Where did Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin and Miesha Tate fall on Cagewriter?s Hot or Not list

On a week shortened by holiday, MMA still kept us busy. Let's see who was having a good week, and who wasn't.

Hot -- Forrest Griffin: After being a pioneer for the UFC, Griffin announced he was hanging up his clothes. He did it on his own terms, and will stay with the UFC in some executive role.

Not -- Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz: The one-time UFC champ and his one-time adult actress ex-girlfriend are going through a very messy break-up. For the most part, it has been tabloid fodder that had nothing to do with MMA. But on Thursday, Jameson made allegations that Ortiz did drugs during his MMA career, and posted what she thought were damning pictures. Ortiz denied her allegations, and said he is focused on raising their kids.

Hot -- Miesha Tate: Cat Zingano's misfortune worked out in Tate's favor as Tate took over coaching "The Ultimate Fighter" this week because of an injury to Zingano. Now, it will be Rousey vs. Tate fighting each other both as coaches and in the cage.

Hot -- Latin American UFC fans: Americans who are lucky enough to get Fuel get a crazy amount of MMA programming. Now, fans in most Latin American countries will have access to a 24-hour UFC channel that will launch late this year.

Still taking temperature -- Nick Diaz: He launched his new MMA promotion this week. How will it work out? We'll find out when he has his first event on June 22.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/where-did-tito-ortiz-forrest-griffin-miesha-tate-184911984.html

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Sarah Simmons and Judith Hill React to The Voice Elimination

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/sarah-simmons-and-judith-hill-react-to-the-voice-elimination/

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Bollywood Movie Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani - MissMalini

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) and?Naina (Deepika Padukone) are as different as two people can be ? he?s flighty and wants to soar to great heights (even if it means he has to fail sometimes), while she prefers staying grounded and needs to succeed at everything. Yet, their paths cross when Naina, on a whirlwind, joins Bunny and his two friends, Aditi and Avi (Kalki Koechlin?and?Aditya Roy Kapur) on their vacation. But can two people who want different things find some common ground?

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is, in essence, a mix of some tried-and-tested formulas ? there?s a cool-guy-nerd-girl pairing, a fun vacation that will change their lives, a wedding setting to seal the deal. It?s everything you?ve already seen before, put together and repackaged in?Ayan Mukerji?style ? which means that there?s more attention to detail, subtler moments, lighter dialogue and relatable (yet quirky) characters.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

One wishes, then, that Ayan was a little more of himself and a little less of Karan Johar?(though how much you can judge a director?s style by one film is also up for debate), because the film is most enjoyable at the parts where Ayan?s touch shows through ? those simpler moments, the kind of which made us fall in love with?Wake Up Sid. This time around, it?s a much?filmier?fare, not least because of the excess length that could have been done away with.

But honestly, at the end of the day,?Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani?is one of those films you don?t want to review, mostly because you don?t want to think too hard about it or pay too much attention to its flaws. Instead, you want to enjoy the film for what it is ? and what it is is an entertaining, light-hearted film where everyone acts well and there?s a lead pair that oozes chemistry in every frame. Forget Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone as an off-screen couple ? the real magic happens on-screen.

Sure, it?s formulaic, but it?s a formula that I, personally, enjoy. Between the acting, the fun moments, great music and an item number by Madhuri Dixit (who absolutely kills it), this one is worth the price of the ticket.?By the end of it, I was simultaneously smiling over the magic of a sweet love story and lamenting the fact that I may not have a similar, big Bollywood romance.

Verdict:

Worth a watch!

With inputs from Amruta Khatavkar.

Rashmi Daryanani
May 31, 2013 3:29 pm

Source: http://www.missmalini.com/2013/05/31/bollywood-movie-review-yeh-jawaani-hai-deewani/

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China Doesn't Care if Its 'Digitalized' Military Cyberwar Drill Scares You

In the face of fears from President Obama to the Pentagon and across the globe about the increasing military might behind Chinese hacking, China's state news agency announced Wednesday that the nation's People's Liberation Army "will conduct an exercise next month to test new types of combat forces including units using digital technology amid efforts to adjust to informationalized war." You know, right after Obama and Chinese President?Xi Jinping are meeting about the state of, among other things, a cyberwar going on underneath their noses.

RELATED: China Is Winning the Cyber War Because They Hacked U.S. Plans for Real War

The new report from Xinhua news agency?adds that the drill, taking place on a large military training field and not some underground hack-a-thon bunker,?"will be the first time a PLA exercise has focused on combat forces including digitalized units, special operations forces, army aviation and electronic counter forces." The terms "digitalized unit" and "electronic counter forces" don't make it at all clear what China's military has planned, but then again, no country is ever going to reveal its full cyberwarfare capabilities in detail ? and it's not like it's the first time the Chinese have tested the military reaches of their digital warfare capabilities. Indeed, the U.S. was game to play along on more than one occasion. Last year it was reported that the U.S. and China had secretly engaged in at least two cyber war games in 2011, "designed to help prevent a sudden military escalation between the two superpowers if either felt they were being targeted," as ZDNet's Emil Potralinski reported.?"In the first, both sides had to describe what they would do if they were attacked by a sophisticated computer virus, such as?Stuxnet. In the second, they had to describe their reaction if the attack was known to have been launched from the other side."?The first went better than the second, apparently, but neither appears to have taken place on a training base in Mongolia, as this new test will be when it's conducted by two army corps and eight military academies in "late June." Obama and Xi are set to meet at an estate in California on June 7-8. Cybersecurity is on the list of talking points, the White House confirmed Tuesday as National Security Advisor Tom Donilon visited Beijing ahead of the summit.?Defense Secretary's Chuck Hagel is visiting Southeast Asia?this week, and it's on his agenda, too.

RELATED: China Says U.S. Is on Offense in Hacking Attacks on Defense Ministry

News of China's "digitalized" drill comes on the heels of Tuesday's big?Washington Post scoop?that Chinese hackers had stolen?designs for nearly 40 of the U.S.'s most valuable weapons programs?and 30 defense technologies ? a move that could "weaken the U.S. military advantage in a future conflict."?That article followed a Pentagon report earlier this month claiming that the Chinese government was directly connected to attacks on U.S. computer systems, which followed the cybersecurity firm Mandiant's report in February alleging that the PLA was connected to a number of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and infrastructure, and a 2012 assertion from national security veteran?Richard Clarke that China has hacked every major U.S. company. Now, it appears, the secret training is out in the open.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-doesnt-care-digitalized-military-cyberwar-drill-scares-143955089.html

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The Reference Frame: Encouraging high school students talented in ...

