Get Airport Transfer Vehicles That Are Not Difficult To Acquire

Unless you have a dedicated valet to anticipate your every move beforehand whenever you're boarding or alternately stepping out of a flightyou'll by more often than not left frustrated by default airport transfer vehicles that are not only difficult to acquire but simultaneously bleed you out of your finite finances if you aren't careful enough. Needless to say, you can rely on family or your friend to get you out of this particularly tight spot when it's time to head over to the bustling airport, at the very least. But matters can immediately get out of hand once you've stepped foot to your intended destination and running short on acquaintances who would gladly pick you up at a moment's noticeworst of all, this scenario might even ruin your travel plans way before you get a chance to arrive at the airport on timethereby causing you to miss your important flight.

Needless to say, there are all kinds of companies and businesses that are aware of these airport transportation issues and through the years have finely tuned their services and collective expertise to ensure that their clients are able to board their flight on time with virtually a non-existent rate of traffic related accidents as well as keeping their prices relatively affordable.

Nowadays, it isn't uncommon to secure your boarding tickets by obtaining them through secure online transactions. This reliable technological development has provided immense benefits to massive airline companies operating at an international scale as well as their valued clients from all corners of the globe. While search engines (notably Google) tirelessly trawl through a near limitless number of web pages in order to efficiently index airlines based on your concurrent area and overarching preferencesairport transportation companies have taken note and largely followed suitwhich is undoubtedly a welcome development for hectic consumers aiming to hit two birds with one stone by agreeing on a airport transfer appointment with locally available companies in addition to conveniently purchasing their plane tickets online.

If you're still unsure of whether arranging for an airport transportation pickup via the web isn't such a swell idearemember that there's certainly no shortage of incentives and discounts exclusively available to web based transactions that you normally won't be able to acquire via conventional channels. Of course, all the typically features of brokering deals conventionally still apply and are fundamentally unchanged when carried over to a virtual settingthe type of vehicle that can transport you from point A to B still depends on your preferences; you're even permitted to integrate optional amenities to your airport transfer in Sydney that aren't unlike what you'll find on a highly functional but nevertheless luxurious limousine. Finally, you can even go so far as arrange for welcoming transportation once you reach your destination by familiarizing yourself with prospective airport transfer companies of said destination as well.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Get-Airport-Transfer-Vehicles-That-Are-Not-Difficult-To-Acquire/4409109

vernal equinox mr rogers jamie lee curtis spring equinox audacious pollen count mexico city

Patient molests woman in Brooklyn ER, authorities say

By Gus Rosendale, NBCNewYork.com

A 27-year-old woman at a Brooklyn hospital was molested by a fellow patient previously convicted of sex abuse, authorities said.?

The woman was in a semi-private section of the emergency room at Kings County Hospital when she woke up to find the man molesting her, investigators said.

Read more at NBCNewYork.com

Gregory Campfield, 52, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor charge of forcible touching. It's not clear if he had an attorney.

A spokesman for Kings County Hospital said in a statement, "Security was immediately alerted, and the male patient was turned over to the NYPD. We are ensuring the patient is receiving all the care and support she and her family need."?

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/31/16789705-woman-in-brooklyn-er-molested-by-another-patient-authorities-say?lite

bay bridge presidents day band of brothers presidents george washington russell westbrook horsetail falls

Despite early successes, fight against extremists in Mali to be protracted

JOHANNESBURG - French-led forces have wrested control of three key cities in northern Mali from al-Qaida-linked militants, but the fighters have escaped with their weapons into a desert region the size of Texas and are poised to mount counterattacks.

New military strategies will be needed to rout the jihadists from their desert hideouts. When the French leave their former colony, armed extremists are still likely to remain. No one has yet publicly announced a campaign to hunt them down in the Sahara and in Mali's villages, where they are believed to be slipping in among civilians.

"The French and Malian forces are dealing with an enemy ? jihadists ? that don't have a fixed address, that don't wear uniforms," said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, a think-tank in London. "It's an enemy that can disappear into the population and come out at will. The insurgents play the long game. They are not in a hurry, the French are. The Islamists could use the population as human shields. They could use suicide bombers. This is not a conventional war."

With the rapid success of French and Malian forces in recapturing the major cities in northern Mali, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his country's forces will be leaving Mali "quickly." France sent its troops and warplanes to Mali on Jan. 11 after the armed Islamists began encroaching on the south from their northern stronghold, toward the capital. The French quickly blocked the offensive and forced the insurgents from three key northern cities, Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, that they had ruled for 10 months. The French had already made clear that's the extent of their mission.

That leaves Malian and African forces facing new, daunting challenges: holding the cities and searching out the rebels in the vast desert surrounding the population centres. The well-armed Islamist extremists, who are from Mali and a host of other countries, are known to have recruited child soldiers and are expected to use the civilian population as human shields and to use suicide bombers.

The fight for Mali has really barely begun, warn analysts.

"It's a strategic withdrawal (from the cities) by the jihadists which means that the fight is not over," said Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at Chatham House, a centre for international affairs in London.

Vines said unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, already have a prominent role in intelligence gathering in the area but have not been used to fire on targets, such as the drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"That could change," he said.

The Pentagon is considering setting up a drone base in northwest Africa to increase intelligence collection, said a U.S. military official this week. Niger has accepted the idea of hosting unarmed U.S. drones but has not endorsed armed U.S. Predator strikes or the launching of U.S. special operations raids from its territory. The U.S. and Niger in recent days signed a "status of forces agreement" spelling out legal protections and obligations of American forces that might operate in Niger in the future.

Vines believes that a French force will have to stay in Mali for some time to come. It is widely agreed that the Malian army is not up to the job of holding the cities on its own. Malian troops put up little to no resistance when the Islamist rebels attacked the cities of northern Mali in April last year. Eventually the army will be backed up by an African force that is still being assembled. There are now some 2,900 African soldiers in Mali, including 1,400 from Chad who are used to fighting in harsh, desert terrain like northern Mali.

"The French will have to ... keep in place a backup force that can move in quickly if there is any trouble," Vines said.

But French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declared on Monday that "the mission is accomplished," referring to the blocking of the jihadists' offensive toward the south and retaking of the northern cities.

"The African forces will slowly take over from France to ensure the sovereignty of Mali," he told French television station TF1. "And France doesn't plan to stay. Once the handover has happened, France will pull out."

But even so, he seemed to hold out the possibility of a continued French role.

Asked about the status of the thousands of jihadists, he said: "Some were killed because the attacks were violent. Others are trying to flee, but the borders of neighbouring countries are closed and guarded today. Others are hiding so it's necessary to continue, with help from African forces, Malian forces, with the re-conquest, the liberation of Mali."

The French desperately want more African troops in Mali, but they have been slow in coming, said Johnson of Viewpoint Africa.

"The French need thousands of troops to protect the gains that have been made," he said. "Many of the surrounding states in the region are fragile themselves. And finance is needed to pay for those troops."

Western and African nations Tuesday pledged $450 million to fight the jihadists, but the African Union said that $960 million is needed. In contrast the Islamists appear to be well funded from the drug trafficking and cigarette smuggling.

Johnson said from 5,000 to 10,000 armed Islamist extremists are in Mali, including many who gained combat experience while fighting for Moammar Gadhafi, the leader of Libya before he was overthrown and killed.

Nigeria is expected to take the lead in the African force in Mali. It has West Africa's best trained army, biggest economy and has led other African forces in West Africa. However, Nigeria is already battling its own Islamist extremist insurgency ? the Boko Haram rebels.

