With $1.8M From Andreessen, Chris Sacca & More, Rental ...

When we last caught up with Getable, the startup formerly known as Rentcycle, it was announcing that Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph was joining Collaborative Fund founder Craig Shapiro and OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton on its board of directors.

In becoming Getable, the startup began moving away from its original mission: To bring the entire rental industry online by offering free, realtime reservations for everyday renters and business management tools for local rental shops. Re-branding, it took a page from OpenTable, expanding its support for business owners by offering cloud-based management tools and in-store hardware to help them manage reservations, organize inventory and so on.

But that didn?t quite stick, or rather, through the process, Getable has identified a more appealing opportunity. Today, the startup is unveiling a new product (and another new direction) aimed at the largest segment of the rental industry: Tools and equipment. As part of this transition, Getable is becoming a mobile-first business and has created a product that is geared exclusively to general contractors and those to whom they rent their construction equipment.

Considering there are over 10M general contractors in the U.S., the tool and equipment category represents a $32 billion market and one that?s projected to reach $46 billion by 2016. While that?s still a sizable market, it?s a fraction of the $85 billion rental industry, which includes tools, party supplies, sports equipment and more ? the one Getable was initially targeting when it launched as Rentcycle back in 2009.

But Getable founder Tim Hyer tells us that, over the last year, the tool and equipment industry has far and away been its most active and loyal category, so Getable is now opting for a new, albeit-related direction: Solving the inefficiencies in the tool and equipment rental space with a dose of mobile technology.

Of course, when a startup pivots multiple times in the course of its first couple of years, it?s bound to make investors, customers, writers and the company itself a little nervous. Traditionally, pivots, although often trumpeted by the media as brilliant, positive strategic moves, are, of course, inherently a sign that the startup was ill-positioned from the start.

On the other hand, generalizing is a dangerous sport, and each case is unique: Oftentimes, changes in direction or pivots (to go with the over-used buzzword du jour), are just what a stagnating company or product needs to jumpstart its team and its business. Many entrepreneurs will tell you that pivoting or tweaking until a startup finds product-market fit is not only advisable, but can be the best course of action ? depending on the concept, the team and the market itself, of course.

But, pivoting, like acq-hires do have a tendency to be overplayed as ?wins? for the startup in question, when in reality, an acqui-hire or a pivot inherently represent ?settling? or ?failing? ? even in a world where 90 percent of the game is failure.

In Getable?s case, Hyer is relieved, as he believes that the startup has finally found a problem their solution can solve, and pent-up demand that scalable mobile technology can solve (potentially with high margins to boot). The founder also tells us that, over the last several months, Getable received a couple of acquisition offers, which, if he and the team didn?t believe had gold at the end of the tunnel, they might have opted to sell and try again.

It also helps that the startup?s investors are on board and willing to back its new direction. Getable quietly announced today that it has closed its second round of financing ? a bridge-style seed round of $1.8 million ? which brings the startup?s total funding to $3.2 million. Investors in the round included Andreessen Horowitz, Founder Collective, Promus Ventures and Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital ? who has also backed companies like Uber and StyleSeat.

The startup will use its new capital to beef up its engineering team and build out its mobile product for contractors. The new construction rental product is currently in alpha mode, as it works with a few strategic partners on product development, Hyer tells us.

The iPhone app will be designed exclusively for contractors to help them complete equipment management both on and off the job site, including the creation of new reservations, requesting service and maintenance, pick-up and drop-off scheduling and visibility into what?s happening on the job site in realtime. The idea is to build a realtime connection between rental merchants and their customers, the founder says, in much the same way Uber connects its drivers with those in need of a lift.

To help jumpstart its new direction, Getable has hired Mikael Rogers as its new CTO. Rogers was most recently at Yammer, where he was the company?s Developer Advocate. Prior to that, he held positions at OSAF, Mozilla and CouchOne and founded his own startup in Gather, along with being an active supporter of the node.js community and helping to organize and launch the annual NodeConf.

Of course, while the startup is looking forward to getting new blood in the mix, it also means that Getable co-founder (and previously its CTO), Ludo Goarin, will be leaving the company.

Pivots and exits aside, both present and departed co-founders think that Getable is in the process of positioning itself much more effectively and now has the chance to actually build a sustainable, revenue-generating business. Going the B2B route is key ? and an underutilized strategic route. Everyone wants to build the $10 billion consumer business, a la Dropbox or Instagram.

?It?s funny, because construction truly represents the original mobile workforce, so it?s hard to believe that contractors and construction workers lack access to great mobile products that help them manage such key components of their jobs,? Rogers says of Getable?s new direction.

For more, find Getable at home here.

Getable, formerly Rentcycle, connects people with their favorite products on-demand from trusted rental establishments. Getable lets rental shops manage their entire business from any device connected to the Internet, reach new customers and generate more revenue. We make renting online as easy as shopping online.

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/with-1-8m-from-andreessen-chris-sacca-more-rental-marketplace-getable-digs-into-the-32b-construction-market/

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Two rats cooperate telepathically via brain implant

Nicolelis lab / Duke University

If you're a lab rat, life is full of choices.

By Nidhi Subbaraman

Two rats ? one in North Carolina, the other in?Brazil ? worked together on a task by communicating telepathically, thanks to implants in their brain.

Electrical signals from a "leader" rat?s brain were collected, encoded and then zapped into the "follower" rat?s cortex in the form of an electrical signal. The follower rat then pressed one of two levers based on a light visible only to the leader rat.?The Duke University experiment is the first time two animals have collaborated through such an artificial link, and shows that the mammal brain can be trained to act on electrical signals from another animal.?

Miguel Nicolelis, the Duke neuroscientist who led the team from Duke and the?International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, believes that information transfer could extend to other senses, too. ?You could think about taste, vision ? I don?t see any problem doing this,? he told NBC News.

He says his wired rat duo show that the linking of mammalian brains is possible, but why stop at just two? "I could see a swarm of rats be informed by one rat," he says, "Most of them driving to the source based on information from another individual," a concept he calls a "Brain Net."

