Video: TRI Pointe Homes Goes Public

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50652619/

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Check out pictures from UFC on Fox 6

Check out UFC on Fox 6 pictures from the always-amazing Tracy Lee. She caught images of Demetrious Johnson outlasting John Dodson, Quinton Jackson's final UFC fight, and more from Saturday night's fights. To see more of Lee's work, follow her on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/check-pictures-ufc-fox-6-204314877--mma.html

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10 dead Borneo pygmy elephants feared poisoned

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife authorities suspect that they were poisoned.

The wildlife department in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island says the elephant carcasses were found near each other over the past three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve.

In one case, officers rescued a 3-month-old calf that was trying to wake its dead mother.

Sabah environmental minister Masidi Manjun said Tuesday that the elephants probably were poisoned. He says that if they were intentionally killed, "the culprits would be brought to justice."

The WWF wildlife group estimates that fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants exist. They live mainly in Sabah and are known for their babyish faces, large ears and long tails.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-dead-borneo-pygmy-elephants-feared-poisoned-054810375.html

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Steven Kurlander: America's Class Warfare Spills Into Sports

Golf pro Phil Mickelson recently sounded off about having to pay high state income taxes in his beloved California, and even after he apologized for his remarks, he continued last week to be attacked and condemned in both the mainstream press and the sports world.

All Michelson stated was: "There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state, and it doesn't work for me right now...So I'm going to have to make some changes."

The Californian native from San Diego said he was thinking about packing up his family and moving, like other wealthy athletes like Tiger Woods already have, to a millionaire's paradise refuge in Florida where there's no state income tax (and where the Beach Boys need to finally admit that the girls are better looking too).

Michelson was indeed portrayed as being truly more evil than last week's sports villains doping bicyclist Lance Armstrong or the deceitful Notre Dame Football star Manti Teo. His complaints about forfeiting over 60 percent of his winnings and endorsement monies to California and federal coffers were much judged much worse than if he admitted to Oprah that he juiced up before hitting the first tee of the Masters or that he confessed to Katie Couric that falsely capitalized on sympathy surrounding his wife's breast cancer debacle to become PGA Golfer of the Year.

His scandalous sin of moral turpitude: The left-handed golfer stood convicted in the uber leftist court of public opinion of the crime of being "a pampered one percenter" who was just "whining about paying his fair share."

Here's the logic behind the crime: In the minds of the accusers, it comes down Mickelson having the luxury of playing golf everyday and making an inordinate amount of money doing it while almost all other Americans have to work at crappy jobs to make less than 1 percent of what he grosses if they are lucky.

How dare this rich, pampered athlete complain about paying more than his fair share of taxes, when there are so many Americans struggling out there to make ends meet beyond the plush fairways of exclusive golf courses where Michelson "works."

There's no allowance allowed for Michelson being truly a real mensch, one of the few, true role model athletes in a day and age of where sports are dominated by professional pampered thugs, liars, and cheats.

And it's so wrong to damn "Lefty" Mickelson as a member of a true, American leisure class.

He's not one of those uber wealthy tycoons living a decadent life of luxury, whether it be in Palm Beach, Palm Springs or Silicon Valley, who continue to amass wealth and fabulously exist off the dividends of accumulated wealth and who really don't have to worry about paying taxes at all

Despite his success and wealth, he continues not to play, but actually toil under grueling circumstances characterized by incredible pressure and constant media exposure to conquer an unforgiving game where true perfection is never accomplished. Golf's a sport of masterful competitors where one does not sit at near the top for long, even if you are Tiger Woods, unless he or she continuously labors incredibly hard.

Mickelson was complaining about nothing more than what the rest of working Americans are kvetching about this month too -- all of us are now giving up more of our paycheck or profits back to the government as a result of the new tax laws passed to compensate for federal and state budgetary deficits and inefficient management.

Mickelson is actually one of those sports figures that Americans should really still admire, no matter how much he pays in income taxes. A kid from a middle class background who worked extremely hard his whole life to master what is probably the hardest sport in the world, he certainly paid his dues to rise to the top of his profession, all with a great amount of class and sportsmanship.

Sadly, marginalizing Michelson's tax frustrations as basically criminal illustrates that the populist obligatory egalitarianism that now characterizes our dysfunctional political dialogue sadly now dominates the sports world too.

Mickelson is not your average American. He's set a standard of individual excellence, both on and off the golf course. He continues to prove that he's one of the best in very difficult occupation, and should not have apologized or have been maligned for wanting to keep as much of his hard-earned income as possible in his wallet.

An edited version of this article appeared in the Florida Voices on January 27, 2013.

Steven Kurlander is an attorney and communications strategist. He writes weekly columns in the Sun Sentinel and Florida Voices and blogs in Kurly's Kommentary. He can be emailed at kurly@stevenkurlander.com.

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Follow Steven Kurlander on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Kurlykomments

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-kurlander/americas-class-warfare_b_2564094.html?utm_hp_ref=sports

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128GB Surface Pro ships with 83GB free, 64GB has only 23GB

That 64GB, $900 Microsoft Surface Pro you plan on buying next week? Maybe you should temper your storage expectations a bit, as the base model actually only allots 23GB of that space for use. The larger 128GB version offers a bit more space at 83GB, but is still losing a massive 45GB of space to the full Windows 8 operating system and various included applications. Microsoft confirmed as much this afternoon, and issued the following the statement:

"The 128 GB version of Surface Pro has 83 GB of free storage out of the box. The 64GB version of Surface Pro has 23GB of free storage out of the box. Of course, Surface Pro has a USB 3.0 port for connectivity with almost limitless storage options, including external hard drives and USB flash drives. Surface also comes pre-loaded with SkyDrive, allowing you to store up to 7GB of content in the cloud for free. The device also includes a microSDXC card slot that lets you store up to 64GB of additional content to your device. Customers can also free up additional storage space by creating a backup bootable USB and deleting the recovery partition."

