Google has dropped cloud storage pricing 20 percent, has added a set of new features, and is expanding its availability in Europe -- all in advance of rival Amazon Web Service's (AWS) first major event this week in Las Vegas.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/f4VP3FKrlw4/
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? A crate full of sushi arrives. Workers wearing wetsuit shirts or in bare feet bustle past with slim laptops. With days to go, a buzzing intensity fills the once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson's visual-effects studio is rushing to finish the opening film in "The Hobbit" trilogy.
The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until the actors walk the red carpet Nov. 28 for the world premiere. But after "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" hits theaters, there's more work to be done.
Weta Digital is the centerpiece of a filmmaking empire that Jackson and close collaborators have built in his New Zealand hometown, realizing his dream of bringing a slice of Hollywood to Wellington. It's a one-stop shop for making major movies ? not only his own, but other blockbusters like "Avatar" and "The Avengers" and hoped-for blockbusters like next year's "Man of Steel."
Along the way, Jackson has become revered here, even receiving a knighthood. His humble demeanor and crumpled appearance appeal to distinctly New Zealand values, yet his modesty belies his influence. He's also attracted criticism along the way.
The special-effects workforce of 150 on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy a decade ago now numbers 1,100. Only five of Weta Digital's workers are actual employees, however, while the rest are contractors. Many accept the situation because movie work often comes irregularly but pays well. Union leaders, though, say the workers lack labor protections existing in almost any other industry.
Like many colleagues, Weta Digital's director, Joe Letteri, came to New Zealand in 2001 to work on the "Rings" trilogy for two years. The work kept coming, so he bought a house in Wellington and stayed.
"People come here because they know it's their chance to do something really great and to get it up on the screen," he said in a recent interview.
Jackson, who declined to be interviewed for this story, launched Weta in 1993 with fellow filmmakers Jamie Selkirk and Richard Taylor. Named after an oversized New Zealand insect, the company later was split into its digital arm and Weta Workshop, which makes props and costumes.
Loving homages to the craft are present in Weta Digital's seven buildings around the green-hilled suburb of Miramar. There are old-time movie posters, prop skulls of dinosaurs and apes, and a wall of latex face impressions of actors from Chris O'Donnell to Tom Cruise.
Its huge data center, with the computing power of 30,000 laptops, resembles a milk-processing plant because only the dairy industry in New Zealand knew how to build cooling systems on such a grand scale.
Little of Weta's current work was visible. Visitors must sign confidentiality agreements, and the working areas of the facilities are off-limits. The company is secretive about any unannounced projects, beyond saying Weta will be working solidly for the next two years, when the two later "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be released.
The workforce has changed from majority American to about 60 percent New Zealanders. The only skill that's needed, Letteri says, is the ability to use a computer as a tool.
Beyond having creativity as a filmmaker, Jackson has proved a savvy businessman, Letteri says.
"The film business in general is volatile, and visual effects has to be sitting right on the crest of that wave," Letteri says. "We don't get asked to do something that somebody has seen before."
The government calculates that feature films contribute $560 million each year to New Zealand's economy. Like many countries, New Zealand offers incentives and rebates to film companies and will contribute about $100 million toward the $500 million production costs of "The Hobbit" trilogy. Almost every big budget film goes through Jackson's companies.
"New Zealand has a good reputation for delivering films on time and under budget, and Jackson has been superb at that," says John Yeabsley, a senior fellow at New Zealand's Institute of Economic Research. "Nobody has the same record or the magic ability to bring home the bacon as Sir Peter."
"You cannot overestimate the fact that Peter is a brand," says Graeme Mason, chief executive of the New Zealand Film Commission. "He's built this incredible reputational position, which has a snowball effect."
Back in 2010, however, a labor dispute erupted before filming began on "The Hobbit." Unions said they would boycott the movie if the actors didn't get to collectively negotiate. Jackson and others warned that New Zealand could lose the films to Europe. Warner Bros. executives flew to New Zealand and held a high-stakes meeting with Prime Minister John Key, whose government changed labor laws overnight to clarify that movie workers were exempt from being treated as regular employees.
Helen Kelly, president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, says a compromise could easily have been reached. She says the law changes amounted to unnecessary union-busting and a "gross breach" of employment laws.
"I was very disappointed at Peter Jackson for lobbying for that," she says, "and I was furious at the government for doing it."
Weta Digital's general manager Tom Greally compared it to the construction industry, where multiple contractors and mobile workers do specific projects and then move on.
