Red Sox owner enters $70M deal for Boston Globe

BOSTON (AP) ? Businessman John Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, has entered into an agreement to buy The Boston Globe for $70 million, a massive drop from its record $1.1 billion price two decades ago.

The impending purchase from The New York Times Co. marks Henry's "first foray into the financially unsettled world of the news media," the Globe said early Saturday. The deal will give Henry the 141-year-old newspaper, its websites and affiliated companies, it said.

The Times announced in February it was putting the Globe and related assets up for sale four years after calling off a previous attempt to sell it. The company's CEO said at the time selling the Globe would help the company focus attention on The New York Times brand.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirmed the planned sale of the Globe and other media properties to Henry. The Times said the all-cash sale, expected to close in 30 to 60 days, includes BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Telegram.com, the direct mail marketing company Globe Direct and the company's 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper for commuters.

Henry, in a statement published by the Globe, cited the "essential role that its journalists and employees play in Boston, throughout New England, and beyond."

"The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country," Henry said.

Henry said he would reveal details about his plans for the Globe in the next few days.

The Times bought the Globe from the family of former Globe executive Stephen Taylor in 1993 for what it said was the highest price paid for an American newspaper. The Globe and other newspapers have faced difficulties in recent years as advertisers have cut spending on newspapers and moved more ads online. Still, the Globe is a journalistic institution in New England and was lauded for its coverage of the April bombings at the Boston Marathon.

A round of cost-cutting in 2009, which involved pay cuts, helped put the newspaper on better financial footing and prompted the Times to call off a planned sale. In late 2011, the Globe started charging for access to its online version at BostonGlobe.com, which helped to boost circulation revenues.

The Times company doesn't separate Globe revenue from New York Times revenue in its financial statements. But the Globe had an average weekday circulation of 230,351 in the six months through September, up 12 percent from a year ago, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The newspaper's increase in digital subscriptions more than offset declines in print. But the total is still down significantly from the nearly 413,000 it boasted in September 2002.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/red-sox-owner-enters-70m-deal-boston-globe-072420758.html

fisker atlantic social darwinism

The Shatered Lands

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A land shattered by a war of nations .

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Shatered Lands?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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chrono

Member for 1 years

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Butch Jones

Party in Tunisian ruling coalition demands new government

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - A secular party in Tunisia's ruling Islamist-led coalition demanded a unity government on Monday to defuse a deepening political crisis, hours after the army sealed a square in the capital where protesters had clashed.

Tensions have been mounting over opposition efforts to oust the government following last week's assassination of a leftist politician, the second such killing in six months.

Soldiers blocked off the central Bardo square in Tunis, declaring it a "closed military zone" after pro- and anti-government protesters threw rocks at each other.

The secular Ettakatol party called for the coalition led by the Islamist Ennahda party to step down.

"We have called for the dissolution of the government in favor of a unity government that would represent the broadest form of consensus," Lobni Jribi, a party leader, told Reuters.

"If Ennahda refuses this proposal, we will withdraw from the government."

The threat by one of its own allies will ratchet up pressure on Ennahda, which has resisted opposition demands for the government's fall, and could encourage further defections.

Education Minister Salem Labyedh, an independent, has offered his resignation to the prime minister, local media said.

Tunisians fear they may be plunging into one of the worst crises in their political transition since autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee by a 2011 uprising that sparked protests across the Arab world.

Security forces sealed Bardo square, located outside the transitional Constituent Assembly, with barbed wire and fencing.

The assembly's head, Mustafa Ben Jaafar, belongs to Ettakatol. He has said it is only weeks away from completing a long-delayed draft constitution to be put to a referendum.

The secular opposition, emboldened by the Egyptian army's ousting of an Islamist president this month, is now rejecting all concessions and reconciliation efforts by the government.

It has called for the 217-member Constituent Assembly to be dissolved. In the last few days, 70 lawmakers have left the body and to set up a sit-in protest outside its headquarters.

In the southern city of Sidi Bouzid, angry protesters tried to storm municipal offices to stop employees from going to work, residents said, sparking clashes with Ennahda supporters.

The army intervened to protect the offices and police fired tear gas, but residents said thousands of demonstrators were gathering in the southern city, the cradle of Tunisia's revolt.

