amberchen22

nedjelja, 28.11.2010.

Paper wins over e-books for travel guides

It sounded like a better, lighter wow gold way to pack for a trip to Germany: a Kindle with a Lonely Planet travel guide in lieu of an 844-page brick of a book.
Yet to my surprise, the 10-day visit to Munich, Dresden and Berlin turned into a lesson about the pitfalls of cramming an old medium — the book — into a new one — the electronic reading device.
It's a good thing that I had the foresight to bring a paper copy of Lonely Planet's "Germany," borrowed from the public library. My plan was to bring it as a backup in case something went wrong with the Kindle, but leave it in the hotel room to lighten my backpack. Instead, I ditched the Kindle and carried the book around.
That made me sad, because the Kindle, and the e-reading revolution, promises so much.
The e-reader from Amazon.com Inc. is light and can store not only the travel guide, but all the bulky novels I've been meaning to catch up on. A built-in dictionary lets me look up strange words.
The Kindle lets me type notes, highlight passages, and find them easily again. I added tips on tipping and transit fares as well as a reminder to visit a concentration camp memorial outside Berlin. The Kindle also lets me add bookmarks, the digital equivalent of the folded corners, or doggie ears, that I've marred many runescape gold paperbacks with in the past.
Preparing for the trip, there was no need to go to a book store or even a computer. I just bought the book through the Kindle's wireless connection. The Kindle version of the Lonely Planet guide was cheaper, too — $15.39, compared with the paper version at $18.47 on Amazon (the list price for both is $27.99).
Lonely Planet also let me buy individual chapters — for example, the one on Munich and surrounding Bavaria — for less than $5 (though it wasn't clear that I'd be getting the same content contained in the main book, rather than a distinct guide for the region).
But I quickly came to realize what I like most about paper books: I can touch the pages, and I can see more at once, whether it's a map, some text or a combination.
I missed all that reading on the Kindle, which was clumsy by comparison. There were two main reasons for this: the screen technology and the way the book was converted for e-reading
Consider the Lonely Planet's 2.2-mile, 16-stop walking tour of Dresden, which takes me by the major churches, markets and other sights rebuilt following the Allied bombings of the city in the waning days of World War II. The narrative gave me bare-bones descriptions of each sight. To learn more, I had to flip to a different section in the book and sometimes consult the index to find the right page. To navigate the route, I had to flip to a map and follow a black line marking my route.
Holding the paper version, I simply kept my thumb on one page and a finger on another to flip back and forth between the narrative and the deeper descriptions. The map was either on the same page or just one page away.
With the Kindle, I had to hit "next runescape money page" and "prev page" repeatedly, and the pages took their sweet time to turn, because the "electronic ink" technology of the screen doesn't respond as fast as a computer screen. Out of frustration, I flicked a switch to turn the device off instead.
E-ink also means scrolling and zooming doesn't work well. The Lonely Planet's solution was to break maps into four, so that you could get a closer look at each quadrant on the full screen. The idea is good in principle, but clunky in practice. I found I had to flip back and forth too many times because the legends telling me what sight each number corresponds to ended up on the wrong quadrant. Had the guidebook been developed in digital form from scratch, points on the map could have taken me to the corresponding entry with one click.
In the paper version, the region I explored was printed on the top of each page, whether it was Berlin or Central Saxony. On the Kindle, I had no such guide. I came across a listing for Thomaskirche, a church where composer Johann Sebastian Bach once worked. I thought it would be a good place to visit, until I realized I had already left the Dresden section of the book and moved on to Leipzig, which wasn't part of my journey
Another example of poor conversion from paper to bits: There's an index at the end of the Kindle book that serves no purpose. The listings aren't clickable. I would have expected the digital index to function like a search — click on it for all the references to those keywords throughout the book.
And because the Kindle can't handle columns well, some text was presented as a graphic, making it unsearchable.
As a technology writer for more than a decade, I hardly consider myself a Luddite. I do believe e-books have their place in society — even as travel guides, when designed properly. The Kindle works well for linear novels, but stumbles badly when given another task. The experience might have been different on, say, an iPad, which runescape accounts has a responsive color screen.
Even then, I'd have to hope for a guidebook specifically designed for the screen, rather than a conversion from paper. Or I'd at least hope for an e-book that gets updated frequently, something more difficult with paper. As it was, the Kindle edition I bought in August was based on the 2007 version of the guidebook, not the 2010 edition that just came out four months earlier.
And perhaps if I ever get to take an around-the-world trip one day, I'd appreciate being able to bring multiple guidebooks for multiple destinations without having to carry all that weight, even with the Kindle's limitations.
One of the Lonely Planet executives I talked to after my trip pointed out that printed books have a head start of several centuries.
That's true. I'm dealing with first-generation e-book technology at best.
So for my next trip to a single destination, I'll cheap wow gold stick with the tried and true: I'll just carry the book.

subota, 27.11.2010.

Children of divorce face lifetime risk of stroke

Children whose parents divorce runescape gold face lifetime risk of stroke, compared with those whose parents' marriage stays intact during childhood, a new study reveals.
The study findings were presented on Monday at the Gerontological Society of America's annual meeting in New Orleans.
Researchers at the University of Toronto based their study on a survey of more than 13,000 Canadians, about 10 percent of whom had experienced parental divorce when they were young children or adolescents.
Nearly 1,400 of the 13,000 respondents had experienced parental divorce, and just fewer than two percent (248) said they had experienced a stroke at some point.
The research team looked into a wide range of potentially influential factors, including age, race, gender, socioeconomic background, educational background, adult mental health history, childhood physical abuse history, long-term parental unemployment, lifestyle issues (such as obesity, runescape money and smoking and drinking behaviors), and diabetes history.
Ultimately, the researchers determined none of these variables explained the bottom-line finding: that children of divorce seem to bear an approximately 2.2 times higher risk for lifetime stroke.
"I certainly don't want this to be taken to mean that children from divorced households are condemned to have strokes," said study author Dr. Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor of social work, medicine and nursing at the university.
"This is just one factor among buy wow gold many that may increase stroke risk," she noted. "And we don't know that it's causal, in the sense that divorce leads to a stroke. It could be that many other things are at work here that are related to divorce, but are not divorce itself. We just don't know yet."
"This needs to be replicated several times to make sure there really is this relationship," cautioned Fuller-Thomson. "But if this holds up, one possible explanation is that adverse child experiences may become physically embedded in the way you react to stresses later on in life, particularly in terms of dysfunctions in cortisol levels, which is what's involved in the fight-or- flight mechanism."
"It's possible. But that's just a hypothesis runescape accounts at this point," she added.

petak, 26.11.2010.

