Tuesday, December 25, 2012

New blood for Heart of Gold International Film Festival | Gympie Times

Topics:? film festival, filmmaking, heart of gold film festival

Heart of Gold’s new art directors Stephen Kanaris and Tahnee McGuire of Hatch Film have taken on the role to present the 2013 international film festival.
Heart of Gold?s new art directors Stephen Kanaris and Tahnee McGuire of Hatch Film have taken on the role to present the 2013 international film festival. Contributed

HEART of Gold will not only go ahead in 2013, it will get an injection of fresh blood.

New art directors Stephen Kanaris and Tahnee McGuire of Hatch Film have taken on the role to present the international film festival to a global audience.

Based in Brisbane, the partners in life and business are filmmakers with more than 25 years combined experience in advertising and film and television.

They have won multiple awards for their outstanding creative work and their business is described as a "birthing suite for beautiful ideas" that develop "stylish and effective" productions and brand communications.

Their relationship with the Heart of Gold International Film Festival began several years ago when they entered their work in the film awards.

Stephen and Tahnee were invited back the following year to judge festival entries and were selected by the outgoing art director as ideal candidates to take the festival forward.

They were keen and jumped at the chance when approached by the new HOGIFF board recently.

"The Heart of Gold was a great opportunity to network with other filmmakers," Stephen said, of his experience at the festival.

"The short films were good if not better than the ones presented at the Brisbane festival.

"Of course we said yes at the opportunity to bring the vision of Heart of Gold to life.

"We have a lot of good ideas to put to the board to make the festival fresh and broaden the demographic of audience."

Stephen said the aim was to maintain the high standard of films while broadening the selection.

Their industry knowledge is expected to give them an edge when sourcing films and first on the agenda is a trip to Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in France.

"If (we) can afford to go to only one festival it should be one with a big film market," Stephen said.

"We'll go there for a week and view thousands of short films. At Clermont-Ferrand you can view a database of all films entered, not just the ones screened."

The HOGIFF festival is planned for July 2013.



Source: http://www.gympietimes.com.au/news/new-blood-heart-gold-international-film-festival/1695023/

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Monday, December 24, 2012

New storm could disrupt holiday travel

The storm out of California could bring snow on Christmas to parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma, places that haven't seen that happen in more than 80 years. The Weather Channel's Julie Martin reports.

A major winter storm that on Sunday was dumping steady rain and snow on Northern California could strengthen as it makes its way east, promising a White Christmas ? and travel headaches ? for a wide swath of the country.

The storm will deposit snow from California?s Sierra mountains to New England through Friday morning, forecasters said. ?Unfortunately, this occurs not only during the Christmas holiday, but also in the peak travel period after Christmas Day in the South, Midwest and East,? weather.com said.


Forecasters warned that roads would become treacherous Christmas Day and Christmas night from the High Plains of western Kansas and the Texas Panhandle eastward into Oklahoma, extreme north Texas, Arkansas and into the mid-Mississippi Valley.

There was also the potential for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail and tornadoes in parts of the South on Christmas Day, said Greg Forbes, The Weather Channel?s severe weather expert.

The storm was expected to reach the Northeast Wednesday, bringing gusty winds and widespread precipitation. Whether that precipitation will be snow or rain remains to be seen.

Millions are on the move the Sunday before Christmas, and while the holiday outlook has improved from recent days, weather might continue to disrupt travel plans in some parts of the country. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

?For now, snow seems most likely in the interior Northeast, with the potential for rain or perhaps a wintry mix to start in the major metros,? weather.com said.

The new storm comes on the heels of another storm that buried parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin in more than a foot of snow last week and led to thousands of flight delays or cancellations.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/23/16106937-new-storm-could-pose-holiday-travel-headaches-across-nation?lite

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Honoring Loved Ones during the Holidays ? ADAO ? Asbestos ...

|?2013 Conference Info?|?Register?|??Agenda?|??Family?Tributes?|

Posted on?December?23, 2012

It?s holiday time and, as 2012 draws to a close, we think about the loved ones who are no longer here to celebrate the New Year with us. ADAO is dedicated to keeping their stories alive and fighting for a ban of the deadly asbestos that took them from us far too soon. ?Debra and Tiffany?s beautiful?2012 ADAO?Asbestos Awareness Conference?program?tribute to Jeff is a tender?example of the timelessness of family?tributes.

You are not alone.

  • ?Share Your Story? with ADAO?s community and tell us about how you or your loved one has been affected by an asbestos-caused disease such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis.

Join us, as ADAO?continues our work to prevent exposure and eliminate?asbestos-caused diseases through education,?advocacy, and?community?support?efforts.

Together, change is possible.

Linda

Linda Reinstein?Social Networks

ADAO?Social Networks

Source: http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/archives/17652

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Ryan Lanza: ?I am a victim? of Newtown, too

(Facebook/NYP)

Adam Lanza's brother has apparently taken to Facebook to mourn the 27 people--including his mother and 20 schoolchildren--killed by Adam in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, before the younger Lanza turned the gun on himself.

"I am a victim," Ryan Lanza told the New York Post via Facebook on Saturday. "I [lost] my mom and brother."

The 24-year-old, who lives in Hoboken, N.J., was initially misidentified by several media outlets as a suspect on the day of the shootings. He was questioned by police and later released.

According to the New York Post, Ryan Lanza posted a photo of Adam on Facebook under the message:

R.I.P
Adam Peter Lanza
April 22, 1992- Dec. 14, 2012(20 years old)
"I will miss you bro. I will always love you as long as I live"
-Ryan

When another Facebook user wrote that Adam deserved to "rot in hell," Ryan responded: ?You have no right to call my brother names when he isn?t here no more. Just let my brother rest in peace. Please. Respect that."

Ryan also posted a photo of his mother, Nancy, who was shot and killed by Adam in their Newtown home before the troubled 20-year-old fired his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and 6 adults.

?You all will be truly be missed,? Ryan wrote on Facebook. ?God Bless.?

Ryan Lanza's Facebook profile is private, though at least dozen pages have been launched supporting him in the wake of the massacre.

"The real shooter was his brother," a message on one of them reads. "Please stop blaming him for the shooting. He had nothing to do with it."

UPDATE, 6:00 p.m.: A spokesman for the Lanza family tells the New York Post that "an imposter is behind Ryan Lanza's Facebook page and that Ryan did not post the messages" published in its original story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/ryan-lanza-facebook-181924426.html

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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Run Faster, Jump Higher: A Guide To Losing Weight | Bump This ...

TIP! You should find alternative ways of transporting yourself rather than driving in order to lose weight. Calorie burning is guaranteed by walking, cycling, running and various other types of movements.

If you follow the right advice, losing weight does not have to be difficult. Like everything in life, if you have the proper knowledge, you can find success. Here you will learn many helpful tips to help you reach your weight loss goals.

TIP! For some extra encouragement, remind yourself daily of a piece of clothing that?s too small for you. If a diet breaking temptation arises, the clothing will help you remember that you want to be slim enough to wear it.

Fad diets can often appear to be useful ways to start losing weight. Avoid these diets because many of them can be nutritionally harmful and a majority of users gain the weight right back after stopping. Following a fad diet, such as simply eating pineapples or bananas and nothing else, becomes tiring to follow after a certain period of time. Even worse, you will not learn how to eat better when going on these diets. The most effective diets are those that focus on teaching you how to eat a balanced diet.

TIP! Would you like to drop five pounds really fast? If so, drink lots and lots of water. If you cut down on the amount of food you eat and drink at least half a gallon of water a day for a week, you will lose water weight.

Don?t quit your weight loss regimen. You may feel like giving up when things are not going the way you want them to. Don?t let this discourage you. If you need, you can simply adjust your goals. There is no shame is starting over when you make a mistake.

TIP! Don?t forget to include exercise in any weight loss plan. To lose weight you have to take in less calories then you burn.

Stick with foods that are not high in calories and fill you up. If you eat a salad, or even just a few veggies prior to a meal, they will somewhat fill you up before you get stuck in to that calorie-laden main course. Drinking water prior to eating does the same thing.

