Betable Aims To Disrupt Online Gambling Core Incumbents ...

February 28, 2013

Real-money online gambling enablers Betable will host Hackathon 2.0 in San Francisco starting Saturday April 27. Developers will compete to try to build the best possible game from scratch over the course of a single weekend. Amidst all the frantic coding, Betable will be holding workshops on casino game design, as well as providing a ?walkthrough & demo? of just how Betfair helps social gaming companies painlessly upgrade their operations to be able to offer real-money gambling. For the uninitiated, the UK-licensed Betable ? which may pursue additional licenses in France and Italy ? provides social gaming companies with a bolt-on backend that handles all financial transactions, sparing companies the necessity of being poked and prodded by a gambling regulator.

The Hackathon is subtitled ?Disrupt Gambling and Gaming.? Betable CEO Chris Griffin (pictured right) explained the sentiment behind this theme at the recent Casual Connect Europe in Hamburg. Griffin told delegates there was a huge opportunity to disrupt online gambling because the companies occupying this space aren?t games developers ?as we think of them.? Griffin believes online gambling companies have been too content to go on recycling century-old products off the gaming floor. VentureBeat quoted Griffin saying there was an enormous opportunity for social gaming companies to take ?money from the core incumbents,? provided your product was sufficiently engaging, inventive and (yes) disruptive.

Some of those incumbents believe Betable itself may be disrupted, especially if established companies like IGT, WMS and SHFL chose to launch patent cases against Betable?s social gaming companies. It may have been something those dinosaurs could let slide while these social gamers were still dealing in virtual credits, but once you start drinking their milkshake? In the immortal words of Cyndi Lauper: money changes everything.

Other observers believe the same pesky regulators from which Betable aims to protect its clients could be their undoing. As if on cue, Spanish financial paper Expansi?n reported that Spain?s Direcci?n General de Ordenaci?n del Juego (DGoJ) conducted a study that concluded one-fifth of the country?s social gamers were under the age of 16. Free-play social gaming is technically outside the Spanish gambling regulator?s mandate, but the DGoJ has apparently decided to monitor the sector with an idea toward possibly bringing social games under its regulatory heel. Similarly vague warnings of doing something about something were bandied about in the UK in January.

Following his Hamburg presentation, Griffin told GamblingCompliance he?d done his homework and was well prepared to deal with potential pitfalls. Griffin described the relationship between Betable and the social gaming companies it had teamed with in terms those ?core incumbents? would recognize. ?We?re the operator. The developers are basically just affiliates. It?s as if a blogger was sending traffic to Betfair.? Betable?s first big ?affiliate,? Big Fish Games, signed on last August. Since then, Big Fish CEO Paul Thelen told the New York Times his average revenue per player was over $20 per day, compared to 30 or 40 cents when the credits were purely virtual. Griffin claims about 2% of Big Fish social casino players had now played with real money, and 80% of these players had previously never spent money on social casino games. It?s this type of ?complementary? activity that Griffin says is ?what we?re excited about.?

Source: http://calvinayre.com/2013/02/28/business/betable-to-disrupt-online-gambling-core-incumbents/

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Michelle Obama Oscars Dress: Altered By Iranian TV!

Source:

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The Corsair : Photo department to lose mentor

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Source: http://www.thecorsaironline.com/arts-entertainment/2013/02/26/photo-department-to-lose-mentor/

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Google's Chromebook Ads Look Eerily Similar To ... - Business Insider

Google hoped for headlines this week over its Chromebook, a high-end laptop with a touch screen, which "takes on Apple" and?"aims for Apple's core."

What people aren't talking about is how incredibly similar the Chromebook's new introduction ad is to the kind of commercials Apple makes whenever it launches a new product.

Here's the new Google ad:

How is it similar to Apple?

Whenever Apple introduces new hardware, it makes an ad, which runs a couple of minutes, in which its product marketers and CMOs discuss the "seamless integration of hardware and software" (and other tech jargon):

Chrome uses product managers and the like to narrate its ad, which is only 75 seconds long, too:

Narrating Apple execs like to wear tee-shirts:

Narrating Google execs like to be casual and wear tee-shirts:

The Chromebook commercial's superlatives also resemble that of an Apple spot. The Chromebook is "delightful" and "delighting." A "wonderful experience" and "something amazing."

In an iPad mini ad, the device was described as "excited," "remarkable," "extraordinary," "beautiful," "amazing," and again, "truly extraordinary."

When casual tech geniuses aren't pictured gushing over the products in the commercials, the screen zooms to the device rotating in almost slow motion, to show its every angle.

And this isn't the first time Google took a page out of Apple's simplistic advertising strategy handbook.

A May 2012 spot by BBH spins the laptop in front of a white background (which Apple is known for), as a casual-sounding guy who likes to crack corny jokes (who sounds?just?like an Apple narrator) talks about the machine. The true icing on the cake is the bouncy, staccato, music.

Listen to this:

And then this:

?What do you think? Too much?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-chromebook-ads-look-eerily-similar-to-apples-old-commercials-2013-2

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Obama rejects plan for more say in spending cuts

Standing in front of a ships propeller, President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about automatic defense budget cuts, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Standing in front of a ships propeller, President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about automatic defense budget cuts, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Barack Obama speaks at Newport News Shipbuilding Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, as part of his public campaign to sway Congress to block automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to begin on March 1, in defense and domestic programs. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley) MAGS OUT

President Barack Obama speaks Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at Newport News Shipbuilding as part of his public campaign to sway Congress to block automatic spending cuts in defense and domestic programs that are scheduled to begin on March 1. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley) MAGS OUT

President Barack Obama speaks at Newport News Shipbuilding Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, as part of his public campaign to sway Congress to block automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to begin on March 1, in defense and domestic programs. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley) MAGS OUT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama brushed off a Republican plan Tuesday to give him flexibility to allocate $85 billion in looming spending cuts, wanting no part of a deal that would force him to choose between the bad and the terrible.

Three days out and no closer to any agreement, both parties sought to saddle the other with the blame for the painful ramification of the across-the-board cuts set to kick in Friday. Obama accused Republicans of steadfastly refusing to compromise, while the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, chided Obama's effort to "fan the flames of catastrophe."

McConnell and other top Republicans were lining up behind a plan that wouldn't replace the cuts but would give Obama's agency heads, such as incoming Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, greater discretion in distributing the cuts. The idea is that money could be transferred from lower-priority accounts to others that fund air traffic control or meat inspection.

But Obama, appearing at a Virginia shipbuilding site that he said would sit idle should the cuts go through, rejected the idea, saying there's no smart way to cut such a large chunk from the budget over just seven months ? the amount of time left in the fiscal year.

