Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Ryan Murphy: One Million Moms would love "The New Normal"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Ryan Murphy says the conservative group "One Million Moms" would love his new NBC show, "The New Normal," if they would only watch it.

The show is about a white gay couple who have an African-American woman's eggs implanted into the womb of their surrogate mother, a single mom. Ellen Barkin plays the surrogate mom's bigoted mom, who doesn't want the egg donor's eggs in her daughter, and doesn't care much for gays. Murphy said the character is "100 percent" a member of One Million Moms.

"If they watched the show, I actually think they would love it," Murphy said at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. "Because for the first time, they're represented. Ellen Barkin is a member of that group. Which is the truth."

He said the Barkin character would "protest people and events" and that other characters on the show would respond. One Million Moms, which also objected to JC Penney hiring the openly gay Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman, said "The New Normal" was "using public airwaves to continue to subject families to the decay of morals and values, and the sanctity of marriage in attempting to redefine marriage."

Murphy said his show was influenced by "true genius" Norman Lear, who explored social issues in shows including "All in the Family" and "Maude." He said the Barkin character's tirades would spark discussion.

"I think the show is funny, but I think in many ways the show is about tolerance and I think it's about a discussion of tolerance," he added. "And I think that their points of view are delivered with sensitivity and a certain amount of ferocity by Ms. Barkin, so I think they would actually, if they watched it, they would like it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ryan-murphy-one-million-moms-love-normal-003309919.html

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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Taxi Or Cab Hire From Bangalore Airport To Ooty Through Online.

Bangalore is one of the major metro cities and serves as the capital city of the Karnataka state. It is one of the fastest growing states in Asia. The online services are implanted in every sector and especially in travel industry Bangalore is in front row for cab booking. Bangalore cabs are very famous in the city as it is having a huge traffic most of the people hire cabs to reach the desired place early. Bangalore is also known as pensioners paradise.

Bangalore is a base to the south Indian tour and it can be accessible easily from any place. Most of the people plan their trip from Bangalore. There are many getaways from Bangalore. Tirupati, Ooty, Mysore, Coorg, Belur, Hampi, Munnar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Goa are few of the popular getaways. Almost to all the places the online taxi facility is available.

No need to wait for the travel agents or before travel agencies to hire a taxi. Now one can book cabs or car hire through online from their home or workstation itself. One can login in to a Particular travel website and can search for the Bangalore car hire services or Bangalore cabs to the desired destinations. Even you can also search for the cabs that suit to your budget.

Bangalore itself considered as a tourist place in Karnataka. There are many places of interest to see inside the city. The main attraction of the cit is the Vidhana Soudha the state legislature is at the starting of the Bangalore city, Lalbagh a botanical gardens, Cubbon Park and many temples are present in it.

Tirupati taxi hire is more popular from Bangalore. Travelers can hire a taxi from Bangalore airport. It will be easily accessible as it is a base for the south Indian tour people can book cab from Bangalore airport. Instead of reaching the city and searching for the taxi service it is easy to hire a car rental from airport itself.

Ooty is around 256km from Bangalore. It is a summer resort and is a popular weekend tourist destination. Ooty is also called Udhagamandalam. It attracts number of tourists with its greenery and it has numerous tea plantations. To enjoy the trip to Ooty hire cab from Bangalore to Ooty for a hassle free journey. In and around Ooty there are many of the sight seeing places.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Taxi-Or-Cab-Hire-From-Bangalore-Airport-To-Ooty-Through-Online-/4051258

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

June 2012 Real Estate Market Recap For Collingwood, Blue ...

With half of 2012 now behind us, I thought it might be a good idea to take a deeper look at the real estate market performance this year.

Listings
The number of new listings was down 21% in the month of June compared to May with 576 new listings in the Georgian Triangle area.? Year-to-date listings are still up by 6.7% over 2011.? A deeper analysis shows something interesting.


Based on the number of sales this year and the number of currently available properties for sale, Collingwood in particular is moving into a situation of tightening inventory while the other areas are still very much in a buyer?s market position with inventory surpluses.

I also did a bit of ?Googling? to see what I could find in the way of For Sale By Owners and notice there are about a dozen in Collingwood and Blue Mountain combined with more than that in Wasaga Beach.? There are also many new home developments still offering up new inventory and, there were about 2,600 properties of all kinds listed for sale through-out the Georgian Triangle on our MLS? system.? Of these, about 1200 are residential listings in the six key areas of Collingwood, Clearview, Wasaga Beach, Blue Mountains, Grey Highlands and Meaford.? In other words, it is a VERY competitive buyer?s market in most areas.

