Finding A Good Value Auto Insurance for Your Compact Car | The ...

Finding A Good Value Auto Insurance for Your Compact Car

May 24th, 2013 Written by Bob Flavin ? Viewed 98 times ? No Comments

The law states that before you can take your compact car on the street, you need to get an auto insurance. We all know that insurance payments can sometimes hurt your pocket, especially if you?re already paying for several policies for your other vehicles as well as your health and home insurance. You may already be searching for the best car insurance on the web that can offer you with the best deal. In fact, you may already want to choose a policy based on its low cost.

So, before you consider a particular insurance company, you need to know the coverage and benefits that their policy can provide. So, in any eventuality that your car might involve in, it?s essential that you got the insurance for your compact car; at least you can expect something in case you do encounter some accidents on the road. Usually, cheap and affordable car insurance policies will only offer liability insurance. This means that the insurance will only cover damages that you caused to other vehicles and people in terms of repairs and hospitalization. Also, this insurance policy will only cover a limited amount of money for the car repair expenses as well as medical expenses.

This means that you have to pay for your own repair expenses and medical bills. So, if you look at it ? cheap car insurance is not really worth it. There are several reasons why you need to get the best car insurance for you compact car and this will include the following:

1. Compact cars are lightweight and it can really speed through the freeway. Thus, making it more susceptible to accidents.

2. Most compact cars are expensive, especially if your car is a convertible one or a collector?s item and insuring it is always the best decision.

3. When it comes to repairs, auto shops will charge more if they know that they?ll be repairing compact cars. This is due to the fact that repairing smaller cars is much challenging as compared to regular sized sedans.

A good example for an expensive subcompact car is the Mini Cooper, which commonly known as a collector?s item. Owners of the Mini Cooper, especially those 70?s and 80?s model will definitely get a comprehensive car insurance. The coverage of a comprehensive auto insurance will include

• Damage caused to other people?s property.

• Glass breakage including windscreen, tail lights and head lights.

• Injury cased to other people during the accident.

• Damage to your car including the accessories fitted on your vehicle.

• Fire

• Theft

If you?re from Northern Ireland and you?re looking for the best insurance company that can offer you the widest coverage for your compact car, then you need to visit AXA NI. AXA is known all over Ireland as one of the leading insurance company with years of experience in this type of business. They definitely know what you?re looking for in your auto insurance policy.

By Bob Flavin

Source: http://thenextgear.com/2013/05/24/finding-a-good-value-auto-insurance-for-your-compact-car/

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Image of the day: Illustrated Songs by Barbara Ana ... - Computer Arts

Computer Arts: Tell us about the project ...
Barbara Ana Gomez: Illustrated Songs started as my final project for uni ??though it was called Illustrated Music, then. I made a long scroll inspired by the lyrics of Space Oddity:?almost three meters, filled with drawings. It was a really fun experience and I was very happy with the result, but it was hard work. I ended up exhausted.

A couple of years later, I picked the project up again. I started making ? much?smaller ??drawings inspired by the songs I love. Now the collection is slowly growing, new songs being added when I can get around to it. It?s a very special project to me, and I can tell that it'll go on for a long time.

CA: How do you put each piece together?
BAG: It usually starts by listening to a song and having the urge to represent it visually. Then I sketch some ideas inspired by the music and the lyrics, and I make a final drawing using pen and ink. The drawing is then scanned to be retouched and coloured using Photoshop.

My Love Has Gone was an especially challenging experience, since I wanted to make a gif for the first time. My initial idea was way more complicated and had many more frames. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to optimise the file afterwards to make it a reasonable size. I ended up deleting most of the frames, and then it became the nice simple animation it is now.

CA: How did you get into illustration?
BAG: I always enjoyed drawing. My school books were filled with doodles and song lyrics. I studied advertising and graphic design in Spain, where I'm from, and moved to London in 2007 to take an illustration course at the London College of Communication.?I've been freelancing as an illustrator since then. ?

I think my images have a traditional feeling because of the materials I use: Indian inks and antiqued paper. But there's also a touch of digital treatment. I use Photoshop a lot. Music is my main source of inspiration, but also films, people, nature, antique postcards and artworks, and beautiful things in general. I have many illustration books at home. One of my favourites is Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel.

Check out more from?Barbara Ana Gomez on her website?and Twitter.?

Subscribe to Computer Arts for your monthly fix of the world's best inspirational design work. Available on?iPad, in?print?or on?other digital devices.

Source: http://www.computerarts.co.uk/blog/image-day-illustrated-songs-barbara-ana-gomez-133845

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AP Source: Coach K returning to US men's team

Mike Krzyzewski had decided to remain coach of the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team.

Krzyzewski will try to lead the Americans to a third straight gold medal, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday. Originally expected to step down, Krzyzewski will hold a news conference to confirm his return Thursday at Duke, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made.

The Hall of Fame coach has led the Americans since 2005, winning gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and the 2010 world basketball championship. His return was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

"I think it's great," said two-time gold medalist LeBron James, when told of the news Wednesday night before the Miami Heat faced Indiana. "What he means to USA Basketball is beyond just what we do on the court. It's what we stand for as Americans and being proud of the red, white and blue every time we step off the bus or practice or talk to the media or whatever the case may be. I think it's great."

Krzyzewski repeatedly said he planned to end his international coaching career following the Americans' victory last summer in London. Yet USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo preferred to hold off any discussion until after Coach K finished his season with the Blue Devils, and he got the answer he wanted.

The 6-year-old Krzyzewski will lead the Americans next summer at the renamed World Cup of Basketball in Spain, where a victory would qualify them for the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil. They are 62-1 over the last seven years.

Krzyzewski's return could help land commitments from some of the top NBA stars who have enjoyed playing in the program he and Colangelo revamped in 2005. James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony are among the All-Stars who have won multiple gold medals under Krzyzewski.

"I've got the utmost respect and trust in Coach K," James said. "And whatever he decision was going to be, I think we all would support that."

James has said he would like to be there in 2016 as well.

"It would be great," James said. "First, I've got to make sure I stay healthy. If I'm fortunate enough to be healthy I would love to represent my country again, but that's a long time from now. So we'll see."

The U.S. team had been led by an NBA coach from the time NBA players were first used in the 1992 Olympics through the 2004 Games, when the Americans lost three times and finished third.

They managed only another bronze in their first tournament under Krzyzewski, the 2006 world championship, but haven't lost a game since while restoring the U.S. as the top team in the world.

Krzyzewski said he expected the Americans to name a successor this summer, but Colangelo believed Coach K wanted to stay if his family and Duke were comfortable with it. Krzyzewski, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, has been on the staff of 13 U.S. teams since 1979 and joined Henry Iba as the only coaches in Olympic history to win back-to-back men's basketball gold medals.

