Monday, April 29, 2013

Minecraft creator launches browser-based Drop, makes us wish we'd taken touch-typing lessons

Minecraft creator launches browserbased Drop game, makes us wish we'd taken touchtyping lessons

Must try harder.

Update: Bonus points if you press the space bar as you play!

[Thanks Giuliop!]

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Joystiq

Source: Drop, @Notch (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/29/minecraft-creator-launches-browser-based-drop-makes-us-wish-we/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

nflx chicago blackhawks giuliana rancic giuliana rancic elie wiesel temptations work hard play hard

How Long Should You Spend on Making Tasks More Efficient?

These days everyone wants you to hack your life in order to make your day-to-day existence more efficient. But there are times when the effort's not really worth it?and this chart should help you work out what to spend time on, and what to ignore.

Read more...

    

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/WwUp1Dzyh64/how-long-should-you-spend-on-making-tasks-more-efficient

donald driver donald driver robin thicke mariana trench transcendental meditation trayvon martin obama care

Cat and mouse: One gene is necessary for mice to avoid predators

Apr. 29, 2013 ? When a mouse smells a cat, it instinctively avoids the feline or risks becoming dinner. How? A Northwestern University study involving olfactory receptors, which underlie the sense of smell, provides evidence that a single gene is necessary for the behavior.

A research team led by neurobiologist Thomas Bozza has shown that removing one olfactory receptor from mice can have a profound effect on their behavior. The gene, called TAAR4, encodes a receptor that responds to a chemical that is enriched in the urine of carnivores. While normal mice innately avoid the scent marks of predators, mice lacking the TAAR4 receptor do not.

The study, published April 28 in the journal Nature, reveals something new about our sense of smell: individual genes matter.

Unlike our sense of vision, much less is known about how sensory receptors contribute to the perception of smells. Color vision is generated by the cooperative action of three light-sensitive receptors found in sensory neurons in the eye. People with mutations in even one of these receptors experience color blindness.

"It is easy to understand how each of the three color receptors is important and maintained during evolution," said Bozza, an author of the paper, "but the olfactory system is much more complex."

In contrast to the three color receptors, humans have 380 olfactory receptor genes, while mice have more than 1,000. Common smells like the fragrance of coffee and perfumes typically activate many receptors.

"The general consensus in the field is that removing a single olfactory receptor gene would not have a significant effect on odor perception," said Bozza, an assistant professor of neurobiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Bozza and his colleagues tested this assumption by genetically removing a specific subset of olfactory receptors called trace amine-associated receptors, or TAARs, in mice. Mice have 15 TAARs. One is expressed in the brain and responds to amine neurotransmitters and common drugs of abuse such as amphetamine. The other 14 are found in the nose and have been coopted to detect odors.

Bozza's group has shown that the TAARs are extremely sensitive to amines -- a class of chemicals that is ubiquitous in biological systems and is enriched in decaying materials and rotting flesh. Mice and humans typically avoid amines since they have a strongly unpleasant, fishy quality.

Bozza's team, including the paper's lead authors, postdoctoral fellow Adam Dewan and graduate student Rodrigo Pacifico, generated mice that lack all 14 olfactory TAAR genes. These mice showed no aversion to amines. In a second experiment, the researchers removed only the TAAR4 gene. TAAR4 responds selectively to phenylethylamine (PEA), an amine that is concentrated in carnivore urine. They found that mice lacking TAAR4 fail to avoid PEA, or the smell of predator cat urine, but still avoid other amines.

"It is amazing to see such a selective effect," Dewan said. "If you remove just one olfactory receptor in mice, you can affect behavior."

The TAAR genes are found in all mammals studied so far, including humans. "The fact that TAARs are highly conserved means they are likely important for survival," Bozza said.

One idea is that the TAARs may make animals very sensitive to the smell of amines. Humans may have TAAR genes to avoid rotting foods, which become enriched in amines during the decomposition process. In fact, the TAARs may relay information to a specific part of the brain that elicits innately aversive behavior in animals.

Bozza's lab has recently shown that neurons in the nose that express the TAARs connect to with a specific region of the olfactory bulb -- the part of the brain that first receives olfactory information. This suggests that the TAARs may elicit hardwired responses to amines in mice, and perhaps humans.

"We hope this work will reveal specific brain circuits that underlie instinctive behaviors in mammals," Bozza said. "Doing so will help us understand how neural circuits contribute to behavior."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Adam Dewan, Rodrigo Pacifico, Ross Zhan, Dmitry Rinberg, Thomas Bozza. Non-redundant coding of aversive odours in the main olfactory pathway. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12114

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/LHj98X5KInQ/130429154115.htm

March Madness 2013 bracket March Madness 2013 selection sunday NIT Tournament clay matthews Ncaa Tournament 2013 2013 NCAA Bracket

Friday, April 26, 2013

ATD: Gates, Ballmer and Sean Parker join Zuckerberg's FWD.us lobby group

ATD: Gates, Ballmer and Sean Parker join Zuckerberg's FWD.us lobby group

Mark Zuckerberg showed he's more than just a social butterfly earlier this month, forming the tech-focused political lobby group FWD.us alongside some other big names in the industry. Now, according to AllThingsD, a few more heavy-hitters have signed up to offer their expertise, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Sean Parker and Intuit CEO Brad Smith. Not a bad crew to have on your side when technology issues are up for discussion, especially Ballmer -- he's notoriously good at getting his point across.

