HTC is doing all it can to maximize its efforts in order to continue growing as a smartphone maker. And, although the newly announced Desire series may not exactly fit the company's flagship type, the 709d (China Telecom), 7060 (China Unicom) and 7088 (China Mobile) are part of HTC's promise to ...Newark Mayor Cory Booker talks to supporters during an election night victory party after winning a special election for the U.S. Senate, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Newark, N.J. Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan faced off to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker talks to supporters during an election night victory party after winning a special election for the U.S. Senate, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Newark, N.J. Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan faced off to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker talks to supporters during an election night victory party after winning a special election for the U.S. Senate, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Newark, N.J. Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan faced off to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, top left, hugs his mother Carolyn Booker after giving his victory speech during an election night party, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Newark, N.J. Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan faced off during a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Republican senate candidate Steve Lonegan and wife Lorraine Rossi Lonegan, wave during his concession speech in Bridgewater, N.J., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, after Democrat Cory Booker was declared winner. Lonegan and Booker were vying to fill the Senate seat left vacant after the death of Frank Lautenberg. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's U.S. senator-elect says he's ready to go to Washington and channel Americans' frustration with Congress into energy for change.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday, hours after he defeated Republican Steve Lonegan in a special Senate election. Booker will fill the seat left vacant by the June death of Frank Lautenberg.
Booker says some of the comments people have made to him about the state of affairs in Washington mimic what people told him when he was elected Newark's mayor in 2006.
Booker called himself "a scrapper" and says he was still able to make positive changes in New Jersey's largest city. He says the current climate of frustration in Washington creates a climate for change.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-17-NJ%20Senate/id-d55fa2eee13e4917af0a49eda520e4cf
Nikon's been peddling a variety of wireless adapters throughout the last few DSLR refresh cycles. Little dongles like the $50 WU-1a enable WiFi connectivity for photographers who really need it, but it's hardly an elegant solution. Now, we finally have a Nikon digital SLR with 802.11 built in. It's ...HAMPTON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Unitil Corporation (UTL) (www.unitil.com)
will host a quarterly conference call to discuss third quarter 2013
financial results on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 2:00 PM Eastern
Time. Financial results for third quarter 2013 will be released before
the market opens on Wednesday, October 23, 2013. Financial and other
statistical information will be accessible from the "Investors" section
of Unitil’s website at www.unitil.com/investors.
What: | Unitil Corporation Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call | ||
When: | October 23, 2013 @ 2:00 PM Eastern | ||
Where: |
| ||
Click the link "Q3 2013 Unitil Earnings Conference Call" | |||
How: | Live over the Internet – log on to the web at the address above | ||
Live Participant Dial-In: (800) 322-2803 | |||
Live Participant Dial-In (International): (617) 614-4925 | |||
Passcode: 4041-5650 | |||
Replay: |
| ||
Replay Dial-In: (888) 286-8010 | |||
Replay International Dial-In: (617) 801-6888 | |||
Replay Passcode: 4164-5790 |
About Unitil Corporation
Unitil Corporation provides energy for life by safely and reliably
delivering natural gas and electricity in New England. We are committed
to the communities we serve and to developing people, business
practices, and technologies that lead to dependable, more efficient
energy. Unitil Corporation is a public utility holding company
with operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Together,
Unitil’s operating utilities serve approximately 101,700 electric
customers and 73,700 natural gas customers. Other subsidiaries include
Usource, Unitil’s non-regulated business segment. For more information
about our people, technologies, and community involvement please visit www.unitil.com.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker greets a supporter after casting his vote in a special U.S. Senate election on Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker greets a supporter after casting his vote in a special U.S. Senate election on Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey.
The Associated Press projects that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will win a special election for the New Jersey Senate seat left vacant after the death of Frank Lautenberg.
With 55 percent of the precincts counted, Booker, a Democrat, has a commanding 11-point lead over Steven Lonegan.
Booker will succeed Gov. Chris Christie's interim appointee, Republican Jeff Chiesa, and will have to run again in 2014 for a full six-year term.
The AP adds:
"Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey and heads to Washington with an unusual political resume. He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, and graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as a Rhodes Scholar before moving to one of Newark's toughest neighborhoods with the intent of doing good.
"He's been an unconventional politician, a vegetarian with a Twitter following of 1.4 million — or five times the population of the city he governs. With dwindling state funding, he has used private fundraising, including a $100 million pledge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to run programs in Newark, a strategy that has brought his city resources and him both fame and criticism."
Booker is also a rising star in the Democratic party.
By Victoria Cavaliere
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Democrat Cory Booker, the charismatic mayor of Newark, was the unofficial winner of a New Jersey special election on Wednesday, handily defeating a conservative Republican to fill the state's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
Booker, who had been heavily favored in polls, defeated conservative Republican Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor, according to tallies published online by The New York Times, Politico and the Star-Ledger newspaper.
The tallies showed Booker with an 11 point lead over Lonegan with more than 90 percent of the votes counted.