Heat forward Shane Battier, who played for Krzyzewski at Duke, said he wasn't surprised that his former coach decided to head back to the USA Basketball sideline.

"He's one of the most competitive people I've ever been around," Battier said. "That's what makes him great."

Colangelo never even talked to another candidate, insisting Krzyzewski had earned the right to take as much time as needed. The Americans wanted to have a coach in place before holding a minicamp in July in Las Vegas.

The person said there were expected changes to Krzyzewski's staff, which had included NBA coaches Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan, and Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

___

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-coach-k-returning-us-mens-team-165523988.html

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Foxy Brown Denies Calling Jay-Z an STD-Infected Tranny Chaser

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/foxy-brown-denies-calling-jay-z-gonorrhea-infected-tranny-chaser/

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Krugman: There are no bubbles in bonds or stocks | Investing ...

Bernanke should brush aside the babbling barons of bubbleism, and get on with doing his job

Beware a 'balls-to-the-walls' bull market: David Rosenberg

Bullish sentiment hasn?t been this high since the onset of the financial crisis and that has Gluskin-Sheff?s chief economist reaching for his contrarian hat. Read more

Bubbles can be bad for your financial health ? and bad for the health of the economy, too. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s left behind many vacant buildings and many more failed dreams. When the housing bubble of the next decade burst, the result was the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s ? a crisis from which we have yet to emerge.

So when people talk about bubbles, you should listen carefully and evaluate their claims ? not scornfully dismiss them, which was the way many self-proclaimed experts reacted to warnings about housing.

For whatever reason, many people in the financial industry have developed a deep hatred for Ben Bernanke

And there?s a lot of bubble talk out there right now. Much of it is about an alleged bond bubble that is supposedly keeping bond prices unrealistically high and interest rates ? which move in the opposite direction from bond prices ? unrealistically low. But the rising Dow has raised fears of a stock bubble, too.

So do we have a major bond and/or stock bubble? On bonds, I?d say definitely not. On stocks, probably not, although I?m not as certain.

What is a bubble, anyway? Surprisingly, there?s no standard definition. But I?d define it as a situation in which asset prices appear to be based on implausible or inconsistent views about the future. Dot-com prices in 1999 made sense only if you believed that many companies would all turn out to be a Microsoft; housing prices in 2006 only made sense if you believed that home prices could keep rising much faster than buyers? incomes for years to come.

Is there anything comparable going on in today?s bond market? Well, the interest rate on long-term bonds depends mainly on the expected path of short-term interest rates, which are controlled by the Federal Reserve. You don?t want to buy a 10-year bond at less than 2%, the current going rate, if you believe the Fed will be raising short-term rates to 4 or 5% in the not-too-distant future.

But why, exactly, should you believe any such thing? The Fed normally cuts rates when unemployment is high and inflation is low ? which is the situation today. True, it can?t cut rates any further because they?re already near zero and can?t go lower. (Otherwise investors would just sit on cash.) But it?s hard to see why the Fed should raise rates until unemployment falls a lot and/or inflation surges, and there?s no hint in the data that anything like that is going to happen for years to come.

Why, then, all the talk of a bond bubble? Partly it reflects the correct observation that interest rates are very low by historical standards. What you need to bear in mind, however, is that the economy is also in especially terrible shape by historical standards ? once-in-three-generations terrible. The usual rules about what constitutes a reasonable level of interest rates don?t apply.

There?s also, one has to say, an element of wishful thinking here. For whatever reason, many people in the financial industry have developed a deep hatred for Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, and everything he does; they want his easy-money policies ended, and they also want to see those policies fail in some spectacular fashion. As it turns out, however, dislike for bearded Princeton professors is not a good basis for investment strategy.

And one should never forget the example of Japan, where bets against government bonds ? justified by more or less the same arguments currently made to justify claims of a U.S. bond bubble ? ended in grief so often that the whole trade came to be known as the ?widowmaker.? At this point, Japan?s debt is well over twice its GDP, its budget deficit remains large, and the interest rate on 10-year bonds is 0.6%. No, that?s not a misprint.

OK, what about stocks? Major stock indexes are now higher than they were at the end of the 1990s, which can sound ominous. It sounds a lot less ominous, however, when you learn that corporate profits ? which are, after all, what stocks are shares in ? are more than two and a half times higher than they were when the 1990s bubble burst. Also, with bond yields so low, you would expect investors to move into stocks, driving their prices higher.

All in all, the case for significant bubbles in stocks or, especially, bonds is weak. And that conclusion matters for policy as well as investment.

For one important subtext of all the recent bubble rhetoric is the demand that Bernanke and his colleagues stop trying to fight mass unemployment, that they must cease and desist their efforts to boost the economy or dire consequences will follow. In fact, however, there isn?t any case for believing that we face any broad bubble problem, let alone that worrying about hypothetical bubbles should take precedence over the task of getting Americans back to work. Bernanke should brush aside the babbling barons of bubbleism, and get on with doing his job.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/10/krugman-there-are-no-bubbles-in-bonds-or-stocks/

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For Cleveland women, ordeal of recovery begins now

Year after year, the clock ticked by and the calendar marched forward, carrying the three women further from the real world and pulling them deeper into an isolated nightmare.

Now, for the women freed from captivity inside a Cleveland house, the ordeal is not over. Next comes recovery - from sexual abuse and their sudden, jarring re-entry into a world much different from the one they were snatched from a decade ago.

Therapists say that with extensive treatment and support, healing is likely for the women, who were 14, 16 and 21 when they were abducted. But it is often a long and difficult process.

"It's sort of like coming out of a coma," says Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a psychologist who specializes in treating abused teenagers. "It's a very isolating and bewildering experience."

In the world the women left behind, a gallon of gas cost about $1.80. Barack Obama was a state senator. Phones were barely taking pictures. Things did not "go viral." There was no YouTube, no Facebook, no iPhone.

Emerging into the future is difficult enough. The two younger Cleveland women are doing it without the benefit of crucial formative years.

"By taking away their adolescence, they weren't able to develop emotional and psychological and social skills," says Duane Bowers, who counsels traumatized families through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"They're 10 years behind in these skills. Those need to be caught up before they can work on reintegrating into society," he says.

That society can be terrifying. As freed captive Georgina DeJesus arrived home from the hospital, watched by a media horde, she hid herself beneath a hooded sweatshirt. The freed Amanda Berry slipped into her home without being seen.

"They weren't hiding from the press, from the cameras," Bowers says. "They were hiding from the freedom, from the expansiveness."

