Justin Timberlake joins five-timer's club on 'SNL'

By The Hollywood Reporter

It almost didn?t matter what happened after?Justin Timberlake?s "Saturday Night Live"?opening monologue, because by that time the episode was already the biggest of 2013.

It was the musician-actor?s fifth time hosting, which gave him access to the exclusive ?five-timer's club.? Timberlake was ushered off the stage and into the inner sanctum, where he encountered a slew of "SNL"?vets who had all hosted or performed as the musical guest at least five times.

PHOTOS: 12 'SNL' Sketches Made Into Movies

Paul Simon?greeted Timberlake, as did a pipe-smoking?Steve Martin, who was a tad suspicious of the club?s new member, scoffing when he learned Timberlake couldn't play the banjo.

"He can't do?everything," Martin remarked. The comedian then belittled?Dan Aykroyd, who as a mere one-time host, was reduced to bartending for the clubmembers.?Martin Short?(also not a member of the club) was forced to work as a mistreated waiter.

When?Chevy Chase?appeared next to?Short?and?Martin, Timberlake was thrilled to realize he was standing next to the three amigos. (The trio would appear in full Mariachi garb later to introduce Timberlake?s second musical performance.)

VIDEO: 'SNL' Recap: 'Walking Dead' Recruits Kevin Hart;?Quvenzhane?Wallis Named Pope

Alec Baldwin?and?Tom Hanks?revealed their greatest pleasure of the five-timers club was making?"SNL"?castmembers fight each other. The pair cheer on?Bobby Moynihan?and?Taran Killam?as they went blow-for-blow in a match similar to a disturbing parlor room scene from?"Django Unchained."

?I killed my best friend? Moynihan screamed after the battle. Hanks and Baldwin congratulated him and said he deserved a beer. Shortly after,?Candice Bergen?appeared to demand the other members put the toilet seat down after using it.

In its cold open, "SNL"?took on the death of Venezuelan president?Hugo Chavez. Timberlake played?Elton John, who tailored ?Candle in the Wind" to fit the late president. Among the salient Chavez moments highlighted included the socialist leader calling President?George W. Bush?the devil during a United Nations speech and blaming capitalism for?destroying life on Mars. ?He really said that,? Timberlake insisted.

The star power continued as?Andy Samberg?and Timberlake appeared as their ?D--- in a Box? characters during a dating sketch. Martin and Aykroyd competed against them as two wild and crazy guys, while poor Moynihan failed to compete. It got rather crude for the female contestant, who doesn?t seem to mind.

PHOTOS: Life After the Finale: 16 TV Shows Brought Back From the Dead

Near the show's end, Timberlake revisited romantic comedy territory ala "Friends With Benefits"?in a trailer in which he and a ?cute brunette? (Nasim Pedrad) enjoy a grocery store meet-cute and fall in love. But they are soon torn apart by her secret?she has a penis.

Perfectly capturing the essence of dozens of romantic comedy trailers, the spot for "She?s got a D---"??also featured a ?confused black friend? (Kenan Thompson) and?Eugene Levy?(Fred Armisen), who tells the girl ?if he can?t accept all of you, he doesn?t deserve you."

"SNL"?is next new April 6 with host?Melissa McCarthy?and musical guest Phoenix.

Related content:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/10/17258163-justin-timberlake-joins-paul-simon-steve-martin-others-in-five-timers-club-on-snl?lite

Shakira iOS 6 bank of america Yunel Escobar Eye Black Cruel Summer Endeavor shaun white

Top 10 Ways You Can Waste Money Without Realizing It

Everyone's always on the lookout for ways to save money, but sometimes we ignore the fact that we're actively wasting money every day. Here are 10 ways you might be letting money slip through your fingers.

10. You Ignore Wear and Tear on Your Home

When you own a home, it seems like the repairs and improvements never stop...but you might have missed out on a few important ones. If you've still got drafts of air flowing through your house, you're probably wasting a lot of money on heating and cooling costs, and might even have some water damage from leaks around the foundation. Check out the three money-saving home improvements you should do right now. While you're at it, check out our other guides to getting your energy bills down with just a little common sense.

9. You Aren't Maximizing Your Credit Card Rewards

We pay for more and more stuff with plastic these days, so why not get the maximum amount of cash back when you do? Lots of credit cards come with a good set of rewards, but some are definitely better than others?especially if you have a specific place you want to spend them (like travel). Check out our roundup of the five best reward credit cards, and the five best travel-based rewards cards. Once you've found the right card for you, make sure you're using it in a way that gets you the most back for your money.

8. You Have Unclaimed Money In Your Name

It may sound like the least convincing scam ever pulled, but you may actually have unclaimed money that belongs to you out there, just waiting for you to grab it. Sometimes it's a savings bond, sometimes it's an unclaimed 401k, but no matter what it is, it's actually really easy to look up. Check out our post on the subject for more info about where to go and how to get that money out of financial purgatory and back into your pocket. Photo by redjar.

7. The Food In Your Kitchen Goes Bad

It's hard to judge exactly how much food you'll eat in the next week or month, but when food spoils, that's money down the drain. Planning your meals ahead of time helps a ton, as does knowing how long different foods stay fresh on the counter, in the fridge, and in the freezer. But, in the end, all it takes is a little attention. Check out our guide to waging war on food spoilage to keep it all under control. Photo by Serg64 (Shutterstock).

6. You Pay Too Much for Smartphone Data

Most people sign up for a data plan and use their phone without really digging into how much data they use. If you're still holding onto an unlimited plan, for example, it's worth looking up how much data you actually use in a month?you might actually save money by moving to a metered plan (after all, 48% of people don't even use 300MB of data per month). Check out this chart to see how much you could save, and if you haven't checked your data usage in awhile, give it a look. You might be surprised. Of course, if you do have a limited plan, make sure your phone isn't secretly wasting data in the background, too. Photo by Chris Young.

5. You Don't Use Coupons That Are Right In Front of You

The internet is an amazing thing. No longer do you have to join the ranks of extreme couponers and spend hours clipping to get good deals on stuff. These days, all it takes is a simple browser extension or two to get a coupon on nearly everything you buy online. Plus, you can get one that compares prices across the net for you?it's like very intense deal hunting without any of the work. Check out our guide to automating your discounts for more info, and never pay full price again.

4. You Don't Negotiate

No one likes negotiating, but with the right preparation, you can make the whole process a lot easier?and get a lot more for your money. In fact, researchers found that the average new hire loses out on $500,000 in the long run, just by not negotiating their salary on that first job. There are a number of negotiation methods that work well in different situations (the Briefcase Technique being a pretty good one for salaries), so check out our guide to getting anything you want with minimal negotiation. You might be surprised how much you let go down the drain before you put in a little effort.

3. You Fall For Tech Myths

It's amazing how much tech companies try to squeeze out of you when you go to buy a new computer. "Oh, don't buy that one, it's six months old...buy this new one!" "O, you should get an extended warranty for an extra $200." "Here, this $40 HDMI cable should suit your needs." These sales tactics lead to quite a few myths, like the fact that new products are somehow better than refurbished products, or that expensive cables will get you a better picture on your TV. If you buy a lot of technology?and if you're anything like us, you do?you can save quite a bundle by knowing your stuff before you go into the store. Check out these six common tech myths that cost you money before you buy. Image remixed from silver tiger (Shutterstock).

