If you ever thought real life should be more like the video games we play, you're not alone. At the very least, you definitely have an awesome friend in Caleb Kraft, senior editor at Hack a Day. He made a real homemade version of the fire breathing piranha plant from Super Mario Bros. It's incredible.
     |
jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145 chimpanzee chimpanzee
My husband has finally joined me here in South Florida. I am helping him through his adjustment period and truly, it is an adjustment. "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in New Hampshire anymore."
I haven't written much since my husband arrived. I'm trying to make sure he's happy here. After all, it was me who wanted to move much more than him. He likes winter. He skis, goes ice fishing and loves chopping fire wood. But he was ready for a change, so I've been trying to ensure his first days here are fun. As they say, first impressions are lasting.
Although we are not retiring, I now understand what women mean when they say, "I can't get used to him being home all day." When I first left my job, we were still in New Hampshire. He left for work every morning while I spent my time writing, tweeting, pinning and blogging. I attended book clubs and started my second novel. When I got to Florida, I added blogging for the Huffington Post to my list of things to do. I was living alone for the first time in 30 years. I had my own schedule. I stayed up late writing, got up in the middle of the night to write, slept late after all that writing. I could eat scrambled eggs for dinner and left over pasta for breakfast. I temped at an accounting job two days a week but other than that, my time was my own, to do what I pleased, whenever I pleased.
The first week back, I showed him around the area. We went to the beach and we had drinks at waterfront bars. On my two temp days, he met the builder he will be working with and unpacked his things.
The second week rolled around and my temp job came to an end. He wasn't starting work for another week. I was ready to get back to writing. I desperately needed to write. Ideas were churning in my brain but there was one small problem: We had no TV. We decided to leave our old clunker behind. We'd put the TV armoire out on the road, a FREE sign taped to the door. It was a beautiful piece of furniture but a white elephant, as it seems we are one of the only families in America who have not converted to a flat screen TV. I had been living without TV for over two months now and didn't miss it at all. I was hoping my husband could make it for awhile without TV too.
But it was the height of the golf season, the Celtics were in the playoffs, the Bruins were still playing hockey. "This is the best time of the year for viewing sports," he complained. I gave him some books to read, Travis McGee crime novels set in South Florida, written by John D. MacDonald. Instead, in the evenings, he commandeered my computer and watched movies on Netflix. We started shopping for a TV.
Little did we know how complicated and expensive this would be. Do we go with the plasma or LED? How big do we want the screen? My husband wanted big, at least 50 inches big. These things cost from $700 to $1,000? Then we had to think about pixels and Hz. What is Hz? We went to Best Buy, Costco, Walmart. We shopped online. Next we needed to find a table to put this behometh on. Or then again, we could mount it on the wall.
Now time to deal with Comcast. It was Tuesday, the new TV was in the house. We had cable because it came with my internet service, a special package called BlastPlus for $56.99 a month. But we needed a box. I called Comcast, a long process of punching numbers and answering questions until I finally spoke to a human being. They could deliver a box on Friday. "Friday!" my husband shouted. "I can't wait that long, let's go to one of their offices." We drove to Boca, entered the store and joined the other disgruntled Comcast customers sitting on plastic chairs, eyes glued to a computer screen that had a list of names. Sheila B was number 49. There were four Comcast employees manning the service desk. It was one o'clock, the woman sitting next to me had been waiting since 11. I decided this might be a good time to catch up on my tweeting obligations which I had been neglecting since my husband arrived.
Time moved slowly. I could no longer think of anymore witty things to say with 140 characters. We had inched our way to the 39th position when Elaine G was called to service desk #3. This was when I almost started a riot. A man in his early forties stepped up to desk #3 then a few minutes later a woman, obviously Elaine G, stood next to him, looking confused and angry.
