China?s new communist leaders are increasing already tight controls on internet use and electronic publishing following a spate of embarrassing online reports about official abuses.
The measures suggest China?s new leader, Xi Jinping, and others who took power in November share their predecessors? anxiety about the internet?s potential to spread opposition to one-party rule and their insistence on controlling information despite promises of more economic reforms.
?They are still very paranoid about the potentially destabilising effect of the internet,? said Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. ?They are on the point of losing a monopoly on information, but they still are very eager to control the dissemination of views.?
This week, China?s legislature took up a measure to require internet users to register their real names, a move that would curtail the web?s status as a freewheeling forum to complain, often anonymously, about corruption and official abuses. The legislature scheduled a news conference on Friday to discuss the measure, suggesting it was expected to be approved.
That comes amid reports Beijing might be disrupting use of software that allows web surfers to see sites abroad that are blocked by its extensive internet filters. At the same time, regulators have proposed rules that would bar foreign companies from distributing books, news, music and other material online in China.
Beijing promotes internet use for business and education but bans material deemed subversive or obscene and blocks access to foreign websites run by human rights and Tibet activists and some news outlets. Controls were tightened after social media played a role in protests that brought down governments in Egypt and Tunisia.
In a reminder of the web?s role as a political forum, a group of 70 prominent Chinese scholars and lawyers circulated an online petition this week appealing for free speech, independent courts and for the ruling party to encourage private enterprise.
Xi and others on the party?s ruling seven-member Standing Committee have tried to promote an image of themselves as men of the people who care about China?s poor majority. They have promised to press ahead with market-oriented reforms and to support entrepreneurs but have given no sign of support for political reform.
Communist leaders who see the internet as a source of economic growth and better-paid jobs were slow to enforce the same level of control they impose on movies, books and other media, apparently for fear of hurting fledgling entertainment, shopping and other online businesses.
Until recently, web surfers could post comments online or on microblog services without leaving their names.
That gave ordinary Chinese a unique opportunity to express themselves to a public audience in a society where newspapers, television and other media are state-controlled. The most popular microblog services say they have more than 300 million users and some users have millions of followers reading their comments.
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pays to watch china?because?its like an elites blueprint for all of us..in many ways..there will be no anonymity on the net in china..this way when you say?something?they dont like you can be found and re-educated..
401
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~ by seeker401 on December 31, 2012.
Posted in Asia, China, World News Tags: internet, politics, technology
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? The Kansas City Chiefs fired coach Romeo Crennel on Monday, but made no move on embattled general manager Scott Pioli despite a 2-14 season marked by blowout losses, fan rebellion and a murder-suicide involving one of their players.
Crennel was fired after one full season as coach, and one day after Kansas City matched the fewest wins in franchise history with an embarrassing 38-3 loss to the Denver Broncos.
"I am embarrassed by the poor product we gave our fans this season, and I believe we have no choice but to move the franchise in a different direction," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement. "I will immediately begin the search for the next head coach of the Chiefs. The entire football operation will remain under review and there may be additional changes to come."
Hunt said that "no final determination has been made" about Pioli's future.
The Chiefs' only victories this season came against New Orleans and Carolina, the latter coming one day after linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend to death and then drove to the team's practice facility and turned the gun on himself as Crennel and Pioli looked on.
Crennel seemed to know the end was coming Sunday night when he was asked to defend his job and said, "If your criteria is wins and losses, there's not much defense."
Kansas City will have the No. 1 pick in the draft after the most disappointing season in its 53-year history. The only other time the Chiefs finished 2-14 was 2008, the year before Pioli was hired. They were 2-12 in 1977, the only other time they've failed to win at least three games.
"Words can't describe it, to be honest with you," cornerback Brandon Flowers said. "We have to do the best we can to block this out and start from scratch next year."
With five players voted to the Pro Bowl last week, there are certainly pieces in place for the Chiefs to make rapid improvement. But four of them were inherited by Pioli's regime, and that haul of Pro Bowl players may have been Crennel's biggest indictment.
The only other teams with at least five players voted to the all-star game made the playoffs.
The Chiefs' inept offense managed 18 touchdowns in 16 games, finished minus-24 in turnover ratio and lost nine times by two touchdowns or more. Along the way, they broke an 83-year-old NFL record by not holding a lead in regulation until their ninth game.
Crennel, whose career record as a head coach is 28-55, was hired in 2010 to be the Chiefs' defensive coordinator. Respected by his players, he was appointed interim coach last December when Pioli fired Todd Haley with three games left in the season.
Crennel immediately brought a sense of stability to a floundering franchise, defeating the previously unbeaten Green Bay Packers and winning at Denver in the season finale ? after which, players spontaneously started chanting his name in the visiting locker room.
"That's my guy. Everybody knows that," defensive tackle Shaun Smith said. "That's not only my coach, that's my role model. My father figure. We don't just talk football, we talk life."
With the support of the players, Pioli made Crennel the permanent coach a few weeks later, giving him another opportunity as a head coach after going 24-40 in four seasons with the Browns.
The season wound up being a disappointment from the start.
The Chiefs were blown out by the Falcons in their opener, trounced on the road by the Bills and needed an 18-point comeback to force overtime in their win over the Saints.
Then a stretch of eight consecutive defeats.
Empty seats began to multiply at Arrowhead Stadium, once one of the most intimidating venues in the NFL. An organized fan rebellion paid for banners to be towed behind airplanes asking for Pioli to be fired, and the majority of fans dressed in black for a home game against Cincinnati.
Nothing Crennel did seemed to work, either.
He began the season as the defensive coordinator, but fired himself and turned those duties over to linebackers coach Gary Gibbs. He benched Matt Cassel, in the fourth year of a $63 million contract, and went with Brady Quinn, who played just as poorly the rest of the season.
Injuries were numerous, turnovers plentiful, penalties crippling and blown assignments became the hallmark of a team that was rarely in games into the fourth quarter.
