January 21, 2014

Tooreluctant to pick up the phone and dial 15 to launch a complaintagainst an eye-witnessed street crime in the past few minutes-themaddening feeling sounds familiar? Then how about interacting withcops on facebook and twitter?

After corporations and politicians, the cops in Islamabad are all set to dive into the cosmos of social media. The notion of calling the police on the emergency number has long turned out to be old-fashioned. Pursuant to the current trend, when people come across a suicide bomb explosion or a big fire, the first thing they do is to update their facebook status or upload a picture or tweet it and the last thing that knocks their mind is reporting police about the incident.

Considering this, law enforcement organizations ought to line their nest to maintain active presence on social media sites to be able to get the insights about criminal cases, this is more than ever meaningful in situations where cases are not actually reported as is the case in our country where people are reluctant to report criminal cases because of the so-called thanay wala mentality.

No other government department is subjected to public ridicule and abuse more than the police department. Policemen are seen by the public not as friends but as sharks and oppressors.

According to a public opinion poll by Berlin based non-profit group Transparency International (TI) released in July 2013, police and government agencies are the major corrupts in Pakistan with 86 percent, followed by political parties with 84 percent, the parliament with 76 percent, medical services and judiciary with 66 percent, the education system with 64 percent and the NGOs with 62 percent. The survey reassures that the people of Pakistan have least trust in police forces and the government.

Even though the overall image of police in Pakistan is viewed as hostile, Islamabad police is weighed to be more sophisticated by people as the publication released by Pakistan Crime Monitor in April 2013 referred Punjab as the highest crime reporting region, while regarding the potential reasons for lesser number of FIRs registered in other areas as unjust judicial system, lack of public trust in police and difficulty in accessing the police. In this context, there is some optimism that the use of social media by the cops in Islamabad can rally round in transforming the mindsets of public at large as well as ensuring friendly interaction between police forces and the victims of criminal activities.

Departments that create a presence on social media sites open a new door of communication with the general public. Given the Pakistani sarkari mindset mentality that pays no heed to voices of public, few people try to fathom the reasons for their poor performance where all the ills and blame are heaped at the doors of police alone. The solution to this attitude lies in two-sided interface being provided by the social networking sites.

Not only that social media can pave the way for police officers to interact with people for disseminating information to the public and getting recommendations and feedbacks from them to improve policing, it can also help them investigation crimes by taking input from the people. Imagine how easy it will be to locate a criminal if the photograph labeled as Wanted goes viral on the facebook.

Social sites are effective ways to disseminate crime alerts, investigation updates, safety alerts and to counter propaganda. In this regard, Pakistani cops baby-stepping into the social media is a step forward in refining the tarnished crime complaint processes as well as mending the wrecked image of police community.

Read more here:

Cops baby-step into social media | Business Recorder

It's on like... never mind.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze includes online leaderboards.

The ranking system includes the typical Nintendo rank sorting options. Global Top Rank allows you to to view top records from around the world, while Global Player Rank shows records surrounding your current rank. Friends Top Rank lists the rankings of those on your friend list.

The system allows you to upload a replay video for others to see. You can post one video per level, and you are given the option to update this video only whenever you beat your best time on a level.

The ranking screen shown in the embedded image includes a number of icons. The first is a medal, which is awarded based on your time. The camera icon indicates whether a viewable replay is available. The heart icon is a special designation, showing that the stage was cleared without taking damage.

Finally, the Kong buddy icon tells you which buddy was used in a course, if a buddy other than the default was used in a level. Specific Kong barrels can be bought in Funky's shop, and when activated, will which Kong will show up.

Banana coins can be spent in a capsule machine in Funky's shop. Much like in Super Smash Bros., character models are unlocked in this manner. Like the previous game, Tropical Freeze also includes unlockable music, art, and dioramas. Along with those numerous secrets, Hard Mode makes a return, promising a huge amount of replayability.

