Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Redbox snatches up NCR's entertainment division, swallows Blockbuster Express business

Coinstar
If you thought Coinstar was through making industry rattling announcements today, you were wrong. After taking the wraps off its joint venture with Verizon, now the company has announced it'll be taking over NCR's entertainment division for $100 million. That includes DVD kiosks, retailer contracts and an inventory of discs for stocking the machines. That's big news not only because it expands Redbox's already sizable self-serve rental empire, but because it's doing so at the expense of the floundering Blockbuster, since NCR owns the blue and yellow rental kiosks. Presumably existing Blockbuster Express installations will become Redboxes, though, how quickly that might happen is unclear. For a few more details about the deal check out the PR after the break.

Update: We've attached a letter from Blockbuster explaining the switchover after the break.

Continue reading Redbox snatches up NCR's entertainment division, swallows Blockbuster Express business

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Conservative wins Finland presidential vote (AP)

HELSINKI ? A former finance minister won Finland's presidential election Sunday and will become the country's first conservative head of state in five decades.

Sauli Niinisto took 63 percent of the votes, compared to 37 percent for his rival, Greens candidate Pekka Haavisto, official results showed with 100 percent of ballots counted.

The 63-year-old Niinisto will be the first president from the conservative National Coalition Party since 1956, and the first in 30 years from a party other than the center-left Social Democrats. He will replace Tarja Halonen, Finland's only female head of state and one of its most popular leaders, who has served the maximum two six-year terms.

"The president in Finland has to understand that there are many different thoughts and opinions and that they must be taken into account so that he can be the president of the whole nation," Niinisto said in his victory speech.

Finland's president has a largely ceremonial role with fewer powers now than in previous decades, and is not directly involved in daily politics. However, the head of state is seen as an important shaper of public opinion, takes the lead on non-EU matters of foreign policy and plays a role as a "brand ambassador" of Finland overseas.

Haavisto said the runoff between two pro-European Union candidates sent a strong signal to the world that the Nordic country wants to participate in a constructive way in helping solve Europe's financial woes.

"There is no simple solution to the European crisis and the future of Europe ... and certainly Sauli Niinisto's strengths are in the financial sector," Haavisto said.

The fact that both candidates in the runoff supported continued membership in the debt-ridden eurozone was also a relief for pro-European forces in Finland, who feared they were losing ground after the euroskeptic True Finns party surged to 20 percent in last year's parliamentary election.

"Finland has returned to a society of common sense, where we fear nothing, but are courageous, internationally minded and tolerant. I'm very pleased about that," said Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, also of the National Coalition Party.

Niinisto, who was finance minister when Finland adopted the euro in 2002, beat seven other candidates in the first round two weeks ago but failed to get the majority required to avoid a runoff.

Haavisto, the first openly gay candidate to run for president in Finland, finished second in the first round but trailed Niinisto in polls leading up to the runoff.

Niinisto narrowly lost the previous presidential election six years ago to Halonen.

"He's the best ? stable and steady ? and will represent Finland in an exemplary manner," said Matti Oksanen, a retired engineer, before casting his ballot in a snowy suburb of Helsinki where the temperature plummeted to -15 F (-26 C). "We are not ready yet for the more radical candidate."

Haavisto, a soft-spoken former environment minister, drew his support from a core of young, liberal, urban voters.

"I voted for Haavisto, but it was a difficult choice. The men are very similar, but Haavisto is more open and more forward-looking," said Vesa Lehtinen, 39, who works for a computer company in Helsinki.

Many of Niinisto's party colleagues support Finnish membership in NATO, but he said before the vote he would not press that issue. Polls show most Finns are against joining the alliance.

Niinisto is married and has two adult sons from a previous marriage. His first wife died in a car accident. Niinisto and his sons were among the survivors of the 2004 tsunami while vacationing in Thailand.

Both Niinisto and Haavisto entered Parliament in 1987. They come from affluent backgrounds, share a gentlemanly manner and, in true Finnish fashion, were not provoked into confrontation during debates.

Haavisto's sexual orientation wasn't a major issue in debates, but analysts said it was an obstacle in the race.

"The older generation simply isn't ready for it," said Olavi Borg, a political analyst.

___

Jari Tanner contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120205/ap_on_re_eu/eu_finland_presidential_election

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Carolyn Bucior: Fur Will Fly at First Scientific Conference on Animal Consciousness (Huffington post)

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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Review of Excel Modeling in Management | Business Management ...

February 5, 2012 ? 4:25 am

I came across one of the best books in Excel business management modeling in the world. Having gone through some other excel business modeling books, this book is much better than all of them. The book name is ?Excel models in Business and Operations Management?. The author is John F. Barlow and the publisher is Wiley.

The main features which set this book apart from other modeling books is its detailed modeling on all areas of management ? finance, cost accounting, marketing, inventory, production, project management and decision analysis. For each area, first the basics of the theory have been covered very nicely. Then, the excel models for common problems in each business management area have been built. Prints of the actual excel models have been shown. Details of formula in each cell of the excel model have been illustrated very clearly. Thus, one can understand the excel models very easily from the book.