Then came the morning of Dec. 1, when tragedy struck.
Belcher, a part-time starter, shot the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, Kasandra Perkins, multiple times at a home not far from Arrowhead Stadium. The linebacker then sped to the team's practice facility and was confronted by Pioli, who tried to talk him out of more violence.
After thanking Pioli and Crennel for his chance in the NFL, Belcher shot himself in the head.
The Chiefs played the following day against Carolina, and Crennel was praised for the way he stoically led a team in turmoil. Kansas City put together its best performance in a 27-21 victory.
It wound up being their last win, though.
The Chiefs were blown out by Cleveland, shut out by Oakland and beaten by the Colts before an embarrassing season finale against the Broncos.
It was enough to finish Crennel, and enough to put Pioli's future in jeopardy.
"I want our fans to know that I will do everything I can to provide them a dramatically better team," Hunt said, "both next season and in the seasons to come."
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- David Ash threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, the last a 36-yard strike to Marquise Goodwin with 2:24 left, to give Texas a 31-27 comeback victory over No. 15 Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night.
Complete Beavers coverage
The Longhorns (9-4) never led before Goodwin scored his second touchdown on a deep post pattern, just a play after Texas converted a fourth-and-1 play to keep its chances alive.
Storm Woods ran for 118 yards and scored two touchdowns for Oregon State (9-4). The Beavers left stunned after looking as though they would wrap up their first 10-win season since 2006.
The victory was a dose of much-needed good news for Texas after coming into the game under a cloud of questions following the suspensions of two players.
You need to use an internet site, in modern day marketplace, both online and real world. Whether your method of business in fact demands an online presence or not, you ought to have one. It doesn't essentially need to be an expansive internet site, and I can tell you it does not have to be the most beautiful internet site. When someone searches for your company online, there would be many websites in those search results that do comparable business and if you'd like your company to thrive at least one among these has to be your site.
Online sites will be of several styles. Massive ones, small kinds, rather functional, extensive types, and single rudimentary web pages. Apart from these you also have the simple HTML types, active SSL (server-side-language) ones, Informative, e-commerce and several more. Other than the necessities of your business model, all that factors in is the fact one is present for your company and that you're owning that website. It could be just an ordinary clean white webpage with your company's name, address, email address, and phone number on it, still it must be present!
Without doubt, this type of simple internet site would be essentially ineffective, nonetheless at least it'll do one important thing... When somebody is searching for your business name, that webpage, with all its (not as) grace, will surface. When a person sees your company, they're rather certain to look for it on the net to find out more. If they don't find your website there, they then could check somewhere else. Now that is really depressing. For what reason? As at this point anything they listen about your company could be details unmanageable by you. In case an individual doesn't find facts straight from you, then they can hunt and secure it from a third party and this may be your acquaintance, and also your competitor and trust me that would ruin your business.
Hence if you're putting together an online site, then why not develop a decent one? The two most useful people to design a good website are an expert website designer and a good web developer. These individuals come together for developing a quality website. The web designer is the one that attends to looks. This comprises a fantastic design, colouring and fonts of the website. Furthermore a web designer will have a working skills of using different languages for instance CSS, JavaScript, Flash, PHP and HTML to put together an online site, on the other hand the extent of their experience differs from web designer to web designer and that is where we need assistance of a reliable website designer.
The site must satisfy your needs. It is, in the end, a business tool. And as a part of that purpose it should be available to ensure that individuals who would like to locate you would find something. And that thing is in your direct capacity to manage and alter whenever needed. To assist individuals be aware of your recent address, latest telephone number, latest products, and so on. To assist customers know of that your company in fact is available. Therefore we require a reliable graphic designer given that they're the individuals who have got so much experience and their experience assists in circumventing such difficulties. Remember we are all focusing on one dream, to get the finest in the business.
Jennifer is an expert in the field. For more information on Calgary web design, and Web development Calgary Please visit: http://www.globi.ca/
Jennifer is an expert in the field. For more information on Calgary web design services, and Web development Calgary Please visit: http://www.globi.ca/
You probably already read about Randi Zuckerberg's faux-privacy violation on Facebook this week. But odds are you're not part of her inner circle. Lucky for you, a tipster who's "Friends" with RZ gave up the goods directly from her wall. More »
Matthew McConaughey’s wife Camila Alves has given birth to their third child! The baby joins the couple’s daughter Vida, three, and their four-year-old son Levi. The couple decided to not find out the gender of their child until the baby’s birth, opting for the “wonderful surprise”. Alves, 30, gave birth to their son in Austin, ...
Exercise should be a part of everyone?s routine. There are many reasons to exercise. For instance, regular exercise is a great way to boost your mood.
TIP! Everyone makes unhealthy food choices every now and then. Stress can have a negative effect on your health.
Taking time out to better yourself as a person should give you a real boost in life, and it will make you feel like you are in charge. To start the hard work towards your goals, find some advice to keep energized. Read on for some such ideas to help you on your way.
A good character trait is being humble. We are all very small parts of this universe. You still have so much to learn and discover. Remember this and stay open for new chances to learn. If you keep your mind constantly open, the things others can teach may well astound you.
TIP! Try to make the most out the time you are working. Allow yourself more time for breaks.
When your body feels in tip-top shape, your mind will feel better as well. Regular exercise and nutritious foods are important to gaining total personal fitness. Your mind and body are both part of your whole being; you cannot keep one entirely healthy while neglecting the other.
Research how other people became successful. You can avoid both personal and business mistakes by knowing the trials that others have faced. If you truly take in the information you learn from others, you will find yourself taking the steps they had towards true success.
TIP! Avoid pushing yourself too far, especially in terms of physical limitations. You need to give it your best shot, but you also need to know when your best shot is good enough.
In order to succeed and become a champion, it?s imperative to have a great coach. A would-be champion needs the support of a coach or mentor. People need to be ready and willing to help others. Without mentoring, there is no way people can truly perform to the best of their abilities. All achievers learned from someone else.
