Sunday, June 30, 2013

For Feline Lovers, An Adorable Parade Of Animated Japanese Cartoon Cats

Here?s something for all you feline lovers out there.

?MitchiriNeko March? is an adorable animated video that features a parade of Japanese cartoon cats marching past your screen.

Described as a ?cat-like creature that likes to crowd together?, they come in various colors and they each play a different instrument to create an uplifting and catchy melody.

If you want more of ?MitchiriNeko?, there is a game for the iOS and Android, which you can download from the iTunes Store and Google Play.

We hope this video will help kick start your awesome weekend.

Click to watch the video below:

[via Laughing Squid]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/designtaxi_news/~3/QWe4mB5xpDc/

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Chilean Mummies Reveal Ancient Nicotine Habit

The hair of mummies from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile reveals the people in the region had a nicotine habit spanning from at least 100 B.C. to A.D. 1450.

Additionally, nicotine consumption occurred on a society-wide basis, irrespective of social status and wealth, researchers say.

The finding refutes the popular view that the group living in this region smoked tobacco for just a short stint before moving on to snuffing hallucinogens.

"The idea was that around A.D. 400, people in San Pedro de Atacama (SPA) smoked tobacco in pipes, and then after that time, they gradually switched to inhaling dimethyltryptamines in snuffing trays," said study co-author Hermann Niemeyer, an organic chemist at the University of Chile in Santiago. "What we show is that's not correct." [See Images of the Chilean Mummy Findings]

Smoking and snuffing

The practice of smoking and snuffing hallucinogens was deeply rooted in the culture and thinking of many pre-Hispanic societies. In the south central Andes, two plant sources of hallucinogenic compounds exist: nicotine-containing species of Nicotiana (tobacco) and tryptamine-containing species of Anadenanthera (cebil).

"The proposal one most often reads is that [the hallucinogens] were used mainly by shamans," Niemeyer told LiveScience. The witch doctors sometimes used the plants as psychoactive compounds to connect with the gods and spirits from beyond. At lower concentrations, the substances became the ingredients for remedies for diseases, sleep problems and other ailments.

"The shamans were supposed to not only cure things by directly using something that attacked the illness, but also by contacting spirits through ceremonies," Niemeyer said.

Evidence in mummy hair

To get a better understanding of hallucinogen use in SPA throughout the ages, Niemeyer and his colleague Javier Echeverr?a analyzed hair samples of 56 mummies from the Late Formative to the Late Intermediate periods of SPA (100 B.C. to A.D. 1450). The mummies, Niemeyer explained, were in good condition, preserved naturally from the high temperatures, extreme dryness and high soil salinity in the Atacama Desert. Depending on the site, the mummies were either interred in the ground or entombed in "some sort of stony environment made for them."

A range of different objects were buried along with the mummies, such as jewelry, weapons, ceramic objects, raw metals, textiles, vases and various snuffing paraphernalia, including mortars, trays and tubes. The researchers used the number and type of objects as a proxy for the mummies' social and wealth statuses.

The team found nicotine in the hair of 35 mummies, spanning the full range of years. "The finding of nicotine was definitely unexpected," Niemeyer said. In the archaeological record of SPA, smoking pipes are gradually replaced by snuff trays after around A.D. 400 ??previous studies found evidence of nicotine in smoking pipes, but not in snuffing powder or snuffing paraphernalia, which were often associated with tryptamine alkaloids.

The team didn't find traces of tryptamine alkaloids in the hair samples, though this doesn't necessarily mean people didn't consume the cebil compounds. "When you inhale dimethyltryptamines, the body takes care of destroying it before it gets to the hair follicles," Niemeyer said.

The traces of nicotine weren't related to the presence of snuffing paraphernalia in the tombs, suggesting shamans, who are typically associated with such objects, weren't the only ones to consume the psychoactive alkaloids. Moreover, nicotine-laced hair wasn't related to the diversity of funerary objects or the presence of valuable gemstone necklaces.

The results, which will be detailed in the October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, suggest nicotine consumption in pre-Hispanic SPA occurred continuously for hundreds of years and was performed by people of all social and wealth statuses, Niemeyer said.

