nettle warplane: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

49ers' Culliver apologizes for anti-gay remarks

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver talks with teammates during a media availability Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in New Orleans. The 49ers said Wednesday they have addressed anti-gay remarks made by Culliver during a Super Bowl media day interview Tuesday. The 49ers are scheduled to play the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

San Francisco 49ers' Chris Culliver (29) intercepts a pass in front of Atlanta Falcons' Roddy White during the second half of the NFL football NFC Championship game Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan looks at San Francisco 49ers' Chris Culliver (29) after throwing an interception during the second half of the NFL football NFC Championship game Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver apologized Thursday for anti-gay comments he made to a comedian during Super Bowl media day, saying "that's not what I feel in my heart."

"I'm sorry if I offended anyone. They were very ugly comments," Culliver said during an hour-long media session. "Hopefully I learn and grow from this experience and this situation."

He said he would welcome a gay teammate to the 49ers, a reversal of his remarks to Artie Lange two days earlier during an interview at the Superdome.

"I treat everyone equal," Culliver said. "That's not how I feel."

He added that he realized his comments were especially offensive to many people in San Francisco and the Bay Area, which is home to a large gay community.

"I love San Francisco," Culliver said.

During the interview with Lange, Culliver responded to questions by saying he wouldn't welcome a gay player in the locker room. He also said the 49ers didn't have any gay players, and if they did those players should leave.

San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh met privately with Culliver to discuss the remarks.

"I reject what he said," Harbaugh said. "That's not something that reflects the way the organization feels, the way the rest of the players feel."

The coach would not discuss if Culliver would face discipline from the team, such as a fine or loss of playing time.

"He pledged to grow from it," Harbaugh said.

The interview began with Lange asking Culliver about his sexual plans with women during Super Bowl week. Lange followed up with a question about whether Culliver would consider pursuing a gay man.

"I don't do the gay guys, man. I don't do that," Culliver said during the one-minute taped interview. "Ain't got no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff."

Lange asked Culliver to reiterate his thoughts, to which the player said, "It's true." He added he wouldn't welcome a gay teammate ? no matter how talented.

"Nah. Can't be ... in the locker room, nah," he said. "You've gotta come out 10 years later after that."

The 24-year-old Culliver, a third-round draft pick in 2011 out of South Carolina, made 47 tackles with two interceptions and a forced fumble this season while starting six games for the NFC champion Niners (13-4-1).

He had his first career postseason interception in San Francisco's 28-24 win at Atlanta for the NFC title, which sent the 49ers to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995. They will face the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

The 49ers participate in the NFL's "It Gets Better" anti-bullying campaign. Three organizations working for LGBT inclusion in sports ? Athlete Ally, You Can Play, and GLAAD ? reacted to Culliver's remarks and later acknowledged his apology.

"Chris Culliver's comments were disrespectful, discriminatory and dangerous, particularly for the young people who look up to him," said Athlete Ally Executive Director Hudson Taylor. "His words underscore the importance of the athlete ally movement and the key role that professional athletes play in shaping an athletic climate that affirms and includes gay and lesbian players."

Calling Lange's questions "real disrespectful," Culliver said he realized he was speaking to a comedian and not a journalist.

"That was pretty much in a joking manner," the player said. "It's nothing about how I feel."

Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, who made headlines this season with his vocal support of a gay-marriage initiative in Maryland, said Culliver's comments to Lange were reflective of how many players in the NFL feel, even if they don't express it publicly. He hopes the 49ers cornerback will learn from this experience and become a positive role model in the quest for equality.

"You can't fight hate with hate," Ayanbadejo said. "You've got to fight hate with love."

Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard said Culliver should be allowed to express his views, even if some people found them offensive.

"The guy's entitled to his own opinion," said Pollard, who has acknowledged that he disagrees with Ayanbadejo's stand on gay marriage. "I'm not going to sit here and knock him. I'm not going to sit here and judge him. It's freedom of speech. If you don't like it, don't listen to it."

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-31-FBN-Super-Bowl-Culliver-Anti-Gay-Remarks/id-eb088cdc61494e78899f405fdb40e44e

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New BlackBerry won't be released in US until March

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, announces that the company will now be known as BlackBerry, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The new BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, which is changing its name to BlackBerry, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Stagehands prepare for the introduction of the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled new, versatile BlackBerrys after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in an industry that is redefining society. But the first phone won't come out in the United States until March, and one with a physical keyboard will take at least a month longer.

The stock fell 12 percent after Wednesday's kickoff, despite mostly positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's concern the phone isn't coming out sooner, and there's worry BlackBerry 10's advances won't be enough to turn the company around.

In a move underscoring the stakes riding on its make-or-break product lineup, RIM used the occasion to announce that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry. It's a pioneering brand that lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset expectations for what a smartphone should do.

Pioneered in 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It was so addictive at times that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

As the BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers, rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But it has taken more than two years to unveil new phones that are redesigned for the new multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers are now demanding.

CEO Thorsten Heins, who one year ago replaced longtime executives who had presided over BlackBerry's fall, formally unveiled the much-delayed smartphones and software Wednesday in New York. Simultaneous events were held in Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first device in the new crop of revamped BlackBerrys will be the Z10 ? pronounced "zee-10" in the U.S. and "zed-10" elsewhere. As RIM previously disclosed, it will have only a touch-screen keyboard, like Apple Inc.'s trend-setting iPhone and most phones running Android, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s popular Galaxy line. Although the Z10 will go on sale Thursday in the U.K. and next Tuesday in Canada, it won't be available in the U.S. until March.

The Q10 will follow and will have a physical keyboard, a feature that has kept BlackBerry users loyal over the years because it makes typing easier. RIM said the Q10 will start going on sale on some global carriers in April, but it couldn't say when U.S. carriers will have it.

Heins said U.S. carriers need more time to test the devices. All the major U.S. carriers plan to sell the new BlackBerrys. Verizon Wireless said the Z10 will be available for $200 with a two-year service agreement, in line with what other major smartphones cost. In Canada, it will cost about $150 with a three-year contract.

Frank Boulben, RIM's chief marketing officer, said some of the delay in the U.S. stems from specific testing requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. There was a similar delay when the iPhone first came out, though subsequent models were released more quickly after their announcements.

The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well in many places overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate.

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones' tardy arrival in the U.S. threatens to cause even more BlackBerry users to defect. By the time the Z10 goes on sale in the U.S., Gillis suspects many people will be waiting to see what Google plans to unveil in mid-May at an annual conference that usually includes new gadgets and an Android software update. Speculation of a new iPhone also may be building by then.

Wednesday's event flopped on Wall Street. RIM's stock fell $1.88 to $13.78. The stock has more than doubled from its nine-year low of $6.22 in September, but is still nearly 90 percent below its peak of $147 reached in 2008, when the iPhone was still a novelty trying to break into the mainstream.

