Video: Lindsay Lohan charged in two separate incidents

>>> one of lindsay lohan 's attorneys is denying the actress did anything wrong in the wake of her latest arrest. lohan was taken into custody in new york city early thursday on a charge of assault. and it's not her only trouble this morning. e's jason kennedy has more. jason, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning. lohan was facing third-degree assault charges at avenue nightclub early thursday morning with a woman, and then that was just the beginning because later that day she was formally charged with misdemeanor charges stemming from an auto incomment california earlier this year. lindsay lohan , a coat over her head, was released from police custody in new york thursday morning.

>> smile, lindsay.

>> reporter: lohan was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after an alleged altercation with a 27-year-old woman inside a lounge called avenue. a spokesperson for the nypd confirmed to nbc news that officers responded to a dispute inside avenue at 4:00 a.m . thursday. lohan was arrested and charged with assault. video obtained by tmz shows lindsay lohan with police near a black suv shortly after the alleged incident. tmz reports lohan , after telling a woman to give her some space or words to that effect, allegedly punched the woman, according to wnbc in new york, the other woman involved was not arrested or injured. a statement issued by lohan 's attorney reads once again lindsay lohan is a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame . from my initial investigation, i am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that lindsay will be totally exonerated. legal experts say as a celebrity lohan may be held to a higher standard.

>> she's aware of what her fame can and can't do, and that's something she needs to be responsible for, and any judge is going to hold you more liable than another person for being in an altercation because you should know better because you should know that you're a target.

>> what's your comment, lindsday. talk to us, please

>> reporter: incident is the latest are a string of run-ins with the law and she faces an automatic very muchcation of her probation from removing a necklace from a jewelry store last year because of new charges against her. on thursday lohan was charged with lying to police about whether she was behind the wheel in a california traffic accident involving her porsche back on june 8.

>> this adds to her legal woes, her money problems. the girl takes two steps forward and three steps back.

>> the judge will look at the reckless driving and the lying to police but given the fact that the judge had warned her before all of this happened and said stay out of the clubs and focus on her career and didn't, i think it will be a very serious matter for this judge.

>> reporter: this after a rough week in lohan 's acting career.

>> is that what you thought?

>> reporter: she was widely panned for her role as elizabeth taylor in lifetime's "liz and dick" which premiered monday.

>> this was a make or break point. lifetime to be gambling on her, insured her, got horrible reviews this. will absolutely impact future roles for her.

>> reporter: now lohan is set to face formal charges here in knowledge on january 2nd , but her attorney maintains he'll be able to prove her innocence before that. willie?

>> jason kennedy , thanks.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50024260/

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Customer Dissatisfaction: Why Containment Is Not An Option ...

This often leads to younger companies adopting reactive customer service strategies that do not prioritize finding ways to systematically reduce customer dissatisfaction and, rather, just try to contain customer service issues. This approach almost always results in an endemic problem with high customer loss rates down the road and substantially higher long-term customer service costs. Both of these problems usually spell disaster for a startup or expansion-stage company.

So why is customer dissatisfaction such a powerful force that needs to be addressed in a company?s customer service strategy? Below are four customer dissatisfaction characteristics that highlight why adopting a proactive customer service strategy is the logical choice:

1. Dissatisfied customers are much more emotional than satisfied customers, and consequently much more likely to share their experiences with others. Just think of the customer experiences you have had over the last year. Most people will find the majority of the ones they remember and shared with others were negative experiences. Additionally, negative customer experiences lead to much more substantial reactions than positive customer experiences.
2. Customers rarely complain to service providers directly. In fact, most of the time customers opt to complain to others or take their complaints to the internet. With social media listening techniques much of this can be captured. However, once complaints have reached the social media waves they are public and no longer a private issue.
3. The growing popularity of social media has amplified the reach of customer opinions. This effect has had a disproportionately large effect on customer dissatisfaction because negative sentiment is more likely to go viral. Just think about all the negative customer stories you can remember going viral on the internet over the last few years. One that remains clear in my mind is EJ?s AirBnB.com nightmare story that single handedly threw the company into disaster recovery mode. I bet you can?t think of a positive customer story garnering that kind of attention.
4. Customer expectations continue to grow at an astounding rate. What was considered an adequate response time or handling of a service issue yesterday is today considered below expectations. Just a few years ago a 24 hour response time to a customer complaint was considered top in class performance in most markets. Now many customers expect immediate responses to their social media communications. These constantly changing market dynamics have made it difficult and costly for companies to maintain top performance levels. To make these new demands more manageable companies have to focus more effort towards eliminating systematic issues and not being more effective at resolving them.

For these reasons, startups and expansion-stage companies need to prioritize customer service and adequately invest in developing a proactive customer service strategy.

Proactive customer service strategies are the product of including a mixture of proactive and reactive customer service key performance indicators that the company tracks in its service division. By incorporating proactive metrics, you will encourage the service team to develop systematic approaches to deal with customer dissatisfaction, not just finding better ways to resolve customer issues and contain them. However, it is also important to develop a service-oriented culture across the company, as this will lead to a long-term focused customer service strategy.

If you would like to read more on managing customer satisfaction, I recommend reading my post from last year on 6 Net Promoter Score Mistakes that Derail Customer Management Process. Similarly, if you would like to read more on customer communication, I also recommend reading my previous post on customer communication strategy development.