Screens and dreams fuel Freud fever

Chinese turn to online psychology cheap wow gold training as box office smash aids resurgence in Austrian's theories. Li Li in Beijing reports.
Zhong Juntao closed his living room window, pulled the curtains, put on some soft piano music and laid down on the sofa. "I'm walking down some stairs," he said to himself gently, his eyes closed. "A door opens at the end of the stairs. I see a beautiful seaside beach."
The 27-year-old accountant tries to hypnotize himself at least two or three times a week.
"I might not be able to have multi-layered dreams like they do in the movie," he said, referring to the Hollywood blockbuster, Inception, "but I want to know more about my subconscious."
Although critics tipped sci-fi thriller Inception to fall flat in China, the movie has been a smash hit, grossing almost $70 million by the end of October. Its success came as little surprise, however, to the country's mental health experts.
Following several tragedies this year, such as the Foxconn suicides and the kindergarten stabbings, a growing number of Chinese are studying psychology to gain a better understanding of their own state of mind, with many even seeking professional help.
The man most are turning to is Sigmund Freud.
The Austrian neurologist's 1899 work, The Interpretation of Dreams, is one of two books runescape gold Zhong keeps readily at hand in his Beijing apartment. The other is Everyday Magic Hypnotism by Liao Yuepeng.
"I've started to write down my dreams. Then I try to find an explanation in Freud's book," he said.
Freud was introduced to China in the 1920s, when his work was translated by famous Chinese scholar, Zhang Shizhao. His theories fell out of favor during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) but returned to the public's attention when the country began opening up in the 1980s.
Today, his work is enjoying a massive resurgence.
In the months after the Sept 2 release of Inception, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a man who can explore other people's dreams, Chinese libraries and bookstores reported a sharp rise in demand for Freud's work, as well as that of other psychologists.
"Sales of Everyday Magic Hypnotism went up 300 percent a month after the movie came out," said Yang Xiaoye, a public relations officer for Amazon, the online retailer. "The movie has driven up the sales of many books."
All 15 Chinese copies of The Interpretation of Dreams kept by the library at Beijing Normal University were loaned in the second half of September. The college has one of the country's finest schools of psychology.
"It's rare to see all the copies of a non-textbook checked out at the same time," said Lei Juxia, director of the library's circulation desk. "All the books are on reserve, too."
Staff at Tsinghua University's library, which has 13 copies, reported a similar situation, while Freud's works now also hold prominent positions in many bookstores.
Mind the gap
Even before the boom in psychology that Inception inspired, psychoanalytical training has been steadily growing into a big business in China's major cities.
"Search the word 'psychoanalysis' on the Internet runescape money in China and you'll find an everlasting list of advertisements for ongoing psychological training," said Huang Hsuan-ying, a Taiwan-born expert in anthropology at Harvard University.
"If you do the same search in the West, you'll probably find lots of historical documents," he said.
According to Adam Crabtree, vice-president of the Canadian Psychological Association in Toronto, as Freud is now a fixture of Western culture, with constant references made in television shows, books and magazines, people have stopped appreciating his work. Yet, in China his theories are comparatively still new.
"His psychoanalysis deals with ordinary things, such as quarrels, pride and pressure," added Huang. "These things echo with the current state of mind of many Chinese."
Although psychoanalysis is already developed in Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and India, the demand being seen in China today is unprecedented. As a result, the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), which was founded in 1910 to advocate Freudian thought, last month celebrated its 100th anniversary by staging its biennial conference in Beijing, the first time it has been held in Asia.
More than 600 experts from the United States and Australia, as well as European and Asian countries, took part in 140 panels and workshops over four days.
Despite the progress, however, psychoanalysis remains relatively immature in China. The country's standard qualification for psychological consultants, which was only introduced by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in 2002, is today often criticized.
"Anyone who is interested in psychology can sign up for the (national) test and most can pass with less than half a year of rough training," said Yang Yunping, a professor of psychiatry and clinical psychology at Capital Medical University of China, who argued that to become a professional psychologist should require years of hands-on practice.
He estimated that the ministry has granted more than 200,000 certificates in the last eight years, although "the number actually capable of doing the job is less than 10 percent".
Lu Chengyu, an experienced psychotherapist in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, said he feels that the fact most psychological practices fail is evidence of the poor level of professional skills nationwide.
"Of the 600 students I've trained since 1997, fewer than 50 are still in the business," he said. Lu receives on average three patients a day, but "many new consultants can't even get a client a week", he added.
The lack of qualified professionals and the growing hunger among the public for consultation has resulted in greater pressure for China's limited number of mental health clinics.
At Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, for example, doctors see roughly 20 to 30 runescape accounts people a day. "With that kind of number, we don't really have time to talk to each patient," said psychiatrist Zhang Ronghua. "We just prescribe medication to most of them."
International organizations are helping China to train psychologists through several programs, with the main ones run in cooperation with groups from Germany, Norway and the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA). Professionals from around the globe offer low-cost or even pro bono guidance to students.
Skype's the limit
The CAPA program has about 50 Chinese students and more than 200 international psychoanalysts and analytic psychotherapists, but what sets it apart is that much of the training takes place through Skype, software that allows users to make online voice and video calls.
Instructors in other countries simply speak into Web cameras, with the images broadcast to students' computers across China.
"It's a miracle," said Jerome Blackman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Eastern Virginia Medical School and a training analyst with the New York Freudian Society. "It enables me to discuss psychology with students who are thousands of kilometers away."
Although, the method is far from perfect (several consultants in China said they are regularly frustrated by poor Internet connections and technical difficulties), the majority of people involved in the program who talked to China Daily praised the convenience of the Skype-based training.
One aspect that has proved controversial, however, is the course requirement that students themselves undergo different types of psychoanalysis, which is also carried out over the Internet.
This has overturned the traditional Freudian method in which the analyst and the person being analyzed - referred to as the analysand - are in the same runescape money room.
"We must respect the limitations of technology," said professor Jose Saporta, a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School's psychiatry department, who stressed that doing psychotherapy and psychoanalysis over Skype is unlikely to have the same effect as if they are done in person.
"There is no simultaneous eye-to-eye contact over Skype," he said.
His colleague, Wynn Shwartz, an expert on the supervision of psychotherapy, also pointed out that when technical problems interfere during an online training session and people are forced to repeat things, there is a risk they will change or exaggerate their statement.
"This naturally reduces spontaneity, which is what analysts base their judgments on," he added.
During the International Psychoanalytical Association conference in Beijing last month, psychologist Xiong Wei from the Wuhan Mental Health Center, one of few Chinese psychodynamic psychotherapy supervisors, released a case study based on 600 hours of online supervision of more than 20 students.
"Tiny but important information such as sighs and facial expressions are easily missed during Internet- based therapies," she said before warning that information safety is also a big concern in regards to hacker attacks.
For many consultants, however, online training is the only choice.
"Do you know how difficult it is to find a supervisor in China?" said Chen Yuying, a psychological consultant at East China Normal University and a second-year student with the CAPA. "Although imperfect, Skype training is better than nothing."
There are 108 psychodynamic psychotherapy supervisors in China but no analysts, according wow gold to statistics from the Chinese Psychological Society. In the US alone, there are some 3,500 analysts.
However, as the central government has just granted the permission for universities to recruit postgraduates in applied psychology, Yang at Capital Medical University said he is optimistic.
"Things will certainly get better if we have a strong training platform of our own," he said. "The history of psychoanalysis in China is yet to be written."
More international organizations are also looking to get on board, including Lingyu International Psychology Center in Toronto, Canada, which is preparing to launch its own online training program in Chinese.
Currently, most international teachers give lessons in English, which some people fear is hampering those mental health professionals who do not have the necessary language skills. Lingyu has promised to provide a translator for all of its training sessions.
As for the question of using Skype as a training platform, Elise Snyder, president of the CAPA, answered by referring to Freud's own words.
"When Freud wrote to the Chinese scholar Zhang Shizhao in 1921, he said, 'In whatever way you wish to carry out your intention by paving the way for the development of psychoanalysis I will be extremely pleased'," Snyder wrote in a paper presented at the IPA conference in Beijing.
"Many of us are following Freud's buy wow gold advice," she added.

četvrtak, 25.11.2010.

Box Office Preview: 'Potter' poised to set record

This forecast doesn't runescape gold take a "Megamind" — "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" will be the No. 1 film at the nation's box offices this weekend, conjuring up receipts that could approach $120 million or beyond and likely set a debut record for the "Potter" movies, the most successful film franchise of all time.
A true "event" film in every sense of the word, this second-to-the-last installment in the eight-part, decade-long Warner Bros.' series will draw massive crowds to the multiplex as it benefits from a terrific marketing campaign, off-the-chart audience awareness, 4,125 screens, including a record number of IMAX screens, and midnight showings. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the only film in the series thus far to open in excess of $100 million, having earned $102.7 million in its first three days back in 2005.
Falling to a distant second, Paramount's release of the Dreamworks' animated 'Megamind' should take in about $18 million, with a third weekend drop in the mid-30 percent range. Timing can be everything in this runescape money business and the film enjoyed two solid weeks at the top of the charts in a "Potter"-less marketplace with a voracious family audience hungry for kid-appropriate product. As it crosses the $100 million mark this weekend, "Megamind" holds the distinction of being the first blockbuster of the 2010 holiday movie season.
In third place, expect last weekend's second-place finisher "Unstoppable" from 20th Century Fox to gross about $12 million, with a modest sub-50 percent second-weekend drop. Denzel Washington and Tony Scott have re-teamed for the fifth time in this runaway-train flick that uses the director's signature visual style to full effect. Couple that with the star power of Washington and his draw for runescape accounts older moviegoers and the film should total around $40 million by Sunday night.
Fourth place should belong to the Todd Phillips comedy "Due Date," which incidentally has been the No. 1 film in the international marketplace for the past two weeks. A likely drop in the mid-50 percent range will generate third weekend revenues in the sub $10 million range, with an overall domestic gross nearing the $70 million mark. Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis as mismatched travel companions on a road trip from hell have made this R-rated comedy a solid holiday season hit.
"Morning Glory" from Paramount should scoop up fifth place with a second weekend gross of around $5 million and a post-weekend total nearing $20 million. The romantic comedy starring Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams debuted on a Wednesday and then took the fifth spot last weekend with $9.2 million and a first five wow gold day total of $11.8 million.

utorak, 23.11.2010.