Grocery Shopping

TIP! Diet pills that make outrageous claims about their results, should be avoided. You may become addicted to something that doesn?t even work.

Before doing any grocery shopping, list the healthy foods you wish to purchase, and only purchase the items listed. Also, limit the time you spend grocery shopping to the bare minimum. This will prevent you from browsing the processed food aisle.

TIP! Drinking coffee is also a great way to start your weight loss. Many people drink coffee every day, but most of them do not realize that coffee has many excellent ingredients that make working out easier.

It is important to eat throughout the day while on a diet. You will more than likely make bad choices when eating because you will be starving and tempted. Skipping meals is not the way to achieve your dieting goals, and may actually lead to weight gain.

TIP! Take time off the phone and use it for some slimming exercises. Move around and talk instead of sitting.

A good tip while dieting is to serve your food on smaller plates. It is common for folks to want to totally fill their plates when they eat. If you lower your portion size, you won?t feel deprived if you simultaneously use a smaller dish. Using a smaller plate can help you to eat less without you even realizing it.

TIP! If you want to start losing weight without turning your life upside down, just add some exercise to your normal daily routine. For instance, while you are watching television or while you are seated at your desk, you can squeeze a muscle set.

You may expect many sacrifices during your weight loss program; however, taste does not have to be one. In years past, weight-loss foods tasted awful. Now, higher-quality sweeteners and preservatives let you enjoy great-tasting food without all the fat and carbohydrates. Go this route if you want to continue eating what enjoy while still losing weight.

Weight Loss

TIP! Water is very beneficial if you want to maintain weight loss. Pretty much everyone should strive to consume eight glasses every day so that they can be hydrated.

The introduction to this article stressed that education is the most important component of a successful weight loss strategy. By knowing the proper way to shed weight, you could easily achieve it. Apply what you?ve learned from this article to help you get started on your weight loss journey.

Source: http://bumpthis.asia/run-faster-jump-higher-a-guide-to-losing-weight/

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Former SC Gov. Sanford eyes US House bid

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2012, file photo, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford leaves a talk on federal fiscal policy at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. Sanford a former two-term governor who was a rising GOP star before he vanished from South Carolina for five days in 2009 says he is considering a campaign for his former seat in Congress. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2012, file photo, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford leaves a talk on federal fiscal policy at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. Sanford a former two-term governor who was a rising GOP star before he vanished from South Carolina for five days in 2009 says he is considering a campaign for his former seat in Congress. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith, File)

(AP) ? Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who left public life two years ago after mysteriously disappearing to visit his then-mistress in Argentina, is poised to re-enter the political arena.

Acknowledging reports that he is seriously weighing a congressional bid for the seat he once held, Sanford wrote in an email to The Associated Press late Saturday: "To answer your question, yes the accounts are accurate." Sanford promised "further conversation on all this" later.

The two-term governor was a rising Republican political star before he vanished from South Carolina for five days in 2009. Reporters were told he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but he later tearfully acknowledged he was visiting Maria Belen Chapur, which he told everyone at news conference announcing his affair. He later called her his soul mate in an interview with AP and the two were engaged earlier this year.

The opening for Sanford comes after Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to fill the remaining two years of Sen. Jim DeMint's seat. DeMint announced earlier this month he was resigning.

News that Sanford, 52, may be interested in the seat comes days after his ex-wife, Jenny, appeared to be dipping her toe into the state's political waters.

She was reportedly on Gov. Nikki Haley's short list of candidates to fill the seat that went to Scott. Jenny Sanford later said she would think about a run for Scott's seat representing the coastal 1st Congressional District, the seat her ex-husband is now considering.

"I'd be crazy not to look at the race a little bit," she said Tuesday, before reports about Mark Sanford surfaced.

State Republicans said Scott plans to submit his letter of resignation from the House on Jan. 2, triggering a process of candidate filing and primaries leading up to a special election in May.

Scott, in a taped interview airing Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," said he thinks there may be 25 or 30 candidates running for the seat.

"This is going to be a very active primary," he told Bob Schieffer when asked about Sanford's run. "The citizens of the 1st District will have an opportunity to have their voice heard through the vote and then two weeks later there will obviously be a runoff because with that many candidates we'll have a lot to say grace over."

Mark Sanford knows the 1st District well. Elected to the seat in 1994 ? Jenny Sanford managed his first campaign and was a close adviser for most of his career ? he served three terms before voters elected him governor in 2002.

The former governor would bring name recognition and money to the race ? two things especially important due to the short campaign season and wide-open field.

Whether voters are ready to welcome Sanford back to politics is another issue.

"It's absolutely absurd. He just has so much baggage. He was such an embarrassment to the state, we don't need that," said Gloria Day, a retired attorney in Charleston.

He avoided impeachment but was censured by the Legislature. He also had to pay more than $70,000 in ethics fines ? still the largest in state history ? after AP investigations raised questions about his use of state, private and commercial aircraft.

Others said Sanford's fiscal record is what's important, and Sanford is known as a libertarian-leaning ideologue who railed against spending and bucked Republican Party leaders before anyone even coined the tea party movement.

"Mark Sanford is a reliable fiscal conservative so I, like many conservatives, would be delighted to see him in the race," said Joanne Jones, vice chairman of the Charleston Tea Party, though she noted she'll wait to see the entire field before throwing her support behind a candidate.

Scott will be sworn in Jan. 3 to replace DeMint, who announced his resignation earlier this month to lead The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Scott, who would have to seek election in 2014, will become the state's first black U.S. senator and the first black Republican U.S. senator from the South since Reconstruction.

Candidates for Scott's seat must file by the end of January. Primaries will be held in March, with the general election in May.

State GOP Chairman Chad Connelly said as of Friday, 14 Republicans had expressed interest.

"Gov. Sanford getting in would certainly alter the dynamics. That list would go down significantly," he said.

Sanford has $1.2 million left in his state campaign coffers.

John Dietz of Daniel Island said the affair wouldn't affect his vote.

"He said he found his soul mate, and at one point in my life that's exactly how I felt. I empathized," said Dietz, a retiree who characterizes himself as a moderate.

Dietz said he was disappointed that Sanford could not work with his fellow Republicans in the Legislature.

"I did not necessarily agree with a lot of things he did politically," he said. "I'm very much neutral at this point."

Retired Presbyterian minister Dick Giffen of Mount Pleasant said he wouldn't support Sanford, but added that it was unrelated to the affair.

"He wasn't able to bring people together and get action done," Giffen said. "He didn't produce anything. ... I really wasn't impressed with him."

Longtime Republican activist and donor John Rainey, who convinced Sanford to run for governor after leaving Congress, said Sanford's last six months in office, following his tearful press conference, were his most effective.

Rainey said he hopes Sanford re-enters politics.

"He's finally learned how to do it. Mark now understands the necessity of and art of compromise. It's not my way or the highway," said Rainey, who was chairman of the Board of Economic Advisors during Sanford's tenure.

Sanford's engagement to Chapur may improve his standing with voters.

"Think of all that's happened since 2009. That's old news," said Rainey, rattling off a list of political scandals. "Especially in the South, we're about redemption. I don't think he's got a problem."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-23-Sanford-Congress/id-3eac4935d6c742dc9dc9c1fcb8b9c8a7

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Guide to Establishing Your Business Consulting ... - Blog in Harmony

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Source: http://bloginharmony.eglobalinsight.com/2012/12/23/guide-to-establishing-your-business-consulting-franchise/

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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Obama nominates Kerry for secretary of state

President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as he announces his nomination of Kerry as next secretary of state in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as he announces his nomination of Kerry as next secretary of state in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama enters the Roosevelt Room with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., his choice to be the next Secretary of State, before he makes his announcement at the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., leaves a closed-door briefing on the investigation of the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. An Accountability Review Board report indicates serious bureaucratic mismanagement was responsible for the inadequate security at the mission in Benghazi where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Vice President Joe Biden looks on as President Barack Obama looks to Teresa Heinz Kerry, left, as he announces his nomination of her husband Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., right, as next secretary of state in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, one of Washington's most respected voices on foreign policy, as his next secretary of state.

The move is the first in an expected overhaul of Obama's national security team heading into his second term.