Sales
The number of sales in June was down 18% from May and 15% from June 2011 which was the peak sales month last year.? Year-to-date, there have been 977 sales which is up 9.6% over the same period last year but much of that increased demand was seen in the early months of the year.


Is this an early sign of some softening in the market?? It?s hard to say but with the mortgage changes coming into effect on July 9th, it may be.? The tightening of available inventory however, means that our sales to listings ratios are still holding for now and the next quarter should provide clarity.

Prices
While the average sale price appears to be down in most areas except for Meaford and Wasaga Beach, I think the reality is that they are actually up a bit when we take a closer look.? Our MLS? reporting system looks at AVERAGE and not MEDIAN price.? With far fewer sales over $700,000 this year (28 versus 39 this time last year), the average is lower.? I took a closer look and did a search of specifically, 3 bedroom detached homes with garages, full basements and on town services.? By doing that search, I found prices were actually up in most area except for Meaford and Clearview where averages were down slightly.


Condos
As condominiums represent a large percentage of the sales in Collingwood and Blue Mountains, they are a bit of a market unto themselves.? The chart below illustrates some of the changes in the condominium market over the last year.? It?s very difficult to interpret the results as you can see.? In general and based on anecdotal evidence, the condo market is quite soft at the moment and especially in and around the Village and Blue Mountain Resort.? Most of the gains have been seen in the more residential offerings (versus investment or recreational) in Collingwood.


Bottom Line:
With less than 1 in 3 properties selling in most areas of the Georgian Triangle, Sellers really need to understand that this is not the time to test the market.? Homes must be properly priced, in excellent showing condition and well presented in order to sell.

Buyers need to look beyond the decorating and make careful decisions based on market values, resale values and emotion in order to make a solid investment in real estate that will bring peace of mind and enjoyment for years to come.? Having a REALTOR? who really understands the market and process is key for both buyers and sellers.

It?s always a pleasure to meet new people and to assist them in meeting their real estate goals.? If you would like to schedule a buyer or seller consultation with me, please feel free to contact me anytime at 705-446-1762 or send me an email.

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter by clicking here.

This entry was posted by Marg on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 5:01 am and is filed under Blue Mountains, Buying Real Estate, Clearview Township, Collingwood Real Estate, Condominiums, Market Conditions, Meaford, Selling Real Estate, Vacation Property, Wasaga Beach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Source: http://blog.collingwood-bluemountain.com/june-2012-real-estate-market-recap-for-collingwood-blue-mountain-and-area/

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Nepal bus crash kills 38 pilgrims: police

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nepal-bus-crash-kills-38-pilgrims-police-105508911.html

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Friday, July 6, 2012

Drought hurts corn hopes; New Apple tablet launch near?

Date: Thursday, July 5, 2012, 7:13am CDT

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/morning_roundup/2012/07/drought-hurts-corn-hopes-new-apple.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search

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Wall Street shrugs off Microsoft's aQuantive write-down

Bangalore, July 5:?

Wall Street doesn?t think that Microsoft?s $6.3-billion aQuantive failure was a big mistake.

In fact, MarketWatch said shares were up 0.3 per cent at $30.64.

Pearson Education says that many M&A deals fail because of flaws in business logic, integration and corporate development, among others.?

Around 85 per cent of failed acquisitions can be attributed to HR issues, according to Keeley Mooneyhan Director of M&A Practice with HR Matters.?

The IT industry has many spectacular M&A failures. One example is AOL?s acquisition of Time Warner in January 2000 for $164 billion, which saw Time Warner?s shares jump 39 per cent to $90.06. In December 2009, the two companies split.?

But M&A failures are not complete failures. Inc. Wire reports Google?s VP of Corporate Development, Mr David Lawee, as saying at TechCrunch?s Disrupt 2012 that though one-third of Google?s acquisitions have failed, it has still won because it has managed to get good people through acquisitions.

'; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "html") { s += google_ads[0].snippet; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "text") { // Adjust text sizes to occupy the majority of ad space. if (google_ads.length == 1) { ad_title_class = 'ad_title_large'; ad_text_class = 'ad_text_large'; ad_url_class = 'ad_url_large'; } else { ad_title_class = 'ad_title'; ad_text_class = 'ad_text'; ad_url_class = 'ad_url'; } for(var i=0; i

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article3605599.ece

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HBT: Darvish and Freese win The Final Vote

The suspense was killing you, I?m sure:

Good for them. Even better for Bryce Harper when, inevitably, a member of the NL squad goes down with an ?injury,? requiring MLB?s most marketable young talent in decades to have to go to Kansas City for next week?s game. Purely by coincidence, I?m sure.

And once again, let me note the wonderful, over-the-top disconnect between Major League?s official position regarding the All-Star Game ? it determines home field advantage for the World Series and thus, by definition counts for something truly important ? and its practical approach to it: the All-Star Game is a marketing, public relations and philanthropic opportunity, and the Final Vote?s greatest utility comes from driving traffic to MLB.com and followers to its Twitter account:

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with baseball using the All-Star Game this way. Indeed, in a day and age in which fans can see any player whenever they want and the distinctions between the National League and American League are approaching non-existent, that may very well be the highest and best purpose for the Game as opposed to some actual semi-serious competition like it was decades ago.

But given this, it is high time baseball take away the one thing that doesn?t fit with all that is today?s All-Star Game: actual baseball consequences. ?Take the World Series home field advantage out of the equation. Let the 98% of how Major League Baseball approaches the All-Star Game ? fan-friendly fun, promotional event and money maker ? rule, and stop making something that matters like home field advantage in the World Series be decided by things that do not matter:

That?s fun and all, but seriously guys, it should have no bearing on the World Series.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/05/yu-darvish-and-david-freese-win-the-final-vote-and-now-baseball-needs-to-fix-the-all-star-game/related/

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

America?s favorite sheriff Andy Griffith dead

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Actor Andy Griffith, who won the hearts of 1960s TV viewers with his role as gentle Sheriff Andy Taylor in ?The Andy Griffith Show,? then returned as a folksy 1980s lawyer in ?Matlock,? died Tuesday at his home on Roanoke Island, N.C., at age 86, NBC News has confirmed.

The news was?first reported to the North Carolina television?station WITN?by Bill Friday, former president of the University of North Carolina and a Griffith friend.?The Dare County, N.C. sheriff later confirmed Griffith died at approximately 7 a.m.

"Andy was a person of incredibly strong Christian faith and was prepared for the day he would be called Home to his Lord," Griffith's wife, Cindi, said in a statement. "He is the love of my life, my constant companion, my partner, and my best friend. I cannot imagine life without Andy, but I take comfort and strength in God's Grace and in the knowledge that Andy is at peace and with God."

Director and actor Ron Howard, who played Griffith's son, Opie, on "The Andy Griffith Show," told msnbc's Andrea Mitchell that he tries to emulate Griffith's professionalism on his own movie sets.

Howard also tweeted that Griffith's "pursuit of excellence and the joy he took in creating served generations and shaped my life."

"North Carolina has lost its favorite son," North Carolina governor Beverly Eaves Perdue said in a statement. "In an increasingly complicated world, we all yearn for the days of Mayberry. We all will miss Andy, and I will dearly miss my friend."

Griffith began his entertainment career with comic monologues and moved into movies, debuting in 1957?s ?A Face in the Crowd? with Patricia Neal. But it was as the widower sheriff Andy Taylor on ?The Andy Griffith Show? that he really made his mark. The show, which also starred comedian Don Knotts as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife, ran from 1960-1968. Its setting, in the fictional, friendly small town of Mayberry, became almost as famous as any one episode.

While both Knotts and co-star Frances Bavier, who played Aunt Bee on "The Andy Griffith Show," both won Emmys for their roles, Griffith never did.

Griffith returned to TV stardom in 1986 as Ben Matlock, a Southern lawyer. That show ran until 1995 and was seized upon by comedians as a punchline for its popularity with older Americans. In one ?Simpsons? episode, a highway is renamed the Matlock Expressway so a town mayor can win the elderly vote.

Griffith won?a People's Choice Award in 1987 for "Matlock," and said at the time that the lawyer role was his favorite.

The actor, who often sang as part of his TV roles,?also recorded music, and won a Grammy for his 1996 inspirational album, "I Love to Tell the Story."