Follow Joseph Castroon Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chilean-mummies-reveal-ancient-nicotine-habit-125534752.html

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Biden called Ecuadorean president about Snowden (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316101164?client_source=feed&format=rss

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End of era as Celtics rebuild without Pierce

BOSTON (AP) ? Letting Doc Rivers go to the Los Angeles Clippers was the first sign. Getting rid of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett clinched it.

The Boston Celtics are rebuilding.

The Celtics have agreed to the terms of a deal that would send the two remaining members of the Big Three that won the 2008 NBA title to the Brooklyn Nets for a package of draft picks and players.

Pierce is the longest-tenured member of the team, its captain, a 10-time All-Star and a likely Hall of Famer. Garnett is also a future Hall of Famer, though only the last six years of his career were in Boston.

That's why Pierce's departure is the one that signals the end of an era in Boston.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-28-BKN-Celtics-Pierce/id-83cab20b01cd4b54a7d34b697e943815

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Bert And Ernie New Yorker Cover - Business Insider

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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bert-ernie-new-yorker-cover-gay-marriage-supreme-court-doma-2013-6

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LOOPHOLES: How to Avoid Paying for Obamacare Insurance

Merrill Matthews at Forbes explains:
[T]he IRS has no authority to go after someone?s assets or wages in order to collect the penalty. ?It only has the authority to deduct the penalty from a person?s tax refund at year?s end. ?It won?t take long for people to figure out how to fix that problem by trying to ensure they have only enough withheld to meet their tax obligation. ?Those who are uninsured and successful at hitting the tax mark will face no effective penalty.
Here's another loophole (via Matthews)
?But just because millions of Americans refuse to get ObamaCare-qualified coverage doesn?t mean they will be uninsured. ?There are policies available now that would work very well for the ObamaCare avoiders.

Some of these policies are built on a life insurance platform rather than health insurance ? which, incidentally, means they are outside ObamaCare?s long arm of regulatory control.

The customer buys a life insurance policy that pays up to $250,000 upon death, which I believe is the current maximum available for this kind of policy.

Along with life insurance coverage the policy includes what?s called a ?critical illness? component. ?If the policyholder needs, say, surgery, the insurer writes the policyholder a check based on a schedule. ?Let?s say, for example, it?s $10,000.

The policyholder has $10,000 in hand to pay for the medical care ? or, frankly, anything else since the money belongs to the insured ? but the value of his life insurance benefit is reduced by the same amount, to $240,000. ?Thus the critical illness component simply accelerates the benefit payout.

One existing policy pays 100 percent for heart attack, stroke, life-threatening cancer, major organ transplant, kidney failure, Alzheimer?s and paralysis, among other medical conditions.

The policyholder could also be part of a provider network that provides a discounted rate for the care ? one of the most important current benefits of having health insurance.

How much would such a policy cost? ?For one company, a 30-year-old male would pay $1,438 a year, and for a 50-year-old male it?s $3,234.

And remember, this isn?t just health coverage. ?In the event of a tragic accident or illness, whatever is left of the benefit goes to the estate upon death.

If ObamaCare proves to be the train wreck that Democratic Senator Max Baucus fears ? who, incidentally, is largely responsible for its current structure ? then millions of Americans from all income categories may decide to opt out. ?Many will still want something, at least until they get a major medical condition whereupon they can then go back into ObamaCare coverage. ?And they can still keep their life insurance policy along with its critical illness benefits. ?Good times!


Source: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/06/loopholes-how-to-avoid-paying-for.html

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Former Chinese Communist Party official gets 13 years for bribery: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - A former regional Communist Party official implicated in a sex scandal that has transfixed China was sentenced on Friday to 13 years in jail for bribery, government news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

Lei Zhengfu, a portly, pop-eyed ex-secretary of a region in southwestern China's Chongqing, was caught on video having sex with an 18-year-old mistress, with the clip ricocheting around China's gossip-obsessed Internet when it surfaced last November.

The encounter turned out to be a sting operation by a property developer hoping to blackmail Lei, 55, into favorable commercial decisions, Chinese media reported.