Filed under:

Comments

Via: The Verge

Source: AllThingsD

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/fwd.us-gates-ballmer-parker-join/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

appleton denver weather super bowl recipes planned parenthood kobayashi margaret sanger paul george

With wave of the hand, researchers create touch-based interfaces

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers previously have shown that a depth camera system, such as Kinect, can be combined with a projector to turn almost any surface into a touchscreen. But now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated how these touch-based interfaces can be created almost at will, with the wave of a hand.

CMU's WorldKit system enables someone to rub the arm of a sofa to "paint" a remote control for her TV or swipe a hand across an office door to post his calendar from which subsequent users can "pull down" an extended version. These ad hoc interfaces can be moved, modified or deleted with similar gestures, making them highly personalized.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) used a ceiling-mounted camera and projector to record room geometries, sense hand gestures and project images on desired surfaces.

But Robert Xiao, an HCII doctoral student, said WorldKit does not require such an elaborate installation. "Depth sensors are getting better and projectors just keep getting smaller," he said. "We envision an interactive 'light bulb' -- a miniaturized device that could be screwed into an ordinary light fixture and pointed or moved to wherever an interface is needed."

The system does not require prior calibration, automatically adjusting its sensing and image projection to the orientation of the chosen surface. Users can summon switches, message boards, indicator lights and a variety of other interface designs from a menu. Ultimately, the WorldKit team anticipates that users will be able to custom design interfaces with gestures.

Xiao developed WorldKit with Scott Hudson, an HCII professor, and Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student. They will present their findings April 30 at CHI 2013, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Paris.

"People have talked about creating smart environments, where sensors, displays and computers are interwoven," said Harrison, who will join the HCII faculty this summer. "But usually, that doesn't amount to much besides mounting a camera up on the ceiling. The room may be smart, but it has no outlet for that smartness. With WorldKit, we say forget touchscreens and go straight to projectors, which can make the room truly interactive."

Though WorldKit now focuses on interacting with surfaces, the researchers anticipate future work may enable users to interact with the system in free space. Likewise, higher resolution depth cameras may someday enable the system to sense detailed finger gestures. In addition to gestures, the system also could be designed to respond to voice commands.

"We're only just getting to the point where we're considering the larger questions," Harrison said, noting a multitude of applications in the home, office, hospitals, nursing homes and schools have yet to be explored.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Mellon University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/DTnfN_i9JGo/130425132808.htm

nemo redbox Nemo Storm weather forecast national weather service weather channel Rivals

New Heartland poll paints a gloomy picture of American mood (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301480020?client_source=feed&format=rss

ground hog groundhog day 2012 serrano staten island chuck gwyneth paltrow kylie bisutti

The 1 Chart That Could Sever Obama's Coalition

What could dissolve the powerful electoral coalition that powered both of President Obama?s victories? The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll points to the greatest risk: continuing economic dissatisfaction.

The survey shows some clear continuing signs of strength for Obama with the key elements of the ?coalition of the ascendant? that reelected him. African-Americans, Hispanics, members of the millennial generation ages 18-29, and college-educated white women?the growing groups that provided Obama his critical support last November?all said in the poll they trusted Obama more than congressional Republicans to develop solutions to the country?s economic problems. All four groups are also more likely than the public overall to reject the Reaganesque argument that government is more the problem than the solution to the country?s challenges. Moreover, the first three groups are also more likely than the public overall to say Obama?s agenda will increase opportunity for people like them.

?

But the survey also highlights two potential fissures in the coalition. One is that college-educated white women?who generally lean toward liberal social positions that align them with Obama and most Democrats?tend to hold a dim view of his economic performance. Just 28 percent of them say Obama?s agenda will increase opportunity for people like them; 42 percent say it will decrease it. Obama also scores no better than a roughly even split among the college white women on the question of whether his agenda ?helped to avoid an even worse economic crisis? or ran ?up a record federal deficit while failing to significantly improve the economy.?

The bigger risk for Obama: The millennial generation and minorities are much more likely than the public overall to describe their current economic situation as only fair or poor. While 54 percent of the public overall (and just 39 percent of the college white women) put that negative designation on their current economic standing, 63 percent of millennials, 67 percent of African-Americans, and 69 percent of Hispanics say they are struggling. On issues like guns, gay marriage, and potentially immigration, congressional Republicans continue to take positions that make it difficult for all of these voters, as well as the college white women, to connect with the GOP. But if minorities and millennials remain this dissatisfied with their economic condition, Democrats will face a growing challenge to maintain through 2016 the lopsided advantages they enjoyed among them in 2012.

The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll, conducted by FTI Consulting?s strategic communications practice, surveyed 1,000 adults from April 5 to 9, via landline and cell phone. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-chart-could-sever-obamas-coalition-130003917--politics.html

the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke green book some like it hot duke university whale shark whale shark

California city council finds it can't afford to quit Calpers

By Tim Reid

(Reuters) - The City Council of San Jose, in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, wants to quit the state's public pension fund - which covers its current and former members - because it fears it can't afford the rising contributions.

There's just one problem. It also can't afford the "astonishingly high" termination fee of up to $5.7 million that the California Public Employees Retirement System is demanding.

The catch-22 situation comes at a time when cities and states are struggling to manage budgets because of soaring pension costs.

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously in January 2012 to explore terminating its relationship with Calpers, America's biggest pension system with $256 billion in assets. It asked for a termination figure for the 30 current and former council members subscribed to the plan. In January 2013, Calpers pegged the cost at between $5 million and $5.7 million, a figure just made public.

"I was astonished," said Mayor Chuck Reed. "It was a shock." One year ago, he said, the city council's unfunded liability figure estimated by Calpers was about $500,000. "I was expecting at most two or three times that as a termination figure," Reed said.

