Sega hasn't exactly had the smoothest of times while trying to launch its old-school (and very popular) Jet Set Radio title on novel platforms. Today, however, the Dreamcast maker announced that its fan-favorite game is now rolling to both iOS and Android. Jet Set Radio will, naturally, be compatible with Cupertino's iPhone, iPod and iPad as well as the majority of handsets and slates that are running some flavor of Google's OS (2.2 and up), with Sega pricing the game at about five bucks -- which, needless to say, is a pretty small amount to pay to virtually skate your way around Tokyo and, you know, graffiti mostly anything you deem worthy enough to tag. Eager to take it for a swirl? Then all you've got to do is hit either of the source links below to get started with the download.
Professional Search Engine Optimization Companies continue to take over the Web marketing spectrum. With years of extensive industry experience, Search Engine Optimization firms/SEO Companies specialize in a selection of internet marketing and advertising companies. This consists of Search Engine Optimization, which can be built to drive traffic to your website, website, or online venue. It also built to help your website appreciate higher exposure, while effectively establishing company credibility and recognition. With an Expert Search Engine Optimization/SEO Company, clients have access to a wide array of marketing tools and techniques. One of many most common, yet effective tools is content advertising. Content advertising improves existing web page, while using ideal keywords to entice prospects and customers. These keywords are sold to local, regional, national, and even international audiences, while linking certain search questions back once again to your site. Because of this, web traffic is increased, along with prospects, income, and also revenue.?
There are many approaches to secure the services of Search Engine Optimization organizations. From conducting an intricate on the web search to accessing company pages, there are countless Search Engine Optimization advertising firms that can achieve all of your desired results. Once you find the correct Professional SEO Company, an SEO expert will be given to aid you. According to your specific needs, a strategic plan will be formulated to greatly help market your business, sites, products and services. This consists of site design/redesign, promotional films, ads, and even social media marketing integration. With the latter, your promotional materials will be presented to mass audiences across great systems. From Facebook to Twitter, you are able to instantly market your income, promotional discounts, and also new products, to a wealth of internet surfers and visitors. This can help make a buzz, while obtaining lasting clients and customer patronage.? From not used to existing commercial agencies, SEO companies could certainly extend your company?s reach online. As well as material advertising, pay-per-click advertising is also a multi-faceted service that ensures lasting results. With PPC advertising, banner adverts are positioned alongside on the web search engine results. Whenever a user clicks a certain advertising, your business generates revenue and higher on the web exposure. This Search Engine Optimization approach is also known as link building, which can be built to get customers and internet surfers to your website. Advertising adverts also include keywords, that assist connect internet surfers to specific brands and products. One of many most popular PPC platforms is Google Adwords. This service allows you to build and run business ads, which are appropriate for any existing or new internet marketing enterprise. Customers also can change any existing company ad to effectively reflect current promotions and special sales. That is smart way to advertise your services on the web, in addition to promote new business brands and products.? An Expert Search Engine Optimization Company also can design engaging graphics to meet all of your needs. In reality, many Search Engine Optimization firms have a staff of in-house designers, who specialize in beautiful individual or business web graphics. Whether you desire to improve an ongoing brand, or simply just demand a new one, an SEO specialist can link you to the best web developers in the marketplace today. With all the current benefits of SEO advertising, why accept expensive traditional advertising techniques? Simply contact one of the main SEO companies today and create your future!?
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top newspaper scolded the United States on Friday for shirking responsibility as a superpower by prolonging uncertainty over how it will avoid a "fiscal cliff" that could put the world economy at risk.
"American politicians should understand that a 'self-created' recession will gravely erode both the soft and hard power of the United States," the People's Daily, a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, said.
"A country such as the United States that is accustomed to telling other nations to be responsible, should, on the one big problem concerning the future of the global economy, show itself to be a responsible power."
China's latest criticism of its major trade partner followed disappointment that talks between Democrats and Republicans in Washington on Thursday had failed to reach agreement over how to prevent the United States toppling off a fiscal cliff.
The U.S. economy may sink into recession unless it averts $600 billion of tax hikes and spending cuts due at the start of 2013 unless agreement is reached over how to shrink the U.S. fiscal deficit.
"Although the chance of the United States really falling over a 'fiscal cliff' is not big, frequent political bickering is disturbing the world," said the commentary, published under a pen name often used to give the newspaper's views on foreign policy issues, "Zhong Sheng", which means "Voice of China".
"This proves the U.S. political system has problems and lacks the responsibility that a big nation should have," it said, adding that the world is "no stranger to the negative impact on the global economy owing to U.S. policy mistakes."
The United States is the world's second-largest buyer of Chinese exports, after Europe which is mired in a debt crisis.
A U.S. economy in recession would be a blow to China, already trapped in its slowest annual growth in 13 years this year at around an estimated 7.5 percent as export growth crumbles and domestic demand slacken.
(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
The mother of teenager shot during argument over loud music called the deadly outburst "unconscionable." WTLV's Heather Crawford reports.
By Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News
A Florida gun collector has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge alleging that he opened fire on a car full of unarmed teenagers, killing one, in an altercation that police say stemmed from loud music.
Michael David Dunn, 45, acted "as any responsible firearms owner would have," his lawyer said of the Friday evening incident at a gas station outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Fla.
Dunn and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville for his son's wedding when they pulled up in their car next to the teens. Police allege that while the girlfriend was in the store, Dunn told Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and his three friends to turn down their music.
"It was loud," Jacksonville homicide Lt. Rob?Schoonover?said of the teens' music. "They admitted that. That's not a reason for someone to open fire."
After an exchange of words, Dunn began shooting with a handgun, Schoonover said.
