midmost observably: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Be Afraid: 33 Scary Online Marketing Tales of SEO, Social Media ...

Posted on 31. Oct, 2012 by Ashley Zeckman in Blog, content marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

Scary Online Marketing Happy Halloween to all the online marketing ghosts, ghouls, and goblins out there.

Have you ever heard or received a really bad piece of online marketing advice? ?Maybe the recommendation was founded on total?hearsay, completely out of date or you discovered that the suggestions actually hurt, rather than helped? Scary! At one time or another we?ve all received the trick and not the treat in our internet marketing candy basket.

In this post you?ll find 20 scary SEO, social media and content marketing tales from the team at TopRank Online Marketing and from our friends on Twitter @TopRank, fans on Lee?s Facebook page and the TopRank Facebook page.

BOO! Scary Stories From the Crypt

#1 ? Classic scary: ?Build great content and it will attract visitors all on?it?s own. SEO isn?t necessary for good content to stand out.?

As Lee likes to say, ?Great content isn?t great until it gets discovered, consumed and shared.? Competition for attention online is tough and unless efforts are made to promote great content or build social promotion into the content creation itself, there?s a chance it won?t be able to attract the audience it deserves. Great content + smart and relevant promotion = WIN!

#2 ? Marketing Bandwagon: As people in the SEO community jump on the content marketing bandwagon, many seek advice on how to incorporate content in their search engine centric online marketing mix. ?One of the scarier pieces of SEO / Content Marketing advice is: ?Content Marketing?s Goal Is Not To Convert Customers Directly, To Acquire Leads Directly, or To Make Sales Directly.?

Sure, you don?t execute a financial transaction for a product within the text of an article, but the ?buy this? button is only one click a way. The ?contact us? for a lead form is just one click away. Content Marketing is designed specifically create the information customers need to become aware, interested and to consider products and services. Further, content marketing is also designed to specifically influence customer leads, sales and conversion actions. That?s called optimizing across the sales cycle and it?s been around for a very long time.

#3 ? Keyword Density:??To increase the ranking of web pages in Google,?optimize the keyword density of meta description tags.? from a SEO professional.

While meta descriptions are often used in the search snippet displayed in search results, they content of meta descriptions are not a ranking factor according to Google. ?Meta descriptions could influence clicks on search results which could lead to other signals affecting ranking, but as a driver of ranking on it?s own? The not so scary advice from Google: ??Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show,?we still don?t use the description meta tag in our ranking.? Matt Cutts,?Distinguished Engineer at Google.

SEO Horror Stories From The TopRank Team

halloween scary pumpkins

#4 ? Lee Odden?- The competition is doing (tactic XYZ) so we need to do that too.

#5 ? Brian Larson -?Brand is not important ? I?ve heard from several SEO ?experts? that there?s no need use your brand name in your onpage copy and meta fields, since people will always be able to find your site if they know your name.

#6 ? Rob Bayne ? The SEO process is complete! It?s finished! There?s no more work necessary.

#7 ? Shawna Kenyon?-?Stuff your content full of keywords. This is not only a bad user experience but Google doesn?t really fancy it either.

#8 ? Sara Duane-Gladden?-?Why would you need to write keyword optimized webpage content when you can hide keywords in HTML? Just make text the same color as the background or set it to such a tiny size no one can see it. Search engines will love it and people won?t notice it at all.

#9 ? Thom Craver -?Reciprocal?linking is where it?s at. I link to you, you link back to me and we?ll both succeed! More links is always better, right?

Terrifying Online Marketing Stories From Fans of @TopRank & our Facebook Fans:

trick or treat

#10 ? Lisa Barone ? Good content doesn?t need to be promoted.

#11 ? Brian Crouch ? Be needlessly controversial! Say things you don?t mean just to get a rise out of people. ?Curse-filled comments on a post gets links!

#12 ? Tammy Emineth ? Hey! ?You can get 3,000 backlinks for just $9.99.

#13 ? Josh Peters ? There is not such thing as black hat. ?Google can?t tell the difference.

#14 ? Krista Neher ? You don?t have to track ROI trust me, engagement just ?works?.

#15 ? Jordan Kasteler ? Play hide and seek with keywords for search engines.

#16 ? Steve Farnsworth ? You should tie your content marketing into hot memes to drive tons of (unqualified) traffic to your website.

#17 ? Amanda Maksymiw ? We should just do whatever we did last year.

#18 -?Phil Gomes -?Social media is just another channel.

#19 ? Carolyn Shelby - We dont? need a website. ?We have a Facebook Page.

#20 ? Dave Roher - So we had the designer put all of the content in the image. ?Doesn?t that page look great?

#21 ? Wendy Bauer Piersall ? Don?t worry about (Not Provided) because it will only be 5% or so of your search engine traffic.

#22 -?Patricia Skinner ? Ah, that would be the advice to use link building software. Hands down the scariest SEO advice ever.

#23 -?Lydia Fabry Mazorol ? ?We think it would be well advised for us to get the link building [spammers] we?ve been paying to add us to directories and random sites for years and now pay them to clean up that mess!? #pay?!!!

#24 -?Andrea Sodergren Vahl ? ?Just add a whole bunch of keywords in white lettering?

#25 -?Robyn Green Tippins ? Just keep tweeting the sale link. People like that.

#26 -?Becky Ryan ? ?Oh we tried to do that Social Media, and we were doing great until Matt Cutts said Google hates. My boss stopped all of us and after that my phone crashed, so I have been on twitter for months?

#27 -?Carri Bugbee ? You can get 10k Twitter followers for just $5! [BTW, you actually can. They just happen to be fake.]

#28 -?Brian Crouch ? ?Be needlessly controversial! Say things you don?t mean just to get a rise out of people! Curse-filled comments on a post gets links! ?

#29 -?Tammy Emineth ? ?Hey! I can get 3000 backlinks for just $9.99!?

#30 -?Ross Dunn ? Most recently it was an affiliate ?Guru? posting to all of his followers delight that it is a good idea to buy comment link building services through Fiverr. I nearly lost my lunch.

#31 -?Josh Peters ? ?There is no such thing as black hat. Google can?t tell the difference.?

#32 -?Patrick Garmoe ? Our yellow pages company said they could handle all our online marketing for far less than you charge.

#33 -?Jayme Westervelt ? ?It?s too risky to optimize your site by adding Title Tags and descriptions. Google will penalize you, so instead we concentrate on inbound links via a network of sites my friend owns.?

A lot of people that are learning about SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing may find it difficult to tell the difference between scary and smart when it comes to online marketing advice. Our advice is to connect with a trusted and experienced resource or better a network of resources that you can bounce ideas off of. Test things for yourself and be involved with the industry and you?ll soon be able to see how many zombie marketers there really are.

Those are some pretty dark online marketing tales. ?What are yours?

Image credits via Shutterstock:?Scary Story,?Pumpkin,?Trick or Treat.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank? Online Marketing Newsletter.

? Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Be Afraid: 33 Scary Online Marketing Tales of SEO, Social Media & Content Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com

Make sure you pick up your copy of our FREE Business Acceleration Report! Simply enter your info on the form to the right and I'll send it right out! -->> Thanks for visiting!