He said the quit fee was so high that the city, America's 10th biggest with a population of nearly 1 million, had little option but to keep paying into Calpers for the current and former council members. Newly elected members are already offered a different pension plan with lower costs and benefits, and will not pay into Calpers, Reed said. The city's general workforce pays into different pension funds not managed by Calpers.

Brad Pacheco, a Calpers spokesman, said that when a termination fee is paid, cities get fully funded and guaranteed lifetime pension payments for all members in the plan.

San Jose is not the only California city looking for a way out of Calpers or a way to renegotiate their obligations to the system.

The tiny southern California city of Canyon Lake served formal notice to quit Calpers earlier this month, and Pacific Grove, another small city, on the state's central coast, says it wants to quit the plan but cannot because of the high termination fee.

James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy specialist and a partner at law firm Chapman and Cutler in Chicago, said the San Jose city council is just a small example of a wider problem in California where cities simply cannot afford their current pension obligations to Calpers. Something has to give, he said.

"If municipalities can't pay, then they have to be able to negotiate" with Calpers, Spiotto said. "You cannot have a situation where a city says they can't do it, but Calpers says they have to do it. That's an impossibility."

Calpers serves many California cities and counties, including the cities of Stockton and San Bernardino, which filed for bankruptcy last year under the pressure of rising costs for wages and pensions.

RATE OF RETURN A BONE OF CONTENTION

Calpers calculated the San Jose council's termination fee based on annual return rates of 2.37 to 2.5 percent -- compared with a the 7.5 percent return rate it uses to calculate future liabilities for members in the plan.

The higher the estimated rate of return, the less an employer has to pay into the plan. But when a pension fund is closed, contributions from cities and workers stop.

"Calpers can no longer go back to employers to make up shortfalls," Pacheco said. "This is why we adopted a much more conservative investment strategy for the terminated agency pool where the assets are moved."

Critics say that Calpers' 7.5 percent long-term projected return rate, as well as similar rate of returns adopted by public pensions across the country, is artificially high. Some economists suggest that pension funds, including Calpers, should be using a lower rate to reflect risk-free investments such as the yields paid by U.S. Treasury bonds.

When a pension fund's returns do not meet its projected rate, a shortfall is created. The costs are generally passed onto members. This month Calpers' board approved accounting changes requiring state agencies, cities and counties to pay rate hikes of up to 50 percent to cover the fund's shortfall over 30 years.

Critics say the low discount termination rate produces a huge one-time figure that makes it impossible for cities to quit Calpers, and there is little that a single city can do.

"There has to be a number between 7.5 percent and 2.5 percent, but there is no means for a city to challenge that," said Karol Denniston, a bankruptcy attorney with Schiff Hardin in San Francisco who helped draft California's bankruptcy process law.

In San Jose, the council was worried about its rising monthly contribution costs and a growing unfunded liability to Calpers. Last year the city council paid Calpers $130,700 in annual contributions, and this year it paid over $147,000. Next year's projected annual contribution is nearly $165,000, the city said.

Outside of the council, the city's workforce does not pay into Calpers but into a separately administered municipal plan - similar to other large California cities, including Los Angeles. San Jose's workforce has had significant salary and pension reductions imposed by the city council because of rising city debt.

The council decided to look at terminating its own pension plan with Calpers to show the city's wider workforce that it was interested in reining in elected officials' pension costs.

(Reporting by Tim Reid in Los Angeles; Editing by Tiziana Barghini and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-city-council-finds-cant-afford-quit-calpers-182816245--sector.html

ryan broyles jerel worthy alshon jeffery bulls california earthquake california earthquake tyson chandler

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus will not seek re-election

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus will not seek reelection next year, the Washington Post reports.

Baucus plans to fulfill his sixth term in the chamber and will step down before the next session in 2015, according to the report. The lawmaker chairs the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, and he played an influential role in writing the federal health care law that passed in 2010.

Baucus had deeply angered the White House in recent days, first by opposing bipartisan legislation to enhance background checks of would-be gun purchasers. Baucus? ?no? vote helped kill the background check measure, and he was among the lawmakers President Barack Obama targeted with a blistering Rose Garden tirade against ?shameful? inside-the-Beltway politics.

?There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn?t do this,? Obama said. ?It came down to politics?the worry that the vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections. They worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti-Second Amendment.?

Baucus also warned at a recent hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that implementing the federal health care law would be a ?train wreck? over the next few years, a comment that angered both liberals supportive of the law and conservatives who pointed out that he helped shepherd it to passage.

Baucus will be the sixth Democrat to announce plans to retire at the end of the current term. His absence will pave the way for yet another competitive Senate election in which Republicans will seek to bolster their numbers in the chamber.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/montana-democratic-sen-max-baucus-not-seek-reelection-142104762--election.html

mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests tony nominations 2012

Own Every Single One of History's Most Important Cameras (On a Poster)

Following up on its gloriously detailed Evolution of Video Game Controllers print, Pop Chart Lab is back with a new visual treat for photographers, particularly those who've been shooting since the days of film. More »
    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/8Ez_e1RZtoo/own-every-single-one-of-historys-most-important-cameras-on-a-poster

cooking a turkey toysrus how to carve a turkey ipad 2 wal mart happy thanksgiving Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade 2012

Yet Again, Institutional Design Matters (Poliblogger)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301027924?client_source=feed&format=rss

doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey sarah palin today show dallas tornado video 1940 census

Monday, April 22, 2013

US home sales slip as supply remains tight

(AP) ? Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes dipped in March as the supply remained tight. But the sales pace remained ahead of last year's.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million, from 4.95 million in February. February's figure was revised lower.