When you are angered by something, take the time to take a breath and count up to ten before you react. Breathe deeply and transport yourself to a tranquil place. Picture yourself remaining calm and saying only what you will not regret.
TIP! An overreaction to situations is going to cause you stress that is not necessary. Acknowledge and manage your stress by carefully analyzing your circumstances.
Learning to react selflessly is a sign of progress in the path of self improvement. Caring for others, and being able to sacrifice for them, will help you improve yourself and become a better person. When making sacrifices that help others without hurting your well-being, you can become that kind person that you wanted to be.
Try to get more organized. When you are organized you have much more of a feeling of being in control, and this will help you gain self confidence. Better yet, you will no longer worry about finding necessary things or dealing with the stress that comes with living in a cluttered environment. There is something very calming about knowing that everything is in its place.
TIP! Write a personalized affirmation. On an index card or postcard, write down all the things that are good about you.
If you like to talk a lot, you might have heard that you need to zip those lips and listen more. Listening definitely holds true for developing yourself. Always pay attention to what you are telling yourself. Hearing your own thoughts and feelings when you express them will lead to a better understanding of what you need to improve your life.
Find out more abut sexual capitol and how you can develop it. Sexual capitol does not mean employing your sexuality as a tool in procuring what you want out of life. This means to use charisma instead. Some people have stronger social skills than others, but this trait can help you become successful in business and in life.
TIP! Try to be the best that you can be. Follow your passion to the greatest possible aspirations.
Many people starting on a personal development journey struggle because their goal is too vague and unspecific. Create a specific goal for yourself. When you have specific goals set, you will find that you get results.
Humility is a very important trait to have when working on your personal development. Understanding that you are a minute portion of the world will help you think about your level of knowledge. Once you adopt this mindset, you will be more open-minded and receptive to new knowledge, which will lead to self-improvement.
Get some self-satisfaction by complimenting others. Doing the exact opposite and being kind to others will help you be kind to yourself.
Failure can be a harmful and large blow to your ego and self-esteem when working on personal development. The good news is that failure can be an enlightening learning experience. For example, failures highlight your strengths and possible problem areas. Look at it this way, failing us helpful in showing you the person underneath everything.
TIP! Fuel your faith with love. There is no way to have faith in something you do not love.
Do what it takes to create an emergency fund and add to it even if you can only add a few dollars at a time. It?s common for us to add even more charges to our already overtaxed credit cards whenever an unforeseen expense arises, no matter how large or small. You can start as small as a few dollars each payday in order to start building your emergency cash fund. That fund can aid in both the long term and short term as debt goes down.
Use your core principals to your advantage. Your individual core beliefs are what support your sense of self. When these beliefs are strong and easily defensible, your confidence will grow by using them as a guiding force in your life. Truly practicing these principles you believe in will give integrity to your character.
TIP! Rather than boasting about your myriad medals, trophies, and awards, ask others about some of their proudest moments and most notable achievements. You?ll be able to find out about the wonderful things the people you know have accomplished, bringing about a new-found respect and admiration for them.
Always be in a position to take note of any ideas you may have, no matter what your location. Carry paper with you everywhere. Write down your thoughts in detail, and be sure to put it into action.
Knowing that you deserve only the best is incredibly important in personal development. Believe that you should do the best for yourself. If you make every effort to improve, then you have nothing to regret.
TIP! You should treat every person in your life with respect, not matter what they can do to benefit you, or how much power you think they have. Treat people well, it says a lot about what kind of person you are.
Do what you can to remove unnecessary stress from your life. To avoid stress, try to remain calm when something unexpected happens. Know that things sometimes go wrong when working on a goal, so find ways to overcome the obstacle instead of feeling defeated when they pop up.
You need a good mentor or coach if you expect to be a champion. Those who are very successful often have coaches or mentors to advise them. There are many people that are more than willing to help others. This is the way knowledge is passed down, and human progress happens. Each champion had a wonderful coach.
TIP! Make a real effort to stop worrying. Worrying unnecessarily will only create worst-case scenarios in your mind.
Know which values and characteristics are important to you before designing a program for personal development. It is a waste of time to work on areas of your life that might contradict your values. Spend your energy and time on those areas that you want to better and that mesh well with your values. This is the way to make permanent, positive changes to your life.
One of the most common obstacles to personal development is a failure to set reasonable and specific goals. Make sure that your goals are very specific. You will get better results when you define a specific goal.
Only associate with positive people. This will allow you to stay motivated and keep you away from those that might hinder your personal development.
Taking a few risks can help you feel happier. Do not allow yourself to fear failure more than you desire success. Taking risks may take you out of your comfort zone, but it is not irrational to do so. Taking risks shows courage, which is a component that can help you on the path of happiness.
Even if you use just one of the preceding tips, you will definitely see improvement in your life. It may seem like a ton of work, but just knowing that you?ve got some great advice to help you out can help you do it joyfully.
By Meghan Gross, Senior VP, Schwartz MSL, MSLGROUP North America
All communicators eventually face the challenge of dealing with legal issues, made increasingly complex by our 24/7 conversation involving multiple stakeholder groups. Fuelled by conventional wisdom and pop culture, many hold the opinion that lawyers are in an enterprise to manage risk down to zero, and communicators are there to promote the enterprise?s mission and vision to the exclusion of all else. That preconceived notion can result in an underlying tension between the two functions in good times, but when layered into a crisis situation, it can impede an organization?s response and derail its progress in returning to business as usual.
However, the two functions have a lot more in common than it may seem. Both are wholly focused on protecting the organization?s reputation: they just approach it from a different vantage point. While lawyers may cringe at their counterpart?s unrelenting use of adjectives, descriptors and praise for the organization, communicators become equally frustrated at the legal team?s use of redlining, striking what they perceive to be the best brand attributes out of the press release, web copy and social media posts.
