Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Facebook Isn't Holding Back Their Growth: MessageMe Raises $1.9M And Grabs 1M Users

MessageMe logo (1)MessageMe, the multimedia messaging app that got smacked by Facebook last week, isn’t letting that hurdle set back their growth. The company said today that it has more than 1 million users, is sending 500 notifications now per second and recently picked up $1.9 million in funding from a large syndicate of some of the Valley’s best-known investors. They include True Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, SVAngel, Resolut.vc, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Social+Capital Partnership. The company’s angels also include Airbnb’s Brian Pokorny, Hiten Shah, Eric Wu and TinyCo CEO Suleman Ali. While the messaging space is incredibly competitive with apps from Facebook, Apple’s iMessages plus the big Asian clients like Tencent’s WeChat and NHN’s Line, MessageMe thinks it can carve out a space because of the way it quickly pulls in rich media like doodles and videos. Basically, they think it’s a lot more expressive than standard messaging and silly as it seems, those doodles will differentiate them from the very large field of competition. The app pulls in images from Google search, music from iTunes or videos from YouTube. Since launching, the company said it has sent more than 10 million doodles and more than 4 million songs from iTunes. Because of the team’s background from the social gaming world, they understand how to quickly and virally grow a product. CEO Arjun Sethi used to run an early social gaming company called LOLApps before it merged with a publisher 6Waves. MessageMe’s growth attracted a response from Facebook last week when the company decided to shut down the app’s access to the social graph. The company cited the part of its platform policy where it says apps can’t replicate core functionality of the Facebook product if they want access to the “Find Friends” feature. But now that they’ve got momentum, the question is whether users will stick over the long run, especially when there are so many other options. Not only is there standard messaging built into Android and iOS devices, there are plenty of other apps. Sequoia-backed WhatsApp has dominant market share in many European countries, while Kakao leads the way in South Korea and Line has pulled in more than 120 million users, largely in Japan. The latter two have become powerful and lucrative platforms for distributing mobile games.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CuuDk9BkrkI/

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month to Provide Knowledge ...

Considering the widespread prevalence of colorectal cancer after lung cancer, it has been decided to make March as the colorectal cancer awareness month.

If the statistics are looked upon, it is seen that 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and more than 50,000 people die from it.

The awareness campaign plans to highlight the importance of screening for the patients. Dr. Armando Lopez de Victoria, with Advanced Gastroenterology Associates on N. Butler, said that when the patients visit him there is nothing left for him to do. He is only left with the option to extend the life span of the person.

Shedding light on the symptoms of the cancer, Dr. Armando said, "Many of the symptoms of colorectal cancer are the same symptoms that everyone gets every now and then". He mentioned that this is the worst part of the disease.

Fleshing out the details of the symptoms, he said anal bleeding, diarrhea or constipation; stomach pain and inexplicable weight loss are allied to colorectal cancer. They are thought to be negligible problems and are not usually taken as something that can be linked to cancer.

Even genetic factors are responsible for the cancer. The campaign plans to create awareness on cure and symptoms of the disease.

Source: http://topnews.us/content/253923-colorectal-cancer-awareness-month-provide-knowledge

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For Biden chief of staff Bruce Reed, less is more

(AP) ? Understated. Self-effacing. Nonthreatening. Refreshingly old-fashioned.

Don't let these cool descriptors from friends and colleagues fool you: As the vice president's chief of staff, Bruce Reed plays Mr. Fix-It, guiding Joe Biden's role as a driving force behind the Obama administration's agenda.

With the White House wrestling Congress over gun control and tax-and-spending priorities, Reed's deep ties to the Oval Office and reputation for getting along with both parties make him a central character in some of Washington's biggest political battles.

Those who know Reed say his low-key style and consensus-oriented approach to deal-making are the keys to how he's managed time and again to bridge an ever-widening gap between Democrats and Republicans ? even when it rankles partisan Democrats who see concessions to the GOP as selling out.

"It gets characterized from an ideological perspective, meaning centrist vs. leftist. Bruce would probably see it more as, 'Are you a reformer and willing to make changes to accomplish the same goals?'" said Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who co-wrote a policy book with Reed after they served together in the Clinton administration.

It's a trait that meshes well with the pragmatic, do-what-you-can approach to governing of President Barack Obama's administration. Reed's former and current colleagues say his method is also in sync with Biden's freewheeling but driven personality.

Once considered a potential liability to Obama, Biden has evolved into a serious heavy hitter whose broad portfolio of issues is never far removed from the president's top priorities. It was Biden, not Obama, who finally cut the New Year's deal with the Senate that averted the so-called fiscal cliff. White House officials credit Reed, who turns 53 this month, with steering Biden away from political pitfalls, helping him gauge which battles to fight and just how far to push.

But Reed's influence extends far beyond the vice president's quarters and deep into the West Wing. He's considered a full-fledged member of the economic team, joining the treasury secretary and others when the National Economic Council meets. Last year, he was tapped by Obama's then-chief of staff, Bill Daley, to help coordinate the State of the Union address. When Biden negotiates with Republicans in Congress, Reed is often the only other person on the phone.

And when Obama's most senior advisers meet every morning at 7:40 to set the day's agenda, Reed is there. These mornings, it's Reed who keeps Obama's team up to date on one of the administration's top priorities: gun control.

When the president tasked Biden with crafting a series of proposals to respond to a scourge of mass shootings, the role of chief architect fell to Reed, who cut his teeth on gun issues as Clinton's domestic policy adviser. The ensuing proposal includes broadly supported measures like universal background checks, but also a controversial ban on assault weapons.

It quickly became clear the ban would face near-insurmountable obstacles in Congress. That led many to question whether the White House proposed the ban to placate those demanding tough action, but was ready to drop it if necessary to strike a deal. A Senate panel plans to vote on the ban Tuesday, though it has virtually no chance of passing the full Senate. While Biden and Obama say the ban deserves a vote, both have avoided describing it as a must-have.

