Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295537837?client_source=feed&format=rss
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Creative Ways to Promote Your Business Online
When your startup is in its infancy you may not exactly be rolling in money. Spending big bucks on publicity may be a no-no for you. But there?s no need to fret. There are a lot of ways in which you can make your brand more visible. Thanks to the internet there are several ways for you to achieve this without emptying out your bank account. Let us take a look at some of them:
- Use local listing services: register your business with Google Places, and you?ll be amazed how easily it shows up on Google maps and SERPs. All it involves are filling out a form and registering and waiting for them to verify and confirm via telephone or email. And best of all, it won?t cost you a cent. Just a little patience till it is set up. Bing too has something similar; check it out as well.
- Leverage Social Media: It has become a necessity in today?s world to keep up with the competition. Again, creating a business page on FB or tweeting offers and updates to your audience on Twitter is totally free. You can also network with industry peers on LinkedIn.
- Blog: Blogging will help you interact with your customers and gain more publicity for your brand. Do keep in mind however that this has to be a continuous process, and not just a onetime thing.
- Post videos and images: make use of YouTube for uploading promo videos; make it interesting, wacky even so that people feel like viewing it. Flickr is a great place for you to showcase still photos for your company. Make sure the photos and videos are relevant for your business, and that you link back to your ecommerce site from the sites where you upload them. You could upload videos of events you sponsor, product launches, how-to (especially if you have products that have to be assembled), troubleshooting, and more.
- Don?t ignore SEO: make sure your business site is optimized so that Google picks it up and displays it when people search. There are several ways to do this, like using relevant keywords, using descriptors, tags, minimizing use of Flash and JavaScript and so on.
Image from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
- Press Release: shout out your business achievements through press releases; there are people who follow this stuff. This is a potent tool that can help you publicize your business without spending a load of money. Sites like 24/7 Press Release and PRLog are some of the reliable sites you can use for this purpose.
- Be active in online communities: every industry has online communities and forums which you can be part of. You can participate by posting about your business only occasionally (tom-tom your business here and you may find that you are tossed out), offering valuable info or solutions to customers (even if they have not bought your product as such). This will help you build relationships in the community. Ensure to include a link to your business site in your signature.
- Use QR Codes: Quick response codes can be scanned by everyone with Smartphones and this will grant them easy access to the website or FB page of your company. Using these codes on banners and outdoor signs will spread awareness about your business. Make sure you have them on flyers, visiting cards, brochures and any other material that you print. This way you have an instant interaction with your customers and they can get quick info on your products.
- Get on Pinterest: This site with its online pinboards is driving sales in a big way. You could even pin your YouTube and Vimeo videos here, in addition to still photographs. People especially love to see behind the scenes videos. You could video shoot your employees on a typical day at your business or something similar.
Andrea Walter, a freelance writer, is writing? for Buy Verizon ? Find the best Verizon fios California on tv, internet, and phone.
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Source: http://www.ebestproducts.com/2013/03/creative-ways-promote-business-online/
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering Star Trek logo (video)
Before quadrocopters become Skynet's roaming recon fleet, they'll begrudgingly entertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London "spring" to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness of Earth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete with epic music and movie cut-scenes sure to send even the most Vulcan of trekkers to sickbay with hysteria. If anyone behind the promotion is reading -- please, whatever you do, just don't give them phasers.
Filed under: Robots
Source: Ars Electronica (1), (2)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/quadrocopter-london-star-trek-promo/
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Google's Note Taking Service Keep Is Live For Real Now
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When The Going Gets Tough, Why Do We Ditch Our Faith?Freefall ...
I launched my first 1 Day Empowerment Workshop in America last week and in the process of 8 hours of live facilitation I was present to the amount of people hurting out there with life circumstances that have just robbed them of any freedom. ?What is alarming to me, and this is not an American thing, it is a human thing, is the amount of people who write off their faith (whatever that is for them) at a time when they need it most. ?So I thought I would focus todays blog on speaking into some preconceptions around faith/spirituality/religion/woo woo from my perspective and would love to generate discussion on this subject.