Griffith was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. A statue of Griffith, in character as Andy Taylor, and holding a fishing pole and the hand of Ron Howard's Opie, stands in Raleigh, N.C.

Griffith was born in North Carolina in 1926.?He earned a degree in music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

One of Griffith's earliest hits was a 1953 comic monologue about college football. You can listen to it here.

The actor was married three times. He?is survived by his wife and his daughter Dixie. Son Andrew Jr., known as Sam, died in 1996.

What was your favorite Andy Griffith role? Share with us on Facebook.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/03/12543460-americas-sheriff-andy-griffith-dead-at-86?lite

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Iranians targeted Americans in Kenya

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iranians-planned-attack-us-israeli-targets-kenya-officials-221107758--abc-news-topstories.html

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Future Of For-Profit College Regulations Now In Obama Administration's Hands

After a federal judge struck down key parts of new regulations on for-profit colleges last weekend, it's undecided whether the Department of Education will appeal the case or start again with a new set of regulations.

But observers said that although the rules were invalidated on technical grounds, the judge's decision supports the department's right to hold for-profit colleges accountable for leaving students with unsustainable debts.

"The key victory for the department is that they do have the authority to set these standards," said Amy Laitinen, who served as a policy adviser in the DOE and now works as a deputy education policy director at the New America Foundation. "In my mind the question is going to be one of political will. How much is the department going to want to take on this fight again?"

The department was attempting to rein in abuses by for-profit colleges, which were taking in disproportionate amounts of federal student aid dollars while their students defaulted on loans at much higher rates than in other higher education sectors. It issued the so-called gainful employment regulations in 2011 to gauge whether for-profit schools and other vocational programs were setting up students with careers that allowed them to repay student loans. The for-profit college industry countered with a lobbying battle in Washington aimed at blocking any new rules.

When the department issued the rules in June 2011, the industry's trade group filed a lawsuit a month later seeking to undo the regulations. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Saturday struck down several key provisions, ruling that the department "failed to provide a reasoned explanation" for creating a rule mandating that at least 35 percent of students are repaying loans.

But the decision also provided a pathway for re-crafting and concluded that the department could create rules that tested whether programs prepared students for "gainful employment."

"The department has set out to address a serious policy problem, regulating pursuant to a reasonable interpretation of its statutory authority," Contreras wrote.

The regulations were intended to evaluate for-profit and vocational college programs based on several measurements, including whether a graduate has an excessive debt burden when compared with his or her income (based on total income and discretionary income) and whether a student is able to repay at least a portion of his or her loan debt each year.

Groups that supported the regulations said Monday the administration should not delay in crafting new rules to prevent abuses.

"Now that it has been reinforced that the department can regulate these programs, the ball is back in their court," said Mamie Lynch, a higher education research and policy analyst with the Education Trust, a student advocacy group. "They need to take actions to protect students and make sure that students aren't going into too much debt and being victimized by these programs."

The head of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, the for-profit college trade group that brought suit against the department, said in a statement Sunday that he hoped the "era of litigation was over" following the judge's decision. The group did not respond to questions about the department's authority to regulate for-profit colleges.

Going forward, the politics of the next few months could be tricky for the president; the industry's relentless lobbying campaign pitted many Democrats in Congress against the Obama administration.

"It's in the middle of the election year," said Laitinen, the former administration official who works at the New America Foundation. "This has taken a lot of political capital, but the lobbyists are strong and the pushbacks are strong."

It took nearly two years for the department to issue the first set of rules, resulting in more than 90,000 public comments -- many of them identical form letters distributed to students by for-profit college trade groups.

Jarrel Price, an analyst who follows the for-profit education industry at Height Analytics in Washington, said he expected the industry would be "far more organized and more vocal" if the department started the process again. But he expected that a new push for regulation could provide a rallying cry for younger voters.

"I doubt that Democrats would want to shy away from gainful employment, which is designed to make sure that students are getting trained for an occupation and are in a position to repay their loans," Price said. "Especially given the labor market and the continued economic problems ? these have been priorities for Democratic campaigns throughout the spring and summer, and I think this is an important way for them to reinvigorate their student base."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/for-profit-college-regulations_n_1644645.html

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

MSI Barricade


It's sadly true that with many computer components, you get what you pay for. With PC cases, spending more money will usually get you more features, if ones that you'll probably be able to live without. A fine example of this is MSI's new $79.99 (list) case, the Barricade. It may be modest of styling, but it delivers the goods in all the build-centric ways you'd expect?and in a few you wouldn't. You can find more elegant and innovative cases in this same price range, but as far as basic functionality, the Barricade won't stand in your way.