Booker, 44, spoke to cheering supporters in Newark where he thanked them for turning out to vote against the backdrop of the 16-day government shutdown and partisan battling in Washington.
"It would have been easy to listen to this frustrating negativity and stay home today. But here in New Jersey, more than a million people rejected cynicism and came out on a Wednesday, in the middle of October, three weeks before we have another election, to fight the cynicism," he said.
"You didn't just vote, you believed that your vote and choice mattered," he said.
Booker becomes the first black U.S. senator from New Jersey. In Washington, Booker will join Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina as the nation's only two black senators.
He will fill the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who died in June at age 89.
Booker, a Rhodes scholar and Yale Law School graduate, rocketed to fame as a booster for the state's largest city, 12 miles from Manhattan, which has struggled with poverty and persistently high crime.
His first run for mayor was documented in the Oscar-nominated film "Street Fight." Booker is known to rub shoulders with celebrities and is a near-constant presence on Twitter.
During Booker's tenure as mayor, Newark received a $100 million gift to its schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who said he had met Booker and was impressed by his plans.
Lonegan is the former mayor of Bogota and former state director of Americans for Prosperity, a political advocacy group funded by the conservative Koch brothers.
He has said he opposed federal aid to victims of Superstorm Sandy and more recently voiced support for the Republican House members who forced the government shutdown.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican seeking re-election and a possible White House contender in 2016, chose October 16 as the special election date.
Democrats said he could have scheduled the special election for November 5, the day of the general election, and accused him of self-interest and wasteful spending.
They said he was avoiding being on the same ballot as Booker, who could attract Democratic and minority turnout and cut into Christie's chances of winning re-election by a large margin.
Christie, who said politics did not play a role in the decision, said he wanted to let New Jersey voters have a permanent voice in the Senate as soon as possible.
(Additional reporting by Edith Honan and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Ken Wills, Douglas Royalty and Stacey Joyce)
2:44 PM PDT 10/16/2013 by Shawn Kotzen, Chris Godley
Whether it be on an ocean-cutting schooner, a galaxy-traveling spaceship, or, most recently, a hijacked merchant vessel, pop culture has always been enamored with these heroic figures. Here's a gallery of brave commanders with wind on their backs and eyes fixed on the next port of call.
Captain Phillips
Back in April 2009, Richard Philips was the captain of the Merchant Vessel Maersk Alabama when it was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The ship was boarded by four machine gun-carrying hijackers, but the crew somehow managed to fight them off, forcing them to leave the ship empty-handed. However, it turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory, as Captain Phillips was captured by the pirates as they fled and held hostage on a lifeboat. Three days later, Phillips was freed and four years after that his harrowing ordeal was adapted into a thinking person's action film, directed by Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy) and starring Tom Hanks.
Captain Kirk
James Tiberius Kirk is the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise – a starship in the fictional Starfleet, which exists in Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek universe. Kirk was born in Iowa in the year 2233 and led the Enterprise and their beloved crew on countless expeditions and adventures -- “boldly going where no man has gone before.” Unforgettably portrayed by William Shatner in the original Star Trek television show, as well as seven Star Trek films and numerous other endeavors, the character was most recently played by Chris Pine in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot, as well as this year’s sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.
Captain America
This Marvel superhero was created in the World War II era by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and has taken on everyone from Adolf Hitler to the Red Skull to Saddam Hussein. Recently thrust back into the Hollywood limelight, courtesy of a pair of films starring Chris Evans – 2010’s Captain America: The First Avenger and the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Cap can also be seen in 2012’s Marvel's The Avengers and the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Captain Han Solo
This vest-wearing, Greedo-blasting, Wookiee-lovin’ Corellian rebel is one of the most beloved and well-known science fiction characters, ranked number 14 on the American Film Institutes’ list of “Greatest Film Heroes” and number 4 on the list of “Greatest Movie Character of All Time” by Empire magazine. Created by George Lucas and brought to life by Harrison Ford, Solo traveled the Star Wars universe in the Millennium Falcon and was also responsible for making the “Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,” lest you forget.
Captain Hook
The nasty leader of a boat full of dirty pirates, Jim Hook likes to spend his days sailing around the seas of the fictional Neverland realm, searching for his nemesis Peter Pan and his wily group of Lost Boy buds. Possessing the prophetic surname of Hook, he saw his greatest fears come to fruition after Peter lopped off his hand and fed it to a crocodile, who has had a taste for Jim and followed him around ever since. This epic literary character has been immortalized by Hollywood in countless projects – including Disney’s 1953 animated classic Peter Pan and played by Dustin Hoffman in 1991’s Hook and Jason Isaacs in 2003’s live action version.
Captain Jack Sparrow
In a lifetime of memorable cinematic achievements, Captain Jack Sparrow might be Johnny Depp’s most famous film role. Stealing the show in all four movies in the Pirates of the Caribbean quadrilogy (soon to return in Part 5), this dreadlock-sporting scurvy dog with a gold tooth and Keith Richards accent managed to get eaten by a mythical sea beast, escape Davy Jones’ Locker AND find the Fountain of Youth ... without spilling a drop of rum. This character and Depp’s likeness will forever be immortalized, as they now bid buccaneers farewell on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney parks.