2. You Overpay Your Monthly Bills

Bills can pile up quickly, but the good news is you can often get discounts with just a few phone calls. Usually all you need to do is ask. Make sure you call back regularly to keep those discounts, and you'll have more money in your wallet. It's probably a good idea to check out BillShrink, too, to see what kinds of things you might be overypaying for. Image made possible by assets from PSDGraphics.

1. You Try Too Hard to Save Money

Wait, what? That's right: Sometimes, trying to save money can actually lead you into a pit that wastes money. For example, some people avoid regular checkups with the doctor or dentist, but then end up having to go in and pay much more for all the things they neglected. Maybe you take store credit card offers and pay the minimum every month, or maybe you do your own taxes and miss out on some pretty big deductions. That's not to say saving money is a bad thing?it's just important to pay attention to where all of your money is going, and that you aren't shooting yourself in the foot with a strategy you're using to "save" cash.

Title image remixed from Tax Credits, Ben Schumin, SunRun, and Helder Almeida (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/GaRrp0l1zMw/top-10-ways-you-can-waste-money-without-realizing-it

tony bennett joe walsh the civil wars duggar miscarriage roman holiday belize adele lyrics

'Marsageddon' adds to concerns about comets

Chris Smith / NASA file

An artist's conception shows a comet streaking through Martian skies.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

It sounds like an "Armageddon" sequel, set on Mars instead of Earth: A supermassive doomsday comet is heading toward the planet in 2014, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Not even Bruce Willis.

The comet presents a good-news, bad-news situation for the Red Planet, and for us earthlings as well. NASA says Comet 2013 A1, also known as Comet Siding Spring, is almost certain to miss Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. However, there's still a chance ? a less than a 1-in-600 chance ? that Mars could be hit, due to the remaining uncertainty about the comet's path. That uncertainty is likely to be cleared up over the next few months, eventually resulting in an all-clear.

Even if the comet did hit, there'd be no negative effect on Earth. However, the "Marsageddon" scenario is already adding to the concern that was generated by last month's Russian meteor blast and a near-miss by a larger asteroid.

---

The case of Comet Siding Spring led Henry Vanderbilt, founder of the Space Access Society, to ask a scary what-if question. "If it was coming straight at us (no more or less likely than it coming straight at Mars), and given our existing space capabilities, could we do anything about it other than prepare to die?" he wrote in a posting to the Moon and Back blog. "The short answer is: Maybe."

The comet's size is the most worrisome part of the story. Based on its observed brightness, astronomers estimate that the iceball could be anywhere from 9 to 30 miles (15 to 50 kilometers) in diameter. In comparison, the asteroid that's been blamed for killing off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is thought to have been 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter.

{{percent}}%

({{numVotes}} votes)

{{/data.answerData}}

A direct hit on Mars' backside wouldn't tear the planet apart, but it would produce an explosion that Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait estimates at somewhere around a billion megatons of TNT. That would create a huge crater, blast tons of debris into space and perhaps set off a flood reminiscent of the one that washed over Marte Vallis millions of years ago.

On Earth, the impact would be a civilization-killer.

How do you stop something like that? Scientists have proposed a variety of deflection techniques for smaller objects, when the collision threat can be detected years or even decades in advance. Those techniques range from space-based gravity tractors, to paintball shooters, to laser blasters, to?laser bees, to solar sails, to "Armageddon"-style nuclear bombs. Just this week, Iowa State University's Asteroid Deflection Research Center proposed a $500 million mission to test a nuclear-armed asteroid interceptor.

"It's not a laughing matter," center director Bong Wie said in a news release.

There would definitely be no one laughing if a 20-mile-wide comet were coming at us with less than two years of advance warning. In that scenario, the only realistic option would be hydrogen bombs, and lots of them. Vanderbilt estimates it would take about 250 megatons' worth of energy to divert an object like Comet Siding Spring. At 1 to 5 megatons per bomb, that would mean 50 to 250 bombs from the nuclear powers' stockpile.?

"Whether we can effectively apply that energy to successfully divert the comet, we just don?t know," Vanderbilt wrote. "The problem has been studied a fair amount, and the answers vary. Nobody?s actually tested it. We would, under the circumstances, have little choice but to try."

For the time being, Comet Siding Spring is shaping up as a huge near-miss: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's latest estimate has it missing Mars by about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers)?? and at that distance, not even the debris flying off the comet is expected to affect the Red Planet or the probes flying around it. It helps that the comet's tail will be pointing away from the planet, as explained in this blog posting by the Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla.

The comet would make an impressive sight if you were watching it from Mars (magnitude zero or brighter), and NASA's rovers will likely be doing just that. But it isn't expected to reach naked-eye brightness for earthly observers. Chances are that Comet Siding Spring will make its biggest impact as another reminder that we have to address the perils posed by cosmic threats sooner or later.

Considering what's happened over the past month, how many more reminders do we need?

More about cosmic threats:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/08/17241258-marsageddon-comet-scenario-adds-to-concerns-over-threats-from-space?lite

Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul packers Dancing With The Stars All Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt space shuttle Torrey Smith Brother

Beyonce Tumblr Photos: Smokin'!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/beyonce-tumblr-photos-smokin/

nick collins dave matthews ambien wwdc madden 13 cover dalai lama tamera mowry

Asia stocks up as US jobs, China exports improve

BANGKOK (AP) ? A positive jobs report that pushed the Dow to another record high this week and better-than-expected Chinese exports helped boost Asian stock markets Friday.

China's exports jumped 21.8 percent to $139.4 billion dollars in February, beating economists' forecasts by a wide margin. While lower than 25 percent growth in January, the figure nonetheless provided evidence of strong demand for Chinese-made goods in the global marketplace.

"China is still exporting its goods to the rest of the world. There is still global demand out there, so that's encouraging," said Andrew Sullivan of Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong. February had been expected to be weak because the Lunar New Year holiday fell during the month, leaving fewer work days as businesses shut for up to two weeks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.2 percent to 12,227.75, as a weakening yen boosted export-linked shares. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's advocacy of a weaker yen to help support Japanese export manufacturers has lifted share prices and spurred a decline in the value of the Japanese currency.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.2 percent to 23,034.05. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2 percent to 5,122.70. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand rose. Those in mainland China and Singapore fell.

Among individual stocks, Japan's Mazda Motor Corp. jumped 5.1 percent. Video game maker Nintendo added 6.2 percent. Virgin Australia fell 0.7 percent after a decision on the airline's proposed takeover of Tiger Airways Australia was delayed.

Sentiment on Wall Street was boosted after the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 last week. Applications fell 7,000 in the week ended March 2, dropping the four-week average to its lowest level in five years.

A drop in weekly applications suggests that companies are laying off fewer workers and that more hiring may follow. A government report Friday is expected to show that employers in the U.S. added 152,000 jobs last month.

"Fewer firings and more hirings are bringing people back into the search for a job when they had previously been too discouraged to bother," said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore in an email commentary. "This is great news so the fact that the unemployment rate isn't falling as much as one would like, and probably not at all this month, doesn't mean things aren't happening under the hood."