Tags: Bad Online Marketing Advice, online marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, Small Business Internet Marketing

Source: http://www.frontlinemarketingsystems.com/blog/small-business-marketing/be-afraid-33-scary-online-marketing-tales-of-seo-social-media-content-marketing/

Infield fly rule Taken 2 Venezuela Elections Skyfall Chicago Marathon 2012 texas rangers steve jobs

Paper for iPad Now Lets You Sketch With a Pressure Sensitive Bluetooth Stylus

By Adrian Covert

Paper is one of the iPad’s best proof of concepts when it comes to apps taking advantage of what the hardware can do. Now, it just got a little better. Not only does the app have a new color mixer tool, allowing you to create custom colors to your heart’s content, but it also works with Pogo’s new Connect Bluetooth stylus, which means that you gain the power of pressure sensitive control. The update is available now in the iTunes App Store for free, as always. [iTunes via The Verge]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KvW2WB4UjR0/34704399154

powell the last lecture kim jong un josh powell madonna halftime show linsanity the alamo

Poll Shows Voters Placing Energy Policy Over Environment

According to the results of a recent Harris Poll, Americans are placing a higher priority on energy policy than environmental policy in deciding which candidate to vote for. Here are the details.

* Harris Interactive surveyed 2,562 adults online between Sept. 17 and 24, 2012.

* Overall, 77 percent of respondents to the poll rated energy policy as either very important or important when asked which policies contribute most to their support of one candidate over another.

* 67 percent of respondents found environmental policy to be important or very important. Environmental policy was the least influential in Americans' presidential choice, Harris found.

* The gap in importance between energy and environmental policy grows according to age, Harris Interactive reported, with energy policy holding only a 3 percent advantage over environmental policy, 66 to 63 percent, for Americans between the ages of 18-35.

* Among 36-47 year olds, the gap in the importance of energy policy as compared to environmental policy increased to 10 percentage points, 74-64 percent. The gap grew 13 points among 48-66 year olds and 90 percent of those 67 and older found energy policy important in choosing a president, compared to 74 percent who placed importance on a candidate's environmental policy.

* Harris Interactive found that 48 percent of Americans most often identify nuclear power as an energy source that is harmful or very harmful to the environment, with clean coal being considered harmful or very harmful.

* Fewer than a fourth of Americans believe that natural gas is either harmful or very harmful. Another 40 percent rate it as "not that harmful" while nearly 20 percent believe it is not at all harmful to the environment.

* Thirty-one percent of the respondents to the Harris poll stated that the potential benefits of natural gas hydraulic fracturing -- known as "fracking" -- outweigh the risks. Thirty-two percent believe the risks outweigh the benefits. Thirty-eight percent stated that they are unsure and that more education is needed on the fracking process and its implications.

* While both energy and environmental policies were regarded as less influential in deciding on a candidate than the economy, tax, jobs, healthcare and foreign policies, Harris Interactive Vice President and Senior Consultant Sarah Simmons stated that energy remains an important policy to Americans.

* "Even after the election is over," Simmons said, "energy will remain an important subject for Americans because it is also central to so many other policies, especially economic, jobs and environmental policies."

* Energy pricing has a significant impact on families, Simmons added, as it involves the price paid at the pump, the ability of businesses to increase the workforce, its influence on the nation's economic health and way of life.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-shows-voters-placing-energy-policy-over-environment-192100026.html

chanukah david archuleta david archuleta hobbit trailer greenhill

Materials scientists make additive-free battery electrodes with nanoparticles

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) ? Materials scientists have developed a simple, robust way to fabricate carbon-free and polymer-free, lightweight colloidal films for lithium-ion battery electrodes, which could greatly improve battery performance.

By developing a method for additive-free electrodes that maintain high conductivity, the researchers have opened new possibilities for reducing the weight and volume of batteries, while also creating a template system for studying the physics of nanoparticle electrodes.

The work, led by Richard Robinson, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and graduate student Don-Hyung Ha, is featured in the Oct. 10 issue of Nano Letters (Vol. 12, No. 10).

Nanoparticles have been extensively investigated as an active cathode and anode in lithium-ion batteries -- common components of electronic devices -- because they can enhance the batteries' electrochemical properties.

To use colloidal nanoparticles for the electrodes, it had been necessary to combine them with carbon-based conductive materials for enhancing charge transport, as well as polymeric binders to stick the particles together and to the electrode substrate, Robinson said. This process added extra weight to the battery and made it difficult to model the movement of Li-ions and electrons through the mixture.

The critical processing technique Robinson and colleagues used was electrophoretic deposition, which binds the metal nanoparticles to the surface of the electrode substrate to each other in an assembly, creating strong electrical contacts between the particles and current collector.

The process results in a significant improvement in battery electrode assembly that cannot be replicated by conventional methods. Once attached, the particles are no longer soluble and are mechanically robust. In fact, this processing creates a film that has superior mechanical stability when compared to films fabricated by conventional battery-making methods with binders, Robinson said.

This research has led to the first cobalt-oxide nanoparticle-film battery electrode made without using binders and carbon black additives, and they show high gravimetric and volumetric capacities, even after 50 cycles.

The work was supported by the Energy Materials Center at Cornell funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science; the Cornell Center for Materials Research with funding from the National Science Foundation; and by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology center at Cornell.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University. The original article was written by Anne Ju.

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

Journal Reference:

Don-Hyung Ha, Mohammad A. Islam, Richard D. Robinson. Binder-Free and Carbon-Free Nanoparticle Batteries: A Method for Nanoparticle Electrodes without Polymeric Binders or Carbon Black. Nano Letters, 2012; 12 (10): 5122 DOI: 10.1021/nl3019559

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/wZ9pWrGP6K0/121030173123.htm

gift card exchange tj holmes waste management two fat ladies dennys glen davis a christmas story

Retrofitting an empire: Iconic New York City building becomes - DVIRC

Empire State Building gets energy retrofit

The commercial real estate industry is already considering the benefits of energy efficient building technology in new construction projects, but it seems that the owners of iconic American office structures are also willing to invest in a greener and more efficient future.

The Empire State Building in New York City is arguably the most famous piece of commercial real estate in the world. Completed in 1931, it has towered over Manhattan for many years and has been recognized by many as a symbol of economic strength, even in times of financial hardship. It was not built to be? a leader in efficient energy usage, but according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the owners of the building have embarked on a series of energy efficient retrofits that could see power savings of up to $4.4 million per year.

The building is slowly undergoing a number of green initiatives that will significantly reduce the amount of energy wasted by commercial and residential occupants. The owners of Empire State, Malkin Holdings, have been overhauling the infrastructure and have reported that there has been a saving in operating costs of $2.4 million in the first year alone. A team of third-party engineers, real estate professionals and energy experts put together eight potential projects as part of a retrofit analysis for the building and the energy efficiency upgrade is part of an overhaul that could be used as a model for other classic American properties/structures.

Figures released by the NRDC show that some older buildings can waste up to 80 percent of the energy they consume, mainly through inefficient lighting or inadequate window insulation. The team at Empire State identified windows as a priority when it conducted the original analysis, but with 6,514 windows to work on, the upgrade had to be both cost and energy efficient. The solution was to rebuild the existing windows by sandwiching a layer of high-tech insulating film between the two existing panes of glass, a strategy that saw Malkin save more than $15 million on just that part of the retrofit.

The work at the Empire State is being closely monitored by federal and state energy officials. The Department of Energy has been championing the practice of retrofits in aging buildings and has sponsored an initiative in Philadelphia, the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (EEB Hub), for a similar series of commercial real estate transformations. A consortium of academics, industry thought leaders, energy development companies and the private sector, the EEB Hub is transforming a number of 19th Century buildings in the Greater Philadelphia region as part of a nationwide drive toward energy usage awareness.