"You don't want to have to choose between, 'let's see, do I close funding for the disabled kid, or the poor kid? Do I close this Navy shipyard or some other one?'" Obama said. "You can't gloss over the pain and the impact it's going to have on the economy."

Giving the Obama administration more authority could take pressure off of Congress to address the sequester. But the White House is also keenly aware that it would give Republicans an opening to blame Obama, instead of themselves, for every unpopular cut he makes.

Not all Republicans were on board, either.

"We'll say, 'Mr. President, it is now up to you to find this $85 billion in savings,' and we'll say it's to make it easier for you, but every decision he'll make, we'll criticize," acknowledged Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in a CNN interview Monday.

The White House has warned the $85 billion in cuts could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. The cuts would slash domestic and defense spending, leading to forced unpaid days off for hundreds of thousands of workers.

The impact won't be immediate. Federal workers would be notified next week that they will have to take up to a day off every week without pay, but the furloughs won't start for a month due to notification requirements. That will give negotiators some breathing room to work on a deal.

Although Obama was to discuss the cuts among other topics Tuesday in a White House meeting with Graham and GOP Sen. John McCain, there were no indications that negotiations between Obama and congressional leaders were under way. Dampening hopes for a compromise was a key disagreement about whether new tax revenue, by way of closing loopholes and deductions, should be included in any deal, as Obama has insisted.

In the Republican-controlled House, Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said he'd already done his part, complaining that the House twice passed bills to replace the cuts with more targeted reductions.

"We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something," Boehner told reporters.

Senate Democrats have prepared a measure that would forestall the automatic cuts through the end of the year, replacing them with longer-term cuts to the Pentagon and cash payments to farmers, and by installing a minimum 30 percent tax rate on income exceeding $1 million. But that plan is virtually certain to be toppled by a GOP-led filibuster vote later this week.

Recharging his effort to lay out the stark consequences for letting the cuts take effect, Obama traveled Tuesday to eastern Virginia, where he warned that workers at the state's largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, would sit idle. He stood in front of a massive submarine propeller, with workmen and the few female employees watching up from the cavernous assembly floor and said the cuts would mean construction and repair of Navy ships would be delayed or canceled altogether.

"These cuts are wrong. They're not smart, they're not fair. They're a self-inflicted wound that doesn't have to happen," Obama said.

The highly staged visit earned him a harsh rebuke from Republicans, including Boehner, who claimed Obama was using U.S. troops as props in his campaign to scare Americans into raising taxes.

But Obama, grasping eagerly for the chance to portray his positions as having broad appeal, singled out for praise the few Republicans who say they're open to new revenues as part of a deal. At the top of his list was Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell, who traveled with the president on Air Force One to call attention to the need to find a way out of the cuts.

"I boarded the plane knowing that some would potentially misinterpret this," said Rigell, who both criticized Obama for not putting forward a detailed plan and criticized Republicans who say there's no room to raise revenue or that the sequester should go into effect. "Even if you hold the view that defense spending should come down, this is not the right way to do it."

Also on Tuesday came word of the first tangible impact of the looming budget cuts on the nation's security at home. To save costs, the Department of Homeland Security has started releasing illegal immigrants being held in immigration jails across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington and Nedra Pickler in Newport News, Va., contributed to this report.

___

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-26-Budget%20Battle/id-8a04322b441c4f06acf09735236928b9

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Little Boots Debuts New Song ?Motorway,? Announces Album - Idolator

Following the fairly quiet releases of Little Boots? songs ?Headphones? and ?Every Night I Say A Prayer? last year, the English electro-pop songstress is set to self-release (via her On Repeat Records imprint) Nocturnes on May 6 ? her official follow-up album to 2009 debut LP Hands. A press release touts the new material as ?a powerful record of irresistible hooks and stunning songwriting that celebrates 90s house, seventies disco and futuristic electronics while maintaining the magic of classic pop.? In other words, we?ll be salivating until this one comes along!

?Every Night I Say A Prayer,? last year?s retro house offering from Little Boots (real name: Victoria Hesketh), made the cut for Nocturnes, and the latest preview from the album, ?Motorway,? can be heard in the video clip below.

Little Boots ???Motorway?

Press materials note that production work on Nocturnes was done by DFA Records co-founder Tim Goldsworthy, while ?other key contributions? were made by Simian Mobile Disco?s James Ford and Hercules and Love Affair?s Andy Butler. We?re certainly digging what we?re hearing so far above, in all its shimmery, Sally Shapiro-esque glory.

Nocturnes tracklist

1. ?Motorway?
2. ?Confusion?
3. ?Broken Record?
4. ?Shake?
5. ?Beat Beat?
6. ?Every Night I Say A Prayer?
7. ?Crescendo?
8. ?Strangers?
9. ?All For You?
10. ?Satellite?

Source: http://idolator.com/7443439/little-boots-motorway-nocturnes-may-release

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Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340

The Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340 ($619.99 list) is a solid entry-level Windows 8-equipped laptop that belongs to Toshiba's value-oriented Satellite C series. Entry-level systems are all about trade-offs, so while it needs to ditch perks like a touch screen or a Blu-ray player, the Satellite C875-S7340 is nevertheless capable of delivering decent performance for daily tasks and even packs a few niceties, including a large display, full-size keyboard, and 6GB of RAM.For users on a budget, it's worth checking out.

Design and Features
Measuring 1.3 by 16.2 by 10.6 inches (HWD), the Satellite C875-S7340 isn't exactly a petite laptop, but its slim profile helps reduce unnecessary bulk. Moreover, its weight of 5.49 pounds is relatively light for its size. This can be attributed to its all-plastic chassis, which is decked out in what Toshiba dubs "Mercury Silver." Its glossy lid and textured palm rest make for an interesting visual contrast.

The black keyboard and touch pad, meanwhile, complement the silver finish. Rather than sporting the island-style keys that are currently en vogue, its raised keys abut one another in a manner reminiscent of older keyboards. While the absence of backlighting is forgivable at this price point, the same can't be said of the keyboard's shallow travel and noticeable flexing. Taken together, the effect makes for a less than ideal typing experience, especially if you need to type something longer than a quick email like, say, a term paper. On the plus side, though, the keyboard is offers plenty of real estate, so much so that it even includes a dedicated numeric keypad. The touchpad sports the same textured finish as the palm rest and supports the usual pinch, swipe, and rotate functions.

The Satellite C875-S7340's 17.3-inch LED backlit display has a maximum resolution of 1,600 by 900, making it capable of supporting 720P content. All said, the display is easy on the eyes, and its glossy coating lends itself to bright colors and crisp text. Speakers housed in a horizontal grille directly above the keyboard don't go too loud, making them adequate for one to two people in small room. If you plan on listening to dialogue closely in an area with some background noise, though, you're better off using headphones. The Satellite C875-S7340 features a tray-loading DVD burner.

