PST: Ex-French star calls Beckham 'unprofessional'

At this point, if we don?t all know what Brand Beckham is all about, then the joke is on us.

Apparently, former France international Bixente Lizarazu was not paying attention over the last few years as David Beckham frequently treated the LA Galaxy as his little side gig, clearly second fiddle to building and maintaining the iconic brand.

Lizarazu ? if the guy is still in soccer, I can?t find evidence of it ? found someone interested in what he has to say. So he took the opportunity to beat on Beckham a little for jet-setting over to China before next week?s huge Champions League clash; Beckham?s Paris Saint-Germain faces Barcelona in the marquee UEFA semifinal.

What Lizarazu told TF1:

I am sorry, but travelling to China to promote football only 10 days before the most important game of the season is simply not the right way to prepare. No other club would allow one of their players to go on a trip like this. It?s unprofessional.?

Uh, well, actually we know that one club did exactly that. The Galaxy generally acquiesced when Beckham wanted to go to his next royal wedding, modeling gig, Olympic event, etc.

PSG manager Carlo Ancelotti, by the way, wasn?t too worked up about it. He said Beckham returned on Wednesday and missed just one training session.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/29/former-french-international-calls-david-beckham-unprofessional/related/

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Government Loan Backed Fisker Automotive Furloughs Employees ...

Ruh-roh! Looks like another government-backed ?green manufacturer? may be headed for bankruptcy. Fisker Automotive, a government loan recipient that produces electric/hybrid cars, has furloughed ?its employees just weeks after its founder resigned following a management fight. From CBS Los Angeles:

Anaheim-based Fisker?Automotive?Inc. has furloughed its employees two weeks after the company?s founder, Henrik Fisker, resigned as executive chairman during a management dispute.

The office has been closed since Friday, March 22, and will remain closed through Sunday, March 31.

The company is attempting to?cut costs?as it faces an April 22 deadline to make a payment on a loan from the U.S. government, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The car-maker stopped manufacturing its electric-gas?hybrids?last July and has faced recalls associated with its lithium-ion batteries, according to the Orange County Register.

The company, which once employed roughly 600 workers, says 220 workers will return to work on Monday.

Another government-backed green energy company is about to go under? Imagine that.

Fisker is about to end up like Solyndra, Satcon,?A123 Systems, and the other 30 or so Obama-backed ?green energy? failures. Who saw that coming? Oh, wait? everyone.

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Source: http://www.therightsphere.com/2013/03/government-loan-backed-fisker-automotive-furloughs-employees/

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Charleston, W.V., Worst for Well-Being, Gallup Poll Finds

Mar 30, 2013 7:00am

Charleston, W.V. ranks last for well-being. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Despite its slogan ? Hip, Historic ? Almost Heaven ? Charleston, W.V., comes in last on Gallup?s latest well-being poll.

The city scored a meager 60.8 points on the pollster?s well-being index ? a 100-point scale measuring physical and emotional health, work environment and access to basic necessities.

The nearby Huntington-Ashland metropolitan area scored 61.2, landing in the bottom two for the third year in a row.

Mobile, Ala., Utica-Rome, N.Y., Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C., and Fort Smith, Ark.-Okla., round out the roster of frequent bottom dwellers.

Topping the list was Lincoln, Neb., which scored 72.8, landing in the top 20 cities for the third year in a row. Honolulu came in first for emotional health, and Charlottesville, Va., ranked No. 1 for physical health, according to the poll.

Top 10 Metropolitan Areas for Well-Being

• Lincoln, Neb. ? 72.8
• Boulder, Colo. ??72.7
• Burlington-South Burlington, Vt. ??72.4
• Provo-Orem, Utah ??71.7
• Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo. ??71.6
• Barnstable Town, Mass. ??71.5
• Honolulu, Hawaii ??71.5
• Ann Arbor, Mich. ??71.4
• Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C., Va., Md., W.V. ??71.3
• San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif. ??71.2

Bottom 11 Metropolitan Areas for Well-Being

• Charleston, W.V. ??60.8
• Huntington-Ashland, W.V., Ky., Ohio ??61.2
• Mobile, Ala. ??62.4
• Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas ??62.5
• Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C. ??62.7
• Fort Smith, Ark., Okla. ??62.9
• Bakersfield, Calif. ??63.0
• Evansville, Ind., Ky. ??63.1
• Rockford, Ill. ??63.1
• Spartanburg, S.C. ??63.4
• Utica-Rome, N.Y. ??63.4

Click here to see how your city stacks up.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/30/charleston-w-v-worst-for-well-being-gallup-poll-finds/

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Movie Eggs You Don't Want to Find on Easter