Source: http://www.dvirc.org/retrofitting-an-empire-iconic-new-york-city-building-becomes-energy-efficient/

undrafted free agents braveheart earthquake california earthquake california roy orbison the third man 2012 nfl draft order

Cops: Mom leaves two kids on side of I-90

By Ian Johnston, NBC News

Two children found sitting by the side of Interstate 90 in western Idaho Tuesday told sheriff?s deputies that their mother had left them there after running out of gas, officials said.

Kootenai County Sheriff?s Office said in a statement that the boys, aged three and six, said their mother had walked them to the spot on I- 90 where they were found. The kids said they had been taken there when it was still dark and raining.

She then took a ride to a gas station between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. local time (8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. ET), the statement said. A construction supervisor working nearby found the children at about 9:10 a.m. local time (11:10 a.m. ET).?

'Argument with her boyfriend'
The woman was arrested on a negligent driving warrant at a house in Spokane Valley, Wash., on Tuesday night after deputies received a tip-off that she was there, NBC station KHQ reported. Kootenai and Spokane counties are on either side of the state line.

KHQ said the mother would most likely face more charges in Kootenai.

The sheriff?s office statement said the woman told the person who gave her the ride that ?she had been in an argument with her boyfriend and just needed to get to a phone to call for a ride.?

The children ? after being cleared by emergency medical providers ? were placed in foster care.

KHQ reported that the woman was seen with her children at a Walmart near the state line Monday night. Someone called police saying she was acting strangely and she was checked out by medics.

More content from NBCNews.com:

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/31/14824481-cops-mom-leaves-two-kids-on-side-of-i-90-in-idaho?lite

uk vs louisville university of kansas buckeye west side story final four 2012 bridesmaids winning lottery numbers

Baby Fiona: A Fighter! | Catholic Hotdish

In October our church concentrates on Respect Life issues. It is also a month designated to Down syndrome awareness. I wanted to share ?story with you about a lovely couple who became a mommy and daddy recently. Their tale encapsulates both themes for this month beautifully.

Dealing with infertility

Stephanie and Joe Palewicz of Vadnais Heights tried for four years to conceive a child. Stephanie said, ?Ask anyone that has had trouble getting pregnant and they will tell you how stressful it can be. There were times that I thought I would never get to be a mom. There were also times I thought if one more person tells me, ?once you stop worrying about it, it will happen? I was going to scream. I know they meant well, but I?m confident that I speak for pretty much everyone dealing with infertility in recommending that people not say that.?

Which is good advice for us all.

A blessing

Fiona Grace Palewicz

On October 20 Stephanie wrote: ?5 years ago I married my amazing husband Joe Palewicz. Today, exactly 5 years later, our lives have forever changed as we welcomed our baby girl into our world. Fiona Grace Palewicz, 7lbs, 7oz, born just after 7 this morning. I am the mommy to the most beautiful, sweet baby girl in this entire world. She is strong and she is a fighter. Fight Baby Fiona, fight. You are amazing!?

Why does this newborn have to fight?

Little Miss Fiona Grace has Down syndrome with a?congenital?heart defect plus some unexpected complications.

A prenatal diagnosis

When Stephanie was 18 weeks into her?pregnancy she went through routine testing. The results for Trisomy 21 came back with a probability of 1:10. ?I remember that exact moment, feeling like my heart had just hit the floor 1,000 feet down. The doctor explained that means that 90% of the time everything is fine and that sometimes these tests give false positives. We just needed to do a Level 2 ultrasound. No big deal. Oh, and genetic counseling (whatever the hell that is, I thought).? After their level 2 ultrasound the doctor told them that their baby had a heart defect.

Stephanie recalls in her blog called Life Unexpected, Love Unimaginable:

?I know she said other words following those, but they are blurry in my mind. I remember feeling the instant tears burning in my eyes as I thought of my poor little baby girl. She talked about the defect, that the middle part of her heart didn?t form, she called it an AV Canal defect.?She talked about the baby needing surgery after birth. I cried harder. My poor little baby girl on an operating table?? I thought it couldn?t get any worse. Then she told me that this defect was one that was very common in children with Down syndrome. My heart had now dropped so low, it was digging itself a hole in the floor. I asked how this defect increased my chances, she said significantly.?

Stephanie explains very honestly:

?She said they wouldn?t terminate the pregnancy without an amniocentesis. Holy crap, ?Terminate?? How did we just go there??? Okay, rewind. No way! I tried to clear my mind and breathe.?When I received Fiona?s diagnosis of Down Syndrome, I was hardly halfway through my pregnancy. I remember when the doctor used the word ?termination? with us at that time and I remember how the thought of it took my breath away. Fortunately for us, although it was spoken of, we were never pressured to terminate and were offered a lot of positive and hopeful information immediately from our doctors and genetic counselor.?

Lifesite News?stated that last year a Time magazine article reported statistics pulled from a 2009 edition of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. As a result of more sophisticated prenatal screening, and with nine out of ten babies aborted following the prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, the birth rate for these children has been dropping for decades, decreasing by 15% between 1989 and 2005.

The Palewiczs? friend and real estate agent, Angela Hames, told me, ?They never thought twice about choices, and were shocked at other people?s assumption that they would have done anything differently.?

Feeling hopeful again

less than 3 weeks after the adverse diagnosis the Palewiczs were feeling anticipation again. Stephanie stated, ?Thinking positive about our future and letting go of hopeless feelings helps. We are more energized about this pregnancy and our family?s future.?

Something that helped them climb out of despair and uncertainty is that they learned more about having a child with Down syndrome. They did this by connecting with a lot of new people through friends, parent support groups, online forums and communities. These people enriched their lives and brought great comfort and hope for the future.

Baby showers with friends and family helped the expectant couple to share in their joy. Notes of encouragement helped them to sustain that anticipation. Here is a lovely Face Book post from Stephanie?s father:

A Dream Come True, A Second Time

Words cannot describe the emotions I?m experiencing right now. I remember how overwhelmed and thrilled Mom and I were when we welcomed you, our only daughter, into our lives. Now it?s your turn to have a dream come true, to experience the overwhelming joy of Fiona?s birth and to share that joy with Joe, and with family and friends. You can be sure that our first granddaughter will be cherished, and of course spoiled, just like her cousins, Jake, Josh, Joseph. That IS a grandparent?s primary function. Love you and hope the final part of you journey is bearable.

Baby Fiona?s first days have been rough?that?s why she?s fighting

The new mother wrote: ?Fiona is?truly?a gift from God and a gift that was meant especially for us. ?On her 2nd day of life, she became very ill with necrotizing enterocolitis and a blood infection. On her 4th day of life, she had emergency surgery to repair 2 bowel?perforations,?but instead she had 4 sections of bowel removed and now has 4 ostomies. We are currently in the NICU at Children?s Hospital Minneapolis. When I watch this happen, I am in terrible physical pain myself. I feel so horrible for her. I wish I could take her pain away and give it to me.?

Father O?Gara from Assumption Church in St. Paul came to the hospital to perform Fiona Grace?s baptism. As I wrote this story at noon on October 30, the wee child was recovering from surgery to place a central line. It went well! As her mother said on the day she was born, ?Fight Baby Fiona, fight! You are amazing!? (Please pray for the family.)