"Nobody needed to tell me. I saw Bruce's fingerprints all over it," said former Clinton adviser William Galston, who met Reed in the late 1980s working on Al Gore's first presidential campaign. "Bruce is not afraid of the politics of aspiration, but he has a healthy awareness of the distinction between the best and the attainable. He will not counsel people to fall on their sword."

So far, there have been few outcries from the left over the prospect that the White House will abandon the assault-weapons ban ? perhaps because even many Democrats are on the fence and fear being cast as infringing on lawful gun ownership.

On other issues where Reed has sought consensus with Republicans, the backlash has sometimes been quite public.

Credited with coining the phrase "end welfare as we know it," Reed bore the wrath of liberals when he helped Clinton in 1996 secure a welfare overhaul ? negotiated with Republicans ? that ended some guarantees for poor Americans. A handful of Clinton officials resigned in protest.

Still, even those on the losing end of policy disagreements say Reed somehow manages to keep it from getting personal. Peter Edelman, one of the officials who resigned, said even when consensus proved elusive, Reed treated his adversaries with respect.

"In all the years I worked with him, I only saw him lose his temper once at me," said Paul Weinstein, an economist who has worked for Reed in various roles since the 1980s. The rare outburst came in 1992, near the end of Clinton's campaign, when Weinstein told Reed he needed to step away from the campaign to finish his Ph.D. "Bruce just lost it on me," Weinstein said. "When I tell people I saw him lose his temper, they practically fall over backwards because they don't believe it."

Democratic strategist Kiki McLean, who has known Reed for more than two decades, said his sense of humor is striking considering his unobtrusive manner. "Bruce is not the guy who will stand on the table and sing, but he is the guy who will lean over and whisper something so you have to hold your sides to keep from bursting out laughing," she said.

Raised in Coeur d'Alene, a small Idaho town near the Washington state border, Reed followed his mother, Mary Lou Reed, a Democrat and former Idaho state senator, into politics. He moved east for school, studying English at Princeton University before becoming a Rhodes Scholar and earning a master's degree at Oxford University. An avid baseball fan, Reed proposed to his wife, attorney Bonnie LePard, at a Pittsburgh Pirates game; they have two children.

He wrote speeches for then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., starting in 1985, then joined the Democratic Leadership Council, a now-defunct group that sought to push the Democratic Party toward the political center. He served for all eight years in the Clinton White House, where he was often the public face of the administration's policies on education, guns and welfare reform. Later, he ran the Simpson-Bowles commission, tasked with forging a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal.

That deal never made it to a vote in Congress, but Reed impressed lawmakers from both parties. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, a vocal critic of Obama, recalled how Reed would flesh out a lawmaker's idea, providing the analysis and figures needed to fully evaluate it.

"It happened again and again," Crapo said. "Even if it wasn't necessarily something he would support from his personal political perspective, he was very focused on helping the individual member."

It's been just over two years since Biden tapped Reed to be his chief of staff, and his cautious and meticulous manner often serves as a counterweight to the more verbose and unrehearsed Biden. In that short time, Biden has played a leading role in winding down the war in Iraq, negotiating a fiscal-cliff deal with Senate Republicans, nudging Obama toward an embrace of gay marriage and spearheading Obama's push on gun control.

Reed declined to be interviewed for this story. But Galston, the former Clinton adviser, said Reed values clarity of expression above almost all else.

"He edits documents the way a sculptor works with a block of marble: by subtraction," said Galston. "You get rid of what you don't want, and what's left is what you have in mind."

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-09-Biden's%20Mr%20Fix-It/id-fa61b0c07070417283e9f2459961f350

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Can honey badger's 58 million clicks save endangered species? Randall hopes so

Viral video

7 hours ago

Honey badger

Michal Cizek / AFP / Getty Images

A honey badger eats a mouse at Prague's Zoo in this July 13, 2007 file photo.

Elephants, giraffes, lions ? that's what tourists used to want to see when they visited South Africa. Recently, however, more are seeking a distinctly C-list beast, a tenacious but endangered predator. The old world mustelid everyone is asking for is ? the honey badger. The YouTube-inspired interest has safari guides scratching their heads.

Half a world away, Randall ? just "Randall" ? is thrilled. After all, he just single-handedly upended the ecotourism industry.

"That's cah-razy!" he exclaims upon hearing about his impact, sounding as you'd expect if you've caught one of the nearly 58 million YouTube viewings of "The Crazy Nastya** Honey Badger (original narration by 'Randall.')"

Before January 2011, when the video hit the Internet, you'd be hard-pressed to find any Americans who could ID a honey badger if it broke into the house and made off with their pet cobra. Now ? thanks to Randall's flamboyant (and foul-mouthed) narration dubbed over an obscure National Geographic segment ? millions are now hep to the "bada**" world of the honey badger. But honey badgerites are learning that all is not bada**, however. The real actual critter and its furry associates around the globe are in trouble, and they need help from fans.

"I'm on a mission to remind people we are not alone on this Earth," says Randall.

Of course, like "Gangnam Style" and other Internet sensations, you've just got to see the "Honey Badger" video to get it. (Here's a link and a spoiler alert: There are swear words!) You'll learn of the honey badger's long body and loose skin, and its desire to go "right into a house of bees to eat larvae." And you'll hear Randall's trademarked catchphrase ? "Honey badger don't care!" Randall's recitation of honey badger "fun facts" mixed with "Ew! Gross!" and other interjections are key to the video's charm.

(How can an animal so "nastya**" it shrugs off cobra bites be endangered? "These days because they love going to the house full of bees, a lot of bee keepers in Africa shoot them point blank in the head," says Randall.)

Randall cozies up with the only safe honey badger, a plushie honey badger, at South by Southwest in Austin.

NBC News

Randall cozies up with the only safe honey badger, a plush one, at South by Southwest in Austin.

Indeed, it was the dryness of the original honey badger voiceover that inspired him. "The narration was as dry as toast on a hot summer day in Austin," Randall said Monday, entertaining a packed room at South by Southwest in Austin.