As a generalization the term Woo Woo, has adverse reaction. ?Someone who talks their faith but does not walk it. ?Someone who is not grounded, abdicating responsibility to some ethereal being outside of themselves, expecting miracles to occur. ?I do not discredit why woo woo gets a bad rap. ?To me we are spiritual beings having a human experience. ?To be spiritual is to be woo woo, but in my context, someone who has transcended their ego and walks their faith. ?To do this means to live a fearless existence.
Faith, even, seems to for some, to have a connotation of meaning ?religion?. ?I am not discrediting those that are religious. ?There are many paths to the mountain, what you call your faith, is a personal choice in my opinion. ?All I question is the authenticity of those who state that they have a faith but do not walk it in their lives; this is the height of hypocrisy from my perspective.
So what?s all the fuss about? ?Is it easier to completely and utterly discount the possibility of something because one cannot tangibly comprehend it than trust it implicitly and in so doing experience the unquantifiable evidence of ROI. ?The more you trust it the more you gain the validation you need.
We cannot evolve as a race if we do not trust the unknown. ?That is a fact. ?If we stay in the known realm we will stagnate as a species and that serves no one. ?Growing spiritually means to evolve to new levels of consciousness. ? We seem to complicate the hell out of something that is our inherent birthright. ?I have written before on this subject, and I will say it again here today ? we were born intuitive, born connected, born fearless, that too is a fact. ?Then we learnt to not trust from a very young age. ?To re-experience the authentic self, and come home to experiencing being fearless, being connected and living intuitively takes one to heal that which severed them in the first place.
Being someone who specializes in the area of linguistics, language as a coach intuitive, I am intrigued how words relating to spirituality and or religion can evoke such a strong response from people. ?I appreciate evolving to new levels of consciousness is not everyone?s trip but why the need to denigrate what others choose to believe? ?There is a lot of hypocrisy in the area of religion and or spirituality, I am the first to admit, however, there are those that walk it and for those who do they lead the way for what?s possible.
People tend to fall into 4 categories where spirituality/religion is concerned:-
- Do not believe in anything
- Believe in it but do not walk it ? espouse the virtues of their faith/religion but avoid at all costs living it
- Believe in it, do their version of walking it when it suits, getting their version of results
- Believe in it, walk it and experience a transcended existence as a result
I believe, and again this is only my belief based on my own life journey and those that I have had the privilege to coach, we have a choice to lead a connected existence or a disconnected existence. ?Life as a result will be experienced differently. ?Just because something is not tangible does not mean it does not exist. ?The disconnected realm is limited by design. ?The connected realm, which we were born into, is limitless in design.
Back to my opening statement. ?Why does ones faith/religion automatically, at a time of trauma in ones life bare the brunt of being written off? ?It is at these times that it is needed more than any other. ?Why, because we as human beings fundamentally feel justified to be a victim, feeling powerless to change a situation and have to blame somebody/something to abdicate taking responsibility for viewing things from a higher perspective. ?All of human suffering comes from the place of disconnection. ?Disconnection from self, disconnection from source. ?I completely understand why people do not wish to re-associate ? why would someone want to revisit the pain of what had them disassociate in the first place ? why, because until one does, one cannot lead an empowered life.
I will leave you in the inquiry today about what your resistance is to the terms ?spirituality and or religion?. ?I personally am not religious, however I respect those who walk their religion. ?I am however spiritual and I know what it takes to walk it, which is even more reason why people would shun even conceiving believing in it given what it would call you to do in this lifetime?
Source: http://www.freefallselfimprovement.com/when-the-going-gets-tough-why-do-we-ditch-our-faith/
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
NASA moon craft spots Ebb and Flow crash sites
This composite image released NASA taken by NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a region of the moon before and after the twin Grail spacecraft deliberately crashed into in December 2012. The spacecraft called Ebb and Flow mapped the lunar gravity in greater detail than previous missions. (AP Photo/NASA)
This composite image released NASA taken by NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a region of the moon before and after the twin Grail spacecraft deliberately crashed into in December 2012. The spacecraft called Ebb and Flow mapped the lunar gravity in greater detail than previous missions. (AP Photo/NASA)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When NASA's twin spacecraft Ebb and Flow crashed into the moon last year, scientists did not count on seeing the aftermath.
