Cloud Gaming Startup Happy Cloud Raises $4 Million Series A ...

May 22, 2013 at 1:46 pm PT

The Happy Cloud, one of a slew of ?cloud gaming? startups trying to bring videogames to new and different platforms, announced Wednesday it had raised a $4.25 million Series A round of venture capital. The round was led by Avalon Ventures and joined by Jesselson Capital and Shaman Ventures. The Happy Cloud has been in stealth mode since it launched in 2011, but claims that users who download games through its partnerships with publishers can start playing them almost instantly while the full game download finishes in the background. The company also announced the appointment of a new CEO, Tamir Buchler.

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130522/cloud-gaming-startup-happy-cloud-raises-4-25-million-series-a-round/

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• Today, more leisure travelers than ever (24% ) have stayed in a vacation home rental as an alternative to a traditional hotel or resort during the past two years, and 23% have stayed in a condominium resort. This is an increase in the incidence of vacation rental travel compared to 2010, which reported 20% and 22%, respectively.
• 47% of leisure travelers are interested in staying in a vacation home rental as an alternative to a traditional hotel or resort during the next two years, and 46% are interested in staying at a condominium resort. This also shows a statistically significant difference from 2010, which reported interest from 44% and 46%, respectively. (MMGY Global/Harrison Group 2012 Portrait of American Travelers)
• Americans will continue to seek out more value for what they pay in 2013, which is one of the many reasons vacation rentals are growing as an attractive option. More than nine in 10 (94%) leisure travelers say ?value for the price? is the primary reason for choosing vacation rental lodging, as they often provide a huge cost savings as compared to other lodging options. (MMGY Global/Harrison Group 2012 Portrait of American TravelersSM)

The top five reasons leisure travelers choose vacation rentals as an alternative to staying in a traditional hotel or resort are: (1) Value for price (94%); (2) Privacy (90%); (3) Full kitchen facilities (87%); (4) Amenities (84%); and (5) More space overall (81%).

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Source: http://weddinggawker.com/post/2013/05/22/41422/

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Anthony Weiner launches bid to become NYC mayor

NEW YORK (AP) ? Anthony Weiner's run for a renaissance is officially on.

The ex-congressman whose career imploded in a rash of raunchy tweets two years ago said in a YouTube video announcement late Tuesday that he's in the New York City mayoral race. He'd said last month he was considering it.

"I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough lessons," he said in the video. "I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance."

With that, Weiner is embarking on an audacious comeback quest, hoping to go from punch line pol whose tweeted crotch shot was emblazoned on the nation's consciousness to leader of America's biggest city.

The Democrat is jumping into a crowded field for September's primary. He's arriving with some significant advantages, including a $4.8 million campaign war chest, the possibility of more than $1 million more in public matching money, polls showing him ahead of all but one other Democrat ? and no end of name recognition.

His participation makes a runoff more likely, and many political observers feel he could at least get to the second round.

But Weiner also has continued to contend with questions about his character and the scandal that sank his career just two years ago.

After a photo of a man's bulging, underwear-clad groin appeared on his Twitter account in 2011, he initially claimed his account had been hacked. After more photos emerged ? including one of him bare-chested in his congressional office ? the married congressman eventually owned up to exchanging racy messages with several women, saying he'd never met any of them. He soon resigned.

In recent interviews, he has said he shouldn't have lied but did it because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She told The New York Times Magazine that she has forgiven him.

Weiner has taken a series of steps recently to rehab his image and reintroduce himself, including the lengthy magazine profile and a series of local TV interviews. He hasn't responded to interview requests from The Associated Press.

He also has released a platform of sorts, a list of ideas styled as a blueprint for helping the city's middle class thrive. He's made a point of highlighting one or more of the concepts on most days, via his newly revived Twitter presence.

The suggestions, some of them updates from a mayoral run he nearly made in 2009, range from giving every public school student a Kindle reader to using Medicaid money to create a city-run, single-payer health system for the uninsured.

Some seem to draw on his Washington experience, such as making more use of a federal cigarette-smuggling law. But others fall squarely within City Hall, including suggestions to create a "nonprofit czar" in city government and eliminate paid positions for parent coordinators in schools.

The document also opens a window on a vision of the city ? a place with "a can-do attitude, competitive spirit and aggressive nature" ? that sounds not unlike Weiner himself. He was known during his seven terms in Washington as a vigorous defender of Democratic viewpoints, unafraid to get combative whether it was on cable TV or the House floor, and as a tireless and instinctive politician.

"Anybody who underestimates Anthony Weiner's ambition is a fool. And anybody who underestimates his ability as a candidate is a fool," retired Hunter College political science professor Kenneth Sherrill said. But "we're going to see, basically, if Weiner can take hits as well as he can dish them out."

In recent interviews, he has said he shouldn't have lied but did it because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She told The New York Times Magazine that she has forgiven him.

In seeking a second chance from the public, Weiner will have to overcome some voters' misgivings. In a recent NBC New York-Marist Poll, half said they wouldn't even consider him, though the survey also showed that more registered Democrats now have a favorable than unfavorable impression of him.

