'G.I. Joe' commands No. 1 at box office with $41M

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? After a nine-month delay, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" deployed to the top spot at the box office.

The action film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum as the gun-toting military toys brought to life marched into the No. 1 position at the weekend box office, earning $41.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Retaliation" opened Wednesday at midnight, which helped bring its domestic total to $51.7 million.

Paramount postponed the sequel to 2009's "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" last May from its original June opening date to convert the film to 3-D. The last-minute switcheroo came just weeks after "Battleship," another movie based on a Hasbro toy, sank at the box office. At that time, Paramount already began its advertising campaign for "Retaliation."

"It certainly vindicates the decision," said Don Harris, the studio's head of distribution. "Any time you make those sorts of moves, people always assume the worst. The truth is I'd seen this movie a long time ago in 2-D, and the movie worked in 2-D. It's not trying to be 'Schindler's List.' This movie is intended to be enjoyed as a big, action spectacle."

After debuting in the top spot last weekend, the 3-D animated prehistoric comedy "The Croods" from DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox slipped to the No. 2 spot with $26.5 million in its second weekend. The film features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Catherine Keener as a cave family on the hunt for a new home.

Among the other new films this weekend, "Tyler Perry's Temptation" starring Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Lance Gross opened above expectations at No. 3 with $22.3 million, while the sci-fi adaptation "The Host" featuring Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, and Jake Abel as characters from the Stephenie Meyer novel landed at No. 6 in its debut weekend with a modest $11 million.

Overall, the weekend box office was on par with last year when "The Hunger Games" continued to dominate in its second weekend of release with $58.5 million. After a slow start, Hollywood's year-to-date revenues are still 12 percent behind last year, heading into next month when summer movie season unofficially kicks off with "Iron Man 3" on May 3.

"It's getting us back on track after many weekends of down trending box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Last weekend was a turning point with the strength of 'The Croods' and 'Olympus Has Fallen' doing better than expected. We're heading toward the summer movie season on solid footing. It's been a tough year so far."

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

1. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" $41.2 million.

2. "The Croods," $26.5 million.

3. "Tyler Perry's Temptation," $22.3 million.

4. "Olympus Has Fallen," $14 million.

5. "Oz the Great and Powerful," $11.6 million.

6. "The Host," $11 million.

7. "The Call," $4.8 million.

8. "Admission," $3.2 million.

9. "Spring Breakers," $2.7 million.

10. "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," $1.3 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

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

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-31-Box%20Office/id-9da4089ad0ce45f6a19475396541a202

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Professional Business Marketing ? Five Critical Team Members For ...

The 7 C?s: How to Find and Hire Great Employees

Alan Hall
Contributor

How To Build A Billion Dollar Business Plan: 10 Top Points

Alan Hall
Contributor

When Companies Honor Employees, Profits Result

Alan Hall
Contributor

Entrepreneurship: Do You Qualify For The Ride of Your Life? The 8 Point Test

Alan Hall
Contributor

The right team is key to success.

You know your customers. You have a killer product to sell. The business plan is set, strategy thoughtfully documented and funds are in place. You?re ready to go to market or even poised for explosive growth. But, are you surrounded by the best possible teammates to make the dream a reality?

In my 40 plus years as a successful entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist, I have learned that business owners cannot grow an enterprise singlehandedly. ?Michael Jordan once said ?Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.? ?A championship team begins with an inspired coach who has a world class plan to be number one.? To achieve his dream, he recruits, trains and motivates skilled athletes who are willing to set egos aside for the good of the team. ??Working in harmony with a single purpose and a dedicated effort, the coach and the players are able to achieve greatness in their sport. The same model applies to starting and growing an award winning business.

I view a business founder as a coach.? A leader who knows what has to be done, when and where.? Every growing company has multiple tasks that have to be performed for an enterprise to succeed and flourish.? The job of the coach is to recruit and hire the right people to accomplish given assignments.? From my own experiences as a serial entrepreneur and from what I have seen from other business founders I have supported financially, I have learned that exceptional organizations engage a cadre of talented business people who perfectly fit five vital areas of the organization.? ?Today I am pleased to share with you what I feel are the most critical team members any entity must have to win in business.

The leader.

It all starts with the leader. The best business coaches are servant leaders.? They recognize their businesses will soar if they hire great people and let them ?own? their assignments. In this light, the business founder is there to support the employee?s efforts with needed resources, guiding principles and agreed upon priorities.? He or she encourages, motivates, rewards and provides feedback on job performance.? He corrects with kindness and celebrates achievement.? This leader knows if he takes care of his employees, they will provide superior service to customers, who will, in turn, continue to buy and tell their friends to do the same.? He is forgiving of mistakes.? He lets people learn and grow.? He provides a culture of integrity, honor, self reliance, innovation and camaraderie.? They daily play their best game.? Their output is superior to the competition. They are happy people and look forward to work every day.? In fact, the leader is loved by his employees and they will do any for him or her.

The expert.

Great business leaders succeed because they hire people who know the industry, the trends, the competitors, the market place, the customers, the products they sell, the vendors and investors.? They surround themselves with workers, managers and other leaders who have years of experience.? They bring vital information and deep knowledge to their assignments and are willing to share what they know with the business founder, peers and subordinates.? These expert employees mentor others who are learning the business.? They are vigilant and continue to watch and learn.? They provide guidance and wisdom on what works and what does not work in the organization; the results -mistakes are few, productivity is high. I speak from experience on this important topic. I have scars on my back from numerous failed start ups because I hired a team of inexperienced and unseasoned workers who had little knowledge and therefore couldn?t perform.

The financial guru.

Successful businesses all have an experienced and talented financial officer.? The importance of this critical leader can?t be overstated.? No company can survive or prosper without a person who understands accounting, finance, strategy and cash flow management.? There must be someone in the organization that can be trusted with the funds that are received and dispersed by the company.? He or she who owns this key responsibility must know at every minute the health of the company; the availability of cash should be top of mind.? I have learned that regular meetings between the financial guru, peers and the founder are critical to staying afloat.? All leaders and managers need to know where the company is financially and what must be done to sustain viability.? Again, from personal experience, I have watched many companies go out of business because leaders failed to put a competent financial player on their team.? Most planned to do it, but did so too late.

The strategist.

Having a strategist on the team is another critical element that ensures prosperity.? Why? Most entrepreneurs are busy taking care of day to day business.? They have their heads down making sure the company is making money and that the right products are being made and that employees and customers are happy.? They don?t notice the world is changing.? They lack intelligence on emerging industry trends, changes in customer behavior, new competitors and disruptive product innovations. ?They are buried with huge tasks and pressing deadlines.? They don?t have time to lift their eyes to the horizon and learn what tomorrow will bring.? I know this life style.? I have been there many times.? I never had time to put my put my feet up on the desk and gaze into space and see the future.? Yet, the future is heading directly at business founders at high speed.?? To maintain and grow, someone in the organization should be assigned to carry the crystal ball and report on what he or she sees.? Yes, growing companies? need a visionary to research, comprehend and report on opportunities and challenges down the road.? Failing to have this key leader on the team will be catastrophic to the company.? No owner wants to wake up one morning to learn they are now headed to the cemetery of expired businesses.? Having learned this lesson more than once, I now have a strategist on my team that guides our enterprise into the future.