The Surface RT suffered the same issue when it launched late last year -- the 32GB base version only included 16GB of storage, while the 64GB version had 46GB available. The situation is what we'd call less than ideal, though you can always expand the on-board storage via the solutions Microsoft proposes. Of course, that means doling our more cash on an already expensive tablet -- not the best thing to find out after you've shelled out $900.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/S8NNwnXB07Y/

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Job Posting: Social Media Intern for Tailour | The Everygirl

Position: Social Media Intern
Company: Tailour
Location:? We are based in Los Angeles and would prefer someone nearby, but for the right candidate, working remotely would be fine.
Compensation: School credit.? However, for the right candidate, pay and/or equity in the company may be possible in the future.? We are also happy to help with full-time job searches or any career advice for fashion or business!
Hours/expectations: 5-7 hours per week; ~1 hour/weekday required with flexibility on other hours.

Who we are: Tailour is an e-commerce startup creating work-to-weekend apparel designed with women?s body shapes in mind.? The Tailour founders?one of whom has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and the other a degree from Parsons?bring their business smarts and fashion sense to the problem of unflattering work clothing options.? With our first dress collection featuring nine different dresses designed around three tops and three bottoms and a body shape product quiz on tailour.com, you can kiss your unflattering work clothes goodbye.

Responsibilities:
Social media:
? Be available to update Tailour?s Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest for at least one hour each weekday
? Manage an active Twitter and Pinterest presence, finding relevant accounts to follow and interact with.
? Monitor presence on Facebook, monitoring activity and posts.
? Track Tailour progress on Instagram, as applicable.
Blog and website:
? Design graphics and photos for blog and website.
? Write and post 1-2 blog entries per week (timing flexible).

Requirements: The ideal candidate will be excited about fashion, e-commerce and working with a startup. He/she must be a team player, but also be able to work independently and own his/her own work. Experience with Microsoft Office, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Twitter a must. Experience with Photoshop and WordPress a plus.

To apply: Please send your resume and brief (250 words) description of why you?d like to work with us to chrissie@tailour.com.? Please also provide us with an under-100-word answer to the following two questions: 1) What do you like about our site and/or online presence?? 2) What would you change about our site and/or online presence?

Source: http://theeverygirl.com/job-posting-social-media-intern-for-tailour/

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The Perils of Bypassing Congress

If a president's first term is about reelection, his second is about history. And as President Obama made clear in his inaugural address last week, he is hoping to make history by tackling climate change.

But as he butts up against Congress on gun control, immigration reform and a slew of budget battles, the president is expected to pursue his climate agenda through actions he can take without congressional approval, the most prominent of which will be the Environmental Protection Agency?s finalization of rules restricting carbon dioxide emissions from new fossil-fueled power plants, which is expected this spring.

Attempting to make major changes through executive action is a strategy with many pitfalls, says Michael McConnell, a constitutional law scholar at Stanford University. Executive actions lack permanence. Courts could find that the president or executive agencies overstepped. ?In general, an executive can move faster when it acts on its own, but the danger is that nine or 13 months later, they?re going to find that what they?ve done is struck down,? McConnell said.?

Legal challenges to Obama?s climate actions are all but guaranteed. Even if they aren?t successful, they may delay implementation of new rules and regulations, making progress in Obama?s remaining four years difficult.?

Pursuing climate change through the White House rather than Congress also runs the risk of being a slapdash approach to the problem rather than a comprehensive solution.

?Long term, you do need Congress?s support,? Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said of the administration. ?To get the kind of deep reductions and the real transition away from polluting fossil fuels over the next several decades, you need to have some bipartisan support; you need to have Congress going along with it and future presidents also wanting to build on this. I think [Obama administration officials] know that.?

Indeed. ?I continue to believe that whenever we can codify something through legislation, it is on firmer ground. It's not going to be reversed by a future president. It is something that will be long-lasting and sturdier and more stable,? Obama said in a recent interview with The New Republic.

With debates over immigration, gun control, and the nation?s fiscal future raging, however, the chances of Congress taking on climate legislation at the moment is slim. Still, it?s possible that some tweaks to climate policy could be made in the context of other legislation (tax incentives, for example, are a popular way to pursue climate goals).

So, can Obama become the climate-change president through executive action alone? History holds out hope. Even though presidents are largely remembered for their legislative accomplishments (think President Reagan?s tax reform, President Clinton?s welfare reform, President George W. Bush?s education agenda, and even Obama?s Affordable Care Act), Barbara Perry of the University of Virginia's Miller Center points to PresidentTruman, who gets a great deal of credit for the country's Medicare system?despite the fact that the law was passed more than 12 years after Truman left office.

Truman, she says, jump-started the national conversation on public health insurance. Though his proposals failed to pass Congress, he used his executive power to direct funds to construct hospitals, expand medical aid to the needy, and provide for expanded medical research. When President Johnson finally signed the bill into law in July 1965, he did so at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Mo., with Truman by his side. Crediting Truman in a speech at the signing ceremony, Johnson also enrolled the former president as the first Medicare beneficiary.

The lesson for Obama? Even if it takes a dozen more years to bring Congress around to the idea of comprehensive climate change legislation, Obama's work won't be for naught?and he may even be credited with paving the path on the issue.

In the meantime, the White House has pledged to forge ahead without Congress on climate. ?[We will] continue to look for tools, administrative actions that we can take that don?t require Congress and in many cases don?t require federal dollars,? Brian Deese, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, said at an event on the new energy economy hosted by National Journal and The Atlantic last week.

Here are some actions Obama?can take, sans Congress:

Appointments. The president could be losing three strong advocates for action on climate change in his Cabinet: Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to resign, and the EPA?administrator and the secretary of the?Interior have already announced their departures. His choices for successors will say a lot about how committed the administration is to an aggressive climate-change agenda.

Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat whohasbeen nominated to be secretary of State, pledged at his confirmation hearing last week to be a ?passionate advocate? of using energy policy to solve climate change. The State Department leads U.S. negotiators on international agreements to address climate change, although any new commitments would need approval of the Senate.State is also charged with determining?whether a permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada's tar sands to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast, is in the national interest.

Regulation and enforcement.?The biggest?and most widely expected?executive action is the EPA?s release of final rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. Additional action may be taken to address methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, something the Clean Air Task Force urged Obama to tackle in an open letter to the president earlier this month.

EPA will play the biggest, but not the only, role in implementing Obama?s second-term vision for climate change. A host of other departments have climate-related authority: Interior will be involved in discussions over oil drilling, fracking, and offshore windturbines. Energy can set efficiency standards for appliances and buildings. The Agriculture Department is involved in implementing mandates for?biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol. The Commerce Department oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which interprets and explains climatescience.?The Transportation Department has a say in fuel-economy standards.