"Nobody else in that vehicle was struck; it was just our victim [Davis], which was lucky because the vehicle was shot eight or nine times," Schoonover said.
Davis was in the back seat and was struck twice, reported The Orlando Sentinel.
Dunn and his girlfriend drove off and spent the night at their hotel, according to Schoonover, but witnesses took down his license plate number. Police arrested him Saturday morning at his home in Satellite Beach, Fla., on one charge of murder and three charges of attempted murder.
"His side of the story is he felt threatened and that is the reason he took action," Schoonover said.
On Monday, Dunn ? a gun collector who shot at local gun ranges, according to authorities ? pleaded not guilty in Brevard County court, with his attorney describing his actions as self-defense.
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"Once all the facts come out, that what really happened is known, it will be very clear that Mr. Dunn acted responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these same circumstances," said his attorney, Robin Lemonidis, reported?FirstCoastNews.com, the website for NBC station WTLV in Jacksonville.?
Dunn's 20-year-old daughter, Rebecca, told FirstCoastNews.com, "he just reacted," adding that his family was rallying behind him.?
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
Michael Dunn is accused of the shooting death of Jordan Davis.
"Everyone in his life loves him and everyone who met him, all of my friends are praying for him," she said.
Dunn, who had been in Brevard County Jail after his arrest, was transferred back to Duval County, where the shooting happened, on Tuesday. His?girlfriend won't face any charges.
"When she came out [of the convenience store], she asked him, 'What's going on?'" Schoonover said. "Supposedly his statement was, 'I just fired at these kids.' I don't know if he knew that he struck anyone in the vehicle. The next morning, I guess when they woke up in the hotel and saw on the news that someone was killed, that's when they got in their car and fled."
Davis, the victim, lived with his father in Florida, but was to be buried in Georgia ? where he was born ? on Saturday, reported jacksonville.com.
Davis' mother, Lucia McBath, who lives outside of Atlanta, asked that her son's death not be thought of as a hate crime.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
"We don't know where he was or what kind of dark place he was in at that moment, but something snapped in that man. Something snapped in him, so we are not looking at it as the hate crime because that's not going to honor Jordan," McBath told FirstCoastNews.com.
She said the fact that Dunn drove off after shooting Davis was "unconscionable."
Davis, a high school junior, had just gotten a job at McDonald's, picking up some extra cash after work, his mom said. At Thanksgiving the day before his death, he said he was thankful to God for his family, his mom told FirstCoastNews.com.
"He was just so excited and happy" for everything in his life, she said.?
She said the family is starting a foundation in his memory to help at-risk children.
"It didn't matter to Jordan if you needed the help, you needed the support ? he was going to give it to you no matter what side of the tracks you came from. So we feel it's really important to honor that in him," she said.
Ron Davis, the victim's father, added: "I was looking forward to as a parent to being there when he got married, being there when he found love. All the things that I'm not going to be able to do is what pains me."
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Holiday gift ideas for food and drink lovers. Now, I know that covers everyone because we all eat and drink but some of us care more about what we eat than others.
We are the connoisseurs, or gluttons if you will, or perhaps the wine or beer aficionado who talks incessantly about the new breweries or local wine. Hey, that's me! Anyway, I've come up with a list of ideas for the foodie (I was trying to avoid that word) in your life.
First, I think everyone should be giving gift certificates to restaurants, breweries and wineries with a note attached saying, "We're going together because part of this gift is that we are spending time together and enjoying great food and drink." So, we really could end all this holiday gift quandary right now.
However, if you want something a little bit different, get someone on your list a cooking class at Stages at One Washington in Dover. Chef Evan Hennessey's concept restaurant in the mills there has two or three themed dinners each month and the chef has thrown something new into the mix ? you can take a cooking class that cooks the dishes for a given dinner. Alice in Wonderland? Indulgence? Sounds like a ton of fun. The kitchen is spectacular, I really want to get my hands on some of that equipment and the food will be delicious. www.stages-dining.com
While we're on classes, take a brewing class. At A&G Homebrew Supply in Portsmouth and The Homebrew Barn in Hampton, you can get someone the gift of learning how to brew beer and wine or even cider, vinegar or make cheese. That's something you can do together, too! www.aghomebrewsupply.com and www.thehomebrewbarn.com.
In October I did something that was a heck of a lot of fun. Over at the Lindt Chocolate Outlet in Kittery they have Create Your Own Chocolate Bar set up where you get a tray with melted chocolate, which is just like a Lindt bar (so much so that it actually is a Lindt chocolate bar), and then you go over to the bar where you can festoon it with all sorts of treats like gummy sharks, hot cinnamon hearts, coconut, nuts ? oh about 30 or so fun "toppings" in all colors. Then, the expert there will put it into a machine to harden it, wrap it up and label it and voila! You have a personalized, creative, and delicious gift for someone. This is one of those things your kids can make and give to Grandma and Grandpa (which was always the difficult part at the holidays for me). It's just $10. Now, while I was there, I discovered all sorts of new things about Lindt, including chocolate bars I'd never seen before (the outlet has a vast selection including many made in other countries). They also introduced me to the technique of putting one of those Lindt truffle balls into my coffee. I had a big "hey why didn't I think of that" moment. They have their fun gold foil-covered bears and colorful foil Santas as well as many other chocolate figures this year too. www.lindtusa.com.
I'm also recommending, as did Oprah, the Corkcicle, which you put in the freezer, then your white wine and your wine stays nice and chilled. www.corkcicle.com.
The SodaStream is on my gift list too (you can carbonate vodka!) because you can make your own soda out of an infinite list of flavor possiblities (bacon!). www.sodastreamusa.com.
I'm thinking about getting a juicer too after seeing "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead," and there are many to choose from at all price points. I love kale and carrot juice, I really do!