Check back later today for exclusive gameplay videos of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze! Until then, check out the latest batch of screenshots in our gallery.

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NEWS: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Features Online Leaderboards, Video Replay

Please Note: Yes, this is the original web site dedicated to "mind uploading" into substrate-independent minds (SIM), and in large part discusses the specific implementation route known as whole brain emulation (WBE). But, if you came here to find up-to-date information then you should probably head to the site of our non-profit organization: carboncopies.org. We have had to prioritize updating of the carboncopies.org site in order to support roadmapping, neworking and event related activities.

We will return to refresh this site and give it new purpose as soon as possible!

Thank you for your attention,

rak@minduploading.org

contacts and members

about the society

faq

NeuralProstheses.org

The first Conference on Advancing Substrate Independent Minds (ASIM-2010), August 16-17, organized by Suzanne Gildert and Randal A. Koene ofcarboncopies.org, satellite to the Singularity Summit in San Francisco.

The Oxford Whole Brain Emulation workshop (the resulting Roadmap)

Go here to read the rest:

Mind uploading - The Society of Neural Prosthetics and Whole ...

Welcome to the Robots shall inherit the Earth; and they shall be Us... The Mind Uploading home page is dedicated to the putative future process of copying one's mind from the natural substrate of the brain into an artificial one, manufactured by humans. This technology will radically alter society in many ways, as science fiction authors have begun to illustrate. Through this server, explore the science behind the science fiction! Technology Assumption of Materialism Handy Neuroscience Facts Proposed Uploading Procedures Microtome Procedure Nanoreplacement Procedure Moravec Procedure Nondestructive Procedures Timelines Past Developments Current Technology Future Developments Directions for Research Hardware for Uploading Philosophy What Is Life? What Is a Person? Personal Identity: the Central Issue see also the essay by Albert-Jan Brouwer and check out the Personal Identity Forum Policy Duplication Artificial Realities (Policy) Effects Life After Uploading Artificial Realities Artificial Bodies Population & Demographics Ecology Brain Enhancements Business & Travel see also Robin Hanson's Article, "If Uploads Come First" References Glossary (Want to help? Get Involved!) MUHomePage.html . . . . . . . . 8/10/2006 . . . . . . . Joe Strout

Originally posted here:

Mind Uploading Home Page - ibiblio

We've come a long way from the days of floppy discs or the danger of losing a lifetime's worth of photographs or files when your computer breaks down. It today's hi-tech world it's all about storing in the cloud.

Cloud storage services offer a way to make sure important files are available wherever you are and whatever device you are using, be it a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. When something is saved in the cloud it is not only stored on your device, but on a computer in a data centre somewhere else in the world. When you want to access a file you can go online and get it instantly.

The advantages of this kind of storage are numerous. You can take a photo on your smartphone and edit it on your PC; access work documents from home; listen to your music collection wherever you are; or share files with friends without sending them to them. Once a file is saved in the cloud, because you are always accessing the same file any edits are carried over. Another big advantage is that if you lose your phone, or your computer dies, you won't lose all your stuff.

Consumers have plenty of choice when it comes to cloud storage services, with some well-known and some less well-known names to choose from.

Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at broadbandchoices, says Apple devotees may already be using Apple's online storage service, iCloud, without realising it. There are many benefits to the iCloud having all your photos seamlessly downloaded to all your devices is perhaps the most obvious one. iCloud offers 5GB of data storage for free, but bear in mind that if you use your iPhone as your main camera and upload all your pictures, it is fairly easy to burn through 5GB in a short space of time, he says.

iCloud isn't alone in offering some storage for free almost all cloud storage providers give you at least 2GB before they start charging. Google Drive is the most generous, giving users 15GB before they start paying.

So, how much space do you need? Obviously that depends on how many and the type of file you want to save. Storing and backing up documents, from Word, Excel, etc, will not take up much room at all, so a basic package [2GB-15GB] will be more than enough for you, Baliszewski says. However, items like photos take up much more room, and music and movies substantially more a two-hour movie can take up 1GB-2GB.