As the nation's top diplomat, Kerry will not only be tasked with executing the president's foreign policy objectives, but will also have a hand in shaping them. The longtime lawmaker has been in lockstep with Obama on issues like nuclear non-proliferation, but ahead of the White House in advocating aggressive policies in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere that the president later embraced.

"He is not going to need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said, standing alongside Kerry in a Roosevelt Room ceremony. "Few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our foreign policies as firmly as John Kerry."

He is expected to win confirmation easily in the Senate, where he has served since 1985, the last six years as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry would take the helm at the State Department from Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has long planned to leave the administration early next year. Clinton is recovering from a concussion sustained in a fall and did not attend the White House event.

In a statement, Clinton said, "John Kerry has been tested ? in war, in government, and in diplomacy. Time and again, he has proven his mettle."

Obama settled on Kerry for the job even though it could cause a political problem for Democrats in Massachusetts. Kerry's move to State would open the Senate seat he has held for five terms, giving Republicans an opportunity to take advantage. Recently defeated GOP Sen. Scott Brown would be his party's clear favorite in a special election.

Kerry would join a national security team in flux, with Obama expected to choose a new defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the coming weeks.

The 69-year-old Kerry already has deep relationships with many world leaders, formed both during his Senate travels and as an unofficial envoy for Obama. The president has called upon Kerry in particular to diffuse diplomatic disputes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that will be at the forefront of Obama's foreign policy agenda early in his second term.

At times, Kerry has been more forward-leaning than Obama on foreign policy issues. He was an early advocate of an international "no-fly zone" over Libya in 2011 and among the first U.S. lawmakers to call for Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak to leave power as pro-democracy protests grew. Obama later backed both positions.

Kerry would take over at a State Department grappling with the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans during a September attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Kerry, during a hearing on the attacks Thursday, hinted at how he would manage U.S. diplomatic personnel working in unstable regions.

"There will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get 'outside the wire' and the security standards that require our diplomats to work behind high walls," he said. "Our challenge is to strike a balance between the necessity of the mission, available resources and tolerance for risk."

His only other rival for the job, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, faced harsh criticism from congressional Republicans for her initial accounting of the consulate attack. Obama vigorously defended Rice, a close friend and longtime adviser, but GOP senators dug in, threatening to hold up her nomination if the president tapped her for the post.

Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week, making Kerry all but certain to become the nominee. People familiar with the White House's decision-making said support within the administration was moving toward Kerry even before Rice pulled out.

The son of a diplomat, Kerry was first elected to the Senate in 1984. He is also a decorated Vietnam veteran who was critical of the war effort when he returned to the U.S. He ran for president in 2004, losing a close race to incumbent Republican President George W. Bush.

Obama and Kerry have developed close ties in recent years. It was Kerry, during his 2004 presidential run, who tapped Obama as the party's convention keynote speaker, a role that thrust the little-known Illinois politician into national prominence.

Kerry served on Obama's debate preparation team during the 2012 election, playing Republican challenger Mitt Romney in mock debates.

"Nothing brings two people closer together than two weeks of debate prep," Obama joked on Friday. "John, I'm looking forward to working with you rather than debating you."

Kerry is Obama's first Cabinet appointee following the November election. The president is also mulling replacements for retiring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former CIA director David Petraeus, who resigned last month after admitting to an affair with his biographer.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is a front-runner for the Pentagon post, but has been dogged by questions about his support for Israel and where he stands on gay rights, with critics calling on him to repudiate a comment in 1998 that a former ambassadorial nominee was "openly, aggressively gay."

Hagel apologized for that comment Friday.

Former Pentagon official Michele Flournoy and current Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter are also under consideration to replace Panetta. Obama is also considering promoting acting CIA Director Michael Morell or naming White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as the nation's spy chief.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata in Washington and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-21-Obama-Cabinet/id-aacd4e23d92d4926ba6d7f92f6ea239e

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i want to be a boxer

i want to be a boxer

imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 39
Joined: Feb 19, 12
??? ?Yesterday, 17:26 ? ? #
i have had dreams of being a boxer since i was like 12. but i'm not sure if i can succeed in Poland. is this a big sport in here?

it can start as amateur, cause now i study but who knows, maybe it'll be the most successful thing for me.

i like fighting (not like violence and being a jerk) for sport and boxing has been my dream, but i don't know how to start this in Poland...Wroclaw ;)

if this helps. i'm 187cm and weigh 86kg :D. good features i guess. but i have no fighting experience, i just have this feeling i can beat anybody,
ever those drug-induced-muscular guys i see in town. haha..joking. but all i'm trying to say is i love this sport and i'm not afraid ;)

any ideas?

?Yesterday, 17:53 ? ? #
This silly african is gonna get himself battered lol.

I wish I was in Poland for a few hours.

imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 39
Joined: Feb 19, 12
??? Edited by: imano ?Yesterday, 18:01 ? ? #
thanks a lot @gumishu ;)
Maybe? Threads: 7
Posts: 351
Joined: Dec 16, 08
??? ?Yesterday, 18:32 ? ? #

imano:

i just have this feeling i can beat anybody
Ah..youth....
?Yesterday, 18:39 ? ? #

imano:

thanks a lot @gumishu ;)

You have the intelligence of a coconut.

imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 39
Joined: Feb 19, 12
??? ?Yesterday, 18:47 ? ? #
it's called "confidence" which some people lack ;). hehe...i'm not afraid ;)...get it?
?Yesterday, 19:28 ? ? #

imano:

but i have no fighting experience

imano:

i just have this feeling i can beat anybody,

imano:

it's called "confidence

Its called stupidity. You are from Ghana, where the average iq is 68.

Figures.

zetigrek? Threads: 65
Posts: 2,947
Joined: May 20, 10
??? Edited by: zetigrek ?Yesterday, 19:35 ? ? #
I heard that one of Klitchko brothers was training in Poland in the 80s I believe.

Edit.
Yup, Witalij, for a year, in 1988 to be exact. But he was training kick boxing back then.

imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 39
Joined: Feb 19, 12
??? ?Yesterday, 19:49 ? ? #
i heard much about that Klitchko guy...he must be really good. a legend, just like we have Azumah in Africa from Ghana. Ali and all the others. they inspire me so much!
zetigrek? Threads: 65
Posts: 2,947
Joined: May 20, 10
??? ?Yesterday, 19:50 ? ? #

imano:

i heard much about that Klitchko guy

Actually there is two of them.

Edited by: The Ratmeister ?Yesterday, 19:51 ? ? #

imano:

hehe...i'm not afraid
then youre gonna get knocked out.

are you going to learn Polish in a month too?

imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 39
Joined: Feb 19, 12
??? ?Yesterday, 19:58 ? ? #
well if i get knocked-out, the most important thing for me is getting back up the day after to continue :))

i know basic polish. general speaking polish is not a problem for me ;)



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Sandy Hook Shooting: Let's Dump the Psychological Doubletalk ...

By: Rev. Bresciani

Out of respect for the little souls who were brutally murdered and their families this piece will make no mention of any of them or their families. Suffice it to say that they have suffered enough. These children and those who tried to protect them, some at the cost of their own lives, have done nothing wrong, but we, as a society have plenty to answer for.

Now, a new kind of suffering is being laid upon them, as media crews from all over the nation and the world will be prying into their lives and forcing them to re-live scenes of horror, sights and sounds, all to extract every gory detail for their exclusives, stories and news items. The competition to tell, that comes from hell, has begun.

It is impossible not to be somewhere between incensed and irate after hearing the rap between Fox?s O?Reilly and some of the so called psychology experts on the night the shooting took place. O?Reilly was entangled with one expert on the semantic difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. Interspersed throughout the dialogue was an exasperated, throw in the towel declaration, voiced repeatedly by O?Reilly who said ?It?s just pure evil, and I guess you just can?t stop it.?

The next day another ?expert? forcefully emphasized that we should not tell those children or any other children that it was evil that caused the killings. He advised that mental illness alone should be used as an explanation.

It is here that we see the so called ?experts? as not only part of the problem, but as a gaggle of buffoons, who should by any means, be ushered off the news set, and told to go home.