Nicolelis and crew published their findings in Scientific Reports Thursday.?

?I still think it's wild that he made it possible,??Ron Frostig, a neurobiologist at the University of Irvine told NBC News.?

This experiment is in many ways extension of brain-machine tech that has been on slow boil at the Nicolelis lab for over a decade. Earlier in February, the Nicolelis lab showed that rats could be trained to act on infrared cues. Rats, like people, can?t naturally sense infrared light ? an infrared sensor activated a implant in the rats' brains. Eventually they learned to follow that signal, approached the right hole, and received a reward.

In the latest "mind-reading" experiment, both lead and follow rats went through a series of training phases. The leader rat was trained to use a lit light bulb to choose which of two levers to press. The second rat was trained to receive and act on gentle zaps of electrical stimulation in its brain. Once the two were wired up together, the second rat received signals from the leader rat's brain indicating which lever to choose. When the follower pressed the right lever, it was rewarded with water, and the leader was rewarded as well.

The leader rat eventually figured out that the clearer he was with his ?instructions,? the better his chances of getting a double reward. Frostig pointed out that this training was crucial to the success of this series of demonstrations.?

While the link between the rats seems telepathic to casual observer, the rats don't necessarily know the other exists, Nicolelis explains. The follower rat feels a tingle in its brain and discovers that interpreting it one way rather than another leads to a reward.?Marshall Shuler???a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University who was Nicolelis? student in the late 1990s?? describes it as a "special and powerful case of conditioning." "What's unique about this is that one animal is getting information that has nothing to do with it environment," he told NBC News. ?

How about human telepathy?
The researchers are years away from testing this kind of electronic telepathy in people. Still, based on what is known about how people respond to brain stimulation and implants, Shuler?says we might be better than the rats at interpreting intracranial cues.

"I would think that humans would be able to exploit this information even more efficiently," Shuler says.?

Nicolelis says they are ?perfecting the experiment? in monkeys, training them to collaborate in a virtual game. In the past, the Nicolelis lab has trained brain-implanted?monkeys to control a cursor on a screen using only their thoughts. In another computer game, a monkey pawed at virtual discs of different simulated textures, and was trained to pick one texture over the other, demonstrating one way information about touch could be fed back into the brain.

Shuler says that this line of research isn't just about person-to-person telepathy, but may very well help computers talk back to human brains. ?We?re quite comfortable with patterns arising from our own sensory mechanisms,? he explained, ?What?s less intuitive to us is that, as experimentalists and engineers impose artificial patterns, the brain is able to render that information useful.?

Take the field of prosthetics, a zone the Nicolelis lab is at home in. Ultimately, Shuler says, the goal is to get prosthetics to send touch data back to the user. A number of labs have shown that the brain or residual nerves can move a prosthetic limb. What many of those smart body parts lack is a way of relaying sophisticated feedback back to the brain. The Nicolelis lab may well provide the answer.?

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Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17123686-two-rats-thousands-of-miles-apart-cooperate-telepathically-via-brain-implant?lite

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Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux to Wed This Spring?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/jennifer-aniston-justin-theroux-to-wed-this-spring/

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Everything But The Chef's Hat: Cooking Tips | Super Cooking Tips

Learning how to prepare foods you like can be a variety of your individual lifestyle. The advice will provide you will all kinds of knowledge on cooking.

TIP! Reference your recipe to ensure you have the correct potatoes. There are three categories: mealy, waxy and all-purpose.

One effective way to cook some new flavors in your food is to change the spices and marinades you use. Something that people do not think of is shopping at ethnic groceries for new spice ideas.

TIP! Put citrus fruits in the microwave first to get the most out of juicing. Heat the orange or lemon, or other citrus fruit in your microwave for about ten seconds.

It is so easy to mistakenly add more salt than is needed, but don?t worry! Just chop up some raw potatoes and place them in the sauce, and allow them to boil in the gravy for 15 minutes. The potatoes absorb much of the excess salt. If it is a tomato sauce, you can put in additional tomatoes for the purpose of diluting the excessive salt.

TIP! You should discard your spices biannually and buy new ones. If you keep them longer than this, they may lose their flavor.

Use a generous amount of salt liberally in your pasta water used to cook pasta. The salt will infuse the pasta thoroughly. Salting pasta will not have the same effect.

TIP! Prepare everything you need to cook your food in advance. That way, you are able to prevent using a lot of gas or heat while cooking, and you provide safety when using hot oil or other dangerous things while distracted.

If your hands start to smell like the fish or onions that you are cooking, simply rub them on a piece of stainless steel prior to washing them with soap and water. You can use the sink itself, leaving them fresh.

Good cutting utensils are imperative to own for your kitchen. Dull knives actually cause more cut fingers and accidents than sharp ones.

Spices will rapidly lose flavor if exposed to heat, light and humidity. This just exposes them to the elements and other unfavorable conditions that zap all of their flavor.

TIP! To use leftover meat and veggies in your fridge prior to shopping try making fried rice in a wok. Rice is best when cooked the day before, but you can cut water content a little to get the right consistency with fresh rice.

Always use an airtight containers to store baking ingredients such as sugar or flour. Keeping your ingredients in sealed containers will keep them from spoiling or being infected with bugs. You buy them pretty much anywhere and at a beneficial asset.

It is absolutely essential that you have sharp knives when cooking. Dull knives are more dangerous to use and the certainly make chopping difficult.

This keeps fruits fresh and delicious for months. This is also gives you access to seasonal fruits that are out of season.

Fresh onions emit a gas. This excessive gas can end up ruining your batch of salsa. The gas is eliminated if you rinse and drying the diced onions.

TIP! It can be difficult to figure out how long you need to keep meat on the grill. Use a digital or other high-quality internal thermometer to check whether your meat is cooked enough.

Never prepare the entire amount after seasoning it. Cook a small piece of the mixture before you continue to cook the entire batch to ensure that the seasonings are correct.

Mashed Potatoes

TIP! Using brine in your food preparation is a culinary secret that can make your dishes go from bland to bursting with flavor. First soak your duck, goose, chicken or turkey in brine about an hour before you are ready to prepare it, and you poultry will have a wonderful flavor.