On Tuesday, the space agency released before-and-after pictures of the lunar north pole where Ebb and Flow came to rest. Months after the back-to-back, mission-ending dives, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the crash sites and imaged the final resting spots.
Ebb and Flow broke into smithereens upon impact and pinpointing the small craters they carved was difficult, said Arizona State University researcher Mark Robinson, who operates the orbiter's camera.
Even the mission's chief scientist, Maria Zuber, was surprised when she saw the impact sites, which looked like dots.
"I was expecting to see skid tracks," said Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ebb and Flow deliberately plunged into a lunar mountain in December after mapping the moon's gravity field in unprecedented detail. The location was chosen because it was far away from the Apollo landings and other historic sites.
Since the finale occurred in the dark, telescopes from Earth did not capture it. Even the reconnaissance orbiter had to wait until sunlight streamed to the northern lunar region.
Launched in 2011, the spacecraft spent nearly a year flying in formation, exclusively collecting gravitational data. Among the discoveries: The lunar crust is much thinner and more battered than scientists had imagined.
Initially flying at 35 miles above the lunar surface, the spacecraft dipped lower and lower in altitude during the $487 million mission.
Scientists are still poring through the last chunk of data beamed back just before their demise.
The Ebb and Flow crash sites were named in honor of mission team member, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who died last year. Ride's educational company supplied the cameras on the mission that allowed students to take their own pictures of craters and other geological features.
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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
Associated PressNews ratings plummet with time change, longer days
This 2009 photo released by NBC shows Brian Williams on the set of "Nightly News with Brian Williams," in New York. ABC, CBS, NBC evening newscasts had 11 percent fewer viewers because of the time change and longer days. The Nielsen company says the newscasts collectively had 11 percent fewer viewers last week than they did the week before. (AP Photo/NBC News, Justin Stephens)
This 2009 photo released by NBC shows Brian Williams on the set of "Nightly News with Brian Williams," in New York. ABC, CBS, NBC evening newscasts had 11 percent fewer viewers because of the time change and longer days. The Nielsen company says the newscasts collectively had 11 percent fewer viewers last week than they did the week before. (AP Photo/NBC News, Justin Stephens)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Despite a busy week with the selection of a new pope, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts collectively had 11 percent fewer viewers than the week before ? and a glance outside the window reveals the primary reason why.
The simple act of moving the clock ahead one hour for daylight saving time is costly for the broadcasts, since the hour that turns from darkness to light happens to be the hour in which they are shown in most of the country.
It's not just a one-week phenomenon. The newscasts will have to deal with smaller audiences until the clocks are pushed back in the fall.
"What it shows is that a large proportion of the people that watch the news are not watching because they watch the news," said news consultant Andrew Tyndall. "They're watching it because they happen to be home when the news is on."
Both NBC's "Nightly News" and ABC's "World News" lost a million viewers from week to week, the Nielsen Co. said. The "CBS Evening News" lost 600,000. That's a total of 2.6 million, or a little more than the entire audience for the NBC sitcom "Community" last week.
While the situation isn't unusual, each newscast lost more viewers in the week-to-week comparison than they did between 2012 and 2011.
"This is part of a predictable cycle every year, so we know to expect a slight dip in viewership when people are enjoying longer hours of daylight," said Patrick Burkey, executive producer of "Nightly News." ''We approach the broadcast with the same mission every day regardless of what time the sun sets."
"Nightly News" had an average of 8.1 million viewers last week (5.4, 11). ABC was second with 7.2 million (4.9, 10) and CBS had 6.4 million viewers (4.3, 9).
In prime time last week, an estimated 10.4 million people watched Sean Lowe propose to Catherine Giudici in the finale of season 17 of "The Bachelor." That's up 13 percent over the audience that watched last year's finale, with an even bigger increase among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that ABC considers most important for its advertisers.