Calculating roughly how much storage you need will help you avoid paying over the odds, as you can then shop around for the provider that offers the best deal for that amount of space. In most cases you will need to commit to a year's storage in advance and pay either annually or monthly. Bear in mind that if you regularly create or add more files, especially big ones, you'll need more storage in the future. Think about what you will use it for, Baliszewski says. If you want to back up your entire digital life, opt for an allowance of 500GB and above.

Comparing prices isn't always easy, as some cloud providers list prices in US$, some bill you monthly and some yearly, and they offer different amounts of storage. Be aware that the value of packages priced in US$ will change if the exchange rate changes. To make comparison easier we have listed annual subscription charges and converted US$ prices into pounds (at the time of writing, using XE.com).

If you need 100GB of space, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, or Amazon Cloud Drive are cheapest, all charging between $52 and $60 for an annual subscription. If you need 500GB then PC World Knowhow Cloud Storage is the outright winner, charging $49 for an annual subscription that would cost you 10 times the price with rival Dropbox.

See the rest here:

Cloud sourcing: Which remote storage option should you choose?

By Garrett O. Thomas | Posted Jan. 14, 2014, 10 a.m.

An actors demo reel is very important;it displays an their range and shows the variety of characters an they can portray. To many casting directors, it is the first impression you leave them before auditioning.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you build and promote your demo reel.

1. Upload your documents to Google Drive. Between your day-to-day responsibilities and scrambling to auditions, its always good to have a Google Drive account set up to keep your documents easily accessible. It intertwines synonymously with your gmail account. If anyone needs a copy of your demo reel, theres a link option that allows you to share the document directly with the contact through your phone or any other internet connected device.

2. Put your contact information at the end of the reel. You may think its overkill to include your email and contact on every single document you have, but its better to have it too much than too little. Some clients have placed a quick email in the first or last frame of the reel, and some have even placed a small footer throughout the reel. I havent heard anyone complain one way or the other, just as long as your information there.

3. Dont forget about thumbnails. A very overlooked detailbe sure to select an appealing thumbnail for your video. You want to make sure that youre visible in the reel. If the thumbnail automatically selects an image and its not of you, it may get confusing.

4. Keep it short. Every expert will tell you to put your best acting footage in the front of the reel and to keep the reel short. YouTube has a video upload limit of 2GB and you want to make sure your video can have the highest resolution possible, so sacrificing those last few seconds and keeping the reel tight may actually come in handy.

5. Disable comments. If you post your video on YouTube, disable the comments. The last thing you want is someone leaving inappropriate comments while a casting director navigates your YouTube page.

6. Post your reel on IMDb. IMDb has become the universal site to look up an actors credits. The IMDbPro account gives you the option to post your demo reel and polish your acting profile. Also, other IMDbPro account usersindustry professionalswill be able to access your agent information as well, and hopefully want to talk to you about a project!

Garrett O. Thomashas been working in public relations for several years. He lived in Tucson, Arizona where he focused on restaurant publicity, combating restaurant foreclosures during the economic recession in 2008.

Go here to see the original:

6 Tips for Exposing Your Demo Reel

January 15, 2014

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Scientists have created a network called RoboEarth for robots to pass on information they learn to one another, essentially creating a collective cloud mind.

The team behind RobotEarth said on Monday that they will be providing a final demonstration of the robot network on Thursday at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. This demonstration will include four robots collaboratively working together to help patients in a hospital.

The robots use RobotEarth similar to how humans use the Internet. This network provides a knowledge base, communication medium, and computational resource to help offload some of the robots heavy computation.

