The ultimate video game: Teams compete in DARPA Robotics Challenge

Teams from eight countries competed in the first round of the challenge to develop a disaster-response robot.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 28, 2013

DARPA Virtual Robotic Challenge tasks included guiding the robot over different terrain, including uneven ground.

DARPA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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This is the ultimate video game.

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Except in this game, turning on a garden hose is an enormously difficult task, requiring huge teams of scientists and?decades of acquired technology.

About 26 teams from eight countries competed June 17-21 in the Virtual Robotics Challenge, the first round of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, using complex software to direct virtual robots in a cloud-based simulator that looks like a 3-D video game.

The overall challenge for the teams is to develop software that can operate a humanoid robot supplied by DARPA?(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) across a low-bandwidth network, which is expected to be the only type of network available to first responders in a disaster scenario.

This first round was a software competition in which teams used software of their own design to have a simulated ATLAS robot navigate a simulated disaster zone that looked something like suburbia gone wrong. For three days, competitors stared into computer screens in their respective far-flung labs and offices, instructing their virtual robots to complete a series of challenges, including driving a vehicle and walking over uneven ground. Robots also had to pick up a hose, connect it to a spigot, and turn it on.

?The disaster-response scenario is technically very challenging,? said Russ Tedrake, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?(MIT). ?It requires the robot and human operator to simultaneously perceive and gain an understanding for a complex, new environment, and then use that information to perform difficult manipulation tasks and traverse complex terrains.?

That means that the virtual robot must feed its raw sensor data back to its operating team, which then, with the help of the robot, must interpret its surroundings and enter instructions about where to move or how to manipulate objects. The team members then continuously asks the robot to share its plan, adjusting their requests and their suggestions until the robot provides a correct answer, at which point the robot is allowed to go on autonomously.

The top nine teams?received?funding and an ATLAS robot to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in December 2013. The trials are the second of three DARPA challenge events and will be the first time that the physical robots will compete.?

The overall winner of the first round was the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a team of some 22 researchers.?

?Getting in the car and driving was our biggest challenge,? said research scientist Jerry Pratt, the Florida Institute?s team leader. ?Walking ? we had that nailed.??

Other winners included Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MIT, and TRACLabs. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was also among the winning teams, donated its awarded funds to three runner-up teams that DARPA had not originally selected ? it had chosen six teams ? putting the total to nine teams that will compete in the second round.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/PBDJMTH2gNU/The-ultimate-video-game-Teams-compete-in-DARPA-Robotics-Challenge

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Algae shows promise as pollution-fighter, fuel-maker

June 27, 2013 ? A hardy algae species is showing promise in both reducing power plant pollution and making biofuel, based on new research at the University of Delaware.

The microscopic algae Heterosigma akashiwo grows rapidly on a gas mixture that has the same carbon dioxide and nitric oxide content as emissions released from a power plant.

"The algae thrive on the gas," said Kathryn Coyne, associate professor of marine biosciences in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. "They grow twice as fast and the cells are much larger in size compared to when growing without gas treatment."

The algae also make large amounts of carbohydrates, which can be converted into bioethanol to fuel vehicles. The findings could have industrial applications as a cost-effective way to cut greenhouse gas pollution when paired with biofuel production.

Heterosigma akashiwo is found worldwide in the natural environment. Coyne, an expert in algal blooms, discovered that the species may have a special ability to neutralize nitric oxide -- a harmful gas that poses threats to environmental and human health.

That characteristic prompted Coyne and her team to investigate whether the algae could grow on carbon dioxide without getting killed off by the high nitric oxide content in power plants' flue gas, which had foiled similar attempts by other scientists using different types of algae.

A yearlong laboratory experiment shows that Heterosigma akashiwo not only tolerates flue gas, but flourishes in its presence. The algae also do not need any additional nitrogen sources beyond nitric oxide to grow, which could reduce costs for raising algae for biofuel production.

"This alone could save up to 45 percent of the required energy input to grow algae for biofuels," Coyne said.

Funded by the Delaware Sea Grant College Program, Coyne and her collaborator, Jennifer Stewart, plan to further study how changes in conditions can enhance the growth of Heterosigma akashiwo. So far, they found a large increase in carbohydrates when grown on flue gas compared to air. They also see correlations between the levels of light given to the algae and the quantity of carbohydrates and lipids present in the organisms.

The researchers are exploring opportunities for partnerships with companies to scale up the growth process and more closely examine Heterosigma akashiwo as a biofuel producer.

The prospects could support a national focus on carbon pollution reduction following President Barack Obama's major speech this week on climate change.