Despite their limited availability until March, the new BlackBerrys will be hailed in a commercial Sunday during CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl. RIM declined to say how much it is paying, but some 30-second spots during the game have been sold for as much as $4 million. RIM said the spot is designed to signal to U.S. customers that the BlackBerry is back.

RIM also decided to make a touch-only version first, despite its strength with physical keyboards, in hopes of luring new customers.

"The idea that we are launching BlackBerry 10 just to upgrade the existing physical keyboard customer base is wrong," Boulben said in an interview. "The new platform we are introducing will have much wider appeal on the market. It's for all the people looking for the next generation in smartphone experience."

But RIM won't abandon physical keyboards. The Q10 will have a square screen and sport a 35-key physical keyboard with a back light, with language-specific arrangements such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on the market. It's meant to cater to people who still prefer that over a touch screen.

The touch-screen keyboard itself promises such improvements as learning a user's writing style and suggesting words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals.

The new BlackBerrys also are supposed to run faster and enable people to separate their professional and personal lives with a feature called Balance. They also promise to let people easily switch between multiple applications by swiping on the screen. The new BlackBerrys won't have a home button, which is fundamental to the iPhone.

"Gone are the days of going back and forth and in and out between applications," said Andrew MacLeod, RIM's managing director for Canada. "It's cumbersome, it's inefficient and it's slow."

The new software and BlackBerrys were supposed to be released a year ago, only to be delayed while Apple and Android device makers won more zealous converts to their products. In the meantime, Microsoft Corp. rolled out a new Windows operating system for smartphones, confronting RIM with another technology powerhouse to battle.

The delays in developing the new BlackBerrys helped wipe out $70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

"It is the most challenging year of my career," said Heins, whose anniversary leading the company occurred last week. "It is also the most exhilarating and exciting one."

Some analysts have questioned whether the company that helped create the smartphone market will survive, especially as its losses have mounted in the past year.

"We'll see if they can reclaim their glory," Gillis said. "My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy."

Ovum analyst Adam Leach said he believes the new system will appeal to existing BlackBerry users, but that won't be enough to undercut the popularity of the iPhone and Android devices. He predicted that BlackBerry "will struggle to appeal to a wider audience, and in the long-term will become a niche player in the smartphone market."

That said, RIM won't need a knockout. As smartphone sales grow overall, RIM can still succeed with the BlackBerry 10 without requiring iPhone and Android users to switch.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10's advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won't have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android.

RIM said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, and with 100,000 apps by the time it comes to the U.S. But some of those were developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011, and weren't necessarily adapted to run on the BlackBerry 10. In addition, popular services such as Instagram and Netflix won't have apps on BlackBerry 10.

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story. Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-30-RIM-BlackBerry%20Makeover/id-544ae1e84c5e463ebfc383b3a29db402

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How the GDP's Big Shrink Might Impact a Budget Deal

U.S. gross domestic product fell by 0.1 percent in 2012's fourth quarter, according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis this morning.?Economic analysts are chalking up the losses to reduced government spending?especially on defense, which saw a 22.2 percent decrease in government consumption expenditures. Conservatives are predictably upset at the lackluster report, blaming President Obama's economic policies for the lack of growth. How could they pass up this opportunity, seeing how it's the first time the country's economy shrunk?since Q1 in 2009? But liberals are saying that?deficit-hawk austerity is to blame for GDP decline. Will evidence that downsized federal budgets shrink GDP change how lawmakers approach the budget fight?

RELATED: No One Sees 1.8% GDP Growth As a Good Thing

This all makes the spectre of sequestration?the fiscal cliff holdover cuts scheduled to take effect in March unless lawmakers reach a deal to avert them?loom larger in Washington. The?Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers?Alan Krueger even argued today on the White House blog that federal defense spending cuts were "likely due to?uncertainty stemming from the sequester."?If a 22 percent cut in military spending (a product of American wars winding down in the Middle East) can hurt GDP this much, god forbid what these across-the-board cuts to the tune of $1.2 trillion will do to the economy. The Bipartisan Policy Center's Steve Bell writes:?

The ?fiscal cliff? now gives way to ?sequester anxiety.? These across-the-board cuts in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 spending loom as the next fiscal hurdle for policymakers ... For an economy that already suffers from chronic unemployment and very slow expansion, the sequester could push the nation into sub-2 percent GDP growth for 2013 and perhaps 2014.

Even with such doom and gloom on the horizon, Republican House Budget Chair Paul Ryan?predicted?over the weekend that sequestration will go through. Ryan said on NBC's?Meet the Press, "We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others and they?ve offered no alternatives." Earlier this month,?Sen. Chuck Schumer took to the same Sunday talk show earlier this month to reassure the public that Democrats will pass a budget deal that averts sequestration. He told David Gregory, "We're going to do a budget this year, and it's going to have revenues in it, and our Republican colleagues better get used to that fact." History has shown time and time again that congressmen don't necessarily care about what economists say.?

RELATED: No News Is Good News for the European Economy

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gdps-big-shrink-might-impact-budget-deal-163810389--finance.html

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'30 Rock': Ending a 7-season marathon of mirth

This image released by NBC shows Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, left, and Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney in a scene from the series finale of "30 Rock," airing Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 on NBC. (AP Photo/NBC, Ali Goldstein)

This image released by NBC shows Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in a scene from the series finale of "30 Rock," airing Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 on NBC. (AP Photo/NBC, Ali Goldstein)

NEW YORK (AP) ? You want resolution on the "30 Rock" finale?

You're gonna get it. Sort of. At least, the sort befitting "30 Rock," with its loopy storytelling mixed with joy in spoofing the culture of TV.

Closure, if that's what it is, comes in a two-minute postscript on this hour episode (airing Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC). But maybe you should just stop reading right now, you "30 Rock" purists who don't want to know what happens or might seem to happen, however wacked-out and ironic it may be.

Which, among other things, includes this sly touch: a reference to the snowglobe revelation with which the medical drama "St. Elsewhere" famously concluded a quarter-century ago.

But there's more. Just before the final fade-out, NBC President Kenneth the former Page (Jack McBrayer) is pitched a new comedy series taking place right there at network headquarters, 30 Rock.

Hmmm. This is no ending. It's a Mobius strip.

The comic coda suggests where many of the characters might be a year from now. But that's not the point of the finale, which mostly wants to have fun. And does.

This last yahoo of "30 Rock" after seven brilliant seasons takes delight in tracking the unraveling of its characters as the show-within-the-show, "TGS," comes to an end with its own final broadcast. After that, of course, its producer, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), its stars, Jenna Moroney and Tracy Jordan (Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan) and other members of the "TGS" staff will have to leave the cozy, kooky nest of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The prospect of doing that terrifies them all.

Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the newly minted CEO of NBC parent Kabletown, is battling his own existential crisis.

He has gotten the top job he wanted all his life. And as the ultimate Republican capitalist, he has even scored a lash-out from a treasured enemy, House Republican Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"Jack Donaghy is an economic war criminal," Pelosi is seen declaring on a cable news network. "If the Democratic Party controls Congress, I will see to it that he is punished in the worst way possible: by having to come down here and listen to us."

Even with total victory under his belt, Jack still feels unfulfilled. What else can he do? He resigns from the company and begins a journey to discover what might truly make him happy.

Jack's despair includes the fear that he's lost Liz as a friend.

"I don't have that many people in my life," he sobs to Jenna. "I spend Christmas alone in the Hamptons drinking Scotch and throwing firecrackers at Billy Joel's dog."

Out of a job, Liz is miserable as a stay-at-home mom of adopted twins. Conversely, her husband, Criss (played by guest star James Marsden), hates steady employment.

"It's OK to want to work," he consoles Liz. "One of us has to. We just got it backwards: You're the dad."

"I do like ignoring your questions while I try to watch TV," Liz agrees.

(Interestingly, a year hence Liz is seen back at work producing a dumb sitcom with her children in tow. Where is hubby Criss?)

During the finale, "30 Rock" doesn't hesitate to snack on its own past.

Liz and Tracy have an awkward heart-to-heart at the strip club where Tracy lured her on their first encounter on the series' premiere.

And a high point of the episode comes when Jenna revisits the project she starred in years ago, a film with the lips-scrunching title "Rural Juror" (which inevitably comes out sounding something like "ruhr juhr").

On the farewell "TGS," Jenna performs the theme from her new musical adaptation of "Rural Juror," with, inevitably, almost nothing she sings recognizable as English.

It serves as a reminder: "30 Rock" wasn't just a brilliant comedy series. It also forged a comic language of its own.

____

Online:

http://www.nbc.com

___

Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-30-TV-30%20Rock-Finale/id-266dcde458f54eacb542d9b1af81440b

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Heavyweight Chefs Painter And Serpico Put On A Show For Your ...

Heavyweight Chefs Painter And Serpico Put On A Show For Your Mouth: One Night Only! at Phoodie.info: The New Food And Drink Blog For Philadelphia

All content copyright respective content provider. Philebrity, and Phoodie.info 2012 Philebrity Brands, LLC.

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Source: http://www.phoodie.info/2013/01/30/heavyweight-chefs-painter-and-serpico-put-on-a-show-for-your-mouth-one-night-only/

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

At a Performance, Dreaming of Dinner - NYTimes.com

At 35, Alessio Bax is a rising star in classical music. A pianist, he?s also obsessed with food, and his multicourse New York dinner parties are epic, featuring dishes like pasta with Santa Barbara sea urchin, crostini with foie gras, and slow-roasted, bone-in rib-eye. We spoke with Mr. Bax, who was born in Italy and now lives in Harlem with his wife and fellow pianist, Lucille Chung, about his childhood eating habits and post-show cravings.

On an Apulian dish he longs for ?Fave e cicoria. It?s fava beans, pur?ed, with bitter greens. We make that here at home. That one really brings me back to my childhood. Not only eating it, but just the smell of the fava boiling.?

On his bottomless stomach ?When my mother was feeding me as a kid, she had to use two spoons. Because by the time she would put a spoon down, I would start crying for more food. I?ve been told that I used to open the oven and get food from the oven. And that was very dangerous.?

On a meal he can?t forget ?If I have to single out a really memorable experience, it was probably a Kyoto-style meal in Japan ? two of them, actually, in Tokyo. It was fantastic. What I liked was that it was about subtlety. It was all about matsutake mushrooms. They were in season. The first thing I could think about is music, where you really have to go deep inside it to know it.?

What he?s thinking about on concert day ?I have visions sometimes at intermission of having a nice wine and steak. I?m like, ?Oh, that?s going to be great.? ?

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Source: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/at-a-performance-dreaming-of-dinner/

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Long Distance Relationships | Welcome to Our Design Associate Blog

Sometimes, you get a customer who stymies you with a question, and the sale hangs on the answer. Yesterday, it was: ?I need to know the inside measurements for the drawers in all your dresser collections that come in the shell finish.? He wanted the deepest (in height) drawers we had. Okay. So. The website didn?t have that information, and I was unable to locate it in our intranet ?encylopedia,? we call ?Worklife.? Running around all four floors of our showroom with a tape measure did not seem practical, especially since we just had floor-change and we?re still trying to learn the new locations of all the furniture.

That?s when I reached out to the wonderful Design Associates at Shop From Home, which is located within our Central Office in Golden Valley, Minnesota. When we are busy here in the store, I know their phones are most likely ringing off the hook. Never the less, there they are, cheerfully ready to dig in and find the answer to the most esoteric questions. It took no time at all: They have a catalogue marked up with just this kind of information. I was able to tell my customer that the dresser in shell with the deepest drawers is the Calvin, coming in at 8? deep. I was grateful (and relieved). My customer was pleased. And another bedroom will be furnished handsomely by Room and Board!

Source: http://rnbdesignassociate.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/long-distance-relationships/

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Automakers turn to wind, solar to power plants

With GM using solar at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant and Volkswagen recently unveiling a huge solar array at its Chattanooga plant, Honda is next to display its green credentials--with wind turbines at its Ohio transmission factory, Ingram writes.

By Antony Ingram,?Guest blogger / January 28, 2013

A wind turbine is shown near Arlington, Ore. Green energy projects are becoming vital in maintaining an image of corporate sustainability for carmakers, Ingram writes, as their products come under ever greater pressure from legislators and environmental groups.

Rick Bowmer/AP/File

Enlarge

It's no good simply producing green cars these days--you have to be green at every stage of producing the cars, too.

Skip to next paragraph GreenCarReports

The website focuses on the auto industry?s future, the evolution of cars beyond fossil fuels, and the green movement's relevance to car shoppers today. For more stories on green cars, click here.

Guest Pianist Winston Choi Brings Art of the Fugue to HSU ...

Jan 28, 2013

Pianist Winston Choi brings a rare solo piano performance of selections from Bach?s ?The Art of the Fugue? to the Humboldt State campus on Saturday, February 2.

?It is not often that we hear this colossal work played in this way,? said Daniela Mineva, head of the HSU piano program. ?We are extremely excited to have Dr. Choi with us. His absolutely amazing performing abilities will make this one of the most memorable guest artist concerts in this season.?

Choi is a prize-winning pianist and composer whose recent performances include recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall in New York and the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. He is known for his insightful commentary from the stage.