...and astronomy

In the afternoon, I spent about 5 hours in Techmania, our local science center/museum built in some no longer operational construction halls of ?koda Works, a major factory in our city.

Your humble correspondent was partly invited as a (now aged) kid who could have benefited from similar events and who could have an idea what kind of aid may be helpful to the kids. There were high school teachers, primarily from a gymnasium in Cheb (a town in the very Western corner of the Czech Republic) and a sport gymnasium in Pilsen (which has educated many excellent and famous Pilsner soccer, ice-hockey, tennis players, and more).

We were also shown a small model of the fulldome planetarium that will be opened in several months and that will probably be the most modern digital planetarium in Europe, or at least a part of Europe. (Some related YouTube videos.)

Everything is digital over there, one can project almost anything (not just the night sky), and visitors may also wear the 3D glasses. The facility will replace an old mechanical planetarium that old people like me knew at the "Hamburg" buildings ? which nowadays host a court ? when we were kids. Of course, nothing from the mechanical planetarium may be directly imported. Nevertheless, I guess that the new facility has a much greater potential because it can show everything. It's less obvious whether this potential will be correspondingly exploited. Less may sometimes be more. I am somewhat worried that the kids will be so overwhelmed by visually impressive animations that they won't learn much and they won't have enough time to focus on anything and/or fall in love with the subject.

I just sent a mass e-mail to some folks who have worked in the visualization of relativity with the proposal to update their videos for the high-resolution, 3D fulldomes like the Pilsner one ? there may be just dozens of places in the world that use the same technology. It could be fun to see the relativistic rollercoaster or the infalling observer in the black hole from this totally realistic perspective.

(Andrew Hamilton of Colorado immediately replied that in 2006, NASA and NSF funded a fun dome show called Black Hole: the Other Side of Infinity.)

Concerning the discussion about the identification and support for the talented high school students, lots of ideas were presented, echoed, questioned, improved, abandoned.

I would spend hours if I were just enumerating all the aspects in this discussion and my opinions about them ? lack of excitement, the role of applied vs theoretical training, agreement or disagreement between the school curriculum and the activities promoted by physics/math olympiads and science centers, experimental vs theoretical, inclusiveness of the search for the talented students, other nations' having more money, other nations' being more hard-working, how to motivate teachers to do something beyond their elementary duties, how to motivate and reward schools, whether physics olympiads and/or other contests are still "in" or obsolete, and so on, how to make sure that such debates will infuence more than about 5 high school teachers that happened to gather (together with a similar number of the Techmania employees) today ;-), and so on.

Please feel free to offer your ingenious opinions.

When I was returning home, I spent almost one hour with a de facto homeless guy, a construction worker from Carlsbad who is building our new theater (to be opened in 2015), if I believe him, who was left in Pilsen by his drunk colleagues today (or they were high, I forgot). I only gave him a dollar because paying him the full bus ticket to Carlsbad seemed too much for a person I didn't really know. He told me he was released during the 2013 Klaus amnesty. He had been arrested because he had attacked a cop who was spitting on the guy's friend. ;-) If that's true, it's another piece of anecdotal evidence that it's right to support an occasional amnesty. But yes, it's also a reason not to trust such people too much. I gave him a tour of Pilsen of a sort and dragged him through various places such as an information center at the city hall and some booths of charities. Of course, no one would help him, not even 10% of what I did for him, so I am not surprised that he identified me as a sort of the ultimate saint.

Source: http://motls.blogspot.com/2013/05/encouraging-high-school-students.html

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Eleven youths vanish from Mexico City bar, kidnapping suspected

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Eleven young people were kidnapped in broad daylight from a Mexico City bar, just 20 days after the grandson of civil rights leader Malcolm X was beaten to death at a nightclub in the capital, anguished relatives said Thursday.

The disappearances sparked a wave of outrage, with family members blocking a major avenue to demand that authorities investigate.

The city prosecutor's office said Thursday only five missing-person reports had been filed. But the mother of one of the missing youths says 11 people in all vanished from the after-hours club about 1 ? blocks from the U.S. embassy, on the other side of Reforma Avenue.

The mother, Josefina Garcia, questioned how a mass kidnapping could occur a half-block from Reforma, the the city's main boulevard, and a few blocks from police headquarters.

Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, died May 9 in a dispute over a bar bill.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/11-vanish-mexico-city-bar-kidnap-suspected-164852380.html

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Wall Street falls as bond yields hit high dividend stocks

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday as high-yielding dividend stocks lost some of their luster after recent gains in U.S. Treasury bond yields.

Benchmark Treasury yields overnight hit 2.235 percent - the highest in more than a year - and have risen since last week when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke raised fears that the Fed would curb its bond-buying program sooner than most people expected.

Indexes made up of consumer staples, health care, telecommunications and utilities shares - S&P 500 sectors that include many stocks that pay high dividends - all slid more than 1 percent. Johnson & Johnson , down 2.2 percent at $85.65, was the biggest drag on the S&P 500.

"The recent rise in interest rates on the 10-year bond over the past few sessions has finally caught up with some of this year's market leaders," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist for RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut, adding that investors were cashing in profits.

The defensive sectors have led the gains in this year's market rally as investors favored high-dividend stocks over fixed-income securities in a low interest-rate environment.

The spread between the S&P 500 dividend yield and the 10-year U.S. Treasury note's yield is at its narrowest in about a year. The S&P 500 dividend yield was about 2.39 percent near Wednesday's close.

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dropped sharply in heavy volume, reversing sharp early gains. Shares of Fannie Mae plunged 28.9 percent to $2.90, with about 272 billion shares traded, while shares of Freddie Mac sank 30.4 percent to $2.61, with 119 billion shares traded.

Fund manager Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Management is making a big bet on preferred shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CNBC reported. Until Wednesday's pullback, Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's shares had risen for seven straight days.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slid 106.59 points, or 0.69 percent, to close at 15,302.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dropped 11.70 points, or 0.70 percent, to finish at 1,648.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> fell 21.37 points, or 0.61 percent, to end at 3,467.52.

Both the S&P telecoms sector index <.splrcl> and the S&P utilities sector index <.splrcu> fell 1.5 percent. The S&P consumer staples index <.splrcs> tumbled 1.9 percent while the S&P health care index <.spxhc> declined 1.5 percent.

At the same time, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond exchange-traded fund added 1.1 percent, bouncing back from a drop of 2.6 percent on Tuesday.

Loose monetary policies by central banks around the world have lifted stock markets, driving both the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs this year.

The S&P 500 is up 15.6 percent from its close at the end of 2012.

Among the day's gainers, Smithfield Foods surged 28.4 percent to $33.35 after China's Shuanghui Group agreed to buy the company for $34 a share.