Captain Kangaroo
The title character of a weekday morning children’s show, which aired from 1955 to 1984, the Captain (who was played and conceived by Bob Keeshan) was a pioneer in the creation of kids-themed morning television shows and a certified pop culture icon. He wore a signature red coat with big pockets – hence the name Captain Kangaroo. After a short hiatus, the show was reformatted in 1985 and ran again until 1993, giving the Captain and company 38 seasons of quality children’s television programming. Keeshan passed away in 2004 at age 76.
Captain Nemo
Nemo is the brilliant yet misunderstood villain from Jules Verne’s timeless sci-fi novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's also the captain of the menacing and monstrous-looking submarine the Nautilus, and the son of an Indian Raja who roamed the seas looking for blood and vengeance on the British Empire. But much like Ahab, he found some ornery sea life instead, in the form of a giant squid. Portrayed by a myriad of actors (James Mason, Michael Caine and Ben Cross – just to name a few) in countless remakes of Verne’s classic tale, the character was even immortalized in Alan Moore’s comic book (and the 2003 film adaptation) series, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman.
Captain Caveman
This furry little club-wielding cartoon character from the 1970s and '80s was created by Hanna-Barbera and was originally paired with a trio of crime-solving girls called the Teen Angels. Voiced by the one-of-a-kind Mel Blanc, “Cavey” was known for uttering the nonsensical phrase “unga bunga,” speaking in “caveman talk” and yelling his name at the top of his lungs when he was ready for action. Everybody: “CAPTAIN ... CAAAAVEMAAAAN!!!!”
Captain Ahab
The crazed seafarer from Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick, whose obsession with a big white whale ended up costing him more than his leg in the end. Melville’s tale of revenge and madness has been adapted into countless movies, made-for-TV movies and even a musical over the years, with William Hurt’s portrayal in Encore’s $25-million cable television miniseries in 2011 the most recent.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Born in France in 2305, Jean-Luc Picard was Captain Kirk’s predecessor as head of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Famously portrayed by English thespian Patrick Stewart in his breakout performance, Picard led the Enterprise and her crew through seven seasons of interstellar adventure (from 1987 to 1994) on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as four films and an appearance on the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Captain Planet
“By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” An eco-friendly superhero who had his own cartoon in the 1990s called Captain Planet and the Planeteers, this blue-skinned, green mullet-sporting, ancient champion of justice would travel around modern-day Earth, with his five ring-wearing Planeteers, and fight pollution, toxic waste, smog, etc... There aren’t too many “powers” he doesn’t possess, of which include shape-shifting, flying (even through space!) and telepathy. In June of this year, Sony Pictures announced that a live-action Captain Planet movie was in the works. The power is yours, moviegoers.
Captain Spaulding
Initially made famous by Groucho Marx in the 1930 film Animal Crackers, where Marx played Captain Jeffery T. Spaulding – the famous explorer and adventurer. The name was later used by filmmaker Rob Zombie as a character in both 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses and 2005’s The Devil’s Rejects, where James Cutter (deliciously played by Sid Haig) is the deranged, psychopathic patriarch of the murderous Firefly family. That is, when he’s not calling himself Captain Spaulding, wearing clown makeup, and slinging fried chicken and tickets to his infamous “Murder Ride.”
Captain Steve Zissou
Created by director Wes Anderson, along with screenwriter Noah Baumbach, and brought to life by a surprisingly melancholy Bill Murray, this oceanographer- documentarian, from 2004's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, is a moody mixture of Captain Ahab, Jacques Cousteau, Captain Nemo, Ernest Hemingway and Quint from Jaws ... with a little bit of Murray's sarcastic wit thrown in. Captain of a research vessel called the Belafonte, Zissou and his eccentric crew members encounter everything from pirates, familial issues and the choppy seas of love while on their quest to capture the deadly and enigmatic "Jaguar shark."
Captain Stubing
He was known as "Your Captain” on Aaron Spelling’s ode to the cruise ship crowd – the hour-long TV comedy, The Love Boat. Played by Gavin McLeod, Merrill Stubing served as the ship’s Captain for all ten seasons on ABC, in addition to three made-for-TV movies, from 1976 to 1986. At this exact moment, you’re probably just getting into that addictive opening theme song. No? Well, you are now. Climb aboard...
The Sea Captain
Yarr! Sporting a peg leg, a corncob pipe and a glass eye (possibly even two!), this recurring character on Fox’s The Simpsons is a stereotypical pirate and owns one of Springfield’s most popular seafood restaurants, The Frying Dutchman. Despite his nickname, Horatio McCallister is not an official sea captain and has attempted numerous business ventures in the past, such as releasing an album full of sea shanties and starting up a school for pet lobsters. Voiced by Hank Azaria, who provides the voice for many of Springfield’s citizens.