(Some suggested websites:

http://www.ndss.org/ (National Down Syndrome Society) An advocate for people with Down syndrome?and?Baby Fiona?s Caring Bridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/fionapalewicz)

Source: http://catholichotdish.com/embracing-life/baby-fiona-a-fighter/

Kanye West sex tape emmys emmys torrey smith torrey smith sofia vergara oakland raiders

iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5: Camera shootout

Apple has released a new iPod touch and this time it actually has a decent camera on it. But is it half-way decent or all-the-way decent? If you go iPod touch instead of iPhone 5, and the camera matters to you, how much are you missing out? That's what we're aiming to find out by putting both to the test. It's iPhone 5 vs. iPod touch 5 in an iOS camera shoot-out, iMore style!

Photo size: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

Before we start comparing similar photos side-by-side, it's important to note that since the iPhone 5 has an 8-megapixel camera and the iPod touch 5 has a 5-megapixel camera, the full-resolution dimensions of the iPod touch 5's photos are smaller than the iPhone 5's photos. To be exact, the iPod touch 5 produces 1936x2592 images and the iPhone 5 produces 2448x3264 images. The photos above show how these two resolutions compare proportionally.

In terms of print sizes, if you print at 200 ppi, photos from the iPod touch can print up to 9"x12" and photos from the iPhone 5 can print up to 12"x16". At 300 ppi, the iPod touch produces prints up to 6"x8" images and iPhone 5 photos print up to 8"x10".

For the remainder of this review, the images from both devices have been scaled down to appear to be the same size. The photos on the left were taken with an iPod touch 5 and the photos on the right were taken with an iPhone 5.

General photography: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

In general, the iPod touch 5's camera takes very nice photos even when compared next to iPhone 5 photos -- but it's still clear that the iPhone 5 photos are better. The noticeable differences are that the iPhone 5's images are more vibrant, have more contrast, and are a little warmer. Overall, the iPod touch 5 photos just look a little flat when compared with the iPhone 5's versions. I always prefer the iPhone 5's photo over the iPod touch 5 when shooting with the rear-facing iSight cameras.

Macro photography: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

Both camera's performed well at macro, specifically with their ability to focus. The iPod touch 5 and iPhone 5 both do a better job at focussing on close subjects than the iPhone 4S.

Again, the images from the iPhone 5 have more contrast and a warmer tone.

Low-light photography: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

The quality of the sensor on the iPhone 5 is very obviously better than the iPod touch 5 when comparing photos taken in low-light. You can also see that the colors are much more accurate in low-light than on the iPod touch. In the above images, the first image has an unflattering green tint and is also much darker.

Low-light, indoor environments are almost equally bad on both devices as shown in the photos below.

Front-facing cameras: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

Both the iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5 are equipped with the same front-facing 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, so I was rather surprised to discover that the iPod touch 5 takes warmer photos than the iPhone 5. It's possible that there another variable like angle between me and the sun or the camera and the sun that is causing these results, but I took several images with both cameras at this time and all produced similar results: the iPod touch 5's photos are warmer than the iPhone 5's photo (from the FaceTime camera).

Panoramic photography: iPod touch 5 vs iPhone 5

As with other images, the iPod touch 5 and iPhone 5 cameras produce similar panoramic photos except that the iPhone 5's version has more contrast and a slightly warmer tone.

The bottom line

There's no denying that the iPhone 5's camera is better than the iPod touch 5. The images are more vibrant, have more contrast, and have better color. Are the differences huge? No. In fact, in most cases, I can edit a photo taken with an iPod touch to look just like it's iPhone 5 counterpart with very little effort. Where the iPhone 5 really excels is at low-light photography and of course the resolution of the images. Overall, I was still impressed with the quality of the camera on the iPod touch considering it's housed in such an incredibly thin device.

5th generation iPod touch

Ipod Touch 5

camera shootout

photography

Featured

Reviews

Device Features

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SE0QbcA2YXA/story01.htm

martin luther king jr i have a dream speech packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite michelle williams the descendants the descendants

Barclays Libor case to go to trial

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays became the first bank to be ordered to stand trial in a British court over damages stemming from manipulation of the Libor interest rate after a High Court ruling on Monday.

Guardian Care Homes, a residential care home operator based in Wolverhampton, is suing Barclays for up to 37 million pounds ($59 million) over the alleged mis-selling of interest rate hedging products known as swaps.

"Today is a huge milestone with a trial now going forward to determine whether these financial products should be declared void," Guardian Care Homes' chief executive Gary Hartland said after the ruling.

The case could also lead to new revelations about the Libor scandal after Guardian Care Homes asked for documents relating to the affair to be disclosed.

The company says it should be fully compensated for its losses because the swap rates were based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). Barclays agreed to pay $450 million in fines to U.S. and British authorities in June to settle allegations that it manipulated Libor and other key interest rates. More than a dozen other banks are also being investigated.

The trial will be a test case for thousands of small British firms who believe they were mis-sold such swaps and raises the prospect of other companies linking future claims to interest rate rigging by banks.

"This legal battle will be watched carefully by the thousands of small businesses affected by mis-selling who may decide to take a similar route," John Walker, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said on Monday.

The country's biggest four banks agreed in June to review past sales of interest-rate hedging products to small businesses and to compensate customers for mis-selling loan insurance after the Financial Services Authority said it had found "serious failings" in the way that they were sold.

However, the compensation scheme subsequently set up by the FSA, which allows banks to appoint an independent arbitrator to assess claims, has been criticized by businesses for being too slow and for lacking transparency. Companies also have the option of bypassing the FSA scheme and pursuing banks directly through the courts.

Guardian Care Homes, which operates 27 homes providing care for 1,000 elderly or vulnerable patients, says it has lost 12 million pounds after being sold two swaps in 2007 and 2008 against two loans it held with the bank that were worth a combined 70 million pounds ($112 million).

The hedging contracts tied in the company for 20 years even though the two loans, of 41 million pounds and 29 million pounds, were taken out for only 10 years and five years, respectively. To get out of the arrangement, Guardian Care Homes would have to pay break fees of 25 million pounds.

Barclays, which has set aside 450 million pounds to compensate customers mis-sold interest rate swaps, said after the decision that it didn't believe the case had merit. It said the company had entered into the swaps with "sufficient understanding" as to whether they met its business objectives.

Britain's financial regulator has estimated that about 44,000 interest rate swaps have been wrongly sold to UK companies since 2001.

The swaps were supposed to protect companies against rates going up by making their future repayments more predictable, but many borrowers didn't realize they would pay far more if lending rates fell significantly and would face substantial fees to get out of the arrangements.

($1 = 0.6241 British pounds)

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barclays-faces-court-trial-landmark-libor-case-173610358--finance.html

trayvon martin obama care miss universe canada don draper gallagher madmen james cameron

New York's Silicon Alley makes do after Sandy

A man uses his mobile phone to photograph a closed and flooded subway station in lower Manhattan, in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. New York City awakened Tuesday to a flooded subway system, shuttered financial markets and hundreds of thousands of people without power a day after a wall of seawater and high winds slammed into the city, destroying buildings and flooding tunnels. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? New York City's fast-paced technology scene, known as Silicon Alley, tried not to lose a step after Hurricane Sandy knocked out power lines, devastated the public transit system and left portions of the city flooded.

On Tuesday, companies from small startups to major players such as Google and Facebook, scrambled to balance employee safety with attempts to conduct business as usual. With laptops, smartphones and a dash of ingenuity tech companies powered through the adverse conditions? or at least tried to.