The executer.

Every great company has a leader that owns the responsibility to execute or implement company plans.? These assignments may encompass research, inventory management, manufacturing, distribution, human resources, IT, and marketing and sales.? In many businesses, the person who oversees these critical tasks bares the title of chief operating officer.? To carry out these responsibilities, he or she will hire an expert staff of employees with specific duties that must be accomplished for the enterprise to flourish.? These workers are the heart of the organization and deliver what customers want and buy.? Companies that fail don?t have this key person on the team.? Those firms that do, have found and hired a highly talented executive who know what needs to be done, when and how.

In conclusion, as an owner, shareholder or board director, does your organization have these five critical executives? Are they performing as expected or do they need to be hired, developed or replaced? I would appreciate hearing from you about your organization and its leadership.? I can be reached at @AskAlanEHall or via my personal website,?www.AlanEHall.com.

Author:?Alan Hall?|?Google+

Seven Common Small Business Mistakes And How To Deal With Them

Source: http://lowbrowse.org/five-critical-team-members-for-business-success.html

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New York's First Occupied Shipping Container Home | Inthralld

Shipping Containers are of course a popular building material in this day and age, where people are more green and planning on being more sustainable for the earth. While a majority of what we see as far as homes are concerned are all over the world? New York is a relatively surprising location for such a structure.

The first shipping container home in New York is now occupied by its owners after a myriad of issues and construction restrictions? 5 years after purchasing the plot. The home is equipped with radiant heated flooring, and Super Therm insulation for the colder weather months.

Though there has been much criticism to the overall architecture, interior design and ultimate outcome of the space, the owners have overcome a great feat in dealing with their building restrictions and other issues along the way. There?s always room for improvement, and this home will surely pave the way for other NY based shipping container homes.

Category: Architecture Tags: Custom Design, Green Design, Industrial Design, Shipping Container, Shipping Container Homes, Shipping Container House

Source: http://inthralld.com/2013/03/new-yorks-first-occupied-shipping-container-home/

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Pope refers to "Muslim brothers" on Good Friday

ROME (AP) ? Pope Francis reached out in friendship to "so many Muslim brothers and sisters" during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East.

The new pontiff, who has rankled traditionalists by rejecting many trappings of his office, mostly stuck to the traditional script during the nighttime Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum, one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week.

With torches lighting the way, the faithful carried a cross to different stations, where meditations and prayers were read out recalling the final hours of Jesus' life and his crucifixion.

This year, the prayers were composed by young Lebanese, and many recalled the plight of minority Christians in the region, where wars have forced thousands to flee their homelands. The meditations called for an end to "violent fundamentalism," terrorism and the "wars and violence which in our days devastate various countries in the Middle East."

Francis, who became pope just over two weeks ago, chose, however, to stress Christians' positive relations with Muslims in the region in his brief comments at the end of the ceremony.

Standing on a platform overlooking the procession route, Francis recalled Benedict XVI's 2012 visit to Lebanon when "we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others."

"That occasion was a sign to the Middle East and to the whole world, a sign of hope," he said.

Friday's outreach followed Francis' eyebrow-raising gesture a day earlier, when he washed and kissed the feet of two women, one a Muslim, in the Holy Thursday ritual that commemorates Jesus' washing of his apostles' feet during the Last Supper before his crucifixion.

Breaking with tradition, Francis performed the ritual on 12 inmates at a juvenile detention center, rather than in Rome's grand St. John Lateran basilica, where in the past, 12 priests have been chosen to represent Jesus' disciples.

Before he became pope, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio long cultivated warm relations with Muslim leaders in his native Argentina. In one of his first speeches as pope, he called for the church and the West in general to "intensify" relations with the Muslim world.

The Vatican's relations with Islam hit several bumps during Benedict XVI's papacy, when he outraged Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as saying some of Prophet Muhammad's teachings were "evil and inhuman." And in 2011, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, Cairo's Al-Azhar institute, froze dialogue with the Vatican to protest Benedict's call for greater protection of Christians in Egypt.

However, Francis' past outreach to the Muslim community in Argentina seems to have changed that. Al-Azhar's chief imam, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, sent a message of congratulations to Francis on his election and said he hoped for cooperation.

The Vatican's efforts to reconcile with the Islamic world have not been welcomed by all. Italy's most famous Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, announced last week he was leaving the church because of its "soft" stance on Islam. Allam was baptized by Benedict XVI in 2008 during the high-profile Easter Vigil service when the pope traditionally baptizes a handful of adults. There has been no Vatican comment on his about-face.

Thousands of people packed the Colosseum and surrounding areas for the nighttime procession, holding candles wrapped in paper globes as Francis sat in silent prayer as a giant torch-lit crucifix twinkled nearby. Some in the crowd had Lebanese flags around their shoulders in an indication of the special role Lebanese faithful played in this year's procession.

Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East ? nearly 40 percent of the country's 4 million people, with Maronite Catholics the largest sect. As civil war has raged in neighboring Syria, Lebanon's Christian community has been divided between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Overall, Christians in the Middle East have been uneasy as the Arab Spring has led to the strengthening of Islamist groups in most countries that have experienced uprisings. Thousands of Christians have fled the region ? a phenomenon that the Vatican has lamented, given Christianity's roots in the Holy Land.

"How sad it is to see this blessed land suffer in its children, who relentlessly tear one another to pieces and die!" said one of the Good Friday meditations. "It seems that nothing can overcome evil, terrorism, murder and hatred."

Francis picked up on that message, saying Christ's death on the cross is "the answer which Christians offer in the face of evil, the evil that continues to work in us and around us."

"Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did," he said.

At the end of the ceremony, a male choir sang a haunting Arabic hymn, a reflection of the Eastern rite influence that infused the ceremony.

On Saturday, Francis presides over the solemn Easter Vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica and on Sunday, he celebrates Easter Mass and delivers an important speech. Usually the pope also issues Easter greetings in dozens of languages.

In his two weeks as pope, Francis' discomfort with speaking in any language other than Italian has become apparent. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday "we'll have to see" what Francis does with the multilingual greetings.

The Good Friday procession was conducted entirely in Italian, whereas in years past the core elements recounting what happens at each station would be recited in a variety of languages.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-refers-muslim-brothers-good-friday-001145243.html

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Andy Rubin's Kick-Butt Business Card From When He Worked At ...

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Monoclonal antibody targets, kills leukemia cells

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center have identified a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets and directly kills chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells.

The findings, published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 25, 2013 represent a potential new therapy for treating at least some patients with CLL, the most common type of blood cancer in the United States.

CLL cells express high levels of a cell-surface glycoprotein receptor called CD44. Principal investigator Thomas Kipps, MD, PhD, Evelyn and Edwin Tasch Chair in Cancer Research, and colleagues identified a monoclonal antibody called RG7356 that specifically targeted CD44 and was directly toxic to cancer cells, but had little effect on normal B cells.