Public pronouncements. Next month?s State of the Union address will bring more clarity to just how Obama plans to tackle climate change. The Senate confirmation hearings for key Cabinet posts should also shed some light on just how rocky Obama's path forward will be.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/perils-bypassing-congress-123209000--politics.html

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Video: Former WISH anchor rescues pets

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Former WISH TV anchor, Ray Rice, helps to rescue abandoned pets.

Ray Rice was Patty Spitler's first co-anchor on WISH TV. Now, Patty and Ray have reconnected through Pet Pals.

Click play in the viewer to hear how Ray and his wife are helping pets in need.

Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/video/video-former-wish-anchor-rescues-pets

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A major moment for data privacy | European Voice

Companies recognise that robust privacy protections are necessary; the challenge is getting the regulation right.

Imagine a world where, when you are about to run out of milk, your refrigerator sends you an instant message and then alerts the grocery store to have a carton ready for you. As you drive to the store, your car notifies local governments of icy roads or potholes that need to be filled. And, if you are running late to the next appointment in your calendar, your car re-routes you to save time based on changes in traffic.

This world is not so far off. In fact, aspects of it are already here. A future where devices increasingly share data and applications with one another promises to revolutionise not only daily errands, but the ways that companies do business and manage their work.

Given the right conditions, this digital economy will continue to expand, bringing with it enormous opportunities for innovation and economic growth. Yet achieving this future will require more than technological advances; it will depend on our ability to keep increasingly large and free-flowing amounts of data private and secure ? for individuals as well as organisations.

As connectivity continues to grow, modern economies are increasingly driven by consumer and business confidence in the security of their information. Online privacy is no longer a regulatory hurdle for companies to clear ? something corporations are forced to do ? but, rather, is a crucial component of business. Trust is as important to making our products work as electricity.

There is already evidence that privacy and security concerns may be hurting consumers' trust in the internet.

Today, 28 January, is Data Protection/Privacy Day. Events around the world will reflect how rapidly debates about privacy are evolving.

At one time, there was little common ground between the business community and European regulators on this issue: the former insisted any regulation at all would hamper growth, while governments advocated strict oversight.

There is, however, already evidence that privacy and security concerns may be hurting consumers' trust in the internet. In 2010, a study found that 56% of respondents had changed their minds about buying something online because of a privacy or security concern and a 2011 survey found that one-third of the smartphone users who did not use geo-location applications did not use them because of privacy concerns. Many companies now recognise that robust privacy protections are necessary for innovation and participation in the economy.

At the same time, the European Commission has set about updating its outdated regulatory regime on data protection. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get things right in this area and unlock a future of greater innovation and investment in European economies.

There is much to applaud in the Commission's recently released proposed regulation. It avoids mandating specific technological solutions and attempts to help companies meet the challenge of doing business in various EU member states and around the world.

Yet there are also significant shortcomings in the proposal. To address these issues, the global business community took the unprecedented step of coming together under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to express concern that the current direction of the regulation would chill innovation and discourage investment in Europe. The ICC provided recommendations to improve the effectiveness of regulations governing data transfers outside of the EU, ensure administrative requirements are not overly burdensome and harmonise implementation and enforcement of the regulations.

The decisions ahead are important ones that will have a lasting impact on Europeans and on the companies that do business in Europe ? as such, we urge legislators to consider these recommendations.

On 28 January 1981, the Council of Europe issued the ?Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data?. Behind that long title was a landmark step in setting down rules for privacy and protection of information. The world of technology has changed many times over since 1981. It will change many times more in the years to come ? and in ways that cannot be predicted. However, as was true in 1981, in 2013, Europe has an opportunity to show the world both how to protect the privacy of individuals and how to encourage economic development and innovation.

David Hoffman is director of security policy and global privacy officer for Intel Corporation and co-chair of the International Chamber of Commerce's taskforce for the protection of personal data and privacy in the digital economy.

? 2013 European Voice. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2013/january/a-major-moment-for-data-privacy-/76267.aspx

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Innovation's Foundation - Getting Personal About Business ...

At the core of every business?s strategy is uncovering the best ways to meet and anticipate their customer or shopper jobs or capabilities and integrate their products and services into that future vision.? Of course, to develop the strategy requires being able to look into the future and identify what current requirements will still be necessary in the foreseeable future, and what new requirements will be needed to accommodate future customer jobs.? The process of migrating from current products and services designed to meet today?s customer needs to a future set of requirements is referred to as innovation.

What is a Job?

In order to understand the concept, the first step is to define what is a ?job.?? A job in this context refers to the capability that the customer strives to complete a task through the use of products and services.? Just like people apply for work and are hired on the basis of the fit between their capabilities and the requirement of the position; certain products and services are hired to allow the customer to achieve an outcome.

Innovation quadrant explains the path products and services take to be hired.

Innovation

Currently, customers may be starting in the lower left quadrant.? They operate in a routinized or mechanized way to repeat past purchases with little thought to improving or changing.? Their decison considerations are based on a ?search? of known products and services with little exploration beyond that which is in their awareness.

Suppliers will often try to influence the decision-making of the customer by providing price incentives, promotions, advertising, etc.? Those efforts are not innovative in that they do not provide additional capabilities to the customer, but may be effective in shifting market share levels between competitors.? This is captured in the upper left quadrant.?

In some situations, the market?s options of products may lag behind the identified ?jobs? that customers need to complate.? In those instances, there is no progress help available and customers seek other options (not always certain what will provide the necessary capabilities, so they test, trial, explore, etc.). In response to their dissatisfaction with the existing options and capabilities, customers will generate their own homemade solutions that they cobble together in response to the job to be completed.

For true progress to be made,?the innovation?must cross the Progress Horizon Barrier (seen in red on the vertical axis), and incorporate the ?technology? of innovaton barrier (seen in red on the horizontal axis).? In the upper right-hand quadrant, the merchant or store is now a collaborative partner with the customer in helping them assess, analyze, compare and contrast options available to them to more competently and confidently complete their jobs with the new product/service solution set (whether that be new products, an explanation of how existing products can be applied to a job in a new or different way, the mixing of different product options together into a new capability or offering to meet a job?s requirement(s).