"Our approach to the issue is to not just produce biofuels, but to also use this species for bioremediation of industrial flue gas to reduce harmful effects even further," Coyne said.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/7VLXIQLkvY4/130627141728.htm

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With New Initiative ?Galactic,' PayPal Wants To Own Payments And Commerce In Space

In a slightly bizarre announcement today, PayPal is debuting PayPal Galactic, an initiative to own universal payments and commerce in space. Yes, outer space.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fmw4kb4fx38/

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Singing and praying for Mandela

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Members of a South African choir have prayed and sung outside a hospital where Nelson Mandela, the country's former president, is reported to be in critical condition.

In addition to the choir from the Salvation Army, other people arrived Thursday to deliver flowers and messages of support for 94-year-old Mandela at the hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital.

Members of the youth league of the country's ruling party, the African National Congress, were planning prayer meetings Thursday to honor the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

President Jacob Zuma canceled a trip to Mozambique on Thursday in an indication of heightened concern about Mandela, whose health deteriorated last weekend.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africans-sing-pray-mandela-092445330.html

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High court gay marriage decisions due Wednesday

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court is meeting to deliver opinions in two cases that could dramatically alter the rights of gay people across the United States.

The justices are expected to decide their first-ever cases about gay marriage Wednesday in their last session before the court's summer break. Hours before the court was to issue its rulings, crowds began lining up outside the Supreme Court building in hopes of getting a seat inside the courtroom.

The issues before the court are California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies legally married gay Americans a range of tax, health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

The broadest possible ruling would give gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. But several narrower paths also are available, including technical legal outcomes in which the court could end up saying very little about same-sex marriage.

If the court overturns California's Proposition 8 or allows lower court rulings that struck down the ban to stand, it will take about a month for same-sex weddings to resume for the first time since 2008, San Francisco officials have said.

The high court rulings are arriving amid rapid change regarding gay marriage. The number of states permitting same-sex partners to wed has doubled from six to 12 in less than a year, with voter approval in three states in November, followed by legislative endorsement in three others in the spring.

At the same time, an effort to legalize gay marriage in Illinois stalled before the state's legislative session ended last month. And 30 states have same-sex marriage bans enshrined in their constitutions.

Among those waiting outside for the opportunity to hear the justices read their opinions was Ian Holloway, 34, of Los Angeles, who said he and his partner were optimistic the court would strike down his state's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in his state.

"We have rings ready. We're ready to go as soon as the decision comes down," he said. Others outside the court carried signs reading "2 moms make a right" and "I Do' Support Marriage Equality."

While most spectators appeared to be in favor of gay marriage, there were those against. Larry Cirignano, 57, said he had driven four hours from his home in Far Hills, N.J., when he heard Wednesday would be decision day. He carried a sign that read "M=" followed by symbols for man and woman.

Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, in 2004. Same-sex marriage also is legal, or soon will be, in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Roughly 18,000 same-sex couples got married in California in less than five months in 2008, after the California Supreme Court struck down a state code provision prohibiting gay unions.

California voters approved Proposition 8 in November of that year, writing the ban into the state's constitution.

Two same-sex couples challenged the provision as unconstitutional and federal courts in California agreed.

The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits. Another provision not being challenged for the time being allows states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.

DOMA easily passed Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the year of his re-election.

Several federal district and appeals courts struck down the provision. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continued to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts. President Barack Obama subsequently endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-gay-marriage-decisions-due-wednesday-071439132.html

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Discovery launches trio of TV streaming apps for Windows Phone

Windows Phone 8 users whose TV habits revolve around MythBusters, Cake Boss and cute pets are in luck: Discovery has just posted three apps for their platform of choice. The new Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and TLC releases share the same basic template, letting fans check show schedules and stream either brief clips or a smattering of full-length episodes. All of the apps support Windows Phone's live tiles, voice commands and calendar reminders, although they're otherwise simple; they lack the second screen features we've seen in iOS versions. If you're just hoping to watch some Auction Kings on the bus, however, you can get your fix through the Windows Phone store today.

Filed under: Cellphones, HD, Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/discovery-launches-trio-of-tv-streaming-apps-for-windows-phone/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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HTC One Google Play edition hands-on (video)

Samsung might have pleasantly surprised us with a Galaxy S 4 running stock Android at Google I/O last month, but it wasn't long before HTC followed suit with its own announcement regarding the One. Officially known as the HTC One Google Play edition, the phone is now available in the Play store for $599 alongside the aforementioned Galaxy S 4. When it comes to specs, the handset is a dead ringer for AT&T's 32GB version and incorporates the same radios (with LTE support). It features Qualcomm's 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC with 2GB or RAM, a 4.7-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 display, an Ultrapixel camera (4MP) with OIS and flash and a sealed 2300mAh Li-polymer battery. We finally played with it yesterday and came away rather smitten. Read on for our first impressions and hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: HTC One Google Play edition hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Google

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/htc-one-google-play-edition-hands-on-video/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Emmys: Monica Potter's 'Parenthood' cancer battle began with her own real-life scare

By Jethro Nededog

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Monica Potter's journey through the experiences of a mom with cancer on NBC's "Parenthood" actually began with her own medical scare. "When I went in last year for a mammogram, my first one, they said they found something," Potter told TheWrap.