"Hey, that guy jumped ahead of Elaine G," I said loudly. Other people started asking what happened and I explained what I had just observed. Elaine G looked at me gratefully then started complaining to the Comcast representative. In his defense, the 40-year-old guy's wife said, "He was called earlier but he wasn't here." An elderly man sitting near us, shouted "You snooze, you lose. Get to the back of the line." My husband shot me a look, "Why are you causing trouble? Let's get out of here. I can wait until Friday for TV."
We left. Later that day, we found out our apartment complex has a Comcast rep who could deliver a box on Thursday, but he forgot a wire we needed for HDTV. Another new option we were unfamiliar with. That arrived on Friday, after I'd gone off on a rant about the evils of monopolies and deregulation. My husband ignored me, biding his time until he could slip into his recliner and channel surf to his heart's content.
Today is Monday. Last night, after the golf and some basketball (not the Celtics, they lost in the first round of the playoffs), we watched an HBO movie, Untamed Heart, which we both enjoyed. Yes, my husband added HBO to the cable package. So much for the inexpensive BlastPlus deal. But today is Monday. He has gone to work. I am writing and all is well in South Florida.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
?
?
?
Follow Sheila Blanchette on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SheilaBlanchett
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-blanchette/marriage-after-50_b_3224997.html
Perez Hilton Michelle Obama Oscars Wissam Al Mana seth macfarlane oscar winners anne hathaway Castel Gandolfo
Kenya?s ambassador to the United Nations has launched a strongly worded attack on the International Criminal Court, urging the Security Council to halt trials against his country?s president and his deputy.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are separately accused of crimes against humanity linked to violence following Kenya?s 2007 polls, including complicity in murder, rape, and forcing people from their homes. Both deny all the charges.
Now the ambassador, Macharia Kamau, has singled out the United States, China, Russia, and India as ?friendly allies? who should ?use their influence? to ensure the 15-member UN Security Council ?take[s] the necessary steps? to scrap the cases against the two men.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.
It is unclear exactly what action he hopes the four countries will take, since the UN cannot halt an ICC case once it has begun, but are all opposed to the ICC or have failed to ratify its founding treaty.
The call to drop the charges against Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto came in a 13-page briefing paper Mr. Kamau asked to be circulated to Security Council members.
The Monitor has seen a copy of the document, dated May 2 and stamped "Confidential."
In it, Kamau writes that the trials should be stopped because they are flawed, threaten regional security, and violate Kenyans? wishes.
Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto are separately accused of crimes against humanity linked to violence following Kenya?s 2007 polls, including complicity in murder, rape, and forcing people from their homes. Both deny all the charges.
Despite the allegations, the pair won Kenya?s most recent general election, on March 4.
?Kenyans in their sovereign wisdom elected to power two of the accused as president and deputy president ? in effect sending a clear and unequivocal message that the two persons are ? innocent,? Kamau?s briefing says.
CONFLICT IF TRIALS AREN'T STOPPED?
Both Kenyatta and Ruto have promised to cooperate with the court, but this will mean that both will be away from Kenya for extended periods. The briefing paper raised the prospect of fresh conflict if the trials were not stopped.
?It has taken great resolve and discipline on the part of the Kenyan people not to be provoked into turmoil and violence by these protracted and unpopular cases,? it said.
?[Kenyatta and Ruto?s] absence from the country may undermine the prevailing peace and any resultant insecurity may spill over into the neighboring countries,? the paper continued.
It also accused the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC of ?coercing? witnesses and of ?constantly shifting the goalposts? as it gathered evidence and during pre-trial hearings.
Its continued action against Kenya?s president and his deputy was an affront to the country?s sovereignty, the document said.
Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor, called Kamau?s briefing ?a backdoor attempt to politicize the judicial processes.?
"The ICC has always and will always continue to respect the sovereign equality of all states,? Ms. Bensouda told the UN Security Council on May 8.
?The ICC however will not shy away from investigating individuals for any alleged crimes irrespective of their status," she told council members during hearings in New York.
LIMITS OF SECURITY COUNCIL POWER
The Security Council in fact has no power to cancel a trial at the ICC once it has started, despite Kenya?s entreaties. It can only defer a case for a year, and it has given no indication that it intends to do so.