Choi has premiered and commissioned over 100 works by young composers. At HSU he will perform ?15,? a piece for piano that Canadian composer Howard Bashaw wrote in 2012.

Also on the program is ?Metopes,? three poems for piano by 20th century Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, which Choi recorded in 2011. Each poem corresponds to a section of Homer?s Odyssey: The Siren?s Island, Calypso and Nausikaa.

Choi is currently head of the piano program at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. In addition to his public concert, he will give a master class at Fulkerson Hall at noon on February 1, which is free and open to the public.

Performance tickets are $8/$3 students and seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. This is a Guest Artist Concert produced by the HSU Music Department. For more information, visit hsumusic.blogspot.com.

Source: http://now.humboldt.edu/news/guest-pianist-winston-choi-brings-art-of-the-fugue-to-hsu/

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Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hello! Come in! Have a seat by the fire. Ooh, not so close! That?s better.

Let me tell you a bit about myself? Brian Malow in the Daily Planet

Unlike many of the bloggers here, I am not a doctor.? I sometimes say I play one in the broken dreams of my parents. And people laugh, although it isn?t a joke.

Or maybe it is a joke but it?s also the truth.

?which makes me think of wave-particle duality.? Perhaps someday I?ll develop my own quantum theory of humor, describing how sentences may exhibit properties of both jokes and truth.

But not today.? Today is for telling you about this blog.

If the Earth lost its gravity
and you went to school
the school would not be there.
And on the way home
You would not be there.
?????? ? Brian Malow, 2nd grade

It seems I?ve been pondering the deep philosophical questions all my life.

I really should?ve become a scientist but, instead, I became a comedian.? Perhaps the two aren?t so different.

Isaac Asimov once said, ?The most exciting phrase to hear in science ? the one that heralds new discoveries ? is not ?Eureka!? but ?That?s funny.??

This is true for comedians as well. ?In fact, I can assure you, very few comedians have cried out, ?Eureka!? for any reason at all in the past 2000 years.

See?? We?ve already learned something.? That?s the kind of comedian I am.? We laugh and learn.? In theory, anyway.

But seriously?? this blog will not just showcase the inane ramblings of a carbon-based comedian.? Oh, I?m sure there will be plenty of that.? But it won?t be merely monologue.? Often it will be dialogue, a term which also traces back to ancient Greece.

Interviewing physicist Dean Lee about the Higgs Boson

I love conversation.? And I have a bias toward scientists and writers, artists and thinkers.? I?m insatiably curious and I love to ask questions. I like to learn and I like to share what I learn. I like to turn people on to ideas and the people who have them.

So you can expect to see a lot of interviews here, fun and informative, serious and light-hearted ? in video, audio, and old-fashioned text.? If you can think of another format or medium, I?ll try that, too.

I like all the branches of science but you may catch me gravitating toward astronomy and physics. It?s probably genetic.

If you?re curious how I became a science comedian, here?s how I explained it to Symmetry Magazine a few years ago.

I think I?ve had the most unusual career of any comedian I know. While my peers are hoping for shows on NBC, ABC, and CBS, I?m scoring deals with NSF, AAAS, JPL and NIST. They?re being interviewed by pop culture magazines; I?m being interviewed by particle physics magazines.

I love it! I?ve performed for math teachers in Ft. Worth and for science teachers in Rochester. ?For Cassini scientists at JPL.

With Lord of the Ants, E.O. Wilson

I?ve entertained a uranium symposium in Colorado. Plant pathologists at NCSU. The American Chemical Society. The National Research Council of Canada. Superfund researchers.

By request, I delivered an infectious-disease-themed comedy show at an outlet of the National Academies.

I?ve produced science videos for Time Magazine. I?ve been to SpaceX and the Googleplex. I?ve interviewed Vatican astronomers and famous science fiction writers, discoverers of exoplanets and Kuiper Belt objects, insects and salamanders.

Really, what is there to say?

I?ve talked about ants with E.O. Wilson and neutron stars with Neil deGrasse Tyson. I?ve told my joke about Hawking Radiation to Stephen Hawking!

"What did the naked singularity say to the micro-black hole?"

And now I?ve got a full-time job in science communications at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. ?What a long, strange trip it?s been.

?
I hope we?ll have a chance to get to know each other over time, and I?ll tell you these stories and more. ?I look forward to introducing you to some amazing people as, together, we expand our universes.

Photos by Russ Creech, Karen Swain, Erika Vick
?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=991415f46ec525c7bec2120b66034591

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Parenting Step Children with Special Needs | Different Dream

Jan 28, 2013 Posted by Jolene on Jan 28, 2013 in Family Life, Featured Articles | 0 comments

1174492 silhouette Parenting Step Children with Special Needs

Parenting step children isn?t easy. Step parents have been getting a bad rap since Cinderella?s story first hit the press. But Donna Thompson?s post at her blog The Caregiver?s Living Room shines a different light on the subject of parenting step children with special needs.

Parenting Step Children Interview

In her post Caring for Step Children, Donna shares a step parent interview first published at BLOOM, an online magazine for special needs families. (BLOOM is published in Canada, and it?s worth a look. It?s loaded with resources and a variety of perspectives about parenting kids with special needs.) In the interview?Louise Kinross, the creator of BLOOM, talks with Canadian Olympic rower, Silken Laumann.

Silken Laumann Parenting Experience

In the interview, Silken talks about her own blended family. The family includes her husband?s daughter Kilee, who experiences autism and sometimes displays challenging behaviors. She is very transparent about the challenges of being Kilee?s step parent. In the interview, she identifies the challenges of the first few months of the transition, how her discipline strategies had to change, how they avoided making family life all about Kilee, how she?s come to see beyond her step daughter?s special needs, and how she?s learned to slow down and see more positives in every day life.

The entire interview is worth a read at Caring for Step Children. While you?re at Donna?s site, take a look around. She addressed many aspects of caregiving in her different posts. Thought-provoking stuff.

What Parenting Challenges Have You Experienced?

What about you readers who are step parents to children with special needs? What are your greatest challenges? How do you deal with them? What supports would make life easier?

On the other hand, what joys are part of your parenting experience? What have you learned from your step child? How has your perception of kids with special needs changed? Your comments and stories can help people understand how to help and encourage you. Thanks in advance!

Source: http://www.differentdream.com/2013/01/parenting-step-children-with-special-needs/

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Kenya elections observers to enhance transparency

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Kenya's first nation-wide vote since devastating violence broke out after the nation's 2007 presidential election will be closely monitored by the international community and local observers to help ward off potential problems, officials said Monday.

The disputed 2007 presidential election sparked off ethnic fighting that killed more than 1,000 people, and observers warn there is an unacceptably high risk of repeat violence around Kenya's March 4 vote. A chaotic primary vote this month and outbreaks of deadly violence around the country have done little to instill confidence that peace will prevail.

