Saturday, March 30, 2013

How Ryan Gosling Became A Stunt Bike Badass For 'Pines'

'Place Beyond the Pines' stunt coordinator explains to MTV News how the star transformed into a daredevil.
By Kevin P. Sullivan


Ryan Gosling in "The Place Beyond the Pines"
Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/ Focus Features

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704551/ryan-gosling-place-beyond-the-pines-stunts.jhtml

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Which Movie Will Win the Box Office This Weekend?

From Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson kicking Cobra butt in G.I. Joe: Retaliation to Saoirse Ronan fighting against an alien species on Earth in The Host, here are the movies to check out this weekend. Plus, don't miss the films that have already hit theaters! Will you be grabbing your popcorn and catching one of them this weekend?

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/movie-reviews-what-see-weekend-3/1-a-530749?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amovie-reviews-what-see-weekend-3-530749

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 mini will reportedly go on sale shortly after GS 4

Samsung Galaxy S 4 mini will reportedly go on sale shortly after GS 4

Not too long after the Samsung Galaxy S 4 was announced, we started hearing whispers of a "miniature" version of the device -- which makes sense, given the Galaxy S III had a smaller sidekick of its own. Today, however, Bloomberg reported the unannounced device is indeed coming soon after the flagship makes its appearance at the end of April. If it follows a similar pattern to its bite-sized predecessor, it likely will be offered in Europe as a lower-cost alternative to the Galaxy S 4. The device is rumored to offer a dual-core 1.6GHz processor, a 4.3-inch display and 8MP camera. Sadly, no official details were given, but we've reached out to Samsung officials for comment and will update when we receive word.

Update: Samsung pinged back with the following comment, which doesn't do much towards confirming or denying whether or not the GS 4 mini is indeed on the horizon. A spokesperson informed us: "We have not announced the product mentioned in the Bloomberg story."

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Via: SamMobile, 9to5Google

Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/samsung-galaxy-s-4-mini/

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Trailer For Long-Delayed 'You're Next' Is Undeniably Terrifying

The first trailer for Adam Wingard's home invasion horror movie "You're Next" has us feeling conflicted. On one hand, the movie won accolades when it originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Wingrad and writer Simon Barrett in the mean time have kept themselves busy with the "V/H/S" series. The film is [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/29/youre-next-trailer/

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Some healthcare costs may rise when "Obamacare" implemented: official

By Jeff Mason and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top healthcare adviser acknowledged on Tuesday that costs could rise in the individual health insurance market, particularly for men and younger people, because of the landmark 2010 healthcare restructuring due to take effect next year.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said definitive data on costs will not be available until later this year when private health plans become authorized to sell federally subsidized coverage on new state-based online marketplaces, known as exchanges.

"Everything is speculation. I think there's likely to be some shifting in the markets," she told reporters at the White House.

The law, also known as "Obamacare," eliminates discriminatory market practices that have imposed higher rates on women and people with medical conditions.

It also limits how much insurers can charge older people. But while the changes are expected to lower costs for women, older beneficiaries and the sick, men and younger, healthier people will likely see higher rates as insurers try to hedge against continued risks.

"Women are going to see some lower costs, some men are going to see some higher costs. It's sort of a one to one shift ... some of the older customers may see a slight decline, and some of the younger ones are going to see a slight increase."

Insurance premiums could rise for some with individual plans, she said, as Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enhances the level of coverage and either eliminates or reduces the rate of price discrimination against people who are older, female or have preexisting medical conditions.

"These folks will be moving into a really fully insured product for the first time, so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market," Sebelius said.

But those who qualify for federal subsidies through state healthcare exchanges would still get a better deal, she said.

Her remarks coincide with growing uneasiness about possible cost increases among lawmakers and executives in the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare industry.

A new study released on Tuesday by the nonpartisan Society of Actuaries estimates that insurance costs will rise 32 percent on average nationwide within three years, partly as a result of higher risk pools. Changes would vary by state, from an 80 percent hike in Wisconsin to a 14 percent reduction in New York.