Sign-up for our Free Weekly Newsletter to get the best new ideas for building technology companies.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/customer-dissatisfaction-why-containment-is-not-an-option-0340060

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Emirates cancels Damascus flights, Internet goes dark

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.

Residents also reported Internet connections in the capital were down and mobile and land telephone lines working only sporadically in what appeared to be the worst disruption to communications in Syria since an uprising began 20 months ago.

The past two weeks have seen rebels overrunning army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds.

Rebels and activists said the fighting along the road to Damascus airport, southeast of the capital, was heavier in that area than at any other time in the conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a opposition monitoring group, said clashes were particularly intense in Babbila, a suburb bordering the insurgent stronghold of Tadamon.

Nabeel al-Ameer, a spokesman for the rebel Military Council in Damascus, said that a large number of army reinforcements had arrived along the road after three days of scattered clashes ending with rebels seizing side streets to the north of it.

"There are no clashes directly around the airport; the fighting is about 3 or 4 kilometers away," he said via Skype, adding that rebels had taken control of many secondary roads and were expected to advance towards the airport.

He said that he hoped the proximity of the rebels to the airport would dissuade authorities from using it to import military equipment, but the priority now was to block the road.

A Syrian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

Residents said the Internet in Damascus crashed in the early afternoon and mobile and land telephone lines were functioning only intermittently.

A blog post on Renesys, a U.S. company which tracks Internet traffic worldwide, said that at 12:26 p.m. in Damascus, Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down completely.

Emirates said it was suspending daily flights to Damascus "until further notice", but other airlines continued operations.

Airport sources in Cairo said an Egypt Air flight that left at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) had landed in Damascus as scheduled.

"The Egypt Air plane has arrived ... and passengers are all safe but the pilot was instructed to take off back to Cairo without passengers if he felt that the situation there is not good to stay for longer," an official at Cairo airport said.

Elsewhere in Damascus, warplanes bombed Kafr Souseh and Daraya, two neighborhoods that fringe the center of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units, according to opposition activists.

"NOT LAST DAYS YET"

A senior European Union official said that Assad appeared to be preparing for a military showdown around Damascus, possibly by isolating the city with a network of checkpoints.

"The rebels are gaining ground but it is still rather slow. We are not witnessing the last days yet," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

In the north of the country, rebel units launched an offensive to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway that would allow them to block troop movements and cut Assad's main supply route to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

The Observatory said that rebel units from around Idlib province massed early on Thursday morning to attack Wadi al-Deif, a base east of the rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan.

Wadi al-Deif has been a thorn in the side of rebel units who first besieged the station in October but met fierce resistance from government forces, backed up by air strikes.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform but escalated, after a military crackdown on protesters, into a civil war in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad but stopped short of arming rebel fighters as they fear heavy weapons could make their way into the hands of radical Islamist units, who have grown increasingly prominent in the insurgency.

Rebels decry their supporters for not providing them with surface-to-air missiles that they say they need to counter the air force. But recent looting of anti-aircraft missiles from army bases has allowed them to shoot down helicopters and jets.

"So far, there is no evidence that any of the surface-to-air missiles used to date have come from outside Syria," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

"The limited number of surface-to-air missiles that have shown up all appear to have come from Syrian military stock captured by the armed opposition."

He said the number of these missiles in rebel hands was probably over 20 but that will rise significantly as rebels are capturing military bases on an almost-daily basis.

The relatively small number of anti-aircraft missiles looted so far means that many rebel-controlled areas of the country remain vulnerable to air strikes. The Observatory said 15 citizens, including children and women, were killed during a bombing in Aleppo's Ansari district on Thursday.

Activist video footage showed the bodies of at least four children, wrapped in red blankets and apparently wearing pyjamas. Another video showed the immediate aftermath of the attack, with the bodies of children in the street and covered in cement dust. Half of one young boy's head was missing.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Praveen Menon in Dubai and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/damascus-clashes-cut-off-airport-emirates-suspends-flights-141313857.html

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China vows to strengthen cooperation with Europe

Shanghai News.Net Wednesday 28th November, 2012

Chinese Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang told a Hamburg summit that the relationship between China and Europe has become one of the most important in the world, Xinhua reported.

"The economic and trade cooperation between the two sides has brought substantive benefits to both parties," said Wan, who is also vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

Wan told the meeting that the international financial crisis and European debt crisis have deepened the interdependence of Chinese and European economies, adding that the the cooperation has played a positive role in uplifting the gloomy world economy.

Wan said the recently closed 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has charted a course for the future development of China and set an ambitious goal of building a welloff society in all aspects in China by 2020, Wan said.

He stressed that China and Europe should deepen the cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, which is mutually beneficial.

Founded in 2004, the bienniallyheld Hamburg summit has become an important dialogue platform for the economic cooperation between China and Europe.