While they are not the original meaning behind Easter, eggs have become a colorful and tasty representation of the spring holiday. Animated films like Hop, Rise of the Guardians and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown always show eggs at their best and most beautiful, but we're here to tell you that even eggs have a dark side. Grab your wire egg holder, your box of PAAS multicolored dye tablets and some cups full of vinegar as we show you a Dozen Movie Eggs You Don't Want to Find for Easter. Cy-Bugs are the scourge of the video game Hero's Duty in Wreck-It Ralph, and they can lay many millions of eggs in a short amount of time. As if that wasn't enough, just one touch by something or someone other than a Cy-Bug and they all hatch simultaneously and begin wreaking havoc on everything around them! Cy-Bugs have a nasty habit of absorbing the DNA and characteristics of whatever they consume - including people. So to find one of these bad boys in your Easter basket on a Sunday morning would be a real downer. There's nothing like a feel-good, human interest story about a true?underdog, and Hollywood does a great job of presenting the story of the first Jamaican Olympic bobsled team in Cool Runnings. One of the team's members, Sanka Coffie, swears by his lucky egg, kissing it each time they shoot down the ice. He even begs teammate Yul Brenner to kiss the egg for luck as well, but Brenner knows better. This egg, while not the worst thing to find in your basket, makes our list for one simple reason - Sanka stores it in his pants! Forgive us if we don't want any egg that's been rolling around in his?homemade "incubator". It would be startling enough to find a?giant talking egg with arms, legs and a face - but to find said egg in a gold, skin (shell?)-tight spandex suit would be the worst kind of nursery rhyme nightmare. There's nothing about Humpty Dumpty from Puss in Boots?that goes over easy with us - and just the thought of him lying in wait for some unsuspected egg hunter to find truly yolks us up. And lest you forget, ol' Humpty is sans clothing under that tracksuit - going eggmando, if you will. There's nothing better than grabbing a slab of bacon, a bag of grits (it's a Southern thing) and a carton of eggs and making a big ol' breakfast first thing on a lazy Saturday morning - unless, of course, the eggs turn out to be haunted. That very thing happened to NYC symphonic cellist Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters?(Sigourney Weaver), because the demigod Zuul had decided to sub-lease from her. If my eggs ever start frying themselves on my kitchen counter, then I'm just going to eat at Waffle House. There's only two ways to find an oversized Mogwai egg in your house on Easter morning - either feed your ancient Chinese pet Mogwai after midnight (isn't it?technically?ALWAYS after midnight somewhere?) or pour water on it. Do either of those things and *POOF* big, nasty eggs littering your basement. Like most eggs, the contents are more dangerous than the shell, and once they hatch you'll have an infestation of?mischievous?- and evil - Gremlins running amok. If this ever happens, it's pretty much all your fault since you already knew the rules going in. Is there anything more disturbing than walking into a spider web? That thin silk feels like it will be on your forever and you'll be checking your neck, back and hair every 15 seconds because you'll swear a spider is crawling on you. *Shivers* Most spiders are harmless and won't mess with you too much, but what you?definitely?don't want to run into is an enormous egg sack of the deadly and aggressive?Venezuelan?spider, which is filled with hundreds and hundreds of those pesky suckers! If you ever come across one, just call John Goodman and shoot it with a nail gun. Just because you decide to spend Easter at the beach or lake house, doesn't mean you're safe from a potentially dangerous egg. Piranhas lay dozens of eggs, each one housing a carnivorous fish that will strip the meat off your bones in a mere matter of seconds. If you happen upon these unholy aquatic terrors while snorkeling or diving, then just slowly turn around and SWIM FOR YOUR LIFE!!! We're just kidding - you don't stand a chance of making it to the surface in one piece. At first glance this doesn't appear to be such a bad thing - after all, what is more precious and awe inspiring than the beginning of a human life? Well, if you're on Spring Break in Daytona Beach and the egg belongs to some girl you met while drinking belly shots on the set of MTV's party house...this could be your worst nightmare. This egg is scary for a couple of reasons: It's disgusting (goo and slime everywhere) and it houses a dangerous, face-hugging Xenomorph. Fortunately, the only way you'll run into one of these deadly eggs is by travelling deep into space - and even then you'll need to explore an alien planet, a broken down spaceship or be a curious (read: dumb) biologist. We encourage you to take a closer look (at your own risk). Let's say you live in the Midwest and want to take your hot country boyfriend or girlfriend out to the barn to actually roll in the hay. As ?things start to heat up,you come across a large nest of foul-smelling eggs. Those are alien Crite eggs and we suggest you leave the barn immediately - before you become the first meal of a bunch of hungry babies. Biotechnology has come a long way in the last 50 years, and soon the world's leading scientists will be cloning more than just sheep. Everyone wants to see a dinosaur in person, and if we're lucky it'll just be?herbivores like?stegosauruses,??triceratopses, or brachiosauruses. Unfortunately humans are TOO curious, and we'll end up with dangerous omnivores like velociraptors running around the planet laying eggs by the thousands. If you do ever come across a raptor egg, you might want to leave it be and stay out of the tall grass. And watch your six (your nine, three and twelve) as you're making your escape. Almost every teen boy at one time or another dreams about having a pet iguana in his room. Their parents, however, might draw the line at an 260 foot-tall monster iguana dropping 6-foot tall eggs all over the place. These bad boys are born tall, mean and hungry and will gladly chomp down on anything they see - popcorn, cotton candy, fish or any human that might be unfortunate enough to cross their path. That's it for our?12 Movie Eggs You Don't Want to Find for Easter, and while some of these may not sound so bad, believe us, they are. Are there any movie eggs you wouldn't want to find in your Easter basket? Hop over to Twitter and give me your best egg pun - @MoviePaul.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927139/news/1927139/

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Met Office advice was 'not helpful'

29 March 2013 Last updated at 04:37 ET By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

The Met Office has admitted issuing advice to government that was "not helpful" during last year's remarkable switch in weather patterns.

Between March and April 2012, the UK experienced an extraordinary shift from high pressure and drought to low pressure and downpours.

But the Met Office said the forecast for average rainfall "slightly" favoured drier than average conditions.

The three-month forecast is said to be experimental.

It is sent to contingency planners but has been withheld from the public since the Met Office was pilloried for its "barbecue summer" forecast in 2009.

Last spring's forecast has been obtained by BBC News under Freedom of Information.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

The probabilistic forecast can be considered as somewhat like a form guide for a horse race?

End Quote Met Office

The Met Office three-monthly outlook at the end of March stated: "The forecast for average UK rainfall slightly favours drier than average conditions for April-May-June, and slightly favours April being the driest of the three months."

A soul-searching Met Office analysis later confessed: "Given that April was the wettest since detailed records began in 1910 and the April-May-June quarter was also the wettest, this advice was not helpful."

In a note to the government chief scientist, the Met Office chief scientist Prof Julia Slingo explains the difficulty of constructing long-distance forecasts, given the UK's position at the far edge of dominant world weather systems.

She says last year's calculations were not actually wrong because they were probabilistic.

The Met Office forecast that the probability that April-May-June would fall into the driest of five categories was 20-25%, whilst the probability it would fall into the wettest was 10-15% (The average probability would be 20%).

The Met Office explained it this way: "The probabilistic forecast can be considered as somewhat like a form guide for a horse race.

'Unsolved challenges'

"It provides an insight into which outcomes are most likely, although in some cases there is a broad spread of outcomes, analogous to a race in which there is no strong favourite. Just as any of the horses in the race could win the race, any of the outcomes could occur, but some are more likely than others."

It said: "The creation of the three-monthly outlook relies upon the fact that weather is influenced by the slow variation of ocean conditions (and other processes) which can be predicted months in advance.

"Whilst there is a very strong dependence of tropical weather on processes such as El Nino ,the UK's weather is dominated by the highly variable atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic, making it much harder to predict what will happen weeks and months ahead."

In the case of last spring, Prof Slingo says the forecast may have been pushed awry by a little-understood climate phenomenon, the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) - a pattern of thunderstorms that starts in the Indian Ocean. The Met Office calls it "one of the great unsolved challenges of tropical meteorology".