There are many great food-related books on the top of my list this year, including "Pastries," by Alison Pray who owns Standard Baking Co. in Portland (co-writer Tara Smith) Down East Books. The book is wonderfully designed and the recipes are easy and tasty.
Timothy Ferriss just came out with "The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life" (Kindle Edition and in hardback from Amazon Books) His whole premise is that you can become a world-class chef in six months or less and he takes us from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world's fastest learners and greatest chefs.
Ferriss uses cooking to explain "meta-learning," a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real "recipe" of "The 4-Hour Chef." You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this "cookbook for people who don't buy cookbooks" is a guide to mastering cooking and life." I'm pretty intrigued by this. He brings you through meta-learning, then the building blocks of cooking, foraging and more before sending you on your way to lifelong mastery of everything.
Wine lovers will like "The Juice," by Jay McInerney. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). It's a collection of his columns from the Wall Street Journal and you learn about wine through entertaining and well-written stories from his life. He's quite an expert. He'll also be at The Music Hall Loft tonight (Nov. 29) if you can get there.
There is always a great new cookbook from Phaidon press to get, and this year it's "The Lebanese Kitchen," the definitive book on Lebanese home cooking, featuring 500 authentic and delicious recipes that are simple to create at home. Salma Hage is a Lebanese housewife from Mazarat Tiffah, with more than 50 years of experience as a family cook and the recipes are simple and elegant at the same time.
If you know any restaurateurs or anyone who works in a restaurant, get them "The Art of the Restaurateur," which reveals the hidden stories behind some of the world's best restaurants, and celebrate the complex but unrecognized art of the restaurateur. It's by Nicholas Lander who owned L'Escargot in London in the 1980s and is now a renowned food columnist for the Financial Times. It covers everything you ever wanted to know about the highs and lows of the restaurant business, presenting the untold stories of the world's best restaurateurs, from luxurious Michelin-starred restaurants, to bustling neighbourhood bistros, to stylish fast-food cafes.
I also like "Jerusalem" (Ten Speed Press, 2012). This is a collection of 120 recipes exploring the flavors of Jerusalem from the New York Times bestselling author of "Plenty," Yotam Ottolenghi along with Sami Tamimi. You'll explore the vibrant cuisine of their home city ? with its diverse Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities.
Also great is "Burma: Rivers of Flavor" by Naomi Duguid (Artisan, 2012). She tells terrific stories interspersed with 125 recipes and teaches you about the culture through food.
That's all for now! As I find more, I'll post them on my Facebook and Twitter pages so follow Rachel Forrest on both.
Rachel Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Exeter. Her column appears Thursdays in Go&Do. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in Spotlight magazine. Buy "Maine Classics: More Than 150 Delicious Recipes from Downeast," written by Chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier with Rachel Forrest at www.rachelforrest.com. She can be reached by e-mail at rachel.forrest@dowjones.com.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or fill out this form. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication.Food and drink lovers: Rachel Forrest's 2012 gift guide | SeacoastOnline.com
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If your gift recipients like Lindt chocolate, they'll love making their own giant bar.Andrew Moore courtesy photo
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Holiday gift ideas for food and drink lovers. Now, I know that covers everyone because we all eat and drink but some of us care more about what we eat than others.
We are the connoisseurs, or gluttons if you will, or perhaps the wine or beer aficionado who talks incessantly about the new breweries or local wine. Hey, that's me! Anyway, I've come up with a list of ideas for the foodie (I was trying to avoid that word) in your life.
First, I think everyone should be giving gift certificates to restaurants, breweries and wineries with a note attached saying, "We're going together because part of this gift is that we are spending time together and enjoying great food and drink." So, we really could end all this holiday gift quandary right now.
However, if you want something a little bit different, get someone on your list a cooking class at Stages at One Washington in Dover. Chef Evan Hennessey's concept restaurant in the mills there has two or three themed dinners each month and the chef has thrown something new into the mix ? you can take a cooking class that cooks the dishes for a given dinner. Alice in Wonderland? Indulgence? Sounds like a ton of fun. The kitchen is spectacular, I really want to get my hands on some of that equipment and the food will be delicious. www.stages-dining.com
While we're on classes, take a brewing class. At A&G Homebrew Supply in Portsmouth and The Homebrew Barn in Hampton, you can get someone the gift of learning how to brew beer and wine or even cider, vinegar or make cheese. That's something you can do together, too! www.aghomebrewsupply.com and www.thehomebrewbarn.com.
In October I did something that was a heck of a lot of fun. Over at the Lindt Chocolate Outlet in Kittery they have Create Your Own Chocolate Bar set up where you get a tray with melted chocolate, which is just like a Lindt bar (so much so that it actually is a Lindt chocolate bar), and then you go over to the bar where you can festoon it with all sorts of treats like gummy sharks, hot cinnamon hearts, coconut, nuts ? oh about 30 or so fun "toppings" in all colors. Then, the expert there will put it into a machine to harden it, wrap it up and label it and voila! You have a personalized, creative, and delicious gift for someone. This is one of those things your kids can make and give to Grandma and Grandpa (which was always the difficult part at the holidays for me). It's just $10. Now, while I was there, I discovered all sorts of new things about Lindt, including chocolate bars I'd never seen before (the outlet has a vast selection including many made in other countries). They also introduced me to the technique of putting one of those Lindt truffle balls into my coffee. I had a big "hey why didn't I think of that" moment. They have their fun gold foil-covered bears and colorful foil Santas as well as many other chocolate figures this year too. www.lindtusa.com.
I'm also recommending, as did Oprah, the Corkcicle, which you put in the freezer, then your white wine and your wine stays nice and chilled. www.corkcicle.com.