Source: http://www.shanghainews.net/index.php/sid/211029794/scat/9366300fc9319e9b

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Entertainment Ink Artist - Vector Draw, Paint, Sketch ... - iPhone apps

? Company App Rating 7.33 / 33 App Update 2012.11.28 12:51 App Price $1.99 Apps download 0 / 0 / 0 App Requirements iPad. iOS 4.0 or later. App support languages English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish App Size English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, ? This application is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Dear %UserName%, if you like apps.su please, use Share & AddThis & iLike !) We need more links:)) thanks!
Current Version Info about jailbreak?/? Entertainment?/? Ink Artist - Vector Draw, Paint, Sketch, Doodle with Natural Brushes 1 Bug fixed: Crashes when trying to put a picture on the background 2 Export arts to pdf file and share it over email. Ink Artist, a vector-based drawing tool, designed to create beautiful line work and enlarge painting without blurring. Ink Artist that built with the powerful vector drawing engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes with not-quite-natural painting. Use a stylus or your finger to draw strokes that appear smooth at any zoom level without jaggies or big pixels. It is capable both of mimicking ?real? media all the way to producing very ?digital? style artwork. High resolution images could be exported directly from your iPad and to be shared easily everywhere with other art enthusiasts. It aims to be simple and fast at what it does. You will enjoy the freedom to work away from your desktop and still achieve pen-and-ink inspired look using Ink Artist. Ink Artist features highlights: ?Zoom functionality. Fluidly zoom in while drawing to create fine details, and zoom out to see a complete view and add larger elements. ?Transparency, Stroke size, Pressure-sensitive could be adjusted. ?Share your arts to facebook, twitter, email etc. ?Undo / Redo function (Unlimited steps !). ?Huge virtual canvas. You will not feel cramped by the size of your screen any more. ?Background style templates (50 kinds). ?Various types of high-quality natural brushes: brush, pencil, pen, airbrush, watercolor brush, chalk, charcoal, neon pens, special effect pens to simulate the effect of Brush painting, Watercolor painting, Oil painting, Chinese painting, Drawing, Chinese Calligraphy and so on. ?Import images or photos from your device and draw over your photos. ?Brush size adjustment slider. ?Eraser tool to correct possible mistakes. ?Export to image files. ?Export page to pdf file and share it over email. Feedback: Any suggestion will be appreciated, support email: market@effectmatrix.com jailbreak created by , have iphone apps rating 7.33 / 33. This App is available at the iphone apps Entertainment.
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Source: http://apps.su/program/53639/ink-artist-vector-draw-paint-sketch-doodle-with-natural-brushes.html

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Tea Wares from Occupied Japan

During the post-World War II years, the USA spent a great deal of money and manpower to help our former enemies rebuild their economies. One of these projects in Japan was the re-establishment of ceramics production.

An Occupied Japan cup and saucer that I found in a local antiques shop several years ago. (Photo source: article author)

While Japan had a centuries-old tradition of ceramics (stoneware, china, porcelain) ranging from functional to decorative before the war, many of the factories were damaged during the fighting and skilled workers were in short supply. At war?s end, former factory workers and artisans found their way home and began to take up their jobs in the ceramics industry.

At first Americans back home were reluctant to buy products from Japan. The main outlet for them was the PX, or post exchange: the store on the base where military personnel and their families shopped. Obviously our GIs felt that helping the Japanese rebuild their economies included being their customers. By about 1948 American ill will against the Japanese people had subsided enough that goods from Japan were once again welcomed in USA markets.

Ceramics produced in Japan between 1945 and 1952 were identified as being made in occupied Japan. Most of the pieces bear markings of this period: Made in Occupied Japan, or just Occupied Japan. Because this period lasted less than seven years, many of the pieces created during the occupation have become rare and quite valuable.

Briefly, ceramics require two firings (baking in a super-hot oven called a kiln): the first, or bisque, firing that produces a solid, semi-porous object; followed by the glaze firing, in which a combination of minerals applied to the object and then heated become vitreous, thus rendering the object impervious to liquids.

The ceramics created in Occupied Japan were generally made of a white clay, or kaolin, which is used to produce porcelain. Most of the objects, however, were produced as china, which is fired at a lower temperature than porcelain.

While the majority of Occupied Japan china comprised figurines or other figural items (mugs, salt and pepper shakers, vases, and the like), a great number of tea wares were also produced. Many of these took the form of miniature tea sets and children?s tea sets. You can also find a few teapots and full-size tea sets. The majority of tea wares produced in Occupied Japan, however, were teacups ? and some very beautiful ones at that.

When shopping for Occupied Japan china, look for the identifying marks stamped on the bottom. Although there have been some forgeries, most objects carrying the Occupied Japan stamp tend to be genuine. On the other hand, some Occupied Japan china is, unfortunately, not marked as such, and requires a ceramics expert to correctly identify it. There are also some specific factory names you can look for: Ucagco is one of these. Other pieces are signed by the individual artisan.

Occupied Japan china can be found at antiques and collectibles shops, yard sales, and via online sellers, and vary widely in price. Once you find a piece that you love, it?s up to you to decide whether the asking price is worth it.

? Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article?s author and/or the blog?s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Source: http://englishtea.us/2012/11/28/tea-wares-from-occupied-japan/

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Obese flier turned away by airlines dies overseas

1 day

A. Pawlowski , NBC News contributor

An ailing, 425-pound woman who was turned away by three airlines as she tried to return to the U.S. from Europe has died overseas, prompting legal action from her family.

Vilma Soltesz and her husband traveled to Hungary in September to spend a month in their former homeland ? a trek the Bronx residents made every year to visit family.

They flew from New York to Budapest on KLM without any problems, with Soltesz purchasing two seats for herself because of her size, said Holly Ostrov Ronai, the family?s attorney.

But when the couple tried to return to New York in October, the problems began.

?They were sent from airline to airline, they were sent driving around, they were just treated completely inhumanely,? Ronai told NBC News. ?(The airlines) had a duty to get her home to her doctors.?