The Barricade is, for all intents and purposes, a fairly standard mid-tower, measuring about 16.2 by 7.3 by 17.7 inches (HWD). With the exception of the windowed side panel and a silvery MSI logo on the front, the exterior is entirely black, in terms of both the steel of its skeleton, the flared plastic front and top panels, and the mesh that ornaments both. Its design is a bit on the Spartan side, but in any event you're getting more than the solid planes of metal that usually distinguish budget cases.

Open the side panel, however, and you'll be struck by a tidal wave of color. In a departure that's as drastic as it is rare, the motherboard tray isn't black?it's blue. And not a dark, subdued shade, either, but the color of the sky on a scorching summer day. The same hue is also used as an accent throughout the interior on the rear 120mm exhaust fan, the four 3.5-inch hard drive bay trays, and the tool-free retention mechanisms on the three 5.25-inch bays, but the blast of blue from the motherboard tray is shocking at first. Not that you'll notice much of it once you've installed your components, of course.

To help with that, you'll find cut into the tray a large hole for aiding in setting up an aftermarket CPU cooler, as well as a few additional holes for routing cables and wires into a channel beneath the tray. For the most part, these are on the narrow side, and two are blocked if you are using a full-size ATX motherboard, so you'll want to plan your cabling carefully. Also of note is that on the other side there is almost no extra space outside that channel to hold the cables, so you might not be able to shunt everything down there. You should also be prepared for a slightly tight squeeze between the bottom of an ATX motherboard and the power supply you hook up in the bottom-mounted bay. (For what it's worth, the tray is identical to that used in the Diablotek Abyss.)

Luckily, the Barricade's other elements are generally well laid out and implemented. The retention mechanism on the 5.25-inch bays is a clever one using springy screws that reduce the frustration and guesswork of installing optical drives or other devices. The seven expansion slots are of the traditional, simple, and effective one-screw-per-spacer style (not like the zany method used on MSI's previous inexpensive case, the Raptor ). Rather than oriented front to back, the 3.5-inch drives insert side to side, which frees up some extra space around the motherboard and drive well area and keeps them out of the way of the two front 120mm intake fans. This? creates something of a traffic jam when connecting the SATA cables?there's so little room, you have to organize them carefully?but it's an acceptable way to go.

More surprising still on the Barricade are the two three-speed fan controllers that are found on the front of the top panel. These can be uncommon on even more expensive cases, too say nothing of models this affordable, so those who care about balancing their computer's cooling and noise are in for a treat. Other front-panel ports located nearby include the obligatory headphone and microphone, two USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, and an SD card reader. There's also a ridged depression in the top panel to support your electronic devices when they're connected to the computer; it's embossed with the words "Digital Cradle" in case there was any question.

Despite giving you decent value for your dollar, the Barricade is not perfect. In addition to the aforementioned quibbles, the mesh top panel, which doubles as a shield for two extra 120mm exhaust fans (which are not included), is mildly tricky to remove, and came off accidentally multiple times during our testing. And to take advantage of the USB 3.0 front-panel port, you need to run a cable through your computer, out the back, and then into a free port on your motherboard. This was a serviceable method in the days before the USB 3.0 header was standardized, but there's no satisfying excuse for it now. To make matters worse, the cable's passing through one of the two grommeted holes intended for routing liquid cooling piping out of the case makes it a solution that even robs you of a potentially useful feature.

You can't have it all with any sub-$100 case, naturally, but the MSI Barricade acquits itself admirably working within the necessary constraints. Models like the Thermaltake Dokker ?and the NZXT H2 ?are marginally more elegant in design and capabilities. But this case has everything it needs along with quite a few extras, and if you want your case to make a statement, the Barricade's bountiful blue will do it like practically nothing else could.

More Case Reviews:
??? MSI Barricade
??? Diablotek Abyss
??? Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Snow Edition
??? Thermaltake Armor Revo Snow Edition
??? NZXT Switch 810
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/EU0W_ZpjvQo/0,2817,2406515,00.asp

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