A new tool from security vendor Onapsis aims to secure SAP’s in-memory database HANA, the German company’s fastest-growing data processing product.
Onapsis, a Boston-based company that specializes in SAP security, will incorporate the tool into its X1 suite, which scans for vulnerabilities and configuration problems in SAP deployments.
HANA is a cornerstone of SAP’s strategy to compete with Oracle and IBM. Available as a cloud service and an appliance, it’s designed to process analytical and transaction workloads much faster for SAP’s ERP, CRM, supply chain and business intelligence applications.
HANA became generally available last year, and SAP has called it the fastest-growing product in its history, with more than 1,000 customers at the end of 2012.
But the product is “so new that there is no real practical knowledge on how to secure it,” according to Onapsis CEO Mariano Nunez[cq].
The HANA modules in X1 perform automated scans that check if a HANA’s configuration matches SAP’s security guidelines for the platform. They look for problems such as missing patches, users with excessive permissions, dangerous SAP XS Engine applications, missing audit trails and weak passwords, among other issues.
The modules prioritize the risks administrators should mitigate and continuously monitor HANA for new risks, Nunez said. The HANA modules will be available in November as a free update for existing X1 customers.
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ShareContact: Camille Gamboa
camille.gamboa@sagepub.com
805-410-7441
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, CA (October 14, 2013) Public administrators draw on a number of different sources to inform their work including the news, blogs, podcasts, etc. But why aren't they drawing on scholarly research from published academics as a key resource and what can scholars themselves do about it? More than they might think, suggests new research.
A new article published in State and Local Government Review (a SAGE Journal) outlines how to conduct and disseminate academic research that is relevant, collaborative, and accessible to local government practitioners.
The research is based on a panel conducted in the summer of 2013 with four highly-experienced local government managers from across the U.S. The managers were asked about their reading practices of academic material and what scholars could do to make their research more accessible and useful for government officials.
Not surprisingly, the managers stressed that relevance is key in helping them decide what to read. The panel members listed public engagement, emotional intelligence, priority-based budgeting, leadership, decision making, motivation, and collaboration as topics that would assist them in their work.
"The managers expressed a preference for articles that identify how the findings can be applied and that are not overly focused on a methodology which may be difficult for some practitioners to follow," the authors stated
The researchers found that while collaboration with practitioners would help the scholars identify topics that are important to government managers, practitioner participation in scholarly journal articles is low. The article provides suggestions to increase collaboration between scholars and public administrators.
"In addition to the interactions addressed by the local government managers in the panel (having the practitioners serve as adjunct instructors and on advisory boards for graduate programs and intern programs), exchanges between academics and practitioners may be useful," the authors wrote. "In the latter, faculty members work in a government setting or government officials work in the academic setting for a specified time period."
The researchers also identified wider dissemination of research articles through professional organizations and evolving open access journals, the release of research findings through other types of media and through blogs, online courses, or webinars, the creation of a journal targeted to government managers, and the creation of sections within a journal that are specifically targeted to government officials as potential solutions to the problem.
The researchers concluded, "If scholarly research is to be more useful for practitioners, academics and journal editors need to reach out to practitioners, listen to what they have to say, and identify ways to be responsive to their needs and interests."
###
Find out more by reading the article "Increasing the Usefulness of Academic Scholarship for Local Government Practitioners" in State and Local Government Review available now for a limited time here: http://slg.sagepub.com/content/45/3/197.full.pdf+html.
State and Local Government Review (SLGR), peer-reviewed and published four times/year, provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among practitioners and academics that contributes to the knowledge and practice of state and local government politics, policy, and management. Of particular interest in SLGR are articles that focus on state and local governments and those that explore the intergovernmental dimensions of public-sector activity.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com
Share
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.
ShareContact: Camille Gamboa
camille.gamboa@sagepub.com
805-410-7441
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, CA (October 14, 2013) Public administrators draw on a number of different sources to inform their work including the news, blogs, podcasts, etc. But why aren't they drawing on scholarly research from published academics as a key resource and what can scholars themselves do about it? More than they might think, suggests new research.
A new article published in State and Local Government Review (a SAGE Journal) outlines how to conduct and disseminate academic research that is relevant, collaborative, and accessible to local government practitioners.
The research is based on a panel conducted in the summer of 2013 with four highly-experienced local government managers from across the U.S. The managers were asked about their reading practices of academic material and what scholars could do to make their research more accessible and useful for government officials.
Not surprisingly, the managers stressed that relevance is key in helping them decide what to read. The panel members listed public engagement, emotional intelligence, priority-based budgeting, leadership, decision making, motivation, and collaboration as topics that would assist them in their work.
"The managers expressed a preference for articles that identify how the findings can be applied and that are not overly focused on a methodology which may be difficult for some practitioners to follow," the authors stated
The researchers found that while collaboration with practitioners would help the scholars identify topics that are important to government managers, practitioner participation in scholarly journal articles is low. The article provides suggestions to increase collaboration between scholars and public administrators.