When it?s time to mash the potatoes for that good ole home-cooked taste, stir in hot (not boiling) milk to mix them. This will make your mashed potatoes that light and fluffier. Nobody really wants lumps in their mashed potatoes full of lumps.

TIP! Spices should be stored in a cool, dark area so that they stay as fresh as they can for as long as possible. Storing spices in warm locations, such as above the stove, can cause the spices to lose their flavor and you to lose your money.

Always measure any cooking oil you use. This will help you reduce how much fat in your foods while cooking. This will give you the ability to know exactly how much oil you use.

TIP! Preparation is key when cooking for family or friends. Look at your recipe, and ensure that you aren?t missing any ingredients.

Do you love to cook with fresh basil in your dishes? Take a bunch of this fresh herb and place it in a glass. Fill the glass just enough with water so that the stems are covered. Keep on a kitchen counter so it?ll be fresh for weeks! The basil may even start growing roots if you occasionally change out the water. Trim or cut the basil once in a while so it grows even more and stays fresh.

Chicken Broth

TIP! If you know that time will be limited the following day, try to do some of the prep for that night?s meal the day before. Decrease your stress level and enjoy your time in the kitchen by doing all the prep work ahead of time.

Add some chicken broth to your pan when you cook them. Chicken broth is an excellent base to use when preparing vegetable dishes that helps keep them from sticking and gives them some great flavor with them.

TIP! Keep your turkey leftovers after Thanksgiving. You can put them in meal-size containers and keep them in the freezer.

Dark leafy greens can be considered a pain to prepare, but they are a pain to prepare. The stem is the most difficult part of preparation is removing tough stems. Make it easy by folding the leaf lengthwise in half and breaking the stem. You could also slice the stems of the folded leaves with a knife.

Don?t use a type of wine in your meals that you wouldn?t drink. There are wines available that was made specifically for cooking.

You should always purchase fish and meat that are bone-in.

To make your French fries crispier, try leaving the raw potatoes in some cold water for half an hour before you fry them.

Set a watch timer that you can easily carry with you as well.

TIP! Going over labels on ingredients for what you?re going to make to eat is important to do. There are ingredients that may be unhealthy.

Impress your friends with a perfect sandwich by spreading the mayo evenly on the corners of the bread. An even spread helps keep the taste consistent from bite tastes as it should.

TIP! Many of the most popular fruits become brown when exposed to air: apples, bananas and pears, for example. While saltwater and lemon are both effective preservatives, pineapple juice is the best way to preserve your fruit without affecting its flavor.

Look at your recipes and determine whether or not certain steps that can be done ahead of time without having any spoilage issues. You can make a lot of your prep work well in advance. This can make even more complex recipes fun and fast.

Always make sure to use nylon and spatulas that are designed for the nonstick cookware that you?re cooking with. Metal or wooden utensils could scratch nonstick coat and cause flakes to fall from the pans. This is both unappetizing and unsafe.

Place unripe fruits in a plastic bag that is perforated right after you buy them. If you put them in the bag with holds the air will go through the bag, the air can circulate and assure that the gas is retained, helping the fruits retain their wonderful taste.

Being able to cook meals for yourself or your family is highly beneficial. After reading this article, you should be able to improve your cooking skills no matter what type of food you prefer to prepare. Fast food can be convenient sometimes, but there?s nothing better than a good meal made from your own kitchen.

By: Super Cooking Tips

About Super Cooking Tips

I reside in Redding. This jan i will be 20. I and my sister go to The New Prep School in Murrieta. I am self employed as a Theologian. I like to play arcade games.

Source: http://supercookingtips.com/everything-but-the-chefs-hat-cooking-tips/

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Sound Smart: Watch This Excellent Primer on Digital Audio

A digital waveform is not really a stair-step. Even though that's how the output appears, looks can be deceiving. Let audio guru "Monty" Montgomery break it down.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/r3358Ke6_7U/

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FDA expands approval of Bayer cancer drug

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 2. Matt Kuchar $1,987,000 3. Hunter Mahan $1,412,965 4. John Merrick $1,296,014 5. Phil Mickelson $1,232,760 6. Dustin Johnson $1,200,125 7. Tiger Woods $1,144,000 8. Russell Henley $1,129,080 9. Brian Gay $1,089,181 10. Charles Howell III $1,087,944 11. Jason Day $1,009,164 12. Chris Kirk $990,013 13. Steve Stricker $940,000 14. Josh Teater $870,934 15. Bill Haas $816,300 16. Jimmy Walker $812,620 17. Scott Piercy $789,592 18. Charlie Beljan $785,800 19. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-expands-approval-bayer-cancer-195130061.html

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Shakira, Gerard Piqu? thank fans for raising food, supplies through ...

Shakira and boyfriend Gerard Piqu? may be focused on celebrating the birth of their son Milan, but they?ve also taken the time to thank the thousands of fans ? make that hundreds of thousands of fans ? who donated money that will go towards supporting needy children around in the world.

?We are thrilled by the generosity that has been shown by the visitors to our World Baby Shower site,? said Shakira in a statement. ?Thanks to you, over 80,000 children will be protected from polio, almost 200,000 oral rehydration salts sachets will be distributed in times of need, the 3.8 tons of therapeutic food collected will save many children from severe acute malnutrition, among other life-saving tools that were purchased to protect babies and children.?

Turning to her online fans ? who number more than 19 million on Twitter and 61 million on Facebook ? the ?Hips Don?t Lie? singer set virtual baby shower through UNICEF, for whom she has been a global ambassador since 2003. Dubbed ?Shakira & Gerard Piqu??s World Baby Shower to Help UNICEF Save Children?s Lives,? the philanthropic project raised charitable donations for poverty-stricken children worldwide.