Obama's healthcare restructuring, the signature domestic policy achievement of his first term, is expected to provide coverage to more than 30 million people beginning on January 1, 2014, both through the state exchanges and a planned expansion of the government-run Medicaid program for the poor.

Subsidies in the form of premium tax credits, available on a sliding scale according to income, are expected to mitigate higher costs for many new beneficiaries.

But the insurance industry, which is set to gain millions of new customers under the law, is warning of soaring premium costs next year because of new regulations that include the need to offer a broader scale of health benefits than some insurers do now.

That has raised concerns about people with individual policies not subject to subsidies and the potential for cost spillovers into the market for employer-sponsored plans, which according to U.S. Census data, cover about half of U.S. workers.

'LITTLE IMPACT'

Sebelius dismissed the idea of significant change for employer plans, saying that market segment was "likely to see very little impact."

Separately, a Democratic U.S. senator on Tuesday said the federal government has limited scope to help millions of people likely to remain without affordable health insurance under the new law.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released a report submitted to the panel by the administration that outlines an "employee choice" policy that would allow some employers to offer a wider range of coverage choices to their workers at reduced rates for 2014.

But Wyden said the approach would not help many of the nearly 4 million worker dependents who may have to forego subsidized private health coverage as a result of an IRS ruling.

"Even in the states that allow for employee choice, it will be limited to a small number of workers," Wyden said.

The law would have most people with employer insurance remain under their current plans. Workers can opt for subsidized coverage if their employer plan is unaffordable, but only according to a narrow definition of what is affordable.

The IRS ruled in January that the cost of insuring a worker's family will be considered unaffordable if the employee's contribution to an individual coverage plan exceeded 9.5 percent of that person's income. That rule ignores the fact that family coverage is far more expensive than individual coverage.

As a result, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 3.9 million family dependents could be left unable either to afford employer-sponsored family coverage or to obtain federally subsidized insurance through an exchange.

In its report to the Senate committee, Sebelius' department said some employers could claim a tax credit in 2014 to make coverage more affordable and offer workers a range of coverage plans through state-based exchanges.

(This March 26 story has been corrected to drop reference to "premium" in second bullet and replace "individual premiums" with "insurance costs" in paragraph 11)

(Writing by David Morgan; Editing by Fred Barbash and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/healthcare-costs-may-rise-obamacare-implemented-official-170326637.html

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When does ad retargeting make sense for your business ...

porter-top-banner

Ad retargeting is used to follow users as they move from site to site.

Here?s how targeting advertising works ? but use it sparingly & strategically or it could turn off users

Target audience: Businesses, brands, digital marketers, advertising agencies, SEO specialists, entrepreneurs, educators, journalists, Web publishers.

JD LasicaLet me confess up front: I?ve long been attracted to the idea of useful advertising ? the promise that interruption marketing will fade into its well-deserved irrelevance and that marketers will be able to serve us ads and offers based on products and services we actually want or need.

Trouble is, the practice rarely lives up to the ideal, chiefly because retargeting, as it?s called, is hard to do well.

You know what I?m referring to, right? In your forays around the Web, you?ve no doubt noticed that you?re being served up advertising based on the pages you were visiting earlier. Take The Atlantic?s Alexis Madrigal, who discovered that 105 advertising-related companies tracked his online behavior over a 36-hour period. Lots of people are squeamish about the very idea of targeted ads, and for these folks, filling out this opt-out form should put the kabosh on most of these ads.

I fall into the second camp: I think retargeting has its place, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs trying to break through the clutter of 2,000 marketing messages that bombard us every day. If you run a small business or startup and have a new product, service, book or online class that readers or followers might find valuable, retargeting has its place in your marketing arsenal, as long as it?s done with discretion and is accompanied by other tactics in getting the word out.

Below I?ll offer tips and best practices for your business if you?re considering targeted advertising.

How ad retargeting works ? is it right for you?

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Here?s a look at how retargeting works and how it could be useful for your small business.