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 percent to close at 14,329.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.2 percent to 1,544.26. The Nasdaq rose 0.3 percent to 3,232.09.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was down 17 cents to $91.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.13 to finish at $91.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3094 from $1.3104 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 95.14 yen from 94.85 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-us-jobs-china-exports-improve-051718105--finance.html

solar storms uganda the parent trap invisible children kony 2012 space weather sunspots pac 12 tournament

With canceled tours, White House teaching how democracy works (Washington Post)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/290151536?client_source=feed&format=rss

sherri shepherd arkansas razorbacks trisomy 18 ozzie guillen ozzie guillen buster posey eric holder

Most Expensive Real Estate Markets - Business Insider

Monaco remains the most expensive residential real estate market in the world, with luxury homes costing anywhere from $5,350 to $5,920 per square foot, according to a new wealth report from Knight Frank.

While real estate prices in the tiny country are consistently high, Monaco saw a bump this year as buyers shied away from French hotspots in reaction to President Hollande?s wealth tax proposals, the Knight Frank report said.

And Monaco, which does not charge a personal income tax, was particularly popular with Russian buyers over French markets, according to the report.

Luxury real estate prices there increased 2 percent year over year. Prices in 2012 jumped the most in Indonesia, where they increased 38 percent in Jakarta and 20 percent in Bali.

The number of wealthy people in the world is also growing, and set to increase quickly in the next decade, according to the report.

The number of people worldwide worth $30 million or more increased by almost 8,700, or 5 percent, in 2012, and their number is set to increase 50 percent in the next 10 years, according to Knight Frank's forecasts.

Here are the 20 most expensive places to buy luxury residential properties, according to the report (click to enlarge):

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-real-estate-markets-2013-3

split pea soup recipe the client list yahoo.com/mail baylor april 9 albatross louis oosthuizen

NKorea warns of more nuclear, rocket activity

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea is warning of future nuclear and rocket efforts that it says are warranted because of new U.N. sanctions over its third nuclear test.

The statement Saturday from an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman builds on a torrent of warlike threats from Pyongyang in the wake of the sanctions, which North Korea says are an indication of U.S. hostility.

The sanction, approved Thursday, target North Korea's ruling class.

U.N. diplomats say the sanctions will hurt leader Kim Jong Un. But others argue they may actually bolster him by allowing officials to whip up anti-U.S. sentiment and direct attention away from government failures.

Pyongyang's statement says "the world will clearly see what permanent position" it will take to "reinforce as a nuclear weapons state and satellite launcher" because of the sanctions.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-warns-more-nuclear-rocket-activity-233530953.html

fox mole manson bubba watson recent earthquakes fbi most wanted list stuttering james van der beek

Tuscaloosa Classic disc golf tournament coming April 13-14 | Disc ...

TUSCALOOSA | What do you get when you cross the precision of golf with the aerodynamics of Frisbee?

It?s Tuscaloosa?s latest recreational craze, disc golf.

?Someone described it best in saying it?s got all the pains and anxiety of golf just with a disc,? said Christopher Pereira, a founding member of the Tuscaloosa Disc Golf Club. ?If you like disc sports and the way that they fly, it?s just like ball golf. You?ve got drivers, putters. You can actually play professionally and make money. It?s a great sport.?

On April 13-14, disc golf moves to the forefront of fun activities in town when the Tuscaloosa Classic is held at two local disc golf courses, Bowers Park and Palmore Park. The event, sponsored by the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority and the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission, is a Professional Disc Golf Association B-Tier event and a Southern Nationals qualifier. The purse is at least $1,500.

Disc golf is an offshoot of traditional golf with obvious exceptions. Instead of balls, players us discs, which are basically plastic mini-Frisbees. The reusable discs, less than $10 a pack, are the only equipment needed. A good throwing arm replaces clubs. The targets, the 18 holes, are all above ground, most in the form of steel baskets with chains hanging down, similar to a basketball net. The objective is to get the disc in the hole in the fewest attempts. The first toss is from a tee area, which has different distances for levels of skill. Play resumes, like golf, at the spot where the disc landed, and pin positions are often changed.

Tuscaloosa?s Disc Golf Club, with 30-40 active members, was established in 2003, the same year Bowers Park established its course. The University of Alabama also has a club team. Palmore Park?s course recently opened on the West End. Both courses are free.

?It?s grown exponentially in Tuscaloosa,? said Pereira, 43, who helped design the local courses and said Bowers? course is the most challenging in the state, while Palmore is perfect for beginners. ?The college scene has really grown big. It used to be you?d see a few people out here and there, now you get out on the weekend and you?ve got all kinds, college kids, families. I?d say the number of folks playing has gone from next to nothing to a few hundred in the last couple of years.?

Tuscaloosa Classic participants can email Tuscaloosaclassic@gmail.com for registration information. Entry fees are $95 for the open men?s division, $75 for open masters, $70 for open women, $65 for advanced and advanced masters, $55 for intermediate, $45 for recreational, $45 for novice and $40 for amateur women. An additional $10 is charged for non-PDGA members.

On-site registration is from 7:45-8:45 a.m. The first round begins at 9:30 a.m., and the second at 1:30 p.m. April 13 at Bowers Park. April 14?s third round takes place at Palmore Park beginning at 9:30 a.m. No admission is charged for spectators.

Source: http://hotbransontickets.com/2013/03/07/tuscaloosa-classic-disc-golf-tournament-coming-april-13-14/

school shooting oscar nominations C7 Corvette tom brady denver post Scandal denver broncos

Sports shrink boosts Ogilvy's Masters bid

AAP

After largely ignoring sports psychologists for his entire career, Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy has revealed one is part of his resurgence.

Ogilvy recently hired Julie Elion on the recommendation of neighbour Jim "Bones" Mackay, the long-time caddy of Phil Mickelson, who has also used her services.

And he says the intellectual stimulation of psychology is working wonders.

The 2006 US Open champion turned around a tough start to 2013 with a second-place finish in last week's Honda Classic, catapulting him from an eight-year low world ranking of 79th to 47th, into this week's World Golf Championships tournament and within reach of a Masters berth next month.

Advertisement

But Ogilvy says it's not the normal golf-related sports psychology he's gained benefit from, rather a more holistic approach from Elion that has helped calm his non-tournament world.

"We had a chat and have had a few more since then and it's been really good actually," said Ogilvy.

"I was brought up on quite a lot of sports psychology at the Victorian Institute of Sport but, really, the basic sports psychology isn't for me.

"This is really more general psychology that's helping me, I would say. It's less golf-specific and more sensible life thinking.

"I wasn't sure the standard golf issues were for me, but this is broader than that and more interesting to me and therefore better for me."

Ogilvy explained his issues related to "Monday to Wednesday" rather than the Thursday to Sunday of tournaments themselves. With a more settled approach to family and to practising golf, he's feeling much healthier overall.

World Golf Championship events are limited fields, with just 65 in the mix this week, meaning no cut and a great chance for Ogilvy to score more valuable world ranking points as the Masters invitation cut-off date to be inside the world top 50 looms on April 1.

Ogilvy has played every Masters since 2006, making each cut, with a highest finish of tied 4th in 2011 and finishing no worse than a tie for 39th, making him as good a chance as any to be the first Australian to win a green jacket.

First, he has to get there.