The repeated warnings I have made in the last few years along with many others have fallen on deaf ears, but the power of reciprocation is barreling ahead at the speed of judgment. Following a passage that details the sinfulness of the homosexual lifestyle, the Apostle Paul warned that in the last days men would cast off the knowledge of God and they will become increasingly reprobate.

Reprobation is not just what leads to judgment; it is the judgment, anything beyond it, is called destruction.

It is a progressive state of decadence that starts with the inability to discern between right and wrong. When it reaches that level where good and evil are not recognizable, it is in the advanced and most dangerous stage. In its most advanced stages, destruction is all that remains.

Atheists, secularists, educators and the well-educated may think they have everything well under control, but life in America is quickly dispelling that absurdity.

The modernist may think that Christ, his apostles, and todays preachers and messengers are pedaling an old, long since outdated, philosophy of religion that was borne in ignorance, and practiced today only because of their tolerance and something called the First Amendment.

In his time of popularity, in the cities and towns surrounding Jerusalem, Christ healed every kind of malady and disease. He knew full well that some were diseases and others were obviously demonic or satanic intrusions.

?And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.? (Mt 4: 23, 24)

The difference between those who had ?devils? and those who were ?lunatic? was well known to Christ and to those who follow him today, the difference is still very visible. What does this mean? Put simply it means that what happened in Sandy Hook School in Connecticut this past week was pure evil done by a young man who had submitted to it over a long period of time or perhaps all at once in a final demonically inspired act or pure terror.

Like so many bewildered dumbbells? we send out the perennial question of ?why? across the media. What we are asking is why an individual suspended every semblance of decency, right and wrong and ordinary sanity.

We always refuse to accept that, we are collectively the cause of the problem. It is what we have introduced, exposed, built upon and allowed in our society that has spawned a generation of reckless, mindless and evil children who wouldn?t know a moral guide post if they ran into it with a truck.

We have successfully kept God out of the public, the schools and the hearts and minds of our young. We have demanded grades and high levels of competitive behavior with no moral undergirding. More than a generation later we are reaping what we have sown. God forbid that we should collectively own up to spiritually dumbing down our own kids.

God forbid that Hollywood, TV, game producers, the internet or lazy parents would admit that after pumping ever more vivid and graphic violence into our children the great horror movie is now showing in our homes and neighborhoods rather than just being confined to the screen.

Hollywood, TV, game creators and media pimp the satanically inspired message of violence and we reward them with the notoriety and privilege of celebrity, Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globe awards. Collective hypocrisy is created by a society that then hires psychology?s brightest and best to explain away the disasters that ensue all too frequently when the weakest of minds carry out, imitate or re-stage the acts of violence they are bombarded with from day to day.

We love to teach our children to eat right and be healthy. We are what we eat, and we need to grow up strong, these are the mantras of the day. What hypocrisy. Could it be that what we allow, or rather, endlessly pump into the heads and hearts of the same children might make spiritual dwarfs out of them, starving for guidance, for knowledge of what is right and decent.

We make it socially un-acceptable to spank a child, but hand out condoms and contraceptives to the same children. They always get bitten by the same diseases, disappointments and disillusionments, but when it comes time for them to find a different way they are lost. They have not seen it, heard it, or seen it lived. They breakout, act out, and take themselves out for good, but often not without taking others with them.

What follows are the arguments from the experts about who is a sociopath versus who is a psychopath. What ever happened to sin, evil and just lousy behavior? Don?t worry, even smothered under a false heap of politically correct gobbledygook and psychological tripe ? it is doing quite well and thriving in America. Don?t take my word for it; just ask the families and friends of the 16,000 people who were murdered in this nation last year alone. Not to exclude the people who successfully commit suicide in the U.S. at the rate of one every 13 minutes.

We will not accept the truth that according to our own words, the equation we have created works diametrically against us. Any society that promotes gratuitous violence and disregard for life to its own offspring has become a total society of sociopaths. The few who act out the behaviors we have fed to them are the psychopaths. It is an equation and a product of our own making. It is ?reap and sow? in action under modernity?s own terms.

We don?t doubt that if we allow dirt in the gas tank the car will eventually stop or be gradually made useless. We don?t dump toxic waste in our gardens and expect a crop of tulips. But with our children, we allow them to be filled with extreme violence in horror shows, CSI type shows, sudden death electronic games, movies, literature and everyday bullying in most of today?s public schools. When one of them acts out violently against others we call in the experts, ask why, and the cycle starts all over again.

Next, along comes the armies of liberals, dilettante democrats and one world of peace and harmony advocates with their heads in the clouds who decry guns; any kind of guns owned by any kind of people.

It never occurs to them that entire generations of Americans grew up with guns around the house and no one brought them to school to create a massacre. Instead of making guns illegal they might want to make not having trigger locks, impenetrable gun cabinets and other safeguards in place illegal for those with children at home.

While we are locking up our guns we might want to lock up the Hollywood quacks that show our children mass slaughter with guns and glorify and glamorize it from one movie to the next in a continual stream of violent full color, action filled gratuitous gunplay. What problem can?t be solved with a simple pull of the trigger?

Society, a Godless society, has become far more dangerous than the guns they own.

As stated, I will not use the deaths of the innocents in Connecticut to make my case because they are symptomatic of a greater problem. The horror, the deep grief, the heartache and loss the parents in Connecticut are feeling is almost impossible to imagine, and for them, it is equally impossible to bear.

Whether you believe in God or not makes no difference at this juncture. But if you have any inkling that he exists or if you have ever doubted that the creator sees all that we say and do. If you have ever heard, or read, that Jesus Christ has said that God the Father knows the number of the hairs on your head; (Mt 10: 30) then consider this ? God goes through the equivalent of the Connecticut shooting 200 times over, every single day as 4,000 unborn human beings are destroyed and dumped in waste boxes each day in these United States.

The one who created the hearts of men ? that physiological, mental and spiritual center of each and every human being, also has a heart. His heart is breaking at the loss of every single unwanted and brutally discarded human being we waste in the name of personal selfishness, Roe v. Wade or any other flimsy construct we devise to hide behind.

The frosting on this cake is watching a President who sanctions the death of 4,000 unborn babies every day, shedding a tear for twenty precious innocents in Sandy Hook. This sort of hypocrisy is insulting to their memory and the wasted potential of their lives. Every tiny human being deserves our love and protection, regardless of just how ?tiny? they may be.

Be it Sandy Hook or Roe v. Wade ? is deciding that some human beings will not be allowed to take their first breath ? any less horrid than deciding which ones should take their last?
Dare we admit that from our President to the millions of pro-abortion advocates in America, we have created 65 million Sandy Hook massacres all in the name of someone else having a better life? By simply inverting the meaning of ?Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,? (Jn 15: 13) the rendering would be ?Lesser love hath no man than this, that he give up the life of another for himself??

Is the 40 years of unbridled abortion actually somehow cosmically or universally linked to the Sandy Hook massacre? Don?t dare to think they are not.

We are screaming out our disregard for human life, but refuse to admit that our children are listening to the sound of our behaviors. Their penchant for death and disregard for life has grown exponentially during the last two decades and we call upon the ?experts? to explain it all away. Their politically correct admonishments become the harking of fools, clouds with no rain and certainly, they are no balm in Gilead. (Jer 8: 22)

We never admit that Godlessness is failure; our criterion for success, is itself ? a sad failure. Our ?winners? are racing headlong to a generational dead end that can only be averted by a sudden full stop and a return to the God of our founders, fathers and faithful messengers of the gospel. Yes, the ?religious? word that describes this action is still called ? repentance.

The call has gone out in a hundred ways across our nation and the globe. The next move is ours to make. God has fairly warned that his chosen voices will one day have to make the call. We will all be called upon to show our hand and give up the goods. You will either be on one side or the other, whether you choose to be or not.