I want to thank all of you! Thanks to you hundreds of thousands of children will be protected in times of need. bit.ly/VTlLmm

? Gerard Piqu? (@3gerardpique) February 22, 2013

The shower ? which ran from Jan. 16 through Feb. 15 ? allowed donors to choose from a number of ?Inspired Gifts,? which included a baby scale ($37), polio vaccine ($10) or even a $5 malaria net. ?As a further incentive, Shakira periodically released exclusive pictures through the UNICEF site, which allowed her global fans access her ?virtual living room? in order to see her maternity photos, as well as the first snapshot of baby Milan.

Baby Milan held by proud father Gerard Piqu?. (Photo/Courtesy UNICEF)

With the purchase of more than 1,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets and 150 portable scales, all going towards children in danger of malaria ? a disease from which a child in Africa dies every 50 seconds ? Shakira can be assured that she?s carrying out her hopes of setting a great example for her son.

?When the baby is born, I?ll take him with me on charity trips,? she told Germany?s RTL in October of her approach to motherhood. ?He shall learn that he is able to change the world.?

And while Shakira has met the challenges of raising funds for her latest UNICEF philanthropic outreach, another challenge lies ahead: she?ll be joining Usher, Adam Levine and Cee-Lo on the upcoming season of NBC?s??The Voice??in March.

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Source: http://nbclatino.com/2013/02/25/shakira-gerard-pique-thank-fans-for-raising-food-supplies-through-unicef-baby-shower/

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LG aims to raise smartphone sales by 52 percent

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? LG Electronics Inc. is aiming to raise its smartphone sales by more than half this year as it makes a shift from basic phones to high-end devices after lagging competitors for several years.

The South Korean company aims to sell more than 40 million smartphones in 2013, it said in a statement on Monday. LG shipped 26.3 million smartphones in 2012, fewer than HTC Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd. which each shipped more than 32 million smartphones.

To meet the sales goal, LG will release handsets in all price ranges from high-tier to affordable models and go all out in both developed and emerging markets.

"We aim to improve profitability and also to become a top-tier smartphone brand," Park Jong-seok, head of LG's mobile phone business, told reporters at a mobile industry fair in Barcelona, according to the statement.

LG faces similar challenges to other second-tier smartphone vendors. They are squeezed by the two smartphone giants ? Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. ? that are dominating most of the profit in the smartphone industry and also by Chinese makers that are expanding in the smartphone markets of fast-growing emerging countries.

But LG hopes to make its Optimus brand stand out by drawing on technologies from other parts of the LG empire. The company is the largest shareholder in LG Display Co. and has collaborated with other LG affiliates on batteries and cameras.

LG was the world's third-largest maker of cellphones in 2009 but was caught off guard by the popularity of smartphones. In the fourth quarter of 2012, LG sold fewer phones than Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp., which are expanding shipments of their cheaper smartphones.

Its mobile communications division was profitable for the first time in three years last year as it moved its focus from basic phones to lucrative smartphones.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-25-LG%20Electronics-Smartphone%20Sales/id-401703c2c3824c388c2a0e0eaf125559

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ari's science blog

Jan. 11, 2013?

In a first-of-its-kind study, sports medicine specialist Dr. Neeru Jayanthi and colleagues found that injuredyoung athletes who play a single sport such as tennis spent much less time in free play and unorganized sports than uninjured athletes who play tennis and many other sports.?

Jayanthi presented his findings at the Society for Tennis Medicine and Science and United States Tennis Association-Tennis Medicine and Injury Conference in Atlanta.?There were 891 young athletes who were seen at Loyola University Health System and Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago clinics. Participants included 618 athletes who sought treatment for sports injuries and 273 uninjured athletes who came in for sports physicals.

?Study participants included 124 tennis players (74 of whom played tennis exclusively). The study has enrolled 891 athletes so far, and has received two grants from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.The study began as a project in a Loyola program called STAR (Student Training in Approaches to Research.??Among single-sport tennis players, the ones who suffered injuries spent 12.6 hours per week playing organized tennis and only 2.4 hours per week in free play and recreation.

?By comparison, the uninjured tennis players spent only 9.7 hours per week playing organized sports, and 4.3 hours a week in free play and recreation. the injured tennis players spent more than 5 times as much time playing organized tennis as they did in free play and recreation, while the uninjured players spent only 2.6 times as much time playing organized tennis as they did in free play and recreation.?There was found a similar ratio when he compared injured athletes who specialize in tennis with uninjured athletes who play other sports.

?The injured tennis players spent 5.3 times as much time playing organized tennis as they did in free play and recreation, while the uninjured athletes spent only 1.9 times as much time playing organized sports as they did in free play and recreation.?One way to avoid injuries in young athletes may be for them to simply spend more time in unorganized free play such as pick-up games, a Loyola University Medical Study has found.??




???This article really got me, because I used to play tennis, and I have to stop for my injuries.? I started playing when I was five, I loved it. The classes were active and entertaining and I had a lot of fun, and I had a lot of recreation playing, but when I turned 12 I started taking the competitions very seriously, and started training 4 times a week, that was 8 hours per week. When I turned 14 I got in the tennis camp for the summer and I literally played every day for 45 days 8 hours the day. When I got back home I wanted to be perfect, that created me a lot of frustration and stress, I played the whole day until 9 pm.This article links to my life because, well with so much intensive training, in the middle of a competition I got a horrible pain in my back turned out that I had scoliosis; I had an S shape on my column. I had to go to physiotherapy and swimming classes.?I?m not allowed to play anymore, this studies are true, If I had taken it slowly and actually playing for fun and not to win and be the best, I wouldn?t had get injured and I would still be able to play.?The area of interaction of this article is Health and Social Education because is a reaserch for young player injuries done by Society for Tennis Medicine and Science and United States Tennis Association-Tennis Medicine and Injury.?
?