Kenya's election commission says at least 1,014 international observers and more than 10,000 local observers have been accredited. The United States said it will field a team of about 105 observers.

"We hope our ongoing engagement on electoral preparations combined with the presence of election observers from the U.S. government, international partners, and Kenyan groups before and during the election will help ensure that the electoral process is free, fair and peaceful, thereby giving the Kenyan people confidence in the legitimacy of election results," U.S. Embassy spokesman Christopher Snipes said.

The U.S. is encouraging Kenyans to put aside tribal and ethnic differences, reject intimidation and violence, demand an end to impunity and to address any electoral disputes through Kenya's courts, rather than on the streets, Snipes said.

The European Union observer team will be smaller in number than in 2007 ? 70, down from 132 ? but will spend more time in the country analyzing the buildup to the vote, said Gillian McCormack, deputy head of the EU observer mission.

Kenya has introduced political reforms to address the flawed 2007 polls. A new constitution passed in August 2010 has put checks and balances on government bodies. The constitution also established a robust Supreme Court and initiated judicial reforms that have resulted in more than a dozen higher court judges being fired over lack of integrity.

A report this month by the Council on Foreign Relations listed several reasons to fear violence might reoccur: the country's top presidential candidates are mobilizing voters along ethnic lines; the vote is likely to be very close; the election commission will be unable to fully prepare for the election; and one presidential candidate faces trial at the International Criminal Court for violence perpetrated after the 2007 vote.

"The United States and others may have limited leverage over Kenya's domestic politics, but they are not without options that would significantly improve the prospects for acceptable elections and help avert a major crisis," the report said. "However, with little more than two months before the elections, Washington must intensify its engagement or forsake its opportunity to make a difference."

The U.S. is financially supporting observers from the Carter Center ? run by former President Jimmy Carter ? and the largest Kenyan group of observers, said Snipes.

The International Crisis Group said in a recent report that high youth unemployment and inequality encourage the growth of criminal groups and militias who want to intimidate political opponents.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-elections-observers-enhance-transparency-103508146--politics.html

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Preparing for a Perfect Storm

?Barack Obama and John Boehner made nice for the inauguration, but more fights loom on the debt ceiling and fiscal cliff.

Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images

The global economy this year will exhibit some similarities with the conditions that prevailed in 2012. No surprise there: We face another year in which global growth will average about 3 percent, but with a multispeed recovery?a subpar, below-trend annual rate of 1 percent in the advanced economies, and close-to-trend rates of 5 percent in emerging markets. But there will be some important differences as well.

Painful deleveraging?less spending and more saving to reduce debt and leverage?remains ongoing in most advanced economies, which implies slow economic growth. But fiscal austerity will envelop most advanced economies this year, rather than just the Eurozone periphery and the United Kingdom. Indeed, austerity is spreading to the core of the Eurozone, the United States, and other advanced economies (with the exception of Japan). Given synchronized fiscal retrenchment in most advanced economies, another year of mediocre growth could give way to outright contraction in some countries.

With growth anemic in most advanced economies, the rally in risky assets that began in the second half of 2012 has not been driven by improved fundamentals, but rather by fresh rounds of unconventional monetary policy. Most major advanced economies? central banks?the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank?have engaged in some form of quantitative easing, and they are now likely to be joined by the Bank of Japan, which is being pushed toward more unconventional policies by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe?s new government.

Moreover, several risks lie ahead. First, America?s mini-deal on taxes has not steered it fully away from the fiscal cliff. Sooner or later, another ugly fight will take place on the debt ceiling, the delayed sequester of spending, and a congressional ?continuing spending resolution? (an agreement to allow the government to continue functioning in the absence of an appropriations law). Markets may become spooked by another fiscal cliffhanger. And even the current mini-deal implies a significant amount of drag?about 1.4 percent of GDP?on an economy that has grown at barely 2 percent over the last few quarters.

Second, while the ECB?s actions have reduced tail risks in the Eurozone?a Greek exit and/or loss of market access for Italy and Spain?the monetary union?s fundamental problems have not been resolved. Together with political uncertainty, they will re-emerge with full force in the second half of the year.

After all, stagnation and outright recession?exacerbated by front-loaded fiscal austerity, a strong euro, and an ongoing credit crunch?remain Europe?s norm. As a result, large stocks of private and public debt remain. Moreover, given aging populations and low productivity growth, potential output is likely to be eroded in the absence of more aggressive structural reforms to boost competitiveness, leaving the private sector no reason to finance chronic current-account deficits.

Third, China has had to rely on another round of monetary, fiscal, and credit stimulus to prop up an unbalanced and unsustainable growth model based on excessive exports and fixed investment, high saving, and low consumption. By the second half of the year, the investment bust in real estate, infrastructure, and industrial capacity will accelerate. And, because the country?s new leadership?which is conservative, gradualist, and consensus-driven?is unlikely to speed up implementation of reforms needed to increase household income and reduce precautionary saving, consumption as a share of GDP will not rise fast enough to compensate. So the risk of a hard landing will rise by the end of this year.

Fourth, many emerging markets?including the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), but also many others?are now experiencing decelerating growth. Their ?state capitalism??a large role for state-owned companies; an even larger role for state-owned banks; resource nationalism; import-substitution industrialization; and financial protectionism and controls on foreign direct investment?is the heart of the problem. Whether they will embrace reforms aimed at boosting the private sector?s role in economic growth remains to be seen.

Finally, serious geopolitical risks loom large. The entire greater Middle East?from the Maghreb to Afghanistan and Pakistan?is socially, economically, and politically unstable. Indeed, the Arab Spring is turning into an Arab Winter. While an outright military conflict between Israel and the U.S. on one side and Iran on the other side remains unlikely, it is clear that negotiations and sanctions will not induce Iran?s leaders to abandon efforts to develop nuclear weapons. With Israel refusing to accept a nuclear-armed Iran, and its patience wearing thin, the drums of actual war will beat harder. The fear premium in oil markets may significantly rise and increase oil prices by 20 percent, leading to negative growth effects in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, India and all other advanced economies and emerging markets that are net oil importers.

While the chance of a perfect storm is low, any one of them alone would be enough to stall the global economy and tip it into recession. And while they may not all emerge in the most extreme way, each is or will be appearing in some form. As 2013 begins, the downside risks to the global economy are gathering force.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5e33e5c985958da451ff4594a4a85f3e

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Exploring the Origins of the Common Core ? Diane Ravitch's blog

Jim Martinez decided to research the sources of the Common Core State Standards. Given their importance as a redesign of the nation?s highly decentralized education system, we can expect to see many more such efforts to understand the origins of this important document.

?Engaging the nonsense ? a brief investigation of the Common Core?