Weiner can expect opponents to hammer at his prior prevaricating, and he said in a recent interview on the RNN cable network that he couldn't guarantee that no more pictures or people would emerge.

And while he might welcome attention to his policies rather than his past, they also have attracted some criticism. About a dozen young people recently demonstrated outside his Manhattan apartment building to denounce his proposal to make it easier to suspend disruptive public school students; "(hash)Weiner: You ask for a second chance in (hash)NYC2013 but deny students a second chance," read one sign, using Twitter's beloved hashtag marks.

Since leaving office, Weiner has put his government experience to work as a consultant for various companies.

His Democratic opponents include City Councilman Sal Albanese; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; the Rev. Erick Salgado, a pastor; and former Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Republican contenders include billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota and homelessness-aid organization head George McDonald. Former White House housing official Aldolfo Carrion Jr., a Democrat who recently dropped his party affiliation, is running on the Independence Party line and also interested in the Republican nomination.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anthony-weiner-launches-bid-become-nyc-mayor-061856020.html

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Sticker shock: New college graduates, here is why your education cost so much money

Students at the University of California, Los Angeles campus, which has faced steep state cuts. (David McNew/Getty??

When high school senior Jenny Bonilla got her college acceptance letter in March, she felt shock and heartbreak rather than joy. That?s because the letter from Goucher College, a private liberal arts school in Baltimore, also brought news that she would owe an unaffordable $20,000 a year in tuition and board, even with a scholarship the college was offering.

Bonilla had been in the running for a full ride to Goucher but eventually lost out because her parents? combined income of $57,000 a year was deemed too high.

?That was heartbreaking,? she said.

Bonilla?s experience is all too familiar to many students and their parents contemplating college, as higher education price increases have far outpaced the growth in middle-class wages over the past three decades.

The average tuition and fees at a public, four-year university rose to $8,655 in 2012-13, not counting the costs of room and board, according to the College Board. That?s 250 percent more than it would have cost in 1982, when a year of college would have set the average student back just $2,423 in today?s dollars.

The tuition at private colleges has increased at a slightly lower rate over the same period: The average four-year private institution costs $29,056, not counting room and board. It would have cost $10,901 in 2012 dollars in 1982.

The pricey degree comes with big returns, on average: College-educated workers earned 79 percent more than high-school-educated workers in 2012 and were much less likely to be unemployed.

The pain of the price hikes has been partly offset by an increase in federal grants and tax breaks for college, as well as by private schools offering deeply discounted tuition rates to lower-income students. But even with that help, some students like Bonilla are finding themselves locked out of the system.

Why is college so much more expensive now than it was 30 years ago? Economists fall into two main schools of thought in explaining the trend.

One theory, referred to as ?Bowen?s Rule,? says the decisions made by many colleges and universities?such as how many administrators to hire and how to spend its cash?primarily drive the cost.

A competing theory, called ?Baumol?s cost disease,? posits that higher education is expensive because of outside macroeconomic factors that affect other businesses, like the cost of hiring highly educated workers.

In other words, it?s either the colleges? fault, or it isn?t.

In their book, ?Why Does College Cost So Much?? Robert Archibald and David Feldman, economists at the College of William & Mary, are firmly in the Baumol camp. They argue that a college?s hefty price tag isn?t actually surprising at all, given that it depends on the performance of its workforce?highly educated professors and teachers who provide a face-to-face service, not a material good.

Larger economic trends have jacked up the salaries of highly educated workers across the board in recent decades, while the cost of face-to-face services has also remained high, because technological advances do not necessarily make these services cheaper.

Feldman used the example of the cost of a haircut, which has also outpaced inflation in the past 30 years.

While technology has made factories vastly more efficient at producing goods for less money, technological advances have not been able to make the time a haircut takes shorter or replace the skilled person who has to give the haircut. College is like a haircut on steroids, because the barbers have PhDs.

?Higher education is an industry where there?s not a whole lot of productivity growth and not a whole lot of scope for productivity growth,? Feldman said.

The vast majority of most colleges? budgets go to personnel, and that cost is unlikely to come down any time soon.

Benjamin Ginsberg, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, takes the Bowen view.

In his book, ?The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters,? Ginsberg argues that a significant increase in administrative employees is in part responsible for college?s runaway pricing.

He writes that between 1975 and 2005, the faculty to student ratio has remained fairly constant at universities, while the student to professional staffer (such as an admissions officer) ratio increased from 1-to-50 to 1-to-24.

?As colleges and universities have had more money to spend, they have not chosen to spend it on expanding their instructional resources?that is, on paying faculty,? Ginsberg writes. ?They have chosen, instead, to enhance their administrative and staff resources.?

Feldman discounts this argument. He points out that students demand a broader bundle of services from college now than they did 50 years ago and that the price reflects that. Students want staffers to plan student life activities, career counselors, fancy dorms, nice gyms and up-to-date technology.

The economy as a whole, not just higher education, has also shifted to include more administrative positions in the past decades, he argues.