Sales in March were 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier.

Sales have remained mostly unchanged in the past four months ? largely, analysts say, because of a limited supply of homes. Economists still expect the housing market to continue recovering this year.

The low supply, combined with rising demand for housing, could accelerate construction in coming months. The Realtors' group said buyer traffic is 25 percent higher than it was a year ago.

"A disappointing result for U.S. existing-home sales, but with inventories still very tight, the outlook remains favorable," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients.

A steady housing recovery is providing support to the economy this year. Builders are starting work on more homes, boosting construction jobs. And home prices are rising. Higher prices tend to make homeowners feel wealthier and encourage more spending.

Still, the pace of purchases of previously occupied homes has been little changed in recent months, partly because of the tight inventory. The supply of available homes has fallen nearly 17 percent in the past year to 1.93 million.

At the current sales pace, that supply would be exhausted in 4.7 months, below the 6 months typical in a healthy market.

The supply rose 1.6 percent from February to March. The Realtors' group says it expects a much bigger increase in supply this month as the spring selling season began.

A larger supply would suggest that more sellers are putting their homes on the market because they're confident they can fetch a good price.

The tight supply helps explain why prices have been rising. The median price rose 11.8 percent from February to March to $184,300, the biggest one-month gain since 2005.

The higher median price partly reflects bigger increases in sales of more-expensive homes. Sales of homes priced from $500,000 to $750,000 jumped 25.3 percent from a year ago. By contrast, sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 rose just 7.1 percent.

The higher prices may be discouraging some investors and weighing a bit on sales. Investors usually seek to buy at a steep discount. Investors bought 19 percent of homes in March, down from 22 percent in February.

First-time buyers, who usually drive housing recoveries, are playing a smaller role in the current rebound. They accounted for 30 percent of sales last month, the same as in February. First-time buyers usually make up about 40 percent of buyers in a healthy market.

One bright sign in the report is that the percentage of so-called distressed sales fell sharply. Distressed sales include foreclosed homes and homes in which the size of the mortgage exceeds the home's value.

Those sales fell to 21 percent of the total in March, down from 25 percent in February. That's the lowest proportion since the Realtors' group began tracking the figure in October 2008.

Steady hiring and near-record-low mortgage rates have helped boost sales. More Americans are moving out on their own after living with friends and family in the recession. That's creating more housing demand.

Still, sales would have to reach an annual pace of 5.5 million to be considered healthy.

Since the housing bubble burst more than six years ago, banks have imposed tighter credit conditions and required larger down payments. Those changes have left many would-be buyers unable to qualify for super-low mortgage rates.

Mortgage rates dropped last week to near-record lows. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 3.41 percent from 3.43 percent. That's not far from the record low of 3.31 percent in November.

Rising demand and short supplies have encouraged builders to boost construction. U.S. builders started work on more than 1 million homes at an annual pace in March, the first time they've topped that threshold in nearly 5 years.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-22-Home%20Sales/id-41b47449be924185a8b83b857864de04

gavin degraw alec time 100 bob beckel anna paquin warren buffett 2012 nfl schedule

Fans sink into Cruise's 'Oblivion' in $38.2M debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Movie fans slipped into "Oblivion" as the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller led Hollywood with a $38.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That domestic haul comes on top of $33.7 million "Oblivion" added in overseas markets, where the film began rolling out a week earlier. "Oblivion" raised its overseas total to $112 million and its worldwide receipts to $150.2 million.

Though many people Friday were caught up in coverage of the manhunt for the suspect in the Boston Marathon explosions, it seems to have had little effect on how the film fared.

"Oblivion" took in $13.3 million on opening day Friday and $14.9 million on Saturday. That 12 percent increase is not unusual for big new releases, which typically do better business on Saturday than Friday.

While Boston was on lockdown much of Friday, that market only accounts for about 1 percent of the nationwide box office, said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released "Oblivion." The manhunt mainly affected matinee business, with theaters reopening Friday night, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody.

"Once the guy was arrested, I think people got back into their regular routine," Rocco said.

The previous weekend's top film, the Warner Bros. baseball drama "42," held up well, slipping to second-place with $18 million in its second weekend. The Jackie Robinson biography starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford raised its domestic total to $54.1 million and is on its way to the $100 million mark, said Dan Fellman, Warner's head of distribution.

Overseas, Paramount's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" got a lift with $40 million, most of it coming from a $33 million debut in China. The action sequel has topped $200 million internationally and $300 million worldwide.

"Oblivion" came in a bit higher than industry expectations. But despite its strong opening, Hollywood's 2013 revenue funk continued, with overall domestic receipts at $109 million, down 19.4 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

A year ago, two new romances ? the comedy "Think Like a Man" and the drama "The Lucky One" ? combined for $56 million that weekend, while the blockbuster "The Hunger Games" remained strong with nearly $15 million.

"Even Tom Cruise was unable to beat the strength of two really strong newcomers that were devoid of stars anywhere near in his league," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "That tells you the difference between last year and this year. Even when we have a good weekend like this in 2013, generally these weekends, they pale by comparison to what happened last year."

Domestic revenues in 2013 total $2.76 billion, down 11.2 percent from where business was at last year, when Hollywood took in record cash.

Business slumped a bit in summer 2012 with some high-profile duds, so studios have a shot at gaining ground over last year with this season's upcoming blockbusters, which include "Iron Man 3," ''Star Trek Into Darkness," ''The Hangover Part III" and "Man of Steel."

Still, the gap almost certainly will continue to rise in the early part of the summer season.