In the house owned by Ariel Castro, who is charged with kidnapping and raping the women, claustrophobic control ruled. Police say that Castro kept them chained in a basement and locked in upstairs rooms, that he fathered a child with one of them and that he starved and beat one captive into multiple miscarriages.

In all those years, they only set foot outside of the house twice ? and then only as far as the garage.

"Something as simple as walking into a Target is going to be a major problem for them," Bowers says.

Jessica Donohue-Dioh, who works with survivors of human trafficking as a social work instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, says the freedom to make decisions can be one of the hardest parts of recovery.

"'How should I respond? What do they really want from me?'" Donohue-Dioh says, describing a typical reaction. "They may feel they may not have a choice in giving the right answer."

That has been a challenge for Jaycee Dugard, who is now an advocate for trauma victims after surviving 18 years in captivity ? "learning how to speak up, how to say what I want instead of finding out what everybody else wants," Dugard told ABC News.

Like Berry, Dugard was impregnated by her captor and is now raising the two children. She still feels anger about her ordeal.

"But then on the other hand, I have two beautiful daughters that I can never be sorry about," Dugard says.

Another step toward normalcy for the three women will be accepting something that seems obvious to the rest of the world: They have no reason to feel guilty.

"First of all, I'd make sure these young women know that nothing that happened to them is their fault," Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 and held in sexual captivity for nine months, told People magazine.

Donohue-Dioh says that even for people victimized by monstrous criminals, guilt is a common reaction. The Cleveland women told police they were snatched after accepting rides from Castro.

"They need to recognize that what happened as a result of that choice is not the rightful or due punishment. That's really difficult sometimes," Donohue-Dioh says.

Family support will be crucial, the therapists say. But what does family mean when one member has spent a decade trapped with strangers?

"The family has to be ready to include a stranger into its sphere," Bowers says. "Because if they try to reintegrate the 14-year-old girl who went missing, that's not going to work. That 14-year-old girl doesn't exist anymore. They have to accept this stranger as someone they don't know."

Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped in Austria at age 10 and spent eight years in captivity, has said that her 2006 reunion with her family was both euphoric and awkward.

"I had lived for too long in a nightmare, the psychological prison was still there and stood between me and my family," Kampusch wrote in "3096 Days," her account of the ordeal.

Kampusch, now 25, said in a German television interview that she was struggling to form normal relationships, partly because many people seem to shy away from her.

"What a lot of these people say is, 'What's more important than what happened is how people react,'" says Greenberg, the psychologist.

The world has reacted to the Cleveland women with an outpouring of sympathy and support. This reaction will live on, amplified by the technologies that rose while the women were locked away.

Yet these women are more than the sum of their Wikipedia pages. Dugard, Smart and other survivors often speak of not being defined by their tragedies - another challenge for the Cleveland survivors.

"A classmate will hear their name, or a co-worker, and will put them in this box: This is who you are and what happened to you," Donohue-Dioh says. "Our job as society is to move beyond what they are and what they've experienced."

"This isn't who they are," Dugard told People. "It is only what happened to them."

Still, for the three Cleveland women, their journey forward will always include that horrifying lost decade.

"We can't escape our past," Donohue-Dioh says, "so how are we able to manage how much it influences our present and our future?"

___

AP Researcher Judith Ausuebel and AP Writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Jesse Washington on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewashington

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-women-ordeal-recovery-begins-now-134956749.html

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Sharif stages comeback in landmark Pakistan election

By Michael Georgy and John Chalmers

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Toppled in a 1999 coup, jailed and exiled, Nawaz Sharif has made a triumphant election comeback and was heading for a third term as Pakistan's prime minister.

The polls were a landmark, marking the first time one elected government will replace another. But the vote failed to realize the hopes of many that dynastic politics would end after years of misrule and corruption.

The wealthy steel magnate from the pivotal Punjab province held off a challenge from former cricket star Imran Khan who had hoped to break decades of dominance by Sharif and the Pakistan People's Party led by the Bhutto family.

Sharif, 63, declared victory in a jubilant speech to supporters as results from Saturday's election showed a overwhelming lead for his party.

"Results are still coming in, but this much is confirmed: we're the single largest party so far," he declared to hoots of joy from the crowd in Punjab's capital, Lahore.

"Please pray that by morning we're in a position that we don't need the crutch of coalition partners."

Despite pre-election violence and attacks on Saturday that killed at least 17 people, millions turned out to cast their ballot in a milestone election for a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history.

With the count continuing into the night, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) was leading in 119 of the 272 National Assembly seats that were contested.

His party may not have enough seats to rule on its own and may be forced into a coalition, which could make it difficult to push reforms desperately needed to revive a near-failed economy.

Sharif, who advocates free-market economics, is likely to pursue privatization and deregulation to revive flagging growth.

He will have to ease widespread discontent over endemic corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure in the nuclear-armed country, a strategic U.S. ally. One of the first likely tasks will be to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a multi-billion-dollar bailout.

Cricketing hero Khan in the end did not have the momentum needed to trip up Sharif despite his popularity among urban youths, many of whom were voting for the first time in an election that saw a robust turnout of 60 percent.

They had rallied behind Khan's calls for an end to graft and a halt to U.S. drone strikes against suspected militants on Pakistani soil.

Still, Khan's Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) put up a strong fight against the PPP, with the count showing the two parties neck-and-neck with about 34 seats each. The PPP led the government for the past five years with 124 lawmakers in parliament.

"Nawaz's victory says two things about Pakistan: one, the people of Pakistan prefer the comfort of status quo over the uncertainty of revolutions; and two, all roads to the center go through Punjab, and in Punjab, people are right-leaning and conservative," said senior journalist Nusrat Javeed.

"Still, for a party that only really arrived on the political scene in a serious way two years ago, PTI's performance was remarkable, to say the least."

BLOODY ELECTION DAY

A string of bomb blasts marred election day, with one attack on a party office in the southern city of Karachi killing 11 people and wounding about 40.

Pakistan's Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, has killed more than 125 people in election-related violence since April. The group, which is fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government, regards the poll as un-Islamic.

Despite Pakistan's history of coups, the army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government and threw its support behind Saturday's election.

It still sets foreign and security policy and will steer the thorny relationship with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan in 2014.

However, some fear the military could step back in if there were a repeat of the incompetence and corruption that frustrated many Pakistanis during the last government.

Sharif, who was toppled in a 1999 bloodless coup by former army chief Pervez Musharraf, has said generals have no place in politics.

He may also take steps to improve ties with Pakistan's arch-enemy, India. Efforts to boost trade between the neighbors have stalled due to suspicion on both sides.