Lei was fired, then charged last month with corruption, which carries a maximum penalty of death. At his sentencing he was also fined 300,000 yuan (about $48,000).

Also last month a Chongqing court charged six people with working together to blackmail government officials by recording videos of them having sex.

Chinese Communist Party officials are banned from having mistresses, and the video came to symbolize to many people the excesses and corruption of the ruling elite.

The government's swift pursuit of Lei's case indicates the party's growing attention to public anger over abuse of power and official impunity.

Sensitive to public outrage and warning that corruption threatens the Party's very survival, President Xi Jinping has pledged to crack down on corruption at all levels, though only a small number of senior officials have been fired or investigated for corruption since he came to power last year.

Ten government officials and heads of state-owned enterprises were fired in January for their involvement in sex videos, according to Xinhua.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-chinese-communist-party-official-gets-13-years-054109825.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

5 Content Marketing Tactics For Small Businesses - TribalCafe

Are small businesses using the right content marketing tactics to fuel their social media?

  1. Small businesses need to get the basics in place ? objectives, keywords, listening, measures?
  2. Small businesses have little time and money to invest and need to use content marketing effectively
  3. Content helps fuel social media so getting the right tactics in place can save time and money, as well as deliver a focus for what works
  4. The State of Small Businesses and Social Media

    A report from Manta, an online business community, shows that crowds of American small businesses are turning to social media in the hope of generating new business. The problem though is that despite the time they are ploughing into it they are seeing little if any ROI.

    Some key figures:

  • The survey was taken from 1235 small business owner
  • Nearly 50% have increased time on social media
  • 55% are using Facebook and Twitter as their primary tools
  • Around 60% have seen no ROI

Another survey conducted by Staples produced similar figures showing that 40% feel that their social media use has helped their business (60% didn?t). This report found that 51% of U.S. small business owners are either novices or don?t consider how social media can help their businesses.

The problem is that with the allure of seemingly ?FREE? there is the temptation to think it will be a silver bullet to ailing sales or other business problems. Expecting quick wins is unrealistic. The hope that social media might patch over a poor brand proposition, marketing plans or an ailing business is clearly flawed. With content marketing fueling social media developing a clear focus on your customers is critical.

The Basics of Social Media For Small Businesses

Businesses are built on relationships and trust. In this sense online is a direct reflection of offline, where your reputation, what you say and how you say it affect how and who you will attract. Traditional networking offline has not entirely been replaced but online makes it easier, faster and lowers costs. It also provides the perfect vehicle to more effectively target customers.

Our tolerance and dislike of poor sales people, processes and being interrupted are the same offline and online (probably our tolerance is lower). For these reasons small businesses need to recognize the basic principles of social media and online marketing.

social media trends with social seo and content

Information comes to us easily. Search, RSS feeds and a variety of apps and media help with that. In this mass of media, devices and channels small businesses are having to compete for attention and that is competitive. Simply rocking up and saying hi will get you noticed and it may even help develop relationships, but it wont get across your brand/products/services and demonstrate how you can solve customer problems. In truth you need both ? good content and to be human.

The temptation to be random on social media is huge and without a good focus on content marketing it can easily fail. The basic guiding principles are again the same online as they are offline:

  • Understand who your customers, your niche market
  • Have clear goals and objectives ? offline is not different to online, focus on SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed) objectives.
  • Identify how your product or service relates to them e.g. what problem does it solve
  • What makes you different ? what are your unique selling points (USP?s)
  • How can you solve your customers problems, make their life easier and/or add value
  • As in offline understand how you connect the marketing and sales process ? connect the dots between the two

These points underpin then how you develop content and use it to develop your business online. Content marketing is about being useful to your customers, it provides a backbone for your SEO and fuels your social media. It also translates into how you gain leads.

social media tactic for producing content

5 Content Marketing Tactics For Small Businesses

Here are 5 actionable content marketing tactics to help small businesses. These are based on the trends and insights from the main content marketing reports and experience.