SLM Corp rose 2.2 percent to $23.48 after the student loan provider said it would split the company into two publicly traded entities. The company named John Remondi as its chief executive officer.

Volume was roughly 6.7 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, slightly above the average daily closing volume of about 6.4 billion this year.

Decliners outpaced advancers on the NYSE by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1. On the Nasdaq, about 17 stocks fell for every eight that rose.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dow-ends-record-central-banks-reassure-wall-street-004212422.html

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Putting the brakes on distracted driving

May 29, 2013 ? If you're still using your mobile phone behind the wheel, University of Alberta sociology researcher Abu Nurullah likely has your number.

More specifically, he can tell what statistical category you fall under. Using survey data from mid-2011 -- just months before Alberta's distracted-driving law went into effect -- Nurullah and his colleagues determined several characteristics of people who appear to top the risk scale by using cellphones while driving. The data are useful for police who have to deal with unlawful drive-and-dialers, and for policy-makers seeking to change offenders' habits with ad campaigns.

Nurullah says that although campaigns are an important piece of curbing the behaviour, social pressure from family and friends is also important.

"I think the social influence is the key one. Friends, family, employers -- they should be influencing others to reduce the use of cellphones while driving," he said. "Effective enforcement of the laws should include not only fines for such offences, but also mandatory lessons on the dangers of cellphone use while operating a vehicle."

Driving demographics: Mobile phone use by the numbers

• Men outnumbered women by almost 10 per cent in phone use while driving. The largest proportion of offenders in both groups fell in the 35-to-44 age category.
• The majority of mobile users had completed post-secondary education.
• Among income brackets, the lowest income earners had the lowest level of cellphone use while driving. Rates of use increased with each income category, with those earning over $100,000 per year being the top users.
• A slight majority of users indicated not being religious.

"These stats can be used to identify the worst offenders for effective enforcement of laws that deter cellphone use while operating a vehicle," said Nurullah. "Since males are more likely to undertake risky driving, it is expected that they would use cellphones more in driving situations."

Attitude adjustment: Social pressure and education critical

The survey also highlighted people's perceptions of the dangers of using a cellphone while driving. The majority of people -- those who used cellphones while driving and those who didn't -- agreed that texting while driving was dangerous and that cellphone use was more likely to result in a collision. But a much smaller minority said they didn't believe cellphone use is as dangerous as impaired driving.

Though the legislation introduced in 2011 may have curbed some use, Nurullah says that a common levelling-off effect means other measures need to be put in place to convince itinerant talkers to hang up and drive.

"There should be an emphasis on educating people about this, changing people's mindsets about doing this, because it is risky," he said. "There is no better alternative than social pressure because it is more effective than legal enforcement. Social media campaigns can also be designed to make people informed about safe driving practices involving the use of cellphones."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/yxeJDl_PTEg/130529144419.htm

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Meet Russian television's newest personality: Larry King

The legendary television interviewer has signed a deal with Russia's English-language, Kremlin-backed television station to appear on a new show, 'Politics with Larry King.'

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / May 29, 2013

Larry King appears at the Milken Institute Global Conference last month in Beverly Hills, California. Russia Today announced that it will begin airing Mr. King's online shows in June and will also produce a new show, 'Politics with Larry King,' for its American affiliate.

Fred Prouser/Reuters

Enlarge

Television legend Larry King has a new political talk show, and a new boss.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

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The Kremlin-funded English-language network RT, formerly known as Russia Today, announced today that it has agreed to air Mr. King's four-times-weekly online public affairs program "Larry King Now," starting in June. The station will also stage a "mold-breaking" new show, "Politics with Larry King," all to be shown on its US affiliate, RT-America.

According to the RT statement, King will mainly focus on US politics, and King will interview leading political personalities, ranging from officials to critics of American foreign and domestic policies.

"Whether a president or an activist or a rock star was sitting across from him, Larry King never shied away from asking the tough questions, which makes him a terrific fit for our network," RT?s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan is quoted as saying.

King, who has spent 56 years in broadcast journalism and conducted over 50,000 interviews, is the biggest name yet to join the extremely well-funded RT network, which claims to reach over 630 million viewers worldwide through its various English, Spanish, and Arabic language channels.

"I have always been passionate about government and issues that impact the public, and I?m thrilled at the opportunity to talk politics with some of the most influential people in Washington and around the country," the RT statement quoted King as saying.

Ms. Simonyan refused Wednesday to discuss with journalists the terms of King's RT contract, saying that it's standard practice not to reveal financial details without the agreement of both parties.

Last year the network signed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to do a series of political talk shows with major world newsmakers, which included interviews with Hezbollah leader Sayyid Nasrallah, US radical thinker Noam Chomsky, and Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.

Since it was founded by the Kremlin in 2005, RT has expanded far beyond its original mandate to correct "misconceptions" about Russia around the world and moved to more aggressive "alternative" coverage of politics in the US, Britain, and other Western countries, where it has gained a wide following. The station claims to have 2 million viewers in Britain, and to have become one of the most widely watched foreign stations in several parts of the US, where it is carried by cable networks.

The network's changing focus, from explaining Russia to the world to mainly hosting critical content about the US and other Western countries, is the subject of a recent in-depth profile of RT by British journalist Oliver Bullough. "Deep into his 14th year in power, [President Vladimir Putin] appears to have given up on improving Russia. Instead, he funds RT to persuade everyone else that their own countries are no better," Mr. Bullough concludes.

There is little transparency about the financing of RT, which comes mainly through the Russian federal budget. But some Russian media have reported that RT's annual funding comes to around $300 million, and that last year Mr. Putin personally ordered his government not to slash financing for the station.

King left CNN in 2010 after 25 years of hosting his signature talk show, "Larry King Live." He's since broadcast about 150 episodes of his online program, produced by Ora.TV, which will now be taken up and broadcast 4 times weekly by RT. It's not clear how the all-new RT program "Politics with Larry King" will differ, but most experts believe it will be well-funded and calculated to showcase RT's growing clout on the global media landscape.

"Russia Today [RT] is making a concerted effort to raise its profile, and it's going about it in a pretty smart way," says Nikolai Svanidze, a famous Russian TV anchorman, journalist and historian.

"Larry King may not be a spring chicken, but he's still a famous name who will add luster to RT's content and attract viewers in the West. Of course, we all know that RT has the money to do this," he adds.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/2EKROI3wclY/Meet-Russian-television-s-newest-personality-Larry-King

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Holder's plan for off-the-record meetings hits snag

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A plan by Attorney General Eric Holder to hold meetings with news organizations about guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters has run into snags over the terms of discussions.