Soltesz, 56, and her husband came on board their scheduled KLM flight to New York on Oct. 15 with the help of a Skylift elevator, but the captain told them to disembark because of an issue with the seatback and because the airline didn?t have a seatbelt extender, Ronai said.

KLM countered that it was not physically possible for Soltesz to board the aircraft, despite every effort made by the airline.

?A seat or belt extender did not offer a solution either,? said KLM spokeswoman Ellen van Ginkel, in a statement to NBC News.

?Subsequently, KLM and its partners Delta and Air France did its utmost to find an alternative in the two days that followed. The passenger also took the initiative herself to approach her ticket agent to look for alternatives with other airlines.?

The couple spent five hours at the airport and then drove through the night to Prague, where they were told a bigger Delta Air Lines plane could take them home the next day. But that attempt was also unsuccessful because Delta only had a plastic wheelchair that was not able to hold Soltesz's weight, Ronai said.

Delta did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesman for the airline told The New York Post that ?despite a determined good-faith effort by Delta in Prague, we were also physically unable to board her on our aircraft.?

Finally, the couple tried to return to New York on a Lufthansa flight on Oct. 22. They boarded the plane, but the captain asked them to disembark because he thought Soltesz could not fasten herself in properly, Ronai said.

Lufthansa said the decision was unavoidable.

?Lufthansa, together with its local partners, fire brigade and technical experts at Budapest Airport tried its utmost to accommodate Mrs. Vilma Soltesz on board our flight from Budapest,? said spokeswoman Christina Semmel.

?After several, time consuming attempts it was decided that for the safety of this passenger and the over 140 fellow passengers, Lufthansa had to deny transportation of the passenger.?

Hungarian television footage of the couple after the incident showed Soltesz???an amputee who suffered from kidney disease and diabetes???with a severely distended belly. She died two days later.

Ronai, who plans to sue the three airlines involved for $6 million in federal court next week, said they violated the Air Carrier Access Act by not providing Soltesz with proper assistance or making the proper accommodations for her to be able to fly home and seek medical care from her doctors. This ultimately caused her death, Ronai said.

Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines may not refuse to fly people because of their disability, but they may exclude anyone from a flight ?if carrying the person would be inimical to the safety of the flight.??

?Airlines are responsible for determining whether or not they can carry passengers safely, and that includes those with disabilities. They may decline boarding if they believe they?re not able to do so,? said DOT spokesman Bill Mosley.

A carrier that excludes a person with a disability on safety grounds must provide a written explanation, but the Soltesz family never received any such document, Ronai said.

Meanwhile, the European Union, which includes Hungary, mandates that air travelers with ?reduced mobility? can't be denied boarding, unless the aircraft is physically too small or there are security concerns.

Obesity in itself is not considered a disability and it?s up to each airline to decide how to deal with large passengers, Mosley said.

There is also no specific rule that requires airlines to carry seatbelt extenders, said Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman. Planes must be equipped with an approved safety belt for each passenger, but the only way to meet the "approved" requirement for large fliers is for the airline to furnish the extenders, Dorr said.

With more than one-third of U.S. adults now obese, airlines continue to grapple with how to accommodate those fliers. Most now have policies addressing ?customers of size? ? usually asking them to buy two seats if they can?t lower their armrests or overflow into a neighbor?s seat.

Airfarewatchdog.com recently put together a guide listing each carrier?s approach and was surprised by the lack of uniformity.

Meanwhile, Soltesz?s family is grieving their loss.

?This should not have happened at all and it should never happen to anyone else, ever,? Ronai said.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/obese-flier-turned-away-airlines-dies-overseas-1C7277987

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Tablets 2012: As competition abounds, the iPad hangs onto its crown

14 hrs.

Wilson Rothman , NBC News

Non-iPads from Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others are flooding the market, bringing more diverse experiences, often at better prices than the iPad and its little sibling, the iPad Mini.

Doesn?t matter. Odds are, you?ll still ask Santa for an Apple tablet. And new research suggests Apple iPads large and small will dominate this rapidly growing business, at least through 2013.

OK OK, you're thinking, "Thanks for the newsflash, fanboy." But seriously, in a universe where shoppers operate on cold logic and ever-tightening budgets, the iPad should fall under the wheels of Android any minute now, the same thing that happened with smartphones. So how does Apple maintain its grip?

It's not design or ease of use. Although they surely contribute to customer loyalty, they're not enormous differentiators any more. (Don?t believe me? Ask Apple?s patent lawyers.)

So what?s the answer? Tablets aren?t smartphones and they?re not PCs. While the Android camp waited for a bounce?from the successful phone business, and Microsoft and the computer vendors groped for a bridge between PCs and tablets, Apple made this middle ground the iPad's kingdom.

Heated competition
In the fall of 2011, when Amazon and Barnes & Noble axed their tablet prices down to under $200, Apple held its $499 starting point.

Logic suggested that the iPad would lose its lead, or at least, its majority. The non-Apple upstarts did see spikes in shipments over the 2011 holiday quarter, according to NPD DisplaySearch, a top global research firm. But by mid-2012, Apple was once again shipping over two thirds of the world?s tablets.