The store or merchant has a significant role to play in accomplishing this through a more refined merchandising approach, selling skill enhancement, improvement in marketing activities, etc.? By looking at the quadrant and identifying what is needed to better align with the customer to suit their new job requirement ? and then providing it, the business strategy of innovation can be better matched to future market needs.

Source: http://blog.ctnews.com/zahn/2013/01/28/innovations-foundation/

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Senate Immigration Proposal to Include Pathway to Citizenship

Two senators at the center of negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Sunday that a pathway to citizenship is an essential component of a comprehensive reform bill.

"That has to be also part of it," McCain told ABC News' Martha Raddatz on "This Week" when asked whether a pathway to citizenship would be a component of reform. "There's a new appreciation on both sides of the aisle including, maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle, that we have to enact comprehensive immigration reform."

Like "This Week" on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

McCain said that a small group of Senators will release the principles of a comprehensive, not "piecemeal," reform bill this week.

"I'm very pleased with the progress," McCain said. "It's not that much different from what we tried to do in 2007."

Read a full transcript of the interview with Sens. McCain and Menendez HERE.

Menendez, who met with President Obama on Friday along with other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus leadership, said that the president expressed his full commitment to reform.

"The president made it very clear in that discussion that this was a top legislative priority for him in this session of the Congress and that he expects to work with all of us in an effort to achieve that goal and he's fully committed to it."

He added that a pathway to "earned legalization" is an "essential element" of an immigration reform bill.

"First, Americans support it in poll after poll. Secondly, Latino voters expect it. Thirdly Democrats want it. And fourth Republicans need it," Menendez said.

McCain added that he believes Obama's use of the presidential podium on behalf of immigration reform at an event in Las Vegas planned for Tuesday will aid efforts to pass a bill.

"I think it helps," McCain said. "I think its important that we all work together on this."

"Believe it or not, I see a glimmer of bipartisanship out there," he added.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-immigration-proposal-pathway-citizenship-152655874--abc-news-politics.html

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Backlog Video Game Review #3: Far Cry 3 | California Literary Review

Far Cry 3

Release Date: November 29th, 2012 to March 7, 2013
Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: First-person shooter, action-adventure, open world
ESRB: M for Mature

CLR Rating:

As with every year, 2012 produced a large number of games to play, and not nearly enough time to play them all. As January is a month of limited releases from the industry, it?s a good time to take a moment and cover a few of the titles that were missed the first go around. Welcome to the ?Backlog Review.?

Vaas came to Rook Island to kidnap and chew gum. And he?s all outta gum.

?All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!) and (KAA-CHING!) take your money,? pouts M.I.A in Paper Planes, the soundtrack to Far Cry 3?s opening island montage. It sounds ominously like the marketing strategy for most first person-shooters. But the Far Cry series has proven to be a fierce and beguiling beast. A bright, ambitious first chapter. A darker, painfully real, malaria-blighted sequel. And now we have the concerto?s third movement, Far Cry 3. And what a rousing crescendo it is.

But it?s not without its flaws.

Back to that opening montage (BANG BANG BANG BANG!). Rook Island is the setting for our merry descent into madness. A paradise. Crestless turquoise oceans. Prehistoric mountains. Machete-proof jungle. The only stain on the vista are the protagonists.

I totally hate these guys.

You blink into the eyes of Jason Brody, a precocious, extreme-sporting, party boy from Santa Monica. He?s only a couple of bad trips away from island madness, but we don?t know that yet. Thankfully, Jason is slightly less repugnant than his entourage. They skydive, drink, fang four-wheelers, talk about drinking, brawl in nightclubs, flee the scene, make gaming?s earliest reference to Sambuca shots. They?re straight from the set of an MTV reality show. The kind of group you might envision if your only source of youth culture was The Hills, Real World, and Jersey Shore. And I have been preprogrammed to hate them.

It?s a shame because these scenes echo throughout the game, and are the sole motivation for Jason?s mission into the wild. In a campaign that lasts ten-hours (or more) they could?ve spent an extra ten minutes letting me know who these people were, so when they did get kidnapped, I actually felt like wading out into the heart of darkness to rescue the bastards. But I didn?t. Ubisoft went MTV when they should?ve gone, Stand By Me. Meaningful relationships between Jason and his friends (and siblings) were needed to propel the narrative into the bloodlust Totentanz it ultimately reaches. It guts the story of motivation. But Far Cry 3 isn?t really a plot driven narrative. It?s a character study ? the situational unravelling of a privileged twenty-something into a cold, carnage-hungry warrior. It does this quite successfully on some levels, it?s even chilling on occasion, but each time his friends bob up in the story, their reactions, dialogue and the cliche fabric of their characters undoes the dark tone of the game. You can?t make Apocalypse Now with an MTV cast.

If you?re looking for characters, draw inspiration from ? Stand By Me. Not MTV.

But then our window into Jason?s debauchery floats away, just a camera held in the palm of a psychotic pirate. We?re gagged. Caged. Waiting to be ransomed or sold into slavery. And the bungled tuning of Far Cry 3?s intro hits on a magnificent chord. We get our first look at Vaas, the pirate crazy and ruthless enough to lead a savage band of pirates. They?ve stolen Rook Island from the native, Rakyat tribe. He?s splendidly performed, a firecracker of a villain, elegantly cursive in his madness, and maniacal enough to leave you in a burning building instead of shooting you. His insanity takes on greater meaning as the game unfolds. Vaas becomes a mirror of your impending downward spiral, the end of a road Jason has already begun to walk. The game is filled with memorable and splendidly acted characters (excluding Jason?s friends and the two-dimensional natives). One of Far Cry 3?s minor villain?s, the Australian slave trader, Buck, is one of the best antagonists I?ve encountered in the digital realm. Where Vaas has a certain encompassing evil about him, an evil that could infect the whole island, Buck is a larrikin until you look at him the wrong way, and then he?s liable to stab you with a broken bottle. His menace is directly focused on you, and you alone. That made him more terrifying somehow.

What follows your introduction to Vaas is one of the more tense, thrilling scenes I?ve encountered in gaming; the escape from the pirate camp. The death of Jason?s brother, Grant. And, at the mercy of Vaas, the bullet zipping gauntlet into the jungle, and your virgin kill, eye to eye.