Animal rights activists said last week they plan to picket the premiere of "The Hobbit" after wranglers alleged that three horses and up to two dozen other animals died in unsafe conditions at a farm where animals were boarded for the movies. Jackson's spokesman Matt Dravitzki acknowledged two horses died preventable deaths at the farm but said the production company worked quickly to improve animal housing and safety. He rejected claims any animals were mistreated or abused.
Jackson's team pointed out that 55 percent of animal images in "The Hobbit" were computer generated at Weta. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have asked Jackson in the future to create all his animals in the studio.
Controversies aside, the rise of Weta and the expat American community in and around Miramar is visible in everything from a Mexican restaurant to yoga classes. On Halloween, which in the past was not much celebrated in New Zealand, hundreds of costumed children roamed about collecting candy. Americans gave the tradition a boost here, but the locals have embraced it.
The National Business Review newspaper estimates Jackson's personal fortune to be about $400 million, which could rise considerably if "The Hobbit" franchise succeeds. Public records show Jackson has partial ownership stakes in 21 private companies, most connected with his film empire. He's spent some of his money on philanthropy, helping save a historic church and a performance theater.
For all his influence, Jackson maintains a hobbit-like existence himself, preferring a quiet home life outside of work. In the end, many say, he seems to be driven by what has interested him from the start: telling great stories on the big screen.
___
Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hobbits-superheroes-put-magic-nz-film-industry-054242009.html
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Best Buy has put together its own ad for the holiday season, this latest one concentrates solely on Apple products. The ad features a young boy trying to track down Santa. Unfortunately he has little success until the last minute when he manages to get a FaceTime call with the white bearded man in the red suit.
You can do anything with your gifts - including track down Santa Claus with all of your Apple products. All things Apple. All at your local Best Buy.
Apple will probably release its own ads for the holiday season very soon. Last year?s Apple ad saw Santa using Siri to help him get around homes delivering presents as he wwnt. Not sure if Apple will use a similar theme this year especially after the criticism it has received over its own Maps app.
Source: YouTube
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Besides its reputation for being ?cold?, what else do you know about our 49th State? Alaska has an abundance of things to do and see, whether you are a first time vacationer or a returning travelerThere is no other place like Alaska for traveling and exploringAlaska is 586,000 square miles. With an area that big, think about the possibilities.
Here are just a few of the attractions that are available and are sure to whet your appetite for adventure. Wildlife viewing, helicopter tours, and train rides are very popular. You can also relax on a bus tour into Denali State Park, watch a totem pole being carved, or try your luck at catching one of Alaska?s world famous King Salmon.
It would take (2) lifetimes to experience everything Alaska has to offer. With its vast wilderness, Alaska provides opportunities for viewing wildlife either up close or from far away, in its natural habitat. For example, Alaska holds the distinction of having the largest Eagle population in the world. Whether you are a nature lover or not, just seeeing these magnificent birds soar throught the air is enough to take your breath away. With a wilderness area that is 2 1/2 times the size of the state of Texas, you can be guaranteed excellent photo opportunities.
It?s hard to believe that Alaska has the largest temperate rain forest in the United States. Take the time to walk in it and discover this incredible gift. Indescribable adventures await you whereever your journey takes you in Alaska. Every ?ice-blue? glacier and historic waterfront town calls for you to jump in to explore and discover its uniqueness and beauty. Give yourself the freedom to answer this ?call of the wild?. In every city from Anchorage to Fairbanks and beyond, there?s plenty to do and see.
One of the ways to see this beautiful state is to cruise the Inner Passage. Taking one of the cruise ships is a simple way to get your feet wet and explore the state. You have the security of knowing that your basic needs like food, transportation, and your lodging is handled while you have the freedom of choosing any number of activities.
Depending on the town you stop in, you can choose to go whale watching, or take a helicopter trip and walk on a glacier. You can ride the White Pass Railroad or pan for gold. You can even take a Jeep tour on a logging trail and top it off with a salmon bake. Also, every town appears to have their own special and historical events happening on a regular basis and you definitely want to catch these, as well. There are also many fascinating museums and remember to save time to see the stunning Aurora Borealis, especially if you go in the fall.
Alaska seems to have it all. From world famous Parks & Preserves to Volcanos. From Historical & Annual Events and everything in between. With such variety, it?s surprising that anyone would look anywhere but north when vacation time comes. Alaska is a great American Vacation destination that you will want to experience for yourself at least once in your lifetime.