Johnson warns that the Mali conflict may last a long time.

"We are dealing with an ideology, a mindset and to fight something like that is a long-term process," he said. "Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia shows that. It's going to be a long, hard struggle."

___

Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo contributed from Paris.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/despite-early-successes-fight-against-extremists-mali-protracted-211124488.html

Sally Ride Ichiro minka kelly James Holmes court Rupert Sanders bachelorette penn state

Liftoff! NASA Launches Next-Generation Relay Satellite into Space

This story was updated at 10:46 p.m. ET.

A next-generation NASA relay satellite was launched into orbit Wednesday (Jan. 30) on a mission to upgrade a vital communications network linking the space agency to its spacecraft orbiting the Earth.

The U.S. space agency's first launch of 2013, the new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K (TDRS-K for short) soared spaceward atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:48 p.m. EST (0148 Jan. 31 GMT).

"We have a customer that's quite thrilled right now to have a healthy satellite on orbit," Tim Dunn the TDRS-K flight director said in a NASA TV interview after the launch.

The TDRS-K satellite is bound for an orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above Earth, where it will join a constellation of five other satellites currently in orbit to help NASA and other space agencies stay in touch with orbiting spacecraft.

NASA's TDRS communications network began in 1983 and has not received an upgrade since 2002, when the space agency launched its 10th TDRS satellite. Five satellites are currently in use today, with the TDRS-K launch adding one more that number, mission managers said. [Launch Photos: NASA's TDRS-K Satellite Blasts Off ]

The TDRS-K satellite is expected to spend at least 15 years, but agency officials expect that the satellite will exceed its projected life-expectancy. Many of the network's satellites have outlived their expected mission lifetimes, ?said Jeffrey Gramling, NASA's TDRS project manager.

But that does not mean that TDRS-K is unnecessary. One of the satellites currently in active service is slated be retired in the next few months, and other satellites in the aging network are getting older, said Badri Younes, a scientist in NASA's Space Communications and Navigation office.

The satellite launched today was the first of three new satellites expected to enter service between now and 2015 that should further bolster the network. The TDRS-K mission costs between $350 million and $400 million, not including the price of its rocket.

The TDRS-K satellite is 26 feet long (8 meters) and weighs about 7,615 pounds (3,454 kilograms). It was expected to separate from its Atlas 5 rocket one hour and 46 minutes after liftoff, with a Centaur upper stage rocket engine slated to carry it the rest of the way to its geosynchronous orbit.

The satellite is expected to deploy its solar arrays and giant antennas about 11 days after launch, according to a mission description. ?

NASA's TDRS satellite network is part of the larger "Space Network" used keep space agencies on the ground in constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The International Space Station sends all of its data and messages through the network using the TDRS satellites. The rocket that sent TDRS-K into orbit even uses the space network to beam down data, Vernon Thorp, a program manager with NASA said.

TDRS-K is now entering into a three month period of testing and calibrations, but once those tests are complete the NASA research team will decide if the satellite is ready for service.?

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.?

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/liftoff-nasa-launches-next-generation-relay-satellite-space-022520967.html

Tony Sly Lauren Perdue tagged Heptathlon London 2012 shot put London 2012 Track And Field Jordyn Wieber

New BlackBerry won't be released in US until March

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, announces that the company will now be known as BlackBerry, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The new BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, which is changing its name to BlackBerry, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Stagehands prepare for the introduction of the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled new, versatile BlackBerrys after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in an industry that is redefining society. But the first phone won't come out in the United States until March, and one with a physical keyboard will take at least a month longer.

The stock fell 12 percent after Wednesday's kickoff, despite mostly positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's concern the phone isn't coming out sooner, and there's worry BlackBerry 10's advances won't be enough to turn the company around.

In a move underscoring the stakes riding on its make-or-break product lineup, RIM used the occasion to announce that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry. It's a pioneering brand that lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset expectations for what a smartphone should do.

Pioneered in 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It was so addictive at times that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

As the BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers, rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But it has taken more than two years to unveil new phones that are redesigned for the new multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers are now demanding.

CEO Thorsten Heins, who one year ago replaced longtime executives who had presided over BlackBerry's fall, formally unveiled the much-delayed smartphones and software Wednesday in New York. Simultaneous events were held in Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first device in the new crop of revamped BlackBerrys will be the Z10 ? pronounced "zee-10" in the U.S. and "zed-10" elsewhere. As RIM previously disclosed, it will have only a touch-screen keyboard, like Apple Inc.'s trend-setting iPhone and most phones running Android, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s popular Galaxy line. Although the Z10 will go on sale Thursday in the U.K. and next Tuesday in Canada, it won't be available in the U.S. until March.

The Q10 will follow and will have a physical keyboard, a feature that has kept BlackBerry users loyal over the years because it makes typing easier. RIM said the Q10 will start going on sale on some global carriers in April, but it couldn't say when U.S. carriers will have it.

Heins said U.S. carriers need more time to test the devices. All the major U.S. carriers plan to sell the new BlackBerrys. Verizon Wireless said the Z10 will be available for $200 with a two-year service agreement, in line with what other major smartphones cost. In Canada, it will cost about $150 with a three-year contract.

Frank Boulben, RIM's chief marketing officer, said some of the delay in the U.S. stems from specific testing requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. There was a similar delay when the iPhone first came out, though subsequent models were released more quickly after their announcements.

The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well in many places overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate.

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones' tardy arrival in the U.S. threatens to cause even more BlackBerry users to defect. By the time the Z10 goes on sale in the U.S., Gillis suspects many people will be waiting to see what Google plans to unveil in mid-May at an annual conference that usually includes new gadgets and an Android software update. Speculation of a new iPhone also may be building by then.

Wednesday's event flopped on Wall Street. RIM's stock fell $1.88 to $13.78. The stock has more than doubled from its nine-year low of $6.22 in September, but is still nearly 90 percent below its peak of $147 reached in 2008, when the iPhone was still a novelty trying to break into the mainstream.

Despite their limited availability until March, the new BlackBerrys will be hailed in a commercial Sunday during CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl. RIM declined to say how much it is paying, but some 30-second spots during the game have been sold for as much as $4 million. RIM said the spot is designed to signal to U.S. customers that the BlackBerry is back.

RIM also decided to make a touch-only version first, despite its strength with physical keyboards, in hopes of luring new customers.

"The idea that we are launching BlackBerry 10 just to upgrade the existing physical keyboard customer base is wrong," Boulben said in an interview. "The new platform we are introducing will have much wider appeal on the market. It's for all the people looking for the next generation in smartphone experience."

But RIM won't abandon physical keyboards. The Q10 will have a square screen and sport a 35-key physical keyboard with a back light, with language-specific arrangements such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on the market. It's meant to cater to people who still prefer that over a touch screen.

The touch-screen keyboard itself promises such improvements as learning a user's writing style and suggesting words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals.

The new BlackBerrys also are supposed to run faster and enable people to separate their professional and personal lives with a feature called Balance. They also promise to let people easily switch between multiple applications by swiping on the screen. The new BlackBerrys won't have a home button, which is fundamental to the iPhone.

"Gone are the days of going back and forth and in and out between applications," said Andrew MacLeod, RIM's managing director for Canada. "It's cumbersome, it's inefficient and it's slow."