The I/O port selection on the Satellite C875-S7340 is on par with what you'd expect at this price. Like the Acer Aspire V5-571-6891, it only has one USB 3.0 port, which can be found on the right side of the system alongside a USB 2.0 port, VGA and HDMI outputs, an Ethernet port, and headphone and microphone jacks. The left side, meanwhile, houses another USB 2.0 port next to the system's DVD burner, and a memory card reader is housed in the front of the system.

The Satellite C875-S7340's 640GB 5,400rpm hard drive offers ample storage space. It does, however, come with a sizable serving of preloaded software that you'll need to wade through. It ranges from useful (Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a full version of Origin) to delete-on-arrival bloatware (WildTangent Games, Microsoft Essentials, links to eBay and Netflix). There's also a large amount of proprietary software (Toshiba BookPlace, Toshiba Media Player, Toshiba Disc Creator, Toshiba Video Player, and so on) and trial software (30-day trial of Norton Online Backup and 60 days of Norton Internet Security). While this slew of included software is forgivable since it ultimately contributes to the Satellite C875-S7340's affordable price tag, be prepared to cordon off a block of time to shovel through everything if you prefer starting with a clean slate. The Satellite C875-S7340 is covered by a one-year limited warranty.

Performance

With its 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-3110M processor and 6GB RAM, the Satellite C875-S7340 churned out solid scores on our benchmark tests. Its PCMark 7 score of 2,503 points outperformed the rest of its class like the Asus U56E-BBL6 (2,255 points) and the Lenovo IdeaPad Z570-10249ZU (2,376 points). It couldn't beat the Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51 score of 3,013 points. Its processing speed was also apparent on our Cinebench R11.5 test, where its score of 2.41 points was on equal footing with the Toshiba Satellite P845-S4200 (2.41 points) while falling short of only the Asus U56E-BBL6 (2.68 points) and the Lenovo IdeaPad Z570-10249ZU (2.71 points).

The Satellite C875-S7340 displayed surprising agility in our multimedia tests. It completed our Handbrake video-encoding test in a brisk 1 minute 28 seconds, easily outpacing the Aspire V5-571-6891 (1:57) and, to a greater extent, the Asus VivoBook X202E-DH31T (2:15) and VivoBook S400CA-UH51 (3:00). Similarly, it breezed through our Photoshop CS6 test (5 minutes 47 seconds), nearly forty seconds faster than the VivoBook S400CA-UH51 (6:28) and almost two minutes quicker than the Aspire V5-571-6891 (8:43). The Satellite C875-S7340 also did fairly well on our 3DMark 11 benchmark tests (1,102 points in Entry-level settings and 204 points in Extreme settings), pulling ahead of the Asus S400CA-UH51 (1,101 and 187 points, respectively). All said, the Satellite C875-S7340 demonstrated a moderate capacity for media creation, so while you won't necessarily be able to make a living as a graphic designer, you can still tinker with Photoshop and convert movie files.

With its integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU, it didn't come as a surprise that the Satellite C875-S7340 was unable to produce a playable frame rate in our gaming tests. Accordingly, its performance in Aliens Vs. Predator (12fps with medium-quality settings in 1,366-by-768 resolution; 5fps with maximum-quality in 1,600-by-900 resolution) landed in the same ballpark as other systems toting the same GPU, like the Aspire V5-571-6891 (10fps and 6fps, respectively) and VivoBook S400CA-UH51 (10fps and 5fps, respectively). The same can be said of its performance in our Heaven benchmark tests (11fps with medium-quality settings in 1,366-by-768 resolution; 4fps with maximum-quality in 1,600-by-900 resolution).

Without a doubt, the Satellite C875-S7340's Achilles heel is its removable 48Whr battery, which lasted for only a paltry 2 hours 39 minutes on our battery rundown test. This came nowhere near the VivoBook X202E-DH31T (3:50), the Aspire V5-571-6891 (4:07), or the VivoBook S400CA-UH51 (4:18). Forget getting through an entire day of work on a single charge ? you'll be lucky to get through more than two episodes of Homeland. In other words, be sure no to stray too far from a power outlet if you plan on getting work done.

The Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340 is a solid entry-level laptop that gives budget-conscious users an opportunity to jump into Windows 8 without having to break the bank or settle for a bare-bones system. It goes beyond merely having the capability to perform day-to-day functions by letting users also dabble in media creation. Still, it's not nearly as good a value as the Acer Aspire V5-571-6891, which offers a similar feature set for over $100 less. Nor is it as future-proofed as the Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51, an entry-level ultrabook with a touch screen that only costs $80 more. That said, though, the Satellite C875-S7340 is still worth checking out thanks to its affordable price tag and ability to perform day-to-day functions as well as moderate media creation.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340 with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews:
??? Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340
??? Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
??? Dell XPS 10
??? Dell Latitude 10
??? MSI GT70 One-609US Dragon Edition
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/guli-7E0L2Y/0,2817,2415823,00.asp

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Hackers target visitors to NBC's site

NBC.com has been found to harbor the RedKit browser exploit kit, which can deliver malware to vulnerable computers.?

By Paul Wagenseil,?TechNewsDaily / February 22, 2013

Jane Krakowski and Jimmy Fallon in a Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show.

Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/AP

Enlarge

The main website for the NBC television network, NBC.com, was found yesterday to have been hacked so that it infected unsuspecting visitors.

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Specifically, it harbored the RedKit browser exploit kit, which triggers?drive-by downloads?of malware onto vulnerable computers.

The hack was one of a trio of security breaches yesterday, as the Aspen Institute think tank and the customer-support specialist Zendesk disclosed hacker intrusions into their networks.

NBC's problems arose when the head of Dutch security firm Fox-IT?tweeted his observations?about NBC.com, followed quickly by a posting on the?HitmanPro blog?run by the Dutch anti-virus firm SurfRight.

"There were two exploit links on the NBC website. The first one was on the main default (entry) page. And the second one was located on hxxp://www.nbc.com/assets/core/js/s_wrapper.js," said the HitmanPro blog. "It serves both Java (CVE-2013-0422) and PDF exploits. The exploit drops the Citadel Trojan, which is used for banking fraud and cyberespionage."

The?Java exploit?referred to, which affects Macs, Windows PCs and Linux boxes alike, was responsible for the recently announced hacks into Apple's, Facebook's and Twitter's employee networks.

[Why and How to Disable Java on Your Computer]

The HitmanPro posting noted that RedKit was also installing the ZeroAccess malware, which "moderates an affected user's Internet experience by modifying search results, and generates pay-per-click advertising revenue for its controllers," as well an unknown form of malware.

Stand-alone NBC TV network sites, such as those for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and one featuring "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's collection of vintage cars, were also said to be compromised.