Opposition leaders say they might set up a rival "salvation government", an idea they will discuss later on Monday.

"DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE"

Noureddine Bhiri, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, said opposition protests were tantamount to calling for "destruction of the state" at a moment when the government was trying to deal with the aftermath of the assassinations.

Bhiri challenged the opposition call for a new government, saying it had offered no vision for running the country.

"What are the alternatives that they want after dissolving the government? There is nothing but violence and destruction. We need to stay united to pass this phase and end terrorism."

Larayedh, who met the president and commanders of national security forces, was to address the nation later in the day.

France, Tunisia's former colonial power, called for restraint and said it was worried by recent events. It urged the Tunisian authorities "to see this transition through to the end, in a spirit of dialogue and respect for the roadmap".

In the fenced-off Bardo square, opposition sources said security forces had beaten one of the lawmakers who had quit the Constituent Assembly. He was taken to hospital.

"The prime minister will be held accountable for any drop of blood spilled in the Bardo sit-in," opposition figure Manji Rahawi said.

Both rival protest groups have vowed to return to Bardo despite the army takeover of the square, local media said.

Tunisia's powerful labor unions also met opposition parties on Monday and were to discuss the option of more strike action. On Friday, a strike to mourn leftist politician, Mohamed Brahmi, who was assassinated last week, paralyzed much of the country.

The government says Brahmi's assailants used the same weapon that killed another secular leader, Chokri Belaid, on February 6.

Its critics say it has not done enough to investigate or stop the attacks it has blamed on hardline Salafist militants.

Many joining the swelling street protests cite anger with the instability in Tunisia as well as economic stagnation.

Others are frustrated that a constitution, promised one year after the 2011 uprising, has yet to be completed and are suspicious of the Islamist-led transitional government.

(Additional reporting by Brian Love in Paris; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tensions-rise-tunisia-rival-protesters-clash-101859824.html

a wrinkle in time

RolePlayGateway?

Parallel

Children have the best imaginations. They can become anyone they want to be. They can be pirates, princesses; good or bad; they can travel the world or go to different worlds! Anything is possible. Then, as they grow older, that life disappears and the real world comes into play. People go to college, or to work and that imagination disappears much after the age of ten. It's like that world they created never existed, like they grew up. Like Neverland in Peter Pan. But what if that world did exist? What if Neverland was someone's apparent imagination and in fact, it went one step further and was a parallel universe of sorts. Or another world, even? What if it was simply when your brain reached a certain developmental stage that everything from the imagination disappeared and though that person had forgotten it, what if it was still there? Better yet, what if everyone's imaginations were unknowingly linked?

And this is where this roleplay comes into play. Five best friends that have grown up with each other. They all live in a small town, Four Oaks, Southern Texas. A place that isn't known to many unless you are close by or have passed through. In Four Oaks, there are a few ranches and farmlands and a few local stores run by the locals. No big malls or any big city folk building crazy ass skyscrapers or anything. It's just a small town where everyone knows everyone. Gossip is high and for the most part, everyone likes everyone (with a few exceptions, of course!)

Now back to the five best friends. They grew up with each other. They played together. They went on different adventures all the time. One time they were pirates down in Mediterranean Sea. The next time they were traveling by foot across a desert on the way to Australia. It was all about adventures. Their families are all good friends and live near by. They went to school together and were even in the same classes, graduating together at the age of 18. But it changed when they went to college. That's when life changed and they all went their separate ways. Some went to college/university, some went traveling, some dropped out of what they were doing and went back home... either way, they separated as life took over and the real world set in.

That was when they were all 18. Seven years later they're 25 and are all coming back for various reasons one Christmas whether to see the family, sort out family affairs, etc. But the point is, they're going to be all together. And being as it's Christmas, they decide to catch up. They all agree on a meeting spot so one of them can pick them up in the car, deciding to head over to the Christmas Party the town has each year on the other side. It's only 20 minutes and they want to do something familiar, that was fun and something that could bring back memories of the great childhood memories they used to have. After all, each year they would go to this party.

Unfortunately none of them make it. The weather is particularly bad and the car has to pass a bridge over a river. There is some black ice along the road and the driver loses control, causing the car to crash into the wall and go into the river. Luckily everyone is saved and taken to hospital but all five of them are in comas.

