Fiscal cliff talks stall. Middle class tax bill won't help.

Fiscal cliff talks are at an impasse, and there has been talk that House Republicans will pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act approved by the Senate last summer. It's a problematic and ineffective idea.?

By Howard Gleckman,?Guest blogger / December 15, 2012

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., accompanied by fellow Senate Democratic leaders, pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012, to discuss the stalled fiscal cliff negotiations and other unfinished business in the Senate. There's talk that House Republicans will pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act in the wake of stalled fiscal cliff negotiations, but Gleckman argues that it wouldn't be much help to middle class taxpayers in the long run.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File

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With fiscal cliff talks seemingly stalled , there has been growing talk that House Republicans would call President Obama?s bluff and simply pass the Middle-class Tax Cut Act approved by the Senate last summer. But for all the chatter, nobody has paid much attention to what is, and is not, in that bill.

Skip to next paragraph Howard Gleckman

Howard Gleckman is a resident fellow at The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, the author of Caring for Our Parents, and former senior correspondent in the Washington bureau of Business Week. (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org)

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They should, because a close look at the details suggests this option may not be quite so attractive to the GOP, or to anyone else who thinks seriously about tax policy.?Granted, it may be politically tempting.?In the words of fellow blogger Keith Hennessey (who has?great connections with GOP insiders), such a step would be ?terrible but not inconceivable.?

The bill extends for one year several provisions of the 2001-2009 tax cuts. For instance, it temporarily continues the low 2001-2003 ordinary income rates for individuals making less than $200,000 or couples making less than $250,000, repeals the limits on itemized deductions and personal exemptions (aka Pease and PEP), and extends marriage penalty relief. It also temporarily extends relatively generous treatment of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

The measure also raises the tax rate on capital gains and dividends to 20 percent for high income households, and retains a zero rate on investments for those with very low incomes. ?

Read the rest of this post »

Hockey fans fed up with ongoing NHL labor strife

Sitting in a hockey locker room, Steve Chase became the latest die-hard fan fed up with the NHL lockout.

Living in Los Angeles, Chase believed the league had squandered all the goodwill built in the area after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. His weekly pickup games with friends became his only taste of the sport he loved because of the ongoing labor strife that has dragged on for months.

So he took a poll of his buddies, then took a pledge:

"We're not coming back."

Not for good. Just not after the lockout is settled, not for a while.

Chase started the grass roots "Just Drop It" campaign that encourages fans to boycott one NHL game for every game canceled after Dec. 21st. No tickets, no TV, no merchandise ? not a minute or a penny spent on the league, punishment for what he believed are continued abuses of loyalty on their fan base.

He made a video and started a Facebook page, urging fans to click the "like" button and join the cause. More than 11,000 angry fans have joined since the weekend, a puck drop in the circle compared to the millions of fans who attend games, but the latest small sign fans won't again be easily won back.

"People are trying to crush the NHL," Chase said. "That's not our goal. Our goal is just to get hockey back. Hopefully somebody, somewhere cares about this and decides, 'Guys, we've got to get back and talk.' The fans are right.

"They're fighting over our money."

The days of letter writing and 30-second phone calls to sports radio stations have ballooned to steady streams of hashtags, Facebook posts and homemade videos from fans who just want to come in from the cold of this labor battle and watch their slap shots and saves. They are exasperated over a work stoppage with no end in sight and little regard for the fans.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby understood why fans are upset over the third lockout in Commissioner Gary Bettman's 20-year tenure.

"I don't blame anyone for being frustrated with this process," Crosby said. "Everyone's got to be frustrated with the way this has gone. It's pretty easy for everyone involved to feel that way."

Kind of like they sing in a song about union executive director Donald Fehr's old sport, some fans vow it's one, two, three lockouts and they're out.

"I wouldn't blame them if they did that by any stretch," Penguins forward Craig Adams said, "but I can't predict that."

It's actually pretty easy to call this shot.

For all the angry tweets, texts, threats and organized campaigns, fans will still pick up the remote and print out tickets as soon as the strife ends.

They always do. In every sport. Remember 1994? After the World Series was wiped out, baseball loyalists vowed never to return to the old ball game. Fueled by super-sized sluggers and retro ballparks, attendance topped 60 million in 1996, 70 million in 1998 and soared to 79,503,175 in 2007.