The Justice Department wants the meetings to be off the record. The Associated Press issued a statement saying it wants any meeting to be on the record, meaning it could be the subject of news stories. And The New York Times said it won't attend because of the department's off-the-record ground rules.

The review of the guidelines called for last week by President Barack Obama come as the Justice Department deals with an outcry over its secret gathering of AP reporters' phone records and the emails of a Fox News journalist.

AP media relations manager Erin Madigan White said that if the session is not on the record, the news cooperative will offer its views in an open letter on how Justice Department regulations should be updated.

If the AP's meeting with the attorney general is on the record, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll will attend, White said. She said AP expects its attorneys to be included in any planned meetings between the attorney general's office and media lawyers on the legal specifics.

New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson said in a statement: "It isn't appropriate for us to attend an off the record meeting with the attorney general. Our Washington bureau is aggressively covering the department's handling of leak investigations at this time."

The planned meetings are to take place over the coming weeks. The department said Holder plans to engage with news media organizations, including print media, wire services, radio, television, online media and news and trade associations. Discussions are to include news media executives and general counsels as well as government experts in intelligence and investigative agencies.

The initial meetings over the next two days are to be with several Washington bureau chiefs of national news organizations.

Obama has asked Holder to report to him on any recommended policy changes by July 12.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holder-plan-off-record-meetings-hits-snag-013432196.html

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Texas approves $225M to fix roads in Eagle Ford Shale

Texas lawmakers approved a plan to spend up to $225 million from the state budget to help fix stressed roads in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas, the Houston Chroncile reports.

The bill funnels money from the state budget to the Texas Department of Transportation which will administer a grant program for the impacted counties. Increased oil production has brought on an exponential increase of traffic in some areas of South Texas.

?Help is on the way for these counties,? Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, said in a May 27 statement. ?Working in a bipartisan fashion, the Legislature has recognized that county roads are the gateway to the oil patch and must be maintained for the state?s oil boom to continue. With this bill, we are saving the goose that laid the golden egg.?

>> Got Energy? Sign up for our Energy Inc. newsletter here.

County roads used for drilling oil and gas wells sustain the traffic equal to 8 million passenger vehicles, Uresti said in the statement.

?Some 5,400 wells have been permitted in the Eagle Ford Shale region alone, and it?s projected that 24,000 wells will be operating by 2022,? according to Uresti's statement.

Stay up to date on Texas energy news with the Energy Inc. news ticker, bringing you by-the-minute coverage from the Texas Business Journals.

Mike W. Thomas covers technology/telecom, military, finance, regulatory issues as well as nonprofits/education.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_16/~3/2Vw1n5JysLM/texas-approves-225m-to-fix-roads-in.html

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Scientists Discover Rip Van Winkle Of The Plant World

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/29/187009386/scientists-discover-rip-van-winkle-of-the-plant-world?ft=1&f=1007

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Thanks for the memories, Forrest Griffin

The retirement of a UFC pioneer happened this weekend as Forrest Griffin, the original winner of "The Ultimate Fighter," announced his retirement at UFC 160. His career with the UFC had an effect on the sport, but also an effect on me.

I watched the UFC at different wrestling parties in high school. A dear friend in college would watch fights with me when we didn't feel like hitting the bar scene. I heard about the career of Matt Hughes, this wrestling coach I once knew, but that's it. I followed wrestling like a hawk, but I didn't know the names and stories of the MMA competitors.

"The Ultimate Fighter" changed that. Josh Koscheck, the friend of a wrestling friend, had been chosen to be on a reality show. If he won it, he'd be in the UFC. Since Josh -- as we knew him before he was Kos -- was on the show, my friends and I wanted it to succeed. We tuned in every week and discussed the episodes by email. It was liveblogging before we knew what liveblogging was.

Though Koscheck took center stage for his antics, it was the wisecracking Griffin who stood out to me. He was funny and smart, and despite his love of being punched in the face, refreshingly normal. He showed that fighters weren't meatheads who could talk about nothing but fighting. Griffin became the fighter I wanted to see succeed.

He did, making it to the finale in a bout against Stephan Bonnar. I watched the first "Ultimate Fighter" finale on a 16-inch television in my grandmother's kitchen. I couldn't believe what was happening on that tiny screen. Neither Griffin nor Bonnar would give an inch. They threw together an unbelievable bout.

Was it technically perfect? Nah. Both fighters had plenty to learn about how to throw an efficient punch or how to get a takedown. It didn't matter. Though they were both bloodied, they fought through until the final bell.

This was before Twitter and Facebook were everywhere. I had no idea if other people were watching, but I was, and I was hooked. Griffin and Bonnar and Koscheck and Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez made me care about them. Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell made me want to find the closest bar to watch them fight. I started following MMA more closely, until I wanted an outlet to write about the sport. I started my own site, which led me to covering the Olympics and MMA here on Yahoo! Sports.

Now, with Forrest Griffin walking away from the sport, I have to take a second to say thank you. He may not have realized the effect he had on MMA when he was swinging at Stephan Bonnar, but it was profound.

Dish tops rival Sprint's bid for Clearwire

(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp raised its buyout offer for Clearwire Corp to $4.40 per share, valuing the wireless service provider at $6.5 billion and topping a rival bid by Sprint Nextel Corp bid by nearly 30 percent.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, already owns just over 50 percent of Clearwire's shares and had increased its offer to $3.40 per share last week under pressure from activist shareholders.

Dish, which is also locked in a battle with Japan's SoftBank Corp to acquire Sprint, raised its bid just two days before the Sprint offer goes to a vote.

"The Clearwire spectrum portfolio has always been a key component to implementing our wireless plans of delivering a superior product and service offering to customers," Charlie Ergen, Dish chairman and co-founder of Dish, said in a statement.

Dish's offer values Clearwire at $6.47 billion, according to its shares outstanding as of May 29.

Clearwire shares were trading up 23 percent at $4.23 after-hours on Wednesday after closing at $3.43. Sprint was up less than one percent, and Dish stock fell 2 percent to $39.25 in after-hours trade.

A spokesperson for Clearwire said the company's special committee would review Dish's revised bid, and had not made any determination to change its recommendation of the current Sprint transaction.