Under the best of circumstances, this tension exists and can be the reason for the delay of marketing and communications output. Under the worst of circumstances ? for example, executive wrongdoing, product recalls, and labor strikes ? this tension can result in an impasse, with stakeholders eagerly waiting for the organization?s next message as social media posts pile up, camera crews stalk the doorway and the C-suite grows increasingly anxious.
To avert this danger and bridge this gap, the two organizations should begin by developing a thorough understanding of the other?s challenges and opportunities, work styles and overall mandate. Like any form of negotiation, the best way to reach the middle ground and forge an acceptable solution is to view the situation from the other party?s vantage point and to develop workable scenarios to be deployed in the event of a crisis.
Courtroom | Courtesy: Erin Nealey on Flickr
Ultimately, a productive working relationship between a communications and a legal team is one long negotiation. Before you begin, lay the groundwork for a successful one.
First: Understand Where the Bias Comes From
Lawyers are not just being difficult. There is a reason why many lawyers are risk averse: they are trained to think that way, and paid to protect an organization whether in negotiating a contract, closing a deal, developing a litigation strategy or writing a settlement. It is an essential part of their training as law students and as young associates, and it is put to good practice as they develop their careers. This mindset saves companies a lot of money, time and potential exposure. In fact, the protection lawyers put in place for the enterprise can often be what save an organization from damage to its reputation.
In the throes of a crisis it can be maddening to see the messaging so carefully crafted be poked and prodded, examined from every angle and at times, diluted. However, it is a necessary activity. Consider the legal review an important checkpoint in a message development process that can often be infused with emotion and stress levels.
Not surprisingly, there is a reason we as communicators push the envelope: we know what does and does not make news. Reporters hang up on us. We see social media efforts fall flat because they don?t resonate with stakeholders and sound too ?corporate?. We often experience the legal protection as curtailing a healthy corporate dialogue.
However, this is all healthy tension. The best way to use it to your advantage is to acknowledge it exists, enjoy that it protects you and your organization from exposure, and build in a little extra review time if you think it may delay the crisis response.
Next: Know Your Organization and Share Your Mission
Know your organization?s business, and not just from the marketing and communications standpoint. Provide your team of communicators with greater visibility into legal and compliance issues that ultimately act on, influence, and shape your communications strategy. It can be tempting in proactive news cycles and feel-good marketing campaigns to ignore the legal and compliance issues that lurk beneath the surface. However, keeping someone on the communications team informed and engaged with that business function will pay dividends later. Whether you designate one person to be the point person for the legal department or every communicator folds this into his or her role, being aware of what could impact your communications strategy will allow your team to calibrate issues, responses, proactive campaigns accordingly throughout the year.
Similarly, educate your legal team by sharing your communications team?s goals. Demonstrate the value of positive, brand-building efforts over the year and how that supports sales, increases revenue and overall affects the organization?s productivity. Share your general programming for the year, be as specific as possible when launch dates will occur and why. This will ensure that the legal team can prepare for them, create workarounds, or share concerns if any.
Tips and Tactics for Better Working Relations Between Communications and Legal
If the two preceding activities have been in place for several months, when faced with a crisis your organization?s lawyers and communicators should be shoulder-to-shoulder at the table, designing workable solutions to the situation at hand. This foundation is essential for ensuring smooth functioning when the external environment becomes heated.
In addition to the relationship building efforts between the two departments, there are also tips and tactics that may help the process:
Develop a stakeholder map before a crisis hits. Always maintain a holistic view of the organization. It is not just about legal, and not just about the communications: when faced with a crisis it is about the entire reputation of the company and this includes many different and sometimes competing stakeholder groups. Consider developing a stakeholder map for your senior leaders in the organization, and show the impact certain communications have on different groups. This will allow your legal and compliance teams to see the big picture and develop collaborative solutions with you.
Identify ? hot-button? issues beforehand and share with any content creators. As you develop crisis communication plans, identify hot-button words, phrases, and messages. What words and issues are true deal breakers? What words and issues might have negative impact on certain stakeholder groups but not on others? Do some scenario-planning together and try to deal thorny and complex issues, such as multi-stakeholder communications, in less intense settings. Put the results in a cheat sheet, and circulate to both the Legal and Communications teams and any content creators. This will serve as an editing roadmap for the crisis and its immediate aftermath and reduce the back-and-forth editing of routine documents. Save the heavy editing session for the documents that matter the most.
Bring the legal team into your preparedness calls. Ideally, there is an early warning before a crisis hits. Allow a representative from the legal team to join your marketing and communications planning calls or meetings. This will allow Legal to identify red flags, allow Communications to ask questions and obtain guidance in real time, and streamline the materials development process.
Make it a real relationship ? not a series of time-consuming requests. The legal team is just as busy as you are. If it is a big enough crisis, they are also reviewing their own reports to legislators, regulators, and other entities. Establish a relationship with the department beforehand so if a crisis hits, they understand what you may be requesting. Offer to do a ?Communications 101? for the team and dissect a communications campaign from start to finish, showing where the legal and compliance insertion points are. Share your strategic communications calendar, and pinpoint where announcements are likely to fall during the year. Explain why the news release and social media response needs to be in tandem. Allow them to be a part of your process.
Build connections during down time. While it is in short supply in most organizations, take the quiet times as an opportunity to build the connections between your departments. Make it more personal than transactional. Have coffee and discuss what is happening in the organization. Share your views on how you each contribute to the business strategy. Discuss trends in your respective industries. It is a lot harder to lock horns with someone you know as a person.
Take time to learn their industry. Most communications people hunger for increased credibility and a seat at the table in an organization. The best way to do that is to become knowledgeable about the business and not just about what you do in it. Take time to learn about what the legal team actually does for the company. Knowing what a term sheet is can boost your credibility with transactional lawyers and just might make that next acquisition announcement flow more smoothly. Understanding a bit about the litigation process might give you more wiggle room with a litigation communications strategy. Realize that it isn?t always about the copy approval.