?This is essentially moot, it?s just political grandstanding,? one Western diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya?s capital, tells the Monitor, refusing to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the press on this topic.
The briefing at first appeared to be an official but private presentation of Kenya?s government position, channeled through the president?s representative to the United Nations.
But Ruto distanced himself from it Friday, and Kenyatta has so far failed to back up his chief diplomat at the world body.
"My client has every confidence with the judges at the ICC and he has cooperated since he was summoned up to this moment and he will continue to cooperate,? Kharim Khan, Ruto?s attorney, said in a statement. ?He also wants to clear his name and we have told the court that there were insufficient and inadequate investigations. We have every confidence that the judges will independently and impartially make the right judgment.?
In claiming that the pair?s election victory meant that Kenyans had declared them innocent, Kamau was ignoring the almost half of voters who did not choose the two men, says Mwalimu Mati, head of Mars Group Kenya, a governance watchdog.
Kenyatta won the presidency with 50.07 percent of the vote.
?This document appears to suggest that the election was a referendum on the ICC process, and that Kenyans want it stopped,? Mr. Mati says.
?That?s over-reaching. Half of voters did not vote for them, and even among those who did, there will be many who want the trials to go ahead and for Kenyatta and Ruto to clear their names there.?
Kenyatta?s trial is due to start on July 9. The date for Ruto?s first hearings will be fixed later this month.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.
Related stories
Read this story at csmonitor.com
Become a part of the Monitor community
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenyan-official-seeks-ally-un-drop-criminal-charges-172857717.html
prince harry Hurricane hunger games Joey Kovar Expendables 2 Pussy Riot National Hurricane Center
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Financial data and news company Bloomberg LP said Friday that it had corrected a "mistake" in its newsgathering policies and cut off its journalists' special access to client log-in data on the company's ubiquitous trading information terminals after Goldman Sachs complained about the matter last month.
A person familiar with the matter said Goldman Sachs became concerned about outside access after a Bloomberg reporter, investigating what she thought was the departure of a Goldman employee, told the securities firm that the employee had not logged into a Bloomberg terminal for a number of weeks.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
In a memo sent to staff Friday, Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff said the company had "long made limited customer relationship data available to our journalists," but added, "we realize this was a mistake."
After the complaint last month, Bloomberg "immediately" turned off its journalists' special access and limited it to what clients can see themselves, he said.
The dispute was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Bloomberg News reporters had been able to see when any of the company's 315,000 paying subscribers, mostly stock and bond traders, had last logged into the service. They could also view the types of functions individual subscribers were accessing.
Doctoroff said in his memo that access did not extend to "trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients' messages. Moreover, reporters could not see news stories that clients read, or the securities they viewed."
He said senior executive Steve Ross had been appointed to the new position of client data compliance officer to review Bloomberg's policies.
Although Goldman's concerns caused the change, JPMorgan Chase & Co. had also expressed concerns about Bloomberg journalists' access to sensitive data.
A person familiar with the matter at JPMorgan said multiple Bloomberg reporters had used the data to try to break news in the last several years. The person said Bloomberg journalists used their access attempting to find out whether disciplinary action had been taken against Bruno Iksil, a JPMorgan trader nicknamed the "London whale" who was blamed for a $6 billion trading loss last year.
One reporter knew details about the log-in times of multiple traders on a single desk and called daily to ask about potential layoffs, the person said. JPMorgan complained to the reporters about the technique but Bloomberg managers weren't made aware of a formal complaint.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and requested anonymity.
Bloomberg reporters are renowned for aggressive techniques in a competitive field.
In November 2010, the news service reported on the earnings of The Walt Disney Co. and NetApp Inc. well before the companies' scheduled releases by guessing the unprotected website addresses of the press releases before they were made public.