If Sharif is forced into a coalition he may look to Islamist parties to cobble together a majority in parliament.

On top of the 272 contested seats, a further 70 - most reserved for women and members of non-Muslim minorities - are allocated to parties on the basis of their performance in the constituencies. To have a majority of the total of 342, the government would need 172 seats.

(Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Katharine Houreld in ISLAMABAD, Gul Yousafzai in QUETTA, Mubasher Bukhari in LAHORE and Jibran Ahmed in PESHAWAR; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistanis-vote-landmark-election-031123656.html

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Gadget Lab Show: The Fitbit Flex Gets a Workout and Windows Goes Blue

This week, staff writers Mat Honan and Roberto Baldwin get physical with the Fitbit Flex and share some good news about Windows 8.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/Uj47Dswec0Q/

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U.S. charges eight in $45 million cyber crime scheme

By Jessica Dye and Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Individuals employed around the world by a sophisticated cyber crime ring stole $45 million from thousands of bank automated teller machines within a matter of hours, using hacked debit-card data, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

Members of the global criminal organization hacked into two credit card processors and used stolen data to make more than 40,500 withdrawals in 27 countries, during two separate coordinated incidents in December 2012 and February 2013, the Justice Department said.

The government charged eight individuals in New York with participating in the larger scheme by withdrawing $2.8 million in thousands of ATM transactions, in what U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said was the second-biggest bank robbery in the history of New York City.

Lynch said it was likely that the headquarters of the global scheme was located outside the United States and that the current charges focused only on the New York-based cell. Investigators were examining whether other cells were operating elsewhere in the United States, she said.

"In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organization used laptops and the Internet. Moving as swiftly as data over the Internet, the organization worked its way from the computer systems of international corporations to the streets of New York City, with the defendants fanning out across Manhattan to steal millions of dollars from hundreds of ATMs in a matter of hours," said Lynch, whose office in Brooklyn, New York, brought the case.

The case demonstrates the major threat that cyber crime poses to banks around the world. Security experts frequently identify electronic fraud as one of the key challenges facing banks today.

"Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage," said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland.

In the December attack, hackers gained access to an Indian credit card processor that handled prepaid Mastercard Inc debit cards for National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC, or RAKBANK, according to a criminal indictment.

In February, the hackers broke into the system of a U.S.-based credit card processor to steal account numbers for prepaid Mastercard debit cards issued by Bank of Muscat, the indictment said.

The second operation was far larger than the first attack, eventually totaling $40 million in losses to Bank of Muscat.

In late February, Bank Muscat disclosed that it would take an impairment charge of up to 15 million rials ($39 million) because it had been defrauded overseas using 12 prepaid debit cards used for travel. That charge was equal to more than half of the 25 million rials profit it posted in its first quarter ended March 31.

The indictment does not identify the processor companies.

Bank representatives could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours.

In both cases, the hackers boosted the available balance for each card and eliminated the withdrawal limits, allowing them to take out huge sums of money from ATMs in what prosecutors called an "unlimited operation."

A single account number, for instance, yielded nearly $9 million in profits, including $2.4 million in New York City alone, prosecutors said.

The hackers distributed the account numbers to coordinated "casher" crews stationed across the globe, who siphoned millions of dollars from ATMs within a span of hours in December 2012 and February 2013.

One of the New York defendants was caught in surveillance footage from ATMs in Manhattan during the February operation, prosecutors said.

After the cards were shut down, cashers laundered the proceeds, often by purchasing luxury goods, and sent a portion of the money back to the organization's leaders, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and bank accounts, as well as two Rolex watches and a Mercedes SUV, from the New York defendants.

No individual bank accounts were compromised by the scheme, Lynch said.

Authorities said they arrested seven of the eight defendants, all U.S. citizens and residents of Yonkers, New York. They are Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose Pe?a, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin.

The eighth defendant charged in the indictment, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pe?a, also known as "Prime" and "Albertico," was murdered on April 27 in the Dominican Republic, according to prosecutors. Lynch said it was unclear whether the murder was related to the cybercrime case.

It wasn't immediately known which lawyers were representing the defendants.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Writing by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jan Paschal and Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-charges-eight-45-million-cybercrime-scheme-153054954.html

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Yemen's leader warns of al-Qaida expansion

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? The president of Yemen on Thursday warned that the al-Qaida branch in the country was expanding and using assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued his warning during a closed session of the National Dialogue, which brings political, religious and other leaders together to decide on the country's political system before writing a constitution.

The official SABA news agency said Hadi held an "exceptional" meeting, but offered few details on the president's remarks about security in the county. However, three people at the session agreed to relay his comments to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the meeting.

They said Hadi told the participants that Yemen was at a crossroads, and pointed to a "very precarious" security situation in Yemen. One described Hadi's remarks as unusually frank.

The National Dialogue is part of a transfer of power deal that led to the ouster of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh after a yearlong mass uprising. During the turmoil, militant groups affiliated with al-Qaida took advantage of the military's preoccupation with the political unrest and took control of large areas of territory in the country's south.

According to the participants, Hadi said that although his government has been going after al-Qaida militants around the country, dealing them some setbacks, "the group is recuperating" and sleeper cells are waiting for the right time to carry out terrorist operations. One of the participants said Hadi told them that he was speaking "honestly" and that the security grip on the country was not as good as it should be. Hadi also told the gathering that al-Qaida was increasingly using modern technologies to facilitate communications and avoid being tracked.

Hadi said some political activities had been canceled in the south because of security concerns for those would be attending. He also said the government had told foreign missions to exercise caution while moving around Sanaa. Foreign missions already are required to get prior permission before traveling out of the capital.

Two Finns and one Austrian kidnapped in Yemen in December were released Thursday, according to Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.

Hadi's comments about al-Qaida came on the same day that suspected al-Qaida militants killed an intelligence officer in southern Lahj province and a day after three Yemeni air force pilots were shot and killed near an air base in the south.

The participants said Hadi blamed some of the powerful tribes and members of the military and security, apparently in reference to loyalists to his predecessor, a common complaint since he came to office in February last year.

In comments published by SABA, Hadi urged social groups to "denounce" the presence of terrorist groups in their areas, and report them to authorities.

Hadi and his supporters have accused Saleh, the former president of Yemen, of obstructing the current U.S.-backed Yemeni government as it tries to reform and fight an active al-Qaida branch in the impoverished Arab nation.