Avoiding depression: sleeping in dark room may help

Exposure to a dim runescape gold light at night, such as the glow of a TV screen, may prompt changes in the brain that lead to mood disorders, including depression, according to a new study in hamsters.
While more work is needed to see if the results are true of humans, the findings might explain why night-shift workers and others constantly exposed to light at night are at increased risk for mood disorders, the researchers said.
The findings are being presented today (Nov. 17) at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.
Over the last century, artificial nighttime lights have become ubiquitous in industrialized countries, but it's not clear whether exposure to illuminated darkness affects the brain.
To find out, Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University, and colleagues placed hamsters in two environments. In one, hamsters were exposed to 16 hours of daylight and eight runescape accounts hours of complete darkness each day. In the other, the animals experienced 16 hours of daylight, but at nighttime, a dim light was kept on, about the intensity of a TV screen lighting up a dark room, the researchers said.
After eight weeks, the researchers tested the hamsters for behaviors that would suggest they were depressed. For example, they looked to see whether the hamsters still engaged in activities they normally enjoy, such as drinking sugar water.
In people, loss of enjoyment is known as anhedonia and is a major symptom of depression.
Hamsters in both groups were given a choice between drinking tap water or sugar water. The hamsters exposed to light at night drank similar amounts of tap and sugar water - they'd lost their preference for the sweet treat.
"That suggests to us that they are not getting the same pleasurable and rewarding feeling from drinking their sugar water, and that it may be runescape money interpreted as a depression-like response," Bedrosian said.
These changes in behavior were associated with changes in the brain region known as the hippocampus. The hamsters exposed to night light had a reduced number of so-called dendritic spines on the surface of cells in this region. Dendritic spines are hair-like protrusions that brain cells use to communicate with one another.
The findings agree with studies on humans that have found the hippocampus to be involved in depression. A patient with major depression has a smaller hippocampus, Bedrosian said.
The brain changes in the hamsters might arise from fluctuations in the production of the hormone melatonin, Bedrosian said. Melatonin signals to the body that it's nighttime, but a light at night dampens its production. The hormone has been shown to have some antidepressant effects, and so a decrease in melatonin might spur depression symptoms, Bedrosian said.
If the same mechanism is at work in people, then "people might want to try to avoid falling asleep with their TVs on all night, or they might want to try to minimize light exposure runescape accounts during the night," Bedrosian said.

ponedjeljak, 22.11.2010.

9 Strategies to Make Selling Your Ideas More Successful

A frequent question runescape gold from people in all career phases is what a person can do to better sell a new idea, whether to a customer or inside an organization. As much as it would be nice to have a standard formula that always works, success really depends on the particulars of your situation.
There are, however, a number of common strategies you can consider. Your best course of action is to be adept at using a variety of approaches to make your ideas more powerful and compelling. These nine strategies are a strong start to include in your idea-selling toolkit:
1. Get the Facts in Place behind Your Idea
Make sure you build fact-based, logical support as the underpinning for your idea. If the facts aren’t readily available, look for new or nontraditional information sources. Assemble the information you need to develop runescape accounts a fact-based case for why your idea will deliver results the organization needs.
2. Link Emotions to the Facts Supporting Your Idea
Think about the world’s great stories. Very few are made up solely of facts. They all are strongly rooted in characters and emotions. Develop the most compelling storyline which makes sense with your idea and creates emotional connections to it among potential supporters.
3. Depict Your Idea
Based on whatever is appropriate, create an early mock up of what you’re trying to accomplish. It could be a picture, a storyboard, a video, or an actual prototype, among other things. Help others buy-in to your idea by making it easy to interact with an early version of the end result you’re attempting to deliver.
4. Create a Clear Implementation Roadmap
If there aren’t obvious steps for how an idea can become reality, it may be dead on arrival in an organization. Break down the “how-to’s” behind your idea so key stakeholders can clearly see the effort and investment necessary to bring an idea to fruition.
5. Make Your Idea Easier to Support
Do the groundwork to make choosing runescape money your idea easy for decision makers by removing as many obstacles as possible. Think about whether it makes sense to break your idea up into easier to digest (i.e., support, fund, implement) pieces. Maybe you can better sell your idea by going the Goldilocks route, with “too much” and “too little” versions surrounding the option you want. Push for the BIG idea, but be happy to settle for the “just right” option in between.
6. Quietly Build Your Support One-by-One
Rather than waiting for a big meeting to introduce your idea and see how things go, build your support person-by-person ahead of time. Talk to individuals in advance, share where you’re headed, and solicit both input and support. If someone is supportive individually but becomes antagonistic or noncommittal in a later “big meeting,” you can always tactfully refresh their memory about an earlier favorable position.
7. Be Ready for the Right Moment
Some ideas will be ahead of their time when you’re working on them. Keep going. Perform all the preparation, get your assumptions and ideas challenged by others, and make refinements. Then read the runescape accounts organizational or market tea leaves as best you can so you’re ready to introduce the idea when it’s really the right time.
8. Secure Visible Third-Party Validation for Your Idea
It always helps to have an influential spokesperson backing your idea. Inside an organization, your third-party validation may not be from a TV star; it’s likely to come from senior leaders willing to expend their political capital to support good things for the organization. Identify who the key influencers are and start building their interest and support for your idea.
9. Pick a Different Salesperson
It could be someone else can run with your idea more effectively than you. If you think that’s the case, consider recruiting THAT person to be the salesperson. Or maybe even give the idea away to someone who can nurture and develop it better than you can. If you’re really interested in bettering the organization first and foremost, seeing the idea pushed forward and implemented by someone else should be more important than retaining ownership of a great idea which never sees the light of day.
Summary
These strategies are a starting point. Adapt, combine, or pull them apart so they’ll work most effectively in your organization to take full advantage of runescape gold successful new ideas.

petak, 19.11.2010.