Some argue that colleges have had no choice but to hire more administrative staff, in part because they are so thoroughly regulated by both state and federal governments. Colleges are required to report to the government all gifts accepted from foreign governments, supply information about the salaries of coaches and prove they commemorated Constitution Day every September 17, among other rules. Complying with the regulations requires staff.

?Externally imposed regulations increase the cost of doing business, and that cost is passed on to consumers,? Terry Hartle, one of the chief lobbyists for the higher education industry, said. Hartle is senior vice president for the American Council on Education.

State budget woes have also hiked the cost of many colleges. Sandy Baum, an economist and independent policy analyst for the College Board, says the price increases at public institutions have been driven by declining support from states, which have cut higher education in order to balance their budgets.

?It?s not actually that the colleges are spending more money on the students, it?s that they?re getting ? much less money per student from the state government,? Baum said.

That means students aren?t necessarily getting more for their money, especially at public institutions.

Advances in technology might help colleges cut costs in the future, either by allowing them to have fewer in-person classes as more people take classes online or by streamlining some library costs, among other possibilities. But higher education experts say there?s no silver bullet.

?Colleges are looking at how to save money, and they need to look harder because it?s just so expensive,? said Baum. She mentioned increasing technology, streamlining government regulations and cutting back on administrators as some possible things to help costs. ?There?s no miracles there,? she said.

Jenny Bonilla didn?t have time to wait for a miracle. Bonilla?s father lost his job just days after she received her letter from Goucher, reducing the family?s annual income to $40,000.

Bonilla?s parents didn?t want her to take on $60,000 in debt and knew they couldn?t come up with the money to help her on their own. They decided she should enroll in nearby Prince George's Community College for two years and then try to transfer to a four-year public school from there.

?I applied to so many schools, and then for me to end up at community college is kind of devastating,? Bonilla says.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/sticker-shock-college-graduates-why-education-cost-much-092117028.html

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Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/psy-kelly-ripa-do-gentleman-dance-on-live/

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Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $1.1 billion cash deal

That cat's out of the bag a day early, it seems. Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion cash deal to purchase the blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal. We were expecting Yahoo to announce the acquisition during tomorrow's NYC media event -- CEO Marissa Mayer may instead use the last-minute gathering to detail the company's plans for integrating the popular platform. It's unclear how Yahoo intends to utilize its latest procurement, but with a 10-figure price tag now public, we can only imagine that Tumblr will be put to good use. We'll be covering tomorrow afternoon's event live, so stay tuned for more details from New York City.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/yahoo-to-acquire-tumblr/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/kristen-stewart-heartbroken-over-robert-pattinson-split/

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Tornadoes slam Plains, Midwest; 1 dead in Okla.

A flag flies in the debris of a mobile home after a tornado struck a mobile home park near Dale, Okla., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

A flag flies in the debris of a mobile home after a tornado struck a mobile home park near Dale, Okla., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita, Kan. near the town of Viola on Sunday, May 19, 2013. The tornado was part of a line of storms that past through the central plains on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)

Alli Christian, left, returns Jessica Wilkinson's dog Bella to her after finding her among the wreckage of Wilkinson's home shortly after a tornado struck near 156th street and Franklin Road on Sunday, May 19, 2013 in Norman, Okla. No one was in the home when the storm struck. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Steve Sisney)

Debris is scattered in what was a mobile home park where a tornado struck near Dale, Okla., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

The frame of a mobile home is pictured with debris after a tornado hit a mobile home park near Dale, Okla., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) ? Hearing on the radio that a violent storm was approaching her rural Oklahoma neighborhood, Lindsay Carter took advantage of the advanced warning, gathered her belongings and fled. When she returned, there was little left of the community she called home.

Several tornadoes struck parts of the nation's midsection Sunday, concentrating damage in central Oklahoma and Wichita, Kan. One person was killed near Shawnee, Okla., and 21 injuries were reported throughout the state.

Victims and emergency responders might not get much of reprieve as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center was forecasting similar weather for Monday over much of the same area.

The worst of the damage Sunday appeared to be at the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park located amid gently rolling hills about 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

"It took a dead hit," resident James Hoke said. Emerging from a storm cellar where he sought refuge with his wife and two children, Hoke found that their mobile home had vanished. "Everything is gone."

Hoke said he started trying to help neighbors and found his wife's father covered in rubble.

"My father-in-law was buried under the house. We had to pull Sheetrock off of him," Hoke said.

Forecasters had been warning of bad weather since last Wednesday and on Sunday said conditions had ripened for powerful tornadoes. Wall-to-wall broadcasts of storm information spread the word Sunday, leaving Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth grateful.

"There was a possibility a lot more people could have been injured," Booth said. "This is the worst I've seen in Pottawatomie County in my 25 years of law enforcement."

Carter had heard on a radio broadcast that a storm that had originated southwest of Oklahoma City was headed toward Shawnee.

"We got in the truck and left," Carter said. With upward of 30 minutes' notice for Pottawatomie County, Carter had time to leave one of the few frame homes in Steelman Estates ? and most of her house was intact when she returned.

"I walked up, and the house was OK. Part of the roof was gone," she said.

The scene was different a short distance away.

"Trees were all gone. I walked further down and all those houses were gone," she said.