At its core, RoboEarth is a World Wide Web for robots: a giant network and database repository where robots can share information and learn from each other about their behavior and their environment, the RoboEarth developers wrote on their website. Bringing a new meaning to the phrase experience is the best teacher, the goal of RoboEarth is to allow robotic systems to benefit from the experience of other robots, paving the way for rapid advances in machine cognition and behavior, and ultimately, for more subtle and sophisticated human-machine interaction.

Eventually, the scientists hope that both robots and humans will be able to upload information to the database. For example, a robot could navigate and map out its way around an environment and then upload this map to RoboEarth so that another robot entering the room for the first time would already know its way around.

The aim of RoboEarth is to use the Internet to create a giant open source network database that can be accessed and continually updated by robots around the world. With knowledge shared via the cloud on such a vast scale, and with businesses and academics contributing independently on a common language platform, RoboEarth has the potential to provide a powerful feed forward to any robots 3D sensing, acting and learning capabilities, the creators behind RobotEarth wrote.

The researchers hope that the RobotEarth database can be used as a launch pad for further research and development, which could eventually lead to standardization, common language protocols and a more modular design of cloud robotics systems.

While RoboEarth could be a huge step in attempting to merge robots with society, some see it as a stepping stone to a future where robots become our overlords.

Link:

RoboEarth: Creating A World Wide Web For Robots

Your views: Tesco's plans for Tolworth supermarket, flats and hotel development

10:45am Wednesday 15th January 2014 in News By Natalie Gil

Tolworth Broadway is split down the middle on Tescos plans for a massive new development.

You can add your vote in our poll at the bottom of this article

The Surrey Comet asked 50 people in Tolworth what they thought of the chains plans to build a new supermarket, hotel, and flats on the old Toby Jug site near Charrington Bowl.

There were 24 people in favour, 21 against, and five undecided.

Below is what some of them said.

The plans are up for discussion at tonights south of the borough committee meeting at 7.30pm, at Southborough High School.

Kingston Councils development control committee will have the final say on the proposal at a meeting on Friday, February 7 at the Guildhall.

Excerpt from:

Your views: Tesco's plans for Tolworth development

Youve lost your dog. Youve been out all night, canvassing the neighbourhood, but theres still no sign of Fluffy.

If only youd been able to use facial-recognition technology to upload a photo of the dog to a digital cloud before it disappeared.

Wait, theres an app? For that?

Philip Rooyakkers, co-founder of a Vancouver dog shop, has developed an application he hopes will make it easier for Canadian pet owners to reunite with the estimated one million animals that go missing in this country every year.

In Pictures: Pooches have a spa day at Dogtopia

Move over tags, tattoos and microchips. Hello, iTunes.

I was sitting having my lunch one day, with my Boston terrier in my office and his brother happened to also be in my office, Mr. Rooyakkers recalled in an interview. Both are sitting there staring at me while Im eating. Im looking at them and it occurred to me that, Oh my gosh, their faces, even though theyre brothers they have different patterns on their faces. And I thought, Why dont we use facial recognition to [put together] a pet list?

That October, 2011 lunch started Mr. Rooyakkers on a two-year journey that, this past November, saw his team make its submission to Apple, for inclusion to the iTunes store.

PiP for Positive Identification of Pets became available for download earlier this month.

Mr. Rooyakkers knows all too well the worry that can come with losing a pet. His Yorkshire terrier once scampered out an open door, triggering a desperate search. The owner was fortunate enough to find the dog the next day, at a nearby shelter.

Go here to see the original:

Canadian-developed pet app gives peace of mind

LOUISVILLE - A Louisville-based company with 10 restaurants needs your help finding a new name.

Udi's Foods sold its Gluten-Free division in 2012, and along with it, the name Udi's.

9NEWS Business Anchor Gregg Moss went behind-the-scenes of Udi's main bakery and food preparation facility Monday morning.

He'll talked with members of the founding family about their success, and how they've grown from a small sandwich shop that opened in 1994 to a company that's looking to grow.