An NBC spokeswoman?confirmed the hacks to Bloomberg News. All the affected sites were cleaned and back up Friday morning.

(The NBCNews.com website, with which TechNewsDaily has a professional relationship, was not affected.)

Copyright 2013?TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/C_kLgwhVtAw/Hackers-target-visitors-to-NBC-s-site

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Love Of Family & Home: Cleaning & Organizing Under The Kitchen ...

Hey Friends!

Have y'all had a good weekend?

The snow & ice that we got on Thursday, was pretty much melted the next day. Things have warmed up a bit & I'm starting to believe that spring is really just around the corner! Hopefully that is the last of our winter weather!

I wanted to drop in today, to share my project for this week's "Clean It" Challenge. Although this project isn't going to excite many of you, it was a project that was much needed in our kitchen! You see, even though our kitchen looks like this on the outside......

Things aren't quite so clean & pretty on the inside......

Exhibit A: Under The Kitchen Sink

Talk about "Keepin' It Real"....

This space was seriously A NIGHTMARE!!! As you can probably imagine, I couldn't ever find anything without digging for it. When I would start digging, things would start falling out. ?It was driving me batty & my husband wasn't thrilled about this so called disaster area under the sink either. Thankfully, this challenge gave me the motivation I needed to take control of this space!

The first thing I did was take EVERYTHING out!

Then I was left to sort through this mess.....
I got rid of the items we didn't need. I then sorted the rest into categories.

To brighten up the area & make things feel fresh & clean, I primed & painted the inside of the cabinet as well.

I picked up some inexpensive shelf liner at Walmart......
Once the paint was dry, I lined the bottom of the cabinet.....
This dark, dirty, dreadful area under the sink was already starting to feel clean & organized!! It's amazing what some small changes & can make!

Then I organized & put things back.....

I added an inexpensive paper towel holder to the inside of the cabinet door. And purchased a couple of Lazy Susan's to house all of my cleaning supplies. Not only does everything fit nice & neat, but I can easily reach my supplies with a simple turn.
Before, our washcloths & dish towels woud rest on the kitchen sink. Even folded nicely, it drove me crazy! So, I added some command hooks to the inside of my other cabinet door in order to be able to hang them instead.

I purchased an inexpensive wire shelf from Walmart to give me some more storage space without taking up room on the cabinet floor. It helped tremendously.?

I also bought some storage containers to house various items that I kept under the sink. Each container holds specific items so that they are easy to find. The storage containers fit perfectly on the new wire shelf.

And just so you can have a true appreciation for this project, let's take one more look at the "Before".....

And the "After"......

Much better, right?!

Can you spot the other change that I made?

I decided to paint the inside of the cabinet doors a beige color just for fun! I used some paint I already had on hand, so it didn't cost me anything & I kind like how it coordinates with the shelf liner on the bottom of the cabinet.

Well, what do you think?!

Do you struggle with keeping the area under your kitchen sink organized?

Is there anyone else out there who has a pretty kitchen on the outside, but not so much on the inside?!

I would be lying if I told you that the rest of my kitchen cabinets were cleaned & organized. They are all pretty much a disaster! BUT, my goal is to change all that before this year is up! I'm gonna SLOWLY tackle each one of them until they are all as clean & organized as my cabinet under the sink!

To read about our kitchen makeover click HERE.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for our "Clean It" Linky Party!! Come share your cleaning and/or organizing projects with us & be inspired by others!!

We can't wait to see what you've been working on!!

If you link up on just?ONE?of our blogs, your project will be see on all?NINE?sites!! So, get those projects completed & get your posts ready!!

If you don't have a blog, I would still?LOVE?for you to join in!! Share a picture of your project with me on my?Facebook Page! I will be sharing some of my favorites over the course of the week!

I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday!!

Source: http://www.loveoffamilyandhome.net/2013/02/organizing-under-the-kitchen-sink.html

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Pale blush, greys and metallic sparkle grace Oscars red carpet

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ethereal, strapless silhouettes and wavy tresses gave the Oscars red carpet a patina of old Hollywood glamour on Sunday as the year's top actresses and presenters led the way in blush, grey and black sequined gowns.

"Silver Linings Playbook" Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence, 22, wowed critics with her off-white Christian Dior Couture strapless gown with a full-tiered skirt and a long necklace dropping down her back.

The actress, who is the face of Christian Dior's Miss Dior brand and has been wearing the designer to the awards leading up to the Oscars, said it was the only dress she tried on for the event.

Fellow Dior brand ambassador Charlize Theron wore a white strapless couture gown from the French fashion house.

Halterneck column gowns were a popular trend on the red carpet as stars opted for a long and lean silhouette this year.

"Les Miserables" star and Best Supporting Actress nominee Anne Hathaway split critics with her blush pink Prada halterneck satin strapless gown with a daring low back. In an interview on the red carpet Hathaway quipped, "it's business in the front and party in the back."

Her co-star Amanda Seyfried opted for a pale grey and lilac embroidered Alexander McQueen halterneck dress, while "Twilight" actress and Oscar presenter Kristen Stewart wore a blush halterneck Reem Acra dress.

Blush and nude hues were a hot trend on the runways for spring. "The Master" supporting actress nominee Amy Adams stunned crowds in a strapless pale grey full-skirted tulle Oscar de la Renta gown, while last year's supporting actress winner Octavia Spencer wore a blush Tadashi Shoji number.

Contrasting the off-white gowns were the actresses picking gold, gunmetal greys and bright colors that stood out on the red carpet at Hollywood's Dolby Theater.

Jessica Chastain, nominated for Best Actress for "Zero Dark Thirty," channeled golden-age Hollywood glamour with a deep gold sequined Armani Prive strapless dress, accessorizing with soft side waves in her auburn hair.

"There were no misses this year, everyone had very good taste," said Avril Graham, executive fashion and beauty editor at Harper's Bazaar.

"Anne Hathaway had a shade of Audrey Hepburn in her pastel Prada and Jessica Chastain was a superstar red carpet hit in her gold sleek shimmering Armani," she added.

H&M GETS OSCAR MOMENT

Naomi Watts, Best Actress nominee for "The Impossible," wore a gunmetal sequined one-shouldered Giorgio Armani gown while Zoe Saldana's white strapless bustier Alexis Mabille dress was offset by grey underlays peeking out.

Metallic sparkle was the pick for Catherine Zeta Jones, in a gold sequined Zuhair Murad gown, Nicole Kidman in a black sequined fitted L'Wren Scott dress and Halle Berry in a strong-shouldered silver and black striped Versace fitted gown.

Quvenzhane Wallis, the 9-year-old actress competing with Best Actress nominees Lawrence, Watts, Chastain and Emmanuelle Riva, accessorized her navy sparkling Armani gown with a fluffy puppy purse.