Booth said a 79-year-old man was found dead out in the open at Steelman Estates, but the sheriff didn't have details on where he had lived.

"You can see where there's absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up," Booth said. "It looks like there's been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.

"It's pretty bad. It's pretty much wiped out," he said.

Tornadoes were reported Sunday in Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma as part of a storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

Following the Oklahoma twisters, local emergency officials went from home site to home site in an effort to account for everyone. Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said that, many times in such situations, people who are not found immediately are discovered later to have left the area ahead of the storm.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth "scoured" at the mobile home park. At the nearby intersection of Interstate 40 and U.S. 177, a half-dozen tractor-trailers were blown over, closing both highways for a time.

"It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time," said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee. "It was close enough that you could feel like you could reach out and touch it."

Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents' needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.

Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on Saturday. Tornadoes were also reported Sunday at Edmond, Arcadia and near Wellston to the north and northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.

"I knew it was coming," said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home's safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

"Then I realized it was swirling debris. That's when we shut the door of the safe room," said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city's southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas' biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the weather service.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.

There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa on Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes with significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been leveled, and some homes' roofs or walls had been knocked down.

In Katie Leathers' backyard in Edmond, the family's trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.

"I saw all the trees waving, and that's when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets," Leathers said. "All these trees just snapped."

___

Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Shawnee, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-20-Severe%20Weather/id-803d0ada940f46ae9ff65e53643bb575

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White House insists Obama was not involved in IRS

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A top White House adviser insisted Sunday that President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had targeted tea party groups only "when it came out in the news" while Republicans continued to press the administration for more answers.

Trying to move past a challenging week that put the White House on the defensive, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer was scheduled to appear on five Sunday news shows to repeat the administration's position that no senior officials were involved in the decision to give tea party groups extra scrutiny. Pfeiffer's appearances were unlike to quiet GOP critics, who have seized on the revelations as proof that Obama used the IRS to go after his political enemies.

"The deputy secretary of the treasury was made aware of just the fact that the investigation was beginning last year," Pfeiffer said. "But no one in the White House was aware."

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., suggested there was a written policy to target conservative groups opposing the president, but when pressed could not provide details.

"I haven't seen a policy statement, but I think we need to see that," Paul said. "And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy."

Regardless of when the president first learned of the investigations, Pfeiffer said the president wanted to ensure such activities were not repeated.

"The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed to ensure it never happens again," Pfeiffer said.

A Treasury Department inspector's report said this week that conservative and small-government tea party groups that were critical of Obama received extra scrutiny. IRS agents did not flag similar progressive or liberal groups, according to the watchdog.

The report concluded that a regional IRS office in Ohio improperly singled out tea party and other conservative groups for more than 18 months and took no action on many of their applications for tax-exempt status for long periods of time ? hindering their fundraising for the 2010 and 2012 elections.

The new acting IRS commissioner is in the midst of a 30-day top-to-bottom review while Republicans continue to demand answers of Obama and his allies in government.

That's not sufficient, said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

"I think a special counsel is going to wind up being necessary," he added said.

That move is not needed, said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"I don't see the point," he said of a special counsel to investigate the scandal.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said the IRS had stepped so far over its mandate that it asked book groups for reading lists and church groups about their prayers before granting them tax-exempt standing. It's government over-reach, he said, and a reason why Republicans need to have their own investigation into the agency.

"This is about trust," Price said.

But he stopped short of calling for a special counsel.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., said Republicans were using the incidents to embarrass the president.

"There is no Republican agenda other than to stop the president of the United States," he said.

Pfeiffer was appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press," CBS' "Face the Nation," CNN's "State of the Union" and "Fox News Sunday." Portman, Menendez, Price and Rangel were on ABC. Paul was on CNN.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-19-US-IRS-Political-Groups/id-e466819de7654f42a8d6b2584fff476d

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Obama Pivots to Jobs Tour at End of Scandal Filled Week

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After a week filled with political scandals, President Obama turned to promoting his jobs tour in his weekly address Saturday.

"That's why I like getting out of the Washington echo chamber whenever I can - because too often, our politics aren't focused on the same things you are. Working hard. Supporting your family and your community. Making sure your kids have every chance in life," Obama said in his weekly address Saturday.

"I'm going to keep trying to work with both parties in Washington to make progress on your priorities. Because I know that if we come together around creating more jobs, educating more of our kids, and building new ladders of opportunity for everyone who's willing to climb them - we'll all prosper, together," he said.

The president traveled to Baltimore, Md. Friday on his second stop for the "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour." He spoke at a dredging company, visited with children at an elementary school, and stopped at a community center focused on helping fathers and families.

Obama's trip came as he tried to pivot attention back to his second term agenda as a series of political scandals involving the IRS, Benghazi, and the Department of Justice dominated much of the week.

But while the president attempted to divert attention from the political scandals of the week, Republicans used the incidents as a rallying call to repeal the healthcare law.