Source: http://arisscience10.blogspot.com/2013/02/toprevent-injuries-young-athletes-may.html

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Samsung's Oscars Ad Unicorn Apocalypse - Business Insider

Samsung began airing yet another series of humorous ads for its its Galaxy S II mobile devices during the Oscars on Sunday. This campaign, featuring six spots about a video game called "Unicorn Apocalypse," features a cameo by director Tim Burton. The agency is 72andSunny.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/samsungs-oscars-ad-unicorn-apocalypse-2013-2

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Syrian opposition chief says visit to Russia, U.S. delayed

It began as a seemingly awkward Jack Nicholson introduction of the very long list on nominees, but the Best Picture denouement?at a very long Oscars ceremony on Sunday turned into a surprise appearance by Michelle Obama, via satellite from the Governors' Ball in Washington, D.C.?where earlier she had sat next to Chris Christie?to introduce and announce the winner,?Argo.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-chief-says-visit-russia-u-delayed-101757214.html

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The big sequester gamble: How badly will the cuts hurt? (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Bell Canada set to launch Novatel's MiFi 2

Novatel's touchable MiFi 2 -- also known as the MiFi Liberate -- receives a fresh coat of paint in the form of a UI overhaul on its way to Bell Canada's network this March. No word on pricing or an exact date, but this 11-hour-lasting king of all portable access points is $50 on a two-year agreement on AT&T, so we'd hazard that sets a decent watermark on the potential price. No word on what the new UI tweaks entail but we're angling to get our hands on one some time this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/NLKXZGN3hZQ/

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Italian marines held in India return home to vote

ROME (Reuters) - Two Italian marines charged in India with killing two fishermen while on anti-pirate duty a year ago arrived home on Saturday to vote in parliamentary elections this weekend.

"We are happy to be back home. This has been possible because India's Supreme Court ... has shown itself to be very democratic by recognizing our right to vote," Massimiliano Latorre said on arrival at Rome Fiumicino airport with his colleague, Salvatore Girone.

The two sailors, part of a military security team protecting the tanker Enrica Lexie, are accused of shooting the two fishermen they say they mistook for pirates off the southern Indian state of Kerala in February last year.

The incident has caused a serious diplomatic dispute between Italy and India, which have traditionally had good relations.

India's Supreme Court said in a long-awaited ruling last month that India had jurisdiction to try the marines, setting the stage for a criminal trial that could further sour ties between the two nations.

Italy had challenged India's right to try the two, arguing that the shooting had taken place in international waters.

The men were welcomed at the airport by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti. They will be allowed to stay in Italy for four weeks.

The Italians also spent Christmas in Italy, after a Kerala court allowed them to join their families for the holiday, on condition they returned to India by January 10, which they did.

The marines are held at the Italian embassy in New Delhi and report to a police station once a week.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italian-marines-held-india-return-home-vote-191716579.html

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Caves point to thawing of Siberia

Friday, February 22, 2013

Evidence from Siberian caves suggests that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius could see permanently frozen ground thaw over a large area of Siberia, threatening release of carbon from soils, and damage to natural and human environments.

A thaw in Siberia's permafrost (ground frozen throughout the year) could release over 1000 giga-tonnes of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, potentially enhancing global warming.

The data comes from an international team led by Oxford University scientists studying stalactites and stalagmites from caves located along the 'permafrost frontier', where ground begins to be permanently frozen in a layer tens to hundreds of metres thick. Because stalactites and stalagmites only grow when liquid rainwater and snow melt drips into the caves, these formations record 500,000 years of changing permafrost conditions, including warmer periods similar to the climate of today.

Records from a particularly warm period (Marine Isotopic Stage 11) that occurred around 400,000 years ago suggest that global warming of 1.5?C compared to the present is enough to cause substantial thawing of permafrost far north from its present-day southern limit.

A report of the research is published in this week's Science Express. The team included scientists from Britain, Russia, Mongolia and Switzerland.

'The stalactites and stalagmites from these caves are a way of looking back in time to see how warm periods similar to our modern climate affect how far permafrost extends across Siberia,' said Dr Anton Vaks of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, who led the work. 'As permafrost covers 24% of the land surface of the Northern hemisphere significant thawing could affect vast areas and release giga-tonnes of carbon.

'This has huge implications for ecosystems in the region, and for aspects of the human environment. For instance, natural gas facilities in the region, as well as power lines, roads, railways and buildings are all built on permafrost and are vulnerable to thawing. Such a thaw could damage this infrastructure with obvious economic implications.'

The team used radiometric dating techniques to date the growth of cave formations (stalactites and stalagmites). Data from the Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave ? near the town of Lensk latitude 60?N ? in the coldest region showed that the only period when stalactite growth took place occurred about 400,000 years ago, during a period with a global temperature 1.5?C higher than today. Periods when the world was 0.5-1?C warmer than today did not see any stalactite growth in this northernmost cave, suggesting that around 1.5?C is the 'tipping point' at which the coldest permafrost regions begin to thaw.

Dr Vaks said: 'Although it wasn't the main focus of our research our work also suggests that in a world 1.5?C warmer than today, warm enough to melt the coldest permafrost, adjoining regions would see significant changes with Mongolia's Gobi Desert becoming much wetter than it is today and, potentially, this extremely arid area coming to resemble the present-day Asian steppes.'

###

University of Oxford: http://www.ox.ac.uk/

Thanks to University of Oxford for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126980/Caves_point_to_thawing_of_Siberia

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Toxic mice air drop: Dead poisoned mice to target Guam tree snakes

Toxic mice air drop: The US government is about target invasive brown tree snakes in Guam by bombing the island with dead mice laced with?acetaminophen, which is toxic to the reptiles.

By Eric Talmadge,?Associated Press / February 22, 2013

A Brown Tree Snake is held by a US Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam. The US government is planning to drop toxic mice from helicopters to battle the snakes, an invasive species that has decimated Guam's native bird population.

Eric Talmadge/AP

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Andersen Air Force Base, Guam

Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on?Guam's?jungle canopy. They are scientists' prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake.

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Most of?Guam's?native bird species are extinct because of the snake, which reached the island's thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on?Guam?now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines.

More than 3,000 miles away, environmental officials in Hawaii have long feared a similar invasion ? which in their case likely would be a "snakes on a plane" scenario. That would cost the state many vulnerable species and billions of dollars, but the risk will fall if?Guam's?air-drop strategy succeeds.

"We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii,?Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like?Guam."

Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet (1 meter) long but can grow to be more than 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Most of?Guam's?native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out.