The reprobation that surges across the globe in the last days does not keep those who cannot recognize evil, from being its victims. The Apostle John in the last book and the last chapter of the Bible describes the last day?s people of our world. It is a take it or leave it message, and is perhaps the saddest proclamation in the entirety of scripture, to wit:

?He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.? (Rev 22: 11)

We assign the God of creation to the realm of mythology and in the process dismiss the god of this world, Satan or the, arch deceiver, as part of the myth. What a victory for evil. We promote the violence, greed, disregard for life and every form of perversion and then we engage psychological terms to explain away the ever encroaching product of that evil. The grandest deception of all has been laid on this generation. The evil we cannot, or will not identify ? has become our cruel, heartless and un-loving master.

Jesus spoke a parable (Mt 13: 24f) of a wheat farmer who planted in his field, when he slept an enemy came and planted tares (worthless weeds) in his field. He wanted to rip out the tares, but was told to leave them, lest he destroy his wheat in the process. We are a nation of wheat farmers who arise to see the weeds, but show no concern except to offer a debate on whether the enemy that sewed the tares was evil or mentally impaired a sociopath or a psychopath.

Those of us, who have extensively studied the prophetic teachings of scripture, are fully convinced that Solomon, the wisest of men, was referring to this generation when he said:

?There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.? (Prov 30: 12)

About The Author Rev. Bresciani:
http://www.americanprophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.

Source: http://www.thelandofthefree.net/conservativeopinion/2012/12/22/sandy-hook-shooting-lets-dump-the-psychological-doubletalk/

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Times Square Official Ball app updated to ring in 2013

Times Square Ball app

The official Times Square Ball app has just been updated to help you count down to 2013. Not everyone has a chance to be in Times Square for the new year, but at least with this app everyone can (assuming device compatibility) get part of the experience. It's not the smoothest or flashiest thing ever, but the app serves its purpose. You get a nice countdown to the new year, a livestream viewer of Times Square (you can watch the 2012 party currently) and you can even upload a photo to be shown on the big screen if you're lucky.

Sound interesting? You can grab a download for free at the Play Store link above. It probably doesn't do you much good over 10 days out from the party, but you'll have it installed and ready to go for New Years Eve. 



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/WunMK_BQTPo/story01.htm

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Republicans put squeeze on Obama in "fiscal cliff" talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustrated by their inability to wring more "fiscal cliff" concessions out of President Barack Obama, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced Tuesday night that they expect to pass their own tax bill as a backup plan to avert the tax hikes and automatic budget cuts set to occur in January.

No one expects the bill, which would extend low tax rates except on income of $1 million and above, to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Barack Obama's latest position puts the threshold for income tax hikes at $400,000.

While the move, called "Plan B" by Republicans, may not prompt Obama to give further ground in his negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner, it could allow Republicans to argue they did what they could to stop tax hikes and the full impact of the "fiscal cliff," which the Congressional Budget Office and economists have said could trigger another recession.

"Why not put on the floor something that's what most Americans think the president is talking about, which is protecting from tax increases everybody but truly millionaires and billionaires?," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio.

When it dies in the Senate, he said, "that's not our problem. We can't be held responsible for what the Senate does."

Polls have consistently suggested that the public is likely to blame Republicans for failure to reach a deal ahead of the December 31 deadline for action.

After important concessions in recent days from both Obama and Boehner, Republicans expressed frustration that the president had not moved further.

The White House seemed unconcerned by the Republican tactic, and stressed Obama's willingness to compromise further.

"The president has demonstrated an obvious willingness to compromise and move more than halfway toward the Republicans," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, adding that Obama is making a "good faith" effort to reach a compromise.

Still, the mood on Capitol Hill was guardedly optimistic.

Global stocks advanced to their highest levels since September. Investors shifted funds to stocks and the euro and pulled away from safe-harbor assets such as bonds, gold and the U.S. dollar.

"They've still got a long way to go, but you can't help but say that the odds are better today than they were on Friday that we'll get some sort of agreement," said Oklahoma Republican Representative Tom Cole.

Hopes of an accord rose Monday night after Obama made a concession with his offer to limit tax increases to incomes exceeding $400,000 per household. That is a higher threshold than the $250,000 that the president had sought earlier.

Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, had earlier conceded on Obama's insistence that tax rates rise on the wealthiest Americans, but the two have been unable to agree on what income levels should be included in that category.

Analysts said Obama and Boehner may strike a compromise at $500,000 or close to that, though time was running short.

One House Republican aide, asked about prospects for "Plan B" on the House floor, said: "It wouldn't be surprising ... if a lot of conservatives balk at something like that." The House's second ranking Republican, Eric Cantor, said he was confident his party members in the House would back the bill.

'WE CAN DO BETTER'

Even as he presented the measure, Boehner said he would continue to negotiate with Obama on a broader agreement.

"Plan B is Plan B for a reason. It's a less-than-ideal outcome. I've always believed we can do better," Boehner said.

The expiration of low tax rates enacted under former President George W. Bush is a key component of the "fiscal cliff" that lawmakers are trying to prevent from taking hold next month, along with deep automatic government spending cuts.

Often challenged by the conservative wing of his caucus, Boehner held Republican lawmakers together in support of his efforts to forge a deal with Obama. The speaker emerged largely unscathed from a potentially tough meeting with his fellow House Republicans on Tuesday morning.

Representative Darrell Issa, a key committee chairman, said his fellow House Republicans "were supportive of the speaker. ... I saw no one there get up and say, 'I can't support the speaker.'"

With opinion polls showing broad support in the United States for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and Obama still buoyed by his re-election last month, the Republicans' traditional opposition to tax hikes has waned somewhat.

The Obama-Boehner talks have largely overcome stark ideological differences and are focused increasingly on narrower disagreements over numbers.

COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES

Obama also may face unrest from within his party. Liberal Democrats were likely to oppose a key compromise he has offered to permit shrinking cost-of-living increases for all but the most vulnerable beneficiaries of the Social Security retirement program. His proposal calls for using a different formula, known as "chained Consumer Price Index," to determine the regular cost-of-living increases, essentially reducing benefits.

"I am committed to standing against any benefit cuts to programs Americans rely on, and tying Social Security benefits to chained CPI is a benefit cut," Democratic Representative Keith Ellison said in a statement.

Obama also moved closer to Boehner on the proportion of a 10-year deficit reduction package that should come from increased revenue, as opposed to cuts in government spending. Obama is now willing to accept a revenue figure of $1.2 trillion, down from his previous $1.4 trillion proposal.

Boehner's latest proposal calls for $1 trillion in new tax revenue from higher tax rates and the curbing of some tax deductions taken by high-income Americans.

Missing from Obama's latest offer was any extension of the so-called "payroll tax holiday" that ends on January 1, bringing an immediate tax increase on wage earners.

Possible plans to produce cuts in spending for Medicare and Medicaid, the government health insurance programs for seniors and low-income Americans respectively, remained to be discussed.

Boehner and Obama have made headway on the politically explosive question of the president's ability to avoid constant battles over raising the nation's debt ceiling, which controls the level of borrowing by the government. Boehner is ready to give Obama a year of relative immunity from conservative strife over the debt ceiling, while Obama is pushing for two years.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Rachelle Younglai, David Lawder, Richard Cowan, Matt Spetalnick, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason and Fred Barbash; Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Alistair Bell, Will Dunham and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-put-squeeze-obama-fiscal-cliff-talks-024431820--business.html

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10 Tumblr Account Filmmaking Related You Might Want to Follow

Tumblr logo - www.mentorless.com

Tumblr has been a growing?platform? not only for teenagers to post elaborated gifs but also for the filmmaking community to reach out to a wider audience.

As you will see below, it is becoming common for established entities (Sundance, The Academy) and influent websites (Kickstarter, Entertainment Weekly) to open tumblr accounts to post a different type of content.

For this second edition of ?Tumblrs-I-strongly-recommend?I have selected 10 accounts that I check on a very regular basis and give me access to a content I find nowhere else and enjoy as a filmmaker.

Hopefully you will enjoy them too:

Cinephilia & Beyond Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

Cinephilia & Beyond

Probably the best tumblr, filmmaking-wise. C&B posts on a daily basis archives of interviews, articles, videos etc. from iconic filmmakers, cinematographers etc. It is linked to @LaFamiliaFilm twitter account, that already has 12k ++ followers and counting. If there is one account to follow, this should be it.