RELATED: IRS Planted Question About Tax Exempt Groups

"Now: just think about the fact that it's the IRS that will be responsible for enforcing many of these regulations. If we've learned anything this week, it's that the IRS needs less power, not more'" Rep. Andy Harris, R-MD, said in the GOP weekly address, "As a matter of fact, it turns out that the IRS official who oversaw the operation that's under scrutiny for targeting conservatives is now in charge of the IRS's ObamaCare office. You can't make this stuff up."

"Well here's the problem: the train wreck is already here. ObamaCare is knocking Americans off the ladder of opportunity, and the sooner we repeal it, the sooner we can start fixing health care for working families," he said.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-pivots-jobs-tour-end-scandal-filled-week-122158573--abc-news-politics.html

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25+ top internet marketing and SEO forums to join [as of May 2013 ...

If you're in SEO and internet marketing niche, where do you promote your business and talk to industry peers?

Sure thing, there're lots of social media places where web promoters hang out, including Google+ communities, Quora, Facebook groups and such.

Yet there are good old forums that are also worth signing up to.

In this post, you'll find

• Detailed description of top 5 SEO forums, with stats and a drilldown of marketing options
• Exclusive official blurb from one of the top forum owners
• A broader list of SEO forums, including non-English boards

Top 5 SEO forums and how I've chosen them

I'll start with a detailed description of 5 forums that work best for Link-Assistant.Com and me personally. They either bring us considerable traffic or my own faves because of helpful discussions. So it's a biased list to some extent, yet I do think these boards are really famous in the SEO world.

Note: stats on Alexa rank, Google PageRank, the number of members, posts and threads are relevant to the publication date only.

1. WarriorForum

Traffic in April 2013: 231,097 (according to Compete)

Registered: 1995

Alexa Traffic Rank: 227 (global), 167 (US)

Google PR: 5

Members: 598,841

Threads: 483,666

Posts: 6,466,044

Warriorforum is by far the biggest and probably the most renowned forum in the SEO world. We've been running an official account there for 2 years, and there are multiple benefits we've seen as a result:

-????????? speaking directly to our customers to get first-hand feedback

-????????? addressing common support issues publicly

-????????? reaching out to industry influencers and seeing them become our brand advocates and affiliates

-????????? announcing our important updates in the ad section

- ? ? ? ?? all sort of improved brand recognition: whenever a thread on SEO tools starts, there'll surely be several forum members who jump in and mention SEO PowerSuite. Sweet!

Warriorforum's threads are a mixed bag. Some of them are not very advanced, others answer difficult and specific SEO questions.

The best thing about Warriorforum is that there are dozens of fresh threads started every day, so if you're committed to adding value, you'll find great talks to join.

If you're promoting your product, consider the following marketing options:

(1) ?? Becoming a War Room Member. There is a one-time fee of $37 to come one. There's a list of benefits this category of members get, yet the major one I see is reputation. I noticed I tend putting more trust with people who have a red War Room Member note under their avatar: for me it's one of indications they endorse the community and are there to stay.

(2)??? Warrior Forum Classified Ads. Here you can post your updates that would be considered promotional in the main Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum. The cost of one announcement is 20 USD. Though not many members browse through the ad section, your thread will show up in search results in Google Discussions for relevant keywords, so you'll get your traffic anyway.

(3)??? Warrior Special Offers (WSOs). We did it once and I can't say it brought many sales, yet many people testify they're cool, so I included this marketing option here.

In a nutshell, a WSO is your exclusive deal for the warriorforum community. These would often be packaged link building services, ebooks on making money online, keyword tools and such. For the relevant WSO price quote, contact the forum support.

2. Ukbusinessforums

Traffic: no data

Registered: 1995

Alexa Traffic Rank: 7,295 (global), 646 (GB)

Google PR: 5

Members: 163,556

Threads: 225,040

Posts: 2,014,866

I like ukbusinessforums for their very special close-knit community atmosphere and meaningful discussions. I mean there are zero-value spamy threads as well, but if you encounter a talk of guys with 1,000+ post track, stay! They'll give you more SEO wisdom than you can take.

Ukbusinessforums are a must-have if you're based in the UK and/or your online business targets google.co.uk. Many discussions cover local SEO tips, which is gives this board an extra edge.

If you've no connection to the UK, the forum is also helpful in many ways anyway. My personal fave is Sales, Marketing & PR section, very insightful.

What marketing options do brands have with ukbusinessforums?

Promoting business is better served through full membership, which is ?40 per year, ?30 renewal. It allows marketing your product or service directly in relevant sections and associates more trust with you among the members.

3. Trafficplanet

Traffic in April 2013: 37,484 (according to StatCounter)

Registered: 1995

Alexa Traffic Rank: 11,311

Google PR: 3

Members: 9,339

Posts: 58,610

Traffic Planet is another powerful player to look at. It was founded by Terry Kyle, who kindly shared his ideas with me on what Traffic Planet is about:

Traffic Planet was created because existing Internet Marketing forums like the Warrior Forum and Digital Point tend to have a big newbie member base - nothing wrong with that at all but inevitably online marketers have to 'graduate' to something more advanced.

In a way, Traffic Planet is 'postgrad Warrior Forum' and has a much bigger emphasis on conversions optimization, detailed how-to tutorials, online business management systems and live experiments (traffic and conversion) than Warrior Forum, a great place for newbie beginners to start.