On the heels of the discovery, the 41-year-old mother of three went home and emailed executive producer Jason Katims, pitching a cancer storyline in the show's fourth season for her character Christina. "He emailed me back and said, ?I have the chills, because we just broke that in the writers room,'" she remembered. "We were able to go on the journey together." (For his part, Katims also had a personal connection to the subject - his wife is a breast cancer survivor who is more than two years cancer-free.)

Luckily, Potter's scare ended up with the diagnosis of a benign cyst and a clean bill of health. But instead of delving into research on the subject of cancer, Potter said she went into the season with very little preparation for a storyline that took her character through diagnosis, chemotherapy and then remission. "I didn't want to know anything about what goes on with breast cancer and the treatments for it, because I wanted to experience it with the character along the way."

That's actually very strange for the Cleveland-born actress, who considers herself very "Type A" when it comes to preparation and who has gotten ribbing from colleagues for her methods. "I'll take a script, I'll rip it apart, I'll highlight, I'll staple each scene.

Sometimes, we shoot two at the same time, so I'll put them in categories," she said. "This year, I decided that I wasn't going to do that. I wasn't going to sit there and pull the scripts apart, and I wasn't going to have to know everything."

Not only did viewers react favorably to Christina's battle with cancer, but critics did, too. Potter recently won a Critics Choice Television Award for the portrayal and is getting a lot of Emmy buzz as well.

"I'm so excited and I'm so thrilled," she said. "And it's cool, because my boys are older, and they've seen me work at this since I was in my early 20s." Her career began, she said, when Danny, who was born in 1990 and is the oldest of her three children, was about 3.

"We'd travel all over and live in hotels, and I'd work and try to get paid. And the Critics Choice was the first award I'd ever been nominated for. To me, that's the best part of it all, to see the kids and their excitement. It shows hard work and dedication and loving what you do can be celebrated. And it's kind of awesome."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emmys-monica-potters-parenthood-cancer-battle-began-her-180347368.html

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Mad scientists turn roaches into cyborgs, control them with Kinect, laugh at nature

We'd love to tell you that the researchers at North Carolina State University aren't monsters who implant circuits on living things so that those living things do their bidding, but we'd be lying. They totally do that, roaches are their primary victim, and now they're using Microsoft's Kinect to help them control the insects. Sure, why not!

As Dr. Alper Bozkurt of NCSU says in today's new release, "Our goal is to be able to guide these roaches as efficiently as possible, and our work with Kinect is helping us do that." Apparently the researchers are employing Kinect for data collection as well, determining how effectively the cyborg survivors respond to electrical impulse-motivated control. They say the end goal is to use the partially mechanized arthropods to, "explore and map disaster sites." For now, there's some very weird stuff happening in North Carolina. Head below for a video of the roaches in action.

Filed under: Misc, Robots, Science, Software, Alt, Microsoft

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Source: North Carolina State University

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Why China has a 'one dog policy'

Nothing goes unregulated in China. Even China?s ?one child policy? has a little known canine equivalent: Only one dog per household in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / June 24, 2013

Dogs wonder around while their owners check marble bracelets at a market in Beijing, China, April 2, 2013.

Alexander F. Yuan/AP

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Western human rights activists have never made much of a fuss about it, but China?s ?one child policy? has a little known canine equivalent.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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The ?one dog policy? means what it says. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, each household is allowed only one?canis lupus familiaris.? Nor are urban pet lovers allowed just any kind of dog.

?Vicious? dogs are outlawed. But so is every other dog that is likely to stand more than 14 inches high when it is fully grown.

That means no Rottweilers, St. Bernards or Great Danes, of course. But it also rules out keeping a Dalmatian, a Bloodhound, or a Chow.

Officials say the law is a public health measure, aimed at protecting citizens from strays. More people die of rabies in China than anywhere else in the world save India, they point out.

This being China, nothing goes unregulated. (Though this being China, the regulations are by no means always enforced: The number of outsized Tibetan Mastiffs you see being paraded around town as status symbols is testimony to that.) So each dog must, like his or her owner, have a ?residence permit.?

The plastic permits look very like Chinese ID cards, with the dog?s photo, name, sex, and type printed on it. The reverse of a Beijing resident-dog-license is decorated with ? what else? ? a Pekinese. And it doesn?t come cheap: $160 the first year and $80 a year after that.

Failure to register your dog risks an even costlier punishment ? an $800 fine.

Keeping dogs as pets is not really a Chinese tradition, though in the countryside farmers may keep guard dogs or hunting dogs. In fact, pooches are as often eaten than pampered in this part of the world, despite the best efforts of nascent animal rights groups.