Disney's Marvel Studios sequel "Iron Man 3" is expected to open with a whopping $125 million-plus domestically over the first weekend in May, Dergarabedian said. But that would fall far short of the record-breaking $207.4 million debut for the Marvel ensemble smash "The Avengers" over the same weekend last year.

Even so, Cruise's "Oblivion" provides a solid action lead-in to summer. The film stars Cruise as a repairman fixing machines in the wastelands of Earth after an alien attack.

Despite upheavals and odd behavior in Cruise's personal life in the last six or seven years, he remains one of Hollywood's surest box-office draws. Universal reported that in exit polls, fans cited Cruise as the No. 1 reason they saw the film.

"He's a global star," Rocco said. "People love Tom Cruise. If you put him in the right vehicle, they love him even better."

In narrower release, Rob Zombie's latest horror tale "The Lords of Salem" flopped with $622,000 in 355 theaters, for a dismal average of $1,752 a cinema. That compared to an average of $10,085 in 3,783 theaters for "Oblivion."

The low-budget hip-hop drama "Filly Brown" opened solidly with $1.4 million in 188 theaters, for an average of $7,250. The film stars Gina Rodriguez and the late Jenni Rivera in the story of a young talent with a shot at stardom on Los Angeles' hip-hop scene.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Oblivion," $38.2 million ($33.7 million international).

2. "42," $18 million.

3. "The Croods," $9.5 million ($23.4 million international).

4. "Scary Movie 5," $6.3 million.

5. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $5.8 million ($40 million international).

6. "The Place Beyond the Pines," $4.7 million.

7. "Olympus Has Fallen," $4.5 million.

8. "Evil Dead," $4.1 million.

9. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $4 million ($420,000 international).

10. "Oz the Great and Powerful," $3 million ($1.5 million international).

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fans-sink-cruises-oblivion-38-2m-debut-162409214--finance.html

bar refaeli Paul Harvey ihop Sasquatch 2013 super bowl commercials wheres my refund Fast And Furious 6

Scott Porter, Kelsey Mayfield wed in Austin

Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Samsung

Scott Porter and Kelsey Mayfield.

By Us Weekly

Scott Porter and Kelsey Mayfield tied the knot in Austin, Tex., on Apr. 20, Us Weekly has confirmed. The "Hart of Dixie" actor and the Shine America casting producer got engaged in January 2012 following a four-year courtship. (Us broke the news of Porter's proposal.)

Hours before the pair swapped vows, an excited Porter tweeted, "Today is the day. There are no more tomorrows. And I could not be happier!" The groom wore a gray three-piece suit with a pink flower boutonniere. The bride looked stunning in a lacy white gown.

PHOTOS: Zoom in on Hollywood's biggest engagement rings!

The pair met on the set of NBC's "Friday Night Lights," where Porter played quarterback Jason Street. At the time, Mayfield was a cheerleader at the University of Texas at Austin. The spouses' first date was sweet and simple, according to Porter: "Sushi and a movie!"

The L.A.-based pair selected Austin for their wedding destination because that's where their love story began. "We wanted to get married under a Texas sky, and it's going to be kind of a rustic chic wedding -- that's the term she throws around," Porter, 33, told Us in June 2012. "She's got the whole thing in her head and I trust her explicitly."

VIDEO: Scott Porter tells Us about next season of "Hart of Dixie"

For their honeymoon, the future spouses have considered traveling everywhere from Bora Bora to Greece, but will likely visit "a very small island somewhere in the South Pacific," Porter told Us in August 2012. "We want to just take our time and enjoy some beautiful sunsets and just hang out."

Related content:

?

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/21/17849757-scott-porter-kelsey-mayfield-wed-in-austin?lite

Sandy Hook Elementary School Colors Cassadee Pope Victoria Soto nbc sports morgan freeman Survivor Philippines Fashion Island shooting

Clippers beat Grizzlies 112-91 in playoff opener

Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph shoots under pressure by Los Angeles Clippers forward Lamar Odom during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Los Angeles, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph shoots under pressure by Los Angeles Clippers forward Lamar Odom during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Los Angeles, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul, left, tries to get past Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Los Angeles, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin, second from left, goes up for a shot as Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph, left, and center Marc Gasol, right, of Spain, defends while guard Tony Allen looks on during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Los Angeles, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol shoots against the Los Angeles Clippers during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Los Angeles, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

(AP) ? The Los Angeles Clippers played above the rim, not enough to live up to their Lob City moniker but enough to beat Memphis at its own rebounding game.

Chris Paul led seven players in double figures with 23 points, Eric Bledsoe had 15 and the Clippers dominated the boards in a 112-91 victory over the Grizzlies in their Western Conference playoff opener on Saturday.

Chauncey Billups scored 14 points, and Caron Butler and Jamal Crawford had 13 apiece on a night when Blake Griffin was held to 10 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 3:32 left. The high-flying Clippers had just one dunk, but enjoyed a 47-23 advantage on the glass.

"I just decided not to dunk that often," Paul said, jokingly. "Just shoot floaters. I don't know what Blake's problem was."

Griffin bantered back, saying, "I just wanted to foul."

"They're tough inside and in the end our guys made shots. We don't live for the dunk. It just happens sometimes ? a lot of the time," he said.

Just not this time.

Griffin missed a dunk in the first quarter, when Tony Allen and Ed Davis had Memphis' only two. DeAndre Jordan's driving one-handed slam midway through the fourth was the Clippers' first, and the big man's first and only basket of the game.

"We were able to get in front of them before they take off," said Jerryd Bayless, who led the Grizzlies with 19 points.