The irregular phenomenon is an envelope of thunderstorms starting in the Indian Ocean and moving into the Pacific. The MJO concentrates tropical rainfall within the envelope, with blue skies around it.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Prof Slingo also said a serious pressure on water resources in March did mean a "slightly enhanced risk" of the drought continuing into April.

"I felt it was right to emphasise the risk of dry conditions continuing as a precautionary principle," she added.

"We have to look over a large number of events and I think on about 65% of occasions we do give indeed very helpful advice."

Thunderstorm activity

Nick Klingaman from Reading University says that, as it moves east, the MJO influences monsoon rainfall in Australia, India, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.

These "bursts" and "breaks" in the monsoon cause floods and droughts that impact agriculture, river systems and infrastructure. The "long arm of the MJO" even extends into the middle latitudes.

"The thunderstorm activity generates waves in the atmosphere that move toward the poles," he told me. "The position of the MJO today has been shown to influence the position of the Pacific and Atlantic jet streams 10-15 days later."

He says the MJO can be an important predictor of the state of the North Atlantic Oscillation - which controls much of our weather in the UK - about 2-4 weeks in advance.

And that's how a thunderstorm off the coast of India might trigger a pattern of events which led to the weather switch last spring.

Some weather models can predict the MJO three weeks ahead, he said, but others struggle to predict it a week ahead.

Forecasts have greater skill when the MJO is already active. Reading University is working with the Met Office on improving MJO forecasting, he said.

A Met Office spokesman said: "The science of long-range forecasting is at the cutting edge of meteorology and the Met Office is leading the way in this research area. We are confident that long-range outlooks will improve progressively.

"Looking at the skill of these outlooks over many individual forecasts clearly shows that they provide useful advice to their specialist users more often than not."

When asked about weather predictions in the coming months Prof Slingo said the cold weather could continue into the middle of April.

She added: "Our monthly forecast favours cold conditions continuing.

"Into the summer it's much more difficult to predict but we're expecting a return to near normal conditions into May and then June but of course its important to emphasise that this is only one of a whole sequence of forecasts we give."

Follow Roger on Twitter

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967190#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Boston Mayor Menino Stepping Down a la Ted Williams

Tom Menino

Another long-serving public official will be hanging up his hat: Boston's longest-serving mayor, Tom Menino, won't seek a sixth term as head of the Bay State's capital city.

Menino, 70, has served Boston as the mayor since 1993, when he ascended to the position after then-Mayor Ray Flynn was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.

A Democrat, Menino was, and will likely continue to be, a powerful political figure in the state. He famously stayed out of the hotly contested Warren-Brown Senate race last year until September, less than two months out from Election Day, when he endorsed Democrat Elizabeth Warren. His endorsement was seen as a big get for Warren, a backing that was thought to help her with blue-collar Bostonians.

Menino will make a formal announcement about his retirement at 4 p.m. today, but he has already vocalized his decision to local media.

"It was a very difficult decision, when you have something you love, that you live 24/7 for the last 20 years," he told reporters this morning. "It's tough to say, 'No,' but there's a time and a place for everything," he said.

Health issues are considered the likely reason for his decision not to run for another term. Polling indicates that the mayor is still popular in his city even 20 years into his job. But Menino was hospitalized for eight weeks in 2012 with a respiratory infection and a blood clot that traveled from his leg to his lung. While in the hospital, he also suffered a spine fracture. Menino's retirement opens the door for a fierce fight in Boston's next mayoral race - a first in many years - but, more importantly, it marks the end of an era in a state that has been experiencing a lot of change within its political ranks as of late. The Boston Globe summed up Menino's retirement like this: "It will mark the end of an era, a watershed moment in Boston akin to the retirement of Ted Williams after his two-decade run at Fenway Park." Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-menino-stepping-down-ala-ted-williams-183806449--abc-news-politics.html

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New Card Games in Stock | Woozles Blog

How about some family card games to keep parents and children entertained? Woozles has some new card games in stock, and some familiar items back on the shelves.

Back in stock are Rat-A-Tat-Tat, Sleeping Queens, UNO, and Crazy Mates.

New on the shelves are:

There?s a Moose in the House
In this silly matching game, the goal is to keep the moose out of your house while passing the moose cards to your opponents instead.
Use a door to close off empty rooms, maybe plant a moose trap to keep the mooses (?!) away. The player with the fewest moose wins. An Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Toy Platinum Award Winner.
Ages 8 and up. For 2-5 players.

Horse Show
Which horse will take home the blue ribbon? Pick the best horse cards from your stable and enter the show. Each event favours some horses and penalizes others. There are special assit cards like custom saddles and braiding kits that earn you extra points. The most blue ribbon cards wins! A Dr. Toy Best Vacation winner.
Ages 8 and up. For 2-4 players.

Hike
A new card game where nature springs surprises and players battle for survival in the outdoors. Go on a trek, get lost on a trail, ride out avalanches and always remember to watch out for ? poop. No littering allowed. PLay a card in each hand and the win a hand with the fewest leftover cards. A Dr. Toy Best Vacation winner.
Ages 7 and up. For 3-8 players.

Wizard
This is a game of trump, where you score points if you predict exactly how many tricks you will will bid and take. Winning too many or too few means losing points. Each round adds more cards and more excitement as you try to beat your opponents!
Ages 10 and up. For 3-6 players.

Dutch Blitz
Dutch Blitz is a highly interactive, highly energetic, family-friendly card game that will test your skills, smarts and speed. A player?s goal is to be the first to empty his/her Blitz pile and yell ?Blitz? to win the game. Speed is essential in winning since everyone plays at the same time!
Ages 8 and up. For 2-4 players.

This entry was posted in New in Stock, News & Events, Toys. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.woozles.com/woozlesblog/2013/03/new-card-games-in-stock/

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How to Source Affordable Car Insurance in 3 Easy Steps - Auto Candy

Posted by Rob on March 28, 2013

While experts continue to suggest that the UK economy is experiencing turbulence, the countries automotive trade is continuing to boom. As a result of this, it remains a vital part of wider economic growth, with an estimated ?50 billion generated in turnover every single year.

While the automotive trade may be booming, however, the task of sourcing affordable car insurance remains extremely challenging. This is especially true if you are purchasing your first car, as you will be faced with the prospect of high premiums and significant annual outgoings.