Last week, for example, residents of Yulin in the southern province of Guangxi, got through about 10,000 dogs at their annual summer solstice dog meat festival, according to activists. Most of them were served in a traditional hotpot with lychees and grain liquor.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/-kiyfcH9pkI/Why-China-has-a-one-dog-policy

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Vietnam vets with PTSD more than twice as likely to have heart disease

June 25, 2013 ? Male twin Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were more than twice as likely as those without PTSD to develop heart disease during a 13-year period, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.

This is the first long-term study to measure the association between PTSD and heart disease using objective clinical diagnoses combined with cardiac imaging techniques.

"This study provides further evidence that PTSD may affect physical health," said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which partially funded the study. "Future research to clarify the mechanisms underlying the link between PTSD and heart disease in Vietnam veterans and other groups will help to guide the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies for people with these serious conditions."

The findings appear online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and in the September 10 print issue.

Researchers from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, along with colleagues from other institutions, assessed the presence of heart disease in 562 middle-aged twins (340 identical and 222 fraternal) from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. The incidence of heart disease was 22.6 percent in twins with PTSD (177 individuals) and 8.9 percent in those without PTSD (425 individuals). Heart disease was defined as having a heart attack, having an overnight hospitalization for heart-related symptoms, or having undergone a heart procedure. Nuclear scans, used to photograph blood flow to the heart, showed that individuals with PTSD had almost twice as many areas of reduced blood flow to the heart as individuals without PTSD.

The use of twins, identical and fraternal, allowed researchers to control for the influences of genes and environment on the development of heart disease and PTSD.

"This study suggests a link between PTSD and cardiovascular health," said lead researcher Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the department of medicine at Emory University and chair of the department of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. "For example, repeated emotional triggers during everyday life in persons with PTSD could affect the heart by causing frequent increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and heartbeat rhythm abnormalities that in susceptible individuals could lead to a heart attack."

When researchers compared the 234 twins where one brother had PTSD and the other did not, the incidence of heart disease was almost double in those with PTSD compared to those without PTSD (22.2 percent vs. 12.8 percent).

The effects of PTSD on heart disease remained strong even after researchers accounted for lifestyle factors such as smoking, physical activity level, and drinking; and major depression and other psychiatric diagnoses. Researchers found no link between PTSD and well-documented heart disease risk factors such as a history of hypertension, diabetes or obesity, suggesting that the disease may be due to physiologic changes, not lifestyle factors.

Affecting nearly 7.7 million U.S. adults, PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops in a minority of people after exposure to a severe psychological trauma such as a life-threatening and terrifying event. People with PTSD may have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their trauma, may experience sleep problems, often feel detached or numb, and may be easily startled. According to a 2006 analysis of military records from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, between 15 and 19 percent of Vietnam veterans experienced PTSD at some point after the war.

The study used state-of-the-art imaging scans with positron emission tomography, which measures blood flow to the heart muscle and identifies areas of reduced blood flow, at rest and following stress.

The study was supported by grants from NHLBI (K24HL077506), (R01 HL68630), and (R21HL093665), the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG026255), the National Institute of Mental Health (K24 MH076955), and by the American Heart Association. Support also was provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR000454) and the National Center for Research Resources (MO1-RR00039).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/5eQ77U24Akc/130625162233.htm

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Carrey kicks his 'Kick-Ass 2' for being too violent

Movies

Randee Dawn NBC News contributor

6 hours ago

Universal

Jim Carrey in "Kick-Ass 2."

"Kick-Ass 2" won't be in theaters until August, but it already has a major detractor slamming the film on Twitter: Jim Carrey, one of its stars.

Carrey took to Twitter on Sunday to denounce the film, a satirical look at the superhero genre that's a follow up to 2010's "Kick-Ass," saying that he could no longer support the film in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. last December.

The 51-year old actor, who plays Col. Stars and Stripes and pairs up with the titular superhero, later added:

The film began shooting in July 2012 and wrapped production around Thanksgiving of last year.

The creator of the comic book series "Kick-Ass" is based on, Mark Millar, shot back at the Twitter comments on his website's comments forum.

After praising Carrey's talents and his performance in the film, Millar says he was "baffled by this sudden announcement" and Carrey's timing of his thoughts. "Nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago," he added.

"Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence," wrote Millar, "but 'Kick-Ass 2' isn't a documentary. ... ('K)ick-Ass' avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead on the CONSEQUENCES of violence. ... Ironically, Jim's character in 'Kick-Ass 2' is a Born-Again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place."

Millar also said that "our audience is smart enough to know they're all pretending and we should instead just sit back and enjoy the serotonin release of seeing bad guys meet bad ends as much as we enjoyed seeing the Death Star (in "Star Wars") exploding."

Carrey has been a proponent of gun control for some time, and recently made headlines by mocking gun enthusiasts in a short video reminiscent of "Hee Haw." He also wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post in April, looking for some form of moderation.