Comply with the legal team?s requests too. Is your company going through an audit? Is there a request for documents in litigation discovery? Remember, sometimes legal issues take priority in an organization. Be as prompt with your responses as you would want in return.
Realize you both are here to protect and enhance reputation? just from a different approach. And always, let cool heads prevail.
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Meghan Gross is the Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Schwartz MSL in Boston. She has handled an array of issues management and crisis communications scenarios, including executive transitions, personnel misconduct, workforce reductions, litigation, financial scrutiny and acquisitions. This post appears in PR News? Crisis Management Guidebook, Vol. 6, which may be purchased here.
Also watch a video interview of Meghan on social media trends and PR with PRWeek.
Despite ad pages being down in consumer magazines this year, women's fashion magazines had a great year. According to MagazineRadar, ad pages for this niche were up 6.5 percent from last year, compared to consumer magazine ad pages that slumped 5.3 percent.
Of the top seven women's fashion magazines, Vogue, closely followed by InStyle, contained the most ad pages.
MagazineRadar
When looking at these seven magazines, J.C. Penney bought the most ad pages with 160 pages in four of the top seven publications.
MagazineRadar
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According to Ad Age, J.C. Penney spent almost $1.2 billion in advertising last year, with $53.6 million going towards the magazine platform.?
While J.C. Penney was the company that bought the most ad pages, Stella McCartney was the most mentioned brand this year. This label is run by Paul McCartney's daughter.
MagazineRadar
An almost completely different set of companies, except for Barneys New York, had major online ad sales this year. Saks Fifth Avenue leads the pack by almost 300 ad placements.
MagazineRadar
MagazineRadar does not have data available for January to March of 2012.
I've been wanting to take a family photo and we finally did it last weekend... but now it's a little late to be sending Christmas cards so I guess I'll just share it with all of you. I usually use a tripod to get a family pic in December, but this time I set up the camera and had my dad take it while we were visiting. He only took seven shots (I take way more!), but luckily we got one I liked. I hope you all are enjoying the holidays! We had a nice Christmas and I'm enjoying having all my guys off from school/work for a little while!
It's time to link up again... I'd love to see what you've been shooting! There are just a few rules.
submit the url of your blog post, not your home page
link up a photo that was taken by you
include a link back to my blog in your post (you can use the button or a text link if you prefer)
visit a few other blogs and leave some comment love?
Until now, all consumer front projector systems?produced light using lamps or in rare cases LEDs. The new?LG HECTO FP system, on the other hand, uses lasers for illumination instead. Yes, lasers.
As LG announced on Wednesday, the new projector system uses lasers and a Texas Instruments DLP chip to form images. Typical home front projectors require around a 9 to 12 foot distance from the lens to a 100-inch screen. The LG HECTO requires only a 22-inch throw to fill the screen and can be placed on the floor or the mounted to the ceiling.
The LG HECTO Laser Projection TV will be sold as a complete system with a 100-Inch diagonal screen, a built-in ATSC TV tuner, HDMI switching and a Wi-Fi connection for streaming video.
Specifications include a rated 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1080p resolution, 3 HDMI inputs, an optical audio input, RS-232 interface. Audio is produced by two 10W built-in speakers. The projector measures 5.7-inches high. The HECTO Laser projector does not have 3-D capability. LG has not? provided a brightness rating, a key specification. (Lasers offer the promise of very high intensity using low power.)
The screen is a fixed design and unlike theater screens its surface is black not white. LG claims the system will render a vivid, high contrast crisp image, even in lighter viewing environments.
The Laser TV supports LG's Smart TV platform and will stream movies via Netflix?and?YouTube as well as other services and?apps via its built-in Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection. The HECTO also includes LG's latest Magic Remote control.
LG claims its laser based illumination system has a lifespan of up to 25,000 hours, which is 5 times or more the life of traditional mercury-based lamps.
The LG HECTO Laser projector will be demonstrated at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show early next month. We expect pricing and availability to be announced at the show.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Porsche Automobil Holding SE on Thursday won the dismissal of a New York lawsuit by 26 hedge funds that accused the German automaker of causing more than $1 billion of losses by cornering the market in Volkswagen AG shares.
A five-justice panel of the New York State appeals court in Manhattan unanimously found that Porsche had met its "heavy burden" to establish that the state was the wrong place in which to bring the lawsuit.
That panel reversed an August 6 ruling by New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos that let the case by hedge funds including Glenhill Capital LP, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital LP and Chase Coleman's Tiger Global LP proceed.
The funds accused Porsche of engineering a "massive short squeeze" in October 2008 by quietly buying nearly all freely traded ordinary VW shares in a bid to take over the company, despite publicly stating it had no plans to take a 75 percent stake.
When Porsche revealed it had amassed control of roughly three-quarters of VW, shares of VW soared, briefly making the Wolfsburg-based carmaker the world's biggest company by market value. The surge caused losses for hedge funds that had bet on a decline in the stock price.
Thursday's decision is a defeat for sophisticated and ordinary investors, who may have hoped they could use U.S. state courts to bring fraud claims against foreign companies over alleged misconduct taking place outside the United States.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court made it significantly harder for investors to pursue such claims in federal courts, in the case Morrison vs. National Australia Bank Ltd
"The appeals court squarely rejected the plaintiffs' attempt to end-run Morrison by suing in a state court," Robert Giuffra, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell representing Porsche, said in a phone interview.
James Heaton, a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott in Chicago who argued the appeal for the hedge funds, had no immediate comment. The decision was issued by a court one level below the Court of Appeals, the New York's highest state court.
Last week, prosecutors in Porsche's hometown of Stuttgart announced market manipulation charges against former Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking and former Chief Financial Officer Holger Haerter tied to the VW purchases. The defendants' lawyers denied wrongdoing by their clients.