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Mouvement Beta Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

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Mouvement Beta

Mouvement Beta has been around for a while now, and has made it on this site several times. Curated by a French fellow cinephile (yay), it shares about everything and anything related to films and tv shows. From infographics to shorts to gifs to behind the scenes. You name it.

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Kickstarter Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

Kickstarter

Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website that has been one of the biggest game-changer in our community, shares tips, info?and inspiring anecdotes about campaigns. Hard to ignore.

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Story Shots Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

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Story Shots

How not to have Emma Coats Tumblr? Impossible, I agree. Coats is not only generous on her twitter account,?she also shares great content on her Tumblr account from external sources or her personal journey as a former-Pixar employe to an independent storyteller. She takes time to answer questions, which is big plus.

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Fuck Yeah Behind The Scene Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

Fuck Yeah Behind the Scenes

I believe the title is pretty self-explanatory, and that?s exactly what you?ll get: pictures from movies behind the scene with an anecdote that will often make you say ?haaa, really??. Their motto: ?sometimes it?s what we don?t see that?s important.? Agreed.

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PBS Arts Tumblr - www,mentorless.com

PBS Arts

Granted, this tumblr account is not ?filmmakers-only? orientated, but PBS Arts has proven to be an inspiring source of content, with videos about many subjects that touch and should concern any indie storytellers (and artists). Proof is, two of their videos were shared her, How Colors Affect and Inspire Us and How Se7en, Mad Men and Blue Valentines Credits Were Thought and Designed.?

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Student Academy Awards Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

Student Academy Awards

The Student Academy Awards is not a Tumblr Account that is updated regularly (last post was in June, after the student awards ceremony) but it does one thing: it lets you know who are the filmmakers and producers to follow closely. Winning an Academy Award is not a small thing, even if there is?Student in front of it, and knowing who are the winners is like knowing who are the writers who made it onto the Black List or won the Nicholl Fellowship. It doesn?t hurt.

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1stAssistantDirector Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

1st Assistant Directors

In the vein of the ?When? + illustrated gif? the 1st Assistant Directors tumblr account takes you on the emotional journey of (wait for it) a 1st A.D. Crazy isn?t it? It?s a funny account to follow, that shows the ?behind-the-scenes? in an entertaining way but also tells you a lot about what it is to be an A.D.

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Sundance Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

Sundance Archives

Like the Student Academy Awards account, the Sundance Archives gets really active around the Sundance season. It is a good way to remember whose life has been changed by the iconic Festival and to be reminded of films that deserve our attention and might have slip through the cracks until now.

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Entertainment Weekly Tumblr - www.mentorless.com

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Entertainment Weekly

Last but not least, if you?re a TV buff (like me), you might want to follow Entertainment Weekly. Granted it is not academic content level, but it gives you a good idea of what is ?hot? and keeps you in the loop. For the digging, you have the rest of the Internet (and here of course!)

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What tumblr accounts do you follow for filmmaking content?

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Source: http://www.mentorless.com/2012/12/19/10-tumblr-account-filmmaking-related-you-might-want-to-follow/

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Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report: Japan signals ...

Japanese Pension Funds With $3.4 Trillion In Assets Seek Safety In Gold

Today?s AM fix was USD 1,699.50, EUR 1,289.26 and GBP 1,048.10 per ounce.
Yesterday?s AM fix was USD 1,690.00, EUR 1,285.27 and GBP 1,043.21 per ounce.

Precious metals crept higher yesterday and closed with very slight gains for both gold and silver.?

Gold closed up 0.22% or $3.80 to $1698.00. Silver closed with a marginal gain of 0.12% - up 4 cents to $32.21/oz.

Prices crept gradually higher in Asian trading prior to some retrenchment in early European trading.

U.K. inflation held at the highest since May in November as higher food, electricity and gas costs kept consumer-price growth above the Bank of England?s target.

The fastest price rises were seen in the cost of fruit, bread and cereals, as well as in energy bills, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Inflation is now expected by many investors and economists to creep up further next year as further increases in electricity and gas prices take effect.

Many traders are on the sideline as trading slows down prior to Christmas. The focus remains on U.S. lawmakers attempts to cobble together a deal to avert the 'fiscal cliff'. There is optimism that a deal can be done to avert fiscal disaster.

While this may be the case in the short term - another short term political panacea which fails to address the very poor deep rooted structural fiscal challenges may lead to an even greater fiscal disaster in the course of President Obama's second term.

The fundamentals which have led to another annual gain in 2012 (8% in dollar terms) remain in place.

Ultra loose monetary policies from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and other central banks will provide support, as currency debasement and rising inflation leads to continuing demand for bullion.

These fundamentals are leading to broad based global demand for gold - from retail investors to institutions and pension funds. Japanese pension funds are increasingly looking at gold according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning.

Diversification into gold is taking place in order to protect against sovereign risk, debasement of currency risk and inflation risk.

In March 2012, Okayama Metal & Machinery became the first Japanese pension fund to make public purchases of gold, in a sign of dwindling faith in paper currencies. Okayama manages pension funds for about 260 small and mid-sized companies in the Okayama area.

"By diversifying currencies, we aim to reduce risks associated with them," said Yoshi Kiguchi, the fund's chief investment officer. "Yields become stable if you put small amounts into as many types of holdings as possible."

Of its 40 billion yen ($477 million) in assets, the fund has invested around ?500 million-?600 million in gold, he said.

Initially, the fund aims to keep about 1.5% of its total assets of Y40bn ($500m) in bullion-backed exchange traded funds, according to chief investment officer Yoshisuke Kiguchi, who said he was diversifying into gold to ?escape sovereign risk?.

Other pension funds in Japan are following their lead according to the Wall Street Journal.

Japanese pension funds are diversifying into gold "largely to mitigate the damage from possible market shocks".

Japanese pension funds invest mainly in domestic stocks and bonds. Until recently, none have looked to gold or other physical assets.

For example, Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, the world's largest public pension, held 64% of its assets in domestic bonds, 11% in domestic stocks, 9.0% in international bonds, and 12% in international stocks, as of end-September. The remainder were in short-term assets.

This strategy has produced meager returns at a time when bonds offer historically low yields and the stock market has stagnated.

Worse yet, when crises have roiled the markets, big funds such as the GPIF have seen red. The GPIF lost 7.6% in the 2008 fiscal year, when the global financial crisis struck, and a less-painful 0.3% in the 2010 fiscal year, when the euro-zone debt crisis spooked markets.

Gold, whose price movement isn't historically correlated with those of stocks or bonds, can protect portfolios from being damaged too badly in times of market stress, investment managers say. Low interest rates also justify holding non-yielding gold in place of cash.

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation said it has secured more than Y2 billion in investments from two pension funds for a gold fund it started in March.

Gold is also used as a hedge against inflation, which is becoming a bigger concern as global central banks buy ever-more bonds, market watchers say.

The Bank of Japan has increased its purchases of Japanese government debt from the market and is under political pressure to do more. Shinzo Abe, Japan's next prime minister, has said he wants the central bank to employ "unlimited easing measures" to achieve a 2% inflation target.

"Responding to inflation is becoming one issue," said Hiroaki Nakaoka, sales manager for SPDR ETF Japan at State Street Global Advisors (Japan) Co.

Higher inflation could drive up interest rates and erode the value of the Japanese government bonds in which pension funds have invested most of their money.

In some ways, Japanese pension funds are merely tracking a trend that has already been seen in other developed markets, industry watchers say. Gold's potential to offset inflation-linked losses has already prompted some U.S. and European pension funds to buy small volumes. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas pension trust fund, for example, held $235 million of SPDR Gold Shares GLD +0.19% out of its total investment net value of $111.1 billion, as of end-August.

The emergence of gold exchange-traded funds has enabled pension funds to invest in gold without holding the physical product. Some funds restrict themselves from investing in physical assets. The first ETF backed by actual gold was introduced in Japan in June 2008.

ETFs "opened the door" to investment in gold, said Tetsu Emori, chief fund manager at Astmax Investment Management Inc., which manages ?70 billion in assets. Roughly 60% of its portfolio is invested in commodities, with gold accounting for the largest portion.