A teacher asked me where the Common Core came from, another suggested that I ?teach? the Common Core in my Master?s degree level courses.

So my curiosity got the best of me and I spent some time understanding something about Common Core from my perspective as a scholar and educator.

My first discovery is that the Common Core is a political document. That may seem fairly obvious, but what I mean is that there is an identifiable political ideology and history that has contributed greatly to the current document. I?ve attached a link to document that led me to this conclusion.
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards ? English Language Arts Appendix A

This document contains references to supporting representative research for the Common Core. As I read the document something caught my eye, it was the following quote from Adams (2009)

??There may one day be modes and methods of information delivery that are as efficient and powerful as text, but for now there is no contest. To grow, our students must read lots, and more specifically they must read lots of ?complex? texts?texts that offer them new language, new knowledge, and new modes of thought??

This bothered me. I don?t agree with the statement and so I decided to read Adams (2009) I did a Google search and found this:

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/adams.htm ? The Challenge of Advanced Texts:The Interdependence of Reading and Learning.

From the text I figured out that Adams is a heavy weight in reading and literacy circles (pun intended) there?s just a style of writing and authoritative stance that gives you clues, I then looked her up in Wikipedia to confirm my suspicions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Jager_Adams

If you read the article you find that not only is she a heavy weight, she is politically connected as in, inside the room when policy decisions are made.

I Googled a little more and came to this document.

http://www.niu.edu/cedu_richgels/PDFs/Adams1991.pdf

It?s a critique on her work in the 1990s that refers to her government directed research on phonics instruction. The critique and her response are very informative. It took me a couple of hours to find these documents and read parts of them and I think I found some answers to some questions and was provoked to some other thoughts that I will share with you now.

Common Core includes in it?s history, No Child Left Behind and other national educational policy reports dating back to A Nation At Risk (1983). It?s important to remember that most research is government funded and so it is unfair to critique educational research for it?s funding source. However, it is absolutely fair to question who gets to decide what the research is about and how that research is presented and used.

I happened to pursue a line of inquiry that involved Adams (2009) but there were many other researchers cited (Beck and Mckeown, vocabulary development, are notable as well) in the Common Core. I disagreed with Adams and I wanted to explore the source of the disagreement, the critiques helped clarify my understanding of my disagreement. The critiques also provided valuable insights on the theoretical framework Adams uses in her research. I still disagree with her, but I am respectful of her efforts. Which brings me to my next point.

There are many researchers cited in the Common Core, with many research agendas, using many methodological approaches across many disciplines. There is no cohesive theoretical framework or agreement on what constitutes the best approaches from a scientific research perspective to teaching and learning being represented in the document. Critics of the representative research in the Common Core abound. Some of the representative research consists of laboratory trials with small numbers of students, some include longitudinal studies and some of the research includes significant limitations that should be considered carefully when considering the claims that are made in the research.

Given the ambition of a national educational policy it seems that the best policy makers could come up with are some ?best practices? that have achieved some success. It is very helpful to publicize that kind information, however, we have to ask: Is it useful to claim that a patchwork quilt of research underlying a set of standards is a framework for a solution to the educational challenges this country faces?

When teachers are asked to implement standards that they feel ?do not make sense? it is not that teachers are simply ignorant and require professional development, it is in my opinion, the initial reaction of a person engaged in a craft/practice that is highly dependent and responsive to local conditions.

The Common Core standards are derived, in part, from an abstraction (the patchwork quilt of research) and are being pushed on to practitioners. The research strands that I examined tended toward the notion that knowledge acquisition is the endgame of school-based learning. I would not be surprised if that were true of many of the other research strands as that sentiment is pervasive in education.

Knowledge acquisition learning is about remembering and being able to manipulate abstract knowledge. We determine that a student has acquired knowledge by testing or providing a task that can only be completed if the individual has the requisite skill or knowledge. The Common Core is intended to set the standard for this type of learning and so there must be tests. Let?s set aside for the moment that the standardized tests we already use are not calibrated to the Common Core. If we believe in an educational system that prioritizes knowledge acquisition in the service of a national security agenda (economic competitiveness, technology dominance, etc.) then testing is necessary.

We experience the consequences of this priority in classrooms every day. I don?t have to detail them here.

If we believe that education is about more than knowledge acquisition, and that national security can be achieved through other concepts such as healthy communities, sustainable resource uses, national unity, world peace, or the elimination of hunger and poverty. Then we need to take responsibility for our practices, assert our own understandings of those practices, expose those practices to peer-review and challenge ?what does not make sense? collectively.

I am finding that engaging the ?nonsense? has been a good learning experience.

Thoughts and comments are welcomed.

Source: http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/27/13491/

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Kourtney & Kim Take Miami Recap: Breast Milk, Fresh Out the Boob

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/kourtney-and-kim-take-miami-recap-breast-milk-fresh-out-the-boob/

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Internet Article Marketing Insight from a Pro: How to ... - E-junkie.info

Even though many say it's old hat and that search engines like Google don't like it, I still use article marketing quite effectively to market my products (eBooks) and services (SEO writing company) online.

How Effective Has Article Marketing Been for Me

Well, it's kept me on the first page of Google for many keywords relevant to my niches. For example, if you google the phrases "SEO writing"; "what is SEO writing" and "sell eBooks online" (without quotes) ? all keyword phrases that are relevant to my online businesses -- I'm on the first page as of this writing.

Note: Search results change all the time, but I've consistently been on the first three pages of Google for these keyword phrases since 2009-2010. And it's all because article marketing is one of the most consistent weapons in my online marketing arsenal.

What Is Article Marketing?

For those who may be new to internet marketing, article marketing is when you write an article and submit it to article directories so that others can publish it -- for free -- in their newsletter, on their blog / website, in their off-line newspaper, etc.

Why would you give away free content? Because at the bottom of each article is a resource box (ie, "About the Author" section) where you have a link to your website/blog/online store, etc. This drives traffic back to your site.

And, just how much is this traffic worth ? especially if you can parlay it into a first-page listing on Google?

How Much Is a Listing on the First Page of Google Worth?

Apparently, a lot. According to the SeoPledge.com article, How Much Is First Page Google Worth?:

If you able to perform some SEO on your site and move to #10 from #11 you should see a 143% jump in traffic. . . . As you move up the first page, the jumps do get larger.

Where to Submit Articles

As mentioned above, you submit articles to free article directories. There are hundreds of them (just?Google?"article directories" to find a list. FYI, EzineArticles.com is the number one rated article directory on the web. It can be cumbersome to get an article approved there, but it's worth it ? especially if you submit on a regular basis. I've submitted close to 400 articles to this site over the years.