The new software and BlackBerrys were supposed to be released a year ago, only to be delayed while Apple and Android device makers won more zealous converts to their products. In the meantime, Microsoft Corp. rolled out a new Windows operating system for smartphones, confronting RIM with another technology powerhouse to battle.

The delays in developing the new BlackBerrys helped wipe out $70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

"It is the most challenging year of my career," said Heins, whose anniversary leading the company occurred last week. "It is also the most exhilarating and exciting one."

Some analysts have questioned whether the company that helped create the smartphone market will survive, especially as its losses have mounted in the past year.

"We'll see if they can reclaim their glory," Gillis said. "My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy."

Ovum analyst Adam Leach said he believes the new system will appeal to existing BlackBerry users, but that won't be enough to undercut the popularity of the iPhone and Android devices. He predicted that BlackBerry "will struggle to appeal to a wider audience, and in the long-term will become a niche player in the smartphone market."

That said, RIM won't need a knockout. As smartphone sales grow overall, RIM can still succeed with the BlackBerry 10 without requiring iPhone and Android users to switch.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10's advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won't have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android.

RIM said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, and with 100,000 apps by the time it comes to the U.S. But some of those were developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011, and weren't necessarily adapted to run on the BlackBerry 10. In addition, popular services such as Instagram and Netflix won't have apps on BlackBerry 10.

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story. Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-30-RIM-BlackBerry%20Makeover/id-544ae1e84c5e463ebfc383b3a29db402

dog the bounty hunter tacoma narrows bridge weather nyc open marriage department of justice doj dept of justice

Passwords redux | Dave Kearns

Over 25 years ago I started in the networked computer field worrying about authentication, usernames and passwords. And despite all the weeping and wailing about passwords in the intervening years, I still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking, writing and speaking about them.

Just last week, Oracle?s Mike Neuenschwander (formerly with The Burton Group) organized a lively tweet chat on authentication issues (search Twitter for #authchat to see what?s left of the thread) which showed surprising agreement about the future of passwords for authentication.

The week before, Google had announced what the press called a ?war on passwords,? when they rolled out a beta project to use Yubikey hardware tokens in a Near Field Communication (NFC) system for authentication. My colleague Martin Kuppinger looked at this possibility just the other day, and liked it ? with cautions.

The thing is, most analysts, IT execs, security professionals and others with a stake in authentication services agree that passwords should be removed from the process. They?re inherently insecure, someone recently speculated that the ?secure lifespan? of a new password (the time it would take to crack it) is down to less than a second, on average.

The hundreds of data breaches in just the past year unveiled hundreds of thousands of passwords. While many bemoaned the simplicity of the passwords people choose (?password,? ?qwerty,? ?12345,? ?monkey?) and demand more complexity others note that the more complex the password the more often a user will write it on a sticky note attached to their monitor.

It was just over a year ago I suggested going to a Privileged Management (PxM) system, called by some Privileged User Management (PUM), and by others Priveleged Account Management as sort of an SSO on steroids answer to the password problem.

The basic idea is that passwords are here to stay, and all we can hope to do is to reduce our dependence on them or reduce their exposure. By configuring the PxM-SSO system to reset passwords after every use; to use complex combinations of letters, numbers, upper/lower case and other marks; and to never reveal the password chosen that we increase significantly the amount of time needed to break the password. In other words, if we make it more expensive to break in to the system then the value derived from the break-in we reduced the incentive for the cracker. As the old proverb goes, when a group is being chased by a bear you don?t have to be the fastest runner just faster that the slowest.

Of course, as many have pointed out, that ?solution? doesn?t remove passwords at all. That?s very true, but also well beside the point. There is no solution that, in the foreseeable future, will remove all reliance on passwords, especially when we speak about the mobile market.

Ever since Apple acquired AuthenTec (maker of 2D finger print sensors), there?s been talk that the next iPhone (either the 6 or the 5S) will include a fingerprint reader. I?ve been waiting for that development for four years, sBut as one wag commented, most smartphones have shiny surfaces which any thief should find to be very thick with fingerprints that could be lifted and reused .

Whether or not that development leads to a use of biometrics rather than a PIN to unlock a smartphone is still problematic. Too many people seem to make a living out of denigrating biometrics for authentication. Lurid tales of people having their digits cut off to fool fingerprint readers are scary, if not very truthful.

Near Field Communications (NFC), used in devices such as the Yubico Yubikey being looked at by Google, is simply a refinement of RFID with a much smaller range. In this case, smaller is supposedly better. RFID has been criticized for broadcasting data too far, allowing the nefarious to ?eavesdrop? on communications and harvest all sorts of interesting ?stuff?. But NFC devices still have the same flaw, what could be the same fatal flaw, that RFID devices have. It?s the device itself that?s being authenticated no matter who is in possession of it. No matter what form factor the NFC device takes ? the credit card sized bit of plastic that Martin favors or the wearable ring that Google is talking about ? it?s still quite possible for it to fall into the hands of the cracker with no need for lopping off fingers.

Proponents of NFC devices say that multi-factor authentication is the key. Invariable, this leads us back to a password, a PIN, a passphrase or other shared secret. Well, for many it does. I still prefer a biometric as the second factor. But those who feel a password can be used frequently call for a one-time password (OTP) distributed out-of-band (perhaps by SMS message). The recent Eurograpper exploit should give us pause when considering that solution.

Last week?s #authchat tweet chat pretty much concluded in general consensus about two things: 1) password authentication is bad; 2) passwords are going to be around for a long time, although perhaps in a diminished role.

Winston Churchill once said: ?democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.? Could we paraphrase that and say passwords are the worst form of authentication except for all those other methods that have been tried from time to time? And if we will continue to use passwords, in one way or another, which is the best way? Should we have one strong password we use for all authentications? Different strong passwords for each authentication? A combination where an SSO/PAM handles different strong passwords for each authentication while being accessed by one strong password at initialization?

Here?s the question I want to leave you with today: if you want to protect your eggs, do you hide them ? individually ? all over the farm or do you put them all in one basket and hide it under a hay rick?

In my days as a network manager I learned that there?s always a bottleneck in the network where traffic slows. When you fix that, then another place becomes the bottleneck. It?s the same with authentication ? we can always identify the weak point, but when we fix it doesn?t something else become the weak point?

Source: http://blogs.kuppingercole.com/kearns/2013/01/29/passwords-redux/

love hewitt new ipad solar flare joseph kony 2012 arian foster dennis kucinich apple ipad

How to Spot a HIGHLY Productive Cleaning Business Owner!

All things aren?t equal ? some people get more done than others.? Why?? Well, in this video we see how you can not only spot a cleaning business owner who probably gets more done than his competitors ? but, how you could dramatically increase your own productivity by implementing the same technique. Watch this fast paced video ? How to Spot a HIGHLY Productive Cleaning Business Owner!, where Dan tells about a crazy story he heard on radio that illustrates? how a man used a variation of the productivity technique to win a car ? and then gives a practical example of how you can create a daily schedule that will help you get a whole lot more done ? a whole lot faster in your cleaning company. Thanks for watching our video ? How to Spot a HIGHLY Productive Cleaning Business Owner, but, don?t stop there ? be sure to check out our video: Clean Guru Thinking vs. Natural Instinct:? WHEN Should YOU Change Your Cleaning Business, where Dan gives a personal story and a janitorial business example to illustrate ?how the right time to make changes to improve your cleaning company may turn out to be opposite of what you might naturally think.? You?ll watch a few, short minutes of video loaded with practical ideas, tips and strategies about what it really takes to flip a commercial cleaning or residential maid service business from painful to profitable.? Want to Flip Yours?