This fall, the non-iPads redoubled their attack. Asus and Samsung teamed up with Google to create Nexus-branded 7-inch and 10-inch tablets (respectively). Amazon multiplied its Kindle Fire by three, and dropped the entry-level 7-inch tablet's price down to $159. Barnes & Noble launched a video service and put out a 9-inch tablet at the unheard-of price of $269.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, the sleeping giant, finally addressed the bite iPad is taking out of PC sales by launching its own tablet. Or is it a PC? Whatever it is ? and believe me, the debate still rages ? the $499 Surface RT with its clever keyboard add-on and its full version of Microsoft Office was built to challenge the notion that an iPad can satisfy most computerly needs.

Apple's response to the increased competition made sense ... sort of. It jacked up the specs on its flagship 9.7-inch tablet, and addressed the growing interest in 7-inch tablets by popping out the iPad Mini, a 7.9-inch model. But Apple priced the Mini at $329 ? well above devices from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google. And the screen on the Mini doesn't measure up, resolution-wise, to those same cheaper competitors.

Again, doesn?t matter.

Apple ? or at least, the 9.7-inch and 7.9-inch displays unique to Apple ? will account for two thirds of tablets shipped through 2013, according to a forecast from NPD DisplaySearch, which uses research from over 140 display component manufacturers around the globe.

A recent study from Nielsen tells a similar story, at least for kids writing letters to Santa. Nearly half of surveyed U.S. kids between the ages of 6 and 12 want an iPad, and 36 percent want an iPad Mini. Even respondents age 13 and up said the iPad was No. 1. (While a ?Tablet computer other than iPad? also rated relatively highly, the only specific non-iPad to reach double-digit demand in either survey was the Kindle Fire.)

What tablets aren?t
Unlike smartphones, there is no inherent reason to buy a tablet. (Don?t kid yourself.) People must rationalize their $499 iPad purchase, and here's how they do it: "We just need something to use in the family room and kitchen," or "We just need something to take on trips," or "We just need an extra computer for the kids."

Most if not all tablet households already have a PC, so people don't need to use an iPad to set up their routers, archive their photos or whatever else a full-blown PC might be especially good for. What an iPad does is fulfill the needs of a secondary computer, without the hassle.

While tablets can replace PCs, they aren't PCs, and thank God for that.

Even in the business world, this PC replacement is gaining momentum. This past week, Barclays Bank made news by buying 8,500 iPads for use in branches, what is being called the biggest purchase of the tablets by a financial services firm.

"On the business side ??and on the consumer side ? it's about the apps,? says Paul Semenza, senior vice president of?analyst services for NPD?DisplaySearch, whose firm has identified that tablets are eating into PC sales. Enterprise-focused apps by the likes of Salesforce, Cisco and Oracle mean that an iPad can provide a convenient way to do highly specialized work quickly on a touchscreen, "rather than having to crack open the notebook."

In confirming the iPad as ?winner and still champ,? Consumer Reports? Jeffrey Fox also cites apps: "With dozens of Android-based models nipping at its heels, the iPad managed to not only hold its own, but up the ante for performance. When you add to that the breadth and quality of its apps, the iPad is still the tablet to beat."

Apple?s commanding lead in tablet-friendly apps ? over 275,000 built specifically for the iPad?s larger screens, versus the underwhelming handful?of tablet-specific apps?available in the?Google Play store ? helps keep it on top. A key reason for the App Store?s initial success is that Apple has its customers trained to spend money, something Google has never really been able to do. When developers release iPad apps, they expect to get paid by the download; to spend time and money bringing the same app to another platform, they must first calculate the risks and rewards.

This can be a vicious circle: If nobody's paying for Android tablet?apps, new ones won't be quick to show up, and then nobody will buy the tablets ... because of a lack of apps. Google has revamped its Google Play store, combining apps with movies and music, in?the hope that at least some customers would?start paying for some content.

Engage!
But there's more to it than just numbers: There?s increasing evidence that iOS users are far more engaged than Android users. NetMarketShare data reported in Fortune last June say that the share of mobile Internet usage for iOS had reached 62 percent, while the far greater population of Android devices hadn?t quite reached 20 percent.

A fresh study by IBM takes it further: Nearly 10 percent of all online shopping over Black Friday was done on iPads, beating "any other tablet or smartphone," says the tech firm. iPhones made up 8.7 percent, while Android was down at 5.5 percent. The so-called ?iPad Factor? is even more pronounced when compared to other tablets: It represented 88.3 percent of tablet online shopping, followed by the Barnes & Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent, says IBM's press release.

And that's why makers of Android tablets should be afraid, because when it comes to tablets, the desire for engagement must precede the tablet purchase.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble have had more luck than other non-Apple tablets in grabbing market share, at least in short bursts, because their tablets come with a built-in sales argument: Buy this to enjoy books and videos to your heart's content.

Amazon has the added advantage of customers who spend so frequently that they keep their credit cards on file, and enough revenues that it can sell tablets at cost, hoping to see profits through media sales.

But while the $70-per-year Amazon Prime video service is nice, its library is not as nice as the omnipresent Netflix's, and the service itself has a large base of customers who signed up for shipping perks, not streaming TV shows.

Most importantly, Amazon makes most of its digital products available on competing iPads, too. The customer's dilemma becomes: "Do I go cheap and get an Amazon-focused experience? Or do I spend more for a broader platform that includes Amazon's services and a lot more?" Apple may push its own services pretty hard, but the flowering of the App Store means that the iPad has become a crossroads of Internet experiences.