Obtaining Affordable Car Insurance: 3 Steps to Success

?With this in mind, what practical steps can you take to minimise the cost of first time car insurance? Consider the following: -

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• Choose a Viable and Affordable Model of Car: Before you even begin to compare insurance prices, you can strive to minimize potential costs by finding a suitable and affordable model of car. While this may mean striking a compromise between your desired vehicle and something that is more practical, it still affords you the opportunity to take control of your financial situation. Less costly and powerful cars often incur higher insurance premiums, especially if you are purchasing one as a newly qualified driver.

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• Think Outside of Price Comparison Sites: While price comparison websites are often marketed as the ideal medium through which to find cheap insurance providers, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, a growing number of the market?s leading firms now choose not to advertise their rates on comparison sites, as this ensures that they are able to gain a critical advantage. As a result, you must commit to searching both price comparison resources and independent websites, as this will help you to target the best possible deal.

• Add an Experienced Driver to your Claim: When you process your claim, there are innovative and thoughtful ways through which you can lower your annual liability. If you are keen on a time effective solution, however, then you should consider adding an experienced driver to your insurance claim. So long as they are qualified to drive within the UK and a clean points history, then their addition as a second driver could trim the cost of your monthly repayments. While this may save you pence rather than pounds each month, it certainly adds up over a period of two to three years.

?The Bottom Line

Purchasing your first car can be a difficult challenge, especially if you are hoping to keep your insurance premiums to a minimum. With this in mind, you will need to access a host of online resources and visit sites such as www.carshop.co.uk in order help minimise your overall cost.

Source: http://www.auto-candy.com/how-to-source-affordable-car-insurance-in-3-easy-steps/

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Why we write?or don't? | Scholars and Rogues

Erato, Muse of Poetry (Image courtesy Wikimedia)

It?s a bitter day when one sees a talented artist give up his art. Sam Smith?s A Poet Says Goodbye to Poetry reveals a great deal about the state, not just of poetry, but about the state of art ? especially literature.

The State of Things

The divisions between ?high? and ?low? art disappeared more decades ago than most people realize (for the hell of it we might say it happened in the year 1930 ? not because of the economic collapse caused by Wall Street which precipitated the great depression, but because the Pulitzer committee gave the fiction prize that year to Oliver La Farge?s novel Laughing Boy for what were largely political reasons ? the committee?s other options that year were William Faulkner?s The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway?s A Farewell to Arms, and Thomas Wolfe?s Look Homeward Angel ? any of which choices any educated person might think preferable). The rise of creative writing programs post World War II created, unintentionally, a self-contained world of writers writing for each other ? as a result, educated audiences who might have read Hemingway and Hammett a generation before no longer exist in any appreciable numbers. Those who read Pynchon and Delillo (or even know who Pynchon or Delillo are) are separated from those who read Elmore Leonard or Patricia Cornwell in ways that reflect the economic politics of publishing.

What used to be seen as the ?mid-list responsibility? of once family owned publishing houses like Scribners or Simon and Schuster ? to publish or keep in print (I believe the term used once was ?champion?) literary work, whether fiction or poetry ? is, and has been for some time, over. Shareholders and corporate execs champion profits, not culture. Genre forms ? mystery, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, western ? are reliable sellers ? and some talented writers who might pursue more personal, literary paths have chosen to adapt their artistic visions to genre fiction. Some of these have transcended their genres (Kurt Vonnegut and Cormac McCarthy are examples). But the disappearance of the ?mid-list? gave other, possibly equally talented authors no way to access the marketing muscle of major publishing houses.

As a result talented writers who might have pursued their visions independent of the creative writing school system (which, more than anything else, is like an ?old boy/girl? club where ?mentors? help ?mentees? and the majority of students get shuffled through for their tuition) now turn to small, independent publishers who often find that even getting their authors reviewed ? a staple of arts pages in newspapers only two decades ago but one of the first casualties of the collapse of the newspaper as a medium ? requires them to approach the plethora of ?book bloggers? on the InterWebs whose chief aims seem to be promoting their favorite authors ? and whose overwhelming interests (I looked at nearly 600 book blogs this fall as I helped my publisher pursue reviews for my latest book) are for whatever the current reading fad is (as most of you know, right now it?s something called ?Young Adult Paranormal?). It is a system rife with all the pitfalls and problems of the chaos we know as the Web.

Think for a moment ? what have been the most successful books of the last five years? You know them ? The Twilight, Hunger Games, and Fifty Shades of Grey series. I?ve emphasized that last word for a reason: for the same reasons that movie studios (once taken over by corporate interests) began grinding out sequels for any film with a flicker (however dim) of originality and appeal, mainstream publishers now seek franchises ? they want writers willing to grind out hundreds, even thousands, of pages telling long, convoluted stories (usually rather badly in the opinion of this ?pedantic bastard? as a high school friend once termed me in signing my yearbook) that follow Propp?s Morphology of the Folk Tale the way that kid making your blackened salmon at Applebee?s follows their picture book prep manual to get the ?food? on your plate. The sad part, for this pedantic bastard, is that if I were allowed to approach any of the authors of the above-named series and asked them about Propp, I fear what I?d get would be blank stares followed by calls for their security details to remove me. And what might be worse, to me, would be talking with them and discovering that they were well aware of their use of Propp but wrote for no motive but money.

There?s a term George Orwell coined to describe this kind of writing ? prole entertainment. If you don?t know this term, you should ? be forewarned: it is not complimentary.

A Few Words About Culture and Change

Despite the efforts of culture critics such as Neil Postman to warn us of the danger of allowing ourselves to be seduced ? either by a particular medium or by the power of technology itself to change our lives in unexpected ways, human culture continues to embrace the changes to our lives ? and our art ? wrought by new technologies and media as rapidly as they appear. (For the well informed, that word ?wrought? has special meaning given its reference to Samuel F. B. Morse). We embraced the telegraph, the radio, film, then television, and most recently, the Internet: all brought with them not only new methods of communication but also necessarily changes in the way we think about and use (or think we can use) information.

This has clear implications for our appreciation of language ? the medium (in a slightly different meaning of the word) for writers ? especially poets ? for whom a word, to invert a famous saw, might mean a thousand pictures. So for my friend Sam, and to those like him who have felt the need to abandon this medium we all love so dearly ? language ? I feel especially pained. He and I gave talks in the late 1980?s that warned teachers and professors all over the country that the medium we treasured ? the written/printed word ? would likely be subsumed by the power of other media delivered via newer technologies.