And this is where the imagination and a parallel world comes in. When the five friends wake up, they're lying in a grassy field. The sun is shining and it's horribly hot. They are still wearing their winter clothes. The last thing they remember was going off the bridge.

---

Welcome to my roleplay. This is the first time I'm GM'ing on this site. I've being roleplaying for ten years so I'm not new to being a GM. Hopefully this will be a success and everyone will enjoy it, if people join, that is.

So, onto OOC business. I'm only going to accept FOUR characters. I'm playing the fifth. As you know, most standard cars have five seats including the drivers. Saying that, if I like more than four other character sheets, I'm sure we could squeeze one more person into the backseat or someone sitting on someone's lap. As for character sheets, I won't be accepting first come, first served. I want to collect the character sheets and see the ones that I like best. There is no limit for when I want the sheets in by as I'm away for the weekend from tomorrow lunch time GMT. I'll be back Sunday night but it might not be until Monday morning that I get back on the internet. So, take your time on your sheets. :)

Onto characters. I think it's safe to say that there is normally one bad guy, so I'm going to play that type of character as I have a great idea for it. Saying that, feel free to bring your character ideas across for good guys turning bad, good guys pretending to be bad, etc etc. Just because I'm saying that I'm taking the main role doesn't mean I'm limiting yours. :)

Now, onto the world. This is going to be hard because I don't want people running around ruining things with godly powers, nor do I want a dragon army battle. I'm welcoming all ideas on developing this world. After all it is the imagination being used so most things can happen. Feel free to throw ideas back and forth. When it comes to magic and powers though, I don't want them listed in the profile you create yet, simply because I do not know if/what powers are going to be used. I WANT my players input here too.

Now to the part everyone surely hates. The rules:

• Please, please, please be able to plot, plan and help develop this story rather than just waiting for the other players to post.
• Because there are only five of us (six at the most) I will be having a posting order so that people don't get carried away with posting.
• If you have a problem with me or another player try sorting it out in PM. If you can't come to me with the problem via PM. Please don't bring OOC problems IC though. It ruins the RP.
• If you are dropping out, tell me so I know and we're not stuck waiting.
• Please be able to use spelling and punctuation. Spelling mistakes and all that are acceptable but no text type.
• Do not God Mod, Metagame, power play etc. If you want to do something check with me and any other players involved. Want to bring in a new adventurous plot, tell us! If you know something through OOC, do not have your character know it IC unless they're supposed to know or have found it out.
• Feel free to discuss adding NPCs! I love NPCs! :)
• Please no cybering. Romance is allowed to happen by all means, but I don't want this overtaken by two players getting smutty.
• Have fun!

And finally, the character sheet!

Code: Select all

[b]Picture:[/b] [Real not cartoon or anime]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b] [Everyone is 25]
[b]Personality: [A few lines basically describing what your character is like]
[b]Parallel:[/b] [What your character plans to be within this parallel world. A princess; a knight; a pirate - whatever your imagination wants you to be. Do not add powers here yet.]
[b]Talents:[/b] [Any talents your parallel character might have. Not powers. Skills they might have that come with what they've become. These will not be known IC. They will be found out through events that happen IC. Your character, and others, find them out.]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] [Any weaknessses that your parallel character will have. Must have at least one. And these are not known by any characters IC, these will be found out by your own character and others.]
[b]Fears:[/b] [Anything your parallel character may be scared of, or what the character was scared of before they went into the parallel world]
[b]Bio:[/b] [A few brief sentences of what they did after they split up at 18.]
[b]Other:[/b] [Anything else that doesn't fit in the above categories.]

So, have fun and I look forward to seeing these characters. On a side note, it is possible that there were romances at some stage between characters in the past before they split up and went their different ways. But don't add that in yet as we won't know what five characters are joining if we get more than five applications :)

Any questions please ask me in the OOC. I promise I don't bite! Now the wait begins :)

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

sarah shahi

Halliburton to admit destroying evidence on Deepwater Horizon disaster, Justice Department says

Handout / Reuters

Fire boat response crews battled the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in April 2010.

Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty and pay the maximum fine for destroying evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the company and the Justice Department said Thursday.