New blood thinner works as well as Coumadin

Millions of people who runescape accounts are struggling with the tough-to-use blood thinner warfarin, sold as Coumadin and other brands, may soon have another alternative.
An experimental Johnson & Johnson drug prevented strokes in people with a common heart rhythm problem as well as warfarin did and without an increase in bleeding or other side effects, a major study found.
But the fact it wasn't better than warfarin could make price a big factor in how widely it gets used if it wins federal approval and has to compete with a rival medicine that just came on the market.
"These drugs are going to be very expensive, I'm sure, and that will play a role. Warfarin is dirt cheap," said Dr. Douglas Zipes, a heart rhythm specialist at Indiana University and past president of the American College of Cardiology.
He had no role in the new study, reported Monday at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago.
More than 2 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, when the heart quivers instead of beating normally. This raises the risk of blood clots that can cause a stroke.
For 60 years, the main treatment has been warfarin, but it's tough to use. Too little can lead to runescape gold strokes; too much, dangerous bleeding. The right dose varies so much that people must get frequent blood tests to adjust it, and even foods like leafy green vegetables can throw it off.
The new drug is rivaroxaban (riv-ah-ROCKS-ah-ban), already sold outside the U.S. as Xarelto for preventing clots during hip and knee replacement operations.
The study tested it against warfarin in 14,264 people with atrial fibrillation in 45 countries. Half had already had a stroke and the rest were at higher risk of one runescape accounts because of heart failure, diabetes or other conditions.
After about two years' follow-up, 269 patients in the group given rivaroxaban had a stroke or blood clot versus 306 people on warfarin. But such a small difference in a study this large is a draw, statistically, so the drugs are considered comparable.
People on rivaroxaban were less likely to suffer serious bleeding in the brain. Rivaroxaban also didn't harm the liver — a problem that doomed an AstraZeneca blood thinner four years ago.
If approved, the drug would be sold by Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-McNeil division in the United States and elsewhere by Germany-based Bayer HealthCare AG. The federal Food and Drug Administration already is weighing whether to approve rivaroxaban for hip and knee surgery patients, and the companies plan to seek approval to sell it for the heart rhythm problem later this year.
In October, the FDA approved the first warfarin rival — Pradaxa, made by the German firm Boehringer Ingelheim. It costs about $7 a day compared to less than 50 runescape money cents for warfarin. But neither Pradaxa nor rivaroxaban interacts with food as warfarin does, or requires blood tests to adjust the dose. No price has been set for rivaroxaban, which is a daily pill versus twice a day for Pradaxa.
Which of the warfarin alternatives is better?
"That's the inevitable question" that only a new study comparing them in similar patients can answer, said Duke University's Dr. Kenneth Mahaffey, who led the rivaroxaban study.
Duke's Dr. Robert Califf, a study co-leader, said his 84-year-old mother, who has struggled with warfarin, likely would switch to one of the new drugs "because she can afford it."
They and other study leaders have consulted for or received research support from the makers of rivaroxaban and other heart drugs.
Dr. Elliott Antman, a Brigham and Women's Hospital cardiologist who is vice chairman of the heart conference, said patients already are asking about Pradaxa, and that any warfarin alternative will appeal to people "who want a better quality of life, free of the burden of having to have frequent blood tests."
"Warfarin is the gold standard," and rivaroxaban seems runescape gold an "attractive option," he said.

srijeda, 17.11.2010.

A taste of real Mexican food

The dining scene in the runescape gold capital has become a cuisine kaleidoscope. International cuisines are on the rise but none more so than South American cuisine.
Casa Latina opened in April this year, serving up an authentic taste of Mexican food and a Latino beat, played daily by a live band after 9 pm. The red-and-green frilly outfits worn by its female staff members also help enliven the atmosphere.
We opened our meal with Crema Poblana (48 yuan), a creamy soup made from roasted spicy Poblano peppers and served with fresh cheese cubes, cheese chicharron, corn kernels and crispy corn strands - it is mildly spicy and very tasty.
Next up was Ensenada Taco Fish (68 yuan). A popular dish in the city of Ensenada itself, not too far from San Diego, California, it is incredibly fresh, light, crispy and mouth-watering.
The cylindrical fish is thinly covered in batter and deep-fried to a golden brown. It is runescape accounts served on a mini wheat flour tortilla and accompanied with green chili sauce, mayonnaise and finely diced sweet red and yellow pepper - this helps deter the burning sensation of the chili sauce. The fish is a winner, though a tad small.
However, both Enchiladas Verdes (86 yuan) and Ropa Vieja (65 yuan) arrive in generous portions with each dish being enough for two people.
The enchiladas is filled with boneless chicken and covered with melted cheese, then entrenched by a beautiful cream sauce made with tomato-like small and green tomatillo, emanating a hint of lemon flavor.
The latter Ropa Vieja is one of the few runescape money Cuban dishes offered on the menu. It consists of shredded beef and black bean rice garnished with a few slices of fried banana. The unassuming black bean rice is compact with an undefined, yet distinguished and distinctive flavor. The texture of the rice is perfect and the fried banana is firm while not too sweet, which compliments the rice.
Excellent Cuban Bucanero beer (45 yuan) can accompany the meal with a two-for-one deal before 8 pm. The beer is akin to Guinness but tastes even better because of its light taste.
The meal closed with Arroz con Leche (30 yuan) and cappuccinos (30 yuan). Arroz con Leche is rice pudding, one of the best I've ever tasted, bathed in milk and sprinkled with ground cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor is invasively strong so that you can immediately buy wow gold sniff its fragrance.
The food at Casa Latina is a total departure from Americanized Tex-Mex, thanks to Yessica Hernandez, a young and passionate chef born in the small town of Guadalajara, Mexico. She earned her culinary degree from Colegio Superior en Gastronomia Condesa.
When asked about cooking, Hernandez poured out stories of how she loves to copy her grandmother. She said that when she makes Flan de la Abuela, an amazingly delicious cream caramel, it has to bubble the way her grandmother's did. This is the dessert I'll be ordering on my next visit.
Dining at Casa Latina is a journey of Mexican gastronomy. Our evening was pleasant from the beginning to the end, complimented with terrific Latino music as well as runescape accounts attentive service.

utorak, 16.11.2010.

'Hallows' my favorite Potter film so far

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said the runescape accounts seventh film to bring her fictional characters to the big screen is her favorite so far and left open the slim possibility that she could write about the boy wizard again.
Among screaming fans and alongside cast members on the red carpet in London's Leicester Square for the recent world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," Rowling spoke to Reuters in a rare interview about her feelings on the end of the Potter phenomenon.
"This is my favorite film of the lot. So it's a very exciting evening but I'm looking forward to seeing it again, I've only seen it once finished," she said.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the penultimate Potter picture, hits U.S. theatres on November 19 and looks set to provide another big pay day for Warner Bros.
The Hollywood studio decided to split the final book about Harry and his wand-wielding pals into two films after the first six movies amassed $5.4 billion at runescape money the global box office.
In Deathly Hallows Part 1, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a mission to track down and destroy the secret to evil Lord Voldemort's immortality and destruction -- the Horcruxes.
The three are forced to fend for themselves outside the comfort of Hogwarts school, and the pressure to fight the forces of evil sees best friends Harry and Ron come to blows.
Rowling said that unlike cast members Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter, Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), she had been given more time to digest the finality of Pottermania because she finished writing the books long before filming came to a close.
"I feel like I'm further ahead in the grieving process. I feel like I'm the one who will be counseling them when it's all over because, I think, obviously there was a lag," Rowling said.
"I already went through my bereavement with the books so for me this is a lot of fun. I think, for runescape gold them, it's getting a lot more poignant."
"NEVER SAY NEVER"
Rowling said that she "thinks" she has closed the book on Potter, but refused to say for certain that his wizarding adventures had come to an end. The series of books has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.
"I think it's over but I've always said 'never say never' because I don't know. Every time in my life I have said: 'I will never do X' you can guarantee I will do it within a year," she said. "So I've learned I'm not just going to say it's over, it's over, it's over completely. I don't know."
Despite the runescape accounts author's uncertainty, the young British stars of the films appear ready to move on. All three have eyes on or have completed new movie projects.
Radcliffe, 21, has been filming the ghost story "The Woman in Black," Grint, 22, plans to play Olympic ski-jumping personality Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards in an upcoming biopic, and Watson, 20, will star in "My Week with Marilyn" alongside Michelle Williams.
Radcliffe said that after a decade of playing Potter, he was unlikely to reprise the role should Rowling pen another novel.
"I think I'd hang up, and then I'd call her back and just say: 'Jo, you promised'," Radcliffe joked.
"But you know 10 years is a long time to spend with one character, I'm not sure I'd go running back. It would be a very hard decision, certainly."
While the actors may be keen to move on to other roles, they all remember the final day of shooting as an emotional one.
"I knew it was coming all week, the last day, but it was just weird about how it really hit all of us," Grint recalled. "It's just like 10 years came down to one little shot and it was over and it was runescape money really sad."
˙

ponedjeljak, 15.11.2010.

