kid while you are occupied with this one."

That opened a window for the few females whose childbearing years were ending -- grandmothers -- to step in and help, digging up potato-like tubers and cracking hard-shelled nuts in the increasingly arid environment. Those are tasks newly weaned apes and human ancestors couldn't handle as infants.

The primates who stayed near food sources that newly weaned offspring could collect "are our great ape cousins," says Hawkes. "The ones that began to exploit resources little kids couldn't handle, opened this window for grandmothering and eventually evolved into humans."

Evidence that grandmothering increases grandchildren's survival is seen in 19th and 20th century Europeans and Canadians, and in Hazda and some other African people.

But it is possible that the benefits grandmothers provide to their grandchildren might be the result of long postmenopausal lifespans that evolved for other reasons, so the new study set out to determine if grandmothering alone could result in the evolution of ape-like life histories into long postmenopausal lifespans seen in humans.

Simulating the Evolution of Adult Lifespan

The new study isn't the first to attempt to model or simulate the grandmother effect. A 1998 study by Hawkes and colleagues took a simpler approach, showing that grandmothering accounts for differences between humans and modern apes in life-history events such as age at weaning, age at adulthood and longevity.

A recent simulation by other researchers said there were too few females living past their fertile years for grandmothering to affect lifespan in human ancestors. The new study grew from Hawkes' skepticism about that finding.

Unlike Hawkes' 1998 study, the new study simulated evolution over time, asking, "If you start with a life history like the one we see in great apes -- and then you add grandmothering, what happens?" Hawkes says.

The simulations measured the change in adult longevity -- the average lifespan from the time adulthood begins. Chimps that reach adulthood (age 13) live an average of another 15 or 16 years. People in developed nations who reach adulthood (at about age 19) live an average of another 60 years or so -- to the late 70s or low 80s.

The extension of adult lifespan in the new study involves evolution in prehistoric time; increasing lifespans in recent centuries have been attributed largely to clean water, sewer systems and other public health measures.

The researchers were conservative, making the grandmother effect "weak" by assuming that a woman couldn't be a grandmother until age 45 or after age 75, that she couldn't care for a child until age 2, and that she could care only for one child and that it could be any child, not just her daughter's child.

Based on earlier research, the simulation assumed that any newborn had a 5 percent chance of a gene mutation that could lead to either a shorter or a longer lifespan.

The simulation begins with only 1 percent of women living to grandmother age and able to care for grandchildren, but by the end of the 24,000 to 60,000 simulated years, the results are similar to those seen in human hunter-gatherer populations: about 43 percent of adult women are grandmothers.

The new study found that from adulthood, additional years of life doubled from 25 years to 49 years over the simulated 24,000 to 60,000 years.

The difference in how fast the doubling occurred depends on different assumptions about how much a longer lifespan costs males: Living longer means males must put more energy and metabolism into maintaining their bodies longer, so they put less vigor into competing with other males over females during young adulthood. The simulation tested three different degrees to which males are competitive in reproducing.

What Came First: Bigger Brains or Grandmothering?

The competing "hunting hypothesis" holds that as resources dried up for human ancestors in Africa, hunting became better than foraging for finding food, and that led to natural selection for bigger brains capable of learning better hunting methods and clever use of hunting weapons. Women formed "pair bonds" with men who brought home meat.

Many anthropologists argue that increasing brain size in our ape-like ancestors was the major factor in humans developing lifespans different from apes. But the new computer simulation ignored brain size, hunting and pair bonding, and showed that even a weak grandmother effect can make the simulated creatures evolve from chimp-like longevity to human longevity.

So Hawkes believes the shift to longer adult lifespan caused by grandmothering "is what underlies subsequent important changes in human evolution, including increasing brain size."

"If you are a chimpanzee, gorilla or orangutan baby, your mom is thinking about nothing but you," she says. "But if you are a human baby, your mom has other kids she is worrying about, and that means now there is selection on you -- which was not on any other apes -- to much more actively engage her: 'Mom! Pay attention to me!'"

"Grandmothering gave us the kind of upbringing that made us more dependent on each other socially and prone to engage each other's attention," she adds.

That, says Hawkes, gave rise to "a whole array of social capacities that are then the foundation for the evolution of other distinctly human traits, including pair bonding, bigger brains, learning new skills and our tendency for cooperation."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Utah.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/M3hl1W-j8Ac/121023204142.htm

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