Since he took office, Hadi has tried to remove former regime loyalists over concerns that Saleh was using them to further destabilize the nation. Last month, Hadi removed Saleh's son and nephews from powerful security posts, a move hailed by his supporters as the most dramatic yet to sideline figures from the previous regime.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yemens-leader-warns-al-qaida-expansion-182348969.html

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MBA: Mortgage rates flat at 3.47 percent

Mortgage rates went flat at 3.47 percent since last week, according to the latest mortgage rates data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

By SoldAtTheTop,?Guest blogger / May 9, 2013

The Mortgage Bankers Association's latest weekly applications survey shows that mortgage rates went flat at 3.47 percent since last week.

SoldAtTheTop

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The?Mortgage Bankers Association?(MBA) publishes the?results of a weekly applications survey?that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.?

Skip to next paragraph SoldAtTheTop

Writer, The PaperEconomy Blog

'SoldAtTheTop' is not a pessimist by nature but a true skeptic and realist who prefers solid and sustained evidence of fundamental economic recovery to 'Goldilocks,' 'Green Shoots,' 'Mustard Seeds,' and wholesale speculation.

Recent posts

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The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.?

The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) went flat at 3.47% since last week while the purchase application volume?increased 2% and the refinance application volume increased 8% over the same period.?

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on paper-money.blogspot.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YofTlq2jllo/MBA-Mortgage-rates-flat-at-3.47-percent

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PFT: Bucs CB Barber?hangs 'em?up? |? Hall-bound?

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On Wednesday, the NFLPA sent to all certified agents a memo detailing three changes to the NFLPA Regulations Governing Contract Advisors.? Quoting an unnamed high-profile agent, Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com reports that one of the changes represents ?a shot across the bow of Jay-Z.?

We respectfully disagree.? Here?s why.

First, the change that applies most directly to Jay-Z, who has launched a sports agency (Roc Nation) and aspires to represent football players as an NFLPA-certified agent, simply clarifies the existing requirement that would-be agents have both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees.? The prior rule stated that the degrees must come ?from an accredited college or university.?? The new rule defines the term ?accredited college or university.?? Unless the NFLPA feared that Jay-Z would start his own college and give himself a degree, the rule doesn?t change anything.

Second, the new rule doesn?t alter the major exception to the postgraduate degree requirement.? If Jay-Z can demonstrate seven years of ?negotiating experience,? that requirement can be satisfied.? Absent firm guidelines on what ?negotiating experience? means, it can mean whatever the NFLPA wants it to mean.? Given Jay-Z?s extensive success in various forms of business, how hard would it be to persuade the NFLPA to find that he has had more than enough ?negotiating experience??? (Of course, the NFLPA would have to interpret its rules to mean that seven years of ?negotiating experience? satisfies both the undergraduate and postgraduate degree requirements.)

Thus, the amendment has no impact on Jay-Z?s intent to attempt to become a certified NFLPA agent.? He still has to pass the test, and he still has to find a way around the educational requirement.

The problem for Jay-Z and CAA, the agency with which Jay-Z is working, arises from his ability to help recruit clients absent NFLPA certification.? Under a rule passed well before Jay-Z?s aspirations became clear, only certified agents can now be involved in recruiting players.? While the NFLPA gave Jay-Z and CAA a pass regarding the recruitment of Giants receiver Victor Cruz based on the pre-existing friendship between Jay-Z and Cruz, Jay-Z and CAA may be required to build a firewall between Roc Nation?s representation of football players for off-field interests and CAA?s representation of NFL players for football contracts.

Still, if every player who hires Roc Nation to handle marketing work and other non-football matters also hires CAA to negotiate their player contracts, other agents in this competitive-to-the-point-of-cutthroat industry surely will balk.

After all, if you can?t beat them, complain about them.? Incessantly.? Or something.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/08/buccaneers-fixture-ronde-barber-retiring/related/

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Statistics Canada: Voluntary census data OK

(BOB TYMCZYSZYN/QMI AGENCY FILE PHOTO)

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OTTAWA ? Despite months of controversy and fierce debate over whether Canada?s now-voluntary long-form census would produce reliable information, Statistics Canada says it?s pretty happy with the result for 2011.

?At the national, provincial level, all of this information is pretty solid. It?s high quality,? said census manager Marc Hamel.

The Conservative government made the extensive, long-form 2011 census voluntary ? marking the first time Canadians didn?t face potential fines or jail time for not providing personal information to the national number-crunchers.

Critics worried that without mandatory participation, the data wouldn?t be reliable.

Hamel said data in the 2011 national household survey is less reliable only at ?lower levels of geography? for cities, towns and villages.

He said there are about 1,100 centres ranging in population from 40 to 10,000 where the response rate was so low, Statistics Canada couldn?t put out reliable information. That?s up from about 200 centres in 2006.

?There?s always been communities for which the response levels were not good enough,? said Hamel. ?What we?re seeing in the national household survey is we have more communities for which we?re not able to produce the information.?

The response rate among Canadians asked to fill out the long-form census was about 68%.

Statistics Canada increased the number of surveys sent out to make up the difference from previous surveys that used a smaller sample, but had a response rate higher than 90%.

Do you think the voluntary long-form census produced reliable information?

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/05/08/statistics-canada-voluntary-census-data-ok

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Jewellery Repairs London (London, by Lenocheck)

If it was a negative raiting, i would go for big -one! Avoid this dodgy place at all cost.

Had such a bad experience with them today, i would never believe it if it has not happened to me.

Brought there a beautiful golden coin and asked to make a pendant out of it. The result was pretty unbelievable. When i came to collect the pendant i was given one made of a smaller and a lighter coin with some dark marks over it.

When questioning this fact and pointing out that this was not the original coin i gave them - it simply was too small for the case it was originally in - the answer was "..no idea, this is what you have brought us, this is what you get back. I'm not going to question a guy who did this?job. Go to the police if you want to, i don't care. Now leave the premises."

This not something that one would be prepared to hear at one of the Hatton Garden's place.

Such a fraud!!!! See what the police will say about it.

So whatever you need to repair - go somewhere else.

Source: http://www.qype.co.uk/review/3773775

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Kenya co. turns old sandals into colorful objects

AAA??May. 8, 2013?11:30 AM ET
Kenya co. turns old sandals into colorful objects
By JOE MWIHIABy JOE MWIHIA, Associated Press??