New "Call of Duty" video game sets first day sales record

"Call of Duty: Black Ops" blasted runescape accounts entertainment records this week by raking in $360 million in its first 24 hours on sale, a dramatic and lucrative indication that video games have cemented their place as mainstream entertainment on a par with movies, books and music.
For the hordes of devoted fans who waited at midnight Monday to get their hands on the military shooter, this is hardly a surprise. For them, popping the new "Call of Duty" into a game console is the equivalent of turning on the TV to watch the Super Bowl or sitting back with a tub of popcorn to watch the latest blockbuster movie.
But while movies happen at you, video games allow the user to affect the story's outcome. That hands-on experience and interactions with other players fit the emerging social-media era where consumers demand a voice in whatever they do.
Across two years, with a budget well in the tens of millions of dollars, the developers of "Black Ops" created a world that immerses players in Cold War-era battles with settings ranging from 1960s Cuba to Vietnam and the Soviet Union.
Its intricate graphics and details — down to the gruesome sound a knife makes when pulled from an enemy's neck — are amplified in players' homes through big-screen TV sets and powerful speakers.
In one mission, which takes place with John F. Kennedy in the White House runescape gold before the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, players must shoot their way through Havana to assassinate a young Fidel Castro.
Cuba state-run media has leveled harsh criticism at the game, calling it "doubly perverse" by glorifying assassination and stimulating "sociopathic attitudes in North American children and adolescents."
"What the United States couldn't accomplish in more than 50 years, they are now trying to do virtually," said an article on Cubadebate, a state-run news website.
Though game developers see their creations as art, not everyone agrees. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over a California law that seeks to ban the sale of ultra-violent video games to minors. Parents' groups and politicians say games should be regulated like firearms and tobacco rather than like books and movies, which are protected by the First Amendment. A ruling is expected next year.
Many liken these games to movies — and it's an apt comparison. Along with the hyper-realistic cinematic scenery and surprise plot twists, there are well-known actors — including Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and Sam Worthington — lending their voices to the game's main characters. Also, the motion-capture technology used to track actors' bodies is the same that was used in "Avatar."
Activision Blizzard Inc. sold 5.6 million units the day "Call of Duty" went on sale, according to the company. Its predecessor, "Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2," sold 4.7 million copies in 24 hours to reap $310 million on its first day of sale last year. Within a week, it made $550 million.
"Not too many years back it would have runescape accounts been unfathomable that the biggest entertainment launch would be a video game two years in a row," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.
No longer. Today, such games as "Call of Duty," "Grand Theft Auto" and "Halo" all fit into the blockbuster category, and with each sequel they only get bigger. Production budgets for these games rival those of big-screen movies, as does the marketing push behind them.
"You are delivering not just a gaming experience but a cinematic experience as well," Hirshberg said. "The characters are emerging as the protagonists of the story."
The video game audience has expanded considerably in the last five years, reaching women, young children and even senior centers. But the people who flock to "Call of Duty" and other shooters are still primarily young men, just not as young as some would think. The average U.S. game player is 34 years old, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
A big part of the appeal of "Call of Duty" is its multiplayer feature, meaning gamers can fight against someone across the country or on the other side of the world.
"Everyone thinks that games are these solitary things," said Patrick Markey, a Villanova University cheap wow gold professor who studies video games. "But now, hooked up to the Internet, it's friends and strangers we are playing with."
"Black Ops" went on sale Tuesday in North America and the U.K. It costs $60 and works on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming consoles, and PCs. With that cost, games have an easier time setting dollar sales records than much less expensive movies or music.
The latest "Call of Duty" game broke records set by its predecessor a year ago. The $360 million in North American and U.K. sales on the first day is higher than any other form of entertainment — even beating box office sales of top movies in those markets over the entire opening weekend.
The game is rated M for mature — meaning it's not meant for kids under 17. It's bloody, to be sure, but new media professor Charles Palmer says that's not the main appeal.
"It's the challenge," said Palmer, who teaches at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. "It's one of those areas that thrills and excites people."
Sports games, such as "Madden," from Electronic Arts, are also popular, as are music simulators such as "Guitar Hero." But shooters in the style of "Call of Duty" continue to be the most popular.
"There is a DNA-level curiosity about and attraction to battle," Hirshberg said. "That has been a staple of the entertainment industry — movies, television, books and fiction — forever. And the same is true for video games. 'Call of Duty" has delivered perhaps the gold standard runescape money experience of battle."

petak, 12.11.2010.

"Tiny Furniture": A DIY with awards potential

Lena Dunham's runescape money "Tiny Furniture" recently picked up a couple of Gotham Independent Film Award nominations, both in "breakthrough" categories. Such nominations demonstrate that indie filmmakers very much appreciate the commendable efforts of other indie filmmakers who manage to make do with whatever is immediately at hand.
The real question, though, is this: Does a film like "Furniture" exist to pick up nominations or to reach actual audiences? This film seems designed to speak to nominating committees only. In other words, how she made her movie is more impressive or at least unique than the actual story she chooses to tell.
First of all, "Furniture" is a DIY (do-it-yourself) movie to its very mumble-core. It also is a kind of tease: Lena Dunham the filmmaker has cast Lena Dunham the actress to play someone who may or may not be Lena Dunham. Its writer-director-star then casts her family as her family, her friends as her friends and shoots much of the movie in her parents' Tribeca loft. As it turns out, this airy, pretty-in-white loft with its fabulous artist's studio is the most interesting thing in the movie. It shouldn't be.
When superficial aspects of a movie so clearly mirror the life of its maker, the film can't runescape accounts help giving off a strong whiff of autobiography. How much the emotional core of "Furniture" truly reflects Dunham's life is hard to say. Certainly her dysfunctional, adrift college-graduate character, Aura, lacks the pluck and guile to make her own movie as Dunham has.
Even if the film bears little resemblance to Dunham's real life, one wonders why Dunham dumps on her heroine so maliciously. For watching this film is like sitting in on someone else's therapy sessions -- too much information about someone you don't know, and the more you learn, the less you want to.
Aura, overweight and lacking ambition, is not pretty like her younger sister (Grace Dunham) or successful like her mother (Laurie Simmons), a recognized photo artist. So she whines, makes poor choices -- especially in the men she associates with -- takes a dead-end job, then whines some more. Many of her travails are self-inflicted. When her sister tells her to get a life, you may hear an "Amen" come from some of the audience.
Every encounter in the film is meticulously designed to lower Aura's self-esteem runescape money ever further. A glamorous girlfriend from her school days, Charlotte (Jemima Kirke), attacks life the way Aura wants to but never does. Her mother's own diaries of her youth, left in a place so easily spotted that she must want her daughter to read it, tells of a wild, carefree, gloriously sexual life that Aura can only dream about. The chef (David Call) of a restaurant where she answers phones flirts with Aura while complaining all the while about his girlfriend. And so it goes.
One male friend (Alex Karpovsky), who sleeps in her bed but never thinks to touch her, has his nose in a book about Woody Allen all the time. You wish Dunham would read the book instead and perhaps learn how to make romantic embarrassments, annoying habits and social dysfunction funny. Here, it's just embarrassing and annoying.
The film climaxes, literally, with a creepy sexual encounter that is downright humiliating. Even Aura doesn't deserve such a degrading experience.
One bright spot is Jody Lee Lipes' runescape accounts cinematography, especially because the film apparently was shot with a high-end consumer camera.

četvrtak, 11.11.2010.

Michael Jackson new album vocals genuine

Sony Music on Friday runescape money released a brief "teaser" of a new Michael Jackson single and insisted that the vocals on an upcoming new album were genuinely those of the late "Thriller" singer.
But controversy over the December album release of "Michael" was stoked by a representative of Jackson's father Joe, who said the perfectionist performer would never have wanted his unfinished material to be released.
A short clip on the official michaeljackson.com web site for "Breaking News" -- a song that Jackson is said to have recorded in 2007 -- consisted of TV news soundbites on Jackson's June 2009 death, followed by a faint scream of less than two seconds.
The full song will be released on Monday. The new album "Michael" will be released December 14.
"Michael" is the latest commercial venture by Jackson's official estate and the first runescape accounts album of new material from the singer since his "Invincible" album in 2001.
Sony has declined to say how much production work was done on the album after Jackson's sudden death from a drug overdose, or how many tracks it contains.
"If Michael had wanted this music released he would have done so before his death," Brian Oxman, a lawyer for Joe Jackson, said in a statement on Friday.
"The songs which are being released on the new Michael Jackson album were unfinished and incomplete tracks that Michael said over and over many times he never wanted released. We should honor Michael Jackson's wishes," Oxman added.
Earlier this week, celebrity website runescape gold TMZ.com said that Jackson's mother Katherine, and his two eldest children, Prince and Paris, believe that the voice on some of the album tracks is not Michael's.
But a spokeswoman for Sony's Epic Records said on Friday that the label has "complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own."
The Jackson family's misgivings follow an embarrassing debacle last year when "This Is It," a new Jackson single touted as his first posthumous release, turned out to have been first recorded 18 years earlier under a different title by an obscure Puerto Rican singer.
Sony said "Breaking News" was recorded by Jackson at a friend's place in New Jersey in 2007 wow gold and "recently brought to completion."
Other tracks were recorded at studios in Las Vegas and Los Angeles with various unidentified collaborators, Sony Music said. At the time of his death, Jackson was reported to be working with hitmakers like R&B star Akon and Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne.
The executors of Jackson's estate have sanctioned a number of projects to pay off the singer's debts and to provide for his mother and children. They include a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil tour that will open in Montreal next October, and a dance videogame due in stores runescape accounts later this month.

srijeda, 10.11.2010.