"You actually react to what's happening," an audience member enthused. "You don't hear narrators being emotional."

Like the honey badger, Randall is an enigma. At 6-foot 4-inches, he towers over his adult fans at SXSW, embracing one after another as they swarm like giddy, giggling children. Wearing enormous sunglasses that once belonged to his grandmother, Randall finds it's his voice that usually identifies him. More than once he's ordered french fries at a drive through, only to encounter a pick-up window full of Carl's Jr. employees shouting, "Honey badger don't care!"

Meanwhile, the phenomenon is making inroads offline, including a reference by hardnosed coach Sue Sylvester on "Glee." Recently, a Manhattan lawyer was overheard shouting into his cellphone, "You know why they call me the honey badger?"

Randall's voice can be heard on commercials for products such as Wonderful Pistachios, and you can buy three different talking honey badger stuffed toys, one that's G-rated for the kids. A portion of the proceeds for the stuffed toys go to Animals Asia, an organization committed to rescuing bears. He's even got a book: "Honey Badger Don't Care: Randall's Guide to Crazy, Nastya** Animals."

(YouTube doesn't give Randall ? or National Geographic ? a dime of ad revenue generated by the many views on YouTube, by the way.)

Randall attends Why We STILL Love The Honey Badger

Getty Images North America

Randall attends Why We STILL Love The Honey Badger during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival in Austin Texas on March 11.

As an actor and a comedian, Randall wants to turn this honey badger thing into a career. But he's also happy to get the word out about animals. "It's education through comedy," Randall says. "I can't tell you how many kids are reaching out to me, 'Oh Randall I wish you were my science teacher.'"

That said, even science educators are thrilled with the honey badger.

A wildlife photographer in the audience shows off a gorgeous close-up of a honey badger she snapped in Botswana, and tells Randall about tour guides and scientists she works with, all thrilled with the honey badger's rising profile. Even Keith and Colleen Begg, the documentarians who shot the original honey badger video, rave about his impact.

"I'm just so happy I can do something to bring attention to these animals," Randall told NBC News. You can hear Randall's voice in a video introducing the honey badgers at the Naples Zoo in Florida, one of the few zoos in the United States you can see these animals. Randall even got the chance to play with a real honey badger. "Oh, he scratched me," Randall admitted. "But it was the thrill of my life."

The phenomenon is not without controversy, however. Someone in the SXSW hierarchy worried Randall might smuggle his endangered predator friend into central Texas for the conference. He was duly warned that this wasn't allowed.

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitterand/or Facebook.

Source: http://www.today.com/tech/can-honey-badgers-58-million-clicks-save-endangered-species-randall-1C8824839

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Explore The Beauty Of Miami With Luxury Car

By: Mark Claint If you are a tourist visiting Florida, you will be requiring a rented car for travelling around. If you want to spend your days more lavishly and in an exotic way, you can rent a luxury car to solve your purpose. It might cost you little more than renting a normal car but the level of satisfaction will be thousand times better. If you go to Miami which is the most popular tourist spot in Florida, renting a luxury car will not be a problem at all. If you are travelling to the very popular Miami Beach, Florida, you can find many car renting opportunities that will get you where you exactly need to go lavishly.

The best option available to those who cannot afford to buy a luxury car is to rent a luxury car from the rental agencies . Rental agencies rent out luxury vehicles to those who need them and also to those who cannot afford to buy luxury cars. Renting a car in Miami should be one of the easiest parts of your vacation. Most car rental agencies have multiple options to choose from that mostly suit your needs. If you are looking for something with plenty of space for the family or lots of luggage, there are plenty of SUV's and vans available as well. If you want to cruise the beach in style, you can also find a Miami luxury car rental. After you decide what type of car suit your desires the best, you should then decide what other options and services you need.

As exotic car rentals are growing in popularity, almost everybody is looking for renting a luxurious and exotic car during their vacation to popular places like Miami, Florida. This is due to the fact that antique and luxury cars are very expensive to buy and many of us can not afford to buy a brand new one. If you are looking for cars that you have always dreamt of owning, you might benefit from car rentals instead of buying a new one. With luxury car rentals your dreams are about to come true. Whether you are taking the car to impress a business client, your girlfriend or family or if you simply want to experience the passion of driving a car that was only available in your dreams, luxury car rentals can be at your service to fulfill your needs. You do not have to be a billionaire to be able to drive that car rather you need to contact the best luxury car rental agencies to make your dreams come true.


About the Author:
Venturarentacar.com is the provider of Car Rental Miami Florida services. Experience the affordable luxury with our red carpet services we offer to all of our clients. We deliver luxury cars at your doorsteps anywhere in South Beach, Miami Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando. Online bookings of Luxury Auto Rentals are available on the company website. www.venturarentacar.com today to find out more.

Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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LA expresses interest in hosting 2024 Olympics

Los Angeles wants back into the Olympics, throwing its hat into the ring to bring them back to southern California on the 40th anniversary of its last turn as host ? the 1984 Games that revived the flagging reputation of the brand.

The U.S. Olympic Committee received a letter from the host of the 1932 and 1984 Games, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressing "enthusiastic interest" in pursuing a bid for 2024.

The USOC is deciding whether to bid for the 2024 Games and recently sent a letter to 35 of America's largest cities to gauge interest. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said the federation has received a handful of responses and he is pleased with how the process is going.

He said he was "delighted" Los Angeles has expressed interest.

"Obviously, LA can handle the Games," Blackmun said Friday after the USOC's quarterly board meeting. "They've done a great job in the past."

The Los Angeles Games of 1984 were considered a triumph, coming at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union were trading boycotts, when the Games were largely viewed as money-losing propositions and when cities were reluctant to try for them; Tehran was the only other city that expressed any interest in hosting the 1984 Games.

But Los Angeles lost out to Chicago in the domestic bid process the USOC held to choose its 2016 candidate. That was a lengthy, costly, somewhat unwieldy affair that Blackmun said will not be repeated if the USOC decides to try for the 2024 Games.