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, carver Jackson Mbatha, 40, poses next to an unfinished large toy giraffe he is making from pieces of discarded flip-flops, in front of a painted workshop wall at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, carver Jackson Mbatha, 40, poses next to an unfinished large toy giraffe he is making from pieces of discarded flip-flops, in front of a painted workshop wall at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, a female worker washes some finished toy animals made from pieces of discarded flip-flops, in a bucket at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, finished toy animals made from pieces of discarded flip-flops are laid out in rows to dry in the sun, having just been washed, at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, machinist Benedict Ndambuki, 36, uses a lathe to smooth off the rough edges of a toy elephant made from pieces of discarded flip-flops, at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, April 29, 2013, a pile of discarded flip-flops sits in a crate ready to be washed, sorted, and carved into toy animals, at the Ocean Sole flip-flop recycling company in Nairobi, Kenya. The company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and the dirty pieces of rubber that were once cruising the Indian Ocean's currents are now being turned into colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and other toy animals. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? The colorful handmade giraffes, elephants and warthogs made in a Nairobi workshop were once only dirty pieces of rubber cruising the Indian Ocean's currents.

Kenya's Ocean Sole sandal recycling company is cleaning the East African country's beaches of used, washed-up flip-flops and other sandals.

About 45 workers in Nairobi make 100 different products from the discarded flip-flops. In 2008, the company shipped an 18-foot giraffe to Rome for display during a fashion week.

Company founder Julie Church says the goal of her company is to create products that people want to buy, then make them interested in the back-story.

Workers wash the flip-flops, many of which show signs of multiple repairs. Artisans then glue together the various colors, carve the products, sand and rewash them.

Church first noticed Kenyan children turning flip-flops into toy boats around 1999, when she worked as a marine scientist for WWF and the Kenya Wildlife Service on Kenya's coast near the border with Somalia.

Turtles hatching on the beach had to fight their way through the debris on beaches to get to the ocean, Church said, and a plan to clean up the debris and create artistic and useful items gained momentum. WWF ordered 15,000 key rings, and her eco-friendly project took off.

It has not made Church rich, however. The company turns over about $150,000 a year, she said. Last year it booked a small loss.

But new investment money is flowing in, and the company is in the midst of rebranding itself from its former name ? the FlipFlop Recycling Company ? to Ocean Sole.

The company aims to sell 70 percent of its products outside Kenya. It has distributors in the United States, Europe and new inquiries from Japan. Its biggest purchasers are zoos and aquariums.

One of Church's employees is Dan Wambui, who said he enjoys interacting with visitors who come to the Nairobi workshop.

"They come from far ... when they see what we are doing we see them really happy and they are appreciating. We feel internationally recognized and we feel happy about it," Wambui said.

___

On the Internet:

Ocean Sole: http://www.ocean-sole.com

Associated PressNews Topics: Business, General news, Oddities, Animals, Coastlines and beaches, Fish, Waste management services, Oceans, Fashion shows, Apparel manufacturing, Living things, Environment and nature, Marine animals, Environmental equipment and services, Industrial products and services, Industries, Entertainment, Arts and entertainment, Fashion design, Fashion, Beauty and fashion, Lifestyle, Textiles, apparel and accessories manufacturing, Consumer product manufacturing, Consumer products and services

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-05-08-Kenya-Sandal%20Animals/id-abced103338243d9829f8b1b7b96d9f1

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'Girls Gone Wild' founder convicted of assault

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis was found guilty Monday of misdemeanor counts of assault and false imprisonment stemming from a dispute with three women after a night out at a Hollywood club in 2011.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said in a statement that after a two-week trial, a jury convicted the 40-year-old Francis of three counts of false imprisonment, one count of assault causing great bodily injury and one count of dissuading a witness. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. A hearing to schedule his sentencing was set for Wednesday.

Francis met the three women as they celebrated a college graduation at a the Supper Club in Hollywood on Jan. 29, 2011, took one of them by the hand as he left and took her to his limo, and the other two followed thinking Francis was giving them a ride to their car, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Francis took the women to his home and a dispute broke out when he tried to separate one from the other two, with Francis grabbing one of the women by the hair and throat and slammed her head into the floor.

After an investigation, the district attorney declined to file felony charges in the case and referred it to the city attorney, who filed the misdemeanor charges.

Previous phone numbers for Francis were disconnected, and neither he nor his attorneys could immediately be reached for comment.

Francis' company, GGW Brands LLC, filed for bankruptcy in February after years of legal troubles, listing more than $16 million in disputed claims.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-06-US-People-Joe-Francis/id-8a38865d5b234282bd88bf449802273e

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Diplomat: US team stopped from going to Benghazi

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Four members of Army special forces ready to head to Benghazi, Libya, after the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission had ended were told not to go, according to a former top diplomat.

Gregory Hicks also argued in an interview with Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that if the U.S. military had flown aircraft over the Benghazi facility after it came under siege it might have prevented the second attack on the CIA annex that killed two CIA security officers.

Excerpts of the interview with the former deputy chief in Libya were released Monday in advance of Hicks' testimony on Wednesday before the panel.

The Sept. 11, 2012, assault killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Nearly eight months later, Republicans insist that the Obama administration is guilty of a cover-up of the events despite a scathing independent report that faulted the State Department for inadequate security at the diplomatic mission.

Hicks' comments and the hearing are likely to revive the politically charged debate in which GOP lawmakers and outside groups have faulted former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible presidential candidate in 2016.

After the first word of the attack in Benghazi, a seven-member security team, including two military personnel, flew from Tripoli to Benghazi. Upon their arrival, they learned that Stevens was missing and the situation had calmed after the first attack, according to a Pentagon timeline released last year.

Meanwhile, a second team was preparing to leave on a Libyan C-130 cargo plane from Tripoli to Benghazi when Hicks said he learned from the Libyan prime minister that Stevens was dead. The Libyan military agreed to transport additional personnel as reinforcements to Benghazi on its cargo plane, but Hicks complained the special forces were told not to make the trip.

"They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it," Hicks told GOP committee staff. Pressed on why, he said, "I guess they just didn't have the right authority from the right level."

Defense officials said Monday that four members of Army special forces were in Tripoli on Sept. 11, 2012, as part of a regular training mission. The officials said they were trying to track down information about the Libyan cargo plane and could not verify whether or not the special forces were told not to get on the plane.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said it is normal procedure for U.S. service members to get permission to fly on another country's military aircraft.

That flight left Tripoli after the second attack on the CIA annex that killed two security officers ? Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

Hicks also contended that if the U.S. military has scrambled jet fighters after the first attack that it would have prevented the mortar attack on the CIA annex around 5:15 a.m.

"I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them," Hicks said, according to the excerpts.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other military leaders have said there wasn't enough time for the military to respond as the events in Benghazi occurred too quickly ? a point reinforced by the Pentagon on Monday.

"The fact of the matter remains, as we have repeatedly indicated, that U.S. military forces could not have arrived in time to mount a rescue of those Americans who were killed and injured that night," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

At the State Department on Monday, spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the committee's work appeared to have political aims rather than ensuring the protection of U.S. diplomats serving overseas.