CMA entertainer of the year newcomers spur debate

The Country Music Association's runescape accounts entertainer of the year is the group's highest honor, and voting for the trophy is conducted under strict confidentiality.
But we were able to find a voter who didn't think Miranda Lambert, who leads all CMA nominees with nine, was worthy of the top award.
Her name? Miranda Lambert. She had three chances to vote for herself, and said she passed.
"I just feel like it's such a big deal to be nominated for entertainer of the year," Lambert said. "I'm kind of weirded out that I got in there. Oh, I just can't believe it. But I feel like when you actually win it, it's something that you really have to earn. I have done two headlining tours and they were both this year. You know, I feel like I still have a ways to go before I deserve to take that home."
Lambert's not alone in her angst. The three members of Lady Antebellum — Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley — also declared that they did not vote for themselves. Scott called it "extremely premature."
Yet there they are, along with another newcomer, Zac Brown Band, former winner Keith Urban and Brad Paisley, probably the safest bet to win the CMA's most coveted award Wednesday night in Nashville.
The association's traditionally conservative membership has gone radical this year, sweeping runescape money away a number of longtime entertainer contenders in favor of something shiny and new. The move was an interesting one to longtime watchers of the awards.
"I have heard they are looking for a new regime, wanting to turn things around and to kind of mix up the shuffle," said Reba McEntire, the 1986 CMA entertainer of the year. "Well, they definitely did. This has sure gotten everybody to talk about it."
And generally what they're saying is, "Huh?" This year's nominations have led to a frank, open and honest conversation.
For those who support the new acts, it's simply a changing of the guard. It happens every so often, with newer, hipper acts muscling aside fading favorites. Then there are those who think longevity is also part of the award and that nominees should have a long history of hits.
"The only thing that I was disappointed in was the acts that have been headlining for so many years, they were not nominated," McEntire said. "In particular, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts. I would've assumed they would've been in that nomination before Zac Brown Band, Lady A and Miranda Lambert."
This sea change by voters has runescape gold sparked a debate about the nature of the award. There is a perception that entertainer of the year requirements are laid out like commandments on a stone tablet, but the reality is everyone has a different definition.
And the rules don't help much. Look at the language closely and the word ambiguous comes to mind:
"This award is for the act displaying the greatest competence in all aspects of the entertainment field. Voter should give consideration not only to recorded performance, but also to the in-person performance, staging, public acceptance, attitude, leadership, and overall contribution to the Country Music image."
Jay DeMarcus, member of the perennially snubbed supergroup Rascal Flatts and the CMA's board of directors, says the criteria is confusing.
"I've been trying to get to the bottom of it for years," said DeMarcus, who is chairman of the artists relations committee. "I still don't understand it. I sit in those rooms and say, 'Can someone explain this to me?' ... There are certainly people who have been denied before and I think it's something that needs to be addressed and fixed."
Who's definition would you use, then?
For many the number of concert tickets sold is a big factor — perhaps the buy wow gold biggest. It's a great measure of just how popular an act is.
So are record sales.
Many also believe the act should have some sort of television presence, should be a model citizen who donates time and money to charity, and should be a zealous missionary in country music's never-ending search for converts.
"When you figure it out let me know," Jason Aldean said.
Aldean is another singer who had a legitimate claim on an entertainer nomination, yet he was shut out of the awards completely. He's disappointed by the snub and thinks the debate over who gets nominated and how is pointless. He believes the whole thing's rigged.
As a singer on an independent label, he has few CMA members to back him when nominees are chosen. Same goes for McGraw, who records for Curb Records. And that might also explain why a year after winning entertainer and three other CMA Awards, Big Machine's Swift, the biggest name in country and pop, is up for just one.
"The average fan doesn't understand how all that stuff works and the industry probably doesn't want them to," Aldean said. "Fans watch a cheap wow gold show and they get all up in arms because their favorite artist wasn't nominated or didn't win an award they were nominated for. Bottom line is it's not based on anything, man. It's based on who can rally the most troops for their guy, and sometimes this guy wins and sometimes that guy wins. It's just kind of the way it all shakes down."
Aldean says the torch will be passed eventually and thought this year's nominations were "kinda cool" for including the three new acts. Despite their protestations, Miranda Lambert and Lady A do have game.
Lady A's "Need You Now" is the No. 2 album of 2010 so far and they've been a fixture on the charts for more than a year. The trio launched its first headlining tour this fall and is country music's second-biggest crossover draw behind Swift.
They're nominated for five awards, trailing only Lambert, who is up for nine — the CMA record for a woman and the second most ever.
Lambert's album "Revolution" was widely hailed as the best album of 2009, has gone platinum and spawned the No. 1 country hits "White Liar" and "The House That Built Me."
"I thought it was just about ticket sales and the amount of people you play in front of, and it's not," said Lambert, who put out her first record five years ago but had her biggest success over the last year. "It's a very broad award. It's about everything you've done in the past year, and I've definitely worked my butt off, so I guess I'm just settling into the fact that I'll have to accept it."
For those who didn't make it, the sting will quickly pass. As DeMarcus notes, success isn't always measured by the number of awards you win.
"I'd rather be rich than have a trophy," he runescape money joked.

utorak, 09.11.2010.

Biggest little moments of 2010

It was a big year for international runescape gold superstar Cristiano Ronaldo: he became a father in July, keeping mum on the identity of the child's mother (not his supermodel girlfriend Irina Shayk, to be sure). But the Portuguese soccer stud made the biggest splash with his oh-so-revealing Emporio Armani underwear campaign, baring nearly everything for the Italian brand.
Les Grossman / J-Lo Dance at the MTV Movie Awards
When Tom Cruise reprised his Les Grossman character from Tropic Thunder on June 6, so awesome was the skit that a feature film was a foregone conclusion. We're going out on a limb and saying this is Tom Cruise's greatest role ever. If he doesn't win an Oscar for this, he never will.
Kim Kardashian Goes Nude at 30
When Kim Kardashian celebrated her 30th birthday in 2010, she marked the occasion runescape accounts by posing nude for the artsy W magazine. Kim was painted silver for the shoot, which she says may be her last in the buff. "I'm too old for that now," she said. "I wanted to get it all out of my system before I turned 30."
Sara Carbonero's Hotness Causes Spanish World Cup Loss
Meet Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV presenter, sports journalist, girlfriend of goalkeeper Iker Casillas and, according to some, the reason Spain lost to the Swiss in the 2010 World Cup opener -- Carbonero is allegedly so hot she distracted Casillas. Fortunately, Spain pulled it together, becoming the only team to win the World Cup after losing its opening game.
Oprah Waves Goodbye to Talk TV
Oprah Winfrey has been the queen of talk show television for 25 years -- but in a matter of months, she's putting an end to the show. In September, Winfrey runescape money announced she'd be going out with a bang, treating her final season premiere audiences to an all-expenses-paid eight-day Australian vacation, yelling, "You and you and you and you are going to Australia!"
Adriana Lima Sports $2 Million Bra
It happens every year: Victoria's Secret designs some ridiculously bejeweled bra and has one of their top models prance around in it, and dang if we aren't suckers for that. This year was Adriana Lima's turn. But what's more amazing is that her two companions are able to not look at them. Impressive will power, fellows.
Jessica Alba Is the Darling of Paris Jessica Alba had one heck of a year! Not only the did the gorgeous actress star in four new films, including Machete and Valentine's Day, she was hands-down the darling of Couture Week in Paris. Jessica was photographed at numerous shows wearing countless cute looks: She wore Chanel, Valentino runescape accounts and Dior to each of the respective shows.

ponedjeljak, 08.11.2010.