Marc Gasol had 16 points and two rebounds, and Zach Randolph had 13 points and four boards in the rematch of last year's first-round series, won by the Clippers in seven games. Randolph finished with five fouls and Bayless was one of four Grizzlies with four fouls.

"That's not acceptable," Gasol said about the rebounding difference. "Once we made a stop, they kept running in and getting offensive rebounds and second-chance points. We have to be better than that. The rebounds were the difference."

Game 2 is Monday night at Staples Center.

"We've got to really, really step up and execute better," Gasol said. "They cannot outhustle us."

The Grizzlies closed within a point early in the fourth on a 3-pointer by former Clipper Keyon Dooling. Los Angeles answered with a 15-3 run to go up 92-79, equaling the 13-point lead it had in the first half. Eric Bledsoe, who had seven points, opened and closed the spurt with layups as the reserves helped the Clippers outscore the Grizzlies 37-22 in the period.

"Bled is that blur," Paul said. "It gave us more versatility. They didn't know who to guard."

The game was slowed by the referees, who called Memphis for 29 fouls and the Clippers 28.

Memphis owned a 48-46 edge in scoring in the paint, while the Clippers dominated 25-5 in second-chance points.

Griffin and Randolph staged a wrestling match within the game. Griffin said his back, which had spasms in the regular-season finale on Wednesday, felt good.

"I'm ready for however many games it's going to take," Griffin said. "If that's the way he wants to play, let's do it."

Randolph said: "It's not that big of a deal right now. We want to win the next one. If we can't win the next one, then it's a big deal."

The Grizzlies never led, and it didn't help that Randolph picked up two fouls and Mike Conley Jr. had three in the first half. Besides Griffin, Jordan had four fouls, while Matt Barnes, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf had three apiece for the Clippers.

"They had two or three guys going to the glass every time," Conley said. "They were jumping over us and using their athleticism."

Paul scored his team's first seven points in the third, extending the lead to 64-53.

The Clippers led 57-51 at halftime after Barnes tipped in Paul's miss just before the buzzer. They led by 13 points early in the second before the Grizzlies cut it to two points twice in the final 1:24.

NOTES: The Clippers have won eight straight games, including their final seven of the regular season. ... Los Angeles is in the playoffs for the second straight year, the first time that's happened since 1991-92 and 1992-93. ... Memphis led the NBA in points allowed with 89.5 per game in the regular season.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-21-BKN-Grizzlies-Clippers/id-df917072b05645caac2294653fb5dbe1

dixville notch Remember Remember The 5th Of November African painted dogs What Time Do Polls Open Krysten Ritter v for vendetta Voting Locations

Rich political novice the favorite to win Paraguayan presidency

By Daniela Desantis and Hilary Burke

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguayans go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election that could return the center-right Colorado Party to power less than a year after the nation's leftist leader was impeached.

Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, 56, is the Colorado Party candidate and front-runner in the race, most polls show. A political novice, he vows to reform his party, which was tainted by corruption during its 60-year reign through 2008.

His main rival is Efrain Alegre, a 50-year-old lawyer and career politician in the ruling center-right Liberal Party, which took over the presidency after withdrawing support for President Fernando Lugo and clearing the way for his impeachment in June.

Congress ousted Lugo, a leftist and former Roman Catholic bishop, after finding him guilty of mishandling a botched land eviction that killed 17 police officers and peasant farmers. Some of Paraguay's neighbors saw the two-day trial as tantamount to a coup and imposed diplomatic sanctions on the South American nation.

"They're all the same to me, the Colorados, the Liberals, Lugo's people. I used to have faith in politicians but I don't anymore. What we need is jobs and they promise that but never deliver," said Evelia Benitez, a 38-year-old street vendor in the capital Asuncion.

Nearly 40 percent of Paraguay's 6.6 million people are poor. Located in the heart of the continent, the country relies on soybean and beef exports, but is also notorious for contraband trade and illicit financing.

One of Paraguay's wealthiest men, Cartes made his fortune in the financial and tobacco industries. Rivals have tried to link him to drug running and money laundering, but he has never been convicted of a crime and denies any wrongdoing.

Brash and outspoken, Cartes won support for his candidacy even though he never voted before joining the Colorado Party in 2009.

Alegre, a more somber politician, led corruption probes in Congress. But his reputation as an honest administrator has been undermined by an investigation into whether he misappropriated state funds while serving as Lugo's public works minister.

Paraguay's current president, Federico Franco, was barred from running in the presidential election under the country's constitution.

"My leadership model is different from the traditional one. My project represents a 'decent Paraguay' versus the 'Paraguay of the mafias,'" Alegre told Reuters in a recent interview.

BUCKING THE TREND

Polls open at 7 a.m. (1100 GMT). There is no second round of balloting so the candidate with the most votes will be declared the winner. Voters also will elect local authorities and members of Congress, with the left expected to gain seats in the divided legislature.

Paraguay will have a center-right government regardless of whether the Colorados or Liberals win, bucking the trend in South America where leftists have made steady gains in recent years. Only Colombia and Chile are ruled by conservatives.

The leftist bloc is especially strong in the Mercosur trade group, whose members include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. Mercosur suspended Paraguay after Lugo's impeachment and brought in socialist Venezuela, even though its inclusion was never approved by Paraguay's Congress.

Both Cartes and Alegre have said they would push for Paraguay's full return to Mercosur.

The country's economy has been on a roller-coaster ride and hinges largely on crop weather. It is expected to grow 13 percent this year after a severe drought caused a contraction in 2012, according to central bank forecasts.