Never have I wished more that we?d been wrong than as I write this.

The Pragmatic Artist

As media and technology savvy as we?ve always been, both Sam and I have embraced new media wholeheartedly ? fully aware that Merton?s Law dogged our every step. When Sam posted the link to his latest blog post on Facebook (natch), friends and colleagues ? known in both the real and virtual worlds ? weighed in with sympathy, encouragement and commiseration. In the comment thread on his post, I got into a dialogue (ah, Plato ? show of hands as to those who?ve read him? Anyone? Bueller?) with the talented singer, composer and musician Wendie Colter concerning Sam?s decision to abandon poetry. I include below part of our discussion:

Wendie: Jim ? artists make art for themselves first and foremost. But I maintain it can?t exist in a vacuum. It needs an energy exchange to live. Payment is one form of energy exchange, just like applause, reviews, acknowledgement from a community of peers, etc. If an artist doesn?t receive at least one of those things to her satisfaction, it is beyond discouraging. I haven?t met one artist (and I was raised by artists) that didn?t have the desire to make art for their living as a primary life goal.

Me: Wouldn?t argue any of that Wendie. But artists also make art for the future ? it?s a strong motivation, to leave something behind, to be remembered ? that?s the area I?ll be addressing in my response to Sam. As for that vacuum you mention, I understand what you mean, but I?m one who believes no artist has to live in a vacuum ? and I believe there are options artists can take (Sam?s taken one, but he seems to think it must involve leaving one art form for another ? I disagree with that decision qualifiedly) ? and that those options, whether marketing, technological, or some mix of the two, offer artists the opportunity to promote ? or present ? their art in venues and in ways that might find them audiences.

Wendie?s argument ? that artists have to find an audience and make a living ? is both valid and powerful. And her career as a composer of music for television, film, and commercials bears out her commitment to finding a way to practice her art in a fashion that allows her to make a living practicing her art. Her response to my reply ? that an artist?s leaving one medium to practice another is a bitter experience ? is made clear below:

Wendie: Only thing I?d say to that is that to move away from one medium that you had your heart set on and your identity wrapped up in is sometimes necessary. Painful and heartbreaking, but necessary.

Sam, as his essay notes, has made that painful change from one medium to another, hoping that pictures will give him the artistic satisfaction he gets from words.

But at heart Sam is a writer ? as his output for Scholars and Rogues shows. Whether he can ever equate what he achieves with his camera with what he has achieved with his pen as a poet (I?m speaking metaphorically) is something only Sam can decide.

Perhaps his artistic decision is acceptance of a reality that I haven?t been able to accept yet. Perhaps what Sam has done is make a pragmatic decision that, like Wendie?s, allows him to follow an artist?s path and find an audience who appreciates his talent in ways that he never felt he achieved through his career as a poet.

Perhaps the word will die ? and with it the art of the word ? literature ? will die. So Sam?s poetry will have been a mistaken foray into a dead art form. This development is possible ? though not probable.

So in case language survives, however, here are some ideas that might be worthy of his consideration.

Writers can embrace marketing and technology

As one privy to Sam?s decision before he announced it publicly, I suggested to him that he consider combining his photos with his poems. Such projects expand his potential audience to include both those who appreciate photography and those who appreciate poetry. This is called cross marketing ? and is a proven way to reach multiple audiences.

Many writers use YouTube as a method of attracting new readers by offering interviews, readings, and talks about their work. Sam is one of the best readers I?ve ever seen ? and he could introduce readers to his poetry ? as well as give talks about his poetry ? or poetry in general (his understanding of the genre is, as you?d expect, keen) that could help him build an audience. He could even create videos that combine his poetry with his photography ? and attract readers to his work as well as combine his artistic interests.

Why we write?or don?t?

The story of literature, particularly poetry, is one of unpredictability. Poets have come into and gone out of fashion (John Donne), had their works bowdlerized in the name of ?improvement? (William Shakespeare), and enjoyed great acclaim in their lifetimes only to become more famous for their lives than for their work (Lord Byron).

What I?m saying is, one never knows how one?s work will be received by future generations. That may seem pompous and idealistic, but as the poet said, ?Who shoots at the midday sun?.?

So I have encouraged Sam to work at finding publishers of his work ? even if that means working with a small, independent publisher ? who?ll care about his work ? and him ? and who?ll work with him to get his work out there so that it might be discovered ? either in his lifetime or later. As I mentioned in my response to Wendie, and as I often remind my wife Lea, a gifted artist herself, artists create for the future as much as for now.

The hard part of being an artist is accepting that we won?t necessarily achieve the sort of acclaim we may think we deserve in our lifetimes.

Harder still, though, is to leave a body of work as fine as Sam?s poetry in a drawer without finding an outlet for it ? especially in an age when finding such outlets is more possible than ever thanks to that very technology I spoke of earlier.

As much as I wish Sam well in his new artistic venture as a photographer, I hope he?ll consider finding publishing homes for his books of poetry. They are, to paraphrase a poet who labored in obscurity only to become after she was long dead a major American writer, his letters to the world.

They are fine letters ? I hope he?ll offer them to be read.

XPOST: The New Southern Gentleman

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Source: http://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/03/27/why-we-write-or-dont/

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Therefore am I an expert now? - Destination Raleigh

Posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

I?ve now been marketing online for around 7 years, I have tried every money producing scheme going?.gifting and pyramid schemes in my own childhood before I discovered these were illegal, investment programs (lost a of money), receives a commission to learn programs (a of work for several poor bucks), multi-level marketing programs, affiliate programs, you name it, I?ve tried it!

And along the way I?ve discovered something or two about advertising, recruiting, building downlines, building money online and most definitely losing money online?but does which make me a Guru? Am I now a specialist in internet marketing and homebased company? Well I undoubtedly don?t consider myself an expert or such Guru ? whatever which means.

But I have my own sites, I?m part of an effective team in an excellent MLM firm, I work a couple of affiliate programs, I work a few sites, I know a thing or two about marketing both on and offline, I write articles on the main topic of internet marketing and homebased business and so on?

I read about many so called experts with 4, 5 or 6 years experience of internet marketing?they have published ebooks and programs about the subject, some even hold seminars and training calls about it but are they really experts? I have read many e-books published by these experts and more regularly or not they teach me nothing knew.