"Chicago and Los Angeles spent significant sums in connection with the 2016 bid," Blackmun said. "New York City spent significant money in connection with the 2012 bid. This will be based on more informal discussions that help us choose a partner who we think gives us the best chance to bid."

Los Angeles would be vying to join London as the only three-time hosts.

Among those backing a Los Angeles bid include actor Tom Hanks, Walt Disney chair Robert Iger and Magic Johnson.

Leaders in Chicago, which spent around $10 million during the domestic bid process that eventually led to its last-place finish in the 2016 voting, have said they don't intend to try again. Two other iconic American cities, New York and San Francisco, would be new Olympic hosts, though Blackmun said the USOC doesn't have a predisposition on whether a first-time or multi-time host would be the best bidder.

"We want to look at whatever city is going to give us the best chance, whether or not it's hosted the Games before," Blackmun said.

The United States last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta. Salt Lake City hosted the last Winter Games in 2002.

Blackmun said there was no discussion at Friday's quarterly board meeting about a potential 2026 bid. The USOC has said it is weighing a Summer vs. Winter bid. Candidates for the 2024 Games must declare themselves by 2015, with the Games awarded in 2017. Blackmun said the USOC will decide in late 2014 whether to field a candidate for 2024.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-08-OLY-USOC-Meeting/id-278ea02b1c60467eb87600f0caa650c7

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Abu Qatada detained in Britain for breaching bail terms

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge sent radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada back to jail on Saturday for breaching his bail terms, two days before the government begins an appeal against a court decision blocking his deportation to Jordan.

Accused by the British authorities of posing a security risk and providing spiritual inspiration for one of the 9/11 hijackers, Qatada is wanted in his native Jordan to face terrorism charges.

Successive British governments have tried for years to get rid of the cleric, who has been in and out of jail since first being arrested in 2001. He has been living at a house in London under tight bail conditions including a 16-hour curfew.

He was arrested on Friday for breaching his bail terms, and on Saturday the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC)dealing with his case held an urgent telephone hearing into the matter.

After that hearing, Judge Stephen Irwin issued an order revoking Qatada's bail and ordering him to be detained first by London's Metropolitan Police and later at Belmarsh Prison.

The judge set a hearing for March 21 to further consider Qatada's bail.

The judge's order said that evidence suggested Qatada had breached bail conditions prohibiting him from allowing mobile phones to be switched on in his house while he is present and from allowing communications equipment such as re-writable CDs to be brought into his house.

In the latest of a series of legal blocks to the cleric's deportation, denounced by Home Secretary Theresa May, SIAC ruled in his favour in November last year. Qatada says a trial in Jordan might be skewed by evidence obtained using torture.

"I am pleased to say (Qatada) is now going to be re-detained following the hearing at SIAC this afternoon," May said during a speech to a political conference shortly after the judge's ruling, to cheers from the audience.

May's appeal against the November SIAC decision is scheduled to be heard in the Court of Appeal on Monday.

There was no connection between Qatada's arrest and the looming appeal. The Court of Appeal will consider the issue of whether Qatada would get a fair trial in Jordan, not the issue of his bail.

The Sun newspaper, which first reported news of Qatada's arrest, said counter-terrorism police had searched his north London home for 12 hours on Thursday.

A police spokesman said searches had taken place on Thursday "in connection with ongoing inquiries by the counter-terrorism command", adding that no hazardous materials had been recovered.

The cleric, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was once described by a Spanish judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe".

Britain says videos of his sermons influenced Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

Under a deal struck in 2005, Jordan has given Britain diplomatic assurances about his treatment and guarantees that court hearings would be fair.

Jordan convicted Qatada in his absence of encouraging militants there who planned bomb attacks in 1999 and 2000. Under the 2005 deal, however, he will have a retrial if he is eventually returned to Jordan.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/abu-qatada-arrested-britain-breaching-bail-terms-104631314.html

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Investing $30 million with the most important media company you ...

smosh.jpgThat may be pushing things, but Alloy Digital is where the Smosh guys hang their hats, and ... you mean you haven't heard of the Smosh guys? Well, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla are superstars within the alternative video universe: A single sketch about something as dopey as a staring contest can generate three or four million viewers (their channel ranks at or near the top of all YouTube channels). Forbes figures that Smosh-related revenue last year totaled $10 million (half from an advertising partnership with YouTube and the other half from its own merchandising). That's not huge money, but considering what these fellows produce it's downright goofy money. Anyway, Alloy Digital, which describes itself as a "next generation media company for the 12-34 demographic," acquired the Smosh content and this week comes word that venture firm ABS Capital is investing in Alloy Digital to the tune of $30 million. Forbes writer Dorothy Pomerantz says Hecox and Padilla were barely getting by selling T-shirts in their hometown of Sacramento when suddenly they won the lottery: Right format, right time.

"We were looking for content that we could help build into a franchise," says Alloy Chief Executive Matt Diamond. "We felt they were bigger than a few guys putting up videos every week." In 2011 Alloy bought Smosh for an undisclosed sum. The sale gave Hecox and Padilla the money and support they'll need to build Smosh into a media empire. The brand now has five channels, including Shut Up Cartoons, a YouTube-funded channel that features 16 cartoon series. Hecox and Padilla don't work on any of the shows directly, but they are all Smosh-approved. The channel has attracted only 754,000 subscribers, but YouTube is likely to renew it for a second year. (Shut Up Cartoon was the top subscriber gainer when it launched.) They've had better luck with Smosh Games, which launched in September. The channel features a crew of twentysomethings playing and reviewing videogames. Hecox and Padilla drop in twice a week. The channel is signing up an average 8,000 new subscribers per day.

Source: http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/03/_ian_hecox_and_antho_1.php

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Google and MPEG LA Announce Agreement Covering VP8 Video Format


March 8, 2013 - Denver, United States

Google Inc. and MPEG LA, LLC announced today that they have entered into agreements granting Google a license to techniques that may be essential to VP8 and earlier-generation VPx video compression technologies under patents owned by 11 patent holders. The agreements also grant Google the right to sublicense those techniques to any user of VP8, whether the VP8 implementation is by Google or another entity. It further provides for sublicensing those VP8 techniques in one next-generation VPx video codec. As a result of the agreements, MPEG LA will discontinue its effort to form a VP8 patent pool.