The NHL, of course, can't match those numbers. But the story arc is still the same. The NHL drew 20,854,169 fans when the sport returned in 2005-06 ? 497,970 more than the total in 2003-04, the season before the lockout.

The NHL saw an attendance uptick each of the next three seasons and totaled a record 21,468,121 fans in 2011-12.

Fans are filling stadiums from A (Air Canada) to X (Xcel Energy) and most geographic points in between. If there are fans still holding out over the lost season and refusing to step foot inside an NHL arena, they're at least throwing on their oversized Winter Classic sweaters and watching from home.

The 2004 Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames averaged 3.286 million viewers on ABC/ESPN, the Nielsen company said. Those numbers actually dipped in 2006 and 2007 when Carolina and Anaheim, two nontraditional hockey markets, won the Cup.

When hockey-mad cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago all reached the finals, though, the ratings soared. The Blackhawks-Flyers series in 2010 on NBC/Versus averaged 5.167 million viewers, the highest for the finals since 2002, Nielsen said.

The NHL is coming off its sixth consecutive year of record revenue, with a projection of more than $3.2 billion by the end of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the league said.

Don't forget, the NHL has a $2 billion, 10-year deal with NBC Sports Group through the 2020-21 season.

"Our fan support coming back last time was outstanding and we were probably a little bit surprised to see how good it was," Adams said. "That speaks to how much the fans love the game."

The NHL clearly caught some breaks coming out of the last lockout.

The league marketed its comeback around rising stars like Crosby and Washington's Alex Ovechkin. They added fan-friendly shootouts and the New Year's Day Winter Classic. The league made the two-line pass legal to help bust up the neutral-zone trap and created chic commercials to appeal more toward casual fans.

This time ? whenever the lockout ends ? the league might be all out of tricks. They'll need to dig. And it could take years to recover from the wreckage.

Some teams are trying to keep their brand alive among an increasingly uninterested public. The Flyers aired classic games and brought back former stars for autograph signings at a sports bar in the same complex as the Wells Fargo Center.

Gerry Helper, special assistant to the president and senior vice president for the Nashville Predators, said the team enjoyed their best season ticket renewal year in franchise history this past offseason.

The Predators have stayed aggressive in developing benefits packages for season ticketholders during the work stoppage. They organized "Preds Pride Day" activities and something called a "Smashmob" for a youth hockey game last month where they brought their public address announcer and mascot, and created a Predators' game-like atmosphere. Helper wrote in an email to The AP the Predators have stayed in touch with season ticket holders via email and phone.

Not every Predators fan feels appreciated. Tom Begley, of Franklin, Tenn., canceled the two season tickets he has held since Day 1 of the franchise. He also estimated approximately 1,000 people like himself are season-ticket holders from the first day. He said the team has done plenty of events for all season-ticket holders, but nothing special for that select group.

"I got not even a phone call from the Predators just to say, 'Look we know you're a loyal die-hard season-ticket holder from Day 1. Why don't you come down and do something at the arena?'" he said. "Hey, if I feel like it down the line and I want to buy tickets again I can do it. Right now, I don't know. I'm not convinced that hockey here in Nashville is going to be viable long-term. I am scared to death of what Donald Fehr is doing to the game and it's a shame. It really is."

In Pennsylvania, the government is getting involved in the messy dispute.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Wednesday urged the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide additional assistance to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia businesses that have been adversely affected by the lockout. Casey claimed small business in Pittsburgh are losing nearly half of the $2.1 million in revenue generated for each Penguins home game. He wrote Philadelphia is losing $1 million in revenue from each lost home game.

All the bluster of a boycott is easier tweeted than done. Fans can't quit Sid the Kid, Ovi, Big Z, The Warden, Phil the Thrill and The Doaner.

On Opening Night in January 2013 or October 2013 or November 2015, whenever, the teams will be back ready for the first faceoff.

So will the fans.

At least some of them.