"The Sessions" Supporting Actress nominee Helen Hunt shunned high-end designers to wear retail brand H&M in a navy blue strapless gown, stunning fashionistas with her choice.

"Lincoln" Supporting Actress nominee Sally Field added color to the red carpet in a full-sleeved vibrant red Valentino dress.

Reese Witherspoon stood out in a strapless cobalt blue Louis Vuitton gown, "Django Unchained" star Kerry Washington wowed critics with her coral and blush Miu Miu dress and Jennifer Garner, holding husband Ben Affleck's hand, wore an eggplant purple strapless flowing Gucci gown.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pale-blush-greys-metallic-sparkle-grace-oscars-red-022816916.html

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Iran selects 16 sites for new nuclear plants

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran has selected 16 locations for the construction of nuclear power plants as part of a plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity at multiple sites over the next 15 years.

State TV says Saturday that experts at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have finished studies to select the best locations across the country. It added that sites were chosen in part for their resistance to earthquakes and military air strikes.

The Islamic republic says it needs 20 large-scale plants to meet its growing electricity needs over the next one-and-a-half decades.

State TV also says that Iran has discovered new uranium resources in the country that will put its reserves at 4,400 tons compared to 1,527 tons three decades ago.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-selects-16-sites-nuclear-plants-102727042.html

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Micah Richards' live tweeting during Manchester City's FA Cup game with Leeds sparks a viral wave on his Facebook page says Digital Sports Group

(PRWEB UK) 23 February 2013

Digital Sports Group head of operations Matthew Tait believes that the Manchester City stars tweeting against Leeds saw Micah Richards' Facebook page increase dramatically with the total weekly reach increasing by over 20%.

The Facebook page has become a thriving hub for the Manchester City defender since its launch and is becoming more and more popular with each week that passes, with a rapidly growing community of fans keen to hear all the latest news on their favourite player.

The official PFA Facebook page along with Micah Richards player profile on football.co.uk provide the only online location of the official PFA biography, lifetime stats, news and high resolution gallery.

Manchester City cruised through to the last eight of the FA Cup with a classy display as they registered a comfortable 4-0 victory over Leeds United at the Etihad Stadium. With goals from Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez, City bounced back from dissapointing Premier League displays to book themselves a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Head of Operations at DSG, Matthew Tait had this to say ?Micah Richards really has no shortage of fans after his performances for Manchester City this season and we can see that by the success of his PFA Facebook page.?

?All of us here at Digital Sports Group are proud we've had the opportunity to work with The PFA to give the fans a fantastic and unique fan resource for Micah.?

DSG became the official digital partner of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) earlier this year and have since launched a number of Player profile fan pages on social media site Facebook as well as providing official player pages on their football news site football.co.uk.

Source: http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10454976.htm

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N.Y. man who died on way to late wife's memorial buried beside her

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An upstate New York man who died on the way to his late wife's wake was buried in a plot beside her on Wednesday, after a dual funeral service that capped a 66-year marriage, their daughter said on Thursday.

Norman Hendrickson, 94, a retired assistant postmaster in an Albany suburb, stopped breathing in the limousine on the way to a wake on Saturday for his late wife Gwen, who died earlier this month after suffering for years from Parkinson's Disease, daughter Norma said.

Funeral home staffers laid Hendrickson in a casket and placed him beside an urn containing his wife's remains in a viewing room, while daughter Merrilyne posted a light-hearted sign for arriving mourners:

"Surprise - it's a Double-Header - Norman and Gwen Hendrickson - February 16, 2013."

Norma Hendrickson said her parents were buried side by side in the same plot on Wednesday, along with some of the ashes of their late son, who died in 2008, and a watercolour painting her sister Merrilyne had made for them.

Funeral director Elizabeth Nichols-Ross, a family friend, said the couple laughed a lot and would have enjoyed the irony of the situation - especially Norman, who loved jokes.

"I don't blush easily, but he told ones that made you blush," she said.

She joked with the family that their father, who was known to be thrifty, would have loved to save the costs of a second funeral, so she didn't charge the family for two services.

Mourners took the surprise in stride, Nichols-Ross said.

"Oh, that doesn't surprise me," she quoted one mourner as saying. "He wanted to be with Gwen.'"

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/n-y-man-died-way-wifes-memorial-buried-161731734.html

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THE HILL: Pro-Obama group pushes president?s gun control agenda?.

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Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/163837/

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MLB At Bat 2013 app warms up for spring training, starts pitching in BB10's bullpen

For some, the change of the season is marked not by calendars or climate changes, but by the beat of sports fandom. Rest easy, baseball fans: spring is finally here. Naturally, Major League Baseball is heralding in the weather by updating its MLB At Bat app for 2013 spring training, touting new features for Android and iOS users alike. The apps updated team pages, retooled navigation and classic games library are universally available to both Android and iOS users, but the iPhone will score an enhanced and searchable video library and an exclusive home screen customization feature. MLB promises to pipe in more functionality before the season opens, however -- including mobile access for BlackBerry 10 users. What hasn't changed? The price, of course: Android subscribers will need to pony up $20 for the year, while iOS retains its $3 monthly subscription plan. Of course, MLB.tv Premium subscribers get full access, gratis. Slide past the break for the official press release.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: MLB

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/22/mlb-at-bat-2013-app-warms-up-for-spring-training/

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A misleading chart on ?welfare? spending (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/286356256?client_source=feed&format=rss

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What Businesses Should Know About Social Media Hacking | Adcap ...

Social Media is very powerful, and has the ability to hurt a business quickly. It has the ability to help a business as well, and that takes a longer time.

A Social media presence is that people trust recommendations and reviews by others more than they trust advertising. So there is an upside to participating in social media, and a very big downside to not being involved.

At the basic level, reviews on Google Maps or local directories like Yelp are very influential ? how you use them. Next, when people are looking for a product or service, they often turn to Google to find out who does a good job. So showing up on a Google search is important as well. That is usually a conversation relating to Search Engine optimization and Internet Marketing, and is similar yet different from social media. The important thing to know about directories is that the reviews on them can be negative and cause a drop in business without people knowing why. So it is important to make sure your information is correct on the directories, and it is probably helpful to have some kind of contest or incentive to have your customers give you a good review.

Twitter is the most visible and influential in many cases because of its immediate nature and huge reachability. With social media accounts like Facebook and LinkedIn, most of the posting are limited to friends, groups that you belong to, or organizations you have Liked.

Twitter is completely different. If you have a twitter account, anyone can see what you say, and can see your entire history of posts, unless you delete them. You can search all of twitter for a word or phrase, and find people that talk about it. I use twitter to follow my customers, vendors, and competitors. Much of what people put out on twitter is inane chatter, but some of it is very interesting. It is like having your own private news clipping service of people providing you relevant and important information.