INCONVENIENT FORUM
In its unsigned decision, the New York appeals court said the case was more appropriate for Germany, where litigation is also ongoing.
The appeals court said the hedge funds had failed to show that Porsche's actions created a "substantial nexus" with New York, noting that only links to the state were various phone calls and emails.
It added that most parties in the case are not New York residents, VW stock is traded only on foreign exchanges, and many witnesses and documents are in Germany.
"Porsche met its heavy burden to establish that New York was an inconvenient forum," the court said.
Several hedge funds in the case, plus others such as Elliott Associates LP, had brought a similar $2 billion lawsuit against Porsche in federal court, but U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in Manhattan dismissed that case in December 2010, citing Morrison.
The hedge funds appealed Baer's dismissal to the federal appeals court in New York, which heard oral arguments in February. That court has not yet issued a decision.
Wiedeking's maneuvering to take over VW backfired and pushed Porsche close to bankruptcy.
In July, VW ended up buying the 50.1 percent of Porsche's sports car business that it did not already own for 4.46 billion euros (US$5.9 billion). [ID:nL6E8I52V2] That ended a seven-year feud between branches of the companies' founding family.
VW is Europe's largest carmaker, and has plans to become the world's largest by 2018.
Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of his namesake sports car company, also invented the Volkswagen Beetle.
The cases are Glenhill Capital LP et al v. Porsche Automobil Holding SE, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate division, No. 8895; and Viking Global Equities LP et al v. Porsche Automobil Holding SE in the same court, No. M-5519.
Over the last few years we all have heard and seen a lot of initiatives around digital health but I just can?t hep but think that we are just skimming the top of digital health. ?The changes that are being implemented due to the Affordable Care Act are going, I believe, to make more patients consumers of healthcare at the same time when consumers are learning the importance of digital devices to keep them connected and control the world they live in.
Average health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage soared 62% between 2003 and 2011, far outpacing the rise in wages, a new study found.
By 2011, there were 35 states in which the annual premium equaled 20% or more of income, according to a study issued Wednesday by?The Commonwealth Fund. This compares to just one state in 2003. ?Most consumers have no idea how much they pay for healthcare beyond premiums and co-pays.
Until they do it will be difficult to temper the rate of cost growth in healthcare, says Paul H. Keckley, PhD, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.??Our surveys show that about 53% of consumers are oblivious to costs and tend to go along with whatever is suggested. Only one in 10 is inclined to be price sensitive,? Keckley says. ??That is a pretty bad starting point for reducing healthcare costs, especially if the incentives in the system are for doing more, which leads doctors and providers to recommend tests and surgeries that shouldn?t be done, or even medications that don?t work.?
A study from Deloitte?The hidden costs of U.S. health care: Consumer discretionary health care spending?finds that out-of-pocket expenses accounted for about 13% ($402 billion) of the estimated $3.2 trillion in healthcare spending in 2010.?
Government spending accounted for 40% of the spending. Of this, Medicare accounted for 16% ($527 billion); Medicaid, around 13% ($404 billion); and other public spending just under 11% ($346 billion). Private insurance paid for 27% of expenditures ($861 billion).
If we are serious about lowering healthcare costs a number of things have to happen. First, consumers have to take more responsibility for their personal health and wellness. ?This means we ALL have to take better care of ourselves and take steps to get healthy via better diets and exercise. ?Second, healthcare marketers need to stop selling so hard and provide clear and concise reasons for patients to ask for or use their medications. ?Non compliance and adherence costs billions of dollars in healthcare dollars. ?Finally, digital has to come together to provide a better overall patient experience.
As I have said many times and what research has shown is that the digital search for health information does not start and end in one place. ?Consumers want more information and want to hear others experiences when it comes to healthcare treatments. ?Some believe that mHealth is the answer but I would argue that we are far from having mHealth become a major part of the patient healthcare experience. ?This doesn?t meant that healthcare marketers shouldn?t invest in mHealth it just means that they need think about mHealth in terms of adding real value to patients.
Comscore recently indicatedthat consumers and patients are still using pharma sites but most pharma sites try too hard to sell and most don?t give users what they want which is information they can understand and use. ?Click stream analysis of many sites shows that consumers usually go from one site to another site to collect health information. ?The bottom line is that healthcare marketers need to get users involved in their marketing, from strategy to execution. ?They need to ask consumers ?what they want in digital health? and the need a system that keeps on building on learnings.
Digital health is at a very early stage but with a new tools coming online and with more and more consumers learning how to integrate digital into their lives their is a wealth of opportunities.
'Django' shows Tarantino has perfected his game, but will the director ever move beyond his usual fare?
By Peter Rainer,?Film critic / December 25, 2012
'Django Unchained' stars Leonardo DiCaprio (r.) and Jamie Foxx (l.).
Andrew Cooper, SMPSP/The Weinstein Company/AP
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Where would Quentin Tarantino be without pulp? All of his movies, not just ?Pulp Fiction? and ?Kill Bill? and the rest, but also the ones he wrote but did not direct, like ?Natural Born Killers? and ?True Romance,? mainline blood and guts and grunge. A better question might be: Where would Tarantino be without violence? But it?s violence of a special sort: shockingly explicit and yet not to be taken altogether seriously (even though some of us do).
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Set in the pre-Civil War South, his new film, ?Django Unchained,? is like a spaghetti-western burlesque of ?Mandingo.? A bounty hunter from Germany named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), posing as a dentist with a giant bobbing tooth hooked to the top of his carriage, comes upon a pack of rednecks guarding a chain gang and offers to buy one of their slaves, the strapping Django (Jamie Foxx).
Since this is a Tarantino movie, they will violently refuse and violently be put down for their troubles. The tone is set: Absurdity (that giant tooth) plus bloodshed (not ketchup) plus graveyard humor (Waltz has all the best lines, and he knows it). It develops that Django, on a mission to recover Hildi (Kerry Washington), the wife from whom he was torn apart, becomes Schultz?s partner. Among other things, this means he gets to obliterate a lot of white racists as the two of them carve their way to the plantation, Candyland, where Hildi is being held. It?s a love story crossed with a buddy movie.