?

"What real users say..."

Source: http://www.cleanbid.net/blog/how-to-spot-a-highly-productive-cleaning-business-owner.php

Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3 kat dennings Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul mumford and sons

Modern Architecture In Hong Kong Adding Glamour To The City

Architecture in Hong Kong boasts a great deal of style similar to contemporary architecture like postmodernism, modernism and functionalism. Due to the unavailability of adequate land some of the olden buildings of Hong Kong still remain in the urban regions. Hong Kong is renowned among the world to be having some of the most modern architecture that is revealed from the many skyscrapers that dominate the city apart from the few old fashioned structures. Most of the buildings in the cities are more than 35 meters high and is said to be the best skyline in the world when the towering skyscrapers blend with the exquisite Victoria Harbor and the mountain setting. Before the British settled in Hong Kong in 1841 the cities of Hong Kong were a pure blend of Chinese architecture.

The greater part of the populace was fishers who faced much difficulty due to typhoons and pirates. To defend themselves they built Tin Hau Temples to offer their patron goddess. Even the farmers built fortified townships to protect themselves from danger. Unknowingly these structures added much glamour to the landscape of the cities. With the British settling in, the styles used in architecture took a new turn which included three or four storied buildings that were tightly crammed in town blocks that took a unique mix of both European and Chinese styles. Usually the ground floors of these up stair structures were shops with apartments accommodating the upper floors. This style of design which was known as Tong Lau did not include elevators and continued till around the World War II and still have a few surviving in abandoned states.

In the mid 19th century the settled British established the Victorian and Edwardian Styles. The Murray House, Central Police Station and Legislative Council Building are remarkable existing examples. People traveling Hong Kong, who wishes to stay in luxury 5 star hotels, can enjoy a stay in Langham Hotels which is one of the best luxury hotels collection in Hong Kong. While you are on vacation you will experience the spectacular skyline made even more charming with the modern architecture boasting through the skyscrapers.

About the Author:
Uditha Dharmawardhane is a travel writer who writes under the pen name Roland Lefevre. He specializes in creating features on leisure as well as business travel destinations across the globe.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Modern-Architecture-In-Hong-Kong-----Adding-Glamour-To-The-City-/4406932

barista university of kentucky ncaa oakland news alec baldwin alec baldwin college basketball

CNN executive Mark Whitaker quitting

NEW YORK (AP) ? With Jeff Zucker taking over at CNN, the network's managing editor says he is quitting.

Mark Whitaker is a former Newsweek editor who also worked at NBC. He said in a memo to the staff Tuesday that with a new leader who has his own "forceful ideas," he thought it best to step aside.

CNN says Zucker will take over Whitaker's role overseeing the editorial content of CNN. There will not be a new managing editor.

Whitaker joined CNN in 2011 as executive vice president and managing editor, responsible for editorial content. Prior to that, he was the Washington bureau chief for NBC News.

He says he is proud of efforts to expand CNN's programming, including upcoming weekend shows with Morgan Spurlock and Anthony Bourdain.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-29-US-TV-CNN-Whitaker/id-80bcf56c86054978b52fcfb903d75c47

john lennon leann rimes pearl harbor Jacintha Saldanha Grammy nominations 2013 Butch Jones thursday night football

TV ads may be driving children to drink ? The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

The halls of every middle school in America are filled with teenagers looking to find themselves, express themselves and fit in with the crowd. But it?s what happens at home, at night, that can lead to some of the problems those teens may put on display.

Seventh-graders who are exposed to alcohol ads on television ?- and who say they like the ads - may experience more severe problems related to drinking alcohol later in their adolescence, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics.

The study

Researchers at the School of Community and Global Health at Claremont Graduate University in California hypothesized that ?adolescents who like alcohol advertisements will be more likely to elaborate on the content of the ads (e.g., imagine themselves in the scene), and as a result, they will be more likely to be persuaded to try the product.?

As consenting adult consumers,?the more appealing an advertised product is, the more likely?it will be?purchased. Secondly ?? drinking is oftentimes thought of as cool, rebellious ? sometimes even an ?adult? thing to do. These two notions, taken together, can be a recipe for problems when it comes to children and alcohol.

Participants were recruited from 23 randomly-selected public middle schools in Los Angeles County. The seventh-grade students were preliminarily surveyed as to how often they watched 20 popular TV shows. Data on alcohol advertising during these programs was subsequently obtained from Nielsen Media Research.

The study?s authors then conducted follow-up surveys, which included still pictures from the television advertisements, none of which contained any brand names or logos. An open-ended item asked participants to write down what product was being advertised; independent judges decided whether responses were indeed related to the advertisement or not.

The survey also included three items to assess how much participants liked the alcohol ads they viewed on TV. The teens were asked if they thought the alcohol ads were funny or sexy, and whether they liked the alcohol ads better than other ads. ?These items,? explain the authors, ?measure an affective or emotional reaction to alcohol ads that has been useful in both the study of alcohol advertising and by the advertising industry in general to estimate the potential effectiveness of advertising copy.?

Results

?Exposure to advertising was found to have a significant correlation with alcohol use, particularly among girls,? the study concludes. ?Liking the ads was connected with alcohol-related problems (defined as not being able to do homework, getting into fights, neglecting responsibilities, or causing someone shame or embarrassment), particularly in boys. For both boys and girls, the more they were exposed to the ads and liked them, the more their alcohol use grew from seventh to 10th grade.? That, of course, leads to a greater potential for alcohol-related problems later on.

The researchers were also careful to consider additional factors, such as the total amount of time spent watching television, observing friends drinking, observing well-known adults drinking, age, gender, ethnicity, language, parents? occupation and education, as well as enrollment?in extracurricular sporting activities.

Recommendations

The study's authors recommend teaching children about "the design of persuasive messages in the media?to help the avoid undue influence by the media on their behaviors. Second, it is?important to have a comprehensive policy to limit the exposure of children to alcohol ads on television and on other media."

The urgency of finding a solution to the epidemic of underage drinking was underscored further by another study released Monday in Pediatrics. Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that in 2010, 36% of 10th graders drank, 28% binged, and 23% were drunk in the past month. Although 82% of the high school sophomores reported seeing a doctor in the past year, only 54% were asked about drinking, and just 17% were advised to reduce or stop drinking.

?Efforts are warranted to increase the proportion of physicians who follow professional guidelines to screen and counsel adolescents about unhealthy alcohol use and behaviors that pose health risks,? conclude the second study?s authors.

Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/29/tv-ads-may-be-driving-children-to-drink/

chad ochocinco roman numerals superbowl halftime madonna madonna papa johns guacamole recipe

Debt Related PTSD and Financial PTSD Quietly Hurts Many

We commonly think that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is something that only combat troops face. It?s thought of as an effect only of war. But that?s not the whole story.

Through news reports and media coverage we are also aware of the ripples and problems PTSD can create in the lives of many brave military members after they return home. But what if I was to tell you that people who have lived through difficult financial problems can also suffer from PTSD?

Debt Related PTSD and FInancial PTSD Quietly Hurts Many ? Click to Tweet

Your first reaction to such a statement would probably be ?that?s not possible? or ?that?s not true.? But in fact it is possible and it is true that many people have struggled with debt related PTSD.