?This is a significant milestone in Google?s efforts to establish VP8 as a widely-deployed web video format,? said Allen Lo, Google?s deputy general counsel for patents. ?We appreciate MPEG LA?s cooperation in making this happen.?

?We are pleased for the opportunity to facilitate agreements with Google to make VP8 widely available to users,? said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn.

MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world?s leading independent provider of patent licenses offering wide access to important technologies. MPEG LA developed modern day patent pools. By assisting users with?implementation of their technology choices, MPEG LA offers licensing solutions that create opportunities for wide adoption and fuel innovation. MPEG LA?s original license for digital video compression helped produce the most widely employed standard in consumer electronics history. It has become the template for addressing patent thickets. Today MPEG LA manages licensing programs consisting of nearly 8000 patents in 74 countries with more than 160 licensors and 5600 licensees. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.

Google Inc.

Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google?s innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top Internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

CONTACTS : MPEG LA, LLC Tom O'Reilly, 303-200-1710 Fax: 301-986-8575 toreilly@mpegla.com or Google Inc. press@google.com

Source: Business Wire India

BusinessWireIndia

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Andhranewsnet-NewsFeatureUpdates/~3/0MjdU-tsf14/Google-MPEG-LA-Announce-Agreement-Covering-403.htm

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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Federal Student Loans In The United States

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The student loans in the united stated of America is much treated as financial aid than that of a loan. The total financial aid is provided, initiated and lent by the federal government. So, you can assume that these financial solutions are favorable in nature and at the same time, many students are availing the loans. The better terms and conditions, subsidized programs, facilitating interest rate, facilitating debt repayment plan and all other features are healthy for the students in all respect.

And that is the reason, many students avail the loan in order to compete their education. The best facilitating part of the scheme is that it lets student get finance in the total enrollment period. The federal student loans have got diversified schemes. As a borrower, you will have to pick a plan among three types of loan. The three types of loans are Stafford loan, PLUS loan and Perkins loan. Here you get to know the detailed information about the schemes.

  • Stafford loan: the Stafford loan is the financial solution which is lent to the graduate students only. In fact, students, who can apply for the schemes must have to pass class 12 and have to be a school graduate. The money scheme is designed for the college students who have passed school. So, you will have to apply for the loan for college education. There are both subsidized and unsubsidized program under the staffed bad credit loan program. If you are an economically self dependent person, you can avail the subsidized version of the financial solution. And if you are the one who is economically dependent on parents, you will get the unsubsidized one!
  • PLUS loan: the PLUS loans are designed in the ways so that parents can dig out the loan for their school going children. So, this is the loan for parents. But, the scheme is designed for the students who are undergraduates. And that is the reason, the parents can avail the scheme. Students are not allowed to get the loan. Even parents of the graduate students can not get the loan. So, you should go forward to get financed for your children if they are school going fellows. And this loan is availed by the parents of the students, there are no chances of getting it is not gets subsidized way. Also, the parents might need to go through credit check. But, if the student gets any federal scholarship, the student might avail a subsidized loan by his/her parents.
  • Perkins loan: The Perkins loans are the financial solutions which are lent to both the graduate and the undergraduate students. The dependent students will get the unsubsidized one and the independent students will avail the subsidized one. This is a no credit check financial solution. Students, who are not allowed to get the Stafford or PLUS no credit check loan, goes for the Perkins loan solution. In fact, this is the scheme which is designed for almost everyone.

Source: http://michiganangelfund.com/2013/03/08/federal-student-loans-in-the-united-states/

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Friday, March 8, 2013

Jobless claims slide, hinting at labor market pickup

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a pick-up in the labor market recovery.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, declining for a second straight week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The prior week's claims figure was revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to rise to 355,000.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, also fell 7,000 to 348,750 - the lowest level since March 2008 - pointing to some firming in underlying labor market conditions.

A Labor Department analyst said no states had been estimated and there were no special factors influencing the report.

The data has no bearing on February's employment report, due on Friday, as it falls outside the survey period.

According to a Reuters survey of economists, employers probably added 160,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, a small pick-up up from January's 157,000 count. That would just be enough to hold the jobless rate steady at 7.9 percent.

Economists say job gains of at least 250,000 per month over a sustained period are needed to significantly dent the ranks of the unemployed. Job growth averaged 200,000 in the last three months.

While layoffs have subsided, companies are not in a hurry to step up hiring as domestic demand remains lackluster.

Claims remain tucked in the low end of a 330,000 to 375,000 range for this year.

High unemployment prompted the Federal Reserve last year to launch an open-ended bond buying program. The U.S. central bank said it would keep up the program until there was a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market.

In testimony to Congress last week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled the central bank would press forward with plans to buy $85 billion in bonds per month.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 3,000 to 3.1 million in the week ended February 23. The four-week moving average of so-called continuing claims was the lowest since July 2008.

Meanwhile, nonfarm productivity fell at its fastest pace in four years in the fourth quarter, but the decline was likely to be temporary as economic growth is expected to pick up after stalling in late 2012.

Productivity fell at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the weakest pace since the fourth quarter of 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday. A month ago it estimated that productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, fell at a 2 percent pace.

It had increased at a 3.1 percent rate in the third quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the decline productivity to be revised to a 1.6 percent rate.

The drop largely reflects a surge in hiring while output continued to expand at a slower pace. The economy added about 600,000 jobs the fourth quarter, but gross domestic product only grew at a 0.1 percent rate.

Growth is expected to accelerate in the first quarter, although the pace is not expected to be above 2 percent as the economy adjusts to tighter fiscal policy.

Unit labor costs - a gauge of the labor-related cost for any given unit of output - rose at a 4.6 percent rate in the fourth quarter rather than 4.5 percent, the report showed.