"(Gun control) thugs, though menacing, are a minority but they will have their way if good people don't step forward now and make a difference," he said. "Every American has the right to speak their mind. Every American has the right to bear arms. But it is up to every American to draw the line when it comes to the type of guns that are considered a reasonable means of self-defense."

(Warning: Video has some vulgar language.)

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/jim-carrey-slams-his-kick-ass-2-film-being-too-6C10424009

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What is the best cruise ship for first-time cruisers? | CruiseSource

I have plenty of friends who have yet to go on a cruise vacation.? Not surprising due to the fact that about 70% of the US still has not been on a cruise vacation.

They each have their own reasons for not trying it out yet from thinking there is not enough to do on a cruise ship to concerns about motion sickness. ?Plus many of my friends seem to have stuck with their childhood family vacation traditions like renting a beach house for a week in the summer.

But, after hearing from their friends how their recent cruise experience or seeing their friends cruise photos on Facebook my cruise rookie friends start asking me questions about what would be a good cruise for them to test-out to see if cruising is for them.

When they say ?test-out?, they are saying ?what is a short 3 to 4 day cruise that we can go on to see what this whole cruising thing is all about.?

The issue is that most 3 to 5 night cruises are on slightly older ships that are not a true representation of what cruising is all about in 2013.? ?The cruise lines have pushed the envelope over the last 5 years with innovative new ships that are engineering masterpieces.

The cruise lines deploy their newest most innovative ships on 7+ night cruise vacation, with the exception of Royal Caribbean?s Liberty of the Seas.??Making the Liberty of the Seas my top recommendation for 1st time cruisers. ?[Help spread the word to your first-time cruisers]

The Liberty of the Seas was launched in 2007. Although 6 years old, there are only a few cruise ships larger than the Liberty of the Seas.? ?The Liberty of the Seas offers:

• Rock-climbing wall
• Ice-skating rink
• Mini-golf course
• Full-sized basketball court
• Full-sized boxing ring
• 4 pools
• 10 Whirlpools, with 2 of them overlooking the ocean
• State of the Art Fitness facility offering Yoga and Tai Chi classes.

The Liberty of the Seas is the largest, most innovative cruise ship offering 4 ? 5 night cruises.? ?From November 2013 ? April 2014, the Liberty of the Seas will be sailing from Ft Lauderdale on 4 and 5 night Caribbean Voyages starting at low as $249 + taxes per person*!? ??Click to search for rates and availability.?

90% of the time, I try to get my first time cruising friends on the Liberty of the Seas. ?For some families with a bigger budget, I find the 3 ? 4 nt. Disney Dream Cruise to be great place to start.

*$249 per person rate is on the 4 night December 12th, 2013 departure of the Liberty of the Seas.?

Click Liberty of the Seas photos below to enlarge:

Captain Surfing Flowrider

Pool Deck

Full Court Basketball

Ice Skating with the Kids

Photo of balconies by ade_rob

Credit: roger4336 on Flickr

?

Source: http://cruisesource.us/2013/06/best-ship-for-first-time-cruisers/

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'Monsters' beats zombies, Superman at box office

En esta imagen promocional difundida por Disney-Pixar, los personajes de Mike, en la voz de Billy Crystal, a la izquierda, y el profesor Knight, cuya voz hace Alfred Molina, a la derecha, en una escena de la cinta animada "Monsters University". (AP Foto/Disney-Pixar)

En esta imagen promocional difundida por Disney-Pixar, los personajes de Mike, en la voz de Billy Crystal, a la izquierda, y el profesor Knight, cuya voz hace Alfred Molina, a la derecha, en una escena de la cinta animada "Monsters University". (AP Foto/Disney-Pixar)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Turns out zombies and Superman are no match for monsters.

Disney's "Monsters University" is the weekend box-office winner, according to studio estimates released Sunday. The animated family film, which reunites stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman and their characters from the 2001 hit "Monsters, Inc.," debuted in first place with $82 million, beating out swarming zombies in "World War Z" and Superman himself in "Man of Steel."

"The diversity of this weekend is part of what makes this business so great," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution. "It's a really extraordinary weekend for the industry."

Especially for "Monsters University," Pixar's 14th consecutive film to open in first place. Such expectations of excellence put a "healthy pressure" on filmmakers, Hollis said: "To deliver that kind of quality consistently is a differentiator in the marketplace."

Still, the film exceeded studio expectations with its domestic totals, he said.

Paramount's Brad Pitt zombie romp overcame critical advance publicity to open in second place with $66 million. Media reports months ahead of the film's opening chronicled its problems, including a revamped ending that delayed its release.

Rewrites and reshoots sent the film over budget. It ended up reportedly costing more than $200 million to make, but early reviews were positive.