In March 2011, Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. started incorporating gold in a package product for pension funds that invests in various assets, including gold ETFs. Gold accounts for about 3% of the package. The product has attracted ?180 billion in investment from about 200 pension funds.

The vast majority of pension funds continue to shy away from gold, an investment that offers no yield and, in the case of physical gold, actually costs money to store.

But the potential for market turmoil and expectations of inflation could change that, industry experts say.

The global pension market is of a huge scale - with the Japanese pension market alone worth some $3.4 trillion.?

Even a small allocation by pension funds internationally to gold would result in a significant new source of demand which could be a new fundamental factor which propels prices higher in the coming years.

NEWS

COMMENTARY

For breaking news and commentary on financial markets and gold, follow us on?Twitter. end?



The Queen: on seeing the gold bars at the Bank of England:

"Regrettably not all of them belong to us"



(courtesy GATA/Wall Street Journal)



?Section:?Daily Dispatches

10:27a ET Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Becoming today the first British monarch to attend a Cabinet meeting since George III in 1781, Queen Elizabeth remarked on her visit last week to the Bank of England's gold vault, which was greatly publicized in the United Kingdom. (See?http://www.gata.org/node/12030.)

In a receiving line at 10 Downing St., addressing the chancellor of the exchequer, the UK treasury secretary, George Osborne, the queen said, "I saw all the gold bars. Regrettably not all of them belong to us."

Osborne replied that Britain still has some gold left, and apparently that was that -- nothing about swaps and leases and the purposes thereof, particularly secret currency market intervention to sustain the Anglo-American financial establishment that is bankrupting much of the Western world. (Seehttp://www.gata.org/node/12016.)
If any of our British friends happen to run into the queen -- and she?does?get around, being the most conscientious and selfless public servant in Britain -- they might let her know that GATA would be delighted to make a presentation to her about what her chancellor apparently won't tell her about her kingdom's gold and its former gold.

Of course under one of the basic U.K. laws -- is it the Act of Irrelevance? -- the sovereign and her immediate family are forbidden to do much more than serve as fodder for celebrity programs on television and the celebrity columns in the newspapers. But since there are no serious financial journalists anymore, one has to start somewhere, and if the queen could just keep talking about gold, maybe the issue eventually could break into "Inside Edition," "Entertainment Tonight," and People magazine if not "60 Minutes," "Panorama," and The Wall Street Journal.

The Telegraph's story about the queen's visit to the Cabinet meeting, posted at the link below, contains a 1-minute, 53-second video of the event, with the queen's exchange with the chancellor about gold coming at the 1-minute mark:

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

The Wall Street Journal report of Japanese pension funds seeking the safety of gold:

(courtesy Wall Street Journal/GATA)

?Section:?Daily Dispatches

By Kosaku Narioka
The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, December 18, 2012

TOKYO -- A small number of pension funds in Japan have started to invest in gold for the first time, largely to mitigate the damage from possible market shocks.

Japanese pension funds invest mainly in domestic stocks and bonds. Until recently none have looked to gold or other physical assets.

For example, Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, the world's largest public pension, held 64% of its assets in domestic bonds, 11% in domestic stocks, 9.0% in international bonds, and 12% in international stocks, as of end-September. The remainder were in short-term assets.

This strategy has produced meager returns at a time when bonds offer historically low yields and the stock market has stagnated.

Worse yet, when crises have roiled the markets, big funds such as the GPIF have seen red. The GPIF lost 7.6% in the 2008 fiscal year, when the global financial crisis struck, and a less-painful 0.3% in the 2010 fiscal year, when the euro-zone debt crisis spooked markets.

Gold, whose price movement isn't historically correlated with those of stocks or bonds, can protect portfolios from being damaged too badly in times of market stress, investment managers say. Low interest rates also justify holding non-yielding gold in place of cash.

Among those moving into gold is Okayama Metal & Machinery Pension Fund, which manages pension funds for about 260 small and mid-sized companies in the Okayama area. It started buying gold in March.

"By diversifying currencies, we aim to reduce risks associated with them," said Yoshi Kiguchi, the fund's chief investment officer. "Yields become stable if you put small amounts into as many types of holdings as possible."

Of its 40 billion yen ($477 million) in assets, the fund has invested around Y500 million-Y600 million in gold, he said.

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp. said it has secured more than Y2 billion in investments from two pension funds for a gold fund it started in March.

Gold is also used as a hedge against inflation, which is becoming a bigger concern as global central banks buy ever-more bonds, market watchers say.

The Bank of Japan has increased its purchases of Japanese government debt from the market and is under political pressure to do more. Shinzo Abe, Japan's next prime minister, has said he wants the central bank to employ "unlimited easing measures" to achieve a 2% inflation target.

"Responding to inflation is becoming one issue," said Hiroaki Nakaoka, sales manager for SPDR ETF Japan at State Street Global Advisors (Japan) Co.

Higher inflation could drive up interest rates and erode the value of the Japanese government bonds in which pension funds have invested most of their money.

In some ways Japanese pension funds are merely tracking a trend that has already been seen in other developed markets, industry watchers say. Gold's potential to offset inflation-linked losses has already prompted some U.S. and European pension funds to buy small volumes. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas pension trust fund, for example, held $235 million of SPDR Gold Shares GLD -- 1.01% out of its total investment net value of $111.1 billion, as of end-August.

Partly because it is seen as a hedge against inflation, the price of gold has more than doubled since the end of 2007, rising 103% to $1,695.75 an ounce Monday, according to the daily London fixing price.

The emergence of gold exchange-traded funds has enabled pension funds to invest in gold without holding the physical product. Some funds restrict themselves from investing in physical assets. The first ETF backed by actual gold was introduced in Japan in June 2008.

ETFs "opened the door" to investment in gold, said Tetsu Emori, chief fund manager at Astmax Investment Management Inc., which manages ?70 billion in assets. Roughly 60% of its portfolio is invested in commodities, with gold accounting for the largest portion.

In March 2011, Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. started incorporating gold in a package product for pension funds that invests in various assets, including gold ETFs. Gold accounts for about 3% of the package. The product has attracted ?180 billion in investment from about 200 pension funds.

The vast majority of pension funds continue to shy away from gold, an investment that offers no yield and, in the case of physical gold, actually costs money to store.

But the potential for market turmoil and expectations of inflation could change that, industry experts say.


end

What!!!! Kitco??? worried about gold market manipulation? ?It can't be so....

(courtesy GATA)

?Section:?Daily Dispatches

2:50p ET Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The afternoon metals market roundup by Jim Wyckoff at Kitco News takes note of growing suspicion of manipulation in the gold market. Wyckoff writes:

"Tuesday's major selloff in the gold market, amid no major, fresh fundamental news to move prices so sharply, once again has many market watchers scratching their heads. The past few weeks have seen similar unexpected, and seemingly inexplicable quick downside price moves in gold and silver. Many traders and investors are wondering (and many are frustrated) regarding the role of 'manipulators' in the gold and silver markets.

"Watching, trading, and analyzing the markets on a full-time basis for more than a quarter century, there is no doubt in my mind that bigger players in the market place can and do manipulate markets -- on a short-term basis. The big boys like to catch the market in thin, low-volume conditions so they can have as big of a desired price impact as possible when they execute their bigger trades. Such activity is not exclusive to the gold and silver markets. It happens in nearly all traded markets -- and it is nothing new.

"What is important to remember is that no individual trader or individual firm can control (manipulate) a market's price for very long. Even the major central banks of the world have tried manipulation in the currency markets (central bank intervention to the tune of billions in currency) with only marginal initial success and not a lasting impact.

"Regarding any longer-term conspiracy to manipulate the price of gold or silver (lower), I cannot say for sure if that is the case or not because I have never had the time to completely research the matter. However, I do know that by looking at the longer-term monthly chart for gold I see that prices are in a solid 11-year-old uptrend and that gold has been one of the best upside market performers of any asset class for the past 11 years. If some big outfit has been trying to manipulate gold to the downside, it has not worked very well for them the past 11 years."