"In addition to the interactions addressed by the local government managers in the panel (having the practitioners serve as adjunct instructors and on advisory boards for graduate programs and intern programs), exchanges between academics and practitioners may be useful," the authors wrote. "In the latter, faculty members work in a government setting or government officials work in the academic setting for a specified time period."
The researchers also identified wider dissemination of research articles through professional organizations and evolving open access journals, the release of research findings through other types of media and through blogs, online courses, or webinars, the creation of a journal targeted to government managers, and the creation of sections within a journal that are specifically targeted to government officials as potential solutions to the problem.
The researchers concluded, "If scholarly research is to be more useful for practitioners, academics and journal editors need to reach out to practitioners, listen to what they have to say, and identify ways to be responsive to their needs and interests."
###
Find out more by reading the article "Increasing the Usefulness of Academic Scholarship for Local Government Practitioners" in State and Local Government Review available now for a limited time here: http://slg.sagepub.com/content/45/3/197.full.pdf+html.
State and Local Government Review (SLGR), peer-reviewed and published four times/year, provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among practitioners and academics that contributes to the knowledge and practice of state and local government politics, policy, and management. Of particular interest in SLGR are articles that focus on state and local governments and those that explore the intergovernmental dimensions of public-sector activity.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com
Share
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.
The Q3 earnings report for Yahoo is in, and even with earnings down 91 percent year over year (due to an infusion of cash last year when it sold part of its share in Alibaba Group) it held few surprises. Revenue dropped 1 percent to $1.08 billion, while ad sales also dropped slightly, down 7 percent ...Giving us a revealing look at their new movie, FilmDistrict released a trailer for "That Awkward Moment" on Tuesday (October 15).
In the R-rated comedy, three friends find themselves at a point in their respective relationships where they have to decide, "So, where is this going?"
The studly trio at the center of the flick are Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan, who support each other while dealing with girl issues.
Check out the red-band trailer below, in which the guys make fools of themselves and do their best to woo their women. "That Awkward Moment" hits theaters on January 31, 2014.
In West Michigan, it's apple harvest time. That may conjure up images of picturesque orchards and old-fashioned fun: growers harvesting apples and then selecting them by hand.
Think again.
Robotic arms, computer vision and high-resolution photography are helping Michigan growers wash, sort and package apples at top speeds in the business — think 2,000 apples per minute.
With this modern technology, farmers are expanding production and getting Galas and Ginger Golds from Michigan orchards to grocery stores faster and more cheaply.
That's especially important during bumper crop years like 2013, when Michigan apple growers are expected to bring in a potentially record-setting 30 million bushels.
Rob Steffens, an apple grower on West Michigan's fertile "fruit ridge," has about 280 acres of orchards northwest of Grand Rapids. He packs 800 to a 1,000 apple trees into each acre, which is about three times as many trees as his father grew on the land.
With so many new trees, Steffens and other Michigan growers needed a way to process all those extra apples faster and more cheaply.
So Steffens pooled his resources with six other farmers to build a $7 million apple packing plant. It's where his apples are sorted, washed, waxed and readied for shipping to grocery stores.
Wooden crates with "Steffens" stamped on them stack up against one wall in the warehouse. A machine picks up the crates and dumps the apples onto a sort of water conveyor belt. The three-foot-wide river of bobbing apples moves quickly, as a machine sorts the fruit.
Then the apples go through a tunnel filled with flashing lights.
"Really, this is the brains of that," Steffens says, as he points to the tunnel. "This takes a picture of each apple — I think it's between 25 and 29 times a second."
The computer then forms a 3D model of each apple so it can figure out the fruit's size, color and quality. The apples are sorted by weight and color in a fraction of a second. Bruised or misshapen apples are rejected.
"See, and it's kicking out fruit like this," Steffens says as he points to a blemish no bigger than a dime on the skin of one of the rejected apples.
The high-tech machine means the growers can process and pack way more fruit with the same amount of workers. On a typical day, the machine can scan almost 2,000 apples a minute.
"It's processing at an astonishing rate," says horticulturist Randy Beaudry, at Michigan State University.
But this new technology, he says, is what Michigan apple growers need to compete with other states.
"If, for instance, a large box store says, 'OK, we want fruit that are between 2.5 and 2.75 inches.' And they want them 80 percent red with coloration. And they want zero defects — Michigan growers can get that fruit," he says. "And they can do it within a few hours time."
Each year, Michigan is typically only behind Washington and New York state in terms of apple bushels. That has a lot to do with good weather and luck. But it's also because growers have been changing their orchards. Growers have been ripping out older, taller apple trees and replacing them with smaller ones, Beaudry says.
"The trees are shorter. They're closer together," he says. "We create what we call fruiting walls. That's a relatively recent innovation, but it's part of a long-term trend to reduce the size of apple trees, so that they're harvested more easily and more efficiently. So we don't need as much labor."