Labor costs were up only 2.1 percent from a year-ago, underscoring the lack of wage-related inflation pressures in the economy and helping to keep the door open to further monetary easing by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/jobless-claims-slide-hinting-labor-market-pickup-1C8736227

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Edit your portraits to perfection with Facetune for iPhone

Facetune is a powerful photo editing app designed to help you edit your portrait photographs into perfection. Not only can you remove blemishes, smooth out skin, and enhance eyes, but you can also fix gray hair, fill in bald spots, defocus the background, and even reshape your subjects face.

In addition to being able to edit any photo stored on your iPhone, you can also choose from one of the three included head shots so that you can get some practice using the various tools. There's a blonde woman with a lot of freckles, a dark-haired man with a piercing and a few blemishes, and a dark-haired woman with a moderate amount of blemishes, parts of her hair look gray, and her teeth are a little yellow.

The tools included with Facetune include crop, whiten, smooth, details, reshape, patch, tones, red eye, defocus, and filters. Most of them work very similarly -- zoom and pan, then use your finger to paint on the effect.

The smoothing effect is designed to make skin look soft and is typically something that can be overdone. I'm happy to report that Facetune does a fabulous job of preserving detail when using Smooth. Skin looks noticeably better, yet natural, because you can still see pores and texture. There is also a tool called Smoother that I actually recommend you avoid unless you're going for a plastic look.

Pro tip: Avoid using the smooth tool on edges and creases on the face for the most natural results.

The Detail tool is essentially a sharpening too, and I recommend using it on eyes and perhaps lips and teeth.

One of the things that makes Facetune such a great editing app is that it has a patch tool instead of simply a spot-healing tool (both would be nice). When using the patch tool, you will be given two circles, and you can adjust their size by pinching and zooming. The circle that the arrow is pointing to needs to be placed over the area of the photo you want to change, perhaps a blemish. Then move the other circle to an area of the photo that would make a good replacement, like a clear area of skin. You can also use two finger to rotate the circle in case you need to match up a crease line or hair direction.

The patch tool is usually used for removing blemishes, but it can also be used to add hair, remove wrinkles, and more.

Pro tip: Use the patch tool before smoothing skin.

Sometimes patching up blemishes isn't enough, especially if your subject has a very bad case of acne and has red skin in those areas. That's where the Tones tool comes in handy. With this you can choose a color from your photo with the Picker or by holding down your finger, and paint that chosen color onto the photo. It will paint with a low opacity that you can be sure to layer it on in a way that looks natural. The Tones tool is also great for "removing" gray hair.

Another really awesome feature of Facetune is the Reshape tool. This is similar to Liquify in Photoshop, and when used with care, can help make someone look more flattering. For example, moving hairlines, creating smiles, raising cheekbones, and reshaping noses and chins are all things you can do with Reshape. If you choose to use it to make your subject skinnier, be aware of the background and how the Reshape tool may be making it look distorted. Use this tool with caution!

Pro-tip: Bringing in someones face just below their cheekbones will make the cheekbones appear higher. Lowering someone shoulders will make the neck longer and the person appear skinnier.

Facetune also includes a Defocus tool that is meant to be used to bring your background out of focus so that your subject pops better and it looks like you've used a higher quality lens to take the photo. Use this tool with caution, though, as it will not look natural on all photos.

Facetune also includes filters, but I'm quite honestly not really a fan of any of them besides the black-and-white ones. Though, if your white-balance was off, there a good chance you'll find a filter that'll improve the colors in your portrait. You'll also find filters to help with your lighting or add a little distortion, and frames.

Above is the before and after of one of the sample photos that I edited. I used the patch tool to remove all her blemishes, softened her skin, lightened up the dark spots under her eyes and nose, sharpened her eyes, whitened her teeth, reshaped her hairline, and darkened some of the highlights in her hair that looked gray. Noticed that I did everything in moderation to keep it looking natural. This is key when doing these types of edits.

Also, here's a before-and-after of a photo I edited of my daughter from when she had a serious case of baby acne.

Impressive! My biggest complaint is that there isn't an iPad version. Facetune on a Retina iPad would be incredible.

The good

  • Crop, whiten, smooth, details, reshape, patch, tones, red eye, and defocus tools
  • Skin detail is preserved when smoothing skin
  • Patch tool instead of spot-healing tool
  • Video tutorials for each tool
  • Easily compare with original photo
  • Export up to 8 megapixel images
  • Share to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, Tumbler, and Email

The bad

  • Can't choose to see where you've masked in an effect
  • Whiten, Smooth, Details, Tones, and Defocus don't have an undo button, only an eraser
  • No redo button
  • No iPad version

The bottom line

I am extremely impressed with Facetune. As a photographer, I go through similar techniques with Photoshop CS6 to edit newborn and family portraits, and Facetune has done a fantastic job at mimicking those tools. It's like a tiny Photoshop in your hands. And at just $1.99, it's way underpriced. Get it now.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/cYU796go9AE/story01.htm

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Bing's legacy clouded by emergency manager threat

FILE - In this May 5, 2009 file photo Dave Bing celebrates his mayoral victory after winning a special election in Detroit. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - In this May 5, 2009 file photo Dave Bing celebrates his mayoral victory after winning a special election in Detroit. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 1974 file photo, Detroit Pistons' Dave Bing (21) drives past Chicago Bulls' Norm Van Lier (2) during an NBA basketball game in Chicago. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/Fred H. Jewel, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2011 file photo Detroit Mayor Dave Bing tours the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, Daniel Mears, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2011 file photo Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, center left, sits with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing at a Michigan basketball game at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/Tony Ding, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2011 file photo, from left: Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano; Detroit Mayor Dave Bing; Dr. Jim Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College, and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel tour Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. The former NBA great, who transitioned smoothly to owner and founder of a steel supply company, became Mayor of Detroit in 2009. In basketball and business, he never side-stepped a challenge, but the overwhelming weight of Detroit?s financial problems and other troubles have convinced Bing to pass control of the city over to the state. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Charles V. Tines, File)

(AP) ? In basketball and in business, Dave Bing never side-stepped a challenge.