"It's been on my mind really all year," he said.

"This is probably the most points I'll play for between now and the Masters so it would be obviously great to win the golf tournament but a consolation prize would be to have a strong finish and lock up the Masters - that would be pretty good.

"I'm thinking about it, and I'll use it as a motivation."

Source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/sports-shrink-boosts-ogilvys-masters-bid-20130307-2fnrz.html

tax refund calculator huntington disease west memphis three taxes game of thrones season 2 trailer sag award winners girl scout cookies

Word Soup *FINALLY* comes to the iPhone/iPod Touch!

After over 25 million plays in coin-op form, the addictive word game, Word Soup, comes to iOS, Android and Blackberry on 20th March!

History

Originally launched in 2003, Word Soup started life as a coin-op game in pubs and bars across the UK. It quickly became one of the most popular games, eventually installed in 30,000 pubs and boasting over 25 million plays.

After launching on PC in 2004, the game was then selected by Microsoft in 2009 as a launch title for their Xbox 360 Indie Games initiative. It went on to seize the top spot in the launch week.

Now on Mobile and Tablet

Updated and optimised for mobile and tablet, Word Soup is tuned and ready for a new audience. Now you can take this addictive word game with you anywhere you go.

A strategic word creation game - clear the grid of scrambled letters by finding the longest words you can. Blocks disappear and fall down as you create words. Tactical play and clearing the grid will earn you big points and see you crowned king of the Soupers.

Game play description
A strategic word creation game - clear the grid of scrambled letters by finding the longest words you can. Blocks disappear and fall down as you create words. Tactical play and clearing the grid will earn you big points and see you crowned king of the Soupers.

• Play using tilt! ? Slide the tiles across the board to unlock new word making opportunities.
• Extra depth! - Three playing modes: Relaxed ? Grab a cuppa and have some fun! / Timed ? Be quick! You?re on the clock / Brain Game ? Longer words will keep your grid filled.
• Master the game! - Use tactical play to maximise your score - gain bonus points for using difficult letters, creating long words and clearing the grid.
• Rule the world! - Check your progress with global high score tables.
• Show off! - Brag to your friends on Facebook about how clever and amazing you are!

About us
Fuzzy Bug Interactive is a small and fiercely independent game development studio based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 2003, they have topped the charts with games across various platforms, including Word Soup on Xbox 360 Indie Games and Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls on PC.

Word Soup. Coming March 20th to iOS and Android
Available NOW on BlackBerry PlayBook and BB10 >> here

Source: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=181040&goto=newpost

ronnie montrose melissa gilbert dancing with the stars dandelion wine cough matt groening brandon phillips summerfest

Mayor's race forum set for April 29 sponsored by 11th, 34th, and 37th District Dems

A forum for the Seattle Mayor's race sponsored by the 11th, 34th, and 37th District Democrats is being held at the South Seattle Community College- Georgetown Campus on April 29.

In a Facebook post by Michael Heavey, Marcee Stone-Vekich and Michael Wolfe they announced the event that will begin at 6pm and run until 9pm.

More details on the forum will be released as they are finalized.

South Seattle Community College
6737 Corson Av S, Seattle, Washington 98108

• 

Source: http://www.westseattleherald.com/2013/03/05/news/mayors-race-forum-set-april-29-sponsored-11th-34t

photo of whitney houston in casket carrot top george huguely whitney houston casket photo match play championship the national enquirer marie colvin

Free iPhone and iPad Apps (March 6): Magnet Monkey, Feast or Famine and more!

Free iPhone and iPad Apps (March 6): Magnet Monkey, Feast or Famine and more!

There are a few iPhone and iPad apps available as free downloads today (March 6). Take full advantage of this generous offer while they?re free!

Tags: Business ? Feast or Famine ? Free Apps ? Games ? Hockey Night-1.0 ? iBomber Attack ? iPad ? iPhone ? Magnet Monkey ? Photography ? TinyScan Pro ? You Gotta See This!

Filed: Business ? Featured ? Free Apps ? Games ? iPad ? iPadmodo ? iPhone ? Photography

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/appmodo/~3/VLbPl6H1bY0/

Rio de Janeiro Shark Week London 2012 closing ceremony Shark Week 2012 evelyn lozada UFC 150 Caster Semenya

Martha Stewart defends J.C. Penney deal

Anne D'Innocenzio , The Associated Press ? ? ? 1 hr.

Home diva Martha Stewart testified in court on Tuesday that she did nothing wrong when she signed an agreement to open up shops within most of J.C. Penney's stores across the country.

Stewart testified in New York State Supreme Court as part of a legal battle over whether the company that she founded breached its contract to sell cookware, bedding and other items exclusively at Macy's when she inked the deal with Penney in 2011.

Stewart, who founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., during three hours of testimony, denied Macy's allegations that she did anything unethical in brokering the deal with Penney. She said that she was only looking to expand and offer new opportunities for shoppers.

In fact, Stewart said it's Macy's that didn't uphold its end of the agreement to try to maximize the potential of her business. She her brand, which is about a $300 million business at Macy's, has grown "static" at the department store chain. She said she was hoping the business would exceed well over $400 million.

"We were disappointed," Stewart, 71, testified. "We did have hopes that the business would be much bigger ... We got to a certain dollar amount and struggled and never got any further."

The trial, which began Feb. 20, focuses on whether Macy's has the exclusive right to sell some Martha Stewart branded products such as cookware, bedding and bath items.

Penney signed a pact in December 2011 with Martha Stewart Living to open shops at most of its 1,100 stores by this spring. But one month later, Macy's renewed its long-standing exclusive deal until 2018 and sued Martha Stewart Living and Penney.

Martha Stewart and Penney are using what they believe is a loophole in the agreement between Macy's and Martha Stewart to move forward with the deal. It's a provision that allows Martha Stewart to sell goods in categories like bedding in Martha Stewart stores.

According to Martha Stewart lawyers, because the Macy's agreement doesn't specify that these Martha Stewart stores have to be "stand alone" stores, the mini shops within Penney stores do not fall under the exclusive agreement. Moreover, Stewart said in court Tuesday that even Amazon.com could be considered a store, given that shoppers are shifting more to online buying.

"I don't think you need walls to be a store," she said.

The trial has unveiled some of the drama that has taken place behind-the-scenes between Stewart and the CEOs of Macy's Inc. and J.C. Penney Co.

During his testimony on Friday, Penney CEO Ron Johnson rejected claims by Macy's lawyers that he plotted to push Martha Stewart to breach her deal with Macy's with the goal of eventually becoming the sole carrier of some of Stewart's products.

Johnson, dressed in a dark suit and striped navy tie during his testimony, said that he just wanted to get a piece of the action while helping the struggling Martha Stewart business grow. She also said that the expanded partnership could be good for everyone, including Macy's.

Macy's attorneys, meanwhile, have portrayed Stewart as someone who turned her back on a good friend, Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren, to broker a deal with a rival company. During testimony earlier in the trial, Lundgren, who wore a suit, said that he hung up on Stewart after she told him about the deal she'd reached with Penney, and hasn't spoken to her since.

"I was quite taken back by his response and when he hung up on me I was quite flabbergasted," Stewart said on Tuesday.