The French R?sistance has had a great influence on literature, particularly in FranceA famous example is the poem "Strophes pour se souvenir", which was written by the communist academic Louis Aragon in 1955 to commemorate the heroism of the Manouchian Group, whose 23 members were shot by the NazisThe R?sistance is also portrayed in Jean Renoir's wartime This Land is Mine (1943), which was produced in the USAIn the immediate post-war years, French cinema produced a number of films that portrayed a France broadly present in the R?sistance.[188][189] The 1946 La Bataille du rail depicted the courageous efforts of French railway workers to sabotage German reinforcement trains,[190] and in the same year Le P?re tranquille told the story of a quiet insurance agent secretly involved in the bombing of a factory.[190] Collaborators were hatefully presented as a rare minority, as played by Pierre Brewer in J?richo (1946) or Serge Reggiani in Les Portes de la nuit (1946), and movements such as the Milice were rarely evokedIn the 1950s, a less heroic interpretation of the R?sistance to the occupation gradually began to emerge.[190] In Claude Autant-Lara's La Travers?e de Paris (1956), the portrayal of the city's black market and general mediocrity revealed the reality of war-profiteering during the occupation.[191] In the same year, Robert Bresson presented A Man Escaped, in which an imprisoned R?sistance activist works with a reformed collaborator inmate to escape.[192] A ...
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The Holland America Line is a British-American owned cruise lineIt was founded in 1873 as the Netherlands-America Steamship Company (Dutch: Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij), a sh..Holland America Line - Wiki Article - wikiplays.org Original @ http All Information Derived from Wikipedia using Creative Commons License: en.wikipedia.org Author: Jan van Beers jr(1852 -- 1927) Image URL: en.wikipedia.org Licensed under:This image is ineligible for copyright and therefore is in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship., This work is in the Public Domain., This work is in the public domain in the United StatesAuthor: Welkinridge Image URL: en.wikipedia.org Licensed under:This image is ineligible for copyright and therefore is in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship., This work is in the Public Domain., This work is in the public domain in the United States.
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goo.gl We would like to thank all our fans and The Father for propelling this video to almost 4 million views in only 18 months, making this video the most heavily viewed Independently Produced Religious Music Video in the world! We would also like to publicly thank the following folks who have worked with us to make this a reality: Technical Support: Bradley Myer Photography: Sherry LAldrich CD package Layout and Design: Sherry LAldrich CD Graphics: Sherry LAldrich and Marie Brandt Marketing and Promotions: Marie Brandt Photographers Assistant: Charles Aldrich Secretary and Treasurer: Marie Brandt CPA and Financial Counsel: Tracy Corta at "Jordan & Company" All the great folks at Disc Makers, particularly, Chad Fondren: Product Specialist Gaye Feightner: Product Specialist--Graphics Christina Tapia: Project Manager-Foundry Angela Seltzer: Product Specialist Additional Printing Supervisor: Kathy Eby at Lithos Printing Website Development and Maintenance: Poop Dog Website Graphics Design: Marie Brandt "Rule of Man" Music Video Graphics Design: Marie Brandt US Retail Storefronts: Rich Graves at Budget Tapes and Records, Pocatello Idaho Susan Leak at Renagades Music and Bonanza Music Store Posters and Promotional Graphics Design: Marie Brandt and Sherry LAldrich Contract Law and Legal Counsel: William Faler at "Faler Law" Director of Marketing & Publicity: Marie Brandt at BrandtMorainPR Additional Publicity: Susan Leak, Karen Plant, Kjelene Bertrand, Patricia Mostyn ...
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Vote for TYT every day at www.podcastawards.com (through 11/30/09) & www.mashable.com (through 12/13/09) For more details visit www.TheYoungTurks.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com
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By Rebecca Pilkington-Vincett
A feeding station popular with manta rays is not far from the Misool Eco Resort and Conservation Center in Raja Ampat, eastern Indonesia.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News
RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia ?They?ve been described by one scientist as ?pandas of the ocean.?
?They?re such an iconic species, beloved by divers,? said Andrea Marshall, director of the?Marine Megafauna Foundation, who came up with the description during an interview with NBC News. ?They?re just amazing.??
Unlikely as it might seem, the panda and the manta ray have a lot in common.
Just as scientists still haven?t been able to confirm the number of pandas in the wild, they also have no idea how many manta rays exist.
?Globally we don?t know how many manta rays there are,? said Guy Stevens, director of the U.K.-based?Manta Trust,?whose research is largely based around manta populations in the Maldives.
But -- again, like the panda -- scientists think it?s a small population.
?If they?re lucky, (manta rays) have two pups (over several years).?That?s a very low reproductive rate, especially compared to your average fish,? said Dr. Heidi Dewar, a biologist at the?Southwest Fisheries Science Center, part of NOAA.
Anecdotal evidence suggests mantas are under threat, and China may be a major reason for it.