Article Marketing ? The Reason I Sell 5 Figures Worth of eBooks Per Year

I sell four figures worth of eBooks per month (five figures per year). And my number one eBook marketing tactic is article marketing. Now that I've hopefully convinced you of how effective article marketing can be, following are four things you can do to make it effective in 2013 ? and beyond.

4 Effective Article Marketing Strategies for 2013

1. Say Something: As in, write BENEFICIAL information. Article marketing is just another form of content marketing, which means dispensing helpful information to assist web surfers in making an informed buying decision.

Many get frustrated with article marketing; saying it "doesn't work."

Baloney!

It works ? if your article is helpful, meaning you can't just throw together a 300- or 400-word article of generic information that can be found all over the web. That type of info doesn't work; it doesn't move consumers to buy.

But if you invest some time into writing clear, concise, helpful articles to distribute, not only will they generate sales, you'll get greater distribution because prospective publishers will come to rely on the fact that you dispense great info.

2. Write Longer Articles: I remember when an article only had to be 250 words or so to be distributed by article directories. Now, most of them require an article to be at least 400 words. Mine tend to be in the 400 to 600-word range.

FYI, I started my own article marketing directory last year. The link to it is in my bio below; there are tons of samples there.

3. Don't Keyword Stuff: Search engines like Google are moving away from rewarding keyword stuffed content to rewarding what's known as themed SEO content. So, strive for a keyword density of only between 1-2%.

4. Create/Leave a Web Footprint: With Google's emphasis on "Authorship," it's more important than ever to create/leave a footprint on the web. This way, search engines know who you are ? and can reward your content. One of the quickest ways to develop/leave a web footprint is via social media.

So, create and start interacting on social media ? especially the biggies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.

I got on the first page of Google recently for a keyword phrase I'd been trying to rank for for at ?least six months (SEO content writing) ? all because I shared a piece of content with that keyword phrase in it via my Google Plus profile. Now, I'm in two spots on the first page of Google for this phrase. Go figure!

Article Marketing: Conclusion

You'll come across a lot of negative stuff about article marketing on the web ? especially since Google's Panda and Penguin updates.

SEO Article Marketing: Over 1,000 Articles Written!

Once I learned how to write SEO content in 2007, I upped my article marketing game because knowing SEO is like having the keys to the online marketing kingdom. I've been using this form of online marketing since 2002, and have written over 1,000 articles to promote my own products and services (and a few thousand more for clients via my SEO writing company's article marketing services).

In short, hands down, article marketing is some of the most effective internet marketing you can do. And the best part of all ? it's free!

Author Bio:
Yuwanda Black is an online entrepreneur who has written and distributed over 1,000 articles. Get free articles for reprint at YuwandaBlack.com. Content covers a wide variety of topics, eg, selling eBooks online, freelance writing, internet marketing, SEO writing, etc. Learn everything you need to know to earn four figures per month online using article marketing.?

Source: http://www.e-junkie.info/2013/01/internet-article-marketing-insight-from.html

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

The DeanBeat: Game acquisitions rise 23 percent to $3.4B in 2012 ...

During 2012, gaming continued its worldwide expansion toward billions of gamers as new platforms such as tablets and smartphones took off. But that growth was tempered against financial hardships such as the decline of Zynga?s social gaming revenues. That led to a collapse in Zynga?s stock price that deflated the social gaming bubble and hurt valuations.

Those countervailing forces affected the year in game acquisitions and investments. Acquisitions saw a boom year, rising 23 percent to more than $3.477 billion spent on game companies, compared to $2.827 billion a year earlier. But the number of deals declined and?investments fell off.

Of course, if we knew the value of every deal, the numbers would be much higher this year. But we have the same problem every year as the majority of the deals keep the values secret. 2012 saw 58 game-related deals, compared to?77?in 2011, according to original research by GamesBeat?with contributions from Sana Choudary of YetiZen, Tim Merel of Digi-Capital, Internet Deal Book, and Electronic Arts. The average deal size (where values were disclosed) was $60 million, compared with $36 million from a year earlier.

Acquisitions and disruption go together. Deal valuations are building because traditional game companies and major entertainment brands are adapting to the major shift away from the consoles toward social, mobile, and online gaming. And the barriers between social casino games and real-money online gambling companies are falling. With the prospect of legalization in the U.S. driving up values, casino games were hot in 2012. More disruptions are happening as game companies adopt new business?such as free-to-play games, where users play for free and pay small amounts for virtual goods.?Gaming also has its own version of the war for talent as big companies acquire smaller ones.

Zynga slowed down its acquisitions from its torrid pace of one per month, but it still bought nine companies during the year. Japan?s Gree stepped up its acquisitions of mobile game studios as it tried to expand ahead of rival DeNA into the U.S. market. Many game companies raised money through crowdfunding, obviating the need to sell out to larger rivals. Electronic Arts paused to digest its $1.3 billion purchase of PopCap Games from 2011.

As far as initial public offerings go, the only stand-outs were?China?s YY, which raised $81.9 million in November, and London?s Zattika, which went public and acquired three companies. Microsoft was curiously absent from the acquisitive companies. That?s very odd for a company that is preparing to launch a new video game console sometime soon.

Here?s a look at the deals of the year. We?ve organized them by dollar value of the transactions. For those deals where the value was not disclosed, we have listed them in reverse chronological order. We have linked to our own VentureBeat/GamesBeat stories where we covered them. For deals, we didn?t cover, we have linked to other publications or press releases.

1. Nexon bought 14.7 percent of massively multiplayer online game publisher NCsoft for $688 million. This was a private transaction where Nexon purchased shares owned by Taek Jin Kim, chairman and founder of NCsoft, publisher of titles such as Guild Wars 2, Aion, Lineage II and Wildstar. By comparison, last year?s top deal happened when?Electronic Arts bought?PopCap Games for up to $1.3 billion, including $550 million that depended on performance targets.

2. China?s ZheBao Media bought GameABC.com from online game publisher Shanda Games for 3.18 billion renminbi, or $503.8 million.

3. International Gaming Technology paid $500 million?for Double Down Interactive. This deal in early 2012 signaled the beginning of the bubble around social casino games, just after the Justice Department ruled that online gambling could be legalized in the U.S. if states pass laws allowing it. That opened the door for synergy between gambling companies like slot machine maker IGT and social gaming companies like Double Down, which had just 70 employees. IGT?s?latest quarterly report shows that its social casino game revenues are still growing.

4. Nexon bought Gloops for $486 million. This deal may go down as the most money ever paid for a mobile gaming studio (at least so far). Nexon cut its teeth on free-to-play online games such as MapleStory, but it went public in 2011 and has cash to burn. It spent some of that on NCsoft, and it also bought Gloops, a developer based in Japan. Gloops is known for its JapanPro Baseball Card Battle and Warriors of Odin games.