The SodaStream is on my gift list too (you can carbonate vodka!) because you can make your own soda out of an infinite list of flavor possiblities (bacon!). www.sodastreamusa.com.
I'm thinking about getting a juicer too after seeing "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead," and there are many to choose from at all price points. I love kale and carrot juice, I really do!
There are many great food-related books on the top of my list this year, including "Pastries," by Alison Pray who owns Standard Baking Co. in Portland (co-writer Tara Smith) Down East Books. The book is wonderfully designed and the recipes are easy and tasty.
Timothy Ferriss just came out with "The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life" (Kindle Edition and in hardback from Amazon Books) His whole premise is that you can become a world-class chef in six months or less and he takes us from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world's fastest learners and greatest chefs.
Ferriss uses cooking to explain "meta-learning," a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real "recipe" of "The 4-Hour Chef." You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this "cookbook for people who don't buy cookbooks" is a guide to mastering cooking and life." I'm pretty intrigued by this. He brings you through meta-learning, then the building blocks of cooking, foraging and more before sending you on your way to lifelong mastery of everything.
Wine lovers will like "The Juice," by Jay McInerney. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). It's a collection of his columns from the Wall Street Journal and you learn about wine through entertaining and well-written stories from his life. He's quite an expert. He'll also be at The Music Hall Loft tonight (Nov. 29) if you can get there.
There is always a great new cookbook from Phaidon press to get, and this year it's "The Lebanese Kitchen," the definitive book on Lebanese home cooking, featuring 500 authentic and delicious recipes that are simple to create at home. Salma Hage is a Lebanese housewife from Mazarat Tiffah, with more than 50 years of experience as a family cook and the recipes are simple and elegant at the same time.
If you know any restaurateurs or anyone who works in a restaurant, get them "The Art of the Restaurateur," which reveals the hidden stories behind some of the world's best restaurants, and celebrate the complex but unrecognized art of the restaurateur. It's by Nicholas Lander who owned L'Escargot in London in the 1980s and is now a renowned food columnist for the Financial Times. It covers everything you ever wanted to know about the highs and lows of the restaurant business, presenting the untold stories of the world's best restaurateurs, from luxurious Michelin-starred restaurants, to bustling neighbourhood bistros, to stylish fast-food cafes.
I also like "Jerusalem" (Ten Speed Press, 2012). This is a collection of 120 recipes exploring the flavors of Jerusalem from the New York Times bestselling author of "Plenty," Yotam Ottolenghi along with Sami Tamimi. You'll explore the vibrant cuisine of their home city ? with its diverse Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities.
Also great is "Burma: Rivers of Flavor" by Naomi Duguid (Artisan, 2012). She tells terrific stories interspersed with 125 recipes and teaches you about the culture through food.
That's all for now! As I find more, I'll post them on my Facebook and Twitter pages so follow Rachel Forrest on both.
Rachel Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Exeter. Her column appears Thursdays in Go&Do. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in Spotlight magazine. Buy "Maine Classics: More Than 150 Delicious Recipes from Downeast," written by Chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier with Rachel Forrest at www.rachelforrest.com. She can be reached by e-mail at rachel.forrest@dowjones.com.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or fill out this form. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication.
If you have kids, you know this situation all too well. You buy your toddler an adorable sweater khaki combo that they grow out of almost immediately, and it's back to the drawing board. But Spruceling, a Dreamit Ventures-backed company, is launching publicly today to disrupt the way parents shop for their children's clothing. Spruceling is an open marketplace that lets parents trade in their kids' clothes once they don't fit any more, naming their own price for the gently-used goods. Parents can also shop on the site, which is focused on the ages of 1 to 10 years old.
Bjango's iStat Menus is the gold standard of system monitoring tools. It's one of the first apps I bought when I switched back to the Mac, and it's one of the first apps I -- and almost every geeky/techy type I know -- installs when they get a new Mac. Originally designed as a Dashboard widget, iStat has since moved to the menu bar, and with iStat Menus 4, it's now completely, comfortably ensconced there with a bold new look and full on Retina support.
If you haven't used iStat Menus before, the gist is this -- it tells you everything you need to know, likely more than you need to know, about what's going on with your Mac. That includes CPU, memory, disk usage, network activity, battery status (if you're using a MacBook), and tons more. If you're already familiar with iStat Menus, new stuff includes per process network bandwidth monitoring, calendar events, history graphs across the board, more detailed GPU monitoring, the ability to change fan speed, SMART status monitoring to disks, and read/write IOPS to disks.
iStat Menus 4 offers a free 14-day trial. If you like it, you can buy it for $16. If you're an existing iStat Menus user, there's also upgrade pricing available.
Note: Bjango's Marc Edwards is a friend and co-host of mine, but I've been using and loving iStat since long before I met Marc. Still, don't take my word for it, grab the free trial and decide for yourself.
Amazon Web Services on Wednesday launched RedShift, an on-demand data warehouse service that is optimized for the analysis of huge sets of data. RedShift is "profoundly disruptive," said Merv Adrian, research vice president of information management at Gartner. Its success will move the economic boundary between on-premises and cloud usage and "data will seek its lowest-cost home more rapidly than before."
Actor Jared Leto arrives for the 22nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York Nov. 26.
If you fell in love with Jared Leto during his "My So Called Life" years, then please let us know if you're going to fall out of love with him now that he's entered the "shave my eyebrow" years.
The look, which made a debut during Monday's Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York, is supposedly for his role in the upcoming "Dallas Buyers Club," the same movie that Matthew McConaughey has lost what little extra heft he had.
Weight loss is one thing, but even Rooney Mara, as Lisbeth Salandar, didn't totally shave her eyebrows in "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." At a minimum, Leto gets points for going there.