Meanwhile, PBS reported that the third season of "Downton Abbey," which concluded last month, represented the most-watched drama on the public broadcaster in all time.
CBS averaged 8.6 million viewers (5.5 rating, 9 share) in prime-time to win the week. Fox had 6 million viewers (3.6, 6), ABC had 5.8 million (3.8, 6), NBC had 3.8 million (2.5, 4), the CW had 1.19 million and ION Television had 1.15 million (both 0.8, 1)
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.3 million viewer average (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), UniMas had 480,000 (0.3, 0), Estrella had 190,000 and Azteca 90,000 (both 0.1, 0)
A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of March 11-17, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.9 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.34 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 13.44 million; "NCIS," CBS, 13.18 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 12.18 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 11.95 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 11.93 million; "Elementary," CBS, 11.33 million; "The Bible," History, 10.87 million; "The Walking Dead," AMC, 10.84 million.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.
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Online:
http://www.nielsen.com
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Findings: Good News Spreads Faster on Social Media
[unable to retrieve full-text content]While old-fashioned outlets focus on tragedy and drama, on social media, people tend to share more positive news, especially about themselves.
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Pinterest Redesign - Business Insider
Hear from American Express, GE, McDonald's and other Fortune 500 co's on measuring social media impact at "Social Media ROI," Business Insider's conference on top tactics for Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and more. May 15, 2013, in New York -- Reserve your ticket now.
Pinterest is a site for collecting and sharing photos of interesting objects around the web.?
The redesign is meant to be easier to navigate, and places a greater emphasis on content discovery. If all goes according to plan, people will likely end up spending more time on the site.
It still has the same grid design that we've all grown to associate with Pinterest, but it now has more options in the close-up view of pins. For example, you can see pins from the same board, pins from the same website, and "People who pinned this also pinned."
Pinterest?made its first big step toward monetizing?the site earlier this month when it launched Pinterest Web Analytics. The analytics tool gives website owners insights into how people are interacting with "pins" that originate from their websites.?
It also?recently sold $200 million in stock to new and current investors for less than 10 percent of the company, which effectively valued the company at $2.5 billion.?
The redesign is currently only available on the web, but will soon update its iOS and Android apps to reflect the changes.
Check out some images of the redesign below (click to enlarge the images).
?
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-redesign-2013-3
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Real Estate Pro of the Week: Elizabeth Newlin of Mesa, Ariz.
Elizabeth Newlin, Realtor?, CSE, ELC, MIATM.
Quite an impressive list of designations, especially considering she?s the only real estate agent in the world who holds them.
Don?t go running for NAR?s website to look for classes, however, because I?m pretty sure they don?t offer the chance to obtain the ?Certified Sparkle Examiner,? the ?Expert-Level Cartwheeler? or even the ?Master in All Things Mothering? designations.
Or, call her the ?Certified Expert Master, for short,? Newlin jokes.
A Weekend Class Does Not an Expert Make
Those designations were self-bestowed after Newlin helped a buyer on a short sale deal. It seems the listing agent assured her that all would go well because she holds a CDPE. She then proceeded to ask Newlin to instruct her buyers to deposit their full earnest money with title, immediately, and to ?have the buyer start inspections and appraisal as soon as possible,? Newlin said on her blog.
It turns out it was the agent?s first short sale, yet she was passing herself off as a certified expert to both her client and Newlin?s. The whole ordeal prompted a frustrated Newlin to claim, ?Yes, I pretty much want to create a class and call it ?Designations are as Important In RE as a Coach Purse to My 18 Year Old Cat.??
If you?re getting the idea that Newlin has no problem speaking her mind, you?re right. To illustrate further, ask her what she?s all about.
?I?m a real estate agent, and a mom ? 47 percent of one and 53 percent of the other. I?m not telling which is which,? she begins.