"What 'World War Z' proves is that all the negative backstory that can be thrown at a movie doesn't matter if the movie's good," said Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "I don't think the audience cares one lick if they had to reshoot the ending if they like the ending and like the movie."

The success of the film means it could be a franchise in the making. Paramount's president of domestic distribution, Don Harris, called the opening "spectacular."

"It's the biggest live-action original opening since 'Avatar,'" he said. "(It's) Brad Pitt's biggest opening ever, and in terms of Paramount's recent history, it ranks behind 'Iron Man' and 'Transformers' as the third largest potential franchise opening in the history of the company."

Warner Bros. "Man of Steel" was third at the box office, adding another $41.2 million to its coffers and bringing its domestic ticket sales over $210 million in just the second week of release.

The Sony comedy "This Is the End," which stars Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jonah Hill as versions of themselves trapped in a mansion during the apocalypse, finished in fourth place.

Summit Entertainment's magic-heist thriller "Now You See Me" held onto fifth place in its fourth week in theaters.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. "Monsters University," $82 million ($54.5 million international).

2. "World War Z," $66 million ($45.8 million international).

3. "Man of Steel," $41.2 million ($89 million international).

4. "This Is the End," $13 million.

5. "Now You See Me," $7.87 million ($6.6 million international).

6. "Fast & Furious 6," $4.7 million ($11.2 million international).

7. "The Internship," $3.43 million ($3.2 million international).

8. "The Purge," $3.41 million ($1.1 million international).

9. "Star Trek: Into Darkness," $3 million ($4.9 million international).

10. "Iron Man 3," $2.2 million ($400,000 international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Man of Steel," $89 million.

2. "Monsters University," $54.5 million.

3. "World War Z," $45.8 million.

4. "After Earth," $13.4 million.

5. "Fast & Furious 6," $11.2 million.

6. "The Hangover Part III," $8.6 million.

7. "Now You See Me," $6.6 million.

8. "Despicable Me 2," $6.4 million.

9. "The Great Gatsby," $5.5 million.

10. "Star Trek: Into Darkness," $4.9 million.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-23-Box%20Office/id-3f4791da00824a0e8845575db8a96062

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Sun emits a solstice CME

June 22, 2013 ? On June 20, 2013, at 11:24 p.m., the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later. These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.

Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 1350 miles per second, which is a fast speed for CMEs.

Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they funnel energy into Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. The CME's magnetic fields peel back the outermost layers of Earth's fields changing their very shape. Magnetic storms can degrade communication signals and cause unexpected electrical surges in power grids. They also can cause aurora. Storms are rare during solar minimum, but as the sun's activity ramps up every 11 years toward solar maximum -- currently expected in late 2013 -- large storms occur several times per year.

In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength and direction have usually been mild.

In addition, the CME may pass by additional spacecraft: Messenger, STEREO B, Spitzer, and their mission operators have been notified. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/IpwnFNziCYY/130622154606.htm

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United States urges Hong Kong to act soon on Snowden extradition

DEAR ABBY: I was taken away from my parents at 13 and placed into foster care, where I stayed until I aged out at 21. My biological mother is a drug addict who abandoned me to my father when I was 11. She never tried to contact me while I was in care.I am now 24 and she won't leave me alone. She sends Facebook messages that alternate between begging me to let her get to know me, and condemning me for being vindictive and not having forgiveness in my heart. Abby, this woman exposed me to drugs and all manner of seedy people and situations. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/united-states-urges-hong-kong-act-soon-snowden-191402653.html

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Hong Kong says Snowden has left for third country

HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday.

Hong Kong's government did not identify the country. Snowden, who has been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks since he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs, has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland.

However, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency cited an unidentified Aeroflot official as saying Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela. The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group tweeted that Snowden was "over Russian air space" and later said in a statement he was bound for an unnamed "democratic nation via a safe route for the purpose of asylum."

The White House had no immediate comment about Snowden's departure, which came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and gave a pointed warning to Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."

It acknowledged the U.S. extradition request, but said U.S. documentation did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

The statement said Hong Kong had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies which Snowden had revealed.

WikiLeaks said it was providing legal help to Snowden at his request and that he was being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from the group. Its founder, Julian Assange, who has spent a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his organization is in a position to help because it has expertise in international asylum and extradition law.

Snowden's departure eliminates a possible fight between Washington and Beijing at a time when China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance of American government and commercial operations. Hong Kong, a former British colony, has a high degree of autonomy and is granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland China, but under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.

Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but the document has some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.

The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against delaying Snowden's extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News, "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."

Snowden's departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from Snowden that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's cellphone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs.

He told the newspaper that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the newspaper in a June 12 interview.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cellphone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.

Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.

The Chinese government has not commented on the extradition request and Snowden's departure, but its state-run media have used Snowden's allegations to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations.

A commentary published Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."

"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."