A Softbank spokesman was not immediately available to comment, while a Sprint spokesman declined comment

(Reporting by Garima Goel in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Bangalore and Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dish-tops-rival-sprints-bid-clearwire-011104992.html

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Mad Men, Season 6

I experienced this episode as more of a desultory placeholder designed to ease us off the manic high of last week. Maybe the drag for me was the recurring theme of indecision, which makes for a kind of constipated drama. The admen couldn?t decide between luxury margarine or cheap; Megan was caught between the maid (brunette) and her classy sister Colette (blonde); Peggy between Don and Ted, and then Ted and Abe; Don between Betty and Megan; Mel between making Arlene his girlfriend or his mother; the sons of Abraham between not laughing and not crying. Arlene had the best riff on what it?s like to be caught between two poles, when she described to Megan how she felt after landing her first job. ?Every day I would vacillate between, Arlene you?re wonderful and Arlene you?re caca.?

?Honestly, I was wonderful.?

In that willful self-hug you see into a future of Erica Jong and Marianne Williamson and eventually, Oprah. One broad theme of the late ?60s was a nation moving from prescribed roles (husband, wife, father, mother, soldier) to chosen identities (hippie, activist, lesbian, reactionary), and the latter mode requires constant reinvention and self-affirmation. Don Draper once spectacularly erased his old identity as Dick Whitman and chose a new one for himself. In this episode, several major characters were faced with a choice between something and its opposite. The losers were the ones who wavered, or became paralyzed, or land ?somewhere in the middle,? as Peggy says -- or, in Pete?s case, filled the room with their desperation. The winners were the ones who just chose to make a choice, and that act alone would imbue them with confidence and wonderfulness.

Paul, you saw the silver lining for Peggy in this episode, but I thought she was brutally treated, by both Abe and Ted. Both men make a decisive choice, and they choose against poor Peggy. Abe, that self-righteous little pecker, decides in an instant that Peggy is not ?brave? after all but ?a scared person who hides behind complacency.? His change of heart has nothing to do with anything Peggy has said or done differently; he?s just willed himself to see the people who attack him and throw rocks through his windows as the victims of the fascist pigs, and anyone who sees them differently as the enemy. And Ted, the creepy little tease, tells Peggy he?s just another clich?, in love with his prot?g?e, and the next day pretends that confession never happened, merely because he?s decided that being in love with her might get in the way of his productivity. The scene in his office is chilling. He doesn?t explain himself to Peggy, or brood, or show any signs of longing. He just bullies an alternate reality into being. ?Ready to get to work? It?s Monday morning Peggy, it?s a brand new work week,? he shouts, opening his office door as if he?s starring in an ad about a nifty new typewriter. ?Round up the team.?

As Ted is perpetually starting fresh, Don is moving backwards. I didn?t entirely buy the reunion of Don and Betty. Or maybe it?s that whenever Don goes on the road, it feels like a dream sequence. For starters, where did this Varga girl version of Betty come from? Didn?t we see her looking a little bloated on the couch just last week? How did her perpetual efforts at ?reducing? finally take hold? How is this new old Betty so full of wisdom, self-awareness, tenderness, mellowness and easy laughter? And how did Don so quickly forget about Sylvia? Also, I couldn?t really follow those mountain metaphors. ?Just because you climb a mountain, doesn?t mean you love it???? That sounds like something Andy on Parks and Rec would say.

Seth, I?m curious what you make of Roger?s predicament. I thought his daughter was a little hard on him about taking her son to the movie. Also, I?ve gotten used to watching Don stumble around blindly, but a broken Roger toting around a bag of Lincoln Logs and looking for a place to land is too much for me. I need someone to be the anchor.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=e7c48f9f76b71b92eaa6c96471204e93

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Michael Kinsley Claims Anti-Gay Bigots Aren&#39;t Monsters. I Say Bullshit!

Kinsley makes excuses for the anti-gay forces who don?t support gay marriage, and defends the conservative Republican Dr. Ben Carson. Carson was supposed to speak at Johns Hopkins University?s graduation ceremony, and stepped down after his controversial anti-gay remarks created a firestorm.

Being the cheeky chap that I am, I sent Michael Kinsley an email to register my outrage.

Tom wrote:

Last week, peripatetic contrarian-liberal editor-pundit Michael Kinsley used his newish column in his old magazine, the New Republic, to complain about the closed-mindedness and intolerance that supporters of gay marriage have displaying toward their opponents.

Michael Kinsley is not against gay marriage, personally. He invented gay marriage, as he tells it, with the help of Andrew Sullivan.

The occasion for Kinsley's distress was the news that Dr. Ben Carson, the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, would not be delivering the commencement address at the Hopkins School of Medicine.

Oh, but, look: It's next Tuesday now. What has happened since Kinsley made his case on behalf of the people who aren't yet ready to accept gay people as equal? Over the weekend, Mark Carson, a gay man, was fatally shot in the face in New York City, apparently murdered by someone who was offended by seeing him walking out in public with a man. Two more gay-bashing attacks reportedly happened in New York last night. Overseas, Georgian Orthodox priests led a rock-throwing mob against a gay-rights march. And the most pressing gay-rights issue is whether people are being too easily offended by homophobia? Hey, Michael Kinsley: Shut the fuck up.

This is my email to Michael Kinsley in full:

May 28, 2013

Dear Mr. Kinsley:

I hope this email finds you well. I have long admired your work, both in print and on Crossfire.

I read your recent column entitled ?Being against marriage equality doesn?t make you a monster.? I ?agree that opposition to marriage equality in itself, doesn?t mean that someone is a monster. I do think that an individual who opposes same-sex marriage is biased, and without any rational reason to oppose gay marriage, they must ?be characterized as the homophobic bigot that they are.

By all accounts, Dr. Ben Carson is a brilliant neurosurgeon. By all accounts, Dr. Ben Carson equates homosexuality with bestiality and being a pedophile (NAMBLA), and I would call him a monster.

Dr. Carson?s apology and alleged support of civil unions doesn?t negate how he characterized the LGBT community. He apologized for his choice of words, but NOT for his position. Supporting civil unions doesn?t get him off the hook either. ?As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in March, it?s ?skim milk marriage,? and it?s an argument that promotes a ??separate but equal? point of view --- and anything short of full equality is completely unacceptable.

Your assertion that the Johns Hopkins University dean failed to defend the ?core value? that is ?tolerance is preposterous. Most Americans are very tolerant of divergent views, whether it?s religion or politics, or our favorite sports teams, or different cultures. We are taught to respect others, and are encouraged to be tolerant, both at home and school.

To suggest that Johns Hopkins University should be tolerant toward Dr. Ben Carson?s views of homosexuality, when he made his remarks on national television, ?as a Johns Hopkins ?medical doctor, denigrates his profession and the university. Carson didn?t support his point of view with medical facts or scientific evidence, he used lies and scare tactics that are usually the preserve of the monsters that comprise the organized opposition to gay marriage.