Manta rays are vulnerable on two fronts: as bycatch ? getting caught in industrial fishing nets targeting different types of tuna ? and, increasingly, because of traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM.?
Manta rays are abundant in the waters around Raja Ampat, eastern Indonesia.
Manta rays are harvested for their gill rakers, which allow the fish to filter food from water.? Some Chinese believe they have healing properties or are good at cleaning out toxins. One Chinese-language?website claims gill rakers enhance the immune system, promote blood circulation and aid in the treatment of cancer, skin disease and infertility.
?It?s just cartilage,? said Dewar, echoing skepticism expressed by many scientists.
Medicinal fad?
Conservationists say manta rays aren?t even considered ?traditional? medicine and argue no reference to the animal can be found in TCM books dating back a century. But with rising incomes that enable Chinese consumers to readily adopt medicinal fads, the impact on manta rays has accelerated over the past 10 to 15 years.?
?A lot of it is completely unrecorded,? said Stevens, who worked on a project founded by Shark Savers and WildAid to document the scope of gill-raker harvesting.?
Understanding the beauty and diversity of Raja Ampat, aka 'Underwater Eden'
Researchers looked at the location, value and species involved. ?It does seem the majority of all of those gills that are being traded are ending up in China,? Stevens said.
The conclusion, published in a report called?Manta Ray of Hope, found that roughly 3,400 manta rays and 94,000 mobulas?(related to the manta ray family) are caught each year, but the numbers reflect only reported catches. ?Unreported and subsistence fisheries will mean true landings are much higher,? the report said.?
On patrol with a shark ranger in Indonesia's marine treasure trove
Visits to random TCM shops in Beijing and Shanghai turned up no gill rakers. In fact, a veteran pharmacist at Tongrentang, a long-established purveyor of traditional Chinese and herbal medicines, said she had never heard of manta rays being used this way.
But the Manta Ray of Hope report estimates a mature ocean manta could yield up to 15 pounds of dried gills that can bring in as much as $230 a pound in a market in China.?
Australia moves to ban fishing trawler with 900-foot-long net
Marshall said she has noticed an uptick in manta fishing. ?I?ve been (in Mozambique) in the last decade ? and we?ve seen an 87 percent decline in the population because of the fishing.??
Unlike many shippers, Chinese merchants who transport cheap products from the mainland for export to Africa ?want to fill [their unloaded cargo vessels] with resources wherever they go.? In Africa, they fill it up with wood, fish or shark?s fin,? she said.??They?ll go out to the local fisheries along the coastline and scout for these products.??
The scientist has spoken to members of local communities, who say the Chinese offer ?new nets, new lines, new hooks.?(The Chinese traders) say to them, ?If you get the sharks or the mantas or the turtles, you get all the meat. You can keep all the meat. You just sell us the things you don?t normally eat.'??
Protecting a ?threatened? species
Mantas were listed last year as ?threatened? under the international Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.
The?International Union for the Conservation of Nature?has classified the manta ray as ?vulnerable? to extinction.?
PhotoBlog: Raja Ampat archipelago: The world's last paradise
Chinese scientists have also weighed in.?
?In the last two years, we have conducted evaluations of the manta ray and submitted a recommendation to the government to list it as a protected species,? said Professor Wang Yanmin from Shandong University?s Marine College.
?There is no regulation for protecting the manta ray so sales of mantas are not illegal,? said Feng Yongfeng, founder of Green Beagle, a group that promotes environmental protection.
Groups like Manta Trust are focusing on getting manta rays listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). But scientists have their work cut out for them.?
?It?s very difficult to get listed on CITES.? They ask for a lot of detail that is difficult to pin down,? said Marshall. ??Maybe in the terrestrial world, biologists can provide those kinds of details. ?When you?re talking about the megafauna [or large marine species] world, it?s very difficult.??
Marshall ? who discovered a second type of manta ray in 2008 and is in the process of identifying a third -- acknowledges little is known about them.
AFP - Getty Images file
A huge manta ray weighing more than 2,200 pounds and measuring nearly 9 yards in length was caught off the eastern coast of China this past September.
Manta births a mystery?
Vexing questions include the manta?s life span, details of their reproductive ecology and migratory patterns.?
?I could wrap my life up in 20 minutes if I could talk to them,? she joked. ??It has been driving me insane for the last ten years because I haven?t been able to figure out where they give birth.? It?s 2012 and nobody has ever seen a manta give birth in the wild.??
And research is painstaking. For one, concentrations of the animal tend to be around far-flung islands.?Stevens of Manta Trust cited the costs of tracking mantas and the difficulty in locating and knowing how to study them.?