More and more technology is needed to move labor-intensive agricultural products like apples efficiently to market, Beaudry says.
Fortunately for us, the end result still tastes like an old-fashioned Michigan apple in October.
MOSCOW -- Angry Birds is going downhill.
In a first for the Finnish-designed feathered cartoon characters, makers Rovio are launching a mobile telephone app Angry Birds Go!
The free app, available worldwide from Dec. 11, features a high-octane downhill race that includes all the famous avian characters and their arch-enemies the evil pigs from the video game.
The app includes a bizarre range of racing machines that can be upgraded, characters with special powers and range of 3D worlds.
Rovio, which released a gameplay trailer Tuesday to advertise the game ahead of its release, said: "The game will be built from the ground up as a free-to-play title, with a whole host of modes and features included from the get-go."
The company plans to release a "special countdown app" at the end of this month for the game which will be available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10.
Speaking Tuesday afternoon at Brand Licensing Europe 2013 in London during a presentation entitled "Angry Birds: How Rovio Disrupted the Entertainment Industry," Jami Laes, executive vp gaming and Naz Cuevas, senior vp licensing at Rovio said the company would continue to focus on making Angry Birds a long-lasting brand, they said. "We're building an evergreen," Cuevas told the industry crowd.
The executives then unveiled the Angry Birds Go! game trailer in a world premiere.
Laes said Helsinki, Finland-based Rovio created 51 games before striking gold with Angry Birds, meaning the company wasn't the overnight success it is sometimes believed to be.
Laes also touted the planned July 2016 launch of Angry Birds: The Movie.
Georg Szalai in London contributed to this report.
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander points to himself while answering a question during a media availability at Comerica Park before practice for Game 3 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox in Detroit, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander points to himself while answering a question during a media availability at Comerica Park before practice for Game 3 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox in Detroit, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Kyle Pickens paints a postseason logo on the field at Comerica Park before practice for Game 3 of the American League baseball championship series between the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox in Detroit, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander smiles during a media availability at Comerica Park before practice for Game 3 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox in Detroit, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland speaks during a media availability at Comerica Park before practice for Game 3 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox in Detroit, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
DETROIT (AP) — The last time Justin Verlander took the mound, his team's season was on the line.
The stakes won't be quite that high for his next start, but the Detroit Tigers could certainly use another brilliant performance from their star right-hander after blowing a chance to take control of the AL championship series.
Detroit wasted a five-run lead Sunday night in Game 2, allowing the Boston Red Sox to even the series with a 6-5 victory. David Ortiz's tying grand slam in the eighth inning snapped the Red Sox out of a hitting funk, and if Boston goes on to win the pennant, there may be little doubt about the turning point in this series.
Verlander's job is to steady the defending AL champion Tigers.
"Obviously that was a tough one," Verlander said. "At the same time you know this series is going to be a dogfight. Nobody is going to walk over anybody."
The Tigers looked like they were ready to roll through the series after they won the opener and took a 5-0 lead in Game 2. Anibal Sanchez held Boston hitless for six innings on Saturday, and Max Scherzer allowed a run and two hits in seven innings Sunday.
Boston trailed 5-1 in the eighth in Game 2 before a remarkable rally against four relievers. Ortiz tied it with a two-out grand slam off closer Joaquin Benoit.
"I made a mistake that I take full responsibility for," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I should have just reminded him that we didn't want Ortiz to really beat us. He tried to make a great pitch. He tried to get it low and away out of the strike zone, but he didn't get it there."
Boston managed to win one of two at home despite striking out 32 times — eight more than the previous record for the first two games of an LCS, set by the Los Angeles Dodgers a day earlier. The Red Sox are hopeful their bats will come around, starting against Verlander in Game 3 at Comerica Park on Tuesday.
"I think we certainly gained some confidence in the last couple innings," Boston manager John Farrell said. "The work of Sanchez and Scherzer has been nothing short of spectacular. ... We feel like tomorrow's starter in Verlander is going to be a similar, if not a more difficult, challenge than what we faced already."
After a pedestrian regular season by his standards, Verlander pitched15 scoreless innings in the division series against Oakland, including eight in a winner-take-all Game 5. The Tigers have taken no-hitters into at least the sixth inning in three straight games, a remarkable feat even for a staff that set a major league record with 1,428 strikeouts during the regular season.
Detroit's starters have picked up where they left off during last year's American League playoffs, when the Tigers' rotation posted a 1.02 ERA through the division series and ALCS. Detroit won the AL pennant before being swept by San Francisco in the World Series.
"We've got a starting rotation that's relentless, and I said that before the series started. Every guy has their unique ability to shut down a team in their own way," Verlander said. "I'm just one of the four guys right now."
The Red Sox will send John Lackey to the mound to face Verlander. Lackey was able to make 29 starts during the regular season, posting a 3.52 ERA after missing all of 2012 following elbow ligament-replacement surgery.