I really do not consider myself an expert or a website marketing Guru. I do have a lot of experience and am willing to give what I have learned over time. But I?m still learning?I still search out good ebooks to read, search out new advertising ways to master and therefore on?we should all be learning all enough time. We shouldn?t relax and think we?re now a professional on anything. Give your understanding to others but keep learning?.

Only yesterday I talked to some one I have known on the web on and off for decades. I was suprised to know he believed I was some ?heavy batter?, some online marketing expert. He was astonished, when I explained I was just somebody spending so much time to make money on line like he was and certainly was no specialist and it straight away gave him an increase to build his or her own business. He?d thought he couldn?t really succeed, that he did not have the relevant skills need etc. Then he finds out all a he thinks he can perform success also?and he will and I am just plugging away as he is.

Tread watchfully when you are next provided a written report by a ?master.? Do they really learn more than you do?Social Media Ninjas

1275 4th St #108

Santa Rosa, CA 95404

(707) 206-6244

http://socialmedianinjas.com

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Source: http://www.destinationraleigh.com/uncategorized/therefore-am-i-an-expert-now-have-i-converted-into-a-guru/

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Shootings, bomb attacks kill 5 across Iraq

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shootings-bomb-attacks-kill-5-across-iraq-131722987.html

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1-800-GOT-JUNK? Launches Mobile App to Improve Business ...

MobiJunk project is part of a government program to promote enterprise productivity through digital technologies.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - March 26, 2013 // PRNewswire // - The next evolution of junk removal has arrived for the world's largest junk removal company. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has unveiled its new mobile application prototype to franchise partners attending the company's annual conference in Vancouver. MobiJunk is the result of several months of hard work by software developer, Gargoyle Software, Inc., and the business technology team at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. The app was funded in part by a research and development grant designed to support enterprises to increase productivity growth through adoption of digital technologies.

"We needed a solution to remain efficient and customer-focused in a business landscape that's rapidly growing when it comes to technology," explains 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Vice President of Business Technology, Andy Parkins . "Junk has to be mobile if we are to succeed in this new environment, and to that end we have developed this platform to give our front-line employees the tools to provide superior customer service and responsiveness."

Truck team members have traditionally followed a paper schedule. SMS messaging dispatches new jobs and updated job information is available via a rudimentary WAP interface. Paper and pencil are common utensils and customers are still given carbon copies of hand-written receipts. MobiJunk will change all that, providing a rich interface to deal with job information on the front lines in real time.

1-800-GOT-JUNK?'s operational mobility strategy for 2013 includes 3 phases. Phase 1 focuses on key business functions, including invoicing and dispatching; route journal completions; customer data access; and commercial account details. Phase 2 adds mobile reporting analytics to the application, which will provide the team members and franchise partners real time metrics to easily capture revenue. Phase 3 will bring media focus to the mobile service by adding in even more useful functions, such as before and after photos. MobiJunk is currently available on the iPhone and android platforms.

Parkins says a key goal of the project is to provide a modern usability experience ? the right tools, at the right time, in the right place - for franchise partners and their teams. "We are striving to develop a product in which usability meets gamification to make the experience more fun and encourage user engagement."

When 1-800-GOT-JUNK? began franchising more than 10 years ago it was considered a relatively low tech company. Now, it's anything but, as Parkins explains. "This company is all about innovation. It's one of our four pillars of success. When you think you can't do something, think again until you realize you can. That's what will position us for the technology explosion that's coming."

About 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

1-800-GOT-JUNK? is pioneering an industry that is helping residents and businesses remove junk and regain space. Whether it's a pile of household junk in the garage or a warehouse full of office furnishings, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? removes it for you, making the ordinary business of junk removal exceptional. We are passionate about recycling and donating to charity. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was founded in 1989 and now operates throughout North America and Australia. For more information, visit www.1800gotjunk.com.

SOURCE 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130326_1800gotjunk_launches_mobile_app_to_improve_busines.html

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Facebook Rolls Out Replies And Threaded Comments On Page Posts And Popular Profiles

Facebook today is rolling out two more features for Pages used by brands and businesses and public Profiles for individuals with more than 10,000 followers: it is adding replies and threaded comments. The move -- like Graph Search, designed to increase time spent on the site -- confirms our report from last week, which we wrote about in detail, and which Facebook also later confirmed for us.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yJWRRZIGmY8/

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GDC 2013 day one

The Game Developers Conference -- GDC -- got off to a slow if dignified start yesterday. The show floor doesn't open until later in the week but the workshops are well underway, and everyone from first time developers to seasoned producers are getting together, sharing what they know, and learning from each other.

Mid-morning, Simon and I headed over to the Glu offices to get a look at their big announcement for the show, Frontline Commando: D-Day. Glu is expanding rapidly, and their office -- one of several internationally -- was close to overflowing with talent. One side was brightly lit and filled to overflowing with multiple monitors and all manner of activity. The other side was darker, with combat netting, and other props. I'll let you guess which side had the Android action figure poised for battle.

Glu makes free-to-play games with in-app purchases for consumables like, in the case of Frontline Commando, grenades and other upgraded weaponry. From talking with them, they seemed really concerned with balancing the game so players never felt frustrated or like they were hitting into artificial, hostile walls. Personally, I want developers to make a ton of money on iOS games so that they invest a ton of money back into making even more iOS games. Glu has been consistent with the way they handle free-to-play and IAPs, and I think that consistency helps set expectations for gamers, and ultimately ends up benefiting everyone.

Like I wrote in the true cost of free-to-play there doesn't seem to be an ideal solution -- we won't pay up-front for games, game studios need to stay in business, and Apple hasn't changed the core conditions of the App Store. So, we're left with looking for the best balances possible. Glu, among others, seem to be doing just that.

After lunch, Simon went off to preview some more games and I went to visited the Pocket team to learn more about their new publishers program. Then Pocket developer an all-around bon-vivant Steve Streza and I walked several laps around several blocks, basically engaging in a real-world Twitter conversation about everything and anything tech.

After that I met up with Simon and Paul from Windows Phone Central and we went to HTC's party. They'd taken over a portion of a bowling alley with pool tables and other amusements, and the HTC team mixed it up there with media, developers, and some general tech enthusiasts. I haven't played analog pool in years, and it showed. (Thanks to @mariela_htc for the picture!)