With technological improvements, however, scientists are gaining some ground. Satellite tags are one way to help the research.??What do they do when we can?t observe them? I?d love to follow an animal to find out how they spend their time,? said Stevens. ?The tagging gives you small glimpses of them.??
Two dive instructors at the Misool Eco Resort and Conservation Center in Raja Ampat have uncovered a revenue stream to offset research costs: tourism.
?One manta ray can raise $1 million (U.S. dollars) in tourism income over its lifetime,? said Rebecca Pilkington-Vincett, citing a figure contained in the Manta Ray of Hope?report.
PhotoBlog: Raja Ampat archipelago: The world's last paradise
With the blessing of the resort, Pilkington-Vincett and Calvin Beale launched a research project off the surrounding reefs. ?
Last season, the duo raised $32,000 from donations by recreational divers who accompanied them on dives to gather DNA samples and tag the mantas.?
With the money, they have bought three satellite tags and collected numerous DNA samples.? They are sending off the data to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for analysis by a graduate student.?
With online databases such as the?Manta Research Project, where some of Pilkington-Vincett and Beale?s data are logged, or the?Manta Matcher, developed by Marshall and operating much ?like the FBI fingerprint online database,? research on the manta ray has become rooted in a global exchange among scientists and amateurs alike.?
Until its secrets are fully revealed, the manta?s mystique seems guaranteed.?
?I think it?s fascinating,? said Dewar of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, ?that there is such a large and amazing creature that has so many mysteries attached to it.??
Additional research by Le Li, Johanna Armstrong and Yanzhou Liu.
More world stories from NBC News:
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday.
Online sales jumped at least 22 percent on Black Friday - from sales of $816 million on the same day last year, according to comScore data.
E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection.
ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic in physical retail stores, estimated Black Friday sales of $11.2 billion, down 1.8 percent from the same day last year.
"Online has been around 9 percent of total holiday sales, but it could breach 10 percent for the first time this season," said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more on websites, including Amazon.com and eBay.com.
ComScore expects online retail spending to rise 17 percent to $43.4 billion through the whole holiday season. That is above the 15 percent increase last season and ahead of the retail industry's expectation for a 4.1 percent increase in overall spending this holiday.
It's not clear yet whether strong Black Friday sales online will weaken growth on Cyber Monday, which has been the biggest e-commerce day in the United States in recent years.
"Cyber Monday will be a big day, but not as much of a big day as it has been in the past," said Mia Shernoff, executive vice president for Chase Paymentech, a payment processing unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.. "Faster broadband Internet connections in the office used to drive this. But now many consumers have faster connections at home and smart phones and tablets - they don't have to wait."
MOBILE SHOPPING GROWTH
A big source of online shopping growth this holiday season has come from increased use of smart phones, which let people buy online even when they are in physical stores, and by tablet computers, which have spurred more online shopping in the evenings, Wingo and others said.
Mobile devices accounted for 26 percent of visits to retail websites and 16 percent of purchases on Black Friday. That was up from 18.1 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, on the same day last year, according to International Business Machines, which analyzes online traffic and transactions from 500 U.S. retailers.
Amazon and eBay benefit from increased use of mobile devices for shopping because they are consistently the top two online retail destinations for mobile users, ChannelAdvisor's Wingo said.
Amazon.com was the most visited retail website on Black Friday, with more than 28 million visits, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc's website, with 18.4 million and Best Buy Co's site, which had 9.2 million visits, according to Hitwise.
Worth noting: eBay runs one of the largest online marketplaces, rather than being a retailer, so its online traffic was not reported by Hitwise. However, eBay said the volume of mobile transactions on its marketplace jumped 153 percent on Black Friday from a year earlier.
ChannelAdvisor clients' same-store sales on Amazon.com shot up 38 percent on Black Friday, compared with a year earlier. Last year's year-over-year growth was 50 percent.
Client same-store sales on eBay's marketplace rose 31 percent on Black Friday, compared with a year earlier. Last year's year-over-year growth was 15 percent, according to ChannelAdvisor.
PRICE PRESSURE
While mobile devices may be good for sales, they may not be so good for retail profit margins. Smart phones give shoppers real-time access to product prices online, potentially exacerbating the usual holiday discounting and price wars.
Black Friday online transactions jumped almost 30 percent, but the average ticket price was down more than 11 percent, according to Chase Paymentech, which reports data from its 50 largest e-commerce merchant clients.
"It's driving prices down," Shernoff said. "Consumers are checking prices in stores and showing the retailer, and the retailer will succumb to the lowest price online so they don't lose the consumer."
(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio and Jan Paschal)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/black-friday-sales-online-top-1-billion-first-165326723--sector.html
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