At its simplest, retargeting allows businesses to target ads to people who visited their site but didn?t purchase anything. Because the targeting is meant to be precise and the ad message can be customized, advertisers frequently see significant higher click-through-rates and purchases from retargeted ads.

Your business could:

  • Bring people back who abandoned the shopping cart process
  • Deliver a discount coupon or inform previous visitors of a sale
  • Simply remind viewers of your product at a later date when they might be ready to purchase

A number of vendors provide retargeting products: Google, AdRoll, Retargeter, Fetchback, Clicksor and Rocketfuel, to name just a few. Some have slightly different offerings, but they all basically work the same way.

?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments with a lower CPA than other channels?

Retargeting starts with a bit of tracking code that your vendor provides and that you install on pages of your site. This tracking code drops a cookie into a visitor?s web browser and that cookie tracks what pages are viewed on your site. (If this sounds old school, it is: Browser cookies have been around for 19 years.)

Once your visitors travel to other sites on the Web, they?ll almost certainly encounter advertising slots on some of these pages. This is where you can retarget an ad to them and try to bring them back to your site. Those ad slots will do a quick check to see if there is a retargeting cookie present in the browser, and if there is, it will trigger a split-second real-time auction to determine what ad is served.

You?ll want to establish a budget at the outset and set a limit for your campaign. Generally these campaigns start at a few hundred dollars for a small business and can scale up from there. If your bid is the highest, you win the auction and your ad is served. The targeting companies keep track of ad inventory so you don?t have to figure out where your ad will appear. You generally pay on a cost-per-click basis, the same as you would for Google AdWords ads.

How one small business uses targeting to increase enrollments

Porter Gale, a friend who?s the author of the upcoming book?Your Network Is Your Net Worth?and the former vice president of marketing for Virgin America, wanted to get the word out about her new three-day online class?Building Your Brand (day two is today).

So she agreed to a modest retargeting campaign steered by Rick Silvestrini, general manager of?creativeLIVE, which hosts live online workshops, including Porter?s.?Silvestrini?runs targeted advertising campaigns to drive sign-ups for several of his instructors? classes. ?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments from paid with a lower CPA (cost per acquisition) than other channels,? he said.

As with Google AdWords ads, the cost per click can vary greatly depending on your bid parameters ? after all, it?s auction pricing. With Google, there?s no minimum spend, and you can wind up spending little or a lot depending on how the ad performs. ?Our clicks cost anywhere from 32 cents to $ 1.50 per click, depending on how well the creative performs,? Silvestrini said. ?I?ll spend $300 to $2,000 per week on retargeting alone. That comes out to $50 to $800 per week per course.? The higher the spend, the more people who sign up for the courses.

porter-gale-youtube-ad

A targeted ad that appears as an overlay on a YouTube video.

Facebook wading into relevant advertising in a big way

What about Facebook? With a billion users and about a quarter of the all display ads on the Internet, Facebook offers businesses a huge opportunity for retargeting, and the mechanics are basically the same. However, the advertising units inside Facebook are different sizes (those little text & picture ads on the right of your news feed) and there are not as many vendors to choose from; Perfect Audience and AdRoll seem to be the biggest.

Facebook also has another twist on retargeting called Custom Audiences, where you upload your email list and Facebook targets ads to Facebook members who are on your list.

Other social networks, like LinkedIn and Twitter, have their own techniques for ad targeting.

Tips for small businesses that want to try out targeted ads

Can small businesses do this on their own? That depends on how technically savvy you are and how much time you want to devote to mastering retargeting. The easiest retargeting to do on your own is Facebook Custom Audiences targeted to your email list. (I might have recommended Twitter for its ease of use, but the conversion rate was very low for a campaign I recently did for one of my sites.) For the rest, you?ll at least need to know how to install a bit of tracking code into your pages.