You suggest that because Dr. Carson ?fixes children?s brains? that he should be given a break. Then you write ?All he did was say on television that he opposes same-sex marriage.? Yes he said he opposes same-sex marriage, and he equated the gay community with bestaility and ?child molesters. Do you have any idea what effect that kind of rhetoric has on children? Do you know what harm that causes to LGBT kids around the country? Can you imagine what a parent might think when they hear a distinguished surgeon make those assertions?

In our free speech society, there?s anti-gay rhetoric everywhere. The intolerance reflected in the anti-gay ?hate speech that?s infected our churches, our news, and political rhetoric, adversely affects our society, and especially our children.

We hear about a rash of adolescent suicides, and a bullying epidemic in our culture. There are social scientists and medical professionals who have researched these problems, and there is a correlation between anti-gay hate speech and the mental health of adolescent LGBT kids.

With an inordinate amount of adolescent children who harm themselves, and in some cases, take their own lives, your suggestion that we should tolerate remarks like Dr. Carson?s is outrageous. ?How can you tell us to tolerate the incendiary propaganda and lies, when they have such a grave effect on so many people?

You can think that Dr. Ben Carson?s remarks were silly, while I find them reprehensible. When the next gay kid commits suicide, talk to their parents and explain that Dr. Carson?s rhetoric was silly. When a parent finds out that their child is a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender teen, and they throw their kid out of the house, I?d like to hear you tell the homeless kid that what Dr. Carson said was harmless.

If I didn?t know any better Mr. Kinsley, I might mistake you for being a monster.

Sincerely,

Roy Steele

? 2011 - 2013 JIVEINTHE415.COM All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.jiveinthe415.com/2013/05/michael-kinsley-claims-anti-gay-bigots.html

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Runaway dancer Sergei Polunin returning to London

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 26, 2011 file photo, made available by London's Royal Opera House, Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin dances in the Royal Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky in 2011 at the Royal Opera House, London. Sergei Polunin, the ballet superstar as famous for his abrupt exits as his athletic leaps, is returning to the London stage. And this time, he's going to show up and stay the course. Almost certainly. Polunin said Tuesday, May 28, 2013: "You have to take it day by day, but I'm pretty sure.? Polunin went from dance-world celebrity to headline news when he walked out last year on the Royal Ballet, which had made the Ukrainian prodigy its youngest-ever male principal dancer at 19. (AP Photo/ Johan Persson /Royal Opera House, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 26, 2011 file photo, made available by London's Royal Opera House, Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin dances in the Royal Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky in 2011 at the Royal Opera House, London. Sergei Polunin, the ballet superstar as famous for his abrupt exits as his athletic leaps, is returning to the London stage. And this time, he's going to show up and stay the course. Almost certainly. Polunin said Tuesday, May 28, 2013: "You have to take it day by day, but I'm pretty sure.? Polunin went from dance-world celebrity to headline news when he walked out last year on the Royal Ballet, which had made the Ukrainian prodigy its youngest-ever male principal dancer at 19. (AP Photo/ Johan Persson /Royal Opera House, File)

LONDON (AP) ? Sergei Polunin, the ballet superstar as famous for his abrupt exits as his athletic leaps, is returning to the London stage in a production of "Coppelia."

And this time, he's going to show up and stay the course. Almost certainly.

"You have to take it day by day, but I'm pretty sure," said Polunin, who made headlines last year when he quit the Royal Ballet, which had made the Ukrainian prodigy its youngest-ever male principal dancer.

Last month he did it again, leaving a Peter Schaufuss Company production of the ballet "Midnight Express" days before it was due to open in London.

But the 23-year-old Polunin insists he has grown: "You mature as a dancer," he said Tuesday at the announcement of the London performances by his new company, Moscow's Stanislavsky Ballet.

After he abandoned the Royal Ballet, Polunin ? who had moved to Britain aged 13 to study dance ? said he walked out because he could no longer handle the stress of a dance career.

There were rumors of hard partying by the dancer, who lived for a time above a tattoo parlor he co-owned on a gritty London street.

Months later he reappeared in Moscow, becoming a celebrity in ballet-loving Russia by winning a televised competition ? a sort of "X Factor" for classical dancers.

He has since danced with the Stanislavsky and other companies, including the Royal Ballet.

That hasn't erased his reputation ? at least in Britain ? as the bad boy of ballet.

"In Russia, it's not like that," said Stanislavsky general director Vladimir Urin. "I don't understand why he was called that in London. He's a good boy."

Polunin certainly looked healthy, calm and collected Tuesday, in jeans and a black leather jacket, talking about how he relished the "huge technical challenge" of Leo Delibes' French comic ballet.

He will dance the lead role of Frantz in three of six performances of "Coppelia," which begin July 11 at the London Coliseum, where the English National Ballet often performs. The shows feature a roster of the Stanislavsky's young talent in a version of the work created in 1975 by the late choreographer Roland Petit.

"It's like you take your body to the next level in this ballet," Polunin said. "And the acting is very free.

"Normally I don't like happy ballets, but this one has a French sort of humor."

He apologized to London audiences for having let them down, saying he quit "Midnight Express" because of "a health reason." He would not elaborate.

In explanation of his erratic behavior, he said he was "like all young people ? you try to find yourself in life."

He has mended fences sufficiently with Schaufuss for the "Midnight Express" director to be involved with the upcoming London shows.

Schaufuss, who had publicly berated Polunin for leaving him in the lurch, said Polunin had a "special quality" that only comes along in a dancer once a decade or so ? "that special little thing which separates the good ones from the great ones."

Polunin's presence has helped the Stanislavsky attract large audiences, and the company has escaped the controversy swirling around the rival Bolshoi, which is facing allegations of corruption and mismanagement, as well as an acid attack on its artistic director.

After a tumultuous year, Polunin said he is in a more stable place now, artistically and personally.

"In Russia it's great because you can concentrate 100 percent on your work," Polunin said. "There are not as many distractions as London or in the West."

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-28-Britain-Runaway%20Dancer/id-478f25fcb5fc44cf87e8af4760656a2f

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Seven dead in landslide in central Mexico despite warning on Twitter

Last updated at 12:58 pm

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Source: http://straitstimes.com.feedsportal.com/c/32792/f/640961/s/2c7d15ff/l/0L0Sstraitstimes0N0Cbreaking0Enews0Cworld0Cstory0Cseven0Edead0Elandslide0Ecentral0Emexico0Edespite0Ewarning0Etwitter0E20A130A528/story01.htm

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GOP Senate candidate Gomez taking moderate stances

Tuesday May 28, 2013

NEWTON, Mass. -- On the infrequent occasions that Republicans enjoy electoral success in Massachusetts, it?s usually because a candidate can convince voters that he or she isn?t too closely aligned with the national GOP.