Moreover, they found RG7356 induced CLL cells that expressed the protein ZAP-70 to undergo apoptosis or programmed cell death. Roughly half of CLL patients have leukemia cells that express ZAP-70. Such patients typically have a more aggressive form of the disease than patients with CLL cells that do not express that specific protein.

Previous research by Kipps and others has shown that CLL cells routinely undergo spontaneous or drug-induced cell death when removed from the body and cultured in the laboratory. They found that CLL cells receive survival signals from surrounding non-tumor cells that are present in the lymph nodes and bone marrow of patients with CLL. One of these survival signals appears to be transmitted through CD44. However, when CD44 is bound by the RG7356 monoclonal antibody, it seems to instead convey a death signal to the leukemia cell.

"By targeting CD44, it may be possible to kill CLL cells regardless of whether there are sufficient numbers of so-called 'effector cells,' which ordinarily are required by other monoclonal antibodies to kill tumor cells," said Kipps. "We plan to initiate clinical trials using this humanized anti-CD44 monoclonal antibody in the not-too-distant future."

Co-authors were Suping Zhang, Christina C.N. Wu, Jessie-Farah Fecteau, Bing Cui, Liguang Chen, Ling Zhang, Rongrong Wu, Laura Rassenti, and Fitzgerald S. Lao, Department of Medicine, UCSD Moores Cancer Center; and Stefan Weigand, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Germany.

Funding for this study came, in part, from the National Institutes of Health (grant PO1-CA081534) and the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Blood Center Research Fund.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Diego Health Sciences.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Suping Zhang, Christina C. N. Wu, Jessie-F. Fecteau, Bing Cui, Liguang Chen, Ling Zhang, Rongrong Wu, Laura Rassenti, Fitzgerald Lao, Stefan Weigand, and Thomas J. Kipps. Targeting chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells with a humanized monoclonal antibody specific for CD44. PNAS, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221841110

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/yTCNjbMS0z8/130325160234.htm

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Dell drama takes new twist with 2 new buyout bids

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The two new suitors pursuing Dell have a message for Wall Street: Don't allow Michael Dell to hoard potential gains from the PC maker's expansion into more profitable technology products and services.

Competing bidders Carl Icahn and the Blackstone Group LP are wooing Dell shareholders with an offer of a little more money today coupled with the possibility of even bigger returns if the struggling personal computer maker can pull off the turnaround envisioned by its CEO and founder, Michael Dell and a group of investors led by Silver Lake Partners.

The new bidders are also making a statement by proposing to maintain Dell Inc.'s status as a publicly traded company.

The long-awaited challenge to Michael Dell and Silver Lake began to unfold Monday with the announcement that Icahn, a billionaire investor with a long history of corporate confrontation, and the Blackstone, a major buyout firm, had submitted separate alternatives in an attempt to scuttle a $24.4 billion sales agreement that has been in place since Feb. 5.

If completed, the original deal would end Dell's 25-year history as a publicly traded company, leaving it entirely owned by Michael Dell, Silver Lake and a handful of other investors. The new bidders are taking advantage of a 45-day window that had been left open for better offers.

Although the details are still sketchy, both Icahn and Blackstone are offering to buy a portion of Dell Inc.'s outstanding stock at prices higher than the $13.65 per share that Michael Dell and Silver Lake have proposed to pay. Icahn is offering $15 per share for up to 58 percent of the company's existing stock while Blackstone will ante up more than $14.25 per share in cash or stock for an unspecified number of shares.

"We intend to work diligently with all three potential acquirers to ensure the best possible outcome for Dell shareholders, whichever transaction that may be," said Alex Mandl, the chairman of a four-person board committee overseeing the sale of the Round Rock, Texas company. For now, the committee is still recommending the deal put forth by Michael Dell and Silver Lake, though they are acknowledging the new offers could end up being more lucrative.

Dell's stock gained 37 cents, or 2.6 percent, to close Monday at $14.51. The shares have been trading above $14 most of this month, signaling that most investors expected alternative bids to emerge.

Monday's developments heighten the uncertainty surrounding Dell, the world's third largest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group. Dell's cloudy future could rattle some corporate customers who may be more willing to do business with HP, Lenovo or other rivals. It also threatens to distract Dell's 111,000 workers at a critical time.

The bidding battle also could culminate in the departure of Michael Dell, who founded the company bearing his name in 1984 while still a teenager attending the University of Texas.

In a statement, Dell's special committee said Michael Dell is willing to work with other parties besides Silver Lake.

Getting Dell's cooperation will be crucial for either Icahn or Blackstone if they hope to gain control of the company, predicted analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.

"It would be naive to move forward without Michael Dell," Moorhead said. "He is the glue the keeps the place together."

Other analysts fault Michael Dell for not reacting more swiftly to a computing shift unleashed by the 2007 introduction of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and the 2010 release of Apple's iPad. Those products ushered in an era of powerful and elegantly designed mobile devices that are causing consumers and companies to spend less on PCs. The upheaval is crimping Dell's earnings and has left its stock well below its price of $24 when Michael Dell returned for his second stint as CEO in early 2007.

Michael Dell, who would contribute about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to finance his preferred deal, believes he will be in a better position to overhaul the company if he doesn't have to worry about catering to Wall Street's fixation on short-term earnings and revenue growth.

Icahn, Blackstone and other current Dell shareholders also believe the company can bounce back. They just don't want to see Dell sold at a perceived discount that would deny existing shareholders the benefits of a potential comeback.

Under Icahn's proposal, his group would spend more than $15.6 billion to buy 1.04 billion shares of Dell stock, leaving about 900 million of the existing shares still on the market. If Icahn didn't spend all the money earmarked for buying 58 percent of the outstanding stock, the remaining amount would be distributed in the form of a special dividend. Icahn said he and his affiliates currently own about $1 billion worth of Dell's stock.

Blackstone's proposal doesn't spell out how much money it would spend to buy Dell's existing stock, nor does it estimate how much stock would remain trading on the Nasdaq exchange. The New York firm said it hopes to team up with Michael Dell and also hopes to work with other major company shareholders, including Southeastern Asset Management and the T. Rowe Price Group. Both of those shareholders, who combined own nearly 13 percent of Dell's stock, oppose the offer currently backed by Michael Dell.

In a letter to Dell's special committee, Blackstone predicted its bid would be more "compelling" than the deal proposed by Michael Dell and Silver Lake.

If the deal with Michael Dell and Silver Lake falls apart, they would be owed a $180 million breakup fee.

The flexibility of the two new bids appeals to Bill Nygren, manager of the Oakmark Fund and affiliates, which owns about 25 million shares of Dell stock.

"Given the wide range of estimated values for Dell shares, if all else is nearly equal, we believe a proposal is superior if it allows investors who want to remain invested in Dell the opportunity to do so," Nygren said.