?I have a compulsive need to confess my embarrassments and failures. I love Pinot Grigio and bacon equally. If someone would just make a Pinot Grigio with bacon top notes I would stand in line to buy it,? she concludes.
Writing is Boring?
Newlin began her real estate career five years ago after realizing that her writing career was boring her ?to death,? as she put it.
?I had my degree in creative writing and photography and I was a technical editor, working on technical manuals. It was horrible and boring,? she confessed.
?I was watching one of those shows about real estate agents and I thought, ?You know, I can do that. I like people and I like houses and what I?m doing now is horrible,?? Newlin said.
She ended up in real estate school, taking night classes while she was on maternity leave. ?That was during the peak when everybody was getting a real estate license,? she explained. ?I did a couple of deals really quick right after I got my license. I made these huge paychecks, so I quit my job,? she concluded.
Unfortunately, she quickly found out that practically nobody gets two huge deals within weeks of getting a license, but she bounced back and stuck with real estate.
Today, Newlin?s marketing plan is based on a Facebook and blogging model that has propelled her real estate practice to 100 percent referral-based.
Not surprising considering this woman is a people magnet.
?I write a humor blog. It?s weird because people think that a real estate blog should constantly be showing your knowledge of the market and I never do that.? Newlin explained. ?I?ll write a couple of posts about things you should know about real estate but I always do it tongue in cheek. For the most part I just write ridiculous stories.?
Ridiculous? Newlin is the mother of three sons ? 5, 8 and 12. Now, it?s been a long time since my kids were that age, but when I read her blog posts I feel like I?m right back there with the rug rats ? especially this post.
Newlin is relatable. And not just to her peers, but to any woman who has juggled a career and a family.
?They [her clients] trust me because I?m genuine, and I think people believe what I say because I have no problem saying what I think, at all times, so that makes them trust me with real estate too, which is funny, but it totally works,? she said.
The Fabulous Facebook
Some agents ?get? Facebook, and some don?t. Newlin not only gets it, she has mastered it.
?I have a huge following with a ton of people that I went to high school with who just read it because they think I?m funny and they know who I am,? she explained, and went on to joke, ?They refer people to me because they think I?m funny, and it really has very little to do with whether they think I?m any good at real estate.?
Give This Woman a Cape
When she isn?t busy being a modern-day Erma Bombeck, or shimmying down a balcony to rescue her clients who went to check out the balcony at a listing and got locked out of the house, or fleeing a vacant listing with another buyer and his kids because of strange goings-on in the garage, Newlin still finds time to spend with her three sons ? and time for herself.
?I have a million hobbies,? she said. ?I take ballet classes and I take trapeze classes. I like to hike, and I hiked the Grand Canyon this year; it?s an amazing experience, I recommend it to everyone,? Newlin said.
The one misperception about real estate agents that Newlin would banish if she could is ?the slimy stereotype,? she began, ?that idea that what we?re trying to do is talk people into buying or selling a house. That?s not what we?re all about,? she concludes.
If you haven?t figured it out yet, Newlin loves her job. ?I like the people and I like the flexibility. I like that I take my kids to school and I pick them up every day. I hated working in an office where it was the same every day. Sometimes real estate makes my head explode because it can get so crazy, but I?m never bored.? And neither are her clients.