Etain Bar-on, CEO and son of the founder, said they founded Udi's as a family with the community in mind, which is why they want to have their fans play a big part in the renaming process.

People can go to http://www.renameudis.com and submit their name ideas. They can explain why they think their idea is the best and they can also upload videos through Feb. 10.

Members of the Udi's family will pick their three favorites and from Feb. 17 to 28, the public will have a chance to vote on the favorite of those three.

The winner will get bragging rights and a party for 20 at one of Udi's restaurants.

The winner will be announced April 2 after a New Orleans-style funeral event takes place to bury the company's 20-year-old name.

(KUSA-TV 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

Excerpt from:

Udi's needs a new name

Unsung Hero: Lollipop man from Chessington who loves his job come rain or shine

5:00am Sunday 12th January 2014 in News By Nazia Dewji, Reporter

A Chessington lollipop man has said not even the dreary English weather gets him down when he is working.

Martin Constable, 37, has been positioned rain or shine at the zebra crossing in Moor Lane serving schoolchildren at Castle Hill Primary School for nearly five years minus a seven-month stint in Leatherhead Road last year.

The council employee who was born and bred in Chessington said he came across the job by luck after an old boss passed on a flyer.

Mr Constable, of Elm Road, said: He could not find anyone that was interested. I turned up for the interview and, as they say, the rest is history. It was a bit of luck.

I love it. I am very lucky because Castle Hill is a great school and the kids are really, really great and so are the parents.

I help anyone who wants to cross. I just like getting out and meeting people. I dont even mind the weather I am always happy.

In his spare time Mr Constable enjoys watching action films, Formula One racing and spending time with his Hahns macaw, a green parrot who loves to learn new words. Mr Constable said:

He knows about 14 or 15 words. I have had him for about a year.

Follow this link:

Unsung Hero: Lollipop man who loves his job come rain or shine

Images are a great way to enhance your WordPress.com blog, and adding and managing them is easy.

You can upload the following image types to a post or page on your WordPress.com blog:

1. Title - The title displays on the images attachment page.

Note: The title added in this field does notdisplay as a tooltip (when a mouse is hovered over the image). To add a tooltip title, edit the image after inserting it into the post, and add your tooltip wording to the Title field.

2. Caption- Image caption displayed directly underneath the image.

3. Alt Text- The text displayed when the image is not available. This is the text seen by search engines and screen readers.

4. Description -Full image description or other information to accompany the image on its attachment page.

5.Alignment- The position of the image within your post or page. See this page onimage alignmentfor more information.

6. Link to- The URL/web address to which the image will be linked.There are three choices:

7.Size - The size of the image.

See the article here:

Images — Support — WordPress.com

S

We're still decades if not centuries away from being able to transfer a mind to a supercomputer. It's a fantastic future prospect that makes some people incredibly squeamish. But there are considerable benefits to living a digital life. Here's why you should seriously consider uploading.

As I've pointed out before, uploading is not a given; there are many conceptual, technological, ethical, and security issues to overcome. But for the purposes of this Explainer, we're going to assume that uploads, or digital mind transfers, will eventually be possible whether it be from the scanning and mapping of a brain, serial brain sectioning, brain imaging, or some unknown process.

Indeed, it's a prospect that's worth talking about. Many credible scientists, philosophers, and futurists believe there's nothing inherently intractable about the process. The human brain an apparent substrate independent Turing Machine adheres to the laws of physics in a material universe. Eventually, we'll be able to create a model of it using non-biological stuff and even convert, or transfer, existing analog brains to digital ones.

So, assuming you'll live long enough to see it and muster up the courage to make the paradigmatic leap from meatspace to cyberspace here's what you have to look forward to:

Once you're living as a stream of 1's and 0's you'll never have to worry about body odor, going to the bathroom, or having to brush your teeth. You won't need to sleep or have sex unless, of course, you program yourself such that you'll both want and need to do these things (call it a purist aesthetic choice).