Gabriel Gomez, the Republican nominee in the June 25 special election for the U.S. Senate, is trying such an approach in his campaign against longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey. Gomez, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, has cast himself as a moderate Washington outsider beholden neither to his party nor special interests.

"It?s the typical playbook of the Democratic Party, no matter who they are running against, to paint you with the national party," the political newcomer said during a recent campaign appearance before a small, mostly receptive audience at a local chamber of commerce event.

He then rattled off a list of positions that sets him apart from many conservative Republicans. He accused the National Rifle Association of being "dishonest." He called himself a "green Republican" who believes human activity contributes to climate change. On a number of issues, he said he agrees with Democratic President Barack Obama, including on a proposed change in how the government measures inflation for the purpose of adjusting Social Security benefits.

In explaining why he supports gay marriage, Gomez told the story of a friend and classmate at the U.S. Naval Academy who, despite

being one of the highest achievers in the class, was dismissed just before graduation after telling a commanding officer he was gay.

If elected to the Senate, Gomez promised to support a bipartisan immigration reform bill that provides a path to citizenship for some young people living illegally in the country. He also backs wider background checks for gun sales that were included in a bill that recently failed to advance after winning the votes of only four Republican senators.

"The NRA, I think, was dishonest in how they presented that to persuade some senators to vote on that," he said.

It?s Markey, Gomez suggests, who should be criticized for being in lockstep with his party during his 36 years in Congress.

Gomez is hardly the first Massachusetts Republican to try to put some distance between the national party, with mixed results.

Scott Brown scored an upset victory in the 2010 special election to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy largely by appealing to the state?s large block of moderate independents. But Brown lost his re-election bid to Democrat Elizabeth Warren last year despite casting himself as one of the Senate?s most bipartisan members.

In 2002, Mitt Romney joined a string of Republican governors to win that office on a fiscally conservative, socially moderate platform, though he?d later veer to the right in his bid for the White House.

"I don?t blame (Gomez) trying to distance himself from his party," said John Walsh, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "Because, in Massachusetts at least, the policies of the Republican Party are not supported. In fact, they are roundly rejected."

Walsh cites several issues in which he believes Gomez is aligned with national Republicans, including his opposition to a federal assault weapons ban and his position on abortion.

Gomez has described himself as "pro-life" by his Catholic faith though uninterested in changing abortion access laws. But Walsh notes Gomez?s refusal to say how he might vote on specific abortion-related issues such as whether employers can cite moral grounds to deny coverage for birth control or other services.

"He?s trying to find some fuzzy space so he can pretend he?s not like other Republicans in Washington," Walsh said.

The challenge Gomez faces in winning over large numbers of moderate voters was on display during the question-and-answer portion of the chamber event in Newton, a heavily Democratic Boston suburb.

Ken Jaffe, a businessman from Natick, told Gomez he was an independent who votes for Democrats about "80 percent" of the time. He then pressed the Republican on why he won?t go further on gun control by supporting a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.

Gomez responded by citing his support for Second Amendment rights and claimed the ban from 1994-2004 failed to reduce gun violence.

But Jaffe was unconvinced.

"There is absolutely no reason in the world why anybody in this country should be selling assault rifles," Jaffe said after the event.

"He?s not going to be able to win anything in this state as long as he takes this stance," Jaffe added, though he wouldn?t rule out the possibility of voting for Gomez in the special election.

Gomez acknowledged many instances in which he supports the national GOP platform while saying he?s "happy" to disagree on others.

"I know who I am, I know where I stand," he said.

Source: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_23334278/gop-senate-candidate-gomez-taking-moderate-stances?source=rss

the blaze

White House security adviser calls for deeper China military ties

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States called for deeper military ties with China on Tuesday, including working closer together in areas like peacekeeping, fighting piracy and disaster relief, despite growing tensions between the two on a range of security issues.

White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon made the remarks at a meeting with senior Chinese military leader Fan Changlong, two weeks ahead of a summit between the U.S. and Chinese presidents in California.

"An essential part of building a new model for relations between great powers is ensuring we have a healthy, stable and reliable military to military relationship," Donilon told Fan at the Chinese Defence Ministry, in brief comments before reporters.

He added the two countries should work to face "non-traditional security challenges" including peacekeeping, disaster relief and countering piracy.

Fan, the vice chair of China's powerful Central Military Commission, called for a "new type of major power relations".

Neither Donilon nor Fan mentioned the numerous sensitive areas Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to discuss in June, including tensions on the Korean peninsula and a string of cyber attacks the United States has linked to China.

Donilon met Xi on Monday, during which Xi said Sino-U.S. relations were at "an important stage connecting the past and the future", according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

Neither side has given details about what will be discussed at the summit, set for June 7-8 at a sprawling California estate called Sunnylands, which lies southeast of Palm Springs.

While military relations between the world's two largest economies have thawed considerably in the last two years, deep suspicions and sticking points remain, including China's role in pushing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Fan and Xi both met with Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, earlier this month. The U.S. will likely continue pressuring China to enforce international sanctions on Pyongyang.

(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-security-adviser-calls-deeper-china-military-042040645.html

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Book Marketing Tips For Fiction And Non-Fiction Authors | The ...

In this 18 minute video, I outline a number of book marketing tips, some specifically for fiction and some for non-fiction.

The video was produced for a different site, hence I actually introduce myself

You can watch the video below, or here on YouTube.

In the video, I explain:

What?s your most useful book marketing tip? Please do share in the comments below.

?

Tagged as: content marketing, discoverability, list

Source: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/05/27/book-marketing-tips/

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China profit growth quickens, no harbinger of recovery

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's industrial profits growth quickened in April from the previous month, though the government noted that the pickup was due mainly to a low comparative base, indicating that the world's second largest economy still faces slack domestic and external demand.

Chinese firms made profits of 436.7 billion yuan ($71.22 billion) in April, up 9.3 percent from the same month last year, quickening from a year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

The improved gains in April were caused by the low comparison base in the same month a year earlier, Yu Jianxun, an official from the bureau's industrial department, said in a statement accompanying the data.

Profits had fallen 2.2 percent in April last year from 2011, compared with gains of 4.5 percent year-on-year growth in March 2012, said Yu.

In the first four months on 2013, Chinese firms made total profits of 1.61 trillion yuan, up 11.4 percent from the same period a year ago, the NBS said (www.stats.gov.cn).

Among the 41 industries tracked, 30 posted profit growth and eight reported a profit drop in the first four months compared with the year earlier period. Three sectors reported turnarounds in profitability.