Soon after, we meet Dennis, an honorary Rakyat who guides you along the warrior path. It?s here that the weakness of the plot is most apparent. Dennis is giving Jason a tribal tattoo. Why? Because you?re a warrior, Jason. Am, I? Oh yes, you?re going to take back the island from the pirates and save the Rakyat. Why me? I don?t know. A prophecy or something. Okay? Annnnnd, we?re off. Immediately Far Cry 3 get?s a classic case of, what I like to call, ?I?ll just stand over here? syndrome. In open world games the inhabitants are always going to ask a lot of you. In games like GTA, it works. Nico gets hired to do criminal acts in a city crawling with trigger happy police. There?s a reason people come to him for their dirty work. But on Rook Island, where the only law is Darwinian and everyone?s armed to the teeth, why are they coming to a green, terrified kid with their problems? This is best illustrated by your first mission as the island?s savior. ?I need you to climb up and reactivate all our radio towers?, says Dennis, ?I?ll just stand over here.? It feels like I?m being had. I felt the same way every time I took a stronghold and the Rakyat warriors would cruise in, heavily armed, after the last pirate was dead. I couldn?t help but think, ?Where the hell were you guys??

Yesterday you?d never fired a gun. Today you can hit a moving target from a mile out. Don?t question it.

You start the game with a limited loadout and a wallet that can only hold so much cash. It gives you a reason to explore the island?s vast milage, hunting and knife-killing and performing side missions. Doing so gives you cash, animal skins, and the bonuses you need to increase your arsenal and hone your warrior skills. You can also craft medicine and other aides from the island?s plants. While the side missions are not particularly inspired Rook Island offers enough variety to keep you pegging through the brush for hours. In a game that really is massive nothing feels half done, and that?s an achievement.

This place is even bigger than IKEA.

The island itself looks gorgeous. Distances grey out on consoles but that?s hardly the fault of the developers ? a seven year old xbox can only do so much. It?s a good map. Not the greatest (Red Dead Redemption?s microcosm of America and Mexico holds that title). It consists almost solely of jungle and shanty town and, unlike Red Dead, it?s impossible to know where you are just by looking around. Unlike the love-it-or-hate-it gritty realism of Far Cry 2?s Africa, Far Cry 3 adds fast travel and a liberal amount of outposts. But it?s not the jungle itself that is the star of Rook, but what?s lingering in its shadows. I squealed with delicious horror the first time I saw a pair of Komodo dragons slither out from the undergrowth to tear the flesh from my bones. I haven?t seen a game do wildlife any better. Sharks. Tigers. Snakes. Boars. Deer. Crocodiles. Albino Crocodiles. Bears. It?s a menagerie of animalia. And there?s thousands of the critters.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the? No, wait. That?s a panther.

One of the great things about Far Cry 2 was the freedom it gave players. You could survey and plan your attacks on enemy outposts. Far Cry 3 expands on this. Here?s how I took an outpost near Spine Ridge: I hang glide to an overlook above the camp. Scan the scene with my binoculars. Two snipers. Four troops. Two heavies. I crouch down, stealthy, and slide down the hill. Sneak through a hole in the fence. Two troops are chatting just ahead. If they trigger the alarm another carload of Pirates will rock up. I take down the first guy; machete to the neck. I pull the knife from his pocket and throw it into the other guys neck. Extra XP. DING! I?ve leveled up. I shut off the alarm. Creep back into the undergrowth. I shoot the bolt off a tiger cage with a silenced pistol. Stripy orange death runs amuck in the camp. In the resulting furor, and from a safe distance, I take out the snipers. The tiger has taken out two troops. I run around the back of a motor garage. Stab a heavy through the chink in his armor (a skill I?ve just acquired). Steal his flame thrower. The tiger has taken out another trooper. I light the place up. Buildings. Palm trees. Grass. Holy moley, the tiger?s on fire. I shoot the last guard with an assault rifle. The heavy doesn?t make it out of the flames. OUTPOST CAPTURED. A truck full of the native Rakyat tribe rock up in their jeep. ?If you really want to help the island, try checking out the bulletin board,? he says. Where the hell were you guys?

The multiplayer is competent but its nothing we haven?t seen before. And the co-op campaign is okay if you?re only interested in killing more pirates. They don?t do anything wrong but? well, there?s nothing more to say really. They?re serviceable and just as much fun as any other run-and-gun.

Far Cry 3 is a great game. It?s vast. Often dark. Well thought out. Endlessly enjoyable. Is it Beethoven?s ninth? No, the vapid protagonists bring it down a few pegs. It?s more of a Symphony and Metallica.

Far Cry 3 Gameplay Trailer

Source: http://calitreview.com/34801

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A Closer Look At The Quality Of Angel Returns Data

Editor's note: David Teten?is a partner with?ff Venture Capital and founder and chairman of?Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York.? The good news for TechCrunch readers: Every major study conducted to date has placed angel investors? internal rate of return (IRR) between 18 and 38 percent, as summarized by my Partner John Frankel and Professor Robert Wiltbank in previous TechCrunch articles. The bad news: The data on angel returns has historically been difficult to obtain, analyze, verify and, therefore, rely upon.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MC_lXmsAez0/

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Rare 1794 silver dollar auctioned for record $10M

2 hrs.

Reuters

A 1794 silver dollar, which many experts believe was the first such coin struck by the U.S. Mint, sold for a record $10 million at auction on Thursday.?

The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar more than doubled the previous $4.1 million auction?record for a coin set in 1999, auction house Stack's Bowers Galleries said.?

Legend Numismatics, a rare-coin firm based in New Jersey, bought the coin, which was the highlight of the evening sale in New York that fetched a total of $17.2 million.?

"We felt in our heart that this would be the very first coin to exceed the $10 million barrier in auction and were in fact prepared to bid much high in order to acquire this unique piece of history," the company said in a statement, adding it had no plans to sell the coin in the near future.?

David Bowers, chairman emeritus of Stack's Bowers Galleries, said the coin has unique features that make it particularly valuable.?

"It is the first American metal dollar struck and the finest known. You have these combinations coming together. No museum has an equal piece," he told Reuters.?

The coin was part of the Cardinal Collection, amassed by the collector Martin Logies. Bowers described the collection as the "Old Masters" of coins struck during the earliest years of the U.S. Mint.?