Then there is the element of twitter called a hashtag. You can take any word or combination of words, put a pound sign (#) in front of it, and it becomes a subject. Anyone on twitter who wants to post about that subject just has to include the appropriate hashtag, and other people set up searches so they can see what others say about it.

During the Burger King hack, people could see what was being said by either subscribing to the Burger King account, which had been changed to @McDonalds, or searching the hashtag the hacking group was using, which was #OpMadCow. Yes it got a lot of attention, but it was an obvious hack.

What can be worse is a company trying to be edgy on twitter and instead offending people. That?s happened a few times. Obviously executives at companies cringe in hearing about such stories. It can make them want to stay away from twitter and not give their social media marketing person the ability to make tweets, or just make boring ones. Or not respond quickly.

Any of those are a mistake. People don?t want to subscribe to boring and impersonal twitter accounts. Twitter is all about surfing on current events in a positive way, getting information out to potential customers through a trusted channel, and responding to potential negative publicity quickly and effectively.

A single disgruntled customer can make a big presence on twitter about customer service issues by companies. The longer it takes to respond the worse it can be.

But any PR can be made into positive. Burger King now has a lot more twitter followers. It is kind of an amusing story because it is something that people can see happening to others. And no harm was caused. So, even though it appears to have turned out OK for Burger King, what should companies do to prevent being hacked like this in the future?

First, a twitter account gets hacked by someone either getting the password or resetting the password of the account. So somewhere the hackers must have gotten a hold of the password. This is typically done in a few different ways.

The first and most common is the Social Hack. This is where someone finds out who knows the password then calls them, impersonates someone, and demands the password. The hacker can pose as a member of IT, or an executive, or anyone the person who knows the password would give it up to.

The first rule is don?t ever give out the password when asked by someone you don?t actually know. IT should not ask for the password, and if they do, tell them you need to see them in person, or they need to reset the password themselves, and tell you the new password.

The next most common if getting hacked by a botnet. This is where your computer is infected by going to a website that puts a hacking program on your computer. Your computer becomes part of a large network of infected computers, or a botnet, and the controller of the botnet can typically find out what you are doing on your computer. The botnet hacking program will typically scan for interesting information like usernames, passwords, personal information, and credit card numbers, and send those on.

The best way to protect against a botnet hack is to have a multilayered defense. A basic antivirus program on the computer. More important is to have ?a next generation firewall that scans all internet traffic for specific patterns like botnet traffic, and also prevents people from going to infected websites with a good web filter. Most people already have spam and email virus filters.

Another way to hack people is a very targeted email. This could be an email that looks like it comes from a big company, and it has a clickable link on it for you to go enter your information, including user name and password. Beware! Some of the ones that work well appear to people?s desire to get something for nothing, so they click the link and enter the information.

It is always safer to go to the website yourself on the browser, using a bookmark or a web search, than to click on an email link.

There are other things that can be done regarding password policy ? making the password somewhat complicated, or a longer phrase with numbers in it, changing it a couple times a year, and not using just one master life password on every account. In fact, I like to use a password management program, so I only have to type one master password, and all the others get remembered. Unless someone has access to that specific application and master password, they can?t hack all my accounts.

Then to be even more secure, there are things like two and three factor authentication. Hospitals use that a lot. One factor usually means something you know, like your username and password. Two factor usually means something you know, and something you have, like a username and a device that provides a different password whenever you login. There is also three factor authentication, like something you know, have, and are ? adding a retinal scan to the mix would be part of three factor.

If there are connected systems that can cause lots of damage or monetary loss if hacked, they should be protected better than the average business.??Countries already use that as part of their low level conflicts ? just like someone did to the Iranians with the Stuxtnet virus that disrupted their uranium processing.

The hacking Burger King experienced was not harmful in the big scheme of things. They got publicity, and no damage was done.

For businesses, they need to ask themselves what would happen if they lost all their records. All the payroll, accounting, customer records, inventory records. Then they need to take positive action to make sure not everything gets lost. This includes a combination of physical security, data security, and business continuity. The information needs to be backed up to a safe place, and there has to be a plan for recovering it, if it is lost. There are many good and experienced IT consultants and vendors who can help with that, so I recommend you ask your current consultant about it, and engage one if you don?t have one who can meet your needs.

Posted at: Adcap Network Systems Blog

Author: Rolf Versluis

Twitter: @adcapnet
LinkedIn: Rolf Versluis LinkedIn
Facebook: Adcap Network Systems Facebook Page

Source: http://www.adcapnet.com/blog/what-businesses-should-know-about-social-media-hacking/

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UN rejects damage claim for Haiti cholera victims

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The United Nations rejected a claim for damages on behalf of more than 5,000 Haitian cholera victims and their families on Thursday, citing diplomatic immunity.

The claim was filed in November 2011 by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a Boston-based human rights group that contended the U.N. and its peacekeeping force are liable for hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to adequately screen peacekeeping soldiers.

It cited studies suggesting that the disease was inadvertently brought to Haiti by a U.N. battalion from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. A local contractor failed to properly sanitize the waste of a U.N. base, and the bacteria leaked into a tributary of one of Haiti's biggest rivers, according to one study by a U.N.-appointed panel.

Cholera has sickened nearly 500,000 people and killed over 7,750 people since the outbreak began in October 2010, according to the Haitian government. About half the people in the country of 10 million have no bathroom at all and sanitation access is the worst in the Western Hemisphere.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the United Nations informed representatives of the claimant of the U.N. rejection on Thursday.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called Haitian President Michel Martelly to inform him of the decision "and to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to the elimination of cholera in Haiti," Nesirky said.

Brian Concannon, the institute's director, said that after 15 months, the rejection was a single sentence, based on the world organization's immunity, which said the claims are "not receivable" because they concern "a review of political and policy matters."

"Our case is about the U.N. dumping contaminated sewage in Haiti's waters that has caused thousands of deaths," he said. "Under this definition, any harm that the U.N. does to anybody would be a matter of policy."

Concannon told The Associated Press: "We're disappointed because the U.N. is passing up a chance to stop cholera's killing, and to show leadership in promoting the rule of law."

Mario Joseph, lead attorney for the victims, added: "It is disgraceful that the U.N. will not even consider compensating the thousands of families who have lost their children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters due to the UN's wrongdoing."

Concannon, a co-counsel for the victims, said the institute's next step will be to go to a national court to seek compensation for the victims, "but we haven't decided which one yet," possibly in Haiti, the United States or Europe.

The institute was seeking a minimum of $100,000 for each bereaved family and $50,000 for each cholera survivor.