Silicon Alley is a booming part of New York City's economy. It is both a location ? many technology startups are housed in the lower part of Manhattan? and a state of mind, since many companies have now sprouted across the East River in Brooklyn and elsewhere.

Like many New Yorkers, scads of technology workers toiled from home or hunkered down with coworkers who still had electricity. That was certainly the case among employees of trendy e-commerce site Fab.com on Tuesday. Fab's headquarters is located in the West Village, which was flooded and without power. At 6 a.m. on Tuesday, the company's 225 or so New York-based employees received an email titled "team together." The message asked whether people with electric power might open their homes to co-workers who were without power. In a few hours, 114 people responded.

By noon, there were 12 people working out of CEO Jason Goldberg's two-bedroom apartment on 42nd Street. Other workers gathered in apartments in Manhattan's midtown Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, in Brooklyn and other parts of the city. Two people, who'd flown in from Germany and India before the storm hit in some unfortunate timing also joined Goldberg after they were evacuated from their hotel rooms.

"No one wants to be sitting around doing nothing," Goldberg said in a telephone interview from his apartment, where his dog barked in the background as more employees arrived. "Everyone wants to keep things going."

Some 20 Fab.com employees planned to host co-workers in their homes overnight on Tuesday.

Google Inc. closed its sprawling New York City offices, located on 9th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The company, which is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., has about 2,000 employees in its New York office. Google said the safety of its employees is its focus. The office will be closed until further notice, the company said.

The online search leader bought the 15-story, 2.9-million-square-foot building ?which has more space than the Empire State Building ? in 2010. In addition to housing its own offices, Google leases out much of the space, hosting many data centers. Data centers house other companies' servers, which store the vast amounts of data found on websites.

Google did not say whether the building had power as of Tuesday afternoon.

One data center flooded in Sandy's wake knocked popular New York blogs, including Gawker.com, off the Internet. The gossip and media blog, and other Gawker Media sites, responded by creating alternate websites where readers could get the latest information, whether they wanted to read about Sandy or the Octomom.

"Our New York City data center is still offline thanks to Hurricane Sandy. We are working as quickly as possible to restore the full site, but in the interim you can view updates at http://updates.gawker.com," read a message on Gawker.com on Tuesday afternoon.

Facebook's office on Madison Avenue was officially closed, with most of the 200 or so New York-based employees working from home. Though the office had power, getting to work would have been a daunting task for car-free city dwellers, and New York's subway system was still shut down.

For Quirky.com, whose users collaborate in designing household products and accessories, Superstorm Sandy left a flooded basement and the loss of power. Though they work on the seventh floor, for now, the site's 70 employees are working from home until power is restored, said spokeswoman Jaime Yandolino in an email.

Brooklyn-based MakerBot, a 3D printing company, was closed on Tuesday, but workers logged in from home. CEO Bre Pettis said the office had power and Internet access. The office will be open Wednesday.

"We were prepared for the worst and luckily came out with the best," Pettis said in a telephone interview from home, as his baby cried in the background.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-30-Superstorm-Silicon%20Alley/id-780cfe03b2a7468f9ab772d6e8b3ce28

mitt romney tax return flip saunders academy award nominations cynthia nixon cspan state of the union drinking game oscar noms

Letterman and Fallon perform to empty studios

John Paul Filo / CBS

David Letterman taped his show Monday without a studio audience.

By Seth Abramovitch , The Hollywood Reporter

David Letterman?was determined to bring "Late Show"?to his millions of fans tonight despite the encroaching Hurricane Sandy -- which resulted in the late-night vet taping the show in an empty Ed Sullivan Theater.

And how does Letterman fare without the support of an adoring studio audience? Or put another way, if a talk show host cracks wise in a hurricane and there's no one around to hear him, does anybody care?

More from THR: Hurricane Sandy forces Broadway theaters to go dark

The answer will come tonight, but producers have posted a preview clip online.

Introduced as "the perfect storm," the comedian emerges to dead silence. We then cut to a little further along in the show, where Letterman reads monologue jokes to his longtime bandleader?Paul Shaffer.

Letterman is one of only two of the major talk shows to follow through on their Monday tapings. The other, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," will also proceed before an empty studio audience. Video below.

More from THR: Evening news broadcasts expand for Hurricane Sandy coverage

His scheduled guest for Monday,?Denzel Washington, made it to the taping in a yellow rain slicker. The "Flight"?star feigned exhaustion as he made his way towards the host, causing Letterman to note, "Here's some acting right here, ladies and gentleman."?

"They say this is a storm of historic proportion," Letterman continues. "I'm proud you chose to spend the storm with me."

Watch video of Denzel's arrival?here.

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2012/10/29/14790204-david-letterman-jimmy-fallon-perform-to-empty-studios?lite

glen campbell jerusalem artichoke bud shootout aretha franklin stevie wonder new orleans weather new orleans weather

Jam Master Jay, 10 Years Later: Losing One Of Hip-Hop's 'Greatest'

Ten years after his death, Eric 'Shake' James remembers Run DMC's fallen DJ.
By Maurice Bobb

Jam Master Jay
Photo: Getty Images/Bob Berg

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696458/jam-master-jay-run-dmc-ten-year-death-anniversary.jhtml

lamar d antoni fashion star andrew bird lizzie borden lizzie borden iona

News: Internet Radio Coalition Forms To Bring Royalties To Internet ...

October 29, 2012

Last week the Internet Radio Fairness Coalition was?officially?launched. This coalition is made up of several internet and radio broadcast services. They have aligned together for one common goal: to urge congress to support and pass the Internet Radio Act Of 2012.?If Congress passes this act, the royalty system will be apart of internet radio.

?The Coalition?believes that the IRFA will create a sustainable business model for the music industry, giving consumers ?more choices and more products for listening to the music they live; enable artists to earn more money as Internet radio grows; create a marketplace that will attract entrepreneurs to invest in new, innovative ways to deliver music to the public; and drive higher revenues for record labels.?

The IRFA would also:

Provide all forms of digital radio the same standard at rate-setting proceedings before the panel of judges on the Copyright Royalty Board;

Provide for Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation of CRB judges, and;

Promote a competitive marketplace by making it easier for artists and labels to negotiate directly with digital radio services and arrive at a negotiated rate outside the CRB process

Below are a list of ?founding members that form the coalition:

977 Music

AccuRadio

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment

Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA)

Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)

Digital Media Association (DiMA)

Digitally Imported

Engine Advocacy

National Religious Broadcasters Music License Committee

Pandora

Radio Paradise

Salem Communications

Small Webcaster Alliance (SWA)

?

Props to Hypebot

Source: http://allindstrom.com/2012/10/news-internet-radio-coalition-forms-to-bring-royalties-to-internet-radio/

discovery shuttle allure jane goodall saturday night fever glamping forgetting sarah marshall taraji p. henson

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Former ?Cheers? Star George Wendt Hospitalized With Chest Pains

Former “Cheers” Star George Wendt Hospitalized With Chest Pains

George Wendt, the actor who played the lovable bar patron Norm Peterson on the long-running sitcom “Cheers”, was rushed to the hospital over the weekend [...]