1Get The Content Mix Right

Most people have heard the exercise of how you place large rocks, pebbles, sand and water into a glass jar (if you haven?t here is the link to explain it). It is a great metaphor for living life but also applies to many other situations. There is a nice comparison here to content marketing ? prioritize your content build out your high value content first.

Use Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is timeless, that never or at least rarely goes out of date. Unlike a Tweet, a Facebook post that simply has a moment in time. The key to good evergreen content is to make it relevant to your audience e.g.:

  • Frequently asked questions ? not the ones you see that are 4-5 long and cover the obvious. You want to create FAQ?s that genuinely go deeply into the buying process or insights into the service or product.
  • Lists of useful resources e.g. top 50 social media experts or 50 technical definitions explained.
  • Checklists
  • How to?s
  • Blend in and use other high value content first ? Slides, Infographics, Whitepapers/reports?. The majority of businesses are in services (in the UK accounting for over 75% of GDP). Why does this matter ? well many B2B businesses rely on using Slides some of which may have great content on that can be easily shared.

    2Repurpose Content
    Content can be used again and again saving time and money.

    A survey or report can be turned into a blog post(s), used as a basis for an interview with the person who produced it or to garner opinion, form the basis of a presentation (SlideShare) ? all of which in turn can be Tweeted or posted on Facebook or Linkedin. Again this focuses on the need to produce the high value content first.

    3Curate Content
    Becoming an expert on a subject requires you to know about what is happening in your sector: trends, key tools, methods, key people, tensions e.g. different view points?All this can be difficult to keep on top of. Content curation involves pooling and filtering content so that you provide relevant high quality content to your audience saving them from having to search through the noise of the internet.

    Curating content can relatively easy but remember to be specific to your niche in your subject e.g. social media daily (Paper.li) would be drowned out on the internet but social media marketing for salons could be useful if I was targeting Salon owners.

    Some great content curation tools exist to help you produce regular content. Tip: many platforms now allow you to comment on the curated content ? don?t be afraid to add you own thoughts to demonstrate your breadth of knowledge/skills.

    4Co-Create / Collaborate
    Co-creating content sounds difficult but it is just like many other forms of collaboration. The key to it is a clear understanding of your objectives and the best method to achieve them. Here is a great slideshare that outlines the many methods and approaches that can be taken.

    5Blend Your Media
    A survey by by content strategy company, Content Science, found that people still come across a lot of unreliable information on the internet.
    what is content marketing survey .

    Many small businesses can use their expertise to interact with their target audience to build trust and demonstrate expertise. Some of the best ways to achieve this is to use media that helps you directly interact with you audience or that promotes your ideas, thoughts and shows the people behind the business.

    content marketing tactics

    Webinars have become one of the most effective ways of building an audience and for customer acquisition. Used well they can provide plenty of further fuel for blogs and further interaction. A useful approach to event marketing is to follow this approach:

    • Pre-event: activities to build and promote the event e.g. unique hashtag for Twitter and now Facebook. This builds interaction.
    • Event: the use of social media during the event
    • Post event: follow up with content and actions from the event and developing the relationships with your target audience/customers

    Summary

    Content Marketing can seem daunting and time consuming. Certainly blogs do require a lot of commitment, but by putting in place the basics building blocks and making sure you cover the most important points first you can quickly lay down some great foundations to help your content marketing. Some of the best small businesses work with customers to co-create content not only using incentives e.g. photo contests, but because they are focused on helping promote the customers passions and interests.

Source: http://www.tribalcafe.co.uk/5-content-marketing-tactics-for-small-businesses/

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The Omnipotent Engineers at Google Have Banished Clouds From Earth

The Omnipotent Engineers at Google Have Banished Clouds From Earth

Google Earth may give us a real, live view of what our blue marble actually looks like, but even reality could stand to be improved a bit now and then. So to make sure you get the beautiful summer you deserve?while you're sitting inside a dark room hunched over your computer screen?Google has taken steps to give you a new view of the world?totally cloud-free.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/y0JLMhRDgmY/the-omnipotent-engineers-at-google-have-banished-clouds-586705238

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How to Save Sharks off Cuba s Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico [Slide Show]

Is it possible to create a sustainable fishery for sharks before the ocean's top predators are gone?