The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies; they use venom on their prey but it is not lethal to humans.

The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished?Guam'simage as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat.

The solution to this headache, fittingly enough, is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers including Tylenol.

The strategy takes advantage of the snake's two big weaknesses. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans.

The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near?Guam's?sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one.

U.S. government scientists have been perfecting the mice-drop strategy for more than a decade with support from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior.

To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a flotation device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed.

Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk.

"One concern was that crows may eat mice with the toxicant," said William Pitt, of the U.S. National Wildlife Research Center's Hawaii Field Station. "However, there are no longer wild crows on?Guam. We will continue to refine methods to increase efficiency and limit any potential non-target hazards."

The mouse drop is set to start in April or May.

Vice said the goal is not to eradicate the snakes, but to control and contain them. Just as the snakes found their way to?Guam, they could stow away on a ship, or more likely the cargo hold of an airplane, and begin breeding on other islands around the Pacific or even the U.S. West Coast.

That "snakes on a plane" scenario has officials in Hawaii on edge. The islands of Hawaii, like?Guam, lack the predators that could keep a brown tree snake population in check.

Native Hawaiian birds "literally don't know what to do when they see a snake coming," said Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a partnership of Hawaii government agencies and private organizations.

A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on?Guam. Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. The cost of treating snake bites would account for a small share.

"Once we get snakes here, we're never going to be able to fix the situation," Martin said.

Though the snakes are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea,?Guam?is much closer to Hawaii and its snake population is much more dense, meaning it is the primary threat for snake stowaways.

So far,?Guam's?containment seems to be working. Only a few brown tree snakes have ever been found in Hawaii, and none over the past 17 years.

"If we continue doing what we are doing, the chance of success is very high," Vice said. "If what we are doing stops, I think the possibility of the snakes getting to Hawaii is inevitable."

___

AP writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report from Honolulu.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/5QKzfHBtQI8/Toxic-mice-air-drop-Dead-poisoned-mice-to-target-Guam-tree-snakes

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Northwestern University to offer Coursera MOOCs

English106 / Flickr cc-licensed

Online education startup Coursera has joined with 29 more universities to offer free courses on its platform.

Staff Chicago Business Journal

Northwestern University is one of 29 more schools that have partnered with Coursera to offer massive, online, open classes, or MOOCs, according to a report by VentureBeat.

Coursera now counts 62 schools offering courses on its platform, and in this latest group, 16 schools are located overseas, VentureBeat said. The Daily Northwestern reported that Northwestern students can?t receive credit for Coursera?s offerings, but that for-credit online courses would be available in the fall through Semester Online, which, according to its web site, is a consortium of colleges and universities including Duke University, Emory University, and Washington University in St. Louis as well as Northwestern.

In January, the New York Times reported on Coursera?s efforts to monetize, saying the company hasn?t yet articulated a way to profitability and that its first significant revenue actually came from Amazon referrals. Ron Leuty of the San Francisco Business Times is in the midst of reporting on his experience with MOOCs, including a class on Coursera.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_42/~3/Az3YfP7ctic/northwestern-university-to-offer-moocs.html

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Indian police search for evidence in bomb attack

HYDERABAD, India (AP) ? Indian police are investigating whether a shadowy Islamic militant group was responsible for a dual bomb attack that killed 16 people outside a movie theater and a bus station in the southern city of Hyderabad, a police official said Friday.

The group, the Indian Mujahideen, is thought to have links with militants in neighboring Pakistan. India's recent execution of an Islamic militant is being examined as a possible motive for the bombings, said the official, an investigator who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details of the probe.

Police have not detained anyone in connection with Thursday evening's attacks, the first major terror bombings in India since 2011.

According to a New Delhi police report, two suspected Indian Mujahideen militants who were arrested last year said during questioning that they had done reconnaissance of Dilsukh Nagar, the Hyderabad district where the blasts occurred. They had also visited various spots in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

In a statement in India's Parliament, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that in response to the "cowardly terror attack," the government will "make all efforts to apprehend the perpetrators and masterminds behind the blast and ensure that they are punished as per the law."

Earlier Friday, as he toured the site of the bombings, Shinde said there had been a general alert about the possibility of an attack somewhere in India for the past three days. "But there was no specific intelligence about a particular place," he said.

The bombs were attached to two bicycles about 150 meters (500 feet) apart in Hyderabad's Dilsukh Nagar district, Shinde said. He said in addition to the 16 dead, 117 others were injured.

The bombs exploded minutes apart in a crowded shopping area. The blasts shattered storefronts, scattered food and plates from roadside restaurants and left tangles of dead bodies. Passersby rushed the wounded to hospitals.

Top state police officer V. Dinesh Reddy said improvised explosive devices with nitrogen compound were used in the blasts, which he blamed on a "terrorist network."

Pakistan strongly condemned the blasts.

"Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. All acts of terrorism are unjustifiable regardless of their motivation," the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On Friday morning, Indian police with cameras, gloves and plastic evidence bags used pointers to gingerly look through the debris in Hyderabad. Officials from the National Investigation Agency and commandos of the National Security Guards arrived from New Delhi to help with the investigation.

India has been under a heightened state of alert for nearly two weeks since Kashmiri militant Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged for his involvement in a 2001 attack on India's Parliament that killed 14 people, including five of the gunmen.

Since the execution, near-daily protests have rocked Indian-ruled Kashmir, where many people believe Guru did not receive a fair trial. Anger in a region where anti-India sentiment runs deep was further fueled by the secrecy with which the execution was carried out.

Hyderabad, a city of 10 million in the state of Andhra Pradesh, is a hub of India's information technology industry and has a mixed population of Muslims and Hindus.

"This (attack) is to disturb the peaceful living of all communities in Andhra Pradesh," said Kiran Kumar Reddy, the state's chief minister.

The explosions were the first major terror attack since a September 2011 blast outside the High Court in New Delhi killed 13 people. The government has been heavily criticized for its failure to arrest the masterminds behind previous bombings.

Thursday's attack occurred in the same Hindu-dominated area where a blast outside a Hindu temple killed two people in 2000. In 2007, a twin bombing killed 40 people in two other Hyderabad districts.