I've always liked HTC phones, from my Treo Pro to my Nexus One, to the upcoming HTC One they've been consistently turning out great hardware. Samsung hasn't left them much space in the Android market, so they, like Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 face an uphill battle. I hope 2013 is more successful for them than 2012 was. We need more phones like HTC's on the market.

Today I'm driving up to Petaluma to do MacBreak Weekly live with Leo Laporte and the folks at the TWiT brick house, then it's back to Moscone for more GDC, and more press mixers.

But who needs sleep anyway, right?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/pj8ZGEKun-M/story01.htm

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More an immigrant holiday, St. Patrick's Day has come home to Ireland (+video)

Writer Jason Walsh in Dublin says he cannot recall the modern-day holiday hoopla in the Ireland of his youth.?

By Jason Walsh,?Correspondent / March 17, 2013

Children dressed as St. Patrick in a St. Patrick's Day parade in Limerick, Ireland.

Peter Morrison/AP

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Half a million people will parade in Dublin today to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but since when did Irish people celebrate this holiday?

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March 17 has always meant a lot to the Irish diaspora, particularly those who themselves had left the country seeking a better life abroad. It was a day to celebrate Irishness, to reminisce about home, and to stand together in solidarity. Public gatherings, and particularly parades, have always been part of the annual celebration of Irishness.

In recent years, though, St. Patrick's Day has come home: The Irish, the actual Irish in Ireland, now celebrate St. Patrick's Day with as much enthusiasm as their cousins in the US and Britain. Half a million people will take to the streets of Dublin today to watch the parade.

In fact, it's not just St. Patrick's Day, it's now a week-long?St. Patrick's Festival. Slick branding, float parades, giant green foam hands, buildings lit in green, fun fairs, stand-up comedy, and street performers: This is not how I remember things.

As a child in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the 1980s, St. Patrick's Day was little more than one of many days of religious observance. Church-goers went to church and wore shamrocks on their lapels, and Irish republicans paraded, much to the chagrin of pro-British unionists. My family was not religious so we didn't do much, though we did pin shamrocks to our jackets.

Later, but still a child, in the Republic of Ireland it was much the same, though the parades were less politically-charged state affairs.

In neither case did leprechaun hats, green beer, and the rest of the tidal wave of Paddywhackery feature. Of course, memory is notoriously?faulty, but I think it's unlikely I mistook pious Mass-goers with hard-partying fun-seekers. Difficult as it is to believe, in Ireland St. Patrick's Day was once a day of temperance, with the only overindulgence being in sugary-sweets as a kind of cheating break from severe Lenten fasting.

Reportedly things weren't much different in rural Ireland. My colleague Cian Ginty grew-up in Mayo in the west of Ireland and the parades he remembers were not slick affairs.

"Tractors. That's my memory of St Patrick's Day. You get tractors, or at least used to in parades in the country down here," he says.

It's not that I'm a killjoy. If people want to have a New York-style parade, floats and all, through Dublin and then head to an Irish pub, authentic or otherwise, it's no skin off my nose. Headlines such as St. Paddy's Day FAILS: Beer, Booze And Barfing?get on my nerves, but that's life. If I was to react to everything that irked me I'd have had an embolism years ago.

Nor am I a Catholic seeking a return to the true meaning of St. Patrick's Day. After all, what is the meaning of St. Patrick's Day? He didn't drive snakes out of Ireland and his explanation of the Trinity using a shamrock is a romantic fabrication from the eighteenth century.?Patrick the man, if his confession is anything to go by, cut a pious and stern figure, arguably closer to Protestant Rev. Ian Paisley than the green-festooned and cheery miter-wearing?bishop that we Irish tend to portray him as.

Bernie Whelan, second-generation Irish living in Britain, says she remembers when St. Patrick's Day had real meaning to the London Irish. Today, though, the Irish are just like everyone else.

?"The Irish community in North London has dispersed. I was an advice worker in the London Irish women's center in Stoke Newington until it closed. To be honest couldn't justify funding any more," she says.

As Ireland has modernized, the ongoing economic crisis notwithstanding, the idea of a unique Irish ethnicity has come to look increasingly threadbare. There is, no doubt, such a thing as Irish culture, but Ireland is also part of the modern, developed world and shares a universal culture with the rest of Europe, the US, and other countries. Irish identity, at least the version long defined by political oppression and poverty makes less sense than ever.

This hasn't stopped the marketing, though. In fact, the absence of bombs and bullets makes Irishness much easier to sell, abroad and at home, even if the beer-soaked mawkishness is now harder to explain. And so, on St. Patrick's Day we're told that everyone has a bit of Irish in them. Actually, they don't. Don't take it as an insult, it's just a fact. Besides, despite the attempt to turn Irishness into some kind of universal character trait, it's really just a nationality and, like all nationalities, means less than we tend to ascribe to it.

One thing, though: It's Paddy's day, not Patty. Patty is a female name, and don't start on the Patrick doesn't contain the letter "d". The Irish-language (Gaelic to you) P?draic does.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day if you like. Have fun. Just don't for a moment think it's authentic.

As for me? ?I'll be celebrating that we're just like everyone else.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/SuIz4lgX7pU/More-an-immigrant-holiday-St.-Patrick-s-Day-has-come-home-to-Ireland-video

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Bargain Alert: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario Kart Wii and more Wii titles going cheap

You know how first party Nintendo games never go on sale, usually until stores are clearing them out?

Well today is that day. The Good Guys are clearing all of their Wii stock and even some Nintendo 3DS stock which means some great bargains for you.

Some of these games have never been below $50 here in Australia. So if you can find them instore or want to order them online, go for it ? you might not get another chance.

You?ll need to follow this link and select the console to find the ones we haven?t listed.

Wii

3DS

Get in quick because at these prices, with these quality games they won?t last long.

Source: http://www.vooks.net/bargain-alert-super-mario-galaxy-2-mario-kart-wii-and-more-wii-titles-going-cheap/

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In gay marriage cases, Supreme Court may choose caution over boldness (Washington Post)

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Pursuing Advanced Treatment Approaches at Alpine Physical Therapy

Two of?Alpine?s?physical therapists?headed to Phoenix last month, not to work on their tans but to hone in their manual therapy skills for mobilizing and manipulating the spine.??Jamie Terry?and?Samantha Schmidt?took a three-day intensive course from the?Maitland Australian Physiotherapy Seminars.