In 2013, Traffic Planet will continue to be at the front of the revolution in conversions optimization that is now growing in Internet Marketing.

Terry Kyle, Founder, Traffic Planet

?

Many of SEOs who've been in the industry for a while should remember that Terry used to co-run another board, backlinksforum.com. It ceased to exist a couple of years ago, and the majority of members switched to Traffic Planet, which is yet another proof the community hosts seasoned SEOs.

It's also a place to ask tough SEO questions. That said, it's great in bringing traffic.

There are banner and classified advertising options available. We once ran a classified thread and it worked out good. Classified ads are $40 a month, so if you're announcing something time-sensitive, like a sale, remember to cancel it for the second month.

4. BlackHatWorld

Traffic in April 2013: 81,364

Registered: 1995

Alexa Traffic Rank: 496

Google PR: 3

Members: 491,211

Despite the title and the possible first impression that joining means endorsement of something which is against Google Guidelines, BlackHatWorld is also a community that is worth your attention. You'll be surprised to find out there are many white hat guys pure there.

Discussion at BlackHatWorld might not always sound valuable from the SEO/internet marketing standpoint. It's a crowded and mixed place, and it's really hard to find SEO wisdom in the stream of one-liners flavored with skeletons on avatars.

What we do on BlackHatWorld is run a support account. Members often mention SEO PowerSuite and BuzzBundle and we want to make sure we're right there to handle their concerns or thank them for their mentions and feedback.

5. DigitalPoint

Traffic in April 2013: 88,174

Registered: 1999

Alexa Traffic Rank: 703

Google PR: n/a

Members: 684,297

Posts: 16,782,089

Threads: 2,219,512

Digital Point has become notorious for mostly spamy and low-quality discussions. It might not be #1 place to seek SEO knowledge, yet let's give the board its due: Digital Point is one of the oldest and the most crowded places and it's amazing from advertising standpoint.

In particular, keyword bids work wonders. These are inline text ads that show up in Digital Point threads. An advertiser feeds in a keyword list and suggests maximum CPC bid. If someone mentions your keyword in a post and your bid is the highest, there'll be a link to your site.

Just make sure you have a really long list of keywords (we have about a hundred phrases) and the keywords are tailored to fit forum posts naturally.

And it really works: even moderate investment brings hundreds of Visits monthly.

More SEO forums

There are also quite a number of forums that didn't make the major list, still I'm gonna enumerate them below.

Please note that I didn't include them to the upper section of this post not because they are worse or less efficient or host fewer pros. It's just because I'm personally not quite familiar with them or I tried them previously but didn't stay for some reasons.

But they may work well for you, so I encourage you to go through a broader SEO forum list:

google webmaster central

webmasterworld

wickedfire

v7n

seochat

affilorama

webproworld

tycoon talk

daniweb

webmastertalk

Essential non-English SEO forums

abakus-internet-marketing.de

pro-seo.de

seosphere.com (in French)

forobeta.com (in Spanish)

searchengines.bg

forum.optymalizacja.com (in Polish)

forum.searchengines.ru

seobuilding.ru

seocafe.info (in Russian)

wn.se

ehandel.se

webforumet.no

Find SEO forums with BuzzBundle

Also don't forget that BuzzBundle is an amazing tool to find hot forum discussions and add new boards to your list of SEO forums.

Download BuzzBundle now and find communities where most relevant talks take place this very moment!?

YOUR favorite SEO forums

Over to you now. And are you an active member of any forums? Did you join for marketing or for learning? Have I missed any crucial SEO boards? Share your ideas in the comments!

Source: http://www.link-assistant.com/blog/seo-forums/

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Tips Before Buying Your Own Hearing Aids ? Hot Article Depot

People who happen to have ear issues no longer have to deal with the problem of having to bear with the condition and the inconveniences that it brings alone. These days, people can now choose to get special devices that will allow them to enjoy the joys of being able to hear once more, all they have to do is find the right hearing aids.

There will be a lot of things that one is expected to do before he should determine if indeed these devices would be the best choice for him. He cannot just walk through clinics offering these instruments and have one be attached to his ears right away. There will be preparations that need to get done first.

Check ups are crucial before people should opt for the use of these devices. They cannot just choose to start wearing these appliances because they feel like they wanted to. They need to make sure that they get to see a reliable ear doctor first before they should decide whether wearing one is a god idea or not. Though theirs is the final decision, it is up to the doctor to recommend whether the appliance is necessary.

People should know that there have been many instances when problems like these have been checked by ear doctors and it turned out that they are only temporary. This is a good thing as oftentimes, with the right prescription medicines issued by the medical providers, it will be easier for people to properly cope with the situation. So, proper check up is always highly necessary.

You need to rely on the suggestions of your ear doctor if he will find whether the hearing aids are going to be beneficial for you or not. It is up to him to decide whether it would best for you to start wearing it. Thus, consulting with a really reliable professional, a highly qualified provider and an efficient ear doctor is always crucial towards making sure that you get the most out of the experience.