_____

AP Sports Writers Will Graves in Pittsburgh and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dan Gelston at www.twitter.com/APGelston

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hockey-fans-fed-ongoing-nhl-labor-strife-223938126--nhl.html

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These Deceptive Camouflage Cans Are Your Stoner-Channel Deal of the Day

Let's be honest: you've got some possessions in your room that would be, let's say, a sticky situation if someone found them. Locking your hideables in a safe just draws more attention and seems a bit like overkill. Pros cut out the center section from a book, but you're a dummy and you don't have a library. The answer? These clever stash cans look like everyday objects, but they're hollow, and you can hide your contraband in them. You've got two options: one that looks like shaving cream, and one that looks like a Dr. Pepper can. At stores that sell—ahem—tie-dye, I've seen these handy stash spots go for $20 or $25. Today from Amazon they're both under $10 with free Prime shipping. To be blunt, that's a pretty good deal. [Amazon] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OAxiMmN6w0c/these-deceptive-camouflage-cans-are-your-stoner+channel-deal-of-the-day

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Official: Syria fires Scud missiles at rebels

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Syrian government forces have fired Scud missiles at insurgents in recent days, escalating the 2-year-old conflict against rebels seeking to overthrow the regime, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officials said forces of President Bashar Assad have fired the missiles from the Damascus area into northern Syria. These officials asked not to be named because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

News of the missiles came on the same day that more than 100 countries, including the United States, recognized a new Syrian opposition coalition. That has further isolated Assad's regime and opened a way for greater humanitarian assistance to the forces battling to oust him.

One official said there was no indication that chemical weapons were aboard the missiles. Officials have said over the past week that they feared rebel advances were prompting Assad to consider using chemical weapons.

This official estimated that the number of Scuds fired was more than a half dozen, confirming details first reported by The New York Times.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Assad has fired missiles, but wouldn't specify what kind.

"As the regime becomes more and more desperate, we see it resorting to increased lethality and more vicious weapons moving forward and we have in recent days seen missiles deployed," she said.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, speaking to reporters, said he could not confirm the report, but said if true it would be a sign of desperation.

"The idea that the Syrian regime would launch missiles, within its borders, at its own people, is stunning, desperate and a completely disproportionate military escalation," Carney said.

In Brussels, a NATO official confirmed that the alliance's intelligence indicates the missiles were Scud-type missiles.

"Allied intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets have detected the launch of a number of unguided, short-range ballistic missiles inside Syria this week," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. "We do not know the details of the missiles but trajectory and distance travelled indicate they were Scud-type missiles."

"The missiles were fired from inside Syria and they impacted inside Syria. No missiles hit Turkish territory. We have no information about possible casualties or damage," added the official.

The new development happened as officials planned an international conference to further assist opposition to Assad.

"This is the usual pattern of behavior that whenever there is an important decision that is anti-Assad taken by the international community, the Assad regime escalates the degree of violence to show its degree of displeasure," said Murhaf Jouejati, a specialist on Syrian affairs at the National Defense University. "Like saying, 'Oh, yeah? I'll show you!' "

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Matthew Lee, Pauline Jelinek and Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report from Washington; AP Aviation Writer Slobodan Lekic contributed from Brussels.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-syria-fires-scud-missiles-rebels-183406891.html

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Susan Rice drops out of running for secretary of state

Ambassador Susan Rice discusses her decision to withdraw her name from consideration for secretary of state.

By Tracy Connor, NBC News

Embattled U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next secretary of state after months of criticism over her Benghazi comments.

?Today, I made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the American people that I not continue to be considered by the president for nomination of secretary of state,? Rice told NBC?s Brian Williams.

?I didn?t want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting and very disruptive because there are so many things we need to get done as a country and the first several months of a second term president?s agenda is really the opportunity to get the crucial things done.?

Rice noted that President Obama?s second-term agenda included ?comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation.?

She added, ?And to the extent that my nomination could have delayed or distracted or deflected or maybe even some of these priorities impossible to achieve, I didn?t want that and I much prefer to keep doing what I?m doing which is a job I love at the United Nations.?

The full interview with Rice will air on tonight?s ?Rock Center With Brian Williams? at 10p/9c. Excerpts will also be broadcast on Nightly News at 6:30 pm ET.

Obama said in a statement that he accepted her decision and regretted ?the unfair and misleading attacks? on Rice, who was considered a front-runner to replace Hillary Clinton as the nation?s top foreign policy official.