To be fair, the actor's appearance has been evolving ever since his run as hunky Catalano ended. He's tried various looks as the?frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars, and has done major transformations for roles as well. (Remember when he played John Lennon's killer in "Chapter 27"?)
Governor Deval Patrick is rightly proud of the progress Massachusetts has made in health reform. Essentially every child has health insurance and nearly every adult, too. Businesses have not dropped coverage, and the state budget has not been busted. He hits some high points in a 2-minute video interview from SolomonMcCown.
He also offers some lessons for the Administration in implementing ObamaCare ?and while he makes some good points, overall the advice is not going to be a game changer.
He starts by noting that MA health reforms polls in the 70% range for favorability among Massachusetts residents, whereas the Affordable Care Act/ObamaCare is only 50%, despite being essentially the same thing. He attributes the difference to a lack of marketing by the feds.
He also notes that the in Massachusetts the coalition that invented health reform stayed together to refine it over time.
The suggestions are reasonable enough, but there are some problems with this take:
Actually it is rational for a person to support Massachusetts health reform but not ObamaCare. Count me as someone who supports both but is more bullish about the Massachusetts version. Massachusetts already had a high percentage of people under insurance, guaranteed issue, no medical underwriting, a high-wage economy that could support employer provided insurance, an uncompensated care fund, and generous Medicaid eligibility and benefits. It was less of a leap to reform in Massachusetts than it will be for the US as a whole, and there is room to argue for other approaches.
The Administration has tried to market reform, and while it could perhaps have done a better job, there is fervent?opposition?to marketing of the program. HHS Secretary Sebelius has been subpoenaed on the topic and opponents are not above spreading misinformation
We had (and still have) a broad based coalition for health reform in Massachusetts. Partly it?s just the structure of the system here, where no one is trying to go to war with the other party. The Affordable Care Act ending up being a Democrat-only event. Republicans blame the President for this; I don?t really buy that. But regardless, there never really was a coalition in the first place so it?s hard to ask them to stay together on improvements. But it is a good point that we should expect to need to make refinements over time
Opponents of the Massachusetts health care reform law did not work to overturn the bill or sabotage its implementation
So, good for Deval Patrick for touting Massachusetts and offering to help the President. But don?t hold your breath for a sudden turnaround.
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David E Williams
David E. Williams is co-founder of MedPharma Partners LLC, strategy consultant in technology enabled health care services, pharma, biotech, and medical devices. Formerly with BCG and LEK. MBA (Harvard), BA (Wesleyan)
"I JUST have to say pretty bluntly here: we've been there before." So said President Obama in 2010 as he ruled out a return to the moon. But there are signs on the NASA grapevine and from the world of commercial space flight that humans are once more headed that way.
A NASA crewed mission to lunar orbit could focus on exploring the moon's dark side and testing technologies to speed up exploration of Mars and other planets. Unfettered by the demands of state funding, a private mission may attempt something even more novel.
Since Obama's speech, there have been hints that NASA might be changing its tune. Rumour has it that the agency plans to build a hovering moon base about 60,000 kilometres above the moon's far side at a Lagrange point, where the pull of Earth's gravity cancels out the moon's. From this point ? called L2 ? astronauts would steer rovers round the surface in close to real time, much cheaper than actually landing on the moon.
NASA hasn't commented on the rumour, but the European Space Agency says it is collaborating with NASA on two lunar missions, one crewed and scheduled for 2019 (see "Europe has right stuff to take NASA back to moon").
Unexplored world
What's more, Jack Burns of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and colleagues, two of whom work for NASA, have written a paper, to appear in Advances in Space Research, that suggests what a mission to the far side might achieve (arxiv.org/abs/1211.3462).
An unexplored wilderness, the far side hosts one of the solar system's oldest and largest impact basins, the 8 kilometre deep South Pole-Aitkin basin, flagged as a research priority by the US National Research Council in 2011. It could help fill in a timeline for early solar system evolution and discover if impactors brought organics to the infant Earth. "The far side is effectively a whole new unexplored world in our own backyard," says Burns.
It may also be the only place near to Earth where it is possible to observe when and how the first stars and galaxies formed from the neutral hydrogen atoms that filled space in these cosmic "dark ages". The light from those ancient hydrogen atoms is still reaching Earth now, but gets drowned out by the ionosphere and signals from human technology.
Brains in orbit
Why control robots from L2, not Earth? It's a dry run for Mars, Burns says. The ability to hover above the Red Planet and operate robots on its surface would be a huge advantage. Currently, there is a 20-minute time lag each way when Earth talks to the Mars rover Curiosity, so each night the team sends up all the instructions for the next day. That makes things slow ? if something goes wrong you won't even know about it until the next day, let alone be able to fix it. Burns believes that space exploration in future will involve wheels, not (moon) boots, on the ground, and human brains in orbit.
Mars isn't the limit, adds Dan Lester of the University of Texas at Austin: "We could send human beings into orbit around Titan. They could do virtual scuba diving in the methane lakes." Burns's team is presenting the idea to NASA this week.
But wouldn't it be disappointing to merely orbit the moon or Mars, without planting any flags? Enter private companies. In recent weeks, space-minded media have been abuzz with a rumour that a new private outfit, allegedly staffed by former NASA astronauts and engineers, would soon announce its intention to put humans on the moon.
Even if it doesn't pan out, commercial outfits may be the ones to raise the funds for a crewed mission. Options include mining, tourism or even carrying out the stunt for the sake of publicity. A commercial mission may yet boldly go where governments fear to tread.
Reference: arxiv.org/abs/1211.3462
Read more: "Europe has right stuff to take NASA back to moon"
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ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) will buy a number of BP's North Sea assets for over $1.3 billion in a sign relations between Britain and the Gulf emirate are on the mend.