Cuban fishing boat

SHARK SHACK: A typical Cuban fishing boat that targets sharks in the country's coastal waters. Image: ROBERT HUETER, MOTE MARINE LABORATORY

  • How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...

    Read More??

Throughout 2011 researchers from the University of Havana prowled fishing docks in Caba?as and Cojimar on Cuba?s northwestern coast. The teams met returning fishing boats, noted the type and number of fish caught, and asked crews where they had fished, how long and what effort was involved. Oceanic whitetip sharks regularly appeared in catches, and fishermen reported hauling in smaller ones and using them as bait. Researchers say this could indicate the presence of a whitetip nursery area nearby.

So far, that is the only piece of good news from a widespread, collaborative effort by scientists and policy makers to fill in gaps in our knowledge of sharks in Cuban waters. That knowledge is needed to determine how to save these apex predators in the Gulf of Mexico as a whole. The regional population of Oceanic whitetips and other shark species may have declined by as much as 99 percent since the 1950s, according to Doug Rader, chief oceans scientist with the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Populations have plummeted in part because sharks are often swept up as incidental by-catch.

>> View the slide show here.

Researchers have documented at least 54 species of sharks in Cuban waters, many of them important to low-tech, small-scale fisheries. But shark fishermen are reporting decreases in their catches, likely due to the accidental capturing of sharks by boats targeting other species of fishes. Little historical data exist for Cuban fisheries, making it hard to compare targeted and untargeted shark catches over the long term. "We have to go on discussions with fishermen, which is helpful but not truly quantitative," says Robert Hueter, a shark researcher at Florida's Mote Marine Laboratory.

There also is little data about the presence of shark nurseries and the frequency of the species?s migration in Cuban waters.

This lack of dataspurred U.S., Cuban and Mexican scientists to launch the Trinational Initiative for Marine Science and Conservation in 2007. The group set six research priorities, including expanding knowledge of sharks in Cuban waters in order to support conservation decisions for the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The ambitious effort currently involves scientists from the EDF, Mote Marine Laboratory, Mexico's El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and the University of Havana's Center for Marine Research.

The port surveys are one part of their work. During a nine-day research cruise in February 2013 a multinational group of scientists aboard the Felipe Poey collected water, plankton and sediment samples on the south side of Cuba around Golfo de Batabano and Isla de Juventud. They also interviewed fishermen harvesting finfish, tuna, and lobster in the area (pdf). A key objective of the cruise was tagging sharks, but although researchers had estimated five to 10 sharks per 100 hooks cast, Hueter says, ?We caught three sharks total, or 1.44 per 100 hooks set.? The low numbers as well as discussions with fishermen suggest that overfishing in the area has affected shark populations.

Port surveys planned later this year for Batabano and Jucaro Bay on the south coast may confirm these suspicions. Scientists will also look for evidence of another whitetip nursery?a possibility given the location?s ecological similarity to the nursery area on the north side of the island.

A cruise planned for the fall will explore the Jardines de la Reina archipelago and Golfo de Ana Maria, two popular ecotourism areas where researchers expect to tag higher numbers of sharks. The group will eventually compile tagging, observational data and port surveys to create a formal habitat classification system. The system will describe the distribution and abundance of sharks in Cuban waters to help determine their habitat needs, Rader says, an important first step toward protecting them. "Most scientists believe sharks are critical to the resilience and robustness of marine systems, and that one of the best ways to maintain a warming and acidifying marine environment is to rebuild robust shark populations," he adds.


Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-save-sharks-off-cubas-coast-and-in-the-gulf

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Shark Week Ad: Poor Snuffy The Seal - Business Insider

Shark Week might be more than a month away, but that hasn't stopped the Discovery Channel from starting its ad campaign for the highly anticipated programming.

Its first ad of the season takes us to a fake local news station's coverage of the rescue of Snuffy the Seal. The tag line says it all: "Shark Week. It's a bad week to be a seal."

The ad is shocking, awesome, and effectively getting fans pumped for August 4.