Criticism over remarks
Rice has been under intense fire from Republicans for initially characterizing the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a spur-of-the-moment response to a crude anti-Muslim film.


?What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video,? Rice said on NBC?s ?Meet the Press? five days after the attack.

?Opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding. They came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode.?

As more details emerged suggesting it was a premeditated terrorist action, GOP critics accused Rice of misleading the public at the height of the presidential campaign.

She countered that she went with the best information available about the attack, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

?I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers,? she said on Nov. 21 at the United Nations.

By then, Obama had already expressed strong support for Rice, warning Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to stop slamming her and vowing to block her confirmation.

?They should go after me,? he said at his first press conference after his re-election.

Despite a series of closed-door meeting with Capitol Hill lawmakers to drum up support, Rice continued to face questions from senators key to her confirmation.

After a Nov. 28 sitdown with Rice, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she couldn?t yet endorse the veteran diplomat and raised a new point of concern: her role in protecting American embassies in Kenya and Nairobi that were bombed by terrorists in 1998.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) suggested Rice was seen as too much of an Obama loyalist and the GOP preferred ?someone of independence.?

Attack on critics
In her resignation letter to Obama, Rice took aim at her GOP critics.

?The position of secretary of state should never be politicized,? she wrote.

?As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S. national security official who has served in two U.S. Administrations, I?m saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate. We cannot afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people.?

Obama praised Rice as ?an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant.?

?While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first.?

McCain and Graham, among Rice?s loudest critics, said they would continue to press the administration on Benghazi.

?I respect Ambassador Rice?s decision,? Graham said in a statement. ?President Obama has many talented people to choose from to serve as our next secretary of state.?

The withdrawal leaves Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a possible candidate for the job, and Republicans have said he would have a smoother run.

"I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues," Collins said last month.

Rice, 48, has been the United States? permanent representative to the United Nations since 2009, after serving as a senior advisor to the Obama campaign, working at the Brookings Institution and holding other diplomatic and national security positions dating back to 1993.

Source: http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/13/15888883-exclusive-susan-rice-drops-out-of-running-for-secretary-of-state-saddened-by-partisan-politics?lite

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Sexy Breast Cancer Campaigns Do Demean Women. So What ...

Breast Cancer Foundation series from Singapore featuring painted women's bodies.

Breast Cancer Foundation Ad Series from Singapore

In my last post I asked, "Do Sexy Breast Cancer Campaigns Demean Women?"?The answer was yes. I identified six sexually objectifying techniques commonly used in breast cancer awareness campaigns to get attention, raise money, and lure people to the Cause.
  1. Use women's bodies as literal objects (canvases, ribbons)
  2. Hone in on the breasts (chest-level videos, animatronic boobs)
  3. Use objects in place of breasts (cupcakes, bowling balls)
  4. Objectify breasts with language (jugs, racks, funbags)
  5. Depict breasts as things to be touched or groped
  6. Show women as objects of the male gaze

There are numerous examples of these sexually objectifying techniques in the marketing materials of fundraisers, charities, and public service campaigns. They use sex and women?s bodies (or parts of them) to sell products and ideas. Sexual objectification is the means to an end. But since advertising is an applied form of persuasion, the ends are not likely to include active thinking about breast cancer. Indeed sexy advertisements (even those oriented toward awareness) use nudity, physical attractiveness, and sexual content to tap into the unconscious?a space where attitudes, emotions, skill sets, and cognitive shortcuts work automatically. Advertisements draw upon sensory experiences, memory, and heuristics to create affective associations, not conscious scrutiny.

One of the most common devices in advertising is the use of gender stereotypes that attribute specific traits to women as a group. Women are portrayed in a limited number of social roles (e.g., underrepresented in working roles but persistently visible as mothers and housewives), in decorative as opposed to functional roles, as lacking authority, as dependent upon others (especially men), as alluring and flawlessly beautiful, as the object of a societal gaze that judges women based on appearance alone, as sex objects, and as consumers of sex as the primary means to achieve happiness. What?s more, the sexual objectification of women and pornification across media and other entertainment outlets have increased substantially over time, a trend that corresponds with the rise of the internet, excessive advertising, and the use of shock value to break through the noise.