The deal comes weeks after a visit by Prime Minister David Cameron to the emirate amid reports BP was set to lose its major role in the oil sector of the United Arab Emirates because of strained relations between the two countries.
The sale suggests BP could still win back its positions in the UAE, where the oil giant played a big role from the start of the oil industry in the early 1930s.
For TAQA, the deal is important as it boosts access to North Sea production, home to the global oil benchmark Brent. Companies gain valuable insight into oil pricing patterns when they operate in North Sea fields.
"This is a vote of confidence in the UK economy and once again, highlights the North Sea's position as a global energy hub," Cameron was quoted in a TAQA statement as saying.
TAQA said the deal followed a constructive dialogue between the oil and gas industry and the U.K. Treasury, resulting in changes to the tax treatment of North Sea assets.
TAQA, owned 75 percent by the Abu Dhabi government, is the largest investor from the United Arab Emirates in Britain, having invested over $3 billion in four years.
BP, which needs cash for repayments as part of the settlement for its U.S. Macondo oil spill, said the TAQA deal brings its asset divestment program close to the targeted $38 billion as it has now entered into deals to sell assets worth around $37 billion.
BP said the sale will generate $1.058 billion plus future payments which, dependent on oil price and production, are expected to exceed $250 million.
BP will sell TAQA its interests in the Harding (70 percent), Maclure (37.03 percent), and Devenick (88.7 percent) fields in the Central North Sea.
TAQA will also increase its non-operated interests in the Brae area and associated transport infrastructure including the SAGE system, Forties-Brae and Forties-Braemar pipelines.
On completion, the acquisition is expected to increase TAQA's net production by approximately 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the current 40,000 boepd.
The deal will add 91 million boe to TAQA's reserves and add a second major development hub to TAQA's North Sea business, which is currently centered around the Northern sector.
TAQA's UK portfolio consists of the Brae Area assets, Beinn and Braemar fields, as well as the SAGE pipeline and onshore terminal, and the Brae-Miller Linkline. It has 100 percent operated equity in the Tern, Kestrel, Eider, Cormorant North, South Cormorant, Falcon and Pelican Fields.
It has a combined 26.73 percent interest in the Dana-operated Hudson field and a 24 percent interest in the Sullom Voe Terminal. TAQA also operates the Brent Pipeline System.
"This investment shows our commitment to the future of the North Sea. It is underpinned by the UK Government's commitment to long term fiscal stability," said Hamad al Hurr al Suwaidi, chairman of TAQA.
TAQA, which has investments in the energy and power sector from India to the Middle East and Canada, aims to spend around $2 billion per year on capital investments.
But it plans to cut spending in North America by 30 percent next year to weather a downturn in commodity prices, its chief executive said earlier this month after reporting a third quarter loss.
(Writing by Andrew Torchia and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Anna Willard)
This week?s highlights include Oprah?s ill-advised Surface love from her iPad, Facebook?s advertising bait & switch and Ben & Jerry?s Instagram campaign.
B.L. Ochman, @whatsnext, What?s Next Blog, ?Albert Maruggi, @albertmaruggi Marketing Edge Podcast & David Erickson @derickson of e-strategy Blog & The Daily Numbers, discuss all that and more in this edition of Beyond Social Media.
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Tagged as: Albert Maruggi, Ben & Jerry's, Beyond Social Media, BL Ochman, BSMedia, Facebook Advertising, Instagram, iPad, mark cuban, microsoft surface, Oprah, Photo Marketing, Social Media Marketing, twitter, Viral Videos, Visual Communications
Trophy lions include this stuffed specimen at an international hunting exposition in Dortmund, Germany, in 2011.
By Miguel Llanos, NBC News
If wildlife activists have their way, U.S. hunters trekking to Africa soon won't be able to bring back any lion skins or skulls as trophies.
Acting on a petition by those activists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday said it will study whether the species warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Born Free USA, one of the petition groups, called the review "the necessary first step toward ensuring a chance at survival for this beleaguered species."
African lion populations have seen "a substantial decline" over the past two decades and are estimated to be around 32,000,?according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which monitors species numbers globally.?
The threats include not only trophy hunters, but loss of habitat, humans eating lion meat, and commercial sale of their body parts, said?Adam Roberts, executive vice president of?Born Free USA.?
As humans move into lion habitat, he added, that increases "retaliatory killings, including by gruesome poisoning," of lions that go after livestock.
The Fish and Wildlife Service began a 60-day period to receive public and expert comment?on whether to list the species. The Asian lion was listed as endangered in 1970.
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator MegaFon says it has raised $1.7 billion in its public offering in Moscow and London.
MegaFon, the last of Russia's big three mobile company to hold an IPO, said on Wednesday that it sold 15 percent of its stock at $20 a share, the lower end of its target. The IPO thus valued the company at $11.1 billion, lower than analyst estimated.
MegaFon will be traded in the form of shares in Moscow and global depositary receipts in London.
A holding company owned by one of Russia's richest man, Alisher Usmanov, holds 55.8 percent in MegaFon while Sweden's TeliaSonera has 29 percent.
MegaFon is largely focused on the Russian market, unlike its competitors MTS and Vimpelcom which have expanded outside Russia.
Why You Should Grab: To get through your daily exercise, you create beat-shaking playlists to make your workouts just a bit more bearable. And since you've evolved beyond using your Walkman, Discman and boombox, your sleek new iPhone 5 now holds all those tunes. Protect your favorite device and make your runs easier with?a stylish, sports-active iPhone 5 arm band.
Why You?ll Love It: Working out is always better when you?ve got some heart-pumping jams in your ears. Unfortunately, desperately holding on to your iPhone while jogging is more of a burden than a help. With this stylish, yet functional armband, you?ll be hands-free so you can focus more on your workout, not your phone.?