Former “Cheers” Star George Wendt Hospitalized With Chest Pains Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/10/former-cheers-star-george-went-hospitalized-with-chest-pains/

cirque du freak eric cantor eric cantor pope joan pope joan paul pierce strawberry festival

Eqecat estimates Hurricane Sandy losses up to $20 billion

{ttle}

{cptn}","template_name":"ss_thmb_play_ttle","i18n":{"end_of_gallery_header":"End of Gallery","end_of_gallery_next":"View Again"},"metadata":{"pagination":"{firstVisible} - {lastVisible} of {numItems}","ult":{"spaceid":"2145868275","sec":""}}},{"id": "hcm-carousel-1921501577", "dataManager": C.dmgr, "mediator": C.mdtr, "group_name":"hcm-carousel-1921501577", "track_item_selected":1,"tracking":{ "spaceid" : "2145868275", "events" : { "click" : { "any" : { "yui-carousel-prev" : { "node" : "a", "data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"prev","itc":"1" }, "bubbles" : true, "test": function(params){ var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel(); var pages = carousel._pages; // if same page, don't beacon if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false; // keep track of current position within this closure carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur; return true; } }, "yui-carousel-next" : { "node" : "a", "data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"next","itc":"1" }, "bubbles" : true, "test": function(params){ var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel(); var pages = carousel._pages; // no more pages, don't beacon again // if same page, don't beacon if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false; // keep track of current position within this closure carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur; return true; } } } } } } })); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {(function() { try{ if (Math.floor(Math.random()*10) == 1) { var loc = window.location, decoded = decodeURI(loc.pathname), encoded = encodeURI(decoded), uri = loc.protocol + "//" + loc.host + encoded + ((loc.search.length > 0) ? loc.search + '&' : '?') + "_cacheable=1", xmlhttp; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); else xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); xmlhttp.open("GET",uri,true); xmlhttp.send(); } }catch(e){} })(); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings = '"projectId": "10001256862979", "documentName": "", "documentGroup": "", "ywaColo" : "vscale3", "spaceId" : "2145868275" ,"customFields" : { "12" : "classic", "13" : "story" }'; Y.Media.YWA.init(Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {if(document.onclick===YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.newClick){document.onclick=YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.oldClick;} }); }); });

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eqecat-estimates-hurricane-sandy-insured-losses-20-billion-161056718--finance.html10 year old gives birth c. difficile carmelo anthony nurse jackie nurse jackie peeps nhl playoffs

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

@@@ What the $% is AICN COMICS Q&@? @@@

Q?s by Optimous Douche!
Optimous Douche here. The following conversation about SUPERMAN EARTH ONE Volume 2 took place over the weekend of New York Comic Con via what kids are calling The FaceBooks. No names have been changed so authorities can find us all easier.

ROBERT T PATEY III (OPTIMOUS DOUCHE, OD): Gents, would you be up for a little Q&A session via the FaceBooks about Supes Volume 2 for Ain?t It Cool? Talked with DC PR and they were as giddy as a school girl rooting through Justin Bieber?s garbage about the idea. I?ll shoot out questions, answer at will. It?s been about two years since fans last saw Earth 1?s version of SUPERMAN. Did you guys take the same break or did you roll right into Vol 2?

SHANE DAVIS (SD): Rolled in mid Nov after Volume 1 released, I think. Finished last February.

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI (JMS): The first book hit in a ridiculously bigger way than DC was anticipating. It sold out within 24 hours of being released and they had to keep chasing run-outs with additional printings.

I think that they were probably anticipating somewhere in the vicinity of 20K sales as being good?it ended up doing five times that. So as soon as this monster landed, they called me and said ?we?re taking you off everything else, don?t worry about Superman (the monthly book) or Wonder Woman, we?ll take those off your plate, get going on this right now.?

Similarly, when the pre-sales figures started coming in on V2, which looks to be even larger sales-wise than V1, they put me right onto V3, which I?m writing yea unto this very moment.

SD: JMS good going on Vol.3!

OD: I like to think my screw up of reviewing VOLUME 1 two weeks early helped with the success, but more likely it was just an awesome book.Joe you were pretty vocal in your glee leaving monthlies behind, is it still all sunshine and roses? Shane, what?s the move to big books been like on the art side?

JMS: I don?t know that it was glee as much as an opportunity for reflection. Once DC shifted me off Superman and Wonder Woman to S:E1v2, I realized that I didn?t have any monthly comics on my desk. Rather than try to amend that by taking on other assignments, I figured, ?let?s use this creatively.? I decided that I would take a minimum two year sabbatical from monthly comics, doing instead only GNs and miniseries, and use that time to sit down and really evaluate my work to see where it worked, where it didn?t, and learn from that.

The problem with doing a monthly book is that there?s never any time to really stop and take stock of the work. You?re like a man running to catch a bus. I?d been engaged in that process pretty much nonstop ever since I took on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Here, then, was a chance to stop running.

There is a word in the bible, used in Psalms and Proverbs, to indicate when the speaker is to stop while reciting a particularly important phrase: ?Selah.? It means, literally, ?pause and consider.? I needed a Selah moment. So I spent much of the last two years pulling all of my work down off the shelf and reviewing it to find the relative strengths and weaknesses involved. I read every critical review of my work I could find, bypassing most of the positive ones in order to learn what could be improved.

The process was pretty ruthless but I felt I couldn?t come back to monthly books until and unless I felt I could do a better job than I had before. Having come through that, a lot of the things I learned helped shape V2, and are certainly playing a role in the writing of V3 and in particular the Dr. Manhattan mini-series for DC. I now feel sufficiently armed with new perspectives to return to monthly comics in 2013 via the Joe?s Comics imprint at Image. That?s a two-and-a-half, almost three years sabbatical from monthly books, and I honestly feel I?ve learned a lot from the process. I would suggest it to anyone.

SD: Earth 1 made me miss and appreciate monthlies more. There are clearly advantages with both formats. As an artist its hard not seeing you work received by fans for a lengthy period of time. So with OGN?s I like to try and swing cover work to stay out on the shelf.

OD: What was the BIGGEST critique you found on the Interwebz and how did it translate into Supes Earth 1 Vol 2?

SD: After Vol 1 i added some muscle to Superman in Vol 2. There were some comments on how small I had drawn him. I figured since he is a practicing Superhero now I would add some muscle weight onto Clark.

JMS: I can?t pick a particular site from memory because it was mentioned on several, but one of the most useful criticisms I got was that my work tends to be stronger on solo titles than on team books (Fantastic Four, Squadron Supreme, as opposed to Supreme Power, which was Hyperion?s story) which sometimes kind of fall apart.After reading and analyzing these critiques, it really brought home that ? maybe because of my TV training which is always about finding and servicing the star of the show ? I wasn?t spending as much time as I could on developing the arcs for the supporting characters?which is funny because so much of what I did on Babylon 5 was about building up the arcs of the supporting cast.

So when and if I should be put on a team book, I really need to invest a lot more time planning out those secondary and tertiary arcs on their own, not necessarily as to how they relate to the main character.I can?t pick a particular site from memory because it was mentioned on several, but one of the most useful criticisms I got was that my work tends to be stronger on solo titles than on team books (Fantastic Four, Squadron Supreme, as opposed to Supreme Power, which was Hyperion?s story) which sometimes kind of fall apart.

After reading and analyzing these critiques, it really brought home that ? maybe because of my TV training which is always about finding and servicing the star of the show ? I wasn?t spending as much time as I could on developing the arcs for the supporting characters?which is funny because so much of what I did on Babylon 5 was about building up the arcs of the supporting cast. So when and if I should be put on a team book, I really need to invest a lot more time planning out those secondary and tertiary arcs on their own, not necessarily as to how they relate to the main character.