Source: http://www.realestate.com/advice/real-estate-pro-of-the-week-elizabeth-newlin-of-mesa-ariz-55629/
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Obsessed fan who shot player, inspired movie, dies
FILE - In this June 18, 1949 file photo, Ruth Steinhagen, 19, held in the shooting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus at a Chicago hotel on June 14, 1949, writes notes for her life history in Cook County Jail in Chicago. At the table she has a photograph of Waitkus taken June 17 in the hospital where he was recovering from a bullet wound. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. Her death is the final chapter in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this June 18, 1949 file photo, Ruth Steinhagen, 19, held in the shooting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus at a Chicago hotel on June 14, 1949, writes notes for her life history in Cook County Jail in Chicago. At the table she has a photograph of Waitkus taken June 17 in the hospital where he was recovering from a bullet wound. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. Her death is the final chapter in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this Feb. 27, 1950 file photo, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus, right, shows scars resulting from an operation following his shooting in Chicago in 1949, to his roommate, outfielder Bill Nicholson, on a beach in Clearwater, Fla. Waitkus was working his way back into condition at the team's spring training camp in Clearwater. Waitkus had been shot by 19-year-old Ruth Steinhagen at a hotel in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford, a mysterious woman who lured a major league ballplayer she'd never met into a hotel room with a cryptic note and shot him. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this June 17, 1949 file photo, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus smiles from his bed in Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago as his father, Stephen, holds up his arm for an attempted wave. Waitkus was shot and seriously wounded June 14 in a Chicago hotel by 19-year-old Ruth Steinhagen. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. Her death is the final chapter in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this Aug. 19, 1949 file photo, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus acknowledges the applause of fans at Shibe Park as he stands by gifts showered on him on "Eddie Waitkus Night" in Philadelphia. Waitkus was in uniform for the first time since he was shot, June 14, 1949, in a Chicago hotel by 19-year-old Ruth Steinhagen. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. Her death is the final chapter in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this June 16, 1949 file photo, Ruth Steinhagen, 19, is seen at felony court in Chicago where she appeared for her hearing on charges of assault with intent to murder in the shooting of Philadelphia Phillies ball player Eddie Waitkus at a Chicago hotel on June 14, 1949. Steinhagen died of natural causes at 83 in late December 2012. Her death is the final chapter in one of the most sensational and bizarre criminal cases in Chicago history that made headlines around the country. She was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud?s novel ?The Natural? and the 1984 movie starring Robert Redford. (AP Photo/Charles Knoblock, File)
CHICAGO (AP) ? She inspired a novel and a movie starring Robert Redford when in 1949 she lured a major league ballplayer she'd never met into a hotel room with a cryptic note and shot him, nearly killing him.
After the headlines faded, Ruth Ann Steinhagen did something else just as surprising: She disappeared into obscurity, living a quiet life unnoticed in Chicago until now, more than a half century later, when news broke that she had died three months earlier.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Friday that Steinhagen passed away of natural causes on Dec. 29, at the age of 83. First reported by the Chicago Tribune last week, her identity was a surprise even to the morgue employees who knew about the 1984 movie "The Natural," in which she was portrayed by actress Barbara Hershey.
"She chose to live in the shadows and she did a good job of it," John Theodore, an author who wrote a 2002 nonfiction book about the crime, wrote in an email Sunday.
The story, with its elements of obsession, mystery, insanity and a baseball star, made it part of both Chicago's colorful crime history and rich baseball lore.
The story began with what appeared to be just another young woman's crush on Eddie Waitkus, the Chicago Cubs' handsome first baseman. So complete was this crush that the teenager set a place for Waitkus, whom she'd never met, at the family dinner table. She turned her bedroom into a shrine to him, and put his photo under her pillow.
After the 1948 season, Waitkus was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies ? a fateful turn. "When he went to the Phillies, that's when she decided to kill him," Theodore said in an interview.
Steinhagen had her chance the next season, when the Phillies came to Chicago to play the Cubs at Wrigley Field. She checked into a room at the Edgewater Beach Hotel where he was staying and invited him to her room.
"We're not acquainted, but I have something of importance to speak to you about," she wrote in a note to him after a game at Wrigley on June 14, 1949.
It worked. Waitkus arrived at her room. After he sat down, Steinhagen walked to a closet, said, "I have a surprise for you," then turned with the rifle she had hidden there and shot him in the chest. Theodore wrote that she then knelt by his side and held his hand on her lap. She told a psychiatrist afterward about how she had dreamed of killing him and found it strange that she was now "holding him in my arms."
Newspapers devoured and trumpeted the lurid story of a 19-year-old baseball groupie, known in the parlance of the day as a "Baseball Annie." Among the sensational and probably staged photos was one showing Steinhagen writing in her journal at a table in her jail cell with a framed photograph of Waitkus propped nearby.