Instead of trying to buy Hildi outright, which might be too obvious, they pretend to be in the market for a mandingo fighter. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the plantation owner, is a sniggling little tyrant, but he?s taken in by the ruse until Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), who runs the household, sniffs it out. In a crew of mostly bad guys, Stephen is probably the worst of the worst. This is perhaps the most politically incorrect role a black man has ever played since ?The Birth of a Nation? ? and, come to think of it, white actors played black actors in that movie.
Tarantino wants to merge the high-style bloodshed of the spaghetti westerns with the racial payback of the blaxploitation movies. (Django?s name is a homage to a spaghetti western icon and Hildi?s full name is Broomhilda von Shaft.) There?s a strong dose of fantasy wish-fulfillment here, just as there was in ?Inglourious Basterds,? in which Jewish soldiers end up incinerating Hitler and his henchmen. In ?Django Unchained,? Django?s righteousness is a license to kill those who enchained him.
Evidence contradicts idea that starvation caused saber-tooth cat extinctionPublic release date: 26-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Salisbury david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-6803 Vanderbilt University
In the period just before they went extinct, the American lions and saber-toothed cats that roamed North America in the late Pleistocene were living well off the fat of the land.
That is the conclusion of the latest study of the microscopic wear patterns on the teeth of these great cats recovered from the La Brea tar pits in southern California. Contrary to previous studies, the analysis did not find any indications that the giant carnivores were having increased trouble finding prey in the period before they went extinct 12,000 years ago.
The results, published on Dec. 26 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, contradicts previous dental studies and presents a problem for the most popular explanations for the Megafaunal (or Quaternary) extinction when the great cats, mammoths and a number of the largest mammals that existed around the world disappeared.
"The popular theory for the Megafaunal extinction is that either the changing climate at the end of the last Ice Age or human activity or some combination of the two killed off most of the large mammals," said Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt, who headed the study. "In the case of the great cats, we expect that it would have been increasingly difficult for them to find prey, especially if had to compete with humans. We know that when food becomes scarce, carnivores like the great cats tend to consume more of the carcasses they kill. If they spent more time chomping on bones, it should cause detectable changes in the wear patterns on their teeth."
In 1993, Blaire Van Valkenburgh at UCLA published a paper on tooth breakage in large carnivores in the late Pleistocene. Analyzing teeth of American lions, saber-tooth cats, dire wolves and coyotes from La Brea, she found that they had approximately three times the number of broken teeth of contemporary predators and concluded, "...these findings suggest that these species utilized carcasses more fully and likely competed more intensely for food than present-day large carnivores."
The latest study uses a new technique, called dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), developed by co-authorPeter Ungar at the University of Arkansas. It uses a confocal microscope to produce a three-dimensional image of the surface of a tooth. The image is then analyzed for microscopic wear patterns. Chowing down on red meat produces small parallel scratches. Chomping on bones adds larger, deeper pits. Previous methods of dental wear analysis relied on researchers to identify and count these different types of features. DMTA relies on automated software and is considered more accurate because it reduces the possibility of observer bias.
DeSantis and Ungar, with the assistance of Blaine Schubert from East Tennessee State University and Jessica Scott from the University of Arkansas, applied DMTA to the fossil teeth of 15 American lions (Panthera atrox) and 15 saber-tooth cats (Smilodon fatalis) recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.
Their analysis revealed that the wear pattern on the teeth of the American lion most closely resembled those of the present-day cheetah, which actively avoids bones when it feeds. Similarly, the saber-tooth cat's wear pattern most closely resembled those of the present-day African lion, which indulges in some bone crushing when it eats. (This differs from a previous microwear study using a different technique that concluded saber-tooth cats avoided bone to a far greater extent.)
The researchers examined how these patterns changed over time by selecting specimens from tar pits of different ages, ranging from about 35,000 to 11,500 years ago. They did not find any evidence that the two carnivores increased their "utilization" of carcasses throughout this period. If anything, their analysis suggests that the proportion of the carcasses that both kinds of cats consumed actually declined toward the end.
The researchers acknowledge the high rate of tooth breakage reported in the previous study, but they argue that it is more likely the result of increased breakage when taking down prey instead of when feeding.
"Teeth can break from the stress of chewing bone but they can also break when the carnivores take down prey," DeSantis pointed out. Species like hyenas that regularly chew and crack bones of their kills are as likely to break the rear teeth they use for chewing as their front canines. Species like the cheetah, however, which avoid bones during feeding are twice as likely to break canines than rear teeth. This suggests that they are more likely to break canines when pulling down prey.
The researchers report that previous examinations of the jaws of the American lions and saber-tooth cats from this period found that they have more than three times as many broken canines and interpret this as additional evidence that supports their conclusion that most of the excess tooth breakage occurred during capture instead of feeding.
In addition, the researchers argue that the large size of the extinct carnivores and their prey can help explain the large number of broken teeth. The saber-toothed cats were about the size of today's African lion and the American lion was about 25 percent larger. The animals that they preyed upon likely included mammoths, four-ton giant ground sloths and 3,500-pound bison.
Larger teeth break more easily than smaller teeth. So larger carnivores are likely to break more canine teeth when attempting to take down larger prey, the researchers argue. They cite a study that modeled the strength of canine teeth that found the canines of a predator the size of fox can support more than seven times its weight before breaking while a predator the size of lion can only support about four times its weight and the curved teeth of the saber-toothed cats can only support about twice its weight.