"I think it is extraordinary and I am very pleased that the first silver dollar is the first to top the $10 million threshold," said Logies, who purchased the coin three years ago.?

The $10 million price includes the buyer's commission.?

Like the buoyant art market, which is expecting another good year in 2013, Bowers said coins are a good investment, have a worldwide market and have risen steadily in value.?

"We're continually surprised by surprises," he said, adding there are several million coin collectors around the globe. "They want to collect coins for appreciation, art, rarity and beauty."?

The record-setting coin shows a profile of Miss Liberty facing right surrounded by stars representing each state in the union. The design was only used in 1794 and briefly the following year.?

Another top seller in the sale of 94 lots was the 1792 Half Disme, which dates back to David Rittenhouse, the first director of the U.S. Mint. It fetched $975,000, excluding the 17.5 percent buyer's commission.?

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/rare-1794-silver-dollar-auctioned-record-10-million-1C8119017

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Recycle plastic waste into 'ink' for 3-D printers

6 hrs.

John Roach , NBC News

As enthusiasm grows for 3-D printers, so does a familiar complaint to just about everyone still living in a 2-D inkjet world: the maddeningly high cost and inefficiency of replacement cartridges. Enter the Filabot, a contraption that turns just about all your household plastic waste into "ink" for 3-D printers.

3-D printers melt strips of plastic filament into a gooey paste that is spewed out one layer at a time to create all sorts of plastic parts, gizmos and architect models. The printers are a sign of the future, when we can print just about anything we?d ever want with the press of a button.

For now, the printers mostly deal in the realm of plastics and are popular among early-adopter techies, designers?and people on a mission to change the world for the better. In addition to the cost of the printers, which have begun to fall, plastic filament starts at around $50 for a 2.2-pound spool.

The Filabot was developed by Tyler McNaney, a college student, and financed with funds raised on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website. It sits on a desktop and is designed to grind and convert everyday plastic waste such as milk jugs, water bottles, and plastic wrap into filament for a future print job.

Early enthusiasts paid $350 for first-run versions of the device, according to Treehugger. A final price for the public version is yet to be announced, but it should pay for itself rather quickly and keep household plastic waste out of landfills and the oceans. What?s more, it means you recycle bad print jobs.

To learn more about it, check out the promotional video below.

- via Earth Techling

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/recycle-plastic-waste-ink-3-d-printers-1C8119019

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Update: AT&T Says U-verse Service Restored, Promises Credit ...

Four days after the first reports of a widespread outage of AT&T's U-verse service across the South, the company said Thursday afternoon that the service had been restored to "all customers affected by the outage" and promised to credit subscribers' bills.

Anita Smith, AT&T spokesman in Arkansas, emailed to Arkansas Business a company statement at 2:33 p.m.: "U-verse service has been restored for all customers affected by the outage. The software problem causing the issues was resolved by AT&T engineers early this morning. We are not pleased it took so long to fix the issue. AT&T will provide a credit to customers who were affected. We know our customers count on their U-verse service and we apologize for the inconvenience."

U-verse typically includes landline telephone, Internet and television service.

"We will issue credits to customers we know are impacted," Smith said. "Credits will appear on the customer?s bill within 30-60 days. If they haven?t seen a credit on their bill within 60 days, they can call us to make sure they receive it. We?re crediting customers based on the length of their outage."

Despite AT&T's statement, some customers posting on its U-verse Facebook page complained that they still lacked service.

The outage had prompted a social media firestorm of subscribers complaining on Facebook, Twitter and other Web forums about the lengthy outage and AT&T's failure to provide information about the cause, when service might be restored, a number of how many had been affected and the location of those customers experiencing the breakdown.

Criticism, however, of how the company had handled the event continued. A sentiment from one customer on AT&T's U-verse Facebook page appeared to be typical:

"Service restored to 27613 [ZIP code] around 06/06.30 this morning.

"Many thanks to the customer service reps who had to absorb our complaints. They deserve merit increases for their professionalism. Also ? many thanks to the good folks at Starbucks for being gracious hosts.

"As for AT&T management ? let's hope you learned a valuable lesson in crisis management. Not sure we'll renew our service agreement when our current one expires. We have zero confidence in your service and ability to manage it."

On Tuesday, AT&T had blamed a server for the outage, but on Wednesday night, the company said the cause involved "a software upgrade."

Based on online customer comments, the outage appeared to have affected service in about 14 states, from North Carolina to Texas and Oklahoma, as well as numerous subscribers in Arkansas.

AT&T said Wednesday that less than 1 percent of its U-verse customers were affected by a widespread outage that began on Monday. The company said it had 7.4 million U-verse subscribers as of third-quarter 2012. One percent of that would be 74,000.

Source: http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/90343/u-verse-service-restored-for-most-customers-att-promises-credit

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Comments - Idaho Estate Planning

Many of us are at ease now that we?ve ridden out the Fiscal Cliff, being that the tax law changes were largely restricted to the uppermost income brackets. In fact, the ?average? person may not even see a rise in income taxes. Unfortunately, there is still a chance the ?middle class? may see some tax hikes if they are trust beneficiaries.

As reported in a Forbes article titled ?Tax Hikes Hit Trusts Hard, Beneficiaries Pull Money Out?, the new tax laws are affecting income to trusts. This new taxation has everything to do with the capital gains tax that recently jumped from 15% to 20%, plus an extra 3.8% for the Medicare surtax under Obamacare. Taken together, this tax increase adds up to a whopping 8.8% on profits held in trusts.

This gets even worse. The trust and the beneficiary pay separate taxes on the income gain in the trust and the income distributed to the beneficiary. This new increase seems to be pushing a number of beneficiaries toward reconsidering the trust itself.

Regardless, it?s important to consider all of the positives when it comes to trusts, especially since so many beneficiaries fall fully into the ?middle class.?

If you are a trust beneficiary, be on the lookout for taxes affecting you and your trust. Changes are bound to occur in the future.?

Understanding the complexities of Tax Planning is just a part of successful estate planning. To ensure a successful plan, we at Idaho Estate Planning will: 1) educate you and your helpers; 2) take the time to get to know you, your family, your desires, your concerns, your goals, and your potential problems; 3) gladly and patiently answer questions until you understand the concept or issue; and, 4) based on experience with the problems and results caused by poor planning, help you design and implement the plan that fits your concerns and goals. Remember, good planning is no accident.