Profits for manufacturers of computers, telecommuications equipment and electronics were up 44.8 percent from the same period last year, while those in the electricity and heat production and supply industry leapt 92.6 percent.

The ferrous metal smelting and rolling industry reported a 38.6 percent year-on-year increase in profits during the period, while profits in auto manufacturing rose 12.9 percent.

Petroleum refining, coking and nuclear fuel processing sectors swung into profit from losses in the first four months, while profits in oil and gas exploration dropped 7.9 percent.

The figures come after the HSBC/Markit flash purchasing managers index, the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, showed a contraction for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell.

The PMI added to concerns that China's economic recovery has stalled and that a sharper cooldown may be imminent.

($1 = 6.1316 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Kevin Yao; editing by Jonathan Standing)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-jan-april-industrial-profits-11-4-percent-014053001.html

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gibLink 5.0 Goes Live! | Okanagan Business

26 May 2013 gibLink | Global Internet Business Link

gibLink.com the Global Internet Business Link, a Business Network for Marketing and Sales Professionals is undergoing a major site upgrade to make our site more user?friendly, to provide better content and provide you with more recurring revenue affiliate opportunities.

Some highlights of the New Community and website are:

• Enhanced Social Networking Tools
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• More recurring revenue products for Affiliate Program

gibLink.com first launched in 2007 and over 25,000 people joined in the first 3 months. Over the next three years the membership grew to over 120,000 members. Adapting to changing times gibLink?s focus has shifted towards online marketing and sales and marketing resources, solutions and tools in a rapidly changing online environment. Offering Business Solutions such as Live Chat, Mobile Apps, SMS Marketing and much more these are powerful online marketing solutions will set your business apart from the rest.

The recurring revenue model that kick started gibLink back in 2007 that saw us payout over $10 million in commissions is back with a suite of cutting edge products that are a necessity in todays online world. Get started today with the gibLink Affiliate Program and start making a monthly income working online.

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With new partnerships and marketing experts at the helm look for many new and amazing opportunities in the coming weeks and months from gibLink and meanwhile enjoy the new social networking features!

Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you again soon!

Adam Bernard
Founder gibLink.com

Source: http://okanaganbusiness.com/giblink-5-0-goes-live

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Jay Z NFL Investigation: Did Rapper Violate League Rules?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/jay-z-nfl-investigation-did-rapper-violate-league-rules/

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Inside Iran's presidential election and beyond

Some questions about Iran's June 14 presidential election and beyond:

DOES THE ELECTION MATTER?

Yes, but not in the ways many people think. Iran's president does not set the country's major policies such as the nuclear program, relations with the West or military projects. All this falls under the ruling clerics headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The president acts as the main emissary for the theocracy's positions.

But the president is far from powerless. The post oversees important sectors such as the economy, which needs even greater management as Iran tried to ride out increasingly tighter sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program. The president also has the ear of Khamenei and can help shape strategic policies. Much depends on their relationship. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad had a spectacular falling out, but a president in Khamenei's good graces could have a significant voice in Iranian affairs.

WILL THE OUTCOME AFFECT IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM?

It won't have a direct effect. The president cannot make any critical changes or concessions. Indirectly, though, the election can have some influence.

Two main theories have been raised. One is that the election could end the internal political bickering of the Ahmadinejad era. This could make the ruling clerics more comfortable in making deals with the West. A second, opposing, prediction is that a seamless front between the ruling clerics and the new president could embolden Iran to take an even more hard-line approach.

The West and its allies fear Iran could be moving toward an atomic weapon. Iran says it only seeks nuclear reactors and technology for energy and medical application. Iran often cites Khamenei's religious edict, or fatwa, denouncing nuclear arms.

HOW DOES THE ELECTION PROCESS WORK?

It's a step-by-step process that is tightly controlled by the ruling clerics.

Candidates first registered with the Interior Ministry. It's essentially an open invitation. Almost anyone can toss in their name. This year, more than 680 did. They ranged from prominent figures such as Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ? trying to make a comeback after leaving office in 1997 ? to obscure clerics and nonstarters such as Razieh Omidvar, a 46-year-old housewife. Iran's constitution refers to the president using a male term, which is interpreted as prohibiting women from serving.

Eight candidates were cleared for the ballot by the Guardian Council, a 12-member panel that vets candidates for president and parliament based on factors including loyalty to the Islamic system. Surprisingly, Rafsanjani was blocked, suggesting the ruling system was worried about his clout and ability to galvanize reformists.

WHO CAN VOTE?

There are more than 50 million eligible voters in a population of about 76 million. About a third of the voters are under 30 ? born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Minimum voting age is 18, raised from 16 in 2007. Iranians abroad can vote in diplomatic compounds and other polling sites.

IS IT FAIR?

The main criticism by the West is over the candidate vetting process. Also, the question of whether the final vote is accurate brings divided opinions. Allegations of ballot rigging were at the center of mass protests and riots in 2009 after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. Supporters of the Islamic system insist the voting is fair and transparent, although Iran does not allow outside election observers.

WHAT CHOICES DO IRANIANS HAVE THIS TIME?

The rejection of Rafsanjani appeared to undercut momentum for reformists and liberals to regroup after years of crackdowns and pressures.

Of the eight candidates, six are considered closely allied with the ruling clerics. They include a former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. The two more moderate-leaning candidates have not gained the same following as Rafsanjani. They are former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani and Mohammad Reza Aref, vice president under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

ARE THERE RISKS OF POST-ELECTION UNREST AS IN 2009?

Iran's opposition movement has been effectively dismantled by years of crackdowns and detentions, including placing Mousavi and fellow presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi under house arrest in early 2011. There appears to be little spirit for street demonstrations among even the strong dissident factions in Iran, knowing that they will face swift and harsh retaliation from the government. In a pre-emptive move, Iranian authorities have tightened controls on the Internet, which was used as a main coordination tool during the 2009 protests.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inside-irans-presidential-election-beyond-173753135.html

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Health Insurance Suggestions That Can Make A Positive Change ...

Having good health insurance policy is a crucial part of staying wholesome.This post can guide you store to get the best health care insurance plan.

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Find out about discount rates when selecting medical insurance for the entire family members. Some companies give discount rates while you are acquiring insurance coverage for all inside your family members.Request the insurer regarding this well before carrying out to a particular insurance coverage.

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online loan You should reevaluate your insurance yearly.

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In conclusion, it is essential to sustain good health. Health and well being insurance plans are essential to help you stay sickness-cost-free. Utilize this advice to obtain and maintain good health insurance plan.

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Source: http://offbrain.net/?p=2834

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