Land conflicts have intensified in recent years and clashes occasionally break out between squatters and big landowners, including Brazilian soy farmers who live in Paraguay.

Cartes and Alegre promise to carry out agrarian reform. They also want to attract up to $2.7 billion in private capital to refurbish Paraguay's airports and build new highways, and they have vowed to improve operations at state-run companies.

They also agree that the bloated state bureaucracy, which employs about 10 percent of all workers, needs to be revamped.

"Both candidates have a 1990s sort of vision about administering the state in the sense that they would privatize or give concessions to the private sector, which goes against the grain of what's happening elsewhere in the region," said Guzman Ibarra, a political analyst at Seeds for Democracy, a non-profit group.

(Additional reporting by Mariel Cristaldo; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rich-political-novice-favorite-win-paraguayan-presidency-050255324--business.html

jamie lynn sigler mega millions jackpot black panther party frank martin pink slime eagle cam trayvon martin case

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Officer fatally shot on MIT campus

WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) ? One of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead and a massive manhunt is underway for another, authorities said early Friday.

Residents of Watertown, a Boston suburb, have been advised to keep their doors locked and not let anyone in.

The Middlesex district attorney said the two men are suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer on campus late Thursday, then stealing a car at gunpoint and later releasing its driver unharmed. Hours earlier, police had released photos of the marathon bombing suspects and asked for the public's help finding them.

Authorities say the suspects threw explosives from the car as police followed it into Watertown. The suspects and police exchanged gunfire, and one of the suspects was critically injured and later died while the other escaped.

"We believe this to be a terrorist," Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said. "We believe this to be a man who came here to kill people."

The FBI said it is working with local authorities to determine what happened.

The MIT shooting on the Cambridge campus Thursday night was followed by reports of gunfire and explosions in Watertown, about 10 miles west of Boston.

The MIT officer had been responding to report of a disturbance Thursday night when he was shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Middlesex district attorney's office and Cambridge police. It said there were no other victims.

In Watertown, witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots and explosions at about 1 a.m. Friday. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents were in the neighborhood and a helicopter circled overhead.

State police spokesman David Procopio said, "The incident in Watertown did involve what we believe to be explosive devices possibly, potentially, being used against the police officers."

Boston cab driver Imran Saif said he was standing on a street corner at a police barricade across from a diner when he heard an explosion.

"I heard a loud boom and then a rapid succession of pop, pop, pop," he said. "It sounded like automatic weapons. And then I heard the second explosion."

He said he could smell something burning and advanced to check it out but area residents at their windows yelled at him, "Hey, it's gunfire! Don't go that way!"

MIT said right after the 10:30 p.m. shooting that police were sweeping the campus in Cambridge and urged people to remain indoors. They urged people urged to stay away from the Stata Building, a mixed-use building with faculty offices, classrooms and a common area.

Hours later, MIT, which has about 11,000 students, said the campus was clear but the shooter was still on the loose.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-mit-suspect-tied-boston-marathon-bomb-082428095.html

natalie wood patriots Sandy Hook Hoax 2014 Corvette Stacie Halas Corvette Stingray Claire Danes

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Kim Kardashian Divorce Case: Settled!!!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/kim-kardashian-divorce-case-settled/

Malware Monday First Row Sports American flag Happy 4th of July 4th Of July Desserts fireworks fireworks

Saturn's Stunning Auroras Star in Webcast Sunday: How to Watch Live

If you've ever wanted to see how Saturn and its iconic rings look through two of the world's most powerful telescopes, here's your chance.

A team of astronomers studying Saturn's dazzling northern lights displays with the two massive telescopes at Hawaii's Keck Observatory will air live footage from the instruments during a webcast Sunday (April 21) from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT (1300 to 1500 GMT).

Members of the research team will discuss their latest and most exciting results during the two-hour show. You can watch the Saturn aurora webcast live on SPACE.com, courtesy of the Keck Observatory.

The researchers are currently engaged in a month-long study of Saturn's auroras and weather, which is changing as the planet's northern hemisphere settles into its seven-year-long spring. They recently used Keck to make a startling discovery ? that water "rain" falls into Saturn's atmosphere from the planet's icy rings.

"We are following up on our 'ring rain'?observations, probing this complex weather further, and looking to see how Saturn?s northern hemisphere is responding to its spring and oncoming summer season after over 14 years in the cold," team leader Tom Stallard, of the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement.

"We are particularly interested in the strange aurora that the Hubble telescope has seen around the north pole of the planet," he added.

The two 33-foot (10 meters) optical/infrared Keck telescopes are located on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. They feature a suite of high-tech instruments, including an advanced adaptive-optics system that allows the telescopes to compensate for the blurring caused by Earth's atmosphere.

The Saturn aurora study is a collaboration involving the University of Leicester, NASA and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). In addition to Keck, the astronomers are studying observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Cassini Saturn-orbiting spacecraft, the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?and Google+.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saturns-stunning-auroras-star-webcast-sunday-watch-live-130157076.html

Where To Vote james harden breeders cup Mitch Lucker Red Cross CMA Awards 2012 election day

Remodeling activity keeps up positive momentum - Housing Zone

Spending by homeowners on improvement projects is expected to accelerate as the year progresses, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. On top of the almost 10 percent growth reflected in U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2012, the LIRA projects strong gains in homeowner remodeling spending continuing throughout 2013, with some moderation in the pace of growth toward the end of the year.

?Existing home sales were up almost 9 percent last year, and house prices are increasing in most markets across the country,? says Eric S. Belsky, managing director of the Joint Center. ?This has increased the home equity levels for most homeowners, encouraging them to reinvest in their homes.?