Shock value comes in a variety of forms, but the explicit portrayal of women as commodities or?sexual objects is becoming more rampant and more normalized. A report from an American Psychological Association?task force (2010) found that even young girls are exposed to?toys, video games, clothing, cosmetics, cartoons, youth magazines, music, and?various programming that is rife with sexual slogans and imagery. As those little girls grow up, they will be exposed to breast cancer propaganda that offers them ta-tas t-shirts, boobstagrams, and porn hubs for the cure while it tells them to feel their boobies as a measure of breast health. The marketplace will also prime them to believe that choosing their objectification is empowering.

Women do learn to accept the seeming inevitability of sexual objectification. But there is also strong evidence that when it is internalized, sexual objectification contributes to a range of negative outcomes.

Sexual objectification is tied to eating disorders, habitual body monitoring, and body shame. It is linked to poor self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, limited self-worth, diminished life satisfaction, and depression. It is associated with declines in cognitive and physical functioning and contributes to sexual dysfunction. Sexual objectification also contributes to negatives attitudes about women that may lead to assumptions that only young healthy women have social value, or?that women are stupid or incompetent, therefore incapable of leadership and political efficacy. Objectification that is sexual in nature fosters a cultural environment in which sexism, harassment, child pornography, rape, and violence against women are more easily accepted.?

Now add this list of negative effects to a breast cancer diagnosis. Without conscious scrutiny similar outcomes are likely to apply. Body monitoring, body shame, lack of self-confidence, diminished life satisfaction, and sexual dysfunction have been documented. Are these outcomes the result of breast cancer alone, or are they implicated by social pressures to conform to an idealized model of femininity and sexuality that pervades advertising, popular culture, and now a new genre of breast cancer campaigns? Do the means justify these ends?

Supporting a social cause oriented to women while undermining women?s status in society is counterproductive. But since advertisers want to tap into our unconscious minds,?conscious?scrutiny?of media messages can help to mitigate the effects. Whether it is a Dolce & Gabbana ad that glamorizes male dominance or a breast cancer awareness campaign that sexualizes women while glossing over the realities of a serious disease, media literacy has become a necessary tool for the pursuit of gender equality and for the fight against breast cancer.

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pink-ribbon-blues/201212/sexy-breast-cancer-campaigns-do-demean-women-so-what

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Free Legal Services for Startups? You Might Just Get What You Pay ...

It?s the holiday season, and many of us are thinking about gifts ? what gifts we?ll be selecting for friends and loved ones, and if we?re being honest, what gifts we?d like to receive ourselves. This spirit of giving has made its way into the startup community as well, where many companies are shopping for the gift of free legal services. While you may be thinking, ?I was really hoping for one of those driverless cars from Google,? entrepreneurs assume that not having to pay for legal services until a company reaches a certain stage of development or brings in a certain amount of funding can be a real boost to a fledgling company. Many entrepreneurs think, ?I?ll be able to afford a lawyer after [fill in the milestone], but not now.? Unfortunately, some companies are learning that free legal services can have other costs that are not at all beneficial for the company.

Is this what your company looks like?

So how does the free legal services thing work? Some law firms will offer to waive or defer a company?s legal fees for a certain period of time (say a year) or until they close a funding round of a certain amount (say $500,000). Don?t be fooled into thinking these discounts are the equivalent of Macy?s Black Friday sale. Here are some details on how law firms make these startup packages work:

  1. Large law firms divide their attorneys into distinct practice groups, and the work some lawyers do tends to be more expensive for clients (think bet-the-company litigation or taking a company public). These practice groups essentially subsidize the work of the team working with startups, because, as you probably know, startups don?t need lots of expensive work done.
  2. In a large law firm, compensation is frequently tied to objective measures: how much money the lawyer has generated, how many hours the lawyer has worked and how many of those hours have been paid for by the client.? For a lawyer to invest significant free time on a start-up cuts into revenues and billable hours that could be spent working for a paying client and (ultimately) the lawyer?s compensation. As a result, the free start-up work tends to get done by junior lawyers who are just learning how to be useful, instead of more senior lawyers who can actually add real value.
  3. For better or worse, large law firms have large overhead. In order to support that overhead, most firms want clients who will spend a good amount of money on their legal fees. Do startups want that? No. So how do these firms reconcile working with startups? They work with as many as possible, hoping that some of them will turn into large companies that will generate large legal bills down the road. If that sounds like a lottery ticket strategy, it is (and yes, I?ve heard the phrase, ?lottery ticket? used by these firms to describe how they think about startups). These firms tend to treat startup work as a loss leader; they do the free work now so there can (hopefully) be a big reward in the future, and their budgets and marketing efforts reflect this.