But the overwhelming weight of Detroit's financial problems and other troubles faced by the former manufacturing hub have convinced the former NBA great, steel supply company founder and first-term mayor that he may have to pass control of the city over to the state.

In doing do, Detroit would be in line to become the largest city in the country to fail and be taken over by state government. Bing grudgingly sees such a handoff as an extension of his service to the 700,000 Detroit residents looking to him for leadership.

"An emergency manager can't come in here and run this city without the help and support of teammates," Bing told The Associated Press in an interview this week. "I'll be a teammate. My executive staff will be a teammate. What we need to figure out is not fighting the person but how do we get along to make wins for the citizens in the city of Detroit."

The 69-year-old mayor has been swept up in the vortex of despair that has come to symbolize much of Detroit during the past few years. To some, the city's failings represent Bing's failure in his third career choice.

He spent a dozen Hall of Fame years as a high-scoring guard in the NBA, including nine individually successful seasons with the hometown Pistons. His Bing Group automotive supply and manufacturing companies provided hundreds of jobs in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

But "his legacy as a politician is not a very good one," said Adolph Mongo, a Detroit political analyst. "You can't run a city like you run a company. You need someone that's politically savvy enough to surround himself with CEOs who will allow him to navigate the political land mines."

Citing a $14 billion mountain of debt, $327 million budget deficit and other issues, a state-appointed review team submitted a report to last month to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder that the city was in a financial emergency with no good plan from Bing or Detroit's City Council to turn things around. Snyder agreed, setting in motion the possible appointment of a manager over the city's finances.

"I don't want to view that as a negative on the mayor or the City Council," Snyder told The AP. "They've had plans and I think their plans include a number of good things ... but they're not sufficient to solve this problem in my view because of the magnitude."

Under Michigan law, emergency managers have the power to develop financial plans, renegotiate labor contracts, revise and approve budgets to help control spending, sell off some city assets and suspend elected officials' salaries.

It's not clear what roles Bing and the City Council would have if a manager is appointed. A candidate has been picked, but Snyder is holding back on naming that person pending a challenge by the city.

The nine-member council has voted to challenge. A hearing is Tuesday in Lansing. The board will face that battle without Bing, who declined Wednesday to be a party to it.

"For me, I don't mind fighting, but I'm not stupid," he said. "If I know I'm going to get in a fight that I have no chance of winning, why in the hell should I get in that fight? I'm much better off walking away from that and fight another day."

But victories have been sparse for the Washington D.C. native in his adopted hometown.

After being taken No. 2 overall in the 1966 NBA draft, the slender and silky smooth 6-foot-3 guard had only two winning seasons in a Pistons uniform.

He did earn Rookie of the Year honors and two All-NBA first team selections. He was elected into the professional basketball Hall of Fame in 1990 and eventually named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.

In 1980, he founded Bing Steel in Detroit. The company grew into a small empire of steel and automotive supply operations surrounded by aging houses in the weary North End neighborhood.

It was from there that Bing watched as Detroit's economy stalled and all but collapsed. At the same time, once-popular Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick became entangled in a text-messaging sex scandal that would force his resignation and later send him to prison.

With no political experience and tons of business acumen, the man who twice averaged 27 points per game in the NBA won a special election in mid-2009 and a 4-year term later that year.

He took over a city in shambles.

Then as now, the deficit was more than $300 million. City Hall computer and record keeping systems were antiquated.

And people were fleeing. Between 2000 and 2010, a quarter-million residents moved away maybe to escape the economic meltdown and national mortgage collapse that hit Detroit as hard as anywhere. Surely some went in search of better schools or to escape the daily burglaries, carjackings, robberies and shootings plaguing city neighborhoods.

With them went a great deal of the tax base. General fund revenues dropped by more than $80 million between 2009-10 and 2011-12.

Bing may have been better off calling for an emergency manager from day one, said L. Brooks Patterson, the Republican executive for Oakland County, north of Detroit.

"He had to wait for the public to catch up," Patterson said. "The public didn't want to believe they were in trouble. The City Council still is in denial.

"I don't think there's been a mayor beset with more significant challenges in the United States. Just look at Detroit's finances. They didn't collapse over the last two years. They've been in a downward spiral for at least a decade, if not longer."

At some point, people will look back and acknowledge Bing as somebody who cared, said Karen Dumas, a communications strategist and former mayoral spokeswoman.

"You've got issues with the government structure and legacy problems that have plagued the city and maybe were swept under the rug that are now coming to the forefront," Dumas said. "He said we would all have to share the pain. That goes from the top to the bottom ... the unions, the administration, the City Council.

"People had conversations about making the changes, but not necessarily the willingness to make those changes."

Bing says previous elected leaders were "more concerned about re-election" than healing Detroit's ills.

"If you fix problems you're not going to be popular and you ain't going to get re-elected," he said. "I didn't come in here with my idea on making this a long-term third career. I knew what I was up against. I knew there were hard decisions that had to be made and I was committed to make the hard decisions."

Bing has yet to say if he will even seek re-election later this year.

"Dave never walked away from a challenge in his life. I don't think that's his style," said Patterson, adding that the city's trials under Bing's leadership "won't tarnish his basketball legacy."

"Not many people are in that league. That's secure," Patterson said. "I think people will look back on his four years as mayor and think he'll have some unfinished business."

Others think differently.

"When he hands over the keys," says Mongo, the political analyst, "he'll be remembered as a person who couldn't pull Detroit out of the big, black hole."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-08-Detroit%20Mayor-Legacy/id-82742460cad242eda01de55d969abac7

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Riots, revenge, rigging: Papal conclaves' murky past

Guido Montani / EPA, file

Cardinals are preparing for the conclave that will select Pope Benedict XVI's successor. Hopefully it will go smoother than some other conclaves from centuries past.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Vatican watchers say the conclave about to be held in Rome could be one of the most contentious in years ? but that's by modern standards.