All of these factors mean that the iPad,?this expensive-ish not-quite-a-PC that was laughed at when it launched in 2010,?will hold onto its crown for the foreseeable future, as alternatives continue to scramble for relevance. In the smartphone world, someone shopping for an iPhone may well settle for a cheaper Android phone. Yet when it comes to tablets, someone who decides not to buy an iPad may simply choose nothing at all.

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science?editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/tablets-2012-competition-abounds-ipad-hangs-its-crown-1C7275559

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The New Internet Teaching Stars - Technology Review

Gold star: Calvin Hollywood created a business teaching Photoshop tricks online.

Who is Calvin Hollywood? In the world of Photoshop instruction in Germany, Hollywood?s name towers above the rest.

A self-styled maverick of online Photoshop tutorials, Hollywood sticks to his strengths: retouching photographs, teaching others to do the same, and marketing himself. It?s an expansive and lucrative enterprise.

His business includes DVDs, live online webinars, and $30 downloadable courses that people can complete on their own time and schedules. To help generate Internet sales, Hollywood does appearances at shows like ?Horror Nights,? a dance party frequented by people dressed as vampires and zombies. Hollywood says online teaching earns him as much as $16,000 a month.

The Web is starting to change education (see ?The Most Important Educational Technology in 200 Years?) and perhaps nowhere are its transforming effects so apparent as among teachers. Teaching is among the worst paid professions in the U.S. (starting salaries are $30,377 a year). But the Web is rewriting the rules of supply and demand. For popular instructors like Hollywood, who reach beyond physical classrooms, teaching has never offered a greater chance to become rich and famous.

This effect of technology was dubbed the ?Superstar Phenomenon? in a now canonical 1981 paper by the labor economist Sherwin Rosen. In his study, The Economics of Superstars, Rose described mathematically how new media, like radio and TV, concentrated earnings among fewer performers or bestsellers. It did so by increasing the audience of stars, and because consumers flocked to the product they considered the best.

The Web, with its ability to broadcast video, live exercises, and interactive documents, is extending the superstar rule to teachers of everything from computer programming to probability analysis. One expected result, say economists, is that a small number of popular teachers could end up winning the vast share of teaching income. The Wall Street Journal, which discovered a guitar teacher streaming paid classes for 1,500 people from his basement computer, concluded that although we will always need teachers, we may need ?fewer of them.?

Because teaching is a performance art, online education is favoring those like Hollywood, who has a flamboyant style, or others able to connect with their audience. Salman Khan, the stock-picker-turned-tutor whose YouTube math lessons have been viewed over 200 million times (see ?Q&A: Salman Khan?), was recently judged by Yuri Milner, the Russian Internet investor, as the world?s ?first superstar teacher.?

Now more teachers are looking for online outlets, including on commercial websites such like Lynda.com and Udemy, which act as digital adult-education catalogs. Udemy broadcasts classes; any teacher can join in exchange for a 30 percent cut of their revenue. The company?s most popular classes include courses like ?Become a Web Developer from Scratch,? taught by Victor Bastos, a 32-year-old Spanish programmer living in Lisbon, Portugal.

Hollywood, who is 36, says he did not know how to use Photoshop until 2005. At the time, he was a boot camp instructor in Germany?s Air Force. But after seeing a friend stitch together two images using the program, Hollywood says, it was Liebe auf den ersten Blick, or ?love at first sight.? He bought a DSLR camera, a Nikon D70, just so he could have pictures to retouch.

He began teaching Photoshop to Air Force colleagues, eventually branching out into DVDs and seminars, and taking on his stage name, Calvin Hollywood (he declined to reveal his real name). The first time he put a seminar online, he says, 100 spots sold out in 10 minutes. These days, he does most of his Web teaching during the winter. ?September to March, where the weather is not good here in Germany,? says Hollywood. ?People don?t like to travel.?

The Web?s new celebrity teachers don?t necessarily need any academic credentials. Hollywood says he never got further than middle school. What counts is personal style and knowledge to impart. In Hollywood?s case, what he teaches is an unusually heavy style of digital photo enhancement he calls ?Calvinization.? He recalls how other Photoshop teachers scolded him: ?You can?t do that. You don?t do that. Calvin Hollywood, ?Oh my god you can?t do that!??

Katrin Eismann, chair of the digital photography department at New York?s School of Visual Arts, hosted Hollywood on his first trip to the United States in 2008. She says he is part of a new generation of Photoshop teachers who are turning retouching into a form of illustration. That?s different than how Adobe?s image-editing program was used in the past, which was more about correction than creation, and not very glamorous.

Internet instruction has changed that, at least for Hollywood. ?He has good energy, he?s fun, and he ? doesn?t take himself too seriously,? says Eismann. ?He even says that his way is not [necessarily] the right way. As an educator, I admire that.?

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506381/the-new-internet-teaching-stars/

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FDA finds violations at a Peanut butter plant in New Mexico

Posted By: Robin Cross/CBS12.com

WEST PALM BEACH --? The Food and Drug Administration found tons of violations at the Sunland peanut plant.
?
The New Mexico plant was the source of a nut product contamination that left more than 40 people sick in 20 states.

Federal investigators inspected the plant from mid September to mid October. The agency found raw peanuts outside the facility that were exposed to birds and rain. The investigation also found employees ready to package peanuts with their bare hands.

There were also no sinks for employees to wash their hands.