What to Know: With its snug and comfortable fit, lightweight material, and slim, form-fitting design, you?ll barely notice it?s there as you pound the pavement. Sweat it out without worrying about ruining your device since the material is water-resistant and hand-washable. All you have to do is pick up the pace.
The end of the year is nearing and we here at Animoto believe there is nothing quite like an awesome video to recap your awesome year. So, we have made it dead-simple to create one.
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A portable, ground-based laser has successfully destroyed four rockets and zapped an unmanned aerial system in a series of tests designed to demonstrate the war-fighting technology, Lockheed Martin announced Tuesday.?
The security and aerospace company is building the Area Defense Anti-Munitions system to provide militaries with a defense against short-range threats. It could prove particularly useful as protection for forward operating bases.
ADAM?s tracking system can lock onto a target more than 3.1 miles distant and keep it in sight even in cluttered optical environments. Its 10 kilowatt laser can destroy targets up to 1.2 miles away.?
Earlier this summer, the company released a video showing the portable laser disable an Osprey UAV with an 11-foot wingspan at a range of 0.9 miles. The company today announced it has also ?destroyed four small-caliber rocket targets in simulated flight at a range of approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).?
The development adds to a growing list of high-tech weaponry that?s changing the face of war.?
Some systems, such as the Iron Dome, are already in use by the Israel Defense Forces to ground incoming rockets fired on densely populated cities. Others, such as killer robots, could reshape the battlefield in the future, unless a campaign to stop them prevails.?
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) ($999 list) is the latest version of the aluminum-clad thoroughbred series of external solid-state drives (SSDs), keeping a single user's data easily accessible at a moment's notice. With its Thunderbolt interface, it's one of the fastest drives we've ever tested, even rivaling a multi-mechanism RAID array costing twice as much. For the deadline-driven user that needed her job done yesterday, the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) is the Editor's Choice external drive to buy now.
Design and Features
Like the previous LaCie's Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (240GB SSD) ($899.99 list, 4 stars) , the 1TB SSD version of the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt is a pair of SSD drives installed into a 1.6-by-3.3-by-5.5-inch (HWD) chassis. All the drives in the Little Big Disk line (including the LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra ($450 list, 3.5 stars)) use the same chassis. The Little Big Disk chassis is constructed from aluminum, so the drive will survive the occasional drop in your commute bag. The sides are finned to help with passive cooling, so the tiny, single fan doesn't have to work too hard. That fan pumps out a bit of high-pitched noise, but thankfully the included Thunderbolt cable is long enough that you can put the drive behind your screen or into some other hidey hole. You can install the optional table stand for desktop use, but the drive works equally well without the stand. LaCie designed the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt to be a compact companion to Apple's line of MacBook Pro laptops, as well as Apple's desktop models.
The drive enclosure has two 512GB SATA III SSDs installed, giving you 1TB of combined storage space in RAID 0 (striping) configuration. The drive is set for RAID 0 out of the box. You can set the drive for RAID 1 (mirroring) using OS X's Disk Utility. RAID 1 will copy data to both SSDs simultaneously, giving you an instant backup at the expense of 500GB capacity. The included Thunderbolt cable (a $49 value) lets you plug the drive into any new Mac.
The drive has two Thunderbolt ports on the back (along with the jack for the AC adapter), so you can daisy chain several drives between your Mac and a Thunderbolt Display (or one with Mini DisplayPort). Unfortunately, like the other Little Big Disk drives, the 1TB SSD version is meant to be used on AC power: you can't power the drive solely from the Thunderbolt port, like the Editor's Choice for rugged portable drives, the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt (120GB SSD) ($299.99 list, 4.5 stars).
Since you can administer the RAID settings and erase the drive from OS X's Disk Utility, and since the drive is Time Machine compatible out of the box, the drive doesn't need any extra utilites. LaCie still includes a CD with LaCie Backup Assistant and the drive's documentation, plus you can download these files from www.lacie.com if you don't have an optical drive. The drive comes formatted for HFS+ (OS X native), but you can of course reformat the drive exFAT (an extension of FAT that supports 4GB+ files and is both Mac and PC compatible) or NTFS for PCs, provided your PC has a Thunderbolt port. The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) comes with a three-year warranty.
Performance
The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) is a speed demon. There, I've said it. The drive is capable of pushing 620MB/sec read, 380MB/sec write over the Thunderbolt cable, according to our AJA System Test. LaCie says it is capable of even faster performance with more drives daisy chained together. To put this into perspective, the Promise Pegasus R6 ($1,999 list, 3.5 stars) with six spinning hard drives costs twice as much, but manages a competitive 480MBps read, 620 MBps write score. This is astonishing, considering the price tags.
Generally, spinning drives are quicker to write to, but SSDs are quicker to read from. This is seen in the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series' Thunderbolt scores (379MBps read, 200MBps write using a single SSD) and the Western Digital My Book VelociRaptor Duo (Thunderbolt) (374MBps read, 343MBps write using two 10,000rpm spinning hard drives). The Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) took only six seconds to copy our standard 1.2GB test folder, the same as the Pegasus R6. All the other drives took as much as three times as long under Thunderbolt.