Moreover, the author gives a website where all the excel models of the book can be downloaded for free. This means, one can go through the book and open the actual model in Excel and understand it no time.? This book correctly reflects the popularity of excel in business management practices around the world. The main approach is ? ?learn by example? where the book guides through the complexities of model building.

There is also one chapter in the book which teaches how to build a complete ?purchase order processing application? from scratch. Macros programming using buttons and drop-down menu bars are done. How to make the connection to the access database is also shown. This kind of applications building methodology is known as ?Excel Visual Basic for applications?. This involves programming in excel at the most complex level. This has been very nicely taught in the ?purchase order processing application? chapter. Anyone who goes through this book completely will definitely become one of the best business analysts in the world.

About the Author ? My name is Ram Shukla. I am a MBA teacher in the area of Business Management. I have 12 years of experience. I have a Masters in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA. I am available for consulting in the areas of Quantitative Methods (Statistics, Operations Research), Business Modeling, Project Management, Operations Management, International Trade (export-import), enterprise resources planning and Financial Management. If you are interested in contacting the

Source: http://www.projetqualite-sn.org/review-of-excel-modeling-in-management

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Video: US heartland hit by major storm

The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports from Denver as a large winter blast blankets the Midwest with snow.

>>> a powerful winter storm is making its way across the nation's heartland after blanketing parts of the rocky mountains . the weather channel 's mike seidel joins us. how is it looking right now?

>> they're biggest out from under the biggest snowstorm in february. 15 inches of powder shut the city down yesterday. at the airport, 600 flight cancellations. a 150 mile stretch of i-70 reopened. today the symptom dumped on nebraska. they were shoveling cars out of snow banks in omaha and they set a record. it's still snowing there. another inch or two before it wraps up this evening. the storm moves east and weakens and most that falls on sunday will be rain. temperatures still warmer than average. a terrific super bowl sunday forecast in indianapolis. the sun is back out. highs in the upper 40s.

>> mike seidel . thank you.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46266555/

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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Horse Racing Strategies ? Choosing the best Horse

Horse racing is as much as a wagering game as it is considered an activity, and horse racing tips will never be total without tips to bet on the right horse. One would ideally want to have a system or a record database that can provide all of the necessary details over numerous parameters about a particular equine. Many people have worked to develop horse racing betting systems, a manual or software database giving rushing details of every horse within the racing circuit which people may study to pick the correct equine they think would be likely to earn them bets. Such methods are present currently for the benefit of people looking for information on their horse choices; however, there isn?t any such system that would guarantee a sure win every time.

Horse betting systems are tedious to construct for the easy reason that they require an in-depth evaluation of every horse and the huge parameters that need to be incorporated to provide a complete profile. For obvious reasons, listing more parameters will provide more information, and hence require generation of complex excel worksheets of data. Instead of this, software are available for exactly the same purpose, and the numerous guidelines available for use can be customized individually to generate the best match data according to a competition type or horse kind.

Some websites also provide horse racing information in terms of their ratings in a variety of races; such information is available free of charge access by some websites, while others require a regular subscription for the same. The downloadable information is packaged with various variables that target providing relevant data needed during horse race wagering.

Let?s have a look at some parameters used by the system to provide horse-selection information:

o The most important factor that will determine any horse?s chances of winning would have to end up being its own physical status. The physical statistics determine the actual fitness levels of any equine and can be readily in contrast to similar data of other competitor horses.
o Horse racing methods often depend on financial aspects of the betting party. Hedging is a very common practice used by many to deal with the uncertainty that is integral to horse racing. It can be described as an investment of betting amounts in a certain way to limit loss.
o Arbitrage is another element which affects the likeliness of the horse to win or lose. It can be described in lay terms as placing a horse on a lower value, however simultaneously placing a very high value onto it at races.
o Jockey and trainer forms are also incorporated by certain betting systems whenever determining horse ranking.
o Drawing associated with lanes is sometimes considered by the betting systems as a factor that could affect a race?s outcome.

Thus, having a reliable betting program allows its users in order to assimilate and update their data source with relative ease and it is much less time consuming. The only downright downside to the system would be a fairly rigid nature of these methods, and one must bet their own selections on a daily basis else they would can easily be proven redundant.

horse racing results

Source: http://www.tigersoup.co.uk/horse-racing-strategies-choosing-the-best-horse/

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Friday, February 3, 2012

Brown Girls, Brownstones, White Guys, Black Pants

The film overreaches at regular intervals. At one point, George says, "A lot of folks like to compare the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill scene to the Harlem Renaissance, but that's not a perfect comparison." He then makes the claim that the Harlem Renaissance was mostly literature and a little jazz, while his thing was much broader. I dunno; if you were stranded on a desert island, would you prefer to console yourself with the work of Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen? Or Wesley Snipes and the guy who got in a fight with Julie on the first Real World? That would be Kevin Powell, who the film implies is a Brooklyn poet in the tradition of Walt Whitman. Elsewhere addressing the literary prehistory of the area, George gives Richard Wright a fine salute. But in his haste to associate his hero with his 'hood, George fails to drop the fascinating factoid that, at another time, Wright lived in Brooklyn Heights, in the same house as W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, and Gypsy Rose Lee, who I assume hogged the bathroom.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=8d27002d244972fb2c76a8a3ea54d9d4

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