It?s quite possible that Dave Ramsey?s entire efforts to talk people out of bankruptcy are based not on logic or reality but on the unresolved PTSD he faced after living through his financial problems.

Dave Ramsey?s unawareness of what was actually happening to him is not a unique occurrence. In fact I might also be just one such person that was struck with debt related PTSD.

Years ago Pam and I recorded a video about our experience with our financial problems and if you watch this section of that video you can hear us described symptoms that we experienced.

While I had previously associated post-debt depression with the financial struggles we had. After doing the research for this article I think that what we actually lived through was most similar to some PTSD experiences.

Society minimizes the impact that a problem debt has on lives. Those suffering with problem debt are often disparagingly labeled. But the fact remains, that no matter how someone landed in financial trouble, they still must deal with the trauma and find a way out.

Money problems have two primary components. The first is the actual events that led to the financial trauma but the second is that of the aftermath and impact that financial trauma has on the individual lives.

It would be wrong to label people with debt in negative ways without realize many are suffering with what could be easily classified as post-traumatic stress disorder and need to seek help for that illness.

[Financial] Trauma: ?An emotional state of discomfort and stress resulting from memories of an extraordinary, catastrophic experience which shattered the survivor?s sense of invulnerability to harm.? (Trauma and its Wake, Charles Figley, Ph.D.)

This article introduces a common condition we have heard much about, PTSD, and the reality that many traumatized by money troubles actually suffer from the psychological impact of PTSD related difficulties and without treatment and/or awareness it can dramatically alter the otherwise healthier path in life that could be possible after money troubles.

And that detour in life from debt related PTSD does not began after the event is over, but once the trauma has been felt. The presence of PTSD also hurts the ability for the individual to deal with their debt in a healthy way. Dr. Goulston, a psychiatrist, describes what he calls the ?Four Ds of Financial PTSD,? debt, dependency, distrust and denial. Those conditions hold people back from making good and level-headed decisions about how to best deal with their debt.

I can?t tell you how many times I?ve had people tell me that they are stuck not knowing what to do to get out of debt or following their financial problems they want to avoid credit because they don?t want to face that pain again. They mistakenly continue to link credit with the retraumatizing feeling that occurs when they think about having good credit again. Good credit in their minds equals pain because the good credit led to problem debt and the problem debt led to pain.

The reality is most likely their financial PTSD is keeping them linked in behavior that actually holds them back from escaping the bonds of their lingering emotional debt. By not taking action or only taking avoidance action to deal with their debt they circle in a nearly perpetual cycle of self-fulfilling financial unhappiness.

Some say their money troubles have left them distrusting and depressed. And I?ve talked about the impact of denial in the process of dealing with debt in my article on the seven stages of debt.

The Seven Emotional Stages of Debt

A financial collapse can lead to the same emotional reactions as those experienced by those facing other traumatic events. It?s not the exact nature of the event that leads to PTSD, but how the trauma impacts the individual.

This example from psychiatrist Dr. Mark Goulston shows the way many people have felt living through their money troubles. I remember similar feelings myself.

Dr G: How big a trauma has losing all this money been?

Client: Big.

Dr. G: How big?

Client (now beginning to cry with upset and relief): I can?t even think about it.

Dr. G: What does it make you want to do?

Client: I don?t know. I guess, just hide. (He then continues to speak about this for several minutes).

Dr. G: How well do you think you could handle another trauma with your wife, children, parents, health?

Client (looking at me incredulously): Are you nuts? I couldn?t.

Dr. G: What do you think you?d do?

Client: I couldn?t even imagine. (He continues to speak about this for several minutes).

Dr. G: So, you?re as scared as you?ve ever been.

Client: More than I?ve ever been. ? Source

Lind Friend, a practicing psychotherapist for many decades has also witnessed the same PTSD symptoms in people experiencing financial loss and worries. She describes the PTSD symptoms as, ?anxiety, sleeplessness, heart palpations, overreacting, irritability, excessive worry, a sense of doom, loss of interest in normal events, emotional numbing, and flashbacks to traumatic events.? ? Source

Dr. Maggie Baker, another experienced in anxiety, depression and financial issues, says she sees ?patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These patients are grappling with the psychological burden that results from catastrophic losses.?

Dr. Baker states the symptoms of financial PTSD are easy to recognize. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you think about your money more in the last few weeks?
2. Are you worried about the current and future performance of your 401(K)?
3. Do you wake up at night with persistent memories of the 2008 financial collapse?
4. Have any small events (such as friend asking if you are going on vacation) caused you anxiety or worried money thoughts?
5. Do you feel a jolt of anxiety when financial statements arrive?
6. Do you avoid opening or reading your financial statements?
7. Do you have a growing sense of fear, helplessness and hopelessness?

If 4 or more of your answers are YES, then you are being held captive to the symptoms of PTSD. ? Source

Sarah who lived through debt said, ?When I was debt, it didn?t just feel like ?stress?- it felt like my life was falling apart. It also left me wondering if I will ever shake the feeling that I could lose everything again at the drop of a hat.?

There have been a limited number of studies about the effects of financial problems and the result of PTSD. One such study was published in 2012. In that study by Audrey Freshman (Freshman, A. (2012). Financial disaster as a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder: Internet survey of trauma in victims of the madoff ponzi scheme. Health and Social Work, 37(1), 39-48.) she stated:

There are no known studies to date examining the risk of PTSD associated with sudden and dramatic personal financial loss. A Web-based, online, nonprobability convenience survey of 172 Madoff victims (56% female; mean age, 60.9 years) using the Posttraumatic Stress List Checklist, civilian version was conducted 8 to 10 months following the focal event.

Sociodemographic information and data concerning anxiety/depression and health-related concerns were gathered by self-report questionnaire. A five-point Likert-type scale was used to assess victim response to government regulatory systems.

Results demonstrated that a majority of respondents (55.7%) met criteria for a presumptive DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of PTSD, and as a group, respondents acknowledged high levels of anxiety (60.7%), depression (58%), and health-related problems (34%). Victims overwhelmingly affirmed a substantial loss of confidence in financial institutions (90%). This raises a public health concern as to governmental response and counseling needs during times of severe economic trauma.

Dr. Goulston, who I previously mentioned, describes in an interview which you can listen to here, some key experiences of those with debt PTSD.

Goulston: I think what goes on for a lot of people, something that I call the ?Four D?s of financial PTSD,? and that?s debt, dependency, distrust and then our denials in working. And what that means is when you?re in debt, whenever someone calls you to try to get money from you, it re-traumatizes you, it makes you realize how you don?t have what you thought you had. And then, when you feel that vulnerable, you reach out ? who can I depend on? Who can I rely on? I?ll call my stock broker, I?ll call my financial person. I?ll read the news. And then what happens is when you hear the news changing from day-to-day, you feel I can?t trust anyone.

So when you?re in a state of feeling like the world is trying to take more money from you and you don?t even have that much leftover, and who can you depend on, because you don?t know what you can do under your own control, and the people that you have trusted, you can?t trust anymore. It puts you into this real state of irritability, almost brittleness, fragility. And that?s where the fourth D is, what allows us to get through life is denial that functions?

Moon: ?I?d rather not think about it.?

Goulston: There you go. I mean, if we were aware of how dangerous it is to drive, how dangerous it is to fly, all the side effects of every medication we take ? if we didn?t have healthy denial, we would be frozen. So I think what?s happening is people are living with these four D?s constantly, which leads to ?so what do you do about it?? So any thing that?ll help you regain a sense of control will help you feel better. And also, talk with each other and you listen to each other, makes it better.