Dust off the history books and go back a few hundred years and there are papal conclaves rife with international intrigue, royal rigging, even riots.


This conclave might last a couple weeks if the cardinals deadlock, but before the conclave process was instituted, papal elections could go on for months, even years. ?

The election that started in 1268 lasted nearly three years, ending only when the townspeople of Viterbo locked up the cardinals, tore the roof off their palace, fed them nothing but bread and water and threatened to do worse.

The pope they finally elected decided a repeat would be unwise and instituted what are now known as conclaves, with the electors kept behind closed doors until they make a decision.

That cut down on the length of the elections, but they could still be quite colorful. Here are some of the more memorable conclaves from centuries past:

Off with their hats!
For much of the 14th century, the papacy resided in France, until Pope Gregory XI decided to relocate to Rome. When he died in 1378, the mostly French cardinals repaired to the Lateran Palace to choose his replacement.

"Rioting broke out in the city," said John O'Malley, author of "A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present." "The Romans were afraid they might elect another French pope. They broke into the conclave."

The mob made it clear they meant business, said Frederic Baumgartner, author of "Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections." One of their slogans? "Give us a Roman pope or your heads will be as red as your hats!"

The cardinals met them halfway, picking a non-Roman but Italian archbishop whom they hoped would meekly return with them to Avignon.

Pope Urban VI "turned out to be a disaster," Baumgartner said. "He had a very violent temper."

His behavior was so strange that "the cardinals began to wonder if they had elected a sane person," O'Malley said. They hightailed it out of Rome, declared they had been bullied into picking the wrong guy, and elected a Frenchman, Clement VII.

Small problem: Urban didn't go quietly. He created a whole new set of cardinals and thus was born the Great Schism, which divided the church until the Council of Pisa in 1409. That's when the French and Roman cardinals elected a third pope to run the show.

Naturally, the other two didn't step down, so there was more than one pope for more than a decade, until one finally agreed to resign and another died.

Popes, politics and poison?
When Pope Paul III died in 1549, the rules of the conclave went out the window as King Henry II of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sought to control the outcome.

Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file

Pope Julius III was elected in 1550 after a conclave that featured bribery and rumors of poisoning.

"There was a great deal of skulduggery going on," Baumgartner said.

And not a lot of secrecy. Charles V boasted in a letter that he "will know when they urinate in this conclave," Baumgartner said.

Bribes were paid and there was even some insider trading: The cardinals' attendants supposedly cut deals with Roman bankers taking bets on who would be the next pope.

After a cardinal considered a top candidate fell deathly ill and withdrew, rumors that he had been poisoned spread. One witness reported the other cardinals were "terrified" and insisted only their own aides deliver meals, according to one account.

As the weeks dragged on, the situation got so out of control ?and the conclave halls so smelly ? that a reform committee was convened. A set of new rules ejected many outsiders, banned clandestine meetings and confined the cardinals to their cells at night.

Finally, after 72 days and 61 ballots, Pope Julius III was elected as a compromise candidate.

All in the family
The drama of the 1559 conclave began before the cardinals were sequestered. Pope Paul IV was a despised figure ? he had driven all the prostitutes out of Rome ? and when he died, all hell broke loose.

"Rioters in Rome attacked the palace of the Inquisition ... and toppled the statue of the pope that stood on the Capitol," Michael Walsh wrote in "The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections."

Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file

Pope Pius IV was elected after a four-month conclave in 1559 to replace Paul IV, who was so disliked that Rome rioters tore down his statue.

The conclave dragged on for four months. Among the stumbling blocks: One of the cardinals refused to vote for a strong candidate on the grounds that he had a son, Baumgartner said.

With no one running the papal state, chaos threatened to break out and "an immense amount of money was spent trying to keep order in the city, and the funds began to be exhausted," O'Malley said.

Finally, the cardinals coalesced around a compromise candidate, Pope Pius IV. He had fathered at least a couple of kids, but the cardinal who had objected to the previous candidate claimed not to know it, Baumgartner said.

"That's the last pope I know of who actually had children," he said.

Battle over the ballots
When the conclave of 1914 began, Europe was embroiled in World War I, but that wasn't the source of the tension that accompanied the election of Pope Benedict XV.

Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file

Pope Benedict XV was not happy when a Spanish cardinal suggested he might have broken the rules and voted for himself.

After four days, Benedict was chosen by the smallest possible margin, a precise two-thirds vote. The rules decreed that a cardinal could not vote for himself.

Spain's Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, who was secretary of state under the just-deceased Pius X, was apparently a stickler for the rules and he demanded the ballots be checked to make sure Benedict had not cast one for himself.

"Benedict was deeply offended," Baumgartner said.

But as the recount showed, he was the duly elected pontiff.

According to NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel, Benedict archly told Merry del Val:?"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," quoting Psalm 118.

"Then Benedict washed him right out of the Curia," Baumgartner said.

Related:

'Jesus Christ with an MBA'? Cardinals' differing hopes for next pope

Canadian contender for pope: 'Others could do it better'

Europe's most Catholic country seeks modern Pope?

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/07/17198052-riots-revenge-and-royal-rigging-a-history-of-controversial-conclaves?lite

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Facebook application developement from scratch using java

It has been long time that i am trying to develop my first facebook application using java through the help of java-facebook-api. But every time i am failing and not able to do it. When i am setting these thing in web.xml file

servlet-name = MainPageServlet <br> url-pattern = *.fckp 

it is saying

Error.An error occurred. Please try again later. API Error Code: 191 API Error Description: The specified URL is not owned by the application Error Message: redirect_uri is not owned by the application. 

And when i am replacing *.fckp with only slash ('/') it is giving the result that page is not found.

So anyone guide be the details process to create a simple application, development configuraion is my local system, where and how to deploy it after developement etc. Please guys help me to do this. I am so much interested in this.

you can send sample code in my mail also. sanitswain2008@gmail.com

Source: http://facebook.stackoverflow.com/questions/15245872/facebook-application-developement-from-scratch-using-java

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