Lackey will try to hold Detroit's offense in check and hope the Red Sox can become the first team this postseason to break through against Verlander.
"We've got a great lineup. I'm going into the game with a great group of guys behind me," Lackey said. "Those guys are going to fight him. He's kind of our lineup's problem. I've got my own problems with their lineup."
Leyland says he'll probably play Jhonny Peralta at shortstop for a second straight game, with Andy Dirks in left field instead of Don Kelly. Boston's Mike Napoli is expected to be back at first base in a lineup similar to what the Red Sox used in Game 1.
Those are minor adjustments, obviously. Don't expect too many drastic changes as this series progresses. Both teams rely on established stars who have played in their share of big postseason games.
"It's always nice to have Justin Verlander on the mound no matter what the situation is," Leyland said. "There won't be any carry-over for our guys from that game last night. That's over with."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-14-BBA-ALCS-Red-Sox-Tigers/id-be2194b43c5d4e9f8810093a7035802bGetty Images
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock is proving she's more than an A-list actress -- she also could be a rap star.
The Gravity star recently appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show in the U.K., where she copped to "knowing a lot" of the lyrics of Sugarhill Gang's single, "Rapper's Delight." She shared that she learned the lyrics to the 1979 hit song in order to impress a high school crush.
PHOTOS: NY 'Gravity' Premiere: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney Are Out of This World
"I liked this guy in high school, and I was like, 'Next time I go to that dance, I'm going to know every word, and I'll make sure he sees me lip-syncing it," the 49-year-old actress told host Jonathan Ross. "'And I'm going to catch his eye, and I'm gonna say the words, and he's going to like me.' And sadly, it worked."
After going back and forth with Ross, Bullock agreed to perform the single and said, jokingly, "If I'm going to humiliate myself, I need some beats. I need some beats, yo!"
Gravity, which stars Bullock opposite George Clooney, was released Oct. 4.
Watch Bullock's rap game below.
On bedrooms in the mansion...
Originally I was going to make a "place" for each character's bedroom. But I soon came to realize that this would clutter the "places" section, so, for the characters who do not already have a bedroom please just post in the "Bedrooms" section. I believe there are only two characters bedrooms, the people whose characters belong in those two bedrooms may continue to use them.
Arunachalam Muruganantham installs his machine in a village in Chhattisgarh, India.
Arunachalam Muruganantham installs his machine in a village in Chhattisgarh, India.
Arunachalam Muruganantham had his light bulb moment when he was 29 years old, and holding a sanitary napkin for the first time.
Examining the cotton pads he was buying as a gift for his new wife, the Indian entrepreneur realized that the multinational company that produced them was probably spending cents on raw materials, and making a huge profit.
Women in Muruganantham's village in Tamil Nadu, including his wife, would often forego these expensive pads for rags they used repeatedly through their cycles. Even more uncomfortably, sometimes they utilized husks or leaves during menstruation.
The exorbitant cost of the foreign-made pads cut into their families' meal budget. Given a choice between fresh pads and fresh milk, they chose the latter.
A new movie, Menstrual Man, documents how, at great personal cost, Muruganantham created a cheap machine to address persistent menstrual hygiene challenges for rural women on the subcontinent. But, as director Amit Virmani points out, the product's traction may have more to do with social entrepreneurship than with health concerns.
Women whose self-help groups buy Muruganantham's machine can make more than a dollar a day — close to a global poverty line — selling the pads.
Sanitary napkins from global companies are in Indian stores for about $1.50 for an eight-pack. The ones from Murugantham's machine wholesale at about 25 cents for an eight-pack; the women's groups can sell them at whatever retail price they choose, retaining the profit. The cost of the machines ranges from about $1,200 to $6,000, depending on the features.
"The primary impulse when people are struggling to make a living is either, 'How can I make more money?,' or 'How can I save more money?'," Virmani said. "If you address those needs, your innovation stands a better chance to be adopted, to spread."
The machine, which Muruganantham began to research in 1998, has three stages of production. Inside a stainless steel container, a motor fluffs cellulose to prepare it as the core material for the napkins. Hand- and leg-operated tools are used to form the core of the napkin. A heat press is used to seal and apply the outer cover to the napkin. It's sterilized and packaged, and then ready to sell.
Muruganantham's invention was already spreading across India when Virmani found him last year, with 500 machines sold and an innovation award from India's president under the entrepreneur's belt. But getting there had been all uphill.
Once Muruganantham had prototyped the machine, he needed testers. But his wife and other family members refused, as did girls at the nearby medical college. So Muru, as Virmani calls him, decided to become a tester himself.
He filled bottles with animal blood and attached tubes that would press the blood into his drawers as he biked and walked around town. His rural village shunned him, viewing this with suspicion. And his wife's suspicions — that he was chasing medical college girls around town for something other than product testing — ended his marriage.
Still, for six years, Muruganantham pressed on (yup, pressed) — and now more than 1,000 of his machines have been sold in India. There's also been global interest in replicating the model, from Afghanistan to Rwanda.