?

Source: http://blog.idahoestateplanning.com/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-brings-new-tax-hikes-for-trust-beneficiaries.html

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Sneaky Sundance winds down in a flurry of deals and buzz

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The 2013 Sundance Film Festival is going into the homestretch, with three days of screenings, one awards ceremony and dozens of post-mortems still to come.

And as moviegoers come down from the mountain and the films that were acquired in Park City are readied for release, a festival that initially seemed to be disappointing is shaping up to be a solid showcase for a wide variety of indie films ... in other words, a fest that delivered what Sundance is supposed to deliver.

Certainly, some of us went to Park City looking for the next "Beasts of the Southern Wild," the galvanizing film that screened on the second day of last year's fest and is now a Best Picture Oscar nominee; or the next doc as entertaining as "Searching for Sugar Man" or as infuriating as "The Invisible War."

And when they didn't arrive, we quickly concluded that it was a lackluster Sundance.

But as the festival nears its awards ceremony on Saturday and its final day on Sunday, Sundance 2013 has produced a large number of deals, including a couple of the most lucrative ones in the festival's history.

"The Way, Way Back" went to Fox Searchlight for about $10 million, similar to what that studio paid for "Little Miss Sunshine" seven years ago; Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "Don Jon's Addiction" went for $4 million, but Relatively also committed to an addition $25 million in publicity and advertising support.

Nearly every film that got some buzz found a home, and the Sundance awards picture is wide open; there's no clear frontrunner, just a lot of well-liked movies with strong constituencies.

So maybe this was a sneaky Sundance, a festival that didn't look impressive until you got out of the cold, stepped back and took a look at what has happened.

The festival, like some of the movies, snuck up on you. The first three people I spoke to who saw "Don Jon's Addiction" told me that it was simply awful, and that I should stay away at all costs. Within a day or two, it was starting to pick up decent word-of-mouth, and in four days it had been picked up by Relativity.

The chick-flick comedy "Austenland" struck me as being sporadically amusing but mostly flat - but it got decent buzz, too, and found a home with Sony Pictures Classics for more than $4 million. So did "Kill Your Darlings," a murder story set in the 1944 that got less attention because its characters include Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac than because of a graphic sex scene involving Daniel Radcliffe.

And speaking of sex, which was abundant in this year's films, "Lovelace" sold to Weinstein and " Two Mothers" went to Exclusive Releasing and Michael Winterbottom's' "The Look of Love" went to IFC, all of those sales coming on the heels of reviews that were mixed at best.

The films that picked up stronger buzz - "The Spectacular Now," "Blackfish," "Fruitvale," "Toy's House" - also sold, with Weinstein's Radius and the new A24 being among the most active buyers.

Of course, Sundance sales don't guarantee Sundance hits; it remains to be seen if any of this year's entries can justify their price tags.

As for the festival prizes that will be announced on Saturday evening, the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition is in the hands of a jury that includes director Ed Burns, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and executive Tom Rothman.

David Lowery's crime-spree drama "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" has stirred up some talk of prizes, but so have first-time director Jill Soloway's character study "Afternoon Delight," Kyle Patrick Alvarez's David Sedaris adaptation "C.O.G.," Lynn Shelton's austere "Touchy Feely" and James Ponsoldt's teen drama "The Spectacular Now" ... and, for that matter, most of the other films in the broad-ranging competition.

On the documentary side, the initial buzz went to "After Tiller" and "Dirty Wars," with "Blackfish" and "Valentine Road" coming on later and "Twenty Feet From Stardom" remaining the feel-good entry.

Out of competition, Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight" won raves for the way it completed the unexpected trilogy that began at Sundance with "Before Sunrise" in 1995, and Lucy Walker's documentary "The Crash Reel" won repeated standing ovations at its screenings.

Last year's Sundance award winners included six films that went on to receive Oscar nominations: "Beasts," "Sugar Man," "Invisible War," "The Sessions" (titled "The Surrogate" when it won the audience award), "5 Broken Cameras" and "Chasing Ice." The year before it produced two, both in the documentary category.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sneaky-sundance-winds-down-flurry-deals-buzz-205617961.html

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3 Canadians missing on Antarctic flight

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Three Canadian men are missing in Antarctica after their small plane disappeared.

A search has been launched.

The men went missing late Wednesday on a flight from the South Pole to the Italian base in Terra Nova Bay. An emergency locator transmitter was activated at about 10 p.m. in a mountainous area. But rescue crews have been unable to find the Twin Otter plane.

New Zealand Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Mike Roberts said in a statement that a Hercules C130 aircraft flew to the Queen Alexandra mountain range but was unable to sight the aircraft, which he presumes has gone down.

He said a joint New Zealand and US field rescue team will attempt to reach the site by helicopter when conditions improve. Weather conditions were poor early Thursday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-canadians-missing-antarctic-flight-233250744.html

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MoreMonmouthMusings ? Blog Archive ? BECK SEEKS TO GIVE ...

NEW BILL WOULD HOLD INSURERS ACCOUNTABLE TO NJ STANDARDS

Senator Jennifer Beck has introduced legislation that clarifies the Department of Banking Insurance?s jurisdiction over the processing of certain flood insurance claims. The bill specifies that though flood insurance is administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) the actual claims process must adhere to New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) laws and regulations. ?In most cases in New Jersey, the NFIP flood insurance itself is purchased from New Jersey-based private insurance companies who participate in FEMA?s ?Write Your Own? program.? Additionally, those same New Jersey-based insurers are often administering the claims.

?

??In the wake of Sandy, we have been deluged with complaints about unresponsive and misleading flood insurance representatives? Beck explained. ?While the NFIP is a federal program, I want to clarify that licensed New Jersey flood insurance companies must still comply with our consumer protection laws when processing our residents? flood claims.? This is the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance jurisdiction and they must be able to protect our residents from bad actors.?

?

Senate Bill 2505 extends DOBI?s current authority to investigate and punish insurers who engage in unfair methods of competition or unfair and deceptive acts. The bill applies to specifically to New Jersey licensed insurers that process flood insurance claims under FEMA?s ?Write Your Own? flood insurance program.