The United States, whose secretary of state, John Kerry, met Thursday in Washington with Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, condemned the attack.

"The United States stands with India in combating the scourge of terrorism and we are also prepared to offer any and all assistance Indian authorities may need," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a news briefing.

Rana Banerji, a former security official, said India remains vulnerable to such attacks because there is poor coordination between the national government and the states. Police reforms are moving very slowly and the quality of intelligence gathering is poor, he said.

"The concept of homeland security should be made effective, on a war footing," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indian-police-search-evidence-bomb-attack-064512143.html

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EU wants Cambodia to pay more for Khmer Rouge crimes court

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The European Union is calling on Cambodia to come up with more cash for a Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, where resignations have slowed proceedings and some staff are threatening to strike after going for more than two months without pay.

Up to 2.2 million people died under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, a quarter of the population. The tribunal, set up in 2005, has found only one person, a relatively lowly prison chief, guilty of crimes connected with the killings.

Under the agreement for the U.N.-backed tribunal, the United Nations was to pay for international staff and operations, while Cambodia paid for the national side, but the government has been repeatedly criticized for a lack of support.

"The EU keeps encouraging the Royal Government of Cambodia to continue substantially increasing its own contribution to the tribunal, as a sound measure to improve its sustainability and its ownership by Cambodia itself," EU Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain said in an email to Reuters.

Pol Pot, the architect of the "Year Zero" revolution, died in 1998, but three of his closest comrades are now on trial for murder and crimes against humanity, among a litany of charges.

The funding difficulties have put a spotlight on the government's commitment to the process.

It has been accused of interfering behind the scenes to put the brakes on the court and limit the scope of investigations that could implicate powerful political figures.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla who defected to the regime's eventual conquerors, Vietnam, has said he would not allow any new indictments and that he would be happy if the United Nations packed up and left.

Two international judges quit within six months in 2011 and 2012 complaining of political interference, and many Cambodians fear the defendants in the court's second case - "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, a former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and ex-president Khieu Samphan - may not live to hear a verdict.

NO PAY

The EU, the second-biggest donor at the court after Japan, was holding back a 300,000 euro ($401,000) grant until "the contractual obligations of the grant agreement are fully met", Cautain said.

About 270 Cambodians have not been paid since November and are working at the court without contracts.

The EU also wants to see a reduction in the running costs of the Cambodian side of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, as the tribunal is known, after a 20 percent cut in the international budget in 2013, Cautain said.

The government says it has committed $1.8 million for this year to pay for utilities, security, healthcare and transport, as well as the courthouse, which it owns.

Government spokesman Ek Tha pointed out that "exceeds the commitment from the national budget to the country's Supreme Court by 257 percent and to the Appeals Court by 300 percent".

The government has used outside contributions to pay the estimated $9.3 million a year wage bill for Cambodian staff.

The only conviction to date is that of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, sentenced to life imprisonment for deaths at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh that he ran. ($1 = 0.7479 euros)

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-wants-cambodia-pay-more-khmer-rouge-crimes-071935511.html

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Tebow Cancels Appearance at Controversial Dallas Church

Published: Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8:01 a.m.

DALLAS | New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow has backed out of an appearance at a Baptist mega church in Dallas run by a pastor who has created controversy with his remarks about gays and other faiths.

Tebow tweeted Thursday that he canceled a scheduled April 28 appearance at First Baptist Church due to "new information that has been brought to my attention."

"I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring Faith, Hope and Love to all those needing a brighter day," Tebow wrote.

The Rev. Robert Jeffress, First Baptist's pastor, confirmed in a phone interview that Tebow called him Wednesday night to cancel.

Jeffress said Tebow told him he would like to speak at First Baptist at some point, but "he needed to avoid controversy right now for personal and professional reasons."

Jeffress has preached that gay sex is sinful, Mormonism is a cult and Islam promotes violence and pedophilia. He said Thursday that First Baptist was being mischaracterized as a "hate church," and that the church's teachings were consistent with historic Christian beliefs.

Tebow wasn't going to speak about anything controversial, Jeffress said.

"We had planned for him to speak very positively about the difference Jesus Christ had made in his life," Jeffress said.

Tebow won two BCS championships and the Heisman Trophy at Florida, but he has struggled to make it in the NFL. He barely played last season after the Jets traded for him from the Denver Broncos, where he started much of the season in 2011 and won a playoff game.

Tebow is a devout Christian who has built a large following through his faith. He has addressed church audiences before. Last year, he spoke to about 15,000 people gathered at an outdoor Easter service north of Austin.

Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20130222/news/130229806

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Prison Planet.com ? New Jersey Casino Files For Bankruptcy Ten ...

Zero Hedge
Feb 20, 2013

If it seems like it hasn?t been even a year since the latest Atlantic City casino, this one with the surreal ads showcasing?Revel Atlantic City, opened up, it is because that is exactly the case. Ten months to be precise. And just as quickly as it came, just as quickly did it file for bankruptcy. Moments ago, the company issued a press release that it would engage in a debt-for-equity prepack (with Moelis, K&E and A&M all advising) Chapter 11 which will be completed over the summer. The biggest losers here are not so much the original owners of Revel Entertainment Group, Morgan Stanley which three years ago decided to?walk away from its entire $932 million sunk investment in the bankrupt hotel (instead of spending another billion to complete it), but the people of New Jersey, who just lost another investment opportunity as some?$260 million in the tax incentives that were supposed to help the project along will never reach their intended target.?From the WSJ:

[Revel] received a boost from the state of New Jersey, which over 20 years will send back $261 million in taxes from the project under an economic-redevelopment initiative. Most of that money will be used by Revel to spruce up the scruffy neighborhood and boardwalk around the casino. About $70 million will go into an account that can be used to pay initial interest on the mezzanine loan if the project doesn?t meet projections.

?

The $70 million piece was a key late addition that helped secure the mezzanine funding, according to people involved in the financing process.