Virmani said he attributes Muruganantham's success to the inventor's understanding of his core audience, starting with the rudimentary nature of the machine. "It's wooden, and it's got pedals where he could have had motors," Virmani said.
"He knows how to motorize the damn things, but the more complicated you make the machines, at some point they'll break down," Virmani said. "The way he's engineered it, it's pretty much something that (the rural women) can repair themselves, and they don't have to keep paying for servicing."
Muruganantham says he wants to see India become a "100 percent sanitary napkin country" in his lifetime.
As for Menstrual Man, it's on the festival circuit, and will be available on iTunes in January.
Such an effort would thrust Washington's traditionally cautious and pragmatic business lobby into open warfare with the Tea Party faction, which has grown in influence since the 2010 election and won a series of skirmishes with the Republican establishment in the last two years.
"We are looking at ways to counter the rise of an ideological brand of conservatism that, for lack of a better word, is more anti-establishment than it has been in the past," said David French, the top lobbyist at the National Retail Federation. "We have come to the conclusion that sitting on the sidelines is not good enough."
(Read more: Obama seeks opening with GOP leader)
Some warned that a default could spur a shift in the relationship between the corporate world and the Republican Pary. Long intertwined by mutual self-interest on deregulation and lower taxes, the business lobby and Republicans are diverging not only over the fiscal crisis, but on other major issues like immigration reform, which was favored by business groups and party leaders but stymied in the House by many of the same lawmakers now leading the debt fight.
Joe Echevarria, the chief executive of Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, said, "I'm a Republican by definition and by registration, but the party seems to have split into two factions."
While both parties have extreme elements, he suggested, only in the G.O.P. did the extreme element exercise real power. "The extreme right has 90 seats in the House," Mr. Echevarria said. "Occupy Wall Street has no seats."
(Read more: Stocks seem to be signaling a debt deal)
Moreover, business leaders and trade groups said, the tools that have served them in the past — campaign contributions, large memberships across the country, a multibillion-dollar lobbying apparatus — do not seem to be working.
"There clearly are people in the Republican Party at the moment for whom the business community and the interests of the business community — the jobs and members they represent — don't seem to be their top priority," said Dan Danner, the head of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which spearheaded opposition to President Obama's health care law among small businesses."They don't really care what the N.F.I.B. thinks, and don't care what the Chamber thinks, and probably don't care what the Business Roundtable thinks."
The lawmakers seem to agree. Representative Randy Neugebauer, Republican of Texas and a Tea Party caucus member, said in an interview on Wednesday that if American corporations wanted to send their money elsewhere, that was their choice.
"We have got to quit worrying about the next election, and start worrying about the country," said Mr. Neugebauer, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee and is a recipient of significant donations from Wall Street.
Few of the most conservative House lawmakers draw substantial support from business political action committees, and business lobbyists acknowledged that the mere suggestion they were considering backing primary challenges next year could enhance grass-roots support for the very lawmakers they want to defeat. But the dysfunction in Washington has now turned so extreme, they said, that they had few other options.
(Watch: Does Obama want to break the GOP?)
"What we want is a conservative business person, but someone who in many respects will be more realistic, in our opinion," said Bruce Josten, the top lobbyist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the single biggest lobbying organization in Washington.
In the two previous battles over the debt limit many chief executives were reluctant to take sides, banding together in groups like Fix the Debt, which spent millions of dollars on a campaign urging Democrats and Republicans to work toward a "grand bargain" on the budget. But with shutdown a reality, and the clock ticking toward default,some of those same executives now place the blame squarely on conservative Republicans in the House.
"It's clearly this faction within the Republican Party that's causing the issue right now," said David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell and a steering board member of Fix the Debt.
The rift, these industry executives acknowledge, reflects longstanding tensions that sometimes emerge between the agendas of corporate executives and those embraced by the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
"We ask them to carry our water all the time," said one corporate sector lobbyist, who demanded anonymity in order to speak frankly about the relationship with Republicans. "But we don't necessarily support them 100 percent of the time.And what has happened is the rise of an ideological wing that is now willing to stand up to business interests."
Despite their diminished leverage, business leaders said they would step up their appeals for an agreement.
(Read more: Europe stocks higher on US budget progress)
Most of the officials said they agree in principle with conservative lawmakers about the need to cut federal spending or roll back parts of Obamacare, but said using the threat of shutdown — or worse, of a debt default — to extract those concessions was both ineffective and dangerous.
Mr.Josten said he had been on Capitol Hill every day this week counseling compromise.
"The name calling, blame gaming — using slurs like jihadist, terrorist, cowards, that kind of language — it does not get you to a deal," Mr. Josten said of the advice he is giving to Democrats and Republicans. "The problem is everybody is in the same corner here and everybody has to try to save some face."
To some extent, the Chamber itself, along with other lobbying groups, helped create the conditions for Washington's impasse.
(Read more: Boehner to ask House for short-term debt deal)
Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101102615