Besides agreeing to pay a $200,000 fine, Halliburton accepted three years' probation for its guilty plea to one misdemeanor count related to deletion of records.. In return, the Justice Department stipulated that it won't pursue further charges in the April 2010 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 rig workers and caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

---

Halliburton, which helped run the rig, separately contributed $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a gift that both sides said was voluntary.

The settlement, which is subject to court approval, was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. It said employees were directed to destroy the results of Halliburton computer reconstructions of the blowout in May and June 2010.

The Justice Department said that in agreeing to plead guilty, Halliburton "has accepted criminal responsibility" for destroying the evidence. In a statement, Halliburton chose to highlight what it called "the company's significant and valuable cooperation" in the investigation.

In November, oil giant BP, which leased the rig from Transocean Ltd. of Switzerland, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and obstruction of Congress in a settlement and agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and penalties ? including the largest criminal fine ever, $1.256 billion. It still faces possible damages of up to $17.6 billion in separate proceedings under the Clean Water Act.

Transocean reached a settlement with the Justice Department in January in which it agreed to pay $1.4 billion in fines and penalties.

Related:

This story was originally published on Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:25 PM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2f2acc4c/sc/24/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C250C196837170Ehalliburton0Eto0Eadmit0Edestroying0Eevidence0Eon0Edeepwater0Ehorizon0Edisaster0Ejustice0Edepartment0Esays0Dlite/story01.htm

barbra streisand

You Won't Believe What Happens When You Light These Chemicals on Fire

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you mixed Mercury(II) thiocyanate (Hg(SCN)2) and Ammonium chromate (NH4)2CrO4 together and then lit it on fire? NO?! What's wrong with you? It's unbelievably hellish and impossibly alien combined with one burning force of what the horrifically kraken insane.

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/you-wont-believe-what-happens-when-you-light-these-che-831852873

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VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP

Dedicated photo printers are niche products by definition, but the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP carves out an even smaller niche than most. It's designed for easy printing from PictBridge cameras and from both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, but can't print from a computer at all. For many, that will be enough reason to pass it by. If you just want an easy way to print from your camera or mobile device, however, it can be a good fit.

In most ways, the IPWF-P30-VP is essentially identical to the IP-P10-VP, which was the first VuPoint Photo Cube and is still available at this writing. Both are thermal dye printers for 4 by 6 photo printing, both have docks with 30-pin iThing connectors, and both let you connect and print from Android devices by USB cable.

One significant difference between the two is the dock design. The IP-P10-VP dock is recessed, so although you can plug an iPhone directly into the dock, you have to connect iPads by USB cable, the same way you connect Android devices. The dock in the IPWF-P30-VP is flush with the top of the printer and includes a raised rest behind it, so it can take iPads also. Two additional features are PictBridge support and the addition of Wi-Fi as a connection option. Note that even with Wi-Fi you can't print from a computer, however, since there's no driver available for either Windows or OS X.

The most interesting new feature in the IPWF-P30-VP is its ability to print panoramas, thanks to upgrades in the printer itself, upgraded software, and a newly introduced print cartridge, the ACS-IP-P20-VP. The IPWF-P30-VP works with the original ACS-IP-P10-VP cartridge as well, but is limited to 4-by-6 output with that cartridge. With the new cartridge, it can print at up to 4-by-16.

One complication is that VuPoint Solutions has temporarily taken the feature out of the current software at this writing. But more on that later.

Basics and Setup
At 5 by 6 by 7 inches (HWD) and only 3.1 pounds, the IPWF-P30-VP is light enough to carry easily, but it's a lot bigger than the smartphone, tablet, or camera you'll be printing from. It also needs to plug into a power outlet to work, which makes it far less portable than it would be if it could use batteries.

Setup is trivial. The print cartridges include both paper and ink, in the form of a dye roll, with a 10-photo starter cartridge installed in the printer when you buy it. Initial setup consists basically of taking the printer out of the box and plugging it in. Replacing the cartridge is also easy: slide the old cartridge out and the new cartridge in.