A judge determined she was insane and committed her to a mental hospital. She was released three years later, after doctors determined she had regained her sanity.
Details about the rest of her life are sketchy. She lived with her sister in a house just a few miles from the hotel where she shot Waitkus. A neighbor told Theodore that Steinhagen said she worked in an office for 35 years but never revealed her employer. And she made an effort to conceal her privacy, often refusing to answer the phone or come to the door when Theodore knocked.
Chris Gentner, a neighbor who used to help the Steinhagen sisters with chores, said he only found out who she was 15 years after they began living nearby.
"I found out through my ex-wife ? I'm not sure how she found out ? and I looked (Steinhagen) up online. And as soon as I saw (her photograph) online I said, 'That's her,'" Gentner said.
The 1984 movie was based on a novel by Bernard Malamud that was inspired by the story. Theodore's 2002 book was entitled "Baseball's Natural: The story of Eddie Waitkus."
Waitkus, who played the season after he was shot, helping the Phillies win the National League pennant, decided not to press charges in 1952 when Steinhagen was deemed sane. The trial would have likely made banner headlines ? particularly since Malamud's novel was released in 1952 ? so Watikus' decision almost certainly assisted Steinhagen's disappearance into obscurity.
He died in 1972, 12 years before Redford portrayed Roy Hobbs, the character inspired by Waitkus.
"He hardly ever talked to his family about Ruth," Theodore said.
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GOP roadmap calls for immigration reform
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican National Committee will formally endorse immigration reform on Monday and outline plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups ? gay voters among them ? as part of a multi-step roadmap designed to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012.
In a report being released Monday, the RNC says that the way the party communicates its principles isn't resonating widely enough and that focus groups perceive the party as "narrow minded," ''out of touch" and "stuffy old men."
"The perception that we're the party of the rich continues to grow," Reince Priebus, the RNC chair, said in remarks prepared for delivery Monday.
To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report obtained by The Associated Press before its release: "We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink," it said.
Party leaders have crafted dozens of recommendations following a months-long self-examination prompted by last year's painful election losses. The report also calls on Republicans to take a harder line with corporate America, loosen political fundraising laws in Washington and in state capitals, and cut in half the number of candidate debates in a shortened 2016 presidential primary calendar.
"When Republicans lost in November, it was a wakeup call," Priebus says in his prepared remarks.
The Republican National Committee's shift on minority outreach may be the most visible change in the coming months.
Priebus plans to dispatch hundreds of paid workers into Hispanic, black and Asian communities across the nation by the end of the summer, a $10 million effort meant to rival President Barack Obama's national political machine.
The RNC will also push for a tone of "tolerance and respect" in the immigration debate, create "senior level advisory councils" focused on minority groups, and establish "swearing in citizenship teams" to connect with new voters immediately after swearing-in ceremonies.
"We need to go to communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case," the report says. "We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too."
The recommendations will not be well received in all corners of the Republican Party.
Some Republicans, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among them, are working toward bipartisan immigration reform that is likely to include a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants ? sometimes called "amnesty." Conservative commentator Ann Coulter ripped the idea in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend.
"If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win another national election," Coulter said, later adding, "I can see why Democrats would want amnesty, but why on earth are Marco Rubio and these endless Bushes supporting it?"
The RNC's recommendations follow an extensive look at what went wrong in 2012.
Priebus tapped a handful of respected party leaders to examine how the GOP could better talk with voters, raise money from donors and learn from Democrats' tactics. The report also suggests that party officials could lean more on independent groups such as super political action committees to fund television advertising campaigns, allowing the Republican National Committee to focus on strategy and contacting voters.
Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under former president George W. Bush, and Sally Bradshaw, a veteran strategist and top adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were among those leading the inquiry. Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour, a GOP strategist and nephew of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, was also part of the group. RNC members Zori Fonalledas of Puerto Rico and Glenn McCall of South Carolina rounded out the five-person committee that listened to Republicans' ideas and frustrations.
Those leaders heard from 50,000 rank-and-file members about how to respond to the nation's shifting demographics.