If you're looking for a semi-portable, semi-rugged drive for your Thunderbolt-equipped Mac or PC, the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) should be at the top of the list (if you can afford it). Users who need to read multiple huge files (like HD videos) will want the Little Big Disk for its capacity and blazing read speeds. Since it's SSD-based storage, you won't have to worry about drive mechanisms wearing out, so it's a perfect drive to hold scientific or graphic libraries that your programs or websites need every second of every day. It'll also make a great work drive, holding both scratch files and the time-sensitive data files (media, graphics, video, database, etc.) you're working on right now. Our last Editors' Choice external hard drive, the IoSafe Solo G3 (1 TB) ($299 direct) won because of its innovative protection scheme and literally bullet-proof chassis. While we don't expect that the Little Big Disk will survive a bullet or fire, it is more rugged than plastic-clad drives, and the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt is one of the fastest drives we've ever tested. For users who need their job done minutes ago, the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) is the one you want.
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) with several other hard drive side by side.
More hard drive reviews: ??? LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (1TB SSD) ??? Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo ??? G-Technology G-Drive Mobile ??? Pioneer DVR-XD10 ??? G-Technology G-Drive Slim ?? more
Whether reopening the case of Yasser Arafat's death will take Palestinians forward or backwards is being debated as forensic experts begin analyzing samples for radioactive poisoning.
By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / November 27, 2012
Blue tarp covers the entrance to Yasser Arafat's mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The remains of the late Palestinian leader were exhumed from his grave on Tuesday so international forensic experts could search for additional clues to his death, Palestinian officials said.
Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP
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Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?
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Palestinian officials opened the grave of Yasser Arafat in an effort to determine if he was poisoned eight years ago. Results of the tests are not expected for months.
Now that the exhumation and reburial of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is complete, the wait for results on cause of death begins. Suspicions that Israel poisoned him are widespread, and the results will put to rest eight years of questions about his rapid health deterioration and subsequent death.
Israel has vehemently denied being responsible for Mr. Arafat's death, and has even called for Palestinian officials to release his medical records to bolster their claims.?No autopsy was performed at the time, leaving doctors unable to determine the cause of death. When traces of polonium were found in July on some of Mr. Arafat's belongings that had been handed over to Al Jazeera, it revived the dormant debate, Agence France-Presse reports.
Even before the polonium discovery, many Palestinians suspected Israel was behind Arafat's death, according to AFP. Although he eventually signed a peace agreement with Israel, for a long time he was considered a terrorist by most Israelis for his many years of leading Palestinian resistance to Israel.?
Early this morning, forensic experts removed samples from his corpse, buried in Ramallah in the West Bank. Reuters reports that an analysis of the results isn't expected until March or April 2013.?Suspicions are boosted by the fact that Israel kept Arafat confined to his headquarters in Ramallah for the last 2.5 years of his life.
"We need to find the truth. It was very suspicious how he died, just like that, under siege from the Israelis,"?Ghada Nayfeh told the Guardian.
The Israelis had an opportunity to interfere with food deliveries which passed through their checkpoints during the siege. But they had no way of knowing who would be eating what and the fact that there was no mass poisoning inside the Muqata would mean that Arafat's food was contaminated by someone with direct access to it.?
The debate was revived when Arafat's widow, Suha, provided some of his belongings for a documentary and a Swiss institute found traces of polonium on them. However, there are still substantial doubts.
Polonium, apparently ingested with food, was found to have caused the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. But some experts have questioned whether Arafat could have died in this way, pointing to a brief recovery during his illness that they said was not consistent with radioactive poisoning. They also noted he did not lose all his hair.?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the suspicions this summer.?"Israel was not involved in the death of Arafat," he said in July, according to a separate AFP report. "All the medical files are in the hands of the Palestinians and it was not Israel who is preventing their publication."
Although many Palestinians still clamor for answers, many disagree with reopening the debate, AFP reports.
The late leader's nephew?Nasser al-Qidwa ? one of the most vocal critics of the entire process ? said he found the whole process disturbing and akin to a "desecration."
"No good can come out of this at all," Qidwa said in an interview. "It does no good to the Palestinians."
Qidwa argued that most people in the?West Bank?already believed that Arafat had been poisoned and did not require any further proof.
"I do not understand this exhumation," he lamented. "The French took all the samples they wanted (at the time of his death)."?
In an editorial today, The Jerusalem Post excoriated those behind the exhumation.
Not only is invaluable energy expended on deception at the expense of tackling actual problems, but fantastic convolutions of trumped up cloak and dagger stories don?t bolster the cause of genuine peace. Falsehoods negate peace.
Where the culture of mendacity reigns, trustworthy accords cannot grow. That?s why the latest twist in the ?Arafat assassination? tale matters.
But the Dubai-based newspaper The National makes the opposite argument in an editorial, insisting that whatever the results, they will provide much-needed closure.
It is possible that this latest inquiry will conclude natural causes, which would be closure of a sort. If high levels of polonium contamination are detected, indicating deliberate poisoning, it might simply raise more questions.
There would be no shortage of possible suspects. Many Palestinians consider Israel as the obvious culprit - the hostility of the Second Intifada and decades of unequal sparring would seem to provide clear motive. Polonium 210 is most often associated with nuclear reactors in Israel and Russia. Other theories have speculated that murky rivalries among Palestinian leaders may be to blame.
The uncertainty and suspicion is the most compelling argument to go forward with this investigation. Whether or not Arafat is viewed as a resistance hero, there must be closure about his death, so this mystery doesn't dog subsequent generations of Palestinian leaders.?
Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz.
If you have kids, you know this situation all too well. You buy your toddler an adorable sweater khaki combo that they grow out of almost immediately, and it's back to the drawing board. But 
![Oprahs Surface iPad Tweet Beyond Social Media: Oprahs Ill Advised Surface Tweet & Facebooks Bait & Switch [PODCAST]](http://e-strategyblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Oprahs-Surface-iPad-Tweet.jpg "Oprah's Surface iPad Tweet")
The end of the year is nearing and we here at Animoto believe there is nothing quite like an awesome video to recap your awesome year. So, we have made it dead-simple to create one.