Of course GATA long has addressed the "controlled retreat" of central banks in the gold market and we're not going to belabor it today, but the documentation of central bank intervention in the market remains available to Wyckoff and anyone else who wants to make the time to visit our documentation archive here:

Of special interest recently are two confidential reports by the International Monetary Fund dated 1999 and disclosed by GATA this month.

The first is a survey by the IMF about central bank gold leasing, which concluded that about 15 percent of official gold reserves were on loan in 1999. The amount now is almost certainly much higher. That report is here:

The second is a report to the IMF's Executive Board about transparency in central bank accounting, which discloses that Western central banks objected to reporting their gold loans and swaps because doing so would impair their secret intervention in the currency markets:

Imagine if a Kitco News reporter ever tried to interview central banks about these reports and to interrogate them about their activities in the gold market.

But for the time being we'll have to settle for Wyckoff's musing, headlined "P.M. Kitco Metals Roundup: Gold Down Sharply, at 3.5-Month Low, on Technical Selling, Stops Hit; Manipulation Discussed" and posted at Kitco here:

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

A detailed look at the role of silver for China.

(Michele Smith/silver investing news)

The structure of the silver industry in China is almost unrecognizable from the situation 20 years ago, a new?reportfrom?Thomson Reuters GFMS states. In 1990, China was a relatively small player in silver. Now, the nation is responsible for 17 percent of global demand and produces 14 percent of the world?s silver. GFMS? latest research reveals that China?s expanding role in the silver market has been driven by the liberalization of its silver industry and over a decade of economic growth. After the revolution in 1949,?gold?and silver mining did not feature in the People?s Republic?s economic planning, GFMS explains. Investment in the industry was limited and private trading and personal ownership of the metals was forbidden. Get the latest Silver Investing News articles delivered to your email inbox.?Learn more

China?s low level of silver production in the early 1980s raised concerns among State Council members, who decided that local production needed to expand in order to support industrialization and move the country toward self-sufficiency.

In 1983, regulations that covered the various aspects of the silver and gold industries, from production to export, were rolled out. The People?s Bank of China (PBOC) was granted monopolistic authority to set prices and buy and sell silver.

That initiated the rise of China?s silver production, which resulted in China becoming a surplus producer by the end of the 1980s. Production surpluses continued in the 1990s, and by 1997, the PBOC realized state stocks were more than sufficient for China?s fabrication needs.

Authorities eventually came to see silver as a metal with which to test deregulation. Exploratory sales from state stocks began in 1998. In 2000, an official trading platform was designated and China?s monopoly on silver ended.

China?s silver supply

China is now the third-largest producer of silver after Peru and Mexico.

GFMS estimates that from 1998 to 2006, government stock sales totaled almost 350 million ounces (m/oz), more than 4 percent of global silver supply during that period. However, the firm confidently assumes that the PBOC has stopped selling silver as its stock levels are no longer ?excessive.? Its remaining silver will play a role in diversifying China?s reserve portfolio away from US dollars, the firm notes.

Still, total supply has grown from 94.2 m/oz?in 2002 to 281.5 m/oz?in 2011, the firm reports.

This growth was largely the result of China?s decade-long GDP growth, which drove industrial development by averaging 10 percent annually. Rising commodity prices also accelerated exploration and development.

Mine production more than doubled during this time, increasing from 52.9 m/oz?in 2002 to 104.6 m/oz in 2011. That growth is incidental as it was mostly due to China?s need to supply fabricators with base metals, GFMS explains. The volume of primary silver production in China is limited. 95 percent of its domestically mined silver originates as a by-product, mostly from?lead-zinc?deposits.

Despite this rapid supply growth, China experienced its first silver market deficit in 2002; that deficit grew to 23 m/oz in 2011. This gap has been filled in large part by hefty increases of imported base metal concentrates.

According to GFMS, since 2007, the largest source of silver supply in China has been base metals containing silver. Supply from that source increased from a mere 20.4 m/oz in 2002 to a peak of 150.3 m/oz in 2008.

China?s silver demand

GFMS states that China?s fabrication demand has grown about 12 percent per year from 2000 to 2011, representing a rise in offtake from 48.7 m/oz to 159.5 m/oz.

That is in stark contrast to the rest of the world, where fabrication demand has posted a double-digit fall over the same period, the report notes.

If China?s fabrication demand is viewed in segments, industrial demand is the largest slice. Within that segment, electrical and electronic applications represent the largest slice. Over the past decade, China has also become the world?s largest silver jewelry fabricator.

Growth in China?s investment demand is another notable development. With the liberalization of the market, Chinese investors? participation has grown, elevating the nation from being ?a marginal player just a few years ago ? [to] the world?s leading market for both physical investment and paper trading? today.

An explosion in local precious metals purchases has been driven by macroeconomic conditions in China and abroad, states GFMS. For example, the firm explains that Chinese households have a great deal of cash savings that need to find a home. Yet the property market has been volatile and is now more heavily regulated, the stock market has seen heavy losses and interest rates on savings are close to zero in real terms.

Investment has traditionally been dominated by coins as silver bars were only made available in mid-2009. Last year, China accounted for 8 percent of global net purchases of these products.

Interest has also grown in silver contracts. The launch of silver contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) in May means that three exchanges now offer silver paper trading. GFMS notes that the SHFE has become an important commodity exchange for silver futures trading on a global basis, ranked only after the COMEX.

China silver outlook

As long as the outlook for economic growth in China remains positive, the nation is expected to continue playing a major role in the silver market.

Its use and production of base metals are slated for growth, which should result in an increase of by-product silver supply. GFMS also forecasts strong increases in production from primary sources as new projects are realized.

Growth in paper trading could be dramatic, the firm states. Further growth in coin and bar demand in upcoming years is expected as people place their trust in precious metals as a store of value and inflation hedge, notes the firm.

Urbanization and rising incomes also paint a bright picture for silver in China. As GFMS points out, the urban population only exceeded 50 percent in China for the first time last year. That compares to 80 percent in the countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and presents a bullish case for demand growth for silver-bearing products.

end



OK!!! Let's get the crooks into ?the copper game and relieve a little pressure on the gold/silver front:


(courtesy GATA/London Financial times)

?Section:?Daily Dispatches

SEC Approves JPMorgan Copper ETF

By Emiko Terazono
Financial Times, London
Monday, December 17, 2012

A JPMorgan-backed investment vehicle that aims to track the price of copper has won the approval of US regulators in spite of strong opposition from users of the metal and senior politicians.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday approved the exchange traded fund, which is backed by physical buying of copper, opening the door to easy investment in the metal. The regulator's approval comes despite opposition from Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate subcommittee on investigations, on the grounds that the proposed products "would allow speculators to create a squeeze on the market."

Senator Levin said that the SEC's approval of the ETF was "a blow to American businesses and consumers" and that it would "increase copper prices and volatility, and undermine market efforts to produce prices in response to supply and demand by copper users."

The SEC said it did not see the products disrupting the supply of copper available for immediate delivery and gave the go-ahead to NYSE Arca, the exchange, to list the JPMorgan ETF. NYSE has a separate request to list a rival BlackRock iShares copper ETF, which is now likely to go ahead too.

Leading US copper users have argued that the ETF would even "wreak havoc" on the global economy, given the metal's use in electrical wiring, which makes it essential to the manufacturing industry.

Companies such as Southwire, Encore Wire, Luvata, and AmRod as well as trading house Red Kite said the launch of the products would result in a "substantial artificially induced rise in near-term copper prices."

JPMorgan said it could not comment until the launch of the copper ETF, but in a previous submission to the SEC the bank had countered that the product would not consume metal but would merely hold it.

If and when the metal is needed by real consumers, the investors can sell their shares in the ETF and the copper will be available to the market within days.

Its regulatory filings suggest JPMorgan's ETF could hold 61,800 tonnes -- the equivalent to 27 per cent of the copper held in the London Metal Exchange's global network of warehouses.

The regulator said it believed the physical copper ETF would "provide another way for market participants and investors to trade in copper" and could enhance competition among exchanges.

The SEC added that the new copper ETFs would "provide investors another investment alternative, which could enhance a well-diversified portfolio" and "could increase competition among financial products and the efficiency of financial investment."

Source: http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2012/12/japan-signals-purchase-of-massive.html

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