Dell shareholders who choose to retain some of the company's stock will be assuming the risk that things could get even worse if the turnaround plan flops and the sales in the slumping PC market deteriorate even more.

Although Dell has expanded into business software, technology consulting services and storage products, about 70 percent of its revenue remains tied to PCs and peripheral products, estimated Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. That's one of the main reasons Dell's stock price had slipped below $10 before talk of a buyout began swirling earlier this year.

"What is going on now is quite good for Dell shareholders," Wu said. "It's a bit like a bailout."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dell-drama-takes-twist-2-buyout-bids-210317825--finance.html

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Android's LiveWallpaper, Scrolling Wallpaper on iOS

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Being aware of every alcohol fact can really help you to take alcohol ...

If you are an admirer of alcohol that enjoys to take a glass on various alcoholic beverages on a regular basis then being aware of each alcohol fact can definitely help you to take alcohol safely continue. There are several beliefs linked to alcohol and isolating them can guarantee that you continue to be in good health and frame of mind even as you love drinking your preferred alcohol take in.

Alcohol or ethanol is attained after ethanol fermentation is attained by using yeast to a brew mash containing water and a selection of grains, vegetables or fruits based in the final alcoholic beverage that requirements to be prepared. The final alcohol beverage will contain a small percentage of alcohol that is presented as proof levels and will surely affect your capacity to think and act, mainly if you consume in excess of your body???s threshold limit. Yet, you can really appreciate several fermented drinks such as beer and wine with your meals on a regular basis albeit in moderation.

All alcoholic drinks are prepared only after alcohol fermentation or ethanol fermentation is achieved. In case of fermented beverage creation methods executed by expert suppliers, the mash is first heated to specific temperatures to sanitize the mash before being cooled down to certain temperatures. This is achieved so as yeast that is put into use in fermentation can can function only as soon as the temperature is lowered. The fermentation and conditioning course of action could live through for a few days or even for a few months or years based on the type of alcohol beverage. Wines and whiskeys are at times left alone in casks for quite a few decades to get the unusual and desired alcohol body, aroma, acidity and taste that can result in rich earnings for the seller. Understanding each alcohol fact will help you to pick up the best fermented take for your money and also help you to take pleasure in your take in a safe and happy means.

The brewing procedure put into use by ethanol suppliers contain mashing the ingredients, boiling them before cooling them again, fermenting the wort or sugar mash with the help of brewer???s yeast, filtering them to remove any impurities and finally packaging them in attractive bottles, kegs, and cans. You can also make use of the same processes ideal at home if you plan to make your own alcohol consume at home. On the other hand, care will be needed as soon as you plan to convert your beer mash, brew mash, vodka mash, or any other sugar mash into alcohol, mainly whenever heating is involved.

You will also want to maintain proper pressure levels once you carbonate your alcohol base with carbon dioxide gas. Luckily, a few homebrew kits are now available even more than the internet that offer proper instructions as well when wet and dry extracts of malt, yeast, flavoring, and many others to ensure that you can quickly make your own fermented alcohol drink ideal at home full article. If you love taking in branded alcoholic drinks then checking proof levels stated on bottles makes good sense ?n order that you do not over-indulge in your desire to have a good time.

Taking in alcohol is an outstanding means to lessen stress and bond with other like-minded drinkers. Nonetheless, it is also critical to load yourself with the appropriate facts before drinking on any alcoholic drinks, particularly if you plan to opt for mixed alcohol drinks. each alcohol fact can lead you to better taking in habits when well when allow you to identify the best possible alcoholic beverage acceptable for your body and your palate.

Source: http://garywright.binhoster.com/being-aware-of-every-alcohol-fact-can-really-help-you-to-take-alcohol-safely/

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Jessica Upshaw Found Dead - Business Insider

Associated Press

Jessica Ushaw in 2008

Mississippi state lawmaker Jessica Upshaw?was found dead in a residence on Sunday with a bullet wound to her head, the Clarion Ledger reports, citing unnamed sources at the state capitol.

Upshaw, a 53-year-old Republican, was found in the home of former Mississippi State Rep. Clint Rotenberry, Simpson County Sheriff Kenneth Lewis told the Clarion Ledger.

Lewis told the Clarion Ledger Sunday afternoon that the case had been turned over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and that he didn't know whether her death was a suicide.

Later Sunday evening, Lewis told the Clarion Ledger that the bullet wound "appeared to be self-inflicted."

Upshaw, who was single, had been a Mississippi state representative since 2004. A lawyer by trade, she chaired the legislature's Natural Resources Committee.

Rotenberry was elected to the house in 1994 and lost a Republican runoff in 2007, according to the Clarion Ledger.

It's not clear why Upshaw was at Rotenberry's house. He hasn't been arrested, CBS News reported Sunday night.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/jessica-upshaw-found-dead-2013-3

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China Will Have 300 Million Android Users by the End of 2013 (INFOGRAPHIC)

Let?s start Monday morning with some big numbers. Now that smartphones account for 73.2 percent of all mobiles sold in China, and with many locals opting for Android devices across a variety of price-points, it?s not too big a surprise that China is an Android nation. As neatly outlined in this brand-new infographic, China had 224 million Android users at the end of last year (already three times larger than the number of US fandroids), and is on course for 300 million by the end of this year.

Thanks to the flexibility of Google?s Android OS, various research groups reckon that 86 percent of smartphones sold in China run Android, leaving Apple?s iOS to take much of what remains (12 percent).

Chinese devs dominate apps; Foreign studios make the top games

The Chinese startup behind this infographic is Wandoujia, the third-party Android app store that went global last summer with its SnapPea app for Android-to-desktop syncing. Using the analytical data from its hundreds of millions of individual Android app downloads, Wandoujia reveals an interesting dichotomy when it comes to the top apps and games that Chinese Android users enjoy. This is largely true on iOS as well . Essentially, it?s mostly Chinese developers that make the nation?s favorite apps, but foreign gaming studios create China?s most-tapped games.

Indeed, only 10 percent of Wandoujia?s top app downloads are from overseas developers, while 70 percent of the leading games are from outside China?s borders ? led by the ever-frantic Temple Run. Chinese giant Tencent makes four of the 10 smash-hit apps, with its WeChat messaging app rising fast to the top alongside Tencent?s old-skool QQ instant messenger app.

Good news for developers is that monetization on Android is finally getting better, especially on games. Here?s the full graphic:

For more fun graphics like this one, check out previous entries in our infographic series.

Report an error

About Steven Millward

Steven follows the shininess and brilliance of gadgets, social media and other cultural phenomena across Asia. Specialist areas of research include e-commerce, Android, smartphone adoption, and apps in general. He's currently based near Shanghai. If you have any tips or feedback, contact him via email, or on his Weibo or Twitter.

Source: http://www.techinasia.com/china-300-million-android-users-in-2013/

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Kerry warns Iraq on Iran flights to Syria

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq's behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner.