Moon: What are some of the warning signs, if you will, that you might be experiencing this?

Goulston: OK, warning signs are you feel a change in your personality, you tend to be irritable, you snap at people, you?re withdrawn. But the key signs for PTSD is that you tend to relive the event over again, either in dreams or you even have flashbacks when you read the newspaper. And you want to avoid it, you want to avoid being re-traumatized, because if you?re feeling vulnerable and you get another hit, a lot of people feel shattered, I just won?t come back. And then the third thing is that you have this increased arousal in your hyper-vigilance. So you can?t ever totally lower your guard. And if you think about it, think about that you can never lower your guard, so you never know what it?s like to relax.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder following a traumatic event like injury, death or even something as emotional as the death of your financial like.

The symptoms of PTSD fall into three main categories:

1. ?Reliving? the event, which disturbs day-to-day activity

• Flashback episodes, where the event seems to be happening again and again
• Repeated upsetting memories of the event
• Repeated nightmares of the event
• Strong, uncomfortable reactions to situations that remind you of the event

Avoidance

• Emotional ?numbing,? or feeling as though you don?t care about anything
• Feeling detached
• Being unable to remember important aspects of the trauma
• Having a lack of interest in normal activities
• Showing less of your moods
• Avoiding places, people, or thoughts that remind you of the event
• Feeling like you have no future

Hyperarousal

• Difficulty concentrating
• Startling easily
• Having an exaggerated response to things that startle you
• Feeling more aware (hypervigilance)
• Feeling irritable or having outbursts of anger
• Having trouble falling or staying asleep

You might feel guilt about the event (including ?survivor guilt?). You might also have some of the following symptoms, which are typical of anxiety, stress, and tension:

• Agitation or excitability
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Feeling your heart beat in your chest
• Headache ? Source

According to the National Institute of Mental Health to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have all of the following for at least 1 month:

• At least one re-experiencing symptom
• At least three avoidance symptoms
• At least two hyperarousal symptoms
• Symptoms that make it hard to go about daily life, go to school or work, be with friends, and take care of important tasks. ? Source

It?s one thing to now recognize the reality that PTSD can be experienced by many as a result of financial trauma or debt trauma, but what now?

Currently there are a number of therapies for those that suffer from PTSD. But the most important step to take is the one that allows you to either reach out to someone suffering and guide them towards help or to seek help if you are the one struggling with these issues.

The most common avenues of treatment are counseling, therapy, medication, or a combination of all. If you are looking for help you should talk to your physician about a referral for help with anxiety counseling or find a local mental health professional that has experience with PTSD or anxiety counseling. You may also want to use the links provided here.

With treatment, you can actually learn to get past these issues and resume a more emotionally stable and healthy life again.

In my personal situation the financial trauma I lived through decades ago is still easily recalled and felt as if it was yesterday. But the good news is that it long ago stopped controlling my life because I took action and steps to deal with my trauma.

Ironically, helping others with their debt problems was probably a real blessing for my recovery. It helped me to see I was not alone and that my issues were not catastrophic but actually trivial compared to many people face in debt.

But my experience dealing with debt was not unique. Take Dave Ramsey for example, all you have to do is listen to his traumatic tales of his financial problems and you can begin to see some glimpses of the impact debt had on his life and how he struggle with the emotional implications of his financial stress.

Dave says things like ?I?ve never forgotten how painful it was for both of us,? Dave says. ?I feel that pain to this very day.? ? Source. He also says, ?Bankruptcy is a gut-wrenching, life-changing event that causes lifelong damage? and ?Bankruptcy. That word sends chills up the spine. If you?re facing the prospect of bankruptcy or you?re in the middle of it right now, you know it?s a living nightmare. It can devastate your job, destroy your marriage and steal your peace of mind? and ?Bankruptcy is listed in the top five life-altering negative events that we can go through, along with divorce, severe illness, disability, and loss of a loved one. I would never say that bankruptcy is as bad as losing a loved one, but it is life-altering and leaves deep wounds both to the psyche and the credit report.? ? Source.

It?s very possible that Dave?s disgust with bankruptcy and credit cards is not a position based on logic as I talked about here, but the remaining bits of his unresolved debt PTSD issues he faced.

Get Out of Debt Guy ? Twitter, G+, Facebook

Source: http://getoutofdebt.org/48667/financial-problems-and-debt-can-cause-ptsd

ferris state hockey mary poppins john derbyshire kinkade thomas kinkade paintings easter bunny navy jet crash virginia beach

Report: Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force fivefold

14 hrs.

Reuters

The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force to counter a growing threat of hacking and to conduct offensive operations against foreign foes, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing U.S. officials.

The officials, who were not named because the plan is not yet public, said the move would increase the cybersecurity force fivefold, from 900 personnel to a total of 4,900 troops and civilians.

It said senior Pentagon officials made the decision late last year amid a string of attacks, including one that wiped out more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company.

The increase in personnel was requested by the head of the Defense Department's Cyber Command.

A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment, but said he was aware of the report in the Washington Post.

The plan, the paper said, calls for creating three types of force under the Cyber Command.

"National mission forces," would protect computer systems that undergird electrical grids and other kinds of infrastructure. "Combat mission forces," would help commanders abroad execute attacks or other offensive operations, while "cyber protection forces," would focus on protecting the Defense Department's own systems.

(Reporting by Sarah Lynch; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/report-pentagon-boost-cybersecurity-force-fivefold-1C8135108

pineda john edwards heart condition mena suvari joyful noise one life to live jeff fisher van der sloot

Amplats talks with South Africa government "constructive"

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum Ltd has had "constructive" consultations with the South African government about a company restructuring that could lead to 14,000 job cuts, chief executive Chris Griffith said on Tuesday.

The world's largest platinum producer agreed to postpone the massive job cuts to allow for more talks.

"We have had very constructive conversations. I think our relationship is sort of back where it should be. This is going to be a difficult process," Griffith told Talk Radio 702.

Mining minister Susan Shabangu said the company had betrayed government trust earlier this month by announcing a plan to mothball shafts and lay off workers under a restructuring by parent company Anglo American .

Griffith told the radio Amplats was trying desperately to keep the business alive given tough market conditions.

"This is not about playing games. The company is in real trouble and we have to collectively do something," Griffith said.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma said the government needed to engage with gold and platinum mining firms about proposed shaft closures and lay-offs, and was not threatening them with license reviews.

South Africa boasts 80 percent of the world's platinum deposits. Producers have been hit by rising input costs, falling prices, safety stoppages and violent labor unrest.

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda; Editing by Ed Cropley)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amplats-talks-south-africa-government-constructive-060009060--finance.html

mls draft mark davis marine urination video cadillac ats bain capital marines urinating haley barbour

Celebrity Nude Scenes: Who Uses Body Doubles?

Celebrity Nude Scenes: Who Uses Body Doubles?

Many times when we watch our favorite actor/actress in a movie, we actually believe they are stripping down to reveal their perfect body. However, most Hollywood stars use body doubles that stand-in for them in nude or revealing scenes. Let’s find out who really strips down and who fakes it! Does anyone actually even get ...

Celebrity Nude Scenes: Who Uses Body Doubles? Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/01/celebrity-nude-scenes-who-uses-body-doubles/

badminton Dominique Dawes Gabby Olympic Gymnast Robyn Lawley Gore Vidal mlb trade rumors Misty May And Kerri Walsh

Update: Now Helping Creative Women Start Small Business Branding!