Be sure to take note of the specifications of these devices. You cannot expect to find a certain unit lying around and expect it to offer you the kind of relief that you require just to ensure that you will have your issues properly corrected. No. It doesn?t always work that way. You need to make sure that you will get one suitable for your current condition first for it to even work.

You need to check out the style in which these devices are made of. Sure, you are buying them for the practical purposes that they serve. However, , ore importantly, you want to ensure too that when you start wearing them, they won?t be as noticeable as possible. Some people might jeer at you or throw snide comments at you for your handicap. So, making sure that you get to lie low on things will often help.

Buy hearing aids which you will be able to easily afford. You would prefer to be going for units that are considered competitively priced. This way, you are confident that the item you will need to purchase will be something which you shouldn?t have a hard time covering for. Financially, that is.

You can visit the website www.hearsource.com for more helpful information about Tips Before Buying Your Own Hearing Aids

Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/tips-before-buying-your-own-hearing-aids-2/

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'Idol' Champs vs. Runners-Up: Who's Actually Winning?

As Candice Glover is crowned the new American Idol winner, see which previous winners have been eclipsed by those who came in second.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/american-idol-winners-and-runners/1-b-73646?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aamerican-idol-winners-and-runners-73646

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Venturi, US Open champion and CBS analyst, dies

Ken Venturi, who overcame dehydration to win the 1964 U.S. Open and spent 35 years in the booth for CBS Sports, died Friday afternoon. He was 82.

His son, Matt Venturi, said he died in a hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Venturi had been hospitalized the last two months for a spinal infection, pneumonia, and then an intestinal infection that he could no longer fight.

Venturi died 12 days after he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

He couldn't make it to the induction. His sons, Matt and Tim, accepted on his behalf after an emotional tribute by Jim Nantz, who worked alongside Venturi at CBS.

"When dad did receive the election into the Hall of Fame, he had a twinkle in his eye, and that twinkle is there every day," Tim Venturi said that night.

Venturi was all about overcoming the odds.

A prominent amateur who grew up in San Francisco, he captured his only major in the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional, the last year the final round was 36 holes. In oppressive heat, Venturi showed signs of dehydration and a doctor recommended he stop playing because it could be fatal. Venturi pressed on to the finish, closed with a 70 and was heard to say, "My God, I've won the U.S. Open."

He had a severe stuttering problem as a child, yet went on to become one of the familiar voices in golf broadcasting. He began working for CBS in 1968 and lasted 35 years.

"We all knew what a wonderful player Ken Venturi was, and how he fashioned a second successful career as an announcer," Jack Nicklaus said. "But far more important than how good he was at playing the game or covering it, Ken was my friend. Ken was fortunate in that the game of golf gave him so much, but without question, Ken gave back far more to the game he loved than he ever gained from it. Over the years, Ken developed a circle of friends that is enormous and whose collective heart is heavy today."

Venturi played on one Ryder Cup team and was U.S. captain in the 2000 Presidents Cup.

As an amateur, he was the 54-hole leader in the 1956 Masters until closing with an 80, and he was runner-up at Augusta National in 1960 to Arnold Palmer, who birdied the last two holes.

Venturi was born May 15, 1931, in San Francisco, and he developed his game at Harding Park Golf Course. He won the California State Amateur at Pebble Beach in 1951 and 1956, while serving in the Army in Korea between those two amateur titles.

His stammering problem is what led him to golf.

"When I was 13 years old, the teacher told my mother, 'I'm sorry, Mrs. Venturi, but your son will never be able to speak. He's an incurable stammerer,'" Venturi said in 2011. "My mother asked me what I planned to do. I said, 'I'm taking up the loneliest sport I know,' and picked up a set of hickory shaft across the street from a man and went to Harding Park and played my first round of golf."

He turned pro after his close call in the 1956 Masters, and won his first PGA Tour at the St. Paul Open Invitational. Venturi won eight times over the next three years, including the Los Angeles Open and the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, before injuries started to affect his game after nearly winning the 1960 Masters.

He hurt his back in 1961 and badly injured his wrist in a car accident the next year. He missed the U.S. Open three straight years until he narrowly qualified for Congressional. It turned out to be an epic final day for the Californian coping with broiling heat.

Venturi shot 66 in the third round, but was feeling weak during the break before the final round that afternoon. John Everett, a doctor and member at Congressional, checked on him and found a normal pulse but symptoms of dehydration.

"Dr. Everett told me ... I was lying next to my locker and he says, 'I suggest that you don't go out. It could be fatal,'" Venturi said in 2011 when he returned to Congressional for the U.S. Open. "I looked up at him and I said, 'Well, it's better than the way I've been living.' And I got off the floor, and I do not remember walking to the first tee. I don't remember the front nine until I started coming into it."

Venturi was so shaken, so weak, when it was over that his final act was to sign the scorecard. He couldn't even read the numbers. Joe Dey, the executive director of the USGA, looked over his shoulder, checked the scores and told him to sign it.

Sports Illustrated honored him as its "Sportsman of the Year" in 1964.

Venturi won three more times, his last win coming in 1966 at the Lucky International at Harding Park, where it all started.