"It certainly seems so, so far," he replied when asked if the department believed the investigation to be driven by partisan politics. "I mean, this is not sort of a collaborative process where the committee is working directly with us and trying to establish facts that would help as we look to keep our people safe overseas in a very complex environment."

Democrats on the committee said Monday they have been excluded from the investigation.

Ventrell said the department had not seen the full transcript of Hicks' statements to committee investigators and could not comment until it had or until after his testimony on Wednesday. At the same time, he insisted that the department was not blocking any employee from appearing before Congress or intimidating them into silence.

"We understand this testimony's going to go forward, and we want people to go and tell the truth," he told reporters. "But in terms of the full context of these remarks or these sort of accusations, we don't have the full context, so it's hard for us to respond."

Ventrell also pushed back against allegations from congressional Republicans and their surrogates that the independent panel appointed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had not conducted a comprehensive or credible investigation into the Benghazi incident and were somehow involved in a cover-up.

He noted that the independent panel, called the Accountability Review Board, had produced a harshly critical report, blaming systematic leadership and management failures at senior levels of the State Department for the inadequate security at the Benghazi compound.

Meanwhile the co-chairs of the review board, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former senior diplomat Thomas Pickering, released a statement rejecting claims that their panel had been denied access to key witnesses or had conducted anything less than a thorough and impartial probe.

"From the beginning of the ARB process, we had unfettered access to everyone and everything including all the documentation we needed," the two men said. "Our marching orders were to get to the bottom of what happened, and that's what we did."

Meanwhile, the former head of the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, Daniel Benjamin, denied allegations that his office had been cut out of the loop in the discussions and decision-making processes in the aftermath of the attack.

"This charge is simply untrue," he said. "At no time did I feel that the bureau was in any way being left out of deliberations that it should have been part of."

____

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diplomat-us-team-stopped-going-benghazi-212327859.html

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Kitchener digital media cluster gathering momentum | Metro

KITCHENER ? Marcel O?Gorman?s voice echoes in the old post office as he walks through the latest cutting-edge addition to the downtown?s growing digital media cluster.

?This is going to be a display area,? O?Gorman says of the area just inside 44 Gaukel St. that is flooded with natural light.

O?Gorman heads the University of Waterloo?s critical media lab, and he helped bring together The Kitchener Studio Project in this city-owned building in the core.

City council is on board, so is the college and the University of Waterloo has approved it in principle.

Art and technology will come together in this building and some of the best work will be exhibited in the display area. At the back of the building, off the loading dock, the Creative Enterprise Initiative will have low-cost studio space for artists.

There is 10,000 square feet of space on the first floor of the building that will be filled with students and faculty from the area?s three post-secondary institutions ? The School of Media and Design from Conestoga College, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Christie Digital, the local company that makes digital projectors, and Communitech, the industry association for the area?s high-tech firms, is also part of the studio project.

O?Gorman oversees the graduate students doing a master?s in experimental digital media ? XDM for short.

?The collaboration with Conestoga is a great fit,? O?Gorman says. ?I can see our students finishing an XDM degree for example and then doing a post-grad program for a summer, or one-year program in 3-D animation.?

The digital-media sector needs creative people for animation and graphics, music, storytelling, photography, (both video and still), editing-digital video and designing hardware. And that?s where the Kitchener Studio Project comes in.

Communitech is based at The Hub in the former Lang tannery building at Charles and Victoria streets. Startup companies head there with good ideas. They are provided space for working in, mentors, legal advice and marketing expertise.

?A huge part of this is collaboration with Communitech,? O?Gorman says. ?When they get the applications from all the people who want to be startups and be part of The Hub, they are going to look at some of them and say: ?These people would benefit from being in a creative environment.? So they are going to send them over to Gaukel.?

And some students studying experimental-digital media at the Kitchener Studio Project will come up with ideas that could be used in a startup. O?Gorman is amazed that some of his students last fall developed an app that simulated dementia. They were working with an Alzheimer?s research group at the time.

?It was a pretty good simulation,? O?Gorman says. ?It could be used by health-care providers, or people taking care of loved ones to give them a sense of what if feels like to have Alzheimer?s.?

But when the class was over the students moved on and the app was shelved. Now, with the collaboration with Communitech, the same students could be steered into a startup.

?We can get some advice on how to market that, how to commercialize it, so that?s pretty cool,? O?Gorman says. ?If there are students who want to do that, and I know there are, we have to provide an avenue to do that.?

Graduating students from The Kitchener Studio Project will be good candidates for working in one of the biggest creative fields in the world ? gaming. The developing and marketing of computer games is bigger than Hollywood.

EA, or Entertainment Arts, is one of the largest gaming companies in the world. It has an office in downtown Kitchener, mainly for the technical end of creating games. O?Gorman hopes the studio project can change that.

?We would like to see EA bring in a design project, actually a whole gaming project where the game gets developed from beginning to end,? O?Gorman says.

That requires creative writers, conceptual designers, graphic artists, animators and sound specialists, among many others.

Some of his students graduate and get hired as ?digital creatives.? O?Gorman just about chokes on his wrap in a vegetarian restaurant when he says that.

?Here is where the English prof winces, ?creative? has been turned into a noun,? O?Gorman says.

Some ?digital creatives? make interactive displays for museums in a field known as ?interaction design.?

O?Gorman wants the contemporary art festival CAFKA, the new-music festival Open Ears and the artistic-hacker-makers at KWartzLab involved in the space. The Creative Enterprise Initiative is committed and will transform the area off the loading dock into low-cost studios.

Heather Sinclair, the head Creative Enterprise, says the CEI Dock will be a working space for artists year-round. Details on how artists can apply for space will be rolled out soon.

Sinclair says the move fits perfectly with her organization?s action plan to increase capacity for arts-and-culture production by making strategic investments that support it.

?CEI is excited to collaborate on the Kitchener Studio Project,? Sinclair says. ?We are delighted to be working with the partners in the space.?

So is Paul Salvini, the chief technology officer for Christie Digital. The local company makes digital projectors and was behind 48-frame-per-second projectors showing The Hobbit. It is all about creating the technology for shared, visual experiences.

Christie built The Cave inside The Tannery. It is a small room that people enter wearing special 3-D glasses, becoming immersed in the images projected on the walls around them.

?So our interest is in simply building the capacity within the region for creative potential in terms of creating amazing-digital-media experiences,? Salvini says. ?All of those things require content and they require skilled individuals to be able to create shared visual experiences that are compelling.?

The Stratford Institute, UW?s campus there, focuses on the business end of digital media. The university and college?s computer scientists-engineers-programmers are into the technical end. Now, the college?s School of Media and Design will take the lead in the creative end.