____

Sylvia Hui in London and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-says-snowden-left-third-country-081745849.html

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Russian NGO forcibly evicted from Moscow office

MOSCOW (AP) ? Law enforcement agents forcibly evicted the head of one of Russia's leading human rights groups and about a half dozen others from his Moscow office early Saturday, in the latest attack on a Russian non-governmental organization.

Lev Ponomaryov, 72, who heads For Human Rights, said he was beaten all over his body when security forces stormed the building at around 2 a.m. and dragged him out. Dozens of riot police had raided the office on Friday and ordered employees to leave, but they had refused.

Russia's human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, said the NGO was evicted illegally from the city-owned property. The organization has had difficulties extending the lease, but Lukin said it had the right to remain until the issue was resolved in court.

The U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House condemned the "violent assault" and called on the international community to "register its strong opposition to such thuggish tactics."

For Human Rights is one of hundreds of Russian non-governmental organizations that have come under pressure in recent months as part of President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on dissent following unprecedented street protests last year.

Many organizations have been raided to check compliance with a new law that requires all NGOs that receive foreign funding and engage in vaguely defined political activities to register as foreign agents, a term that carries Cold War connotations of spying. Putin has accused the U.S. State Department of funding Russian NGOs with the aim of undermining his government.

Ponomaryov, with what appeared to be a bruise under his left eye, returned to the street outside his office on Saturday afternoon to speak with supporters. He said doctors had counted dozens of small bruises on his body as the result of a "rapid-fire beating" as he was being dragged across the floor.

Moscow police said its officers were at the scene, but the forced eviction was carried out by a private security firm. Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party, who was among those evicted, said the operation was directed by a man in plainclothes who appeared to be a security services officer, the Gazeta.ru news portal reported.

Amnesty International said it sent a representative to Ponomaryov's office on Friday to observe the raid.

"In Russia, we have witnessed how authorities are using every trick in the box to stop human rights activists criticizing their policies," the group said in a statement. "The attempt to evict For Human Rights from publicly owned offices seems to be yet another attempt to block their important human rights work."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-ngo-forcibly-evicted-moscow-office-121338410.html

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Obama to meet with privacy, civil liberties board

FILE - This Sept. 19, 2007 file photo shows the National Security Agency building at Fort Meade, Md. As many as one of every five worldwide terror threats picked up by U.S. government surveillance has been targeted on the United States, the Obama administration says. But officials are reluctant to say much more about the 50 plots they claim have been thwarted. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - This Sept. 19, 2007 file photo shows the National Security Agency building at Fort Meade, Md. As many as one of every five worldwide terror threats picked up by U.S. government surveillance has been targeted on the United States, the Obama administration says. But officials are reluctant to say much more about the 50 plots they claim have been thwarted. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is holding his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board Friday as he seeks to make good on his pledge to have a public discussion about secretive government surveillance programs.

Obama has said the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will play a key role in that effort. The federal oversight board reviews anti-terror programs to ensure that privacy concerns are taken into account.

The president is also tasking the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to consider declassifying more details about the government's collection of U.S. phone and Internet records. Obama is specifically asking Clapper to review possible declassification of opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the surveillance efforts.

Obama's meeting with the board was taking place Friday afternoon, but the White House wasn't planning to allow press coverage.

The government has already lifted some of the secrecy surrounding the programs following disclosures earlier this month about their existence by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. But the legal opinions from the highly secretive court remain private.

The privacy board was created in 2004 but has operated fitfully ever since, given congressional infighting and at times, censorship by government lawyers. The board was dormant during Obama's first term and only became fully functional in May, before the NSA programs became public.

The board's chairman, David Medine, said the five-member group has a "broad range of questions" to ask about the NSA's widespread collection programs. The board was given a classified briefing on the programs last week and plans to release a report eventually with recommendations for the government.

___

Follow Julie Pace at on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-21-US-Obama-NSA-Surveillance/id-9687011406bb46d7adce2b216d65a56a

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Changes in cell shape may lead to metastasis, not the other way around

June 21, 2013 ? A crucial step toward skin cancer may be changes in the genes that control cell shape, report a team of scientists from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Harvard Medical School in an upcoming issue of Nature Cell Biology (now online).

Using automated high content screening and sophisticated computational modeling, the researchers' screening and analysis of tens of millions of genetically manipulated cells helped them identify more than a dozen genes that influence cell shape. Their work could lead to a better understanding of how cells become metastatic and, eventually, pinpoint new gene therapy targets for cancer treatment.

"We found that by altering the way the cells are grown to better mimic conditions in a living organism, gene expression could have a profound impact on cell shape," said Zheng Yin, the paper's lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI). "This matters because many cancer biologists believe metastasis depends in part on the ability of cells to take on different shapes to escape their confines and spread to healthy tissue. We developed a method of identifying and analyzing the shapes of fruit fly cells, then validated and expanded the discoveries in mammal cancer cells.."