Speaking to reporters during a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in "a very spirited discussion" on the Iranian flights, which U.S. officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

Kerry said the plane shipments ? along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria ? were helping President Bashar Assad's regime cling to power by increasing their ability to strike at Syrian rebels and opposition figures demanding Assad's ouster.

"I made it very clear that for those of us who are engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down and to see a democratic process take hold ... anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after meeting separately with Maliki at his office. "And I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."

The overflights in Iraq have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq. Iraq and Iran claim the flights are carrying humanitarian goods, but American officials say they are confident that the planes are being used to arm the support the Assad regime. The administration is warning Iraq that unless action is taken, Iraq will be excluded from the international discussion about Syria's political future.

U.S. officials say that in the absence of a complete ban on flights, Washington would at least like the planes to land and be inspected in Iraq to ensure that they are carrying humanitarian supplies. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton secured a pledge from Iraq to inspect the flights last year, but since then only two aircraft have been checked by Iraqi authorities, according to U.S. officials.

One senior U.S. official traveling with Kerry said the sheer number of overflights, which occur "close to daily," along with shipments trucked to Syria from Iran through Iraq, was inconsistent with claims they are only carrying humanitarian supplies. The official said it was in Iraq's interest to prevent the situation in Syria from deteriorating further, particularly as there are fears that al-Qaida-linked extremists may gain a foothold in the country as the Assad regime falters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said there are clear links between al-Qaida linked extremists operating in Syria and militants who are also carrying out terrorist attacks in Iraqi territory with increasing regularity.

Kerry's comments in Baghdad come as U.S. lawmakers are calling for President Barack Obama to do more to stop the bloodshed in Syria, including possible airstrikes against Assad's aircraft fleet.

The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, said Sunday the U.S. should create a "safe zone" in northern Syria that would give the U.S. more leverage with opposition forces.

"This doesn't mean the 101st Airborne Division and ships" are deployed, Rogers told CBS' "Face the Nation." ''It means small groups with special capabilities reengaging the opposition so we can vet them, train them, equip them so they can be an effective fighting force."

Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., asked Obama in a letter to step up U.S. military efforts in the region, including destroying Assad's aircraft using precision airstrikes.

Kerry said Iraq's tacit approval of Iranian overflights left the American people wondering how an ally would undermine U.S. efforts, particularly after the enormous sacrifices made by the United States in liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule.

"There are members of Congress and people in America who increasingly are watching what Iraq is doing and wondering how it is that a partner in the efforts for democracy and a partner for whom Americans feel they have tried so hard to be helpful, how that country can be, in fact, doing something that makes it more difficult to achieve our common goals, the goal expressed by the prime minister with respect to Syria and President Assad," he said.

In addition to the overflights, Kerry said he had urged Maliki and other Iraqi officials to promote unity amid a spike in sectarian violence and called on them to ensure that upcoming provincial elections are free and fair. Kerry said the postponement of the polls in two provinces ? Anbar and Ninevah ? was unacceptable and should be reversed.

"We strongly urge the prime minister to take this issue to the cabinet and to see if it can be revisited, because we believe very strongly that everybody needs to vote simultaneously," he said.

In addition to his meeting with Maliki, Kerry saw Iraqi parliament speaker parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, whose faction is at odds with Maliki's Shiia. Kerry also spoke by phone with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil to encourage the Kurds not go ahead with unilateral actions ? especially involving oil, like a pipeline deal with Turkey.

Kerry arrived in Baghdad from Amman, where he had been accompanying President Barack Obama on his tour of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. His visit to Iraq is the first by a U.S. secretary of state since Clinton went in April 2009. During Obama's first term, the Iraq portfolio was largely delegated to Vice President Joe Biden as Obama wound down the war.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-warns-iraq-iran-flights-syria-132200384--politics.html

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Do The Job Right With These Home Improvement Tips ...

TIP! If your goal is to have an inviting home, then you need to realize what others see from outside. Begin by improving the appearance of your yard.

It may be difficult to know where you can begin if you?re thinking of doing home improvements, but this doesn?t need to be the case. As with anything that you need to learn, going over the basics will help you to plan your project more easily. You should keep reading to find out more about home improvement and how you can make your home more valuable.

TIP! A certain addition to your home can add style and class to it. Putting in a wine cellar with built-in shelving can work wonders.

Put a big mirror on a wall to make a small room appear larger. Even a small mirror will reflect light and give the illusion of deeper and larger spaces. To give an added effect, place the mirror opposite coordinated, yet different colored section of wall.

TIP! Use fans to cool your house in the summertime. Ceiling fans can circulate air in your room to keep it cooler.

Change your door hinge as a start to your home improvement projects. Find this component at any local hardware store. Follow the instructions to easily attach it to your door and the frame around it. Then, just line up the hinge pieces and place in the pins.

TIP! Make purchasing safety products a true priority before taking on your next home improvement task. You need some protective goggles, gloves, hard hat and some steel-toed boots.

When replacing outdoor lighting, think about including lights with motion detectors at strategic locations. This sort of light will turn on when motion is detected. This way, you don?t have to leave your outdoor lighting on all the time.

TIP! Tile can get worn down and begin to look old. Mix some water and vinegar to make a solution that will work for many floors.

If you?re planning a big home improvement project, such as putting in a pool or building new garage, make sure you have any and all necessary permits before you get to work. If you do not know which steps you should take before making major changes to your home such as structural changes, it is best to have a professional help you.

TIP! If you are planning to do a DIY plumbing home improvement project, don?t forget to turn the water off. Turning off the water when working around pipes is crucial for avoiding a large mess.

Although your naked eye may feel that your kitchen floor is level, you should always use a level anytime kitchen cabinets are being installed. Using the highest point of your kitchen floor, create a benchmark line that runs the distance the cabinets will run. This will help make sure they are level.

TIP! You want to get the best bang for your buck when getting into home improvement. You add a great deal of value to your home by turning attic space into a fully-equipped extra bedroom.

An asphalt driveway requires the homeowner to frequently inspect for cracks. Rapid repair is the best way to make sure your driveway lasts. Maintaining a clean driveway with no debris is essential.

TIP! Use empty baby food jars to organize your work area. Affix the jar lids to the bottom side of a shelf on your wall.

Planting a tree is a great home improvement. You?ll increase your home?s value by investing in attractive landscaping. That tree will eventually become a mature shade feature that appeals to prospective buyers. Trees correctly placed reduce cooling costs up to forty percent.

TIP! Sometimes home improvement projects on the inside of your home can be bothersome for you and others. Thus, you might want to consider restricting your work to times when you are alone in the house.

If you are considering a home improvement project, first clean every nook and cranny of your home. This will give you a better idea of where you must improve. You will also like how it feels to have a clean house.

TIP! Plastic baggies will help you keep painting equipment from getting dried out. Place all your brushes and rollers into bags when you decide to take a break.

Add value to your home and increase it?s curb appeal by adding a layer or two of glossy paint to the shutters and front door. A home with a light exterior siding color is complemented well with a darker color paint. Consider adding a lighter paint to shutters or doors when you have a dark exterior color to your home.