?I think when those three worlds come together, when technology and business and design come together, that?s when really great things are going to happen and new opportunities will be formed within the region,? Salvini says.

Anyone who?s read Steve Jobs biography knows how the founder of Apple was obsessed with design and the end-user?s experience. Salvini says the studio project should add depth to the region?s design capabilities.

?I think we have all seen examples when we?ve had some technology, but for whatever reason it falls short of our expectations,? Salvini says. ?Either the design isn?t great from a usability point of view or that it?s functional but it?s not that esthetically pleasing.?

Christie was among the first companies to get behind the Canadian Digital Media Network that was created at The Hub several years go.

The City of Kitchener kicked-started the digital-media cluster in the downtown with a grant of $30,000. Later the city invested $500,000 in it and Communitech used that money to raise another $107 million.

Iain Klugman, the head of Communitech, says the small-and-medium sized companies that belong to the association had a combined economic impact of $1 billion last year and that is quickly growing.

?We are seeing just an unprecedented rate of startup activity,? Klugman says. ?We are seeing on average two new companies a day going through our intake process ? it?s a bit overwhelming.?

The startups are creating digital products for everything from crowd-funding apps, English as a second language trip advisers and a one-stop list of apartments for rent.

The Kitchener Studio Project will be another important piece in the digital-media cluster, he says.

?These kind of collaborative ventures are really powerful and it?s really cool to see,? Klugman says.

News Worth Sharing:

Source: http://metronews.ca/news/kitchener/660877/kitchener-digital-media-cluster-gathering-momentum/

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Gun control forces struggle to keep issue alive

FILE - Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., questions former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon, during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Jan. 31, 2013 file photo. A woman whose mother was killed in last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., confronted Sen. Kelly Ayotte Tuesday April 30, 2013 during the senator's first public appearance in New Hampshire since voting against gun control legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., questions former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon, during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Jan. 31, 2013 file photo. A woman whose mother was killed in last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., confronted Sen. Kelly Ayotte Tuesday April 30, 2013 during the senator's first public appearance in New Hampshire since voting against gun control legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Gun control forces are targeting Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Max Baucus and others as they struggle to persuade five senators to switch their votes and revive the rejected effort to expand background checks to more firearms buyers.

With Congress back from a weeklong recess, the bottom line remains familiar: Advocates of broadened checks lack the new votes they need and Congress has moved onto other issues. A few lawmakers who opposed expanding the checks when the Senate defeated the measure last month say they'd consider changes the sponsors might offer but haven't committed to backing anything, while others show no signs of switching.

"I stand by my vote," one prime target, Ayotte, R-N.H., said Monday.

A new vote seems unlikely until at least early summer.

As time passes since the December slayings of 20 first-graders and six educators at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, supporters of firearms restrictions say they won't let public and congressional fervor fade, as it has after previous mass shootings. They're launching fresh activities, such as a "Mother's Day Week of Action" by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and other groups, aimed at convincing lawmakers that continued opposition would be politically perilous.

"We have all the time in the world, except that 33 more Americans are being murdered every day," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, citing the approximate average of daily gun homicides. Led by wealthy New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the gun control group unveiled a new TV ad Monday aimed at Ayotte, and Glaze said the group will hold events in targeted states "every time senators are home on vacation."

Others say the passage of time is no help to supporters of firearms restrictions.

"If they don't get something now, when are they going to win?" said Harry Wilson, a political science professor at Roanoke College in Salem, Va., who has written a book on gun control politics. "The further away you get from the event, every day your chances diminish a little."

Lawmakers who voted "no" but whom gun control advocates hope to change include Ayotte and Baucus, D-Mont., plus Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Dean Heller, R-Nev.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that a chief sponsor of the background check expansion, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., "thinks he has a couple more votes."

Manchin said Monday that "nothing's changed," though he said he has had "some real good discussions." The other chief author, Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., said he talked to other senators during the recess but added, "I can't say that I did" win over any of them.

No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said Sunday on CNN that it would be "quite a task" to find five votes, but said, "We can do this."

Gun control supporters must persuade at least five senators who've already voted no to vote yes ? never an easy task. That could require building a public outcry that convinces senators their constituents think they voted the wrong way, then revamping the bill so senators can say they forced changes they can now support.

Tactics being used include:

? TV ads last week by the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee targeting Baucus, in which a Montana grandmother and home invasion victim says, "We're less safe with guns in the wrong hands."

? Gun victims' relatives invited senators to dinner in their homes to see the empty seat once occupied by the slain family member. Sandy Phillips, 63, of San Antonio, whose daughter was killed in the 2012 mass shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, said she met in a restaurant with conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but failed to persuade him to support expanded checks.

? The Brady campaign and other groups were using the approach of Mother's Day this Sunday to urge mothers and others to contact lawmakers using social media, letters to the editor and phone calls to legislators' offices.

? Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with members of religious organizations that favor gun control, following a strategy session last week with law enforcement groups.

The National Rifle Association used its annual convention in Houston this weekend to urge supporters to "regain the political high ground" by focusing on next year's congressional elections. New NRA President James Porter told the gathering, "We do that and (President Barack) Obama can be stopped."

Pryor said Monday that if sponsors change the bill he'll "look at whatever," but said he's received "lots of positive feedback" from voters and said a Republican alternative he supported that stressed stronger enforcement of current laws was better.

In an interview last week, Flake said the rejected bill's definition of commercial sales was too broad, saying it could cover someone who uses email to sell firearms to a friend.

Asked whether he could support a measure with a narrower definition of commercial sales, he said he wanted to strengthen the law's mental health restrictions. "I'll look at it, I'll work with the sponsors to try to get something where we can strengthen background checks without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens," Flake said.

Gun control groups have targeted Flake because fellow Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain backed the legislation and because Arizona is the home state of wounded former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, now an active gun control advocate.

Ayotte, whose "no" vote dashed gun control forces' hopes, has been a focal point of their pressure. The mayors' group planned to air a TV ad this week accusing her of having "gone Washington" by opposing the background check expansion, despite the proposal's backing by huge majorities in public opinion polls.

She gained national attention when she was confronted at a town hall meeting last week and asked to explain her vote against the background check measure by Erica Lafferty, daughter of Dawn Hochsprung, the slain principal of Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The defeated legislation would require background checks for advertised sales, including at gun shows and on the Internet. Non-commercial transactions like those between people who know each other would be exempt.

Background checks, designed to keep criminals and the mentally ill from getting firearms, currently apply only to sales through licensed gun dealers.

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Associated Press writer Andrew Miga contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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