The public relations gaffes, which resulted in immediate but fleeting dips in the stock prices of both companies, resulted in the companies taking action to prevent a recurrence.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bloomberg-bars-reporters-client-log-data-194351457.html
mexico earthquake aziz ansari aziz ansari katherine jenkins peyton manning broncos mexico city earthquake stand your ground law
Are you patiently awaiting the release of Total War: Rome II? A special pre-order bonus has been released rewarding players with The Greek States Culture Pack. It includes three playable factions for both the single and multiplayer campaign modes. The factions included are Athens, Sparta, and Epirus. Each faction will offer elite units and special tactics that will be utilized on the battlefield to ensure victory. Total War: Rome II will be released on September 3rd.
?
Source: http://www.gamefocus.ca/news/20064.html
Lolo Jones Marvin Hamlisch Megan Rossee grenada grenada Sikh Sanya Richards Ross
New York, NY (May 10, 2013) ? HeBS Digital is excited to announce that the HeBS Digital CMS Premium has been named a finalist in the Best Software Programming/Design category in The 2013 American Business Awards SM and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie? winner in the program.?
The American Business Awards?are the nation?s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations ? public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.?The American Business Awards will be presented at two awards events: the ABA?s traditional banquet on Monday, June 17 ? in Chicago for the first time, after 10 years in New York; and the new product & technology awards event on Monday, September 16 in San Francisco.
The explosion of the mobile and tablet channels presented a major challenge to hotel marketers: creating and managing digital content throughout three distinct distribution channels ? desktop, mobile and tablet ? as well as publishing the hotel?s latest special offers and promotions on the hotel?s various social media profiles. HeBS Digital?s proprietary CMS technology ? the CMS Premium ? was designed to do just that and help hoteliers maximize presence and revenue from the ?three screens.?
The HeBS Digital CMS Premium serves as much more than a content management system. It acts as a digital marketing content solution, giving busy hoteliers a way to simply and successfully utilize their hotel website to generate bookings and boost revenues. It also serves as a centralized digital content depository, conveniently corralling all the resources on which hoteliers rely in one easy-to-access location.
The CMS Premium is the most advanced CMS in the hospitality industry today. Notable features include:
?Winning this prestigious award is a testament to HeBS Digital?s ingenuity. I am immensely proud of HeBS Digital?s team of programmers, developers and designers who worked together to develop the industry?s leading CMS technology,? said Max Starkov, President & CEO of HeBS Digital. ?Our experts are well-educated in the digital needs and wants of the hospitality industry, as well as in the latest trends in responsive design on the server side (RESS) and search engines? requirements for website architecture. With the HeBS Digital CMS Premium, the hotelier has a firm grip on the reins of their site ? no special content management skills or HTML knowledge required!?
For more information about HeBS Digital?s CMS technology for single hotel, resort or casino properties (CMS Premium) and hotel chains, brands and multi-property companies (CMS Enterprise) please visit the company website www.hebsdigital.com.
About HeBS Digital:
Founded in 2001, HeBS Digital is the industry?s leading digital technology, full-service hotel digital marketing, website design and direct online channel consulting firm based in New York City (www.HeBSDigital.com).
HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the best practices in hotel digital marketing, social and mobile marketing, and direct online channel distribution. The firm has won over 250 prestigious industry awards for its digital marketing and website design services, including numerous Adrian Awards, Davey Awards, W3 Awards, WebAwards, Magellan Awards, Summit International Awards, Interactive Media Awards, and IAC Awards.
A diverse client portfolio of top tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel brands, resorts and casinos, hotel management companies, franchisees and independents, and CVBs are profiting from HeBS Digital?s hospitality digital marketing expertise. Contact HeBS Digital?s consultants at (212) 752-8186 or?success@hebsdigital.com.
About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business AwardsSM, The International Business Awards, the Stevie? Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie? Awards for Sales & Customer Service.? A fifth program, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, will debut this year.? Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie? Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.