Move furnishings away from the walls to make the room appear bigger. This makes the room feel larger while giving it a more contemporary appearance.

TIP! Speak with neighbors regarding drainage prior to making any changes to your landscape. Good landscaping work requires thorough drainage plans.

Now you see that your home improvement projects do not need to be terribly cumbersome. The more that you know about home improvement, the easier it will be to complete a project successfully. Keep these tips in mind, and you should achieve your desired outcome.

Source: http://www.floorkitchenbath.com/do-the-job-right-with-these-home-improvement-tips-2/

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Pentagon ponders Gitmo overhaul amid growing detainee unrest

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

A U.S. Army guard stands ready in a "pod" inside the Camp 6 detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station Oct. 2, 2007 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Modeled on maximum security prisons in the United States, Camp 5 and Camp 6 allow easier observation of detainees with fewer guards.

By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

The Pentagon is considering plans for a $150 million overhaul of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- including building a new dining hall, hospital and barracks for the guards -- as part of an ambitious project recommended by the top general in charge of its operations, officials tell NBC News. ???

The proposed spending spree comes amid mounting signs of unrest among Guantanamo detainees that lawyers say is threatening their? lives. U.S. military officials confirmed Wednesday that the number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo has more than tripled in the last two weeks -- from 7 to 25 -- and that eight of them are being force fed through tubes. Defense lawyers said in a letter to Congress this week they have gotten reports that ?over two dozen men have lost consciousness.?

The most expensive prison that the U.S. maintains, Guantanamo Bay, may get a $150 million overhaul while remaining detainees engage in a hunger strike. NBC National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff reports.

U.S. military officials denied any lives were in danger but acknowledged that resistance and frustration among the detainees is growing, a development that a senior general said is because they are ?devastated? that President Barack Obama?s pledge to shut down the facility has not been fulfilled.

?They had great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed,? said Gen. John Kelly, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, when asked about the hunger strikes during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. ?They were devastated, apparently? when the president backed off -- at least their perception -- of closing the facility.

---

?He said nothing about it in his inauguration speech,? Kelly continued, referring to President Obama. ?He said nothing about it in his State of the Union speech. He has said nothing about it. He's not -- he's not restaffing the office that? looks at closing the facility.?

White House officials say they remain committed to closing Guantanamo but have been blocked from doing so by Congress, leading officials to close the small State Department office charged with finding new homes for the detainees. At the same time, Kelly ?- who took over as Southcom commander last year -- began laying the groundwork for a substantial overhaul of Guantanamo, testifying that many of the buildings there are ?falling apart.?

Brennan Linsley / AP file

A Guantanamo detainee, center, is escorted by U.S. military personnel on the grounds of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba, in this May 15, 2007, file photo reviewed by U.S. Department of Defense Official.

?Gitmo seems to be the one place they don?t care about spending money,? said David Remes, a defense lawyer who represents detainees, noting that the plans for the overhaul are moving forward even as the sequester is forcing costs and layoffs throughout the government.

?They will spare no expense to keep these men there rather than bring them to the United States.?

Guantanamo is already considered the country?s most expensive prison per capita by far, with an operating budget this year of nearly $177 million, which means that taxpayers are paying more than $1 million for the care and maintenance of the 166 detainees.

But Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told NBC News that Kelly has recommended substantial new spending that includes nearly $100 million slotted to build new barracks for the 848 guards stationed at the facility. The current guard barracks are plagued by mold, he said.

In addition, Flanders said, Kelly has signed off on construction projects that include:

- a new $12 million dining hall for the troops;

- a new $11.2 million hospital and medical units for the detainees;

- a $9.9 million ?legal meeting complex? where lawyers can meet their detainee clients;

- a $10.8 million ?communications network facility? to store data, including computer records and tapes of interrogations, which has been required by a federal court order.

All these projects have been signed off by Kelly in the last few months and been forwarded to the Pentagon, where they are being reviewed by budget officials in Secretary Chuck Hagel?s office, Flanders said.

At the same time, Flanders said, the operations budget for Guantanamo has already increased substantially this year with the construction of a $40 million fiber optic cable being built from south Florida to the facility in Cuba. The cable is needed to improve Internet access, thereby allowing officials to have improved live video feeds of the military commission proceedings of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

In his testimony, Kelly emphasized that the costs of running Guantanamo are substantially higher because of its remote location at a U.S. military base on the eastern tip of Cuba.

?Everything that?s built down there is at least twice as expensive,? said Kelly. ?So a ten-penny nail costs 20 cents. So, everything is more expensive. So we have to take care of the barracks. We have to replace the dining hall?It?s literally falling apart.

?And there?s other projects?none of them have to do with creature comforts for the detainees. They?re already living humanely and comfortably, acknowledging the fact they?re in jail.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/29cdd6a6/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C20A0C17390A2740Epentagon0Eponders0Egitmo0Eoverhaul0Eamid0Egrowing0Edetainee0Eunrest0Dlite/story01.htm

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Paul And Diane Honig Get Paid By The Electric Company, Thanks To Their 'Passive' House (PHOTOS)

Paul and Diane Honig aren't your typical homeowners. For one thing, their house is capable of generating more energy than the family consumes. Then there's the $400 paycheck they see every month as a result of selling their home's surplus energy to Connecticut Light & Power. It's no surprise that sustainable living is a huge money-saver in the long-term, but as this couple has learned, building the state's first certified "passive house" has also been a great source of income.

Features like thicker walls and multi-pane windows offer air-tight insulation and natural ventilation. Although Germany and Scandinavia have made advancements in these types of dwellings, American developers have begun paving the way for some of our own. Brooklyn's first passive home in Park Slope, for example, is a stunning three-story residence that meets the standard criteria for certification. Curbed recently featured a passive apartment building (with high-tech functions such as thermostatic controllers in each room) that's currently in construction in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The Honigs' two-story residence is the first of its kind in the state of Connecticut, and joins the ranks of only 100 others across the nation. But after learning about their amazing feats, we're hoping we'll see more of these energy-efficient structures popping up soon.

To learn more about the Honig family and how they found unexpected ways of making income from their home (they're reportedly receiving a $25,000 check), head over to Courant's article for the full story.

• Honig Residence

• Honig Residence

• Honig Residence

• Honig Residence (Interior View)

• Honig Residence (Interior View)

• Diane Honig (Interior View)

• Paul Honig (Interior View)

Have something to say? Check out HuffPost Home on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.

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Do you have a home story idea or tip? Email us at homesubmissions@huffingtonpost.com. (PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/paul-diane-honig-connecticut-passive-house_n_2900390.html

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George Heymont: The Devil Is In The Details

Just as some people believe that "size is everything," there are certain audiences who assume that the bigger and flashier the production placed before them, the greater its artistic value. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. Large-scale theatre and opera companies have been known to fill their stages with some whopping artistic turds that left audiences in a state of shock and awe.

Can great theatre be achieved without a multi-million dollar production? Without bombarding audiences with excruciating levels of amplification? Without famous actors? Without large casts wearing expensive costumes?