?

?Thousands of NJ residents have lost their homes and belongings and rebuilding cannot be stalled by flood insurers dragging their feet on legitimate claims.? Our residents are desperate to move forward with recovery efforts and time after time I am hearing that flood insurers are the obstacle,? said Beck. ??This legislation gives New Jersey?s DOBI enforcement power over the flood claims process in this State.? Once passed, DOBI?s Division of Insurance will enforce all New Jersey law, regulations and policies and have the legal authority to protect our residents from insurers that are non-complaint.?

Posted: January 23rd, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: FEMA, Hurricane Sandy, Jennifer Beck, NJ State Legislature, Press Release | Tags: DOBI, FEMA, Insurance claim, NFIP, NJ Dept of Banking and Insurance, S 2505, Senator Jennifer Beck | No Comments ?

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Source: http://www.moremonmouthmusings.net/2013/01/23/beck-seeks-to-give-department-of-banking-and-insurance-oversight-role-in-flood-insurance-claims/

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Berlusconi sex trial verdict due after February vote

MILAN (Reuters) - Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi will not face a verdict in a trial where he is charged with paying for sex with a juvenile prostitute until after elections next month, according to a decision by judges that could help his political comeback.

A new timetable of hearings set by Milan judges on Monday shows the last session in the trial will be held on March 11, well after the February 24-25 elections.

The decision will be welcomed by Berlusconi, who had feared a verdict in the middle of his campaign for a fifth term in office. Milan judges last week rejected his request to have the trial suspended until after the elections.

Berlusconi, who has surged in opinion polls in recent weeks but still lags the centre-left Democratic Party, is charged with paying for sex with a minor, and denies all charges.

The judges on Monday again rejected a bid by Berlusconi's lawyers to have the trial halted.

The lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini and Piero Longo, justified their new request by saying they are both standing for Berlusconi's party in the Veneto region and would not be able to campaign if the trial went ahead.

Judge Giulia Turri said the argument was "too generic".

According to the new timetable, the prosecutor in the case is expected to make her final arguments and request Berlusconi's to be convicted on February 11.

Berlusconi could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison but would not serve time unless he also lost the two appeals allowed by Italian law, usually a lengthy process.

The nightclub dancer at the centre of the case, 20 year-old Moroccan Karima El Mahroug, more widely known under her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer", made a brief appearance in court last week.

Berlusconi is charged of paying for sex with her when she was under 18, which is a crime in Italy.

He is also accused of abusing the power of his office as prime minister to have her released from police custody when she was briefly held over separate theft allegations.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for January 28.

(Reporting By Manuela D'Alessandro, Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verdict-berlusconi-sex-trial-come-february-election-court-103919707.html

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52 Movies APIs: Rovi, Rotten Tomatoes and Internet Video Archive

Our API directory now includes 52 movies APIs. The newest is the Tribune Media Services OnConnect API. The most popular, in terms of mashups, is the Rovi Cloud Services API. We list 11 Rovi Cloud Services mashups. Below you?ll find some more stats from the directory, including the entire list of movies APIs.

In terms of the technical details, REST and XML lead the way. There are 37 movies REST APIs and 6 movies SOAP APIs. Our directory lists 30 movies XML APIs and 24 movies JSON APIs.

The most common tags within movies are 24 entertainment movies APIs, 22 television movies APIs and 14 video movies APIs.

On the mashup side, we list 118 movies mashups. We named similarkind as mashup of the day in November.

For reference, here is a list of all 52 movies APIs.

??90sec.tv API: Embed videos on web sites

??Allociné Movie API: French-language movie and TV information service

??Arts Alliance Media Locksmith API: Digital cinema KDM delivery service

??Bol.com API: Dutch online retail store

??CinemaTorrents API: Movie Torrent Search

??Dailymotion API: Video sharing site

??Daum Events API: Movie and festival search service

??DVDXML API: DVD collection management service

??EIDR API: Unique media identifier service

??fanart.tv TV API: TV and movie fan art repository

??Film Crave API: Movie database of reviews, trailers, and reference

??Filmaster API: Movie review and recommendation service

??Follw.it API: Social TV and movie community

??GuruCue API: Personalized movie recommendations service

??Ignyte Movies and Showtimes API: Get local movie showtime's by zipcode

??IMDBAPI.org API: Unofficial IMDB data retrieval service

??Internet Video Archive API: Movie trailers, music videos, and game trailers service

??Inveni API: Movie and TV show recommendation service

??iTrackmine Simple API: Collection sharing service

??Jinni API: Movie discovery and search service

??Mombo API: Social movie review service

??Movieclips.com API: Movie scene search and information service

??MovieMeter API: Retrieve film information in Dutch

??Moviepilot API: Movie search, information and recommendation service

??MoviePosterDB API: Movie poster service

??MovieZine.se API: Movie database query service

??Muvi API: Movie and celebrity database

??My Movies Collection API: Movie and TV show collection management service

??MyMovies API: Movie and DVD collection management service

??Opensubtitles API: Movie subtitles service

??Roku API: Digital media streaming service

??Rotten Tomatoes API: Movie Information and Reviews Database

??Rovi Cloud Services API: Digital entertainment technology

??Smotri API: Video sharing and streaming service

??Stochastic IMDb API: Unofficial IMDb service

??Sublight API: Subtitle acquisition service

??SubsMax Movie Subtitles API: Movie and television subtitle service

??Subtitleseeker API: Movie and TV subtitle service

??SubtitleSource API: Swedish movie and TV subtitle service

??TasteKid API: Taste discovery service

??The Movie DB API: Movie, cast and image database

??Trailer Addict API: Movie trailer viewing service

??trakt.tv API: Television tracking and recommendation service

??Tribune Media Services (TMS) API: TV and Movie information service

??Tribune Media Services OnConnect API: Mobile device entertainment data service

??Unofficial AlloCine API: Cinema and movie information service

??Unofficial IMDb API: Unofficial search interface for Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

??USA Today Movie Reviews API: Movie review service

??Video Grabber API: Video download and capture service

??Vizimo API: TV recommendations service

??West World Media API: Movie and event information service

??Yodaspeak API: Text translation service

Source: http://blog.programmableweb.com/2013/01/22/52-movies-apis-rovi-rotten-tomatoes-and-internet-video-archive/

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