Belgian actress savors Eastwood's unusual style

Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" marks runescape gold a shift into uncharted territory for the director.
Departing from his usual thrillers, crime dramas, and small-scale human-interest stories, this sprawling new film spans three countries in telling the tales of troubled American factory worker and psychic George Lonegan (Matt Damon); grieving London youngster Marcus (Frankie McLaren), whose twin brother is killed in a car accident; and high-profile Parisian reporter Marie LeLay (Cecile de France), who starts to question the possibility of an afterlife after she is almost killed in a tsunami. Though the three are worlds apart, their search to understand what happens after death brings them together.
This is only the second non-French film for de France, who is from Belgium and has won a Cesar Award, the Gallic equivalent of the Oscar. The first was the adventure comedy "Around the World in 80 Days," with Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan.
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH "HEREAFTER"?
Clint Eastwood wanted a French speaker, because the character is French. So I did an audition with the casting director in Paris with two scenes from the film. It's weird because usually you have to do two rounds and then you have to meet the director, but because Clint Eastwood trusts his casting directors -- he trusts everyone -- he just saw me, and two weeks after, I received his answer.
SO CLINT EASTWOOD CAST YOU WITHOUT ACTUALLY MEETING YOU?
Yeah. He just saw me on the video and runescape accounts  that's it.
HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH CLINT EASTWOOD?
In France he's like God. He is the favorite director of a lot of actors, so I was the happiest person in the world when I received positive word from him. And I wasn't disappointed, because it was a wonderful experience working with him on the set. He's completely in the present. He really lives his work and his life enjoying being in the present, and he really transmits that to you and to all the members of the crew. I think the most beautiful thing was that he trusted me, as he trusts all the members of his crew. He trusted me so much, and he gave me a lot of freedom. Because he is an actor too, he knows that you know your job. It was also the first time I shot with a director who only does one take.
FOR A LOT OF SCENES YOU SHOT ONLY ONE TAKE?
Sometimes he would even just shoot the rehearsal and that was all. I really love that, because I'm from theater and I'm used to being prepared. On the stage it's one take too. You can't say, "Sorry, people, that was no good. Can we do it again?" It's a challenge and it's a good sensation, and that's also why I love my job, because of that kind of sensation. Clint Eastwood is also very open-minded, and if you ask for another take, he'll say, "Yeah, sure." It's not like he says, "It's only one take; I want to go home." I was so happy to be near Clint Eastwood, I really enjoyed the shooting.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR THE ROLE?
I really enjoyed pretending to be a journalist; that was easy. The other part, about near-death experience, I never thought about that before working on this film, so I was very curious to jump into the subject. I read a lot of Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross and Dr. Moody's books. It was very exciting to read all of the different testimonies about near-death experience, to see how they are very close to each other and how they talk about the same things. It's very runescape money interesting to see that nothing is proven and that there are no satisfactory explanations, and it's funny to see how science rejects the idea of life after death and considers it more a sign of schizophrenia or psychosis. It's a battle, and some well-known scientists work on this and lose credibility, just like my character. So it was very interesting to jump into the subject, and I'm still very curious to see how our beliefs evolve.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING IN FRENCH CINEMA AND WORKING ON HOLLYWOOD FILMS?
For me, it's not really different. It's all about a relationship between a director and an actor, and it all depends on the person, not the nationality. For example, in "Around the World in 80 Days," there were great sets, a lot of extras, beautiful costumes, and I was very impressed because it was Hollywood. But with this one, it was a low-budget film, so I didn't really feel the difference. As I said before, it's more about the person; it's more about the way of directing. The difference is more about the relationships between people.
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ON LIFE AFTER DEATH?
It's difficult to have an opinion because, for me, death is a part of life. It's more about accepting that there are mysteries and staying open to any kind of experience. It's very personal when you live this kind of experience, because it's very strong inside of yourself. You really need to live a runescape accounts  paranormal experience personally to have an opinion, and it's never happened to me.

subota, 06.11.2010.

Susan Boyle to sing for Prince Charles

Reality television sensation Susan Boyle said runescape money Tuesday she will sing in front of Prince Charles, weeks after performing for the pope when he visited Scotland.
The 49-year-old performer, who shot to global fame after dazzling judges on television show Britain's Got Talent, will sing her version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" at the Pride of Britain charity show in London next Monday.
"It's going to be a real privilege to be performing before His Royal Highness the Prince runescape accounts Of Wales," the singer said.
"It's going to be a great night. I can't wait to be there."
The worldwide number-one selling artist missed out on playing before Queen Elizabeth II at last year's Royal Variety Performance after only finishing runner-up to dance group Diversity on the British talent show.
American rocker Reed runescape money banned Boyle from performing his song on US TV show American Idol, but British copyright laws will allow her to perform the classic hit in front of the prince and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
Other performers at the event include X Factor judge Simon Cowell and Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole, also a judge on the programme.
Boyle, a devoted Catholic, sang for Pope Benedict XVI in Glasgow during his runescape money state visit to Britain in September.

srijeda, 03.11.2010.

Filling a hunger to help out the needy

A total of 330 people, 46 hosts runescape gold  and 32 restaurants are joining forces to raise cash for three Beijing-based charities and that's just for starters, Todd Balazovic discovers.
For do-gooders looking to dine while donating, the Chi Fan for Charity is philanthropy at its tastiest.
The second annual Chi Fan for Charity, to be held on Nov 6, will give Beijingers the chance to eat to make a difference as hundreds of expats sit down to meals donated by 32 local restaurants and hosted by prominent Beijing personalities.
Hosts include CCTV presenter and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador James Chau, art critic Karen Smith and movie director Chen Daming.
"I think everyone wants to be charitable, it's just a matter of getting over that hump. This is a way to be charitable by doing something you're probably going to do anyway," said Michael Crain, creator of the Chi Fan for Charity and CEO of consulting firm MDC Strategies.
Restaurants available for the charity range from sultry soul food at NOLA New Orleans restaurant to opulent fare at LAN Club.
Prices also range depending on the restaurant with meals going from 500 to 1,000 yuan per person.
"My philosophy is to always do what you do best," he said. "I can't build a house runescape accounts  but I can gather people and get people together. The restaurants can do what they do best and cook a great meal and provide a nice place to eat it."
Last year, Chi Fan for Charity helped raise more than 100,000 yuan for the Dandelion Middle School, Beijing's only charitable middle school focused on providing education for migrant children.
Zheng Hong, principal of the school, said the money went to repair their schoolhouse, located in an old factory, and helped provide educational materials.
"People like Michael are so supportive," Zheng said.
"The students may not all know their names but they do know they are being supported. This increases their confidence and helps them realize they're special in someone's heart."
But this year, the charities have grown to including Prevention Through Education, an HIV/AIDS awareness program, and Rural Women, an NGO dedicated to teaching technical skills to countryside women.
With twice as many restaurants runescape money and three times the number of charities, Crain said he hopes to double last year's figure.
"This year I wanted the project to be more than just me; I wanted to get others involved," he said.
"With seats filling up quickly, we should easily be able to meet last year's goal and hopefully take it a step further."
Brandon Trowbridge, NOLA's star chef, said he is creating a special recipe never tried before, just for the event.
"It's something worth getting involved in," Trowbridge said.
"It's something special and I want to give these people a good time and most importantly, a unique dining experience."
Chi Fan for Charity has been the subject of concern for organizers over the past few months, but for participants, the event is expected to be a breeze.
"It feels as if you don't have to do anything," said Bonbon Bins Product Director Lindsi Kalani Bradbury, who will attend the event.
"We would have had to go out for dinner with our friends anyway, so it is fantastic to see our friends and runescape accounts  support charities at the same time."

utorak, 02.11.2010.