The scientists began their study in fruit fly immune cells called hemocytes. Under normal conditions, each hemocyte was found to take on just one of five distinct shapes about 98 percent of the time. In contrast to conventional wisdom, other shapes and "intermediate" forms were rare, suggesting genes that control cell shape behave more like light switches than teakettles coming to a slow boil. Genetic manipulation of these cells in a lab setting supported that view as well.

Next the group examined human and mouse melanoma cells, which also take on a variety of forms. The researchers identified seven genes that cause cells to take on an especially rounded form, or else an elongated form. One of these genes, PTEN, had a particularly strong impact. When turned off, virtually all cells became elongated or large and rounded, two shapes that can help cancerous cells escape confinement, travel blood vessels, and infiltrate healthy tissues. This information about PTEN is new, even though the gene was previously known to scientists as a tumor suppressor.

"By increasing the frequency of rounded and elongated cells this would provide metastatic cells with a survival advantage that is otherwise not gained by adopting only a single shape, or being highly plastic," said TMHRI Department of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering Chair Stephen T.C. Wong, Ph.D., P.E., who with Institute of Cancer Research, London, Fellow Chris Bakal, Ph.D., are the corresponding authors who oversaw the research.

Bakal added, "The cells have to become rounded to travel through the bloodstream or invade soft tissues such as the brain, but they take on an elongated shape to travel through harder tissues like bone. But until now, we knew hardly anything about how the cells assume either of these shapes and how they switch between the two."

Yin said he hopes data from the study will be useful to cell and developmental biologists who are interested in how and why many different kinds of animal cells change their shapes.

"I believe this dataset has great potential," he said. "We still saw three distinct shapes other than rounded and elongated, and a handful of cell populations enriched with intermediate shapes -- a lot of possibilities for hypothesis generation."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/MZnLMdSRuDo/130621141658.htm

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STOCK TO ROCK: Stock To Rock: The perfect alloy match for the Ford Ranger Wildtrak

Sam Liuson, managing partner at Wheel Gallery, has a tip for off-road adventurers.?On the spotlight this month is the Ford Ranger Wildtrak. "If you decide to go on an off-road adventure, you no longer have to air your tires down for traction on tricky sections when you use large-diameter alloys fitted with low-profile Nitto rubber," he said. In other words, use Nitto tires for grip and control in all conditions.

Check out the photo gallery below for other alloy-wheel options for the Wildtrak.

Wheel Gallery?is located at 318 Santolan Road, Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila. You may contact them at (02) 726-0965; (02) 724-7176; (02) 724-2739; and (0917) 880-1111. Or e-mail?info@conceptonewheels.com.

?

Source: http://www.topgear.com.ph/stock-to-rock//stock-to-rock-the-perfect-alloy-match-for-the-ford-ranger-wildtrak

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The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

We're all coming down from the high that was E3 / WWDC week. But while there aren't any huge conferences to speak of, there's no shortage of tech news to talk about this week. Join Tim, Brian and Peter after the break, for the latest installment of the Engadget Podcast.

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jg9JDKFjZW0/

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A Road Map for Cutting Taxes Like Apple, Google and GE

Apple, Google and GE have made it perfectly clear, innovative tax strategies can legally save enough money on taxes to make the difference between thriving and merely surviving. A great tax professional is worth his weight in gold. This entry was posted in WORK FROM HOME TIPS. Bookmark the permalink.

Posted on February 25, 2011 by American Diversified Publications

Okay, we?ve all dreamed of making over 30K a year while working from the comfort of our homes. But like most people, knowing where to begin is half the battle. Now I've been in the work-at-home industry for over 30 years. And what I'm about to tell you in this article will teach you everything you need to know to change your life and start making a great income from the comfort of your home. Earning money from home is actually very easy and doesn't require any startup fees in most cases.

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Now, I already know what you?re saying, how can a homeworker directory make me 30K a year. Well that?s simple knowledge, as we discussed earlier, knowledge will be the most powerful tool you have in your arsenal to avoid the work at home scams and apply yourself in the most profitable areas. That?s where our leading publication the "HOME WORKER?S DIRECTORY" becomes your most valuable tool in starting your own home business or gaining legitimate home employment. Our dedicated research staff has spent countless man-hours & many years thoroughly researching every opportunity out there, everything from making an extra $300 a week assembling beaded jewelry or CD cases, to earning $3000 a week working from home as an affiliate for a Fortune 500 company. We also offer a wealth of small business startups, along with hundreds turn key franchise opportunities not to mention hundreds of freebie websites. So whether you want to make $300 a week or $3000 a week it?s best to start with a lot of research and knowledge.

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Source: http://www.easywork-greatpay.com/blog/a-road-map-for-cutting-taxes-like-apple-google-and-ge/

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