Watch below:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/shark-week-ad-poor-snuffy-the-seal-2013-6

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98% Mud

All Critics (149) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (146) | Rotten (3)

For at least three-quarters of the way, this is a fine film, and one that kids and parents could see together.

There is an enchanted-fairy-tale aspect to Mud, but its bright, calm surface only barely disguises a strong, churning undercurrent.

A modern fairy tale, steeped in the sleepy Mississippi lore of Twain and similar American writers, and with a heart as big as the river is wide.

Nichols has a strong feeling for the tactility of natural elements-water, wood, terrain, weather.

Nichols takes his time with the story, dwelling on how the boy is shaped by the killer's tragic sense of romance, yet the suspense holds.

"Mud" isn't just a movie. It's the firm confirmation of a career.

Just like its lead character, this film is packed to the brim with sadness, swagger and soul.

All the women in this movie are shrews, liars and/or emasculators.

Mud is a moving exploration into the nature of manhood, with superb performances, striking location and engrossing story creating a mesmerising and heartfelt coming of age drama.

A stripped back approach to tracking the process of growing up, but lacks the faith to see the plan executed to the end

Nichols takes his time unravelling Mud and Ellis's entwined fates, but his characters are so rich that it's well worth being in their company.

In its energy and nuance, Mud seems like the kind of film Hollywood would've made in the Seventies, and would've continued to do if not for the advent of market-conscious filmmaking.

More than a mere tribute to Twain and Dickens: this has all the makings of a modern classic.

An extremely sophisticated and progressive examination on how adolescent masculinity is defined by often-contradictory cultural attitudes towards femininity.

Mud is as beautiful to watch as it is to listen to, and feel kinship to, whether you're from the South or just Southern at heart.

In Jeff Nichols, America has a champion of the religious and working class. With the schism between the right and left in the U.S. growing ever larger... his ascent couldn't have come at a better time.

This is a film with a great naturalistic style and captivating performances and which does just about everything right.

Jeff Nichols writes characters with depth, nurtures strong performances form his cast and allows the screenplay's backwater setting to effectively create tone and texture.

This is American cinema at its very best as Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me.The two boys are terrific and McConaughey is sensational as Mud, dazzlingly frazzled as the hunted and haunted man on the run.

Up till just past the three-quarter mark, Mud is one heck of a nifty psychological fable.

The Southern-fried drama "Mud" is an electrifying example of what happens when you merge a crackerjack yarn with a very specific setting, and then pour on the heat with riveting performances.

McConaughey and Sheridan 's acting skills, as well as those of the entire supporting cast, make this movie better than it ought to be.

It gets under our skin because Nichols gives us time to come to know Mud's island like the places we knew as children.

As Mud might say, it's a hell of a thing.

The boys are so skillfully played that Mud also plays like cinema verite. Nichols' fluid camerawork suggests a documentary-style approach. That helps these young lads transform into flesh-and-blood characters who get our attention and support.

No quotes approved yet for Mud. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mud_2012/

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Recon Serves Up Limited Edition HUD Action Glasses

Recon Serves Up Limited Edition HUD Action Glasses
Recon?s Jet HUD sports glasses are the cool jock to Google Glass? slightly awkward (but still pretty cool) chess team president. Starting today, you can pre-order the Jet Pilot headset and start tracking your athletic (but still cool with nerds) ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/Hjywro8a1DU/

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Missing red panda from National Zoo found in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Animal keepers from the National Zoo have captured a red panda in a Washington neighborhood after it went missing from its enclosure at the zoo.

National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson says the male named Rusty was captured Monday afternoon in a bush in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The red panda is being taken to the zoo's animal hospital for a checkup.

Unlike giant pandas, red pandas are not members of the bear family. Red pandas are slightly bigger than a domestic cat and look similar to a raccoon. They are listed as vulnerable in the wild.

Rusty arrived at the zoo in April from the zoo in Lincoln, Neb., and was in quarantine for several weeks until he went on exhibit in early June.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Zookeepers are searching for a red panda that has gone missing from its enclosure in Washington.