Stewart's testimony comes as the company she founded continues to struggle. Martha Stewart Living just finished its fifth straight year of losses. The company has also had steep sales declines.

Martha Stewart Living has been trying to bolster its merchandising business, which represents 30 percent of the company's annual revenue, to offset declines in its broadcast and publishing divisions as people continue to shift toward the Web and mobile apps to get their recipes and food tips.

The biggest opportunities for Martha Stewart Living are in the home category. That's because as the housing recovery gains momentum in the economic recovery, consumers will likely put more money into their homes.

During her testimony on Tuesday, Stewart said she always wanted to open big shops at Macy's, but the retailer never embraced that concept. Instead, she noted the merchandise is just "here and there."

That's why she said that a proposal from Penney's CEO Ron Johnson to create shops filled with all sorts of home merchandise was appealing.

"We hoped this business would be growing," Stewart said. "It just boggles my mind that we're here sitting in front of you, judge."

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/martha-stewart-defends-j-c-penney-deal-1C8705762

checkers imbibe msg network ray j anthony shadid gary carter this means war

Thieves grab cash boxes from Scouts' cookie booths

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) ? Two Tucson-area Girl Scout troops were crime victims as thieves grabbed and ran off with the troops' cash boxes from cookie sales.

In one case, two women spoke with girls selling cookies outside a grocery store before one woman grabbed the cash box containing about $375. The women fled in a car that had its license plate covered.

In the second case, a man grabbed a box with about $250 from a troop's table outside a bookstore. He ran off and hopped a nearby fence.

"They decided to steal our money box and they grabbed it and ran and got into a vehicle and drove off," Micahela Everett, a Girl Scout troop member, told KVOA-TV.

The Arizona Daily Star (http://bit.ly/165PQkr ) reports that both thefts took place over the weekend.

"I hope they catch them. That's ridiculous," said Don Norton, an avid Girl Scout cookie customer.

Debbie Rich, CEO of Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, said the Girl Scouts will consider what they can do to improve security, possibly including training for different scenarios.

"They want to use their experience to help other girls understand that these kinds of situations happen, not just during the Girl Scout cookie program, but in life," Rich said. "I don't want this to make it the norm of Girl Scouts. I don't want this to change our program and how girls relate to the public."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-05-Girl%20Scout-Thefts/id-519f62c63c0c4468910c665d679a9e9c

tyson chandler tyson chandler stephen hill draft tracker the pirates band of misfits cleveland browns minnesota twins

The Process of Education, 1960 - Harvard University Press Blog

Throughout our centennial year of 2013, we?ll be reflecting on the 100 significant titles we?ve chosen to represent our first 100 years. In the post below, HUP Executive Editor-at-Large Elizabeth Knoll looks back on the 1960 publication of Jerome Bruner?s The Process of Education, an excerpt of which you can read at our centennial site.

-----

University presses seldom find themselves with spectacular best-sellers, and when they do, it?s never the books that anyone would have predicted. A technical monograph on 16th century astonomy, in a series forbiddingly entitled the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science? The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. A small-town poet?s report of his conversations with an elderly Oglala Sioux man? Black Elk Speaks.

And in 1960, no one expected the report of a Woods Hole conference of eminent scientists and psychologists, spurred by the political shock of Sputnik to imagine reforms in American schools, to fascinate and inspire book reviewers, university students, neighborhood book groups, and school teachers for decades. But that?s what happened with Jerome Bruner?s The Process of Education.

The Press printed a respectable 5000 copies, ?and then the astonishments began,? as Bruner said at a conference in 2011. The little book got a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review and the first edition sold 83,000 copies (notes still in the file show the Press scrambling to reprint fast enough). It ended up selling several hundred thousand copies in various editions, and has been translated into 21 languages. (The first, ironically enough, was Russian?in a pirated edition.)

How did a book on theories of learning, written by a Harvard professor, without personal stories or heartwarming anecdotes or one-liners, strike such a chord?

In part it was the grandness of the subject and the boldness of the argument. As Bruner summed it up in 2011??the nature of mind, and how mind might be used, and the idea that the young were not idiotic because they were young, but as rational as anyone else.? Thanks to Bruner?s omnivorous curiosity and wide reading (a photograph from about this time shows him deep in conversation with Aldous Huxley and J. Robert Oppenheimer), The Process of Education surveyed the domains of academic knowledge?science, literature, history?and characterized them briefly, vividly, memorably. Paying particular attention to science (after all, it was the fear that the Soviet Union would outpace the US in science and technology that sparked plans for school reform), Bruner insisted on the part played by intuition and imagination in the discovery and creation of knowledge. ?The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion?these are the most valuable coin of the thinker at work.?

At the same time, what these ?thinkers at work? were thinking about could be within reach of teachers and children. Unlike many of today?s school reformers, Bruner understood the delicate and demanding nature of effective teaching. ?It is easy to ask trivial questions or to lead the child to ask trivial questions. It is also easy to ask impossibly difficult questions. The trick is to find the medium question that can be answered and that takes you somewhere.?

?Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development,? he declared. It?s a very strong claim, one that Bruner has had to defend and qualify for the last fifty years, as he?ll acknowledge with a smile and a groan. But in addition to being a truth claim, it?s a declaration of faith, in both children and teachers. Bruner called for a partnership between academic scholars and scientists on the one hand, and teachers on the other. He envisioned a shared effort, toward the shared goal.

And that?s another reason why readers can not only respect but love The Process of Education. It is that rare thing, a bold call for complete reform that doesn?t mock or rage at the status quo and its supporters. It sets aside anger and resentment for hope. Both his buoyant temperament and his tactical sense made Bruner look to the future, and what expansive possibilities it could hold.

Not that he uncritically loved everything new. He was skeptical about pedagogical fashions, in particularly the gee-whiz seductions of technology. His warnings ring true today: ?Films, audio-visual aids, and other such devices may have the short-run effect of catching attention. In the long run, they may produce a passive person waiting for some sort of curtain to go up to arouse him.?

The Process of Education envisioned a country of dedicated and effective schools for all children, with each getting an equal chance. The text?s focus on Big Ideas says little about the political or economic strains of the time, but its embracing spirit is caught in the jacket image of the first edition, a photograph of a brand-new school with a white teacher and a cluster of children in the background, and two black girls in pretty dresses in the foreground. Bruner wanted to set aside social class privilege for a meritocracy, but foresaw the potential for short-term focus on tests and the relentless competition a meritocracy could bring.

In March of 1970, ten years after The Process of Education was published, Bruner wrote to Mark Carroll, then the director of HUP, ?I have never written anything with so many consequences from the point of view of what it did to the author. You might even say that I haven?t had a quiet moment since!?

In 2011, at a conference at NYU celebrating the book?s fiftieth anniversary, Bruner looked back wryly on the Cold War origins of the American worries about education and the Woods Hole conference of scientists and psychologists (comically, to today?s eyes, all but one a white man in a dark suit). He was then the founding director of Harvard?s Center for Cognitive Studies, but had not thought about his research in connection with schools until the National Academy of Sciences called. ?I have to confess that I was working with rats. You can get a lot out of rats, especially when you bring your favorite ones home for your kids to play with, and you discover that after a while the rats around the house get a lot smarter than the ones in the lab. I decided that whatever the kids were doing with the rats to make them so smart was a kind of curriculum.?