Of course, you may be thinking, ?I don?t care about law firm economics; I just need to launch my company for as little money as possible.? So perhaps we should look at what the company side of these legal services packages looks like:

  1. First, let?s think about what it looks like for another practice group to subsidize startup lawyers? work. In theory, this doesn?t sound so bad. But in reality, as with any business, the best service tends to go to the client that generates the biggest bill. And for large firms, the VIP treatment tends to go to private equity funds, large public companies, and anyone looking to sue someone else for tens of millions of dollars.
  2. Second, if the ?lottery ticket? strategy works, firms do end up working with many emerging companies. So who is there to counsel these companies? Often, startups are relegated to working with junior attorneys who have little in the way of legal or business experience, freeing up more senior attorneys to focus on larger clients and continue the firm?s marketing efforts to bring in even more startups.
  3. Finally, to stave off the possibility of a firm?s loss leaders being made up entirely of companies that don?t make it big, some firms have begun interviewing companies and choosing to work with them if they feel they?ll be successful in the long run. This approach strikes me as rather odd ? not only is the service relationship upside down (aren?t you supposed to get the benefit of picking who you want to work with?), but since when did lawyers develop the skill of predicting a company?s success?

The reality is that while startups may have simple capital structures and small teams, their legal needs do not start and end with ?get my company formed and help me bring in $500,000 from a group of angels.? These companies face serious questions about matching corporate structure to anticipated funding and growth patterns, building teams, avoiding legal disputes, and protecting intellectual property developments. Working with startups means being a partner to the company?s founders and helping them build a solid foundation for growth in the future, work that requires more time and consideration than handing out form documents and filling in blanks in a questionnaire.

So while the idea of avoiding legal bills can seem enticing for many companies that are starting out, in practice these engagements can result in legal services that are worth exactly the price paid for them.

PS ? A big thank you to Bill Contente for his help in putting this piece together.

This post is published by a Channel partner:

Source: http://bostinno.com/channels/free-legal-services-for-startups-you-might-just-get-what-you-pay-for/

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Swivl announces two motion tracking docks with support for tablets and DSLRs

Swivl announces two motion tracking docks with support for tablets and DSLRs

Earlier this year, if you recall, a startup called Satarii started shipping the Swivl, a crowd-funded smartphone dock designed for motion tracking. Now the company is back, this time with a bigger model that can accommodate tablets and DSLRs. Actually, make that two docks: there's a "Basic White" model and a "Premium Silver" version with some additional features. (We'll let you figure out which is which in the photo above.) As before, they can pan 360 degrees, but now they're now sturdy enough to hold items as heavy as 10 pounds, and use Bluetooth for pair with devices. That's good news if you're the owner of an older iDevice and would've had to use a clumsy 30-pin adapter. The base also now packs a rechargeable battery, as opposed to AAs.

What the premium version adds is a remote control and wireless mic, which you can control with your finger or pin to your person (or pet, or whoever) so that you can track movements automatically. The remote is also more compact than it was before, which should make it more viable as a bona fide wearable device. Finally, the premium model has built-in speakers, in case you need to project a bit farther during conference calls.

In addition to support for larger devices, though, Swivl is opening up its platform to developers: it released an iOS SDK today, and said an Android equivalent is in development. Meanwhile, the company's whipped up some apps of its own, including one that takes advantage of that new DSLR compatibility. In that particular program, you can control your camera's shutter over Bluetooth, as well as steer the dock so that it rotates where you want it to aim. (Note: this only works with still photos for now, not video. Remote previews for photos are also coming.) Meanwhile, Satarii also created a video capture app for iOS, along with one for video conferencing. That, too, is iOS-only for the time being. In any case, the hardware itself is up on Kickstarter now, with the Basic White model going for $149 and the Premium Silver edition priced at $229. They're expected to ship in June 2013. In the meantime, we've got hands-on shots and a quick demo video embedded after the break.