According to VuPoint Solutions, the IPWF-P30-VP dock works with iPhone?models 4S, 4, 3GS, and 3G; the iPad, iPad2, and third-generation iPads; and the second- through fourth-generation of iPod touch. The USB connector works with all the same models, plus the iPhone 5, the fourth-generation iPad, the iPad mini, the fifth-generation iPad Touch, and Android smartphones and tablets using version 2.0 and above of the Android OS. In addition, the printer works over Wi-Fi with this full list of models, and it works with PictBridge Cameras.

To print from a camera, you connect by USB cable and print using the camera's PictBridge commands. To print from a mobile device, you first download the appropriate version of the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube Wi-Fi app. Then you can run the app; pick a photo to print; connect to the printer by docking, using a USB cable, or using a Wi-Fi connection; and then print.

One surprising oversight is that there doesn't seem to be a way for the printer to work with a phone that offers Wi-Fi Direct, so the only way to use Wi-Fi is by connecting through a Wi-Fi access point on your network. More precisely, VuPoint Solutions couldn't come up with a way to make the printer work with Wi-Fi Direct, although the company also couldn't definitively confirm that it can't be done.

A more annoying issue is that printing from the phone over a USB connection can be frustrating. Most of the time the USB connection worked as promised in my tests, but occasionally the app couldn't find the printer even though the phone was connected to the printer and charging. Turning both the printer and phone off and then on seemed to solve the problem, but I ran into it several times.

VuPoint Solutions confirmed that this is a known issue. The company also says that the problem is limited to USB connections with phones, which is consistent with my testing. I didn't see the problem with either a Wi-Fi connection or a PictBridge camera.

Speed and Photo Sizes
For my tests, printing from a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Canon PowerShot S60 camera, print speed for 4 by 6s ranged from 1 minute 12 seconds to 1:34. These results aren't comparable to our standard tests, because we couldn't print from a computer. As a point of reference, however, the Editors' Choice Epson PictureMate Charm took 43 to 52 seconds printing from the same camera.

Panoramas are a special case. What lets the IPWF-P30-VP print different size photos is that the 4-inch wide paper is in a continuous roll. The printer includes a paper cutter that can cut the roll where needed. In addition to printing standard format photos at 4 by 6, the Photo Cube Wi-Fi app lets you print panoramic photos at 4 by 6, 4 by 11, or 4 by 16.

For any of these sizes you can zoom in on the photo to print only part of it or zoom out to print more of the photo, with white space above and below. You can also drag the photo left or right on screen to adjust which part prints. I timed the 4 by 11 prints at 2:22 and the 4 by 16 at 3:30.

Output Quality, and Other Issues
Output quality is not a strong point. Photos in my tests tended to loose details based on shading in both light and dark areas. In addition, despite 300 dot per inch resolution with no dithering, many of the photos had a slightly soft focus, which is often an issue for thermal dye printers. Even so, most photos were acceptable by most people's standards, and best described as snapshot quality overall.

Panoramic photos, which are printed in sections, showed vertical lines between the sections in my tests and, in some cases, an obvious color shift from one section to the next. As I was finishing up this review, VuPoint Solutions noticed the problem independently and addressed it by removing the ability to print panoramic photos from its latest upgrade to Photo Cube Wi-Fi, version 3.59.

The company plans to fix the problem before reintroducing the feature, and at this writing is hoping to do that within several weeks. Until the fix is available, however, the panoramic printing will be confined to letting you create and print panoramic collages of 4 by 6 photos.

Also demanding mention is cost per photo. With the cartridge price of $19.99 street for 36 photos, the cost per 4 by 6 photo is 55.5 cents. You can roughly double that for 4 by 11 panoramas and roughly triple it for 4 by 16 panoramas.

It would be a lot easier to give this printer an enthusiastic recommendation if the quality were just a bit better and the USB-connection worked more reliably. Although the quality isn't suitable if you want professional level output, however, it's good enough for snapshots. More important, the panoramic print feature, once it's available in the software again, will count as a strong plus even with the quality I saw as tested.

This printer would be of interest to a lot more people if it could also print from a computer. But if what you want is easy printing from your phone, tablet, iPod, or PictBridge camera; and you also want a Wi-Fi connection option, the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP offers enough to at least make it worth considering. Before you buy one, however, you might want to check to make sure that the panoramic print feature has been restored to the app.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/MTQhiYquTVk/0,2817,2421955,00.asp

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