"The net result of our study is to raise questions about the reigning hypothesis that "tough times" during the late Pleistocene contributed to the gradual extinction of large carnivores," DeSantis summarized. "While we can not determine the exact cause of their demise, it is unlikely that the extinction of these cats was a result of gradually declining prey (due either to changing climates or human competition) because their teeth tell us that these cats were not desperately consuming entire carcasses, as we had expected, and instead seemed to be living the 'good life' during the late Pleistocene, at least up until the very end."
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Evidence contradicts idea that starvation caused saber-tooth cat extinctionPublic release date: 26-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Salisbury david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-6803 Vanderbilt University
In the period just before they went extinct, the American lions and saber-toothed cats that roamed North America in the late Pleistocene were living well off the fat of the land.
That is the conclusion of the latest study of the microscopic wear patterns on the teeth of these great cats recovered from the La Brea tar pits in southern California. Contrary to previous studies, the analysis did not find any indications that the giant carnivores were having increased trouble finding prey in the period before they went extinct 12,000 years ago.
The results, published on Dec. 26 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, contradicts previous dental studies and presents a problem for the most popular explanations for the Megafaunal (or Quaternary) extinction when the great cats, mammoths and a number of the largest mammals that existed around the world disappeared.
"The popular theory for the Megafaunal extinction is that either the changing climate at the end of the last Ice Age or human activity or some combination of the two killed off most of the large mammals," said Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt, who headed the study. "In the case of the great cats, we expect that it would have been increasingly difficult for them to find prey, especially if had to compete with humans. We know that when food becomes scarce, carnivores like the great cats tend to consume more of the carcasses they kill. If they spent more time chomping on bones, it should cause detectable changes in the wear patterns on their teeth."
In 1993, Blaire Van Valkenburgh at UCLA published a paper on tooth breakage in large carnivores in the late Pleistocene. Analyzing teeth of American lions, saber-tooth cats, dire wolves and coyotes from La Brea, she found that they had approximately three times the number of broken teeth of contemporary predators and concluded, "...these findings suggest that these species utilized carcasses more fully and likely competed more intensely for food than present-day large carnivores."
The latest study uses a new technique, called dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), developed by co-authorPeter Ungar at the University of Arkansas. It uses a confocal microscope to produce a three-dimensional image of the surface of a tooth. The image is then analyzed for microscopic wear patterns. Chowing down on red meat produces small parallel scratches. Chomping on bones adds larger, deeper pits. Previous methods of dental wear analysis relied on researchers to identify and count these different types of features. DMTA relies on automated software and is considered more accurate because it reduces the possibility of observer bias.
DeSantis and Ungar, with the assistance of Blaine Schubert from East Tennessee State University and Jessica Scott from the University of Arkansas, applied DMTA to the fossil teeth of 15 American lions (Panthera atrox) and 15 saber-tooth cats (Smilodon fatalis) recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.
Their analysis revealed that the wear pattern on the teeth of the American lion most closely resembled those of the present-day cheetah, which actively avoids bones when it feeds. Similarly, the saber-tooth cat's wear pattern most closely resembled those of the present-day African lion, which indulges in some bone crushing when it eats. (This differs from a previous microwear study using a different technique that concluded saber-tooth cats avoided bone to a far greater extent.)
The researchers examined how these patterns changed over time by selecting specimens from tar pits of different ages, ranging from about 35,000 to 11,500 years ago. They did not find any evidence that the two carnivores increased their "utilization" of carcasses throughout this period. If anything, their analysis suggests that the proportion of the carcasses that both kinds of cats consumed actually declined toward the end.
The researchers acknowledge the high rate of tooth breakage reported in the previous study, but they argue that it is more likely the result of increased breakage when taking down prey instead of when feeding.
"Teeth can break from the stress of chewing bone but they can also break when the carnivores take down prey," DeSantis pointed out. Species like hyenas that regularly chew and crack bones of their kills are as likely to break the rear teeth they use for chewing as their front canines. Species like the cheetah, however, which avoid bones during feeding are twice as likely to break canines than rear teeth. This suggests that they are more likely to break canines when pulling down prey.
The researchers report that previous examinations of the jaws of the American lions and saber-tooth cats from this period found that they have more than three times as many broken canines and interpret this as additional evidence that supports their conclusion that most of the excess tooth breakage occurred during capture instead of feeding.
In addition, the researchers argue that the large size of the extinct carnivores and their prey can help explain the large number of broken teeth. The saber-toothed cats were about the size of today's African lion and the American lion was about 25 percent larger. The animals that they preyed upon likely included mammoths, four-ton giant ground sloths and 3,500-pound bison.
Larger teeth break more easily than smaller teeth. So larger carnivores are likely to break more canine teeth when attempting to take down larger prey, the researchers argue. They cite a study that modeled the strength of canine teeth that found the canines of a predator the size of fox can support more than seven times its weight before breaking while a predator the size of lion can only support about four times its weight and the curved teeth of the saber-toothed cats can only support about twice its weight.
"The net result of our study is to raise questions about the reigning hypothesis that "tough times" during the late Pleistocene contributed to the gradual extinction of large carnivores," DeSantis summarized. "While we can not determine the exact cause of their demise, it is unlikely that the extinction of these cats was a result of gradually declining prey (due either to changing climates or human competition) because their teeth tell us that these cats were not desperately consuming entire carcasses, as we had expected, and instead seemed to be living the 'good life' during the late Pleistocene, at least up until the very end."
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Matthew McConaughey’s wife Camila Alves has given birth to their third child! The baby joins the couple’s daughter Vida, three, and their four-year-old son Levi. The couple decided to not find out the gender of their child until the baby’s birth, opting for the “wonderful surprise”. Alves, 30, gave birth to their son in Austin, ...
Over the last few years we all have heard and seen a lot of initiatives around digital health but I just can?t hep but think that we are just skimming the top of digital health. ?The changes that are being implemented due to the Affordable Care Act are going, I believe, to make more patients consumers of healthcare at the same time when consumers are learning the importance of digital devices to keep them connected and control the world they live in.
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Public release date: 26-Dec-2012
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