He eventually developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in his hands and was forced to retire. That's when he moved into the booth as the lead analyst for CBS Sports, and his voice filled living rooms for the next 35 years until he retired in 2002.

Venturi was elected to the Hall of Fame through the Lifetime Achievement category.

"If there is some sense of fairness, it is that Ken was inducted into a Hall of Fame that he very much deserved to be in and, in fact, should have been in for many years," Nicklaus said. "While I know he was not able to be there in person for his induction, I am certain there was an overwhelming sense of pride and peace that embraced Ken. It was a dream of Ken Venturi's that became a reality before he sadly left us."

Venturi is survived his wife of 10 years, Kathleen, and his two sons. Matt Venturi said services were pending.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venturi-us-open-champion-cbs-analyst-dies-232449606.html

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Woman describes Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' parties

MILAN (AP) ? Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal.

Karima el-Mahroug's testimony Friday at the trial of three former Berlusconi aides accused with procuring her and other women for prostitution confirms a sexually charged atmosphere at the "bunga bunga" parties of the then-sitting premier. The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor ? el-Mahroug when she was 17 ? and trying to cover it up.

El-Mahroug, now 20, said she attended about a half-dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby, and that after each, Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900) in denominations of 500. She said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the then-premier paid through an intermediary ? money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beautician salon despite having no formal training.

But she denied that Berlusconi had ever given her 5 million euros ($6.43 million). She said she told acquaintances and even her father that she was going to receive such a large sum "as a boast," but that it was a lie to make her seem more important.

The three Berlusconi aides ? Emilio Fede, an executive in Berlusconi's media empire; Nicole Minetti, a former dental hygienist, showgirl and local politician, and talent agent Dario "Lele" Mora ? are accused of recruiting women for prostitution at the parties and abetting prostitution, including of a minor. They deny the charges.

El-Mahroug has made carefully orchestrated statements to the media since the scandal broke, but has never publicly given sworn testimony. Both she and Berlusconi deny having had sex.

Dressed soberly with her hair pulled back, El-Mahroug said she first made contact with Berlusconi's inner circle when she participated in a beauty contest organized by Fede in Sicily when she was 16.

After that she made her way to Milan, hoping to find work. She said she tried to get work through another defendant's talent agency but didn't have proper identity documents, and wound up landing a job as a hostess in nightclubs, earning around 100 euros ($130) a night.

She frequently changed accommodation during that time, staying for periods of days with people whose names she no longer recalls.

Eventually, she ran into Fede at a restaurant, where she reminded him of his promise in Sicily to help her. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to a dinner party, at Berlusconi's villa outside of Milan.

She testified that she met the premier that night ? on Valentine's Day in 2010 ? and that he gave her an envelope of 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,600 to $3,900) as she was leaving, saying it was "a little help" and asking for her telephone number, which she gave him.

At that party, she said, she introduced herself as Ruby and told other guests a fake tale that she was Egyptian, that her mother was a famous Arab singer and that she was related to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. She was 17 at the time but had passed herself off as being 23 or 24.

El-Mahroug confirmed Friday what other witnesses have testified previously: that at some of the soirees, young female party guests had dressed up like nuns and danced for Berlusconi and then stripped down to their underwear.

The parties took place in a disco in Berlusconi's villa equipped with a lap dance pole. El-Mahroug told the court that there was sometimes a singer who is close to Berlusconi at the parties, but most of the guests were young women. While she went home in a taxi alone the first night, other times, she testified, she slept in a guest room by herself. Since she only had the dress she was wearing, she was given a track suit in the morning to have breakfast, and sometimes stayed for lunch, leaving in the late afternoon.

El-Mahroug said Minetti, one of the defendants, had dressed up like a nun at that Feb. 14 party and lifted her costume to show off her legs as she danced in Berlusconi's in-house disco. El-Mahroug demonstrated from her seat how Minetti had raised her hemline. She said Minetti eventually took off her costume and was in just her lingerie.

She said another young woman dressed up alternately as Obama or a Milan magistrate who is leading the prosecution against Berlusconi in the sex scandal, donning a red wig and the black robes worn by magistrates in Italy.

"The girls who were dressed in costumes approached him in a sensual way as they danced. They raised their skirts," El-Mahroug testified. She added: "I never saw contact."

On the stand, El-Mahroug denied ever having acted as a prostitute, and repeated her denials that she ever had sex with Berlusconi.

However, when the presiding judge pressed her on wiretaps in which she appears to be referring to acts of prostitution, she said that her statements then were just "stupid things." It was the same phrase she used to explain away her statements that she was about to receive 5 million euros from the then-premier.

At one point, the judge admonished her that she was testifying at a trial aimed at ascertaining the facts, not appearing on a televised interview, when she appeared to criticize prosecutors, then backed down.

Prosecutors in Berlusconi's separate trial have said El-Mahroug's testimony is unreliable and are relying on her sworn statements. The defense had initially called her as a witness, but then changed its strategy and didn't call her. That trial is nearing a verdict and will reconvene May 24.

___

AP writer Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/woman-describes-berlusconis-bunga-bunga-parties-155231413.html

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