When the compensation claim was filed with the secretary-general and the claims unit for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti in 2011, Concannon said he hoped the U.N. peacekeeping force would create a lifesaving program that would provide sanitation, potable water and medical treatment. He also said he wanted a public apology for the victims.

In December, Ban announced a $2.27 billion initiative to help eradicate cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, and vowed to work aggressively to secure donations for the ambitious but still mostly unfunded 10-year plan.

Nesirky said Thursday that the secretary-general "again expresses his profound sympathy for the terrible suffering caused by the cholera epidemic, and calls on all partners in Haiti and the international community to work together to ensure better health and a better future for the people of Haiti."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-21-UN-Haiti-Cholera/id-19f5fae1bc9c43c780ea9cda99b04452

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3-D printed magazines could change gun control

Tech-savvy gun enthusiasts could easily find a way around any new curbs on firearms: If they want something, print it.

A Texas law student who used a 3-D printer to fashion a plastic magazine and then posted his ensuing trip to the firing range online got more than 280,000 views on YouTube - but then his leased 3-D printer was confiscated by a jittery manufacturer.

3-D printers are often used to make consumer items like jewelry and hearing aids, and also help reduce waste in manufacturing, according to Alyssa Reichental of 3D Systems Corporation, which manufactures 3-D printers for sale worldwide.

President Obama cited the innovative power of 3-D printing during his State of the Union speech last week, saying it would "revolutionize the way we make almost everything." A 3-D printer is a bit like a conventional printer, but instead of using ink on paper, it deposits layers of resin or other material that will harden to make a three-dimensional object.

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics

But a larger portion of his speech was devoted to his desire to enact new firearm restrictions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D., Calif., proposed legislation in January that would ban the manufacture, sale, possession or transfer of any ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. That would presumably include home-manufactured magazines made with 3-D printers.

University of Texas law student Cody Wilson says he opposes any such restrictions. He's the activist who put up the YouTube video last month that showed him firing a Colt M-16 with a 30-round plastic magazine made by a 3-D printer.

Government actions on gun control are merely symbolic, according to Wilson.

"We hope to make the issue relevant," Wilson said. Government leaders "act like passing a law will keep magazines off the street but we want to show them that magazines will always be on the street."

Wilson runs an organization called Defense Distributed, which aims to spread information on how to create printable guns.

Wilson's actions have prompted some printing companies, like the major 3-D printing company Stratasys, to take action. Stratasys said it believes Wilson used its property for "illegal purposes."

The company leased a machine to Wilson last year but later confiscated it after learning what Wilson planned to do with it, according to a report in The Washington Post. Another company, MakerBot, also removed gun designs of downloadable blueprints it maintains for 3-D printer users, according to the report.

The printers are intended to be used to create consumer goods like Invisalign, according to 3-D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. She said 3-D printing is already becoming commonplace in communities across America.

"3-D printing ought to be used for educational purposes," said 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. "There is no way to deny access to a product that we make affordable and easy to use, but we make sure we are not assisting in products that could be printed or used for illicit or non-authorized purposes."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/welcome-age-printed-gun-magazine-110126551--abc-news-politics.html

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Tyson sues Live Nation over alleged embezzlement

FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 file photo, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson smiles during a promotional event for former five-time champion Evander Holyfield's Real Deal barbecue sauce at a Chicago grocery store. Tyson and his wife sued SFX Financial Advisory Management Services, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment on Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013, claiming a former employee of the financial services company embezzled more than $300,000 from them and cost them millions in lucrative contracts. (AP Photo/Charlie Arbogast)

FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 file photo, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson smiles during a promotional event for former five-time champion Evander Holyfield's Real Deal barbecue sauce at a Chicago grocery store. Tyson and his wife sued SFX Financial Advisory Management Services, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment on Wednesday Feb. 20, 2013, claiming a former employee of the financial services company embezzled more than $300,000 from them and cost them millions in lucrative contracts. (AP Photo/Charlie Arbogast)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Mike Tyson sued a financial services firm owned by Live Nation Entertainment on Wednesday, claiming one of its advisers embezzled more than $300,000 from the former heavyweight champ and cost him millions more in lost earnings.

The lawsuit claims that Live Nation and its company SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises haven't given the boxer and his wife, Lakiha, a full accounting of their losses. The company returned some of the embezzled money but wanted the Tysons to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which they refused, the suit states.

The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages for breach of fiduciary duty, negligent hiring, unjust enrichment and other claims.

A spokeswoman for Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said the company had not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment on it.

The lawsuit claims the embezzlement prevented the Tysons from emerging from bankruptcy, and forced them to hire new advisers and turn down lucrative contracts. The couple trusted Brian Ourand, their adviser at SFX, so much that he attended their wedding, the case states.

Ourand, who could not be reached for comment, has since left SFX, according to the lawsuit. The filings claim his conduct has not been reported to regulators.

"Defendants did not secure, protect, safeguard and appropriately apply the Tysons' finances for their intended purposes," the case states, "but instead misappropriated said funds for the benefit and enrichment of SFX/Live Nation.

The former boxer has broadened his career in recent years, including appearing in "The Hangover" and leading a one-man autobiographical show, "Undisputed Truth."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-20-People-Mike%20Tyson/id-57cf030ad56a48beb4ae6853ac4296db

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Powerful Plains storm blamed for fatal crash

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? An armada of snow plows and salt spreaders deployed Wednesday on highways across the nation's heartland working to stay ahead of a powerful winter storm that already is blamed for one road death.

Winter storm warnings were issued from Colorado through Illinois, with as much as a foot of snow expected in several areas.

Kelly Sugden, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Dodge City, Kan., said early Thursday morning that the storm was moving a bit slower than was previously forecast but that it was "starting to get back together."

"It's very active," Sugden said, noting the snowfall was mixed with lightning and sleet showers.

Sugden said Wednesday's highest snowfall total for the state was 6? inches recorded in the tiny central town of Rozel. He said they were expecting heavy snow but not blizzard conditions. Still, he warned that the Interstate 70 corridor could see as much as 13 inches of snow with drifts adding to the danger for drivers.

Heavy snow was already falling in Colorado and western Kansas by midday Wednesday. In Oklahoma, roads were covered with a slushy mix of snow and ice that officials said caused a crash that killed an 18-year-old man.

Cody Alexander, 18, of Alex, Okla., died Wednesday when the pickup truck he was driving skidded out of control in slush on State Highway 19, crossed into oncoming traffic and was hit by a truck, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. The other driver was not seriously injured.

And in northern Arkansas a school bus crashed Wednesday afternoon on a steep, snowy country road, leaving three students and the driver with minor injuries. Pope County Sheriff Aaron Duval said the bus slid off a road on Crow Mountain, nearly flipping before it was stopped by trees at the roadside.