National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson says animal keepers discovered the male named Rusty was missing Monday morning. They began searching the zoo at 8 a.m.

Unlike giant pandas, red pandas are not members of the bear family. Red pandas are slightly bigger than a domestic cat and look similar to a raccoon. They are listed as vulnerable in the wild.

Red pandas are highly territorial, so Baker-Masson says it's unlikely that Rusty traveled far. He is likely hiding high in a tree branch to hide in the tree canopy.

"Everybody continues to look for him," Baker-Masson said. "As the day heats up, he will likely sleep and hide."

Animal keepers last saw him Sunday evening about 6 p.m. when he was fed and appeared healthy. They believe he may stay in hiding during the day. They are also looking at the possibility that Rusty is sick or that someone took him.

Rusty arrived at the zoo in April from the zoo in Lincoln, Neb., and was in quarantine for several weeks until he went on exhibit in early June. Rusty is vaccinated and is not aggressive, but he is a wild animal and could bite if he became cornered and scared, Baker-Masson said.

The zoo began sending out messages about his disappearance Monday morning on Twitter in case someone sees him at the zoo.

"Unless he was very motivated, he would not wander far from his habitat," Baker-Masson said. "This red panda is not down on the (National) Mall."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/missing-red-panda-national-zoo-found-dc-183238896.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

AMI Building Sales Attempt to Recoup Government... | Stuff.co.nz

Six AMI Insurance office buildings are being sold by the Government, as it attempts to recoup some of the money it spent bailing out the insurance company.

Taxpayers took over the troubled insurer in 2011, onselling the business to IAG while keeping the earthquake claims that had destabilised it.

The bailout cost taxpayers $500 million, partly recouped by the $380m paid by IAG.

Now the government agency, Crown Asset Management, established to sell the assets of finance companies whose investors were paid out under the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme, is selling AMI offices.

The portfolio includes AMI office premises in South Auckland, Blenheim, Timaru, Gore and Queenstown, with a rating value of close to $19 million.

The most valuable is the South Auckland office that has a rating value of $9.7m, while the cheapest is its Gore office, valued at $185,000.

Bayleys agent David Gubb, who is managing the sales campaign, said the portfolio would lend itself to both small regional investors and larger national investors.

"The larger and more prominent premises in Auckland and Queenstown would suit bigger investors, while the Blenheim, Timaru and Gore locations will most likely be bought by smaller investors possibly linked to those locations," Gubb said.

The Manukau property is a six-storey, 4531 square metre office block. Fellow tenants include Housing New Zealand and Vodafone.

The building generates an annual rental of approximately $805,000, but agents estimate that could rise to $1.1m if it was fully leased.

The Blenheim office has been recently refurbished and strengthened, and AMI is paying $57,300 rent a year on a lease that runs until 2017 with two further three-year rights of renewal.

Relationship Services is also paying $19,000 a year on its lease, which expires in October.

The property is zoned for commercial activity and includes 17 car parks.

The two-storey, 480sqm Timaru office - opposite the town library - is leased to AMI until 2017 and is generating annual rental revenue of $72,000. The property has 16 car parks.

AMI's two Queenstown properties, in the heart of the town's CBD, are being sold jointly as one offering.

The 733sqm building in central Shotover St is leased to AMI until 2017 and generates annual rental revenue of $70,000. AMI has one further three-year right of renewal. Another $2500 a month is paid by a clothing shop that has a monthly lease on its space.

The other Queenstown property, which adjoins it, is a three- storey building on a 1130sqm site in Memorial St.

"Both Queenstown buildings have significant development potential and have street appeal from both a retail and commercial perspective," Gubb said.

The 178sqm Gore office, opposite the trout sculpture in the centre of town, is leased to AMI until 2017 and generates annual rental revenue of $15,875.

Gubb said he expected the properties to generate a lot of interest, because the buildings were in high-profile locations and had good tenancies.

Tenders for the Auckland property close on July 11. The Blenheim property will be auctioned on July 10 and the other properties will be auctioned on July 11.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8837308/Sale-bid-to-recover-AMI-bailout-funds

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