To date, Sunland has recalled all peanut and almond butter products made in that plant after march 2010.FDA finds violations at a Peanut butter plant in New Mexico

Source: http://cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/fda-finds-violations-at-peanut-butter-plant-new-mexico-3213.shtml?wap=0

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Victim of Stalking? Know Your Legal Options - Law Enforcement ...

Stalking is very scary for the person being stalked, but it's not always easy to know what to do to make it stop.

The term stalking is somewhat overused, especially when it refers to "Facebook stalking," which generally involves behavior that's not illegal. Under most states' laws, stalking is defined as a pattern of harassing or threating someone.

Once you know that what's happening to you is legally considered stalking -- i.e., it happens repeatedly and makes you feel unsafe -- then you have several legal options.

Stalking is a crime, so you can report it to the police. If prosecutors charge the stalker, then there will be a criminal case against that person. Some victims feel that is empowering enough, but others want personal justice.

Stalking and harassment can also take the form of harmful actions against people and property, which can be the subject of a personal injury lawsuit. For victims who want to hold their stalkers accountable, a civil suit could provide some monetary compensation for the physical and emotional harm done.

A lawsuit takes time, and the process can be too much for some victims. Even if you don't sue your stalker, the law will still provide you with protection.

A restraining order is one tool available to keep violent or harmful people away from you and your loved ones. While restraining orders are generally used to protect against physical violence, they can also order an alleged harasser to stay away from a victim altogether.

A restraining order isn't always enough to keep a stalker away, but violating a restraining order is a crime. Police can arrest someone for that even if they don't have enough information to make an arrest for stalking.

A restraining order violation can also be used against your stalker if criminal charges are brought.

Stalking, like other kinds of violence, can make a victim feel powerless. But the law is designed to help in those situations. If you're in that situation, it may be a good idea to find a lawyer who can help.

Related Resources:

Source: http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2012/11/victim-of-stalking-know-your-legal-options.html

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Netflix finally comes to Linux! (Sort of...)

Netflix's reluctance to support playback on Linux computers is infamous notorious ridiculous well documented. Well, while the company isn't ready to officially start streaming to your Ubuntu box, you can gain access to its vast library with a specially patched version of Wine. For those of you that don't know, Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Windows apps to run under Linux. Fire up the Windows version of Firefox with this version of the software, install Microsoft's Silverlight and voilà -- Netflix on Linux. Unfortunately, that makes the whole ordeal sound a lot simpler than it is. For the moment you'll need to download Wine from its Git repository, then download and apply five different patches. Then you'll have to download and install Firefox 14.0.1 and Silverlight 4, neither of which are the current (read: easy to find) versions. So far the hack is only confirmed to work on the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 12.10, but we imagine getting it up and running on other distros shouldn't be too difficult. The work around should get easier once the crafty devs get a PPA up and running that will streamline installation. If you're the impatient type you can hit up the source link to get complete instructions.

Filed under: Software, HD

Netflix finally comes to Linux! (Sort of...) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/17/netflix-finally-comes-to-linux-sort-of/

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Vice President Biden's Parks and Recreation' cameo (VIDEO)

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Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/c/34656/f/636655/s/25a8caae/l/0L0Swashingtonpost0N0Cblogs0Cthe0Efix0Cpost0Cvice0Epresident0Ebidens0Eparks0Eand0Erecreation0Ecameo0Evideo0C20A120C110C160C85862f460E30A0A10E11e20Eaf170E67abba0A676e20Iblog0Bhtml0Dwprss0Fr

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George Miller shared their blog post on Facebook

??What we?re watching here today is the equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein helping Nixon cover up Watergate,? he said. ?The mainstream media is Woodward and Bernstein. Watergate is Benghazi. Except this time, Woodward and Bernstein are helping Nixon cover it up.?-- Russ Limbaugh

Lets see if I have this straight...Former President Bill Clinton ... who lied to his own wife... was convicted of perjury ... disbarred from practicing law in his home state... an admitted philanderer ... who "Never had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" ... Impeached by the US House of Representatives ... is giving testimonials for Barrack Obama's character and intentions!!!???? Is this a great country or what!?

?"Thanking Obama for killing Bin Laden is like going into McDonalds and thanking Ronald McDonald for the hamburger. It's the guy cooking the burger that should get the credit, not the clown."

referring to 10-3-12 debate: "Obama made a lot of good points tonight. Unfortunately, most of them were for Romney." - Bill Maher, million dollar Obama donor

How can we stand up to someone that creates a 100 dollar Federal Reserve (FR) note for 2 cents and uses the face value of the note of 100 dollars to buy a 100 dollar U.S. Security where the government has to pay them 4% in interest at the end of the year? A yearly cost of 4 FR notes where it only cost the FR 2 cents to print.

This is the biggest Conspiracy you may ever encounter and this started sometime around 1913. Yes, your parents and their parents had so much of their time stolen from them at a cost of 2 pennies. And the National Debt is one big fraud. And this is not just in the United States but the whole world.- Steven Pattison

?Can you imagine a nation founded on the principles of God is being taken over by a party that despises God, denies God?s existence and wants to stab Israel in the back in order to support the Islamists who would kill the Jews and drive them out of the Middle East??-?- Michael Savage

"WE own this country, and when someone doesn't do the job "we have to let them go."- Clint Eastwood at RNC

"If you've got a business -- you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen?- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro

?Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.?
- President American Bankers Association, 1924

"I think it is wonderful that Eric holder is making sure that Mexicans' second amendment rights are preserved!" - Bobby Florenz?