S

At the same time, you won't have to worry about rising cholesterol levels, age-related disorders, and broken bones. But you will have to worry about viruses (though they'll be of a radically different sort), hackers, and unhindered access to processing power.

The end of an organic, biological human life will offer the potential for an indefinitely long one. For many, virtual immortality will be the primary appeal of uploading. So long as the supercomputer in which you reside is secure and safe (e.g. planning an exodus from the solar system when the Sun enters into its death throes), you should be able to live until the universe collapses in the Big Rip something that shouldn't happen for another 22 billion years.

I spoke to futurist John Smart about this one. He's someone who's actually encouraging the development of technologies required for brain preservation and uplift. To that end, he's the Vice President of the Brain Preservation Foundation, a not-for-profit research group working to evaluate and award a number of scanning a preservation strategies.

Read the original post:

Why You Should Upload Yourself to a Supercomputer

1/8/14 business By MIKE SCHUSTER/MINYANVILLE Column: Twitter co-founder unveils Jelly, but to whom?

Photo credit: MINYANVILLE

Last April, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone hinted at a new project he and his team were working on. Keeping things clandestine at first, he asked the question on his company blog, "What is Jelly?" In the months that followed, the answer was partially revealed in tiny fragments. It was to be a question-and-answer platform with a mobile approach.

This week, Jelly was revealed to be little more than that vague description.

Specifically, Jelly allows iOS and Android users to snap and upload photos to their social networks, utilizing a crowdsourced "group mind" to answer questions about the picture. For example, someone could take a photo of an unusual animal they see on a hike, upload the picture to Jelly, and ask their followers, "What in the world is this?" The app collects these photo queries and answers posted by their friends in a timeline, letting users mark their favorite responses and share them with others within and outside their particular social network.

Full story at Minyanville.

Go here to read the rest:

Column: Twitter co-founder unveils Jelly, but to whom?

I CAME UP with a joke today.

Q: What will we eat if Android wins the mobile operating system war?

A: Blackberry and Apple Crumble.

I never said it was a good joke. But after the day I've had, even a lame pun is better than nothing.

Monday, 6 January

At this point, I am going to let you into a little secret. I nearly caved today. I was sitting in a room with four Windows machines, all switched off. I'd spent five hours - yes, five - trying to post an article.

During that time, I fought against devices rebooting, apps that crashed for no apparent reason but always at the crucial moment, and a cut and paste mechanism that seems to have been written by the cast of Sesame Street on ritalin.

It is safe to say that, for a journalist on a successful tech website, using Android exclusively is, while not impossible, certainly not convenient. It's a little like a holiday in North Korea. It can be done, but it probably isn't very relaxing and you might not get out of it in one piece.

I'm an advocate for Android due to its open ecosystem. But that can also be its undoing. There is often inconsistency between apps that means that they behave differently than Android design guidelines, thus reducing their capacity for intuitive use.

In addition, because many apps come from back bedroom developers, they are prone to instability. There isn't a huge community of bug testers to check every possible eventuality, and you can be sure that the one they haven't tested will be the one you end up running into and finding out about the hard way.

More:

The INQUIRER Android Experiment: Episode Three

21 hours ago Jan. 9, 2014 - 10:58 AM PST

Uploading hundreds of gigabytes of data can be a slow and tedious process. Thats why cloud backup provider IDrive launched a new service Thursday that replaces that upload with the postman. IDrives new IDrive Safe offering offers small to medium businesses a way to back up their data on one of the companys hard drives, then have it shipped to a managed storage location, and get it sent back if there ever is a need to restore the entire backup.

IDrives staff also makes these drives available online on request, but the data isnt accessible 24/7. IDrives Business Development CoordinatorShane Bingham told me during an interview at CES in Las Vegas this week that the offering was more about offsite backups than about cloud storage, and he suggested that this would be a good solution for businesses that still have a lot of local data, but want some peace of mind with an extra offsite copy.