After Woods Hole, Bruner said, ?The fiery dream of transforming education had me in its grip in some way that was not easily tossed away.?

The gift of The Process of Education to its readers, to this day, is its inspiring vision of curiosity and thirst for discovery and knowledge, and its optimistic description of scholars, scientists, teachers and students in a shared intellectual community, and most of all, its generous hopefulness about the possibilities of disciplined and knowledgeable creativity. The spirit of the book still shines like a light.

But its emphasis on curriculum barely acknowledges the grim realities of poverty, race, and other deeply rooted inequalities. Bruner is quick to say that it was a book of its time, and that much more than psychology is needed to understand learning, teaching, and what schools can do to shape the future. ?The study I would want to do now is social and political,? he said in 2011, when he was 96. ?Education is not just kid stuff. It?s going to affect the distribution of wealth, and even more, the distribution of self-respect in the next generation. Education now locks the inequalities into the system. And anyone who thinks that things are okay in the current educational system had better go see their psychiatrist.?

Source: http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2013/03/the-process-of-education-jerome-bruner-1960.html

stacy keibler stacy keibler oscar red carpet daytona 500 start time ryan zimmerman oscars red carpet jennifer lopez wardrobe malfunction

Why not look for leadership potential and develop it? | Regenerate!

Performance appraisal is universally detested by employees and loved by their bosses (not really, many bosses find them futile). My point is that performance appraisal, even assuming that it can be done fairly (for the company and the employee), has no diagnostic value and it has no predictive value.

But this post is about leadership potential and developing it.

Organizations and leaders are concerned about their future. Is this person going to improve? Will she be able to take up more responsibilities? Will he be able to put in place and develop a good team? and so on. ?You wish to have a broad and rich view about every important person ?in your team -where is she or he really going concerning leadership abilities. You know that knowledge and specialist skills can be assessed and can be enhanced too. But when it comes to leadership skills it gets complicated. You see an articulate and knowledgeable person and you think you have found ?a leader. You see a reticent person and you are ready to hand down some back end jobs to such a person. ?You could be wrong about both.

What then is the solution?

Here it is: Our?Learning Leadership?*programs consist of a series of workouts designed to use leadership principles for thinking about business, work, and behavioral aspects and coming up with personal action plan. The workouts reveal grasp of reality, application of logic, creative thinking, values, bias for actions, commitment to self improvement, and many other areas about the person working them out. The very tangible evidence of all above makes it possible to assess how well this?person?will develop and how well he or she will perform in the short or medium term. More importantly, it can be used to coach the person for assisted self-development.

Such qualitative insights into a person and ability to predict, diagnose and correct the person?s development path are invaluable to any leader. It goes without saying that deriving all this from an employee?s workout needs an?experienced Regenerative Leadership Coach. Learning Leadership will be happy to offer all this.

Why not go for it?

* this is a web based learning and coaching platform. ??Lead to Regenerate? program book can also be used for face-to-face group workshops or in self learning mode. You can order it here?or from any leading bookstore.

Source: http://www.learning-leadership.com/blog/2013/03/05/why-not-look-for-leadership-potential-and-develop-it/

gran torino gloria steinem war of the worlds rock and roll hall of fame severe weather wichita brian wilson

Thompson wins Honda for 1st tour title

Michael Thompson holds the trophy after winning the Honda Classic golf tournament, Sunday, March 3, 2013 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Michael Thompson holds the trophy after winning the Honda Classic golf tournament, Sunday, March 3, 2013 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Michael Thompson acknowledges the crowd as he arrives at the 18th hole before winning the final round of the Honda Classic golf tournament on Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Michael Thompson celebrates after making a putt on the third hole for an eagle during the final round of the Honda Classic golf tournament on Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Tiger Woods lines up a putt on the second hole during the final round of the Honda Classic golf tournament on Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Tiger Woods, center, looks for his ball with others after having teed off on the sixth and lost his ball somewhere on the fourth fairway during the final round of the Honda Classic golf tournament on Sunday, March 3, 2013 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) ? Michael Thompson's dream of winning his first PGA Tour event was walking up the final fairway with a big lead and very little stress.

The reality was much different Sunday in the Honda Classic.

He had a one-shot lead as he stood in the 18th fairway, some 240 yards from the flag with trouble in the way in the shape of large lake. The motto from his golf team at Alabama was to "finish strong," and Thompson did just that.

Instead of laying up, he drilled a 5-wood into the bunker left of the green, setting up a simple sand shot and a birdie he didn't even need. He closed with a 1-under 69, one of only five rounds under par on a punishing day at PGA National to finally become a PGA Tour winner.

"That for me kind of sealed the deal," Thompson said. "It allowed me to walk up the fairway and enjoy the experience, see the crowd and ... just finish strong."

The start wasn't bad, either.

Thompson holed a 50-foot eagle putt on the third hole, relied on a superb short game around the toughest part of the golf course to build a four-shot lead, and hung on for a two-shot win over Geoff Ogilvy that takes him places he always wanted to be.

He gets into his first World Golf Championship next week at Doral, and qualifies for two more WGCs this year at Firestone and in Shanghai. He's in the PGA Championship, gets to start next year in Hawaii and earned a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

And to think just two weeks ago he was so down after a 78-80 performance at Riviera that he wondered if he would ever make another cut.

"This week was magical," Thompson said. "Just had a groove and kept feeling it."

It turned out to be a big week for Ogilvy, too.

The former U.S. Open champion missed his past four cuts and had plunged to No. 79 in the world ranking. He already missed the Match Play Championship and was ready to miss another WGC next week at Doral until putting together four solid rounds.

He chipped in for birdie behind the 16th green and two-putted for birdie on the 18th for a 69 to finish alone in second, moving him up to No. 47 to get into Doral.

"I kind of penciled in a week off," Ogilvy said. "So it's nice, and it gets me back in the mix for the Masters."

Ogilvy has to stay in the top 50 by the end of the month to return to Augusta National. For now, he has smaller problems ? he only packed enough for this week.

"I'm going to have to go do some laundry," Ogilvy said. "I haven't got a hotel room for tonight. But half the tour lives in this area, so I'm sure I can find somewhere to stay."

Luke Guthrie, tied with Thompson for the 54-hole lead, fell behind with a bogey on the second hole and closed with a 73 to finish third.

Tiger Woods was never in the picture. He started the final round eight shots behind, and whatever hopes he had of a rally ended on the sixth hole when he hit his drive so far to the right that the ball was never found.

Woods took double bogey, and only an eagle on the final hole kept the damage to a minimum. He closed with a 74 ? his first time since the Masters last year that he failed to break par in any round of a 72-hole tournament ? and tied for 37th.

It was the second straight year Woods closed with an eagle at PGA National ? the difference was last year, it gave him a 62 and a tie for second.

"I think I passed 62 somewhere around 12," Woods said.

Despite a bogey on the final hole, Erik Compton had a 70 and was part of the five-way tie for fourth. Compton, who already has had two heart transplants, earned his first top-10 finish on the PGA Tour.

Thompson finished at 9-under 271, a strong performance considering the difficult course and the weekend wind. He was among three players who never shot over par at PGA National.