Editorial Contact:
Mariana Mechoso Safer
HeBS Digital
Phone: 212-752-8186
Email: mariana@hebsdigital.com
Web:?http://www.hebsdigital.com
Facebook:?http://www.facebook.com/hebsdigital
Twitter:?https://twitter.com/HeBS_NYC
LinkedIn:?http://www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-ebusiness-strategies
Google+: https://plus.google.com/107562536911518066194/posts
Tags: CMS Premium, hotel technology awards, hotel website cms
blade runner close encounters of the third kind beyonce and jay z baby droid 4 tom brady sister dad shoots daughters laptop brandon jennings
CLEVELAND, Ohio?A judge set bail at $8 million this morning at a brief hearing for Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and keeping three young women as captives for a decade.
Cleveland Municipal Judge Lauren C. Moore set bail at $2 million per charge, an amount that indicated the judge wants to keep Castro in jail. He was ordered not to have any contact with the three women or their families.
Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Police say the former school bus driver held Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, at his west side Cleveland home. The women were reportedly restrained with ropes and chains. Court documents indicate Castro repeatedly raped the women throughout their captivity.
Knight was taken Aug. 22, 2002, Berry on April 21, 2003, and DeJesus on April 2, 2004.
Berry, who went missing a day before her 17th birthday after leaving her job at a nearby fast-food restaurant, broke free from Castro's home with her 6-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, on Monday. After she called police, DeJesus and Knight were able to escape, too.
Court records indicate that in each case, Castro lured the women into his car and took them to his Seymour Avenue home. Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters on Wednesday that the women, as well as Ariel Castro, have given lengthy statements to police.
The women had several miscarriages during their captivity, police said.
Berry gave birth to Jocelyn on Dec. 25, 2006. Police said the girl was born in an inflatable swimming pool. The fourth kidnapping charge against Castro came from holding the girl, whom court papers identify as Jane Doe, in captivity as well.
Castro appeared in court along with his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50. All three were handcuffed, but Onil and Pedro Castro were not charged. They appeared before the same judge this morning on outstanding misdemeanors and were released.
As they entered court, Pedro and Onil were looking up. Ariel Castro consistently looked down and never faced the court.
Public defender Kathleen DeMetz said she had met with Ariel Castro for about 30 minutes before the arraignment began to review the charges against him and brief him on how the proceedings would unfold. She would not comment on his demeanor or what he said to her.
Brian Murphy, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, told the judge Castro "snatched" the three women off the streets of Cleveland. He asked that the court set bond at $5 million and that Castro not be allowed to have any contact with women or their families, whether he gets out on bond or not.
DeMetz told the judge that Castro has lived in the area for the past 32 years, is unemployed and, to her knowledge, had no prior convictions. After the hearing, DeMetz said it would be highly unlikely that he would make bond.
"He would have to come with $800,000 cash to get out," DeMetz said. "He clearly does not have that."
While Knight remains in a local hospital, both Berry and DeJesus were escorted home by police motorcades to raucous crowds on Wednesday.
Berry and her daughter went to Berry's sister?s home, while DeJesus returned to her parents' tan bungalow. Both families live just a few miles from the ramshackle row house where they were apparently held as prisoners.
Berry?s sister, Beth Serrano, briefly addressed the crowd outside her home and said that Berry needed time to recover before talking publicly about her ordeal.
?At this time our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I have time to recover,? Serrano said. ?We appreciate all you have done for us for the past 10 years. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statement."
Later in the day, DeJesus, wearing a bright yellow hoodie, was quickly taken inside her home without speaking or showing her face. She was seen giving a thumbs-up to the crowd of reporters and onlookers assembled outside.
Her parents, Felix DeJesus and Nancy Ruiz, and aunt Sandra Ruiz thanked the police and FBI for their assistance in the investigation. They asked for patience and promised to take questions from reporters soon.
?The three of them are doing great. Those were miracles," Nancy Ruiz said of her daughter, Berry and Knight.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/accused-kidnapper-3-women-appear-court-084310905.html
breaking dawn part 2 breaking dawn part 2 Jennifer Lacy Honey Baked Ham hostess israel AMA