OD: I promised DC PR I wouldn?t talk about all the surprises in Vol 2, but we need to at least spoil the main nemesis. How and why did you choose Parasite for this volume?

JMS: I needed someone who could go toe-to-toe with Superman on that power level, and someone who could, for the first time, bring him down to a human level so he could experience that vulnerability, a first for him. The fun part of that is the degree to which it makes him appreciate the ridiculous courage humans have just to walk out the front door every day knowing there are a thousand things that can kill them at any moment.

OD: Shane, the story updates in Supes E1 are very clear. What was your guiding mantra for updating the visual elements of characters and their surroundings?

SD: When I was building the visual of the Superman Earth One I really wanted it to feel unique?Something that was the way I saw the character today. I took a lot of chances and followed my gut on the changes. Clark was always drawn to be a torn emotional young man, in and out of glasses. The old body type had to go, I felt it was necessary to pull off a believable young Superman. The next thing I wanted to do was design the S- shield. I tweaked the S and added a yellow trim to pop it from the blue shirt. The rest of the cast was simply drawn the way I saw them. Jim was a great evolution.

Parasite?s design was a tough one. I wanted to do something more with the character than the color purple. The energy receptors were added. We had the opportunity to have the character grow, and building his anatomical structure, rhino skin type was a lot of fun. All around my main objective was to make parasite look like something you didn?t want to touch, hence the blister like receptors.

OD: Since the exposition was handled in Vol 1. This volume gives you much more room to work on the relationships of Clark?s world ? and not just at the daily planet. What was the thought process behind the development of the denizens in Clark?s apartment building?

JMS: Entry-level jobs at newspapers pay very little money. So it made sense that Clark would have to look for a place he could afford?and that would lead him to a less than terrific part of town where rent was cheap, on the downward slide, as it were. The people he encounters are a mix of the sorts of people you would logically encounter in a neighborhood that?s kind of on the edge. I know, I?ve lived in some of those places growing up.

Clark?s neighborhood consists in the main of people just trying to hang on?or on the decline. That there would be some degree of drug abuse is a given in any declining neighborhood in any major city. (Not to mention that there?s a fair amount that goes on at every level of society, right up into the economic stratosphere.) So that led me to the creation of Eddie. Lisa, his neighbor, is a fun character with a lot of levels going on. She?s bright and funny and sexy but also troubled, and over time Clark will be pulled further and further into that.

SD: I just drew her hot. Gave her some tattoos. 3 stars;)

OD: Clark was almost pulled pretty ?deep? (innuendo alert) into Lisa in Vol 2. How did it feel to tackle the age old pubescent debate of what happens if Superman tried to make baby Kryptonians with earth ladies? (And yes Shane you drew her very hot)

JMS: It was just an awful lot of fun. On the one hand, you have the conversation that?s always been there on the periphery of Superman fandom: what about sex? Can he have sex with a human female or not, given certain natural reflexes?

Now add to that the awkwardness of ?the conversation? that often has to take place between a father and a son, and it was a great opportunity for both character and humor. The result is not just one but two very cute and funny scenes between Clark and Lisa. As much as I love writing action and big plots, those sorts of scenes are what really make it worthwhile.

SD: I always wanted to draw a love scene, which is kinda odd to say. I love drawing superheroes fighting, but to have the chance to draw a date, much less these dates was pretty fun. Makes you as an artist think back to your awkward moments with girls and you get a laugh.I enjoyed creating and playing up the tension and the kiss was a great scene to draw.

I remember when drawing the scene where Clark is running away from Lisa?s place, trying to fly, I had to put a dog in the ally. Somebody had to see it in order for it to be funny, even if it?s just a white dog that can?t tell a soul that a guy on a date flew away.

OD: It?s clear you threw yourself into this book Shane, at one point?literally?no?

SD: I have my cameo on the last scene with Clark, Jim and Lois. A lot of Easter Eggs in Vol 2. Including a nod to Krypto.

OD: Again, I?m going to go on record these moments only feel like they can happen in Graphic Novel format. Quiet moments aside, Clark?s solitude aside, you have set up one large prevailing theme on this earth that once again makes it so very akin to our world ? fear! Especially on the part of the American government. Bit of an indictment?

JMS: In terms of the government?s reaction?I?m not sure it?s so much an indictment as the most likely scenario.

I?m a big believer in following the truth line, and if, in the real world, someone like Superman showed up, they?d be terrified, and rightly so. A guy who can cross any border with impunity, who is powerful beyond understanding, from whom no secret can be kept, no safe harbor created, who is to all intents and purposes invulnerable and invincible?if you?re a president or a prime minister, how would that not be terrifying? Sure, he says he?s on our side, but how do we know that?s true, and even if it is true?it?s only true right now. What if that changes tomorrow? Common sense requires that you do everything possible to find out as much as you can about this guy, up to and including how to kill him if necessary.

As humans, we operate out of a human perspective?and human history is filled with people who declared themselves saviors of one sort or another and became just the opposite. It?s a very short walk from ?I am here to help you, my people? to invading Poland. As to the graphic novel format lending itself well to quiet moments and character pieces, you?re absolutely correct.

The difference between monthly books and an original GN is not far from the difference between writing TV vs. a film. In television you can have quick little character moments but you end up hurtling toward the act break and have to put in enough action or danger to bring people back after the commercials. In a film they?re there from fade in to fade out, so you can extend those moments and make more of them. For as cool as the action was in, say, Pulp Fiction, what we remember are the quiet moments, the character details. A Royale with cheese. Cleaning up the back seat. Several minutes spent on what comprises an appropriate or inappropriate foot-rub. You could have those moments in a TV episode but you could never extend them as you can in a film.

For me, those moments are what make the writing fun. So I wrote Spider-Man on the wall of an apartment building sharing a box of popcorn with some stranger during a particularly difficult moment?in Thor two of the favorite moments for readers had the Asgardians attending a town meeting to discuss indoor plumbing, and the locals building a mailbox to be put outside Asgard for incoming letters. But they?re quick, maybe a page and you?re on to the next thing.

In S:E1v2 there are a number of scenes that I could write at length in ways that I could never do in a monthly, and which also provide a lot of tools that are harder to pull off in a monthly. There?s the element of thematic parallelism that is drawn between when Clark helps the young woman next door, and something that happened in his past with a wounded animal. You don?t have to hang a lantern on it, it?s just there. Which is not, by the by, to say that GNs are superior to monthlies. Nothing could be further from the truth. They?re just different forms. I like writing monthlies and GNs as I like writing TV and movies. They represent different challenges, and working within the rules is half the fun. You can write free-form verse, and enjoy the looseness of that, then write a sonnet, which has very specific rules. Both are enjoyable for different reasons. To see the differences is not to put one above the other, only to be accurate.

OD: Guys thanks for the great responses especially during the middle of THE second biggest event in comicdom. One last question ? is the surprise appearance at the end of Volume 2, the fulcrum of Vol 3?

JMS: The appearance by these two individuals definitely plays a part in volume three, but not necessarily in the expected ways.

There?s a division of opinion between them on how to deal with Superman, and it doesn?t go the way it generally has in the past. Everybody?s been waiting for this character to make an appearance, but I didn?t want it to fall into the well-established pattern we?ve seen endlessly over the decades. So I?m going to be redefining this character in some new and hopefully entertaining ways in volume three.