Well hello there my little stylish blogging girlfriends. Miss me? Its been a hot New York minute, but just dropping by to let you know of my whereabouts because I always knew I had kindred spirit readers who were secretly dreaming away about being the next It Girl. If you are, there's no better day than today to join me at Brand Stylist Academy, the cool new place to be if you are a blogger or entrepreneur looking to make it big. There is so much crap out there lately about how to be a successful young entrepreneur, but none of them talk about the secret of creative small business brand marketing, yet all of it has price tags even Oprah wouldn't want to pay, so say your pennies and learn how I launched all those popular companies I used to brag about on this here blog. :)

See you on the other side,
xxL

Source: http://bombazinedoll.blogspot.com/2013/01/update-now-helping-creative-women-start.html

google drive pilar sanders andrew young real life barbie zipper armenian genocide asteroid mining

Video: Brilliant Bus erases digital divide

Boy Scouts close to ending ban on gays

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation?s largest private youth organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/vp/50621216#50621216

goundhog day punxsutawney facebook ipo facebook ipo egypt soccer riot mike kelley puxatony phil

The 21 Hottest Coffee Shops Across the US: Where to Drink ... - Eater

Here now, Eater National's inaugural Coffee Heatmap from BuzzFeed FWD editor Matt Buchanan. He also makes Vines about coffee.

Welcome to Eater's very first Coffee Heatmap, a guide to the hot coffeebars of the moment. Rather than feature the perennial favorites ? we assume you know which shops sling Stumptown beans ? this guide focuses on places that have opened or been significantly updated mostly in the last six months, a year at most.

A few trends emerge in this inaugural Heatmap: The action right now isn't in Seattle or Portland. (Though there are a few sure-to-be-hot places opening in those locales in the next year.) If a shop doesn't roast its own coffee ? like even the pocket-square-sized Parlor, stuffed in the back of a Williamsburg barber shop ? or furiously rotate between the best coffees from the best roasters all over the country ? like both of LA's new joints G&B and Cognoscenti ? it isn't hot.

And while for the most intensely focused shops, preparing food was seen as an anathema to perfect coffee, no more: St. Louis's Half & Half serves up fried chicken livers, pork-fat loaded burgers; Houston's Blacksmith features a Vietnamese steak & eggs and housemade yogurt; and while Chicago's Gaslight Coffee Roasters is a Serious Roaster, it deploys house-made syrups for its coffees, dispenses duck eggs in two different breakfast dishes and pickles its own veggies. Also flavored syrups ? the Starbucksian kiss of death ? are coming back in a big way, but now they're housemade, artsy, and artisanal.

Happy drinking, and as always, feel free to write in with new suggestions. (Many thanks to Sprudge's Jordan Michelman and local Eater editors for the help in putting this list together.)

Source: http://eater.com/archives/2013/01/25/coffee-heatmap.php

brave Stephanie Rice Meet the Pyro Karen Klein Colorado fires supreme court summer solstice

Why You've Got To Minimise Comparison To Improve Your Self ...

There?s a lot of people that I could compare myself to, but I don?t, or at least I try to keep it to a minimum and I?m very conscious of where it?s likely to happen. It?s my inner critic, the surprising perfectionist in me that can rear its ugly head and put me back on the ?I?m not good enough? path. There?s a multitude of reasons why engaging in the regular self-hacking that is comparison is a must-kick habit. There?s healthy comparison that?s used to positively learn from the insights and grow ? like when you compare your skills not your worth to a peer ? and then there?s the unhealthy comparison that is a hatchet job that leaves you wounded.

When I first started writing Baggage Reclaim back in September 2005, I would look around at other sites and be tweaking and chopping and changing. I very quickly realised that this would defeat the purpose of what I was doing and kill what makes it original in its own right before it had a chance to blossom. I don?t want it to be an identikit version of something else.

Throughout my entire career I?ve seen great people and great things crushed by unhealthy comparison because neither knew how to exist in their own right. They had short-lived periods of contentment but at the back of the person or the company?s mind, was this pervasive urge to keep comparing so they kept making more and more changes and in the end, they were unrecognisable? and not in a good way. We don?t question what we believe based on that comparison and end up going off on an illogical tangent.

Healthy comparison doesn?t detract; it adds and it might even motivate you.

Fact is, there will always be people to compare to who you will deem as ?better? as long as you fundamentally find you unacceptable.

I?m not perfect and try as I might, I?m never going to be. Fact. I could spend the rest of my life attempting to get as close to perfection as possible and no doubt beating myself up for my ?mistakes? or ?failures? while I?m at it, plus I could keep estimating and measuring myself against others in areas where I?m already my harshest critic.

You?re always going to be vulnerable in the areas where you already judge you which means if you want to reduce the vulnerability, stop judging you. Nobody can use it against you when you?re not using it against you.

You?re not perfect and you?re not supposed to be. While you?re busy decimating and censoring who you are to try and replace it with who you ?should? be (you know that annoying voice that keeps piping up and trying to drown out your true identity), you?re throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You?re human and flawed like every other person on the planet so why keep busting your tail about something that really isn?t that special by focusing on your flaws?

Everybody has flaws and you can try and compare and go ?Oh but they have less flaws than I do? but that?s bullshit borne out of you putting them on a pedestal and admiring them while putting you beneath them. Everybody has flaws it?s just that not all of us focus on them, not all of us see them in others (some of us do a mighty fine job of essentially sticking a pump up people?s bottoms and inflating them), and we?re not always in a position to be around someone when character is put to the test ? we don?t know what goes on behind closed doors.

I don?t know why we continue to pedal this myth to ourselves that we?re not good enough and everybody is living the hunkydory lifestyle when we all know of people who have been and done things that surprise us, and it?s not in a good way. And yet we continue to compare.

What makes a person is character. Sadly it?s not what we always look for in others, nor is it always what we appreciate in ourselves.

Let?s be real, some of us believe that superficial stuff like appearance and status is character and along with these, we can be guilty of assuming that wealth, intelligence, and even accomplishments being present in a person are automatic precursors to them having character. That?s why I hear from so many people who have been with beautiful/attractive/highly intelligent/popular? assclowns. If you?ve been in this position, you?ve taken a detour and forgotten that character is what shows how someone will treat you.

What we tend to overvalue in others or ourselves is what we tend to compare ourselves on, while attributing nil or a miniscule value to our character and what really matters. We may have literally no sense of our qualities and characteristics because we?ve spent our entire life comparing, for example, our appearance.

Oddly though, we can admire and even love people for what essentially boils down to superficial stuff that doesn?t rely on character and then feel wounded when we feel that they?ve not valued our character, which doesn?t make sense. How can you ignore code red issues and focus on the stuff that isn?t making a difference to how you?re treated or feel, but then feel bad about you not being valued by them beyond anything superficial?

We compare our appearance, accomplishments and even what we perceive to be our skills to others but these are the moving goalposts of life. We age, accomplishments can decrease in relevance and value, and skills evolve and in some cases, get replaced and automated in our modern world. Some of this stuff can be linked to your character but if it is, and for instance, your skills change, it doesn?t mean that your character has which is all the more reason why we shouldn?t see ourselves as a ?failure? (failed person).

All of these things change and can even be taken away, but what you cannot take away is character and it can and does exist while you?re being human, which means that you?re going to err in this life but it doesn?t mean that you?re not worthy.