"You don't have to do much wrong to be making a bogey out there, so it's pretty impressive," Ogilvy said of Thompson's final round. "It's a great effort, really. As you say by the rest of the scores, it's a very hard golf course and it seems to get progressively harder in some ways. There's a disaster waiting everywhere.

"There's a lot of golf courses on tour that it might be easy to close out a golf tournament ? or easier ? but this is not one of them."

Thompson was at his best in the middle part of the final round.

He hit a tough chip off the pine straw to 3 feet for par on the 10th, and then hit flawless chips for easy par on the 11th and 14th holes to build a four-shot lead. Not even the late run by Ogilvy was enough to stop him.

"This is everything," Thompson said. "This is a childhood dream come true. I've dreamed of playing out here since I was 7 years old and to win, it's just unbelievable. I just can't put it into words. The whole day was awesome."

It was a mess for Woods.

He lost two balls in a span of eight holes (the other one in the third round Saturday) for what he believes is the first time in his career. He hit into the water on the 11th for another double bogey, and drove into the water on the 16th.

"I just made too many penalties this week," Woods said. "Today is a perfect example. I didn't play that poorly. I had two water balls and a lost ball. Take those away, and I missed two short birdie putts, and it was actually a decent score. So just got to clean up my rounds."

The final round was never going to be easy with the wind whipping on PGA National, and it showed. Of those who finished before the leaders even teed off, only two players managed to break par. Scoring was so difficult that Lucas Glover played the weekend in 2-over par and still tied for fourth.

"You don't move up very often ? on tour ? over par on the weekend, except for a place like this," Glover said.

Guthrie, who fell behind for good with a bogey on the second hole, did his best to stay in range until hitting his tee shot out of bounds on the 14th for a double bogey. From there, it was only a battle for second place.

Everyone else was long gone.

Westwood failed to save par on consecutive holes on the front nine and could never catch up. Charles Howell III, who started the day three shots behind and needed a win to get to the Masters in his hometown, fell apart on the back nine with a 41 and closed with a 78. Rickie Fowler made three bogeys on the first six holes and was never a factor.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-03-GLF-Honda-Classic/id-0a2cfe2e5f4a41969da34b740bee772a

twin towers gizmodo cnet iPhone 5 9-11 Chris Brown Tattoo Innocence of Muslims

Most Californians see economy as being in bad times | All About ...

by reggielal on March 4, 2013

Greater than seven in ten voters (72 percent) currently describe California?s economy as being in bad times. In addition, six in ten (61 percent) describe unemployment as very serious in the state, while just 36 percent expect job opportunities to improve in the coming year, the poll says.?

While this represents a slight improvement in the extremely bleak assessments of the state?s economy that voters have offered over the past five years, the views of Californians remain gloomy.

In addition, when asked to describe their own financial situation, nearly half (44 percent) say they are worse off now than they were last year, while fewer (30 percent) are better off. This is the sixth consecutive year in which more voters report being financially worse off than better off.

The latest Field Poll was completed Feb. 5-17 among 834 registered voters in California ?(from: CVBT)

Tagged as: bethesmartinvestor, CA economy bad times, Reggie Lal, reggielal blog, San Diego investment club

Source: http://reggielal.com/archives/1892

vontaze burfict jimmy kimmel amzn white house correspondents dinner phoenix coyotes bruce irvin charlie st cloud

Ask an Expert: All About Fitness Success and Failure

Hey everyone, I'm Dick Talens. I'm the co-founder of Fitocracy and a nutritional/fitness coach who specializes in helping people with very little time achieve their fitness goals. By this time of year, the largest drop off in exercise activity happens as New Year's resolutions start to go out the window. We start with high hopes and end up abandoning our goals. The most cited reason that people fail is because they don't have time, which is where my expertise comes in.

Fitness wasn't always a big part of my life. In fact as a chubby kid, merely looking at a cookie would cause me to gain weight. This problem finally culminated in my teenage years when, after a summer of 15 hours/day playing Everquest, I found myself at 230 lbs. At this point, I did what any geek would do and spent hundreds of hours researching fitness. I put that research into practice by becoming an amateur competitive bodybuilder only a short time later. Because of my background (i.e. previously hating exercise) and current lifestyle of working 80+ hour weeks, I specializes in two things?helping people "re-wire" their brains to love fitness and achieve maximum fitness ROI. I believe that with the right foundation, fitness is attainable for anyone. I'm here for the next hour talking fitness success and failure, focusing on the specifics of why you've failed and how to turn it around. Let's do it!

Have an expert you'd like to see participate? Email us.

Image remixed from Yuri Arcurs and Kletr (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Ey5JAtyP2fc/ask-an-expert-all-about-fitness-success-and-failure

meryl streep martin scorsese sacha baron cohen best picture nominees 2012 academy awards 2012 albert nobbs a star is born

J-Nap: Sequester already causing airport delays (Michellemalkin)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288985623?client_source=feed&format=rss

What Time Do Polls Open Krysten Ritter v for vendetta Time Voting Locations atlanta falcons voting hours

7 genetic risk factors found to be associated with common eye disorder

Public release date: 3-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jean Horrigan
jh@nei.nih.gov
301-496-5248
NIH/National Eye Institute

Funded by NIH, report represents the most comprehensive study of AMD genetics

An international group of researchers has discovered seven new regions of the human genomecalled locithat are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. The AMD Gene Consortium, a network of international investigators representing 18 research groups, also confirmed 12 loci identified in previous studies. The findings are reported online today in the journal Nature Genetics. Supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, the study represents the most comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic variations associated with AMD.

"This compelling analysis by the AMD Gene Consortium demonstrates the enormous value of effective collaboration," said NEI Director Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. "Combining data from multiple studies, this international effort provides insight into the molecular basis of AMD, which will help researchers search for causes of the disease and will inform future development of new diagnostic and treatment strategies."

AMD affects the macula, a region of the retina responsible for central vision. The retina is the layer of light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye that houses rod and cone photoreceptor cells. Compared with the rest of the retina, the macula is especially dense with cone photoreceptors and is what humans rely on for tasks that require sharp vision, such as reading, driving, and recognizing faces. As AMD progresses, such tasks become more difficult and eventually impossible. Some kinds of AMD are treatable if detected early, but no cure exists. An estimated 2 million Americans have AMD.

Scientists have shown that age, diet, and smoking influence a person's risk of developing AMD. Genetics also plays a strong role. AMD often runs in families and is more common among certain ethnicities, such as Asians and people of European descent.

Since the 2005 discovery that certain variations in the gene for complement factor Ha component of the immune systemare associated with major risk for AMD, research groups around the world have conducted genome-wide association studies to identify other loci that affect AMD risk. These studies were made possible by tools developed through the Human Genome Project, which mapped human genes, and related projects, such the International HapMap Project, which identified common patterns of genetic variation within the human genome.

The AMD Gene Consortium combined data from 18 research groups to increase the power of prior analyses. The current analysis identified seven new loci near genes. As with the previously discovered 12 loci, these seven loci are scattered throughout the genome on many different chromosomes.

"A large number of samples was needed to detect additional genetic variants that have small but significant influences on a person's disease risk," said Hemin Chin, Ph.D., NEI associate director for ophthalmic genetics, who assembled the consortium and helped coordinate the study. "By cataloging genetic variations associated with AMD, scientists are better equipped to target corresponding biological pathways and study how they might interact and change with age or other factors, such as smoking."