?The strong growth that we?ve seen recently is putting pressure on the current capacity of the home improvement industry,? says Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center. ?Contractors and subcontractors are having more difficulty finding skilled labor, and building materials costs are unusually volatile for this stage of a recovery.?

The LIRA is designed to estimate national homeowner spending on improvements for the current quarter and subsequent three quarters. The indicator, measured as an annual rate-of-change of its components, provides a short-term outlook of homeowner remodeling activity and is intended to help identify future turning points in the business cycle of the home improvement industry.

The next LIRA release date is July 18.

Source: http://www.housingzone.com/remodeling-activity-keeps-positive-momentum

Aj Mccarron Girlfriend linkedin linkedin CES 2013 joe budden notre dame notre dame football

Friday, April 19, 2013

Best of the web launches prolisting ahead of 19th birthday celebration

Best of the WebBest of the Web, a directory of all the content on the web, turns 19 on April 20.

SEW spoke with BOTW president and founder Greg Harnett about his company?s upcoming birthday, how the industry has evolved since its founding, and where BOTW is going.

SEW: Can you just sum up briefly what Best of the Web is, for those who might be unfamiliar with it?

Greg Hartnett: At Best of the Web, our goal is to review and categorize all of the information on the Internet. It's a pretty lofty project. Every day, our team of editors scours the web and places quality content into the most relevant category at BOTW. Users of BOTW can be assured that the sites they find are great resources, with no spam or irrelevant sites.

Each listing is reviewed by a human being to assure that the sites adhere to our quality guidelines. That commitment lends a certain authority to BOTW. This is an opportunity for site owners and online marketers to let users ? both human and spiders ? know that their site has met our editorial review standards and can be trusted to provide quality content.

SEW: How has the company evolved since it launched 19 years ago?

GH: We continue to introduce new offerings as the content on the web evolves. When blogs hit the scene, we launched the BOTW Blog Directory?to help bloggers connect with an audience. As search became more localized, we built and launched BOTW Local?to help users find information on millions of businesses throughout the U.S.

We built BOTW UK?to bring our web directory services to users and site owners in the UK. And as social exploded, we introduced social networking profiles to the web directory listings to give site owners a broader reach to their online presence.

SEW: Where do you see the industry moving next?

GH: Authorship and authority continue to gain traction as quality indicators, and social signals are playing a growing role in search. Mobile and tablet use also continue to accelerate, while apps are pulling people away from the Internet completely.

None of these trends are going away, and BOTW plans on serving these new kinds of users. We continue to keep our eyes on these trends and decide how we can provide services accordingly.

SEW: Are there any new products in the works?

GH: We are undertaking an overhaul of our Local product. We need to step up our offering to stay competitive in the Local space, so we are redoing a lot of the categorization and making big improvements to the search functionality.

We have a few more changes in the works but they're not far enough along the development cycle to discuss at length. We will also launch a new product, as is our tradition, to celebrate the company?s birthday.

SEW: Tell me more.

GH: Each year on our birthday, we have a huge sale, and announce a new service timed around the birthday celebration. This year, we are offering 50 percent off all BOTW offerings. The sale is only good on Monday, April 22; our birthday falls on a Saturday this year, so we made the sale on the Monday instead.

As for the new product, we are also pleased to announce the introduction of the BOTW ProListing, which will enable site owners to add three pieces of featured content to their web directory listings.

Content marketing has grown in importance in today's search environment and even the best marketers know that just because you publish it doesn't mean people are going to engage with it. BOTW ProListing aims to help you get your content seen, crawled, and shared.

You can change content as often as you like, at one fixed cost per month. So each time you create a new piece of killer content, you can go in and add it to your web directory listing, to get noticed as quickly as possible.

By the way, users who sign up on Monday April 22nd will only pay $9.85 per month for the service, compared to a regular monthly price of $19.70.

SEW: What gave rise to ProListing?

GH: It was an idea we started using internally for sites added by our editors. After getting a ton of user requests for them, we decided to launch ProListing for everyone. Feedback from users thus far is great and we are very excited about the new launch.

SEW: Can you share some of the hardest lessons you have learned in this business?

GH: One thing I?ve learned is that shortcuts don't work in the long run. Building something that can stand the test of time takes time itself. There are no shortcuts that work, period.

Secondly, I have learned to stick to what I am good at. We have failed spectacularly in areas that are outside of our core competencies.

SEW: Can you give me an example?

GH: We launched the BOTW Media Network about seven years ago, a network of blogs publishing content on approximately 60 topics. It was a huge bust, and I personally had to fire almost 100 people in one day.

We tried doing a few different lead generation sites in some fairly competitive areas, a total fail that lost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm pretty sure that we'll try and fail again. That's what business is about.

The lesson? Just because you see other people succeeding at something doesn't mean you are necessarily a good fit for that product. Stick to what you are good at, and make sure you surround yourself with passionate, intelligent people.

SEW: Thanks so much for your time, Greg.

GH: It was a pleasure!


Harnessing the $9+ Billion Social and Mobile Ad Potential

Harnessing the $9+ Billion Social and Mobile Ad Potential
In partnership with Moontoast, ClickZ presents the "Ultimate Guide to Social Rich Media Advertising". Social rich media advertising offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for brands and agencies to target consumers with interests that match the virtues and values of their products. Download your free guide today!

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2262616/Best-of-the-Web-Launches-ProListing-Ahead-of-19th-Birthday-Celebration

john tortorella nicki minaj beez in the trap video food network f/a 18 f 18 crash virginia tenebrae the lake house