5. Sony acquired Gaikai for $380 million. While Gaikai had almost no revenue, this deal signaled the arrival of cloud gaming as a contender. It was accompanied soon after by the collapse of cloud gaming leader OnLive, whose assets were sold for a pittance. Sony hasn?t said what it will do with Gaikai. But by offering cloud games on its next console, it could certainly disrupt its own $60 disc-based console game business. Better for Sony to do that than somebody else.

6. Gree paid $210 million for Funzio. Gree?s move came in the spring, when the bubble around games was still inflating and the company was aggressively trying to break into the U.S. mobile games market. Funzio seemed to have cracked the code with hit games such as Modern Combat and Kingdom Age. The Japanese company was generating more than a billion in revenue from its mobile social gaming network, and it was betting that U.S. mobile gamers would behave the same way. By the end of the year, Gree was still acquisitive, but it was also laying off staff.

7. Zynga bought OMGPOP for $180 million, plus more if the company hit is targets. But OMGPOP?s Pictionary-style hit game Draw Something fell apart just as Zynga closed the deal. Zynga had to write off $95 million of the deal?s value before the year was over. Still, the social gaming giant justified the deal as a big investment in the mobile market.

8. Gree bought collectible card game maker Pokelabo for $173 million. Pokelabo created digital collectible card games such as Mystic Monsters for iOS and Android. This deal took place in October, after Zynga?s struggles were clear and game investments were on the decline. As such, the high dollar amount shows that Gree wasn?t deterred by a small hiccups in the game market?s investment cycle.

9.?NCsoft acquired 76 percent of Korean casual game developer Ntreev Soft for $96 million. Korea?s NCsoft saw the move as a chance to shore up its casual game expertise. It was in talks with SK Telecom to buy the stake for months. Ntreev makes the online golf game Pangya and the massively multiplayer online game Trickster.

10.?PlayPhone paid $51.5 million for mobile marketing firm SocialHour. This stock-based deal positioned mobile social gaming network PlayPhone to offer non-incentivized cross promotions for games on its network.

11. China?s?ZheBao Media bought CGA.com.cn from Shanda Games for $49.1 million.

12. Wargaming bought BigWorld for $45 million. Wargaming is printing money with its World of Tanks online game, which has 45 million registered users for its 3D tank combat game. BigWorld builds middleware to create massively multiplayer online worlds.

13.?Amaya Gaming bought Ongame Network for $32 million. Bwin.party sold off its business-to-business online poker network to Amaya Gaming in the online gambling market.

14.?Glu Mobile paid $28 million in stock to acquire?Griptonite Games in Kirkland, Wash., as an expansion into free-to-play games.

15. China?s Rekoo paid $20 million for the acquisition of social gaming firm HappySNS.

16.?KongZhong purchased Noumena Innovations for $15 million. China?s KongZhong is expanding its online game presence in Asia and acquired Noumena, the maker of the smartphone mobile-game engine Handymo.

17.?Big Fish Games acquired Self Aware Games for $12 million. The move was a relatively inexpensive way for casual game market firm Big Fish to dive into the social casino gaming market, which stayed hot for most of 2012.

18.?Glu Mobile bought?Blammo Games in Toronto as a further expansion into mobile games. The deal was worth around $4.5 million in stock.

zynga deals 19. Zynga bought social game maker Wild Needle for an undisclosed price. A source told us the deal was valued at $3.8 million.

Here?s our list of deals where valuations were not revealed, in reverse chronological order.

19. Aeria Games merged with Japan?s Gamepot, as the companies created PC and mobile game powerhouse.

20. Arktos took a majority stake in Hammerpoint Interactive, creator of The War Z downloadable game.

21. Corona Labs acquired mobile cloud services startup Game Minion.

22.?Kabam bought Balanced Worlds to gain a 3D social game development team in China.

23. Zynga bought November Software as it maneuvered to become a bigger player in mid-core games, which are hardcore in nature but can be played for a shorter time.

24. Disney picked up LucasArts, the venerated game publisher, as part of its $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm.

25. Saban Brands acquired kid-friendly online video and gaming site Zui.

26. Electronic Arts bought online game development studio ESN. ESN developed the Planet web-based games framework and had been working on the Battlelog online social network for Battlefield 3.

27. Zynga acquired midcore social game startup A Bit Lucky, maker of Lucky Train.

28. Gree acquired mobile game developer App Ant Studios as the Japanese company continued its expansion in the U.S.

29. Playsino made its move into casino games with the acquisition of Popover Games.

30. And on the same day, Playsino announced its acquisition of Foghorn Games.

31. NaturalMotion acquired Boss Alien as it harvested the fruits of its 3D iOS games.

32. Epic Games acquired People Can Fly to stop its talent from flying out the door. That was one of the few console-PC deals of the year.

33. Saban Brands bought Zombie Farm game maker The Playforge.

34. Glu Mobile acquired GameSpy Technology from IGN as a move into multiplayer gaming technology.

35. Mobile ad network Tapjoy bought the core team of social gaming network startup Viximo.

36. Aeria Games assimilated three major online shooter games owned by Ijji.

37. Downloadable games firm?Green Man Gaming and social gaming network Playfire merged.

38. Roadhouse acquired social-mobile game maker The Embassy Interactive.

39. Kabam acquired Wild Shadow Studios, the maker of the 2D shooter game Realm of the Mad God.

40. Zynga picked up Buzz Monkey, a team with console gaming experience on titles such as Army of Two: 40th Day.

41. Japan?s Klab acquired social game company Pikkle.

42, 43, 44. Zattika buys three social game firms after its initial public offering. Zattika bought Hattrick Holdings, Sneaky Games, and Concept Art House.

45. Kabam lifted Gravity Bear, a maker of social games such as Battle Punks.

46. Angry Birds maker Rovio bought its fellow Finnish game firm Futuremark Games Studio.

47. King.com bought Fabrication Games as it pushed beyond social games into mobile.

48. Otoy acquired Refractive Software as part of a move to create cloud-based digital animation and gaming tools.

49. Z2Live swallowed Big Sandwich Games, maker of the mobile game Battle Nations.

50. Peak Games acquired Saudi Arabia?s Kammelna as part of a move to go big with social games in the Middle East.

51. Linden Lab acquired LittleTextPeople for some new development talent.

52. Kabam purchased Fearless Studios, led by former Star Wars game developers.

53, 54, 55, 56. Zynga bought four mobile game companies: Gamedoctors, Page44 Studios, HipLogic, and Astro Ape Studios.

57. 6waves Lolapps acquired mobile game maker Escalation Studios.

58.?Ascend Acquisition Corp. merged with mobile gaming firm Andover Games in a reverse acquisition.

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/25/the-deanbeat-game-acquisitions-rise-23-percent-to-3-4b-in-2012/

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