Yes, it can. For proof, there is no better place to go than Central Works, a tiny Berkeley theatre company that is now celebrating its 23rd season while maintaining some of the highest artistic standards in the Bay area. Having sung this company's praises on numerous occasions, there is always a concern that their "organic" approach to writing and producing a play might fail them. I'm happy to report that, like Cirque du Soleil, they continue to astonish and amaze me.

Poster art for The Grand Inquisitor

Central Works is currently reviving its 2005 production of The Grand Inquisitor with a sense of timeliness that is downright uncanny. When they first produced this play, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who had occupied the office formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition) was being elected to become Pope Benedict XVI. Shortly before this year's opening night, Pope Benedict announced that he would be relinquishing his title as the leader of the Roman Catholic church. News of his retirement was surrounded by lots of bad press and continued controversy over pedophilic priests and corruption in the Vatican.

Forget about trouble in River City. As so many have duly noted, "Exit Benedict."

Julian Lopez-Morrilas as the Grand Inquisitor
(Photo by: Jim Norrena)

Based on a parable in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's last novel (The Brothers Karamazov), The Grand Inquisitor offers audiences a remarkably insightful and riveting look at how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Written by Gary Graves and directed by Jan Zvaifler, the play is a tour de force for the actor (Julian Lopez-Morrilas) in the villainous title role. Set in Seville, Spain during the early 16th century, Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor suffers from paranoid delusions, a severely overinflated sense of self-righteousness, and is the antithesis of what the Catholic church claims to be.

In short, there are voodoo dolls with a greater sense of integrity.

During the course of the play, the Grand Inquisitor must interact with four radically different people (all of whom are portrayed by the talented Michael Gene Sullivan).

• As the play starts, the Grand Inquisitor reaches out to his servant, Pedro, after suffering some kind of seizure in the Secreto (a room in the Palace of the Inquisition). Pedro informs the Grand Inquisitor that "He" has been spotted in town and that word is spreading that "He" has cured a beggar woman of her blindness.
• When the woman is brought before him, the Grand Inquisitor cross examines her and accuses her of being a liar and a fraud. She readily admits to faking blindness in order to feed herself but also speaks of the mysterious "He" who has arrived in town.

Michael Gene Sullivan and Julian Lopez-Morrilas
in The Grand Inquisitor (Photo by: Jim Norrena)

• The Grand Inquisitor's chief torturer is next to enter his chambers.
• Finally, the mysterious man who everyone else has referred to (identified only as "The Other" in the program) enters the chamber and, while maintaining his silence, acts as a foil to the Grand Inquisitor's agitated and increasingly terrified state. Is "He" truly a man of no importance or is "He" Jesus Christ, returned to earth? Is "He" really Satan trying to subvert the Grand Inquisitor's authority or is "He" a feverish figment of the paranoid old man's imagination?

Michael Gene Sullivan and Julian Lopez-Morrilas
in The Grand Inquisitor (Photo by: Jim Norrena)

This Central Works production is a magnificent example of what I like to call "The Black Box Theatre of Minimalism." Not only does The Grand Inquisitor offer Bay area audiences two powerful performances in a tiny space that seats only 50 people, this production builds to a riveting dramatic confrontation that is the essence of politically relevant theatre. The writing is lean, mean, and brilliantly executed by Michael Gene Sullivan and Julian Lopez-Morrilas.

Kudos to Gary Graves (who also designed the hellish lighting) and Gregory Scharpen, whose sound design is, as always, electrifying. Midway through the performance, as I watched Julian Lopez-Morrilas writhing in agony on the floor, I leaned against a rail and stopped for a second to think that "Most people right now are sitting at home watching the Oscars. But I'm here at the Berkeley City Club with 40 other people enjoying a much better show!"

To read more of George Heymont go to My Cultural Landscape

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Follow George Heymont on Twitter: www.twitter.com/geoheymont

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-heymont/the-devil-is-in-the-detai_b_2912812.html

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Zimbabwe court denies bail to human rights lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) ? A Zimbabwe court refused Wednesday to free on bail the nation's top rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, on charges of obstructing justice after her arrest by police Sunday.

The court ordered her to be held in prison until her next court appearance on April 3, but lawyers said they will immediately appeal the ruling.

The ruling by Harare magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa was "shocking, disappointing and injudicious," said attorney Alec Muchadehama, member of Mtetwa's defense team.

"This is a serious assault on the legal profession in Zimbabwe. The magistrate was wrong and misdirected herself. We are not happy at all about the ruling," Muchadehama said.

A defiant Mtetwa waved at activists and legal colleagues as she was led from the courthouse.

The judgment marked a "sad day" for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, said Irene Petras, head of the independent Lawyers for Human Rights. "Despite what has happened, we need to carry on the fight for justice."

"It is a travesty of justice not founded on fact and law," said Abel Chikomo, head of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum.

The next step is to seek an urgent hearing at the High Court to overrule Gofa's decision, said the lawyers.

Mtetwa appeared at the court in the morning in green prison uniform after spending a third night in jail despite a judge's order to authorities to release her on Monday.

Her arrest, the day after a referendum vote on a new constitution that calls for stronger human rights, prompted an outcry from African and international law organizations. On Sunday, she was representing four officials of the Zimbabwe prime minister's party being searched by police on allegations of illegally collecting information on high level corruption.

The four officials, brought to court in leg irons, were also denied bail Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Mtetwa is a citizen of Swaziland and it is feared she might abscond before her next court appearance and she "might hinder further police investigations by causing commotion and shouting."

Police say that Mtetwa shouted at them during house searches Sunday. Mtetwa says that she merely told police that they were violating her clients' rights by carrying out illegal searches and refusing to produce valid search warrants.

Obstructing justice carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Mtetwa's prolonged period in jail is seen as a crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe. She has represented Tsvangirai and several of his top aides in past cases brought against them. She has also successfully defended journalists and human rights workers against prosecution by the Mugabe government. Mtetwa is the recipient of an array of awards from international jurists' groups including the American Bar Association.

The American Bar Association on Wednesday condemned Mtetwa's treatment in detention and called on Zimbabwean authorities to "cease further harassment of political opponents and their representatives exercising their rights under international law."

"The eyes of the international legal community are on the Zimbabwe government's flagrant and deplorable disrespect for the rule of law, the authority of the judiciary of Zimbabwe, and the government's unwarranted punishment of lawyers trying to protect the rights of Zimbabwe citizens," said Laurel Bellows, president of the American Bar Association.

Mtetwa is a "victim of arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention and must be released immediately," said Noel Kututwa, Amnesty International's southern Africa director. "It's staggering that while Zimbabwe is in the process of adopting a new constitution which provides a stronger bill of human rights, lawyers in the course of their lawful duty are being so blatantly harassed and intimidated."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-court-denies-bail-human-rights-lawyer-140604851.html

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Project Life on HSN - Whipperberry

Project Life // I used to be a CRAZY scrapbooker! I spent a fortune on all kinds of scrapbooking supplies and then subsequent storage containers for said supplies. I've spent?many a weekend with my house looking like a scrapbooking store exploded in my house. As much as I loved the creativity of documenting my families life this way, I started to feel bogged down by the process. As the styles changed, it became popular to have just one photo per 12?12 page. Holy smoke? it would take over an hour to work on one page and cost upwards of $10 per page some times. It was CRAZY!! Several years ago, it just became too much and? I quit. I gave away my fortune in supplies to a friend and turned my back on the art form. In turn, I have not documented my families milestones or day to day life since then. Sad, I know!?