The other losers here are the unnamed debt holders who in February 2011 also injected $850 billion in first-lien and $305 million mezz loans which would eventually become 85% of the equity ? the CEO of the firm refused to discuss whose these investors were, referring to them only as a ?consortium of institutional investors.? JPMorgan acted as advisor for Revel in connection with the debt raise. Nearly a year later, JP Morgan advised lenders to sink another $150 million in good?money after bad: ?The casino resort said it amended its agreement with JP Morgan Chase Bank to provide for additional money to help pay down existing debt and to fund operations. Most of it consists of a new $125 million loan.?

The continuation of the abandoned investment was the brainchild, and pride and glory of one Chris Christie who?then said ?the $2.4 billion Revel is one of the most spectacular resorts he?s ever seen and expects it will motivate other Atlantic City casinos to revitalize their properties.??I think that one of the things that Revel will be is a catalyst for additional modernization and investment by the other casinos to say, listen, if we grow more people here coming to the region and we?re offering something that looks nice further down the boardwalk, maybe people will want to look there as well.? As it now stands, the Revel will only be a catalyst for further bankruptcies as industry after industry finds out what a tapped out consumer with no access to $1.8 trillion in excess reserves truly means.

The other losers are the usual suspects: unions.

While construction unions have been backers of the project, the hospitality-workers union and conservative groups have criticized the state help. Unite Here, which represents workers at Atlantic City?s casinos, has complained that the project could force older casinos to close, which would mean more laid-off workers.

?

Mr. DeSanctis on Thursday said the project hoped to instead expand the market by appealing to business groups and leisure travelers who aren?t visiting Atlantic City these days.

So much for that. As for the fresh start capital structure, the lenders will roll some $205 million in pre-petition debt into a DIP, and provide a fresh $45 million in new capital, as yet another batch of good money is thrown after bad money that once was good money also thrown after bad, and so on.

As part of the restructuring, certain of Revel`s lenders will provide approximately $250 million in debtor-in-possession financing (DIP), approximately $45 million of which constitutes new money commitments and approximately $205 million of which constitutes prepetition debt.

But the funniest part from the pre-packaged?bankruptcy press release is the following line:

No tax payer funds will be used to finance the restructuring.

Ladies and gentlemen: we have just found the first insolvent Wall Street casino (literally) that did not get a taxpayer bailout.

And now: the surreal Revel ad as promised.

?

Print this page.

Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-jersey-casino-files-for-bankruptcy-ten-months-after-opening-no-taxpayer-funds-will-be-lost-this-time.html

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Midwest bracing for massive winter storm

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Hundreds of snow plows and salt spreaders took to the highways of the nation's heartland Wednesday, preparing for a winter storm that could dump up to a foot of snow in some regions and bring dangerous freezing rain and sleet to others.

Winter storm warnings were issued from Colorado through Illinois. By midday Wednesday, heavy snow was already falling in Colorado and western Kansas.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said parts of Colorado, Kansas and northern Missouri could get 10 to 12 inches of snow. Further south, freezing rain and sleet could make driving treacherous.

Officials feared the winter storm would be the worst in the Midwest since the Groundhog Day blizzard in 2011. A two-day storm that began Feb. 1, 2011, was blamed in about two dozen deaths and left hundreds of thousands without power, some for several days. At its peak, the storm created white-out conditions so intense that Interstate 70 was shut down across the entire state of Missouri.

"We're not going to see that type of storm, but it's certainly the most impactful in the last two winters," said Gosselin, who works in suburban St. Louis.

Tim Chojnacki, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said graders, snow blowers and salt-spreading trucks were at the ready. The salt trucks planned to be out before the wintry mix arrived in the Show-Me State in hopes that the precipitation would largely melt upon impact.

Gosselin said areas like St. Louis, southern Missouri and parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas may get little to no snow, but the sleet and freezing rain could present more of a challenge. Ice accumulations could reach a half-inch in some places.

"Sleet is no fun to drive on," Gosselin said. "Especially if you get a couple of inches, which could happen. It doesn't melt, and it's very heavy to move. It's difficult to shovel, you can't really plow it and the chemicals don't work as well."

Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Mindy Crane said hundreds of plows were being deployed for what is expected to be one of the most significant snow storms of the season. Several schools called off classes Wednesday as snow began to accumulate.

Just the threat of snow was having a big impact in Nebraska. The state legislature postponed Thursday afternoon committee hearings so lawmakers could go home before the storm arrived. Plans called for the full legislature to convene at 9 a.m. Thursday and adjourn at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, University of Nebraska officials moved a Big 10 men's basketball game against Iowa from Thursday to Saturday.

Also in Lincoln, Nebraska's capital city put out a call for more "snow angels" ? a program that puts volunteers in touch with those unable to remove snow from their sidewalks and driveways. Lincoln was expecting 8 inches of snow by Thursday and city ordinances require people to clear their sidewalks.

Gosselin said precipitation is generally expected to drop off as the storm makes its way east. Chicago and parts of Indiana, he said, could get about 2 inches of snow and some sleet.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/midwest-braces-potentially-dangerous-storm-171517759.html

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Sony promises Android 'second screen' app for PlayStation 4

Sony (sorta) unveiled the PlayStation 4 last night in New York, and along with hardware, software and development details, the electronics giant talked about how the new console would tie into mobile devices. For Android and iOS, Sony said it'd bring "second screen" experiences to these devices.

Like Microsoft's "SmartGlass," the PS4 smartphone apps will allow gamers to bring relevant information to their mobile device whether they're in front of their console or not. In-game, the apps will be able to offer extra content like maps in an adventure game, Sony says. And when you're away from home, the app will tie into the PlayStation Network, allowing you to purchase games or peek in on your friends' games in real time. There's no mention of any PS Vita-style "remote play" option for smartphones just yet -- if something like this is to be offered on phones, it's likely it might be tied into Sony's existing PlayStation Mobile certification program.

The PlayStation 4 is due to appear in time for the holidays, and though we got a quick peek at its smartphone and tablet apps on-stage last night, the box itself was conspicuously absent.

Source: Sony Computer Entertainment International (PDF)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ge2nwaAPOMM/story01.htm

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