It?s a hell of a lot easier to reduce comparison and it?s impact on you (which can literally be tormenting) when you are somebody you respect and you ultimately possess or are working on evolving into the characteristics and values that matter to you in others. When you respect your character and can appreciate you for the small, medium, and large-sized things that you do and are in your life, the changes you?ve made, the adversities you?ve overcome etc., you prioritise character and these aspects in others.

It doesn?t matter what other people are doing with their lives because it?s their lives and you focusing on their lives and hacking at you isn?t going to change the fact that you have your own life to put your stamp on and that you?re a unique person on a journey that you and only you will make. You can keep measuring you against others but it?s illogical and irrelevant, not least because you?re not the same and we each have different thinking and behavioural habits as well as experiences.

Does appearance, status etc open doors? Absolutely, but an open door doesn?t mean contentment beyond the door frame. There are a lot of people who have the things that you want but are unhappy or whose character undermines the very thing that you overvalue while devaluing you.

Why keep diminishing you with comparison? The more you do it, the less there is of you.

Instead of comparing, respect and appreciate what you do have, no matter how small you think that is because it paves the way to growth. There will always be something and someone you can compare to which is all the more reason why you?re on this journey to discover, reclaim, and appreciate you.

Your thoughts?

You can listen to this post on SoundCloud.

Pin It

Related Posts

Source: http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/why-youve-got-to-minimise-comparison-to-improve-your-self-esteem/

andrew breitbart red wings penguins the band colton dixon houston weather dwyane wade

Microsoft reports Q2 2013 earnings: posts record revenue of $21.5 billion, $6.38 billion profit

This isn't the end of earnings season, but this is the final member of the unholy trinity. Microsoft is reporting that during the second quarter of its 2013 financial year it set a revenue record by raking in $21.5 billion. Of that $6.38 billion was pure profit, lining shareholder's pockets to the tune of $0.76 per share. While EPS was down year-over-year, net income was up dramatically from $5.87 billion a year ago and $5.31 billion last quarter. The Windows division accounted for roughly $5.9 billion of Redmond's revenues, up 24 percent from a year ago, largely thanks to the release of Windows 8. Interestingly, while Windows was surging, its business division was suffering a not inconsequential drop off -- seeing revenues fall 10 percent to $5.7 billion year-over-year. But the Server & Tools department also helped offset some of those declines, with revenue jumping up 9 percent to $5.19 billion.

In a sign that it might be time for a bit of a console refresh, the Entertainment and Devices division saw revenues continue to sink, despite the strong holiday sales. While the $3.77 billion in revenue was a stark increase over Q1's paltry $1.95 billion, it's still a 7 percent fall from the same time period last year. That division is also home to the Surface, which still hasn't seemed to gain much traction with consumers. Thankfully, its Online Services continued to grow, reaching $869 million in revenue -- an 11 percent growth year-over-year, and a sign that it's various web services aren't sinking ships. Most notably ad revenue was up 15 percent thanks largely to an increase in revenue-per-search.

Revenue growth over Q2 2012 wasn't huge, but it was certainly notable and net income didn't drop dramatically. And, perhaps most importantly for investors, results were pretty much inline with Wall Street expectations. It's also worth noting that some revenue has been deferred, $1.3 billion to be exact, thanks to various upgrade offers and video game deals -- though, the company did report previously deferred revenues due to pre-sales of Windows 8. There's PR after the break but, if you want to dig through all the detailed tables of financial data you'll have to hit up the source link. And check back in for updates when the earnings call gets under way at 5:30PM ET.

Developing...

Updates:

5:36PM CFO, Peter Klein says that 60 percent of computers worldwide are running Windows 7 while the company has managed to push out 60 million Windows 8 licenses.

5:40 Microsoft doesn't seem particularly worried about the declining PC market as Windows revenues outpaced sales of x86 machines by a significant margin.

5:45 Windows Phone sales were four times what they were last year.

5:53 Microsoft stands by its story that Surface is "just one part of the Windows 8 story." Though, it did say that it will "expand retail distribution and availability" so don't expect the in-house slate to go quietly into that good night.

Show full PR text

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue of $21.5 Billion in Second Quarter
Strong business demand and key product launches drive record revenue.

REDMOND, Wash. - Jan. 24, 2013 - Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $21.46 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.77 billion, $6.38 billion, and $0.76 per share.

These financial results reflect the net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer, Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-sales, and the Entertainment and Devices Division Video Game Deferral, partially offset by the recognition of previously deferred revenue for Windows 8 Pre-sales. The following table reconciles these financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to non-GAAP financial results. We have provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company's performance.

"Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. "With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we'll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need."

The Windows Division posted revenue of $5.88 billion, a 24% increase from the prior year period. Adjusting for the net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer and the recognition of the previously deferred revenue from Windows 8 Pre-sales, Windows Division non-GAAP revenue increased 11% for the second quarter. Microsoft has sold over 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date.

"We saw strong growth in our enterprise business driven by multi-year commitments to the Microsoft platform, which positions us well for long-term growth," said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "Multi-year licensing revenue grew double-digits across Windows, Server & Tools, and the Microsoft Business Division."

The Server & Tools business reported $5.19 billion of revenue, a 9% increase from the prior year period, driven by double-digit percentage revenue growth in SQL Server and System Center.

"We see strong momentum in our enterprise business. With the launch of SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012, we continue to see healthy growth in our data platform and infrastructure businesses and win share from our competitors," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. "With the coming launch of the new Office, we will provide a cloud-enabled suite of products that will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility."

The Microsoft Business Division posted $5.69 billion of revenue, a 10% decrease from the prior year period. Adjusting for the impact of the Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-sales, Microsoft Business Division non-GAAP revenue increased 3% for the second quarter. Revenue from Microsoft's productivity server offerings - collectively including Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange - continued double-digit percentage growth.

The Online Services Division reported revenue of $869 million, an 11% increase from the prior year period. Online advertising revenue grew 15% driven by an increase in revenue per search.

The Entertainment and Devices Division posted revenue of $3.77 billion, a decrease of 11% from the prior year period. Adjusting for the Video Game Deferral, the division's non-GAAP revenue decreased 2% for the second quarter. Xbox continues to be the top-selling console in the United States. During the quarter, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8 with a broad array of carriers and devices.

Business Outlook

Microsoft reaffirms fiscal year 2013 operating expense guidance of $30.3 billion to $30.9 billion.

Webcast Details

Peter Klein, chief financial officer, Frank Brod, chief accounting officer, and Chris Suh, general manager of Investor Relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST) today to discuss details of the company's performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/investor. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on Jan. 24, 2014.

Adjusted Financial Results and Non-GAAP Measures

For second quarter fiscal year 2013 GAAP revenue, operating income, and earnings per share growth included the net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer, the Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-sales, and the Entertainment and Devices Division Video Game Deferral, and the recognition of previously deferred revenue for Windows 8 Pre-sales. These items are defined in our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2012. In addition to these financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we have provided certain non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company's performance. Presenting these measures without the impact of these items gives additional insight into operational performance and helps clarify trends affecting the company's business. For comparability of reporting, management considers this information in conjunction with GAAP amounts in evaluating business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Filed under: Misc, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Microsoft

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/24/microsoft-reports-q2-2013-earnings/

Beady Eye Eric Idle rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim Rio de Janeiro Shark Week London 2012 closing ceremony