Priebus planned a full-scale rollout of their recommendations Monday, although the proposals ? particularly those affecting the presidential primary calendar ? are far from a done deal. They would have to win the approval of the 168-member RNC and then each state's election chief would have to abide by the party's proposed calendar.
The report recommends reducing the number of presidential primary debates to approximately 10 to 12, with the first scheduled no earlier than Sept. 1, 2015. It calls for the primary calendar to begin with the traditional "carve out" states ? such as Iowa and New Hampshire ? before moving to a major reorganization, such as a "regional primary system" finished by mid-May.
While there was much focus on the nuts and bolts of politics, the report also offers extensive recommendations for how Republicans communicate with voters.
The report also calls for the GOP to take a harder line with corporations.
"We have to blow the whistle at corporate malfeasance and attack corporate welfare," it says. "We should speak out when CEOs receive tens of millions of dollars in retirement packages but middle-class workers have not had a meaningful raise in years."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-roadmap-calls-immigration-reform-110123522--election.html
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Playing an actual game with Oculus Rift: hands-on with Valve's Team Fortress 2 'VR Mode'
Valve's free-to-play first-person shooter, Team Fortress 2, is getting Oculus Rift support with its VR Mode update in the coming weeks. Think of it as a large beta test -- Oculus Rift dev kits ship to Kickstarter backers and Team Fortress 2 players on PC can snag a free update, thus feeding Valve valuable feedback on how people play TF2 with VR. The only thing left to know is perhaps the most important: how does it play?
We found out just that on a recent visit to Valve's Bellevue, Wash., offices, where Valve programmer Joe Ludwig lead us through a hands-on demo of the game's VR Mode update, replete with a near-final build of the Oculus Rift dev kit (not quite the one shipping to backers, but far more advanced than the previous Oculus prototypes we've used). Follow us beyond the break for detailed impressions of playing an actual game (read: not just tech demos) with the Oculus Rift VR headset.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/WVZxnZPkY5c/
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Monday, March 18, 2013
How would you change Maingear's Pulse 11?
Gaming laptops are tricky beasts to review, since you're naturally sacrificing those normally cherished qualities (battery life, portability) for pure performance. When your humble narrator reviewed Maingear's Pulse 11, we found that its hulking insides were only let down by a slightly awkward keyboard and a weak trackpad. In fact, as an eleven-inch premium gaming machine, we were staggered, and as long as you bring along some peripherals, we had no reservations about recommending one. Then again, we didn't live with one of these for the better part of six months. As such, we need to turn to our readers and ask, if you own one of these, what do you love, what do you loathe and most importantly, what would you change?
Filed under: Gaming
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MNbN0pR3Q7c/
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Pope Delights Rome Crowds with Warm, Impromptu Style
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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Sunday, March 17, 2013
In his first Sunday window appearance at the Vatican, Pope Francis addresses 150,000 people in off-the-cuff Italian ...
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
Frank Anthony Rich liked American Infidel's blog post NRA President Wayne LaPierre At CPAC 2013! Bring It, Wayne!
t's what we all donate and fight for.? The difference this time vs 1994 is more Professional women are coming speaking for right of self-defense.? I heard a woman ask a Democrat Rep "Why aren't you Pro-Choice on womens right to self-defense?".? He didn't answer, but should have just said "because I'm a hypocrite".
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Source: http://www.teapartynation.com/xn/detail/3355873%3ABlogPost%3A2468799?xg_source=activity
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Saturday, March 16, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S 4 gets April 26th UK release date, preorders start March 28th
Was that late April launch date for the Galaxy S 4 a little too vague for you? Well, fortunate British readers, you get something a little more specific. The UK's only LTE network, EE has stated that it will start selling Samsung's new Galaxy, both online and in its bricks and mortar establishments, starting April 26th. It's keeping quiet on the prices, matching those other UK carriers for the time being, but we're sure prices will appear ahead of any preorder page -- that's set to go live on March 28th.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GRSWSG8v4iU/
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