The consortium's analysis included data from more than 17,100 people with the most advanced and severe forms of AMD, which were compared to data from more than 60,000 people without AMD. The 19 loci that were found to be associated with AMD implicate a variety of biological functions, including regulation of the immune system, maintenance of cellular structure, growth and permeability of blood vessels, lipid metabolism, and atherosclerosis.

"Like a map that identifies neighborhoods where the electricity has been knocked out by a storm, the AMD Gene Consortium's study effectively tagged regions within the genome where researchers are most likely to find short circuits in DNA that cause AMD," said Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., chief of the NEI Laboratory of Neurobiology and Neurodegeneration and Repair, and one of the group leaders of this consortium effort. "Once you are in the right neighborhood, going block to block or house to house to look for downed power lines goes much faster. Likewise, by limiting their search to the 19 genomic regions identified by the AMD Gene Consortium, scientists can more efficiently search for specific genes and causative changes that play a role in AMD."

As with other common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, an individual person's risk for getting AMD is likely determined not by one but many genes. Further comprehensive DNA analysis of the areas around the 19 loci identified by the AMD Gene Consortium could turn up undiscovered rare genetic variants with a disproportionately large effect on AMD risk. Discovery of such genes could greatly advance scientists' understanding of AMD pathogenesis and their quest for more effective treatments.

###

Lead authors of the study include Gonalo R. Abecasis, D. Phil., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Lindsay A. Farrer, Ph.D., Boston University; Iris Heid, Ph.D., University of Regensburg, Germany; and Jonathan L. Haines, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

For more information about AMD, visit http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/index.asp.

This research was supported in part by the NEI Intramural Research Program and NIH grants Z01EY000475, U10EY006594, R01EY015810, R01EY015286, R03EY013438, R01EY010605, R24EY017404, R01EY014458, R01EY017362, R24EY017404, R01EY013834, K23EY000365, R01EY009611, R01EY021532, R01EY021163, R01EY013435, R24EY019861, P30EY019007, T32EY021453, R01EY012118, R01EY022005, R01EY016862, R01EY014467, K12EY16335, R01EY11309, R01EY09859, R01EY014428, R01EY018660, R01EY019270, U54HG006542, P01CA87969, R01CA49449, and R01HL35464.

The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, leads the federal government's research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs that result in the development of sight-saving treatments. For more information, visit http://www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 3-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jean Horrigan
jh@nei.nih.gov
301-496-5248
NIH/National Eye Institute

Funded by NIH, report represents the most comprehensive study of AMD genetics

An international group of researchers has discovered seven new regions of the human genomecalled locithat are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. The AMD Gene Consortium, a network of international investigators representing 18 research groups, also confirmed 12 loci identified in previous studies. The findings are reported online today in the journal Nature Genetics. Supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, the study represents the most comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic variations associated with AMD.

"This compelling analysis by the AMD Gene Consortium demonstrates the enormous value of effective collaboration," said NEI Director Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. "Combining data from multiple studies, this international effort provides insight into the molecular basis of AMD, which will help researchers search for causes of the disease and will inform future development of new diagnostic and treatment strategies."

AMD affects the macula, a region of the retina responsible for central vision. The retina is the layer of light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye that houses rod and cone photoreceptor cells. Compared with the rest of the retina, the macula is especially dense with cone photoreceptors and is what humans rely on for tasks that require sharp vision, such as reading, driving, and recognizing faces. As AMD progresses, such tasks become more difficult and eventually impossible. Some kinds of AMD are treatable if detected early, but no cure exists. An estimated 2 million Americans have AMD.

Scientists have shown that age, diet, and smoking influence a person's risk of developing AMD. Genetics also plays a strong role. AMD often runs in families and is more common among certain ethnicities, such as Asians and people of European descent.

Since the 2005 discovery that certain variations in the gene for complement factor Ha component of the immune systemare associated with major risk for AMD, research groups around the world have conducted genome-wide association studies to identify other loci that affect AMD risk. These studies were made possible by tools developed through the Human Genome Project, which mapped human genes, and related projects, such the International HapMap Project, which identified common patterns of genetic variation within the human genome.

The AMD Gene Consortium combined data from 18 research groups to increase the power of prior analyses. The current analysis identified seven new loci near genes. As with the previously discovered 12 loci, these seven loci are scattered throughout the genome on many different chromosomes.

"A large number of samples was needed to detect additional genetic variants that have small but significant influences on a person's disease risk," said Hemin Chin, Ph.D., NEI associate director for ophthalmic genetics, who assembled the consortium and helped coordinate the study. "By cataloging genetic variations associated with AMD, scientists are better equipped to target corresponding biological pathways and study how they might interact and change with age or other factors, such as smoking."

The consortium's analysis included data from more than 17,100 people with the most advanced and severe forms of AMD, which were compared to data from more than 60,000 people without AMD. The 19 loci that were found to be associated with AMD implicate a variety of biological functions, including regulation of the immune system, maintenance of cellular structure, growth and permeability of blood vessels, lipid metabolism, and atherosclerosis.

"Like a map that identifies neighborhoods where the electricity has been knocked out by a storm, the AMD Gene Consortium's study effectively tagged regions within the genome where researchers are most likely to find short circuits in DNA that cause AMD," said Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., chief of the NEI Laboratory of Neurobiology and Neurodegeneration and Repair, and one of the group leaders of this consortium effort. "Once you are in the right neighborhood, going block to block or house to house to look for downed power lines goes much faster. Likewise, by limiting their search to the 19 genomic regions identified by the AMD Gene Consortium, scientists can more efficiently search for specific genes and causative changes that play a role in AMD."

As with other common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, an individual person's risk for getting AMD is likely determined not by one but many genes. Further comprehensive DNA analysis of the areas around the 19 loci identified by the AMD Gene Consortium could turn up undiscovered rare genetic variants with a disproportionately large effect on AMD risk. Discovery of such genes could greatly advance scientists' understanding of AMD pathogenesis and their quest for more effective treatments.

###

Lead authors of the study include Gonalo R. Abecasis, D. Phil., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Lindsay A. Farrer, Ph.D., Boston University; Iris Heid, Ph.D., University of Regensburg, Germany; and Jonathan L. Haines, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

For more information about AMD, visit http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/index.asp.

This research was supported in part by the NEI Intramural Research Program and NIH grants Z01EY000475, U10EY006594, R01EY015810, R01EY015286, R03EY013438, R01EY010605, R24EY017404, R01EY014458, R01EY017362, R24EY017404, R01EY013834, K23EY000365, R01EY009611, R01EY021532, R01EY021163, R01EY013435, R24EY019861, P30EY019007, T32EY021453, R01EY012118, R01EY022005, R01EY016862, R01EY014467, K12EY16335, R01EY11309, R01EY09859, R01EY014428, R01EY018660, R01EY019270, U54HG006542, P01CA87969, R01CA49449, and R01HL35464.

The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, leads the federal government's research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs that result in the development of sight-saving treatments. For more information, visit http://www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/nei-sgr022813.php

pippa middleton space shuttle discovery spacex tupac hologram tupac back tax deadline death race