SD: I went at their design in a fresh new way. My wife influenced the visual design for the lady part of the team. I really wanted a strong, beautiful and powerful female behind the man. As for the man himself, he was drawn slightly uncertain in appearance and gesture.

Of course I wanted both of them very fashionable with McQueen like fashion style.The OGN format does lend to a lot of leeway on giving scenes justice. I think V2 surpasses V1 in the action format. I heard from fans that they wanted to see a lot more action, which is fun because we got 3 Parasite fight spreads throughout the book. I took advantage of that and choreographed the fights in 3 different ways.

OD: Any closing thoughts?

SD: I?m happy to have been a big part of Earth One. I really sat down with certain expectations to meet and feel that I did that. Fans would come up to me saying that they did not like Superman until the Earth One series. They would tell me that the visuals pulled them in and helped them to care about Superman.

I have had great success with other projects and characters like the Red Lanterns or Superman/Batman to JLA. In the end, I felt like I had done a lot for Superman. I constantly try to out-do my past work and when it came to volume 2, I had no mercy. Artistically speaking, I feel that I somehow out did Volume 1. I will constantly try to outdo myself in my future projects . I?m currently in the middle of my next OGN, Shadow Walk, with Max Brooks and Mark Waid, and the stuff looks better every day. I hope in the future I can always say that I give my best.

JMS: In the analysis of anyone?s career, you have to ask: what is the pattern, and what are the exceptions? I?ve written over 300 published comics, another 300+ produced television episodes, over 500 published articles and I had four films I worked on produced in four years. There?s not another writer in town who can match those numbers. The pattern is getting stuff done.

But for a while there, I kept bumping into the exceptions when the books I was working on took editorial or marketing turns that changed it from the book I?d started out writing, and the story I wanted to tell, into something else. They got yanked into big events or otherwise turned into something I hadn?t signed on for. Even the successes produced bumps because when sales on S:E1v1 went through the roof, DC asked if I?d go from Superman and Wonder Woman to do V2, which added to the perception noted above.

The thing about corporate publishing is that from time to time, sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong reasons, things get turned upside down to serve a larger agenda. Most times it works out okay. Once in a while, not. By luck of the draw, I got caught in several ?once in a whiles? in a row. Happens.

When I began the sabbatical on monthly books, I continued to do miniseries and GNs because they would be less vulnerable to editorial tidal shifts. The result has been every bit as successful as I?d hoped. S:E1V2 came in ahead of schedule. All of my Before Watchmen scripts not only came in early, I was the first one in the door with scripts and the first one across the finish line overall, which is why I was given Moloch (also finished way ahead of schedule). And it?s pretty much given that my script for S:E1V3 will also be in early.

This gave me the confidence to approach Image Comics to re-launch the Joe?s Comics imprint, which via Top Cow had previously launched Midnight Nation and Rising Stars. (This is part of the whole Studio JMS mini-studio that Patricia Tallman and I announced at SDCC in July, and which already has two TV series deals, one movie and two web series going into production.) So starting in the Spring of 2013, I?ll be back to writing monthly books through the Joe?s Comics imprint, which is not subject to corporate issues. We have complete autonomy to write and publish whatever we want. The writing process has already begun, far ahead of schedule, and we?re making our final artist selections now. By working well ahead of deadlines, we?ll be able to hew to the norm, not the exceptions.

I?m still doing outside, non-monthly work (I?m working on another OGN for DC that I hope they?ll announce soon), and other miniseries, but for the foreseeable future my monthly work will come out via Joe?s Comics. We?re going to have fun with it. Because honestly, what?s the point of doing anything if it?s not fun?

OD: Look for SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE Vol.1 available this Wednesday from DC Comics!

Optimous has successfully blackmailed fellow @$$Hole BottleImp into being his artist on Average Joe. Look for Imp's forced labor on Optimous brain child in mid-2012 from COM.X. Friend Optimous on FaceBook to get Average Joe updates and because ceiling cat says it's the right thing to do.

Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
Check out AICN COMICS on Facebook and Comixpedia.org!

Source: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/59349

buckeye west side story final four 2012 bridesmaids winning lottery numbers megamillions winner kansas jayhawks

Required Online Ad Posting Executive

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://orientalads.com/required-online-ad-posting-executive/

linsanity the alamo anencephaly tesla model x lou gehrig toby mac blue ivy carter photos

Sudden cardiac death under age 40: Is exercise dangerous?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? It's a tragic news story that often makes headlines -- a young, healthy, fit athlete suddenly collapses and dies of cardiac arrest while playing sports.

Dr. Andrew Krahn of the University of British Columbia, presenting a study at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress about sudden cardiac death in Ontario, suggests this is a problem that warrants attention, but says don't blame the sports.

Reviewing coroners' reports, Dr. Krahn and a team of researchers found there were 174 cases of presumed sudden death in Ontario in 2008 in people aged two to 40 years.

Heart disease was present in 126 cases (72 per cent), 78 per cent of which was unrecognized. The majority of victims were male (76 per cent) between the ages of 18 and 40 (90 per cent).

With sudden cardiac death, people who seem to be perfectly healthy can die suddenly. Each year up to 40,000 Canadians die of sudden cardiac arrest. A significant proportion of these cases occur in otherwise healthy, young individuals.

Dr. Krahn's research dispels a myth that sudden cardiac death often takes place during rigorous physical activity. In fact, he found the majority of events (72 per cent) occurred at home.

Only 33 per cent of events involving children/adolescents and just nine per cent of events in adults occurred during moderate or vigorous exercise.

"Put it this way: If you have a 13-year-old kid who is not the star athlete who dies at home watching TV, it doesn't make the news," said Dr. Krahn. "But if the same kid is a high school quarterback or hockey star, then it's covered."

Regardless of the location of the cardiac event, Dr. Krahn believes his research sheds some light on this issue.

"This research gives us an idea of the scope of the problem -- there are almost 200 young people who die suddenly every year in Ontario. A good proportion of them have unrecognized heart disease. So the question is: How can we catch this before it happens?"

He suggests more attention be paid to possible warning signs such as fainting. He believes that teachers, coaches and an aware public may be key to detecting risk, ensuring prevention and formal medical evaluation and therapy.

"I would advocate for careful screening of people who faint, using questionnaires and education of healthcare professionals so that when warning signs present themselves, they recognize them and this information gets passed on to the right people," he says.

A nationwide screening program would be the most effective measure but there isn't currently such a thing in Canada, says Dr. Krahn. "Unfortunately, we lack a simple, inexpensive test that is ideally used for screening," he says. "There is a global debate about the merits of screening, which is not performed in most countries."

Still, there are other measures that could potentially save lives, feels Dr. Beth Abramson, a Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher.

Training in CPR and the placement of Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in schools, arenas and gyms could save the lives of many of these people, she says.

"Our goal is to make AEDs as available as fire extinguishers in public places from Yellowknife to St. John's," says Dr. Abramson. "The odds of surviving a cardiac arrest can increase to up to 75 per cent when early CPR is used in combination with an AED in the first few minutes." Since 2006, the Heart and Stroke Foundation has helped place more than 3,000 AEDs in schools and other public spaces.

The importance of AEDs was demonstrated this past summer when NHL hockey player Brett MacLean suffered a cardiac arrest at an arena in Owen Sound, Ont., during a pick-up game with friends. Players immediately performed CPR on the ice, while a spectator retrieved the AED in the arena.

Through their action, the 23-year-old survived and is currently recovering his home town of Port Elgin.