?My father was a hardcore conservative and a straight line Republican voter before he died. Now he votes Democrat.? (-Unknown)

Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.' Obama is under the mistaken impression that America's symbol is the bald ego." --The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto

??In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn?t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.??Chris Kyle, former SEAL sniper

Remember just a few years ago when...

...the official unemployed was at 8.4 million instead of 12.4 million?

...the U.S. debt was at 9.5 trillion instead of 15.5 trillion?

...gas was $1.89 a gallon?

...the U.S. was friends with Isreal?

...food Stamp Recipients was at 29 million instead of 46 million?

...U.S. Astronauts didn't have to travel with Russians to go into space?

...our country's credit rating was a Triple AAA rating?

"Apparently, I'm supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than what Barack Obama does with mine."- David Burge

Rep. Randy Neugebauer put the burden into perspective: ?It will take over 24 million man hours to comply with Dodd-Frank rules per year. It took only 20 million to build the Panama Canal.?

"Sixty-one percent of debt issued by the Treasury is bought by the Federal Reserve -- which is to say the left hand of the U.S. Government is lending money to the right hand of the US Government. ... Nonetheless, in a land where every mewling babe in the American nursery is born with a debt burden of just under $200,000, the president brags that only his party is 'compassionate' to have no plan whatsoever even to attempt to do anything about this, no way, no how, not now, not ever." --columnist Mark Steyn

Isn't it amazing how every facet of Sergeant Bales life, ?high school, college, employment, why he left his employment, his brother?s employment, his wife?s employment, real estate holdings, a missed house payment , a missed promotion etc., is exposed within a week and the same fact finders can't find comparable info on the most powerful man in the world in three plus years ?

"We do not have a single document that proves Mr. Obama's birth in Hawaii or anywhere in the United States for that matter. The document is fake, the representation is fake.?Mike Zullo, Arpaio Posse Chief Investigator

" If they (SCOTUS destroy the Constitution, they will have destroyed that which created their positions." - Stewart Rhodes.

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts,?NOT to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert?the?Constitution." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Quick, name something that government does better than the private sector that doesn't involve detention, killing, or eliminating freedom." ----Bobby Florentz

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."---- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) 40th US President

?The election of President Obama by the presidential electors, confirmed by Congress, makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant,? Obama?s lawyer Jablonski said.

?

?The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.?
--Author Tom Clancy

?

But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that?my children can live in peace. " ?

- Thomas Paine.

?

"Look, the Taliban, per se, is not our enemy.?

- VP Joe Biden
December 2011

?

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and for people, equally in war and peace, and it covers with its shield of protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of men that any of its great provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government."

? Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

?

Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government ; and to declare expressly that the command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen.
I remain, dear sir,
Your faithful friend and servant,

John Jay.?

?

Calling Ron Paul "out of the mainstream" is a double-edged sword, because it also means he can?t possibly be responsible for the condition of the country today.?

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-? ? ? ? -?<!--[endif]-->Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

?

?A guy named Reggie Love leaving the White House to get a degree at the Wharton School of Business. I guess he realized you can't learn anything about economics in the Obama White House.

- Jay Leno

Laws and regulations which violate the Constitution are not obligatory upon any free man.?

(believed to be from George Washington.)

?

???We?re at that awkward stage where it?s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.?

- Claire Wolf

?

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".

-?????? The Telegraph (good job Barack!)?

?

^{Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable? ? ?- Robert F. Kennedy}

^?

^{?"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein}

^??

<sup>The four boxes of LIBERTY:
1. soap
2. ballot
3. jury
4. ammo
.....in that order!</sup>

^?

^{"The actual need for a service, its relevance and value is always subordinate to the bureaucracy. This is the difference from the private sector: you go into a shop, and the sales assistant asks, 'Can I be of assistance to you, sir?' You go into a government agency: 'Get to the back of the queue and wait until you are called!?'}

^{-?????? Alistair Mcleod}

?

^?

^{?"Only Malcolm X?s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words. His unadorned insistence on respect. He promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline."??}

^{? Barack Hussein Obama?}

^?

^{?It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.?}

^{-Oscar Wilde}

^?

^{?Anyone with an Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker is a Threat to the Gene Pool?}

^{-?Congressman Allen West}

^?

^{?The Only People Who Don?t Want to Disclose the Truth are Those with Something to Hide."}

^{- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro}

^?

^{"If it takes a village to raise your kid, you?re in the wrong country."}

^{-??Seen by Tim Clack II}

^??

^{"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."}

^{-Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Soebarkah Bounel}

^??

^{"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. "?}

^{- Noam Chomsky}

^??

^{"Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself." -}

^{- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro (we are, Barry)}

^?

^{"?whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force?"}

^{Thomas Jefferson, Federal v. Consolidated Government}

^?

^{?Better to be paralyzed from the neck down than the neck up?}

^{-? Charles Krauthammer.}

^?

^{"Sublata causa, tollitur effectus" (Remove the? cause and the effect will cease)}

^{?"Civilization and anarchy are only seven meals apart" ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?}

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Rate these quotes!
Click open the quote you wish to rate, and enter your comments.
Want ?quotes? Click here:
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/DailyQuotes?

^---------

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