8 Life Lessons You Should Learn Today

You grasp many life lessons only after runescape gold making a mistake and realizing, “Oh crap. I wish I’d done something very different.” For some lessons, that’s not that big of a deal. In other areas, you’d be a lot better off if you could get started working to counteract the problem before it happens.
Here are eight of these life lessons you should consider addressing now, while you don’t need to:
1. Cut your living expenses – dramatically.
If you’re in the US, there are so many material goods so readily available it’s easy to get caught up in accumulating as much stuff as you can. As long as your income is rising, that can be manageable in the short-term. Sooner or later though, there’s a very real possibility you’re income won’t be rising for at least some period of time. You then have to make quick (potentially painful) decisions about what in your lifestyle gets cut to avoid accumulating debt.
Far better (although maybe not easier) to pare back elements of your lifestyle well before you need to do so. Not only does it curb potentially over-ambitious expectations for you (and your family) about what is “necessary” to be happy and fulfilled, every dollar of expense you eliminate is a dollar to be saved or invested for the proverbial “rainy day.”
2. Ask for help from your professional and personal networks.
It’s one thing to build a network and accumulate hundreds of contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere online, plus those which exist in real life. But having a name and skeletal contact information in an online list isn’t really an active network. A functioning network comes from knowing you can reach out to runescape accounts  people for help and they’ll actually recognize you and respond. It also means first doing your part to benefit those within your network.
So before you find yourself out of a job or in some type of jam where you need help RIGHT AWAY, get active with individuals in your network sharing ideas, offering help, and asking for their assistance in areas which aren’t critical. Getting a comfortable and regular dialogue going with specific people will make it much easier to make the “big ask” when you’re in a real pinch.
3. Seek out a career change.
The last few years have obviously seen a tremendous amount of uproar and change in the career prospects of millions. Jobs which seemed secure (in part because particular employers and industries appeared secure) have turned out not to be. With so many uprooted at once in tremendously challenging economic times, finding that next job has taken much longer. That’s why it has been important (and will likely remain so) to anticipate what your first steps will be if you’re suddenly out of work.
When you don’t really need to, create a plan B (and maybe even a plan C) and work multiple options so if a potential career derailment strikes you, you’re able to transition as seamlessly as possible to your next best alternative. Sure this means more work and effort, but better to be prepared ahead of time than thrown into a life crunch with no realistic preparation to exploit.
4. Hone your selling skills.
Many people not in sales jobs have the runescape money mistaken belief they aren’t salespeople. In reality, if you work, live, or interact with others in any way (that should include everybody reading this) then you are certainly trying to convince people to adopt your point of view. That means you’re a salesperson.
The implication is you’ll benefit from doing some reading and practicing selling skills right now. Doing so will help you improve at understanding others’ points of view, identifying what needs and benefits are important to them, and being able to anticipate and respond to objections they pose. Plus, if you ever find yourself needing to more actively sell (i.e., you want or have to start your own business), you’ll be so much further along in achieving sales success.
5. Get smarter.
Do you hear that popping sound? That’s your knowledge about whatever it is you do evaporating as new technology, new practices, new marketplace realities, or any of a thousand other things render your knowledge ineffective or downright incorrect. What do you do? Make an active and very concerted effort to continue learning during and after you are in school. Social media both makes ongoing learning easier (through ready access to experts and information you’d never have been able to reach before) and harder (since many “experts” have no clue what they’re talking about).
As a result, use every means you can to not only stay current on what you’re doing right now, but also try to anticipate what you may be doing in the future to get a head start on learning in newer areas. Pay particular attention to techniques on how to learn more effectively and faster, which apply across multiple fields of study. Far runescape accounts  better to have a familiar command of a new discipline than learning from scratch in an accelerated time frame.
6. Exercise.
I always hated exercising, so I never did any in my 20s and most of my 30s. My resistance was bolstered by the fact my weight was manageable, although my waist size slowly increased by 6 inches in the years after getting married. When my wife finally got me to work out and then signed me up with a trainer, the initial physical assessment showed I was out of shape and had about 25 pounds to lose.
Slowly but surely over the course of a couple of years, I lost all the weight and dramatically reduced my body fat percentage. Only problem? There are areas (such as “love handles”) that show no signs of going away no matter how well I eat and work out. If I’d been exercising all the way through, I’d have been in a lot better shape, controlled some of those problem areas, and had much less of a hurdle once I started exercising way too late.
7. Pray.
Don’t you hate when you only hear from someone when they need something? Me too. And we’re not the only ones either. When things are going well, take a little time to work on your spirituality, irrespective of what or wherever you choose to do it. Getting in touch with runescape gold  something bigger than you even if it only lies within yourself always helps put things in the proper perspective. And understanding the consolation spirituality provides when everything’s going your way allows you to understand the kind of spiritual second wind that can be yours when nothing’s going as you planned.
8. Be humble.
When things are booming, you’re not typically thinking about what life might be like when your situation isn’t going as well. That can lead to overlooking others who are important contributors to your success, especially if they tend to stay in the background and embrace a servant leadership approach to how they conduct themselves. The irony is that at those times when things are going super for you, you’re best served by noticing the “little people” and adopting some of their orientation to humble service. Doing this will reduce the number of people who will be rubbed the wrong way by you reveling in your success. It will also ensure you’ll have many more friends should your fortunes turn because you’ll be supported by others who care about you and not what you’re accomplishing.
Summary
My advice? Select at least a few of these areas to begin addressing right now. Which ones to select? That’s up to you based on what’s going to be most important to you when things aren’t going like runescape money you hoped!

ponedjeljak, 01.11.2010.

Train looks to "Shake Up Christmas" for Coca-Cola

Hey soul sisters, and runescape gold  brothers. The band Train on Monday rolled out a new song for the upcoming holidays meant to put a smile on the faces of music fans who are weary of the gloomy economy.
The song, "Shake Up Christmas," is a key part of Coca-Cola Co.'s new Christmas advertising campaign that in past years has featured people or animals, such as the friendly polar bears of 1993, which became iconic for generations of TV viewers.
For years, bands have struggled against declining CD sales by branching out into selling more merchandise and beefing up live and televised performances. But for San Francisco-based Train, singer Pat Monahan told Reuters the new song is less about commerce and more about wanting to conjure holiday joy during tough times.
Monahan said the Grammy-winning band has been touring the world for some 17 months, and they have talked with many people who are grappling with the economic downturn even as their hit love song, "Hey Soul Sister," set crowds to singing happily.
"It's really an honor to know that, somehow, our music is affecting people in a positive way," Monahan said.
He added that writing a song only for commerce -- meaning "Shake Up Christmas" solely for a Coca-Cola ad -- seemed cynical. Approaching a song that way, he said, "you are not going to write runescape accounts  inspiring music."
"I think of what I did with 'Shake Up Christmas' as a 'how can I help'" spread some happiness.
The lyrics talk about spreading joy and love and include the chorus: "Shake it up, shake up the happiness/ Wake it up, wake up the happiness/ Come on y'all, it's Christmas time."
The band, whose other hits include "Drops of Jupiter," planned to perform the song for the first time in a show on Monday night in London, one day ahead of Coca-Cola's plans to unveil the advertising campaign and the song to the world.
SANTA CLAUS AND COCA-COLA
Dating back to the 1920s, Coca-Cola has geared ad campaigns around the holidays. Its 1931 posters featuring a jolly Santa Claus and created by artist Haddon Sundblom became symbolic of what most people consider to be a joyous time of year.
In more recent decades, a family of Coca-Cola polar bears has conjured thoughts of togetherness and sharing, and ads featuring a caravan of bright, colorful trucks delivering soft drinks has been seen in more than 100 different countries.
Shay Drohan, senior vice president runescape money  of the company's Sparkling Brands division, said "Shake Up Christmas" will be featured throughout the 2010 holiday campaign.
"We think of (the ads) as tradition," Drohan said. "but we want to balance that with what is new about this Christmas."
The company hopes to build on the success it enjoyed with a similar promotion created around World Cup soccer matches using the song "Wavin' Flag - Coca-Cola Celebration Mix" by Somali rapper K'NAAN. The song was not just a key part of ads, it became a hit that topped record charts in 17 countries.
Whether Train can duplicate that kind of success with "Shake Up Christmas" awaits the days and weeks ahead, but there is one thing of which Monahan is certain right now, the song is not about an ad. "It's really about the wow gold  spirit" of Christmas, he said.

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