Techniques were used to assess and improve mobility at different levels of the spine. When a particular?spine segment?is stiff or painful, it prevents other areas of the spine?system to move correctly. Doing so leads to restrictions and limitations in normal activities and movements.

By understanding how to properly assess and change the segments that are stiff or painful, therapists with MAPS training have a greater advantage when helping patients get back to fun stuff like skiing, running, and living . . . again faster!

A core component of our approach at Alpine is to encourage all of our physical therapists to seek out these types of courses. Our vision is to continually take the manual skills of our therapists to the highest level in a way that synergizes with our approach toward training patients in corrective movement.

Practicing New MAPS Techniques

For more information on our leadership in the area of spine care in Missoula, visit the ?Spine Clinic? page of our website by clicking here.

Source: http://healthandfitness101.com/?p=3571&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pursuing-advanced-treatment-approaches-at-alpine-physical-therapy

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Evernote 5 hits Android with revamped camera, shortcuts and tweaked UI

Evernote has finally brought its Android client up to par with its iOS counterpart, pushing it to version five. The update, which just hit the Play store, includes a mild face lift that offers more contrast between notes and other UI elements, as well as a few new icons with a bit more depth and detail. The visual tweaks aren't particularly exciting, though. What has us rushing for the update button are all the new features, like the completely revamped camera interface. You can now take several images and add them all to a note in one shot. While a dedicated "page" camera helps you get the best results when snapping photos of hand-written missives by boosting contrast and removing shadows. Of course, the company thinks that feature works particularly well when paired with its branded Moleskin notebooks, but those are purely optional. The results from the couple of quick snapshots we took were bright clear and as legible as could be expected. Unfortunately there are continued issues with Evernote's text recognition, which tends to be slow for non-premium users.

Gallery: Evernote 5 for Android

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Source: Evernote (Google Play), Evernote Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/evernote-5-hits-android/

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Lebanese president accepts prime minister's resignation

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday, local media said, paving the way for a caretaker government after a political standoff with the powerful Hezbollah movement.

Mikati's resignation could plunge Lebanon, already struggling to cope with a spillover of violence and refugees from neighboring Syria's civil war, into further turmoil and uncertainty three months ahead of a planned parliamentary election.

The resignation on Friday came after a two-day ministerial meeting remained deadlocked by a dispute with the Shi'ite group Hezbollah, a militant and political movement that has dominated Lebanese politics in recent years.

"I did not inform anyone of my decision in order to avoid any pressure from any side," he was quoted as telling President Suleiman by the local news website Naharnet.

"My decision was a personal one ... It is now important that dialogue among the Lebanese begin. I hope that the resignation will pave the way for a solution to the political deadlock in the country."

Hezbollah opposed extending the term of a senior security official and the creation of an oversight body for the planned June parliamentary elections, which may now be delayed over the collapse of Mikati's government.

Major General Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon's internal security forces, is due to retire early next month. Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli, and is distrusted by Hezbollah.

Mikati became prime minister in 2011 after Hezbollah and its partners brought down the unity government of Saad al-Hariri. But tensions over Syria have put him at odds with the group that brought him to power and which strongly backs President Bashar al-Assad's battle against rebels and protesters in Syria.

Mikati backed a policy of "dissociation" from the conflict, hoping to keep Lebanon from being dragged in to the two-year civil war in its larger neighbor.

Under Lebanon's confessional division of power, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite Muslim.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a close political ally of Hariri who has frequently called for Mikati to step down, said his resignation "opens the possibility of fresh dialogue" between Lebanon's political camps.

Mikati has sought to distance his country - which fought its own 15-year civil war - from Syria's strife. But in the ex-prime minister's home city of Tripoli, two people died in clashes on Friday between militants supporting opposing sides of the Syria conflict.

Sporadic clashes erupted for a third day in Tripoli on Saturday morning, residents said, with two wounded by sniper fire.

A tide of Syrian refugees pouring into the country, as well as Lebanon's own political turmoil have caused a sharp slowdown in Lebanon's economy and a 67 percent surge in its budget deficit last year.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lebanese-president-accepts-prime-ministers-resignation-092753593.html

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Pakistan's Musharraf vows return despite risks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Saturday that he will return to his homeland despite facing criminal charges and militant death threats.

Musharraf has been living in self-exile in London and Dubai for the last five years and is planning to return on Sunday to Pakistan. He risks possible arrest in connection with the killing of an ex-prime minister, while the Pakistani Taliban says they have an assassination team ready for him if he steps foot in the country.

He first declared his intention to go back earlier this year. On Saturday, he gave a news conference in Dubai confirming that he would be arriving in the port city of Karachi to take part in May 11 elections despite the "fear of the unknown." The former four-star general plans to travel there accompanied by journalists and supporters of his political party, All Pakistan Muslim League.

But just hours after the announcement, the Pakistan Taliban released a video threatening to unleash suicide bombers and snipers against Musharraf if he comes back. One of the two people speaking in the video was Adnan Rashid, a former Pakistani air force officer convicted in an attack against Musharraf. The Taliban broke Rashid, along with nearly 400 other detainees, out of Bannu prison last year.

"The mujahedeen of Islam have prepared a death squad to send Pervez Musharraf to hell," said Rashid in the video, speaking in front of a group of 20 militants holding rifles.

"We warn you to surrender yourself to us. Otherwise we will hit you from where you will never reckon," he said.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Musharraf came under intense pressure from the U.S. to back the Americans in the coming war and cut off ties with the Taliban, which he did. For that, militants as well as many other Pakistanis see him as carrying out the American agenda in Pakistan.

Militants tried to kill him twice in December 2003 in Rawalpindi, the sister city to Islamabad where the Pakistani military is headquartered. First they placed a bomb intended to go off when his convoy passed by. When that didn't work, suicide attackers tried to ram his motorcade with explosives-laden vehicles. The president was unhurt but 16 others died. Rashid was arrested in connection with that assassination attempt.

Musharraf took power in a 1999 coup. He faces charges of conspiring to assassinate ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in 2007, as well as other accusations in other cases. But his legal team petitioned a court in Sindh province where Karachi is located to give him preemptive bail, which essentially means that he will not be arrested immediately upon arrival. According to the bail order, he has ten days to present himself to the court.

Musharraf has called the charges baseless.

__

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistans-musharraf-vows-return-despite-risks-104600426.html

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