Officials feared the winter storm would be the worst in the Midwest since the Groundhog Day blizzard in 2011. A two-day storm that began Feb. 1, 2011, was blamed for about two dozen deaths and left hundreds of thousands without power, some for several days. At its peak, the storm created white-out conditions so intense that Interstate 70 was shut down across the entire state of Missouri.

Tim Chojnacki, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said it planned to have salt trucks on the roads before the storm arrived in the Show-Me State in hopes that the precipitation would largely melt upon impact.

Much of Kansas was expected to get up to a foot of snow, which many rural residents welcomed after nearly a year of drought.

Jerry and Diane McReynolds spent part of Wednesday putting out more hay and straw for newborn calves at their farm near Woodston in north central Kansas. The storm made extra work, but Diane McReynolds said it would help their winter wheat, pastures and dried-up ponds.

"In the city you hear they don't want the snow and that sort of thing, and I am thinking, 'Yes, we do,' and they don't realize that we need it," she said. "We have to have it or their food cost in the grocery store is going to go very high. We have to have this. We pray a lot for it."

Meanwhile, a separate snow storm caught many drivers by surprise in California, leaving hundreds stranded on mountain highways. A 35-mile stretch of Highway 58 between Mojave and Bakersfield was closed Wednesday, and several school districts closed. No injuries were reported.

Schools also were closed in northern Arizona and Colorado with snow there. Mindy Crane, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said hundreds of plows had been deployed for what was expected to be one of the most significant snow storms of the season.

Just the threat of snow led to a series of shutdowns in the middle of the country. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback closed state government from Thursday morning through Friday morning and urged residents to stay off the roads.

Lawmakers in Nebraska and Iowa cancelled committee meetings and hearings, and the Arkansas Senate voted to recess until Monday so lawmakers could make it home before the worst of the storm hit. University of Nebraska officials moved a Big Ten men's basketball game against Iowa from Thursday to Saturday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said precipitation is generally expected to drop off as the storm makes its way east. Chicago and parts of Indiana, he said, could get about 2 inches of snow and some sleet.

___

Associated Press writers Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., Colleen Slevin in Denver, and M. David Nichols in Chicago contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plains-storm-gathers-strength-cited-road-death-093708505.html

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Activists: Syrian rocket kills at least 20

Aleppo Media Center via AFP - Getty Images

Syrians inspect destruction following an apparent surface-to-surface missile strike on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Feb. 19. The attack killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday. The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.

Hamid Khatib / Reuters

A member of the Free Syrian Army along with civilians search for survivors after a Syrian army rocket attack on the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Reuters -- A Syrian army rocket attack on a rebel-held district in the city of Aleppo killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday.

The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.

"The rocket brought down three adjacent buildings in Jabal Badro district. The bodies are being dug up gradually. Some, including children, have died in hospitals," Mohammad Nour said by phone from Aleppo. He said testimony from survivors indicated that 25 people were still under the rubble.

Continue reading.

Hamid Khatib / Reuters

A member of the Free Syrian Army sits near where a Syrian army rocket attack took place at the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.

Amateur video from Aleppo, Syria, captures the scene of an alleged rocket attack by Syrian forces that left at least 20 people dead. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

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Source: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/19/17018278-syrian-rocket-destroys-3-buildings-kills-20-activists-say?lite

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Georgia execution halted at the last minute

JACKSON, Ga. (AP) ? The execution of a Georgia man who killed a fellow prisoner in 1990 was halted Tuesday at the last minute so courts could consider claims that he's mentally disabled and other issues.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted its stay of execution as 52-year-old Warren Lee Hill was being prepared for lethal injection. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the appeals court said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill's mental capacity.

"In other words, all of the experts ? both the State's and the petitioner's ? now appear to be in agreement that Hill is in fact mentally retarded," judges in the majority wrote in their order.

The state court of appeals also issued a stay to allow more time to consider a challenge related to the state's lethal injection procedure.

Earlier in the day, the state parole board, the Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court had all declined to stop the execution.

"We are greatly relieved that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Warren Hill, a person with mental retardation. All the doctors who have examined Mr. Hill are unanimous in their diagnosis of mental retardation," defense attorney Brian Kammer said in an email.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general declined comment.

Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Authorities say he used a board studded with nails to bludgeon Handspike while he slept and other prisoners pleaded with Hill to stop. At the time Hill was already serving a life sentence for murder in the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend, Myra Wright, who had been shot 11 times.

Hill has received support from various activists and from former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn.

"Georgia should not violate its own prohibition against executing individuals with serious diminished capacity," President Carter said in a statement.

Hill was originally set to be executed in July, but the state delayed his execution when it changed its execution procedure from a three-drug combination to a one-drug method. The state Supreme Court then further delayed the execution after Hill's lawyers filed a challenge saying corrections officials violated administrative procedure when they made the change. The state's high court earlier this month denied that challenge, and Hill's execution was reset for Tuesday.

Hill's lawyers argue that he is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed. The state maintains that the defense failed to meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Hill is mentally disabled.

Death penalty defendants in Georgia have to prove they are mentally disabled beyond a reasonable doubt to avoid execution, the strictest standard in the country. Hill's lawyers have said the high standard for proving mental disability is problematic because psychiatric diagnoses are subject to a degree of uncertainty that is virtually impossible to overcome. But Georgia's strict standard has repeatedly been upheld by state and federal courts.

Georgia passed a law in 1988 prohibiting the execution of mentally disabled death row inmates, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of mentally disabled offenders is unconstitutional.

Hill's lawyers last week released new sworn statements from the three doctors who examined Hill in 2000 and testified before the court that he was not mentally disabled. The doctors wrote in their new statements that they were rushed in their evaluation at the time, they have acquired additional experience and that there have been scientific developments in the intervening 12 years. All three reviewed facts and documents in the case and wrote that they now believe that Hill is mentally disabled.

The state questioned the credibility of the doctors' statements. These doctors met with Hill and reviewed extensive documentation in the case in 2000, but they haven't seen him since and didn't have significant new information in front of them during their recent review, the state argued. Therefore, it is not credible that they are able to refute the testimony they were so adamant about in 2000, the state argued.

The state has cited expert testimony and IQ tests that concluded Hill was not mentally disabled. Before trial, Hill's family members described him as "the leader of the family" and "a father figure," the state notes. He was not in special education classes and served in the Navy, where he received promotions, the state said.

The defense has referenced a state court judge's assessment that Hill was mentally disabled and a test that showed his IQ to be about 70. The defense also cited expert testimony that it is not unusual for someone who is mildly mentally disabled to be able to function at a satisfactory level in an environment as structured as the military. With the new statements from the three doctors last week, all doctors who examined him now agree that Hill is mentally disabled, Hill's defense argued.

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Associated Press writer Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/georgia-execution-halted-last-minute-015424413.html

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