IDrive Safe is $100 per year for a one-time copy of up to 1TB of data. Businesses that need their data backed up more frequently can elect to get a new drive shipped every month for $1000 per year, and a yearly backup costs $200 per year.Bingham told me that the company employs two people just for managing drive storage, and that it can scale up to manage thousands of drives within days.

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IDrive’s solution to slow cloud backups: a drive shipping service

Post the tremendous success of the Facebook contest for aspiring designers held last year in July, Air France in partnership with world famous Indian fashion designer Manish Arora, once again launches the contest for the young and talented fashion designers to showcase their talent starting January 06, 2013. According to Yeshwant Pawar, General Manager, South Asia, Air France-KLM, We are extremely happy and delighted with the response we had received from our online contest with Mr. Arora for the aspiring designers. We are very glad to revive this contest once again for all the potential designers giving them a chance to witness and take home learning from the fashion industrys biggest event. We also believe inspiring concepts like this will help us to build a deeper connect with the customers and also strengthen our social media engagement with them. The highlight this year is that apart from the final winner being selected on votes, Manish would also select another winner at his discretion who would be eligible for a 2 month internship with him in India

To participate in this month long contest the contestants will have to upload pictures of their fashion creations along with a short write up on http://www.facebook.com/airfrance. The contestants can invite their friends to vote for their collection. Each week, the top five collections with maximum votes will qualify to be the weekly winners and out of them one lucky weekly winner will be selected by Manish Arora and awarded with an autographed merchandise by Manish Arora along with an Air France merchandise. The grand winner will be chosen by Manish Arora basis the votes on February 06, 2014 from the top ten selected designs who will take home a free economy class ticket on Air France and witness the Manish Arora show at the coveted Paris Fashion Week scheduled to be held on February 18 - 24, 2014. In addition to this, the most creative contestant as judged purely by Manish Arora will stand a chance to win an economy ticket to Paris accompanied with a free pass for the fashion week show and an exclusive opportunity to intern with Manish Arora for a period of 2 months. So hurry up, let your creative mind do the magic and bring out a beautiful and innovative collection and win a free ticket to Paris from Air France.

Go here to see the original:

Air France launches Facebook contest with Manish Arora

By Whitworth University Athletics

SPOKANE, Wash. Shadle Park High School head football coach Alan Stanfield has been named the offensive coordinator at Whitworth University. Pirate head coach Rod Sandberg made that announcement this morning.

Stanfield is Sandberg's first official hire as he fills out his staff for the 2014 football season.

"Alan brings a creative and brilliant offensive mind and his offensive success this past year at Shadle Park was staggering," Sandberg said. "But what excites me most about his addition to our staff is his fit for the vision we have for this football program and his fit for the mission of Whitworth University."

Stanfield led the Highlanders to a Greater Spokane League championship and the 3A state semifinals this past season. Shadle Park finished 11-2 overall and 8-1 in the GSL.

The announcement marks a homecoming for Stanfield, who earned his undergraduate degree from Whitworth in 1997 and an Administration Credential in 2006.

"Rod really sold me on his vision for Whitworth football, emphasizing faith, future, family, and fun," Stanfield said. "Our staff at Shadle Park was successful in creating a similar culture of strong relationships, hard work and we had lots of fun in building up that program."

Stanfield spent four years rebuilding the Highlanders into a regional power. After taking over a program that had struggled through seven straight losing seasons, Stanfield led Shadle Park to a state playoff appearance in only his third year. He developed Brett Rypien into a record-setting quarterback and Shadle set multiple GSL passing and receiving records in 2012 and 2013.

Stanfield's football coaching resume extends back several years. He was the head coach at Timberline High School in Boise in 2008 and 2009, leading the Wolves to their first playoff appearance in five seasons in 2008.