I've been a Becky?Higgins fan for YEARS. I have all of her early books and have followed her career for sometime. Successful women have always intrigued me, and she has always been such an inspiration. Even with that, I was not ready to jump back on the scrapbooking bandwagon with her new adventure, Project Life. I didn't even look into the whole concept. The idea of a whole new scrapbooking system, made me break out in hives just thinking about it. Yea, I'm an all or nothing kind of girl. As thrilled as I was for Becky, I just couldn't jump on board. Then I started to see all of the fun projects cropping up on Instagram and Facebook. Everyone it seemed was using Project Life. Good friends of mine, Catherine from Design Editor and Rebecca from Simple as That? Busy ladies, were?making these super cute layouts and documenting all of their fun memories with Becky's?new system. Maybe, just maybe, I could tackle the years that have stacked up, unorganized with this system. Maybe, just maybe I could organize my families memories without heart palpitations, without spending a fortune on supplies, without taking over an entire room of my house with supplies, without alienating my husband with the mess and the time it took away from our family. Maybe I could DO THIS!

Right about the time I was ready to jump on the bandwagon, American Crafts contacted me to see if I would be will to review the new Blush Edition of Project Life. Little did they know I had just spent about a month preparing myself to enter the world of memory keeping once again. It was PERFECT timing. I had also just ordered some of my Instagram feed from Origrami and was SUPER excited to find that my prints would work perfect with the Project Life format. I set to work, and had a ball working on my family's memories stress free, mess free and super quick. Here is a video on how to use Project Life?

How fun is that? You can put as much time and effort into your book as you want. Here's?how my first few pages turned out?

You can play around with designs if you like. I did add a few little elements with stamps and some washi tape, but I'm going to leave it at that. There is really no need to make this a complicated process?

I had so much fun yesterday working on this project and I can't wait to continue catching up on my family history. You can too, with Project Life. There are some pretty cool things coming up for Becky and her crew this spring. One of those fun events is that Becky Higgins is bringing two of her Project Life kits to the Home Shopping Network on March 25th!! Both of the kits will be at a fabulous value price, so you don't want to miss out.?

Stay tuned to American Crafts and Becky Higgins this spring, there will be more amazing announcements that you won't want to miss!

This is a sponsored post by American Crafts

Source: http://whipperberry.com/2013/03/project-life-on-hsn.html

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Depression stems from miscommunication between brain cells

Mar. 18, 2013 ? A new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that depression results from a disturbance in the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. The study indicates a major shift in our understanding of how depression is caused and how it should be treated. Instead of focusing on the levels of hormone-like chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, the scientists found that the transmission of excitatory signals between cells becomes abnormal in depression.

The research, by senior author Scott M. Thompson, Ph.D., Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, was published online in the March 17 issue of Nature Neuroscience.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2005 and 2008, approximately one in 10 Americans were treated for depression, with women more than twice as likely as men to become depressed. The most common antidepressant medications, such as Prozac, Zoloft and Celexa, work by preventing brain cells from absorbing serotonin, resulting in an increase in its concentration in the brain. Unfortunately, these medications are effective in only about half of patients. Because elevation of serotonin makes some depressed patients feel better, it has been thought for over 50 years that the cause of depression must therefore be an insufficient level of serotonin. The new University of Maryland study challenges that long-standing explanation.

"Dr. Thompson's groundbreaking research could alter the field of psychiatric medicine, changing how we understand the crippling public health problem of depression and other mental illness," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Maryland and John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "This is the type of cutting-edge science that we strive toward at the University of Maryland, where discoveries made in the laboratory can impact the clinical practice of medicine."

Depression affects more than a quarter of all U.S. adults at some point in their lives, and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 it will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Depression is also the leading risk factor for suicide, which causes twice as many deaths as murder, and is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds.

The first major finding of the study was the discovery that serotonin has a previously unknown ability to strengthen the communication between brain cells. "Like speaking louder to your companion at a noisy cocktail party, serotonin amplifies excitatory interactions in brain regions important for emotional and cognitive function and apparently helps to make sure that crucial conversations between neurons get heard," says Dr. Thompson. "Then we asked, does this action of serotonin play any role in the therapeutic action of drugs like Prozac?"

To understand what might be wrong in the brains of patients with depression and how elevating serotonin might relieve their symptoms, the study team examined the brains of rats and mice that had been repeatedly exposed to various mildly stressful conditions, comparable to the types of psychological stressors that can trigger depression in people.

The researchers could tell that their animals became depressed because they lost their preference for things that are normally pleasurable. For example, normal animals given a choice of drinking plain water or sugar water strongly prefer the sugary solution. Study animals exposed to repeated stress, however, lost their preference for the sugar water, indicating that they no longer found it rewarding. This depression-like behavior strongly mimics one hallmark of human depression, called anhedonia, in which patients no longer feel rewarded by the pleasures of a nice meal or a good movie, the love of their friends and family, and countless other daily interactions.

A comparison of the activity of the animals' brain cells in normal and stressed rats revealed that stress had no effect on the levels of serotonin in the 'depressed' brains. Instead, it was the excitatory connections that responded to serotonin in strikingly different manner. These changes could be reversed by treating the stressed animals with antidepressants until their normal behavior was restored.

"In the depressed brain, serotonin appears to be trying hard to amplify that cocktail party conversation, but the message still doesn't get through," says Dr. Thompson. Using specially engineered mice created by collaborators at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the study also revealed that the ability of serotonin to strengthen excitatory connections was required for drugs like antidepressants to work.

Sustained enhancement of communication between brain cells is considered one of the major processes underlying memory and learning. The team's observations that excitatory brain cell function is altered in models of depression could explain why people with depression often have difficulty concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions. Additionally, the findings suggest that the search for new and better antidepressant compounds should be shifted from drugs that elevate serotonin to drugs that strengthen excitatory connections.

"Although more work is needed, we believe that a malfunction of excitatory connections is fundamental to the origins of depression and that restoring normal communication in the brain, something that serotonin apparently does in successfully treated patients, is critical to relieving the symptoms of this devastating disease," Dr. Thompson explains.

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Story Source:

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

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Xiang Cai, Angy J Kallarackal, Mark D Kvarta, Sasha Goluskin, Kaitlin Gaylor, Aileen M Bailey, Hey-Kyoung Lee, Richard L Huganir, Scott M Thompson. Local potentiation of excitatory synapses by serotonin and its alteration in rodent models of depression. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3355

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/MlKhuGoMTC4/130318105329.htm

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