Continue reading Swivl announces two motion tracking docks with support for tablets and DSLRs

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Source: Swivl, Kickstarter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/11/swivl-basic-white-silver-premium/

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Coping Tactics ? Self Improvement Tips And Tricks ? Darul Uloom ...

Posted by LuacesTemkin514 on December 12, 2012 in Articles with No Comments


It can be difficult to determine which things for you to do to satisfy your own development objectives. Then you can study different methods that may be right for you. Keep in mind, not many are exactly the same. Once you get this into mind you will understand that it?s significant to locate new recommendations regularly. This article will provide you with a number of to acquire your started.

Do not search for convenience. Replace store shopping with a pastime or a sport. Buying ease and comfort can easily come to be expensive, as well as the monthly bills will add to your pressure.

One important thing in order to avoid when coming up with a personal improvement program is targets that happen to be way too wide. Establishing smaller, effortlessly feasible targets stops you from becoming frustrated. If you are crystal clear about your desired goals, it will be easier to calculate how good you possess achieved them.

Perhaps you have established substantial desired goals on your own while keeping neglecting to accomplish them. If this is the case, it is advisable to avoid and feel why. Try to find resources relevant to your troubles and get your buddies concerning their struggles. You also may find that your targets truly are not realistic, or that various other crucial resource is required before your ultimate goal might be recognized.

Your own objectives needs to be definite and specific. Through particular desired goals in place, it is possible to set up a plan to perform them. You will get an easier time eliminating your difficulties and it will be possible to possess good results more rapidly.

To become effectively determined toward personal development desired goals, it is very important confess exactly how much you may not know. By taking your insignificance from the lavish structure of things, you commence to comprehend your ignorance and insufficient knowledge. You may make remarkable advancement within your personal development after you acknowledge that you still need a lot to find out and turn into keen to expertise all of the new things you may.

Your body?s health and your intellectual overall health are two aspects of the identical coin, and each and every includes a close up effect on the other. Get some exercise regularly and consume a nourishing diet regime. Keep in mind, a good imagination along with a healthier system go hand in hand.

You must not merely decide what you would like out from daily life, there is also to adopt techniques to have it. You?ll have never the life span you need if all you do is stay around within your armchair and dream about it. Act on your own desires and do what you could so they are an actuality.

In case you are sliding short of your desired goals, take the time to take a step back and determine that you go improper. One way to examine yourself is usually to go online and read what others have seen when seeking for a similar kind of achievements. You are able to assess your knowledge of theirs, and maybe study a better strategy. The situation may be your requirements were actually establish way too high, crucial techniques were actually not used, or substandard solutions were designated in doing work in the direction of your objectives.

You can?t make everybody pleased, but you possibly can make yourself delighted. Do not develop into a self-focused individual, but keep in mind that no one else can help you become a more content individual than on your own. To become more content person and succeed in individual expansion, you should be accurate to your authentic personal plus your very own sensation of right and improper.

In order to increase being an individual, you must give your daily life course. Long-term desired goals certainly are a tremendous point to have and can produce a massive difference in your point of view.

It could grow to be discouraging to begin with developing greater private routines and life-style, but when you begin seeing your daily life developing in the direction of a greater future, you will never ever desire to cease. You could produce better ways to do points and it?s essential to constantly attempt difficult in the direction of any self improvement desired goals you might have.

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Congress examines science behind HGH test for NFL

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A congressional committee has opened a hearing to examine the science behind a human growth hormone test the NFL wants to start using on its players.

Nearly two full seasons have passed since the league and the players' union signed a labor deal that set the stage for HGH testing.

The NFL Players Association won't concede the validity of a test that's used by Olympic sports and Major League Baseball, and the sides haven't been able to agree on a scientist to help resolve that impasse.

Among the witnesses before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday is Pro Football Hall of Fame member Dick Butkus. In his prepared statement, Butkus writes: "Now, let's get on with it. The HGH testing process is proven to be reliable."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-examines-science-behind-hgh-test-nfl-083312859--nfl.html

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