Stanfield was the head coach at The Pingry School in Martinsville, N.J. in 2006 and 2007 while his wife Brenna was attending Princeton Theological Seminary. He was an assistant coach at Whitworth in 2004 and 2005, directing the defensive backs. Prior to his previous stint at Whitworth, Stanfield was the head coach at Powder Valley High School (Ore.), leading the Badgers to a state title and 12-0 record in 2003 and a state runner-up finish in 2000.

Read the rest here:

Shadle Park's Stanfield Leaves to Become OC at Whitworth

It all started last spring, when Swampscott native Mark Yarmarkovich, 28, saw an art exhibit.

The artist had made over 10,000 buttons the kind you pin on your shirt -- using images from magazines and other types of old and new media, Yarmarkovich said in a recent interview. The walls of the gallery were covered in buttons. Each of the buttons seemed to capture a small part of a larger image, similar to how our mind tends to remember smaller fragments of a whole experience.

That display instantly sparked an idea, and ultimately led to the creation of a mobile app.

I thought the buttons looked really beautiful and that it would be a cool way to let people capture their own memories, he said.

And thus, Memento Studio was born.

Available for free through the App Store, Memento Studio is an app that allows users to take photos, edit them and then customize items using that photo. Users can upload a photo onto different items such as magnets, pins, bottle openers, key chains and more.

The app allows people to capture memories and create personalized gifts, encapsulated in a high quality form that looks really nice wherever you want to put it, Yarmarkovich said.

But it wasnt easy turning his idea into something real.

The process was long and involved more hurdles than I originally anticipated, he said. But I was lucky to work with a talented developer who made the functionality of this app really great. There were a lot of other factors that went into establishing a company, refining the manufacturing process, and deciding on the features of the app. It became kind of a tradeoff between wanting to launch the app and wanting to continue improving it before putting it out there.

Once the app was ready, Yarmarkovich submitted it to Apple. After it was reviewed and accepted by Apple, Yarmarkovich could now start helping people create something with their photos.

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Swampscott native brings memories to life with mobile app

The very best fitness apps do make it easier to channel that inner motivation, so we picked our top ten to make your new year, new body resolutions that much more achievable

1. Nike+ Running, free

"This is just so simple to use, which makes it my favourite app for running," explains celebrity trainer Dalton Wong, founder of TwentyTwo Training . "Compared to all the other running app companions I've tried this is the easiest, and most encouraging of all. You don't need to tap in anything - it just starts up, tracks your route using GPS, and records your distance, time and speed. Plus, you can also challenge friends - or one of the other seven million other members. I love it."

2. Pzziz Sleep, 3.99

"Without doubt my favourite app of all. The Pzziz sleep app uses binaural beats and sounds, including the sound of the ocean say, to lull your brainwaves into a relaxing, restful sleep - and when you consider that most of us are sleep deprived, an app like this that can recharge our batteries is the one that actually will end up giving us better workouts. I use it for power naps whenever I can - my favourite trick is to have a small espresso, use Pzziz for a snooze - 20 minutes later, I'm recharged and the caffeine starts kicking and I have THE best workout. It's amazing." Nike+ Running; Pzziz

3. Fitocracy , free

Voted app of the year by Men's Journal , think of Fitocracy as the social network of fitness enthusiasts - both those who share your pain, and those experts who can teach you a thing or two about turning it into gain. Ultimately an app to motivate yourself, Fitocracy is designed like a game whereby you log your progress, list your challenges and then smash them - using the guidance and help of the other members who regularly post videos and tips on how to get fit.

4. Train Tip - Weight Off Your Mind, 8.99

The thinking man's guide to getting fit and getting the weight off, this app uses the power of the mind to reach your dream body - in theory. Hypno-therapeutic audio tracks and neuro-linguistic programmig techniques work on your mind muscles, so that you'll remedy the cause of your weight gain, and not the symptoms.

5. Myfitnesspal , free

The rest is here:

10 Best: fitness apps