Regardless of who?ll be executing your targeted ad campaign, keep these best practices in mind:

  • Have a planned-out strategy, don?t just send out a targeted ad blast. Who are you targeting precisely and what do you want them to do?
  • Don?t do a mass carpet bombing. Start out with a short campaign and grow it from there.
  • Make sure the service you use has an ad report tool. Try several variations of your ad and optimize your campaign to use the version that received the biggest response.
  • Make sure your product or service offers value and is something that people will want.
  • Make it personal and relevant ? not like a late-night infomercial.
  • Where possible, target friends of connections, which you can do in Facebook.
  • Make sure your ad contains a clear call to action.

If this still sounds bit daunting, please reach out to us and we?ll help get you on your way.

Ad targeting, while years old, still has a long way to go. Clearly, some of these companies go too far in collecting users? personal data without their consent (but that?s a column for another day). For another, there was no option to turn off the ads even though I registered for Porter?s workshop. I?m with The Register writer who bemoaned, ?Come on, people: if you?re going to track my online behavior, at least use it to get me to buy something I want!?

What do you think of retargeting? Have you used it? Do you think it has its place?

Related articles

? How to run an effective Facebook campaign for $5 (Socialmedia.biz)

? How To Use The 15 Facebook Ad Targeting Options (Socialfresh)

? Online advertising isn?t creepy enough: Go ahead and terrify me? with a properly targeted ad (The Register)

? How To Block Targeted Ads From Following You Around (Business Insider)

? Doc Searls? book The Intention Economy (Amazon)

? The Uncanny Valley of Internet Advertising (Slate)

? How to Opt Out of Facebook?s Creepy New Targeted Ads (Gizmodo)

? Targeted Ads: Finding a Balance Between Cool and Creepy (IT Business Edge)

? Online Display Advertising: Targeting and Obtrusiveness (Marketing Science, PDF)JD Lasica is founder of Socialmedia.biz. We work with large and mid-size businesses and organizations on social media strategies and optimizing your online presence. Contact JD by email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.

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Source: http://socialmedia.biz/2013/03/28/when-does-ad-retargeting-make-sense-for-your-business/

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No NASCAR penalties issued after California race

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? NASCAR Chairman Brian France said Tuesday the contact between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin as they battled for the win at California over the weekend was just the kind of throwback racing he expects out of his drivers and the new Gen-6 car.

"I have said repeatedly, every minute, that contact, especially late in the race when you are going for a win, that's not only going to happen ? that's expected," France said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Both of them did exactly what I think you would do when you really, really want to win. Getting some contact, trying to race extra hard to win the race, that's what we're about."

Hamlin suffered a compressed fracture of the L1 vertebra in his lower back, and Joe Gibbs Racing said Tuesday night he'll be out a minimum of six weeks.

France, who spoke to AP hours before JGR announced Hamlin would not require surgery but needed time to heal, did not think anything was done intentionally by Logano to harm Hamlin.

"Injuries can happen throughout any race on any lap, and fortunately they are seldom," France said. "That's just part of racing."

NASCAR announced Tuesday no penalties were warranted after California ? not against Tony Stewart for scuffling with Logano after the race, and series officials saw nothing to indicate Logano or Hamlin were trying to intentionally wreck each other as they raced for the win. In addition, NASCAR officials have given no thought to policing blocking, which is what Logano did to Stewart on the final restart to trigger the post-race confrontation.

"There are no conversations internally inside of NASCAR to look at blocking as a violation or a penalty as some other forms of motorsports do," Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said. "As good as the racing has been, as exciting as it's been, I don't know that we need to jump in the middle and screw it up."

Stewart parked his car near Logano's and angrily approached him after Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. There was some shoving, but crew members intervened before any punches landed. Logano threw a water bottle at Stewart.

Darby said the incident didn't escalate to a level where NASCAR had to take action.

"A few years ago we backed away from micromanaging drivers' emotions, you would hope in today's world that if somebody didn't win a race, they would be upset about it," Darby said. "I don't know that we've actually got a rule book that describes every push in the chest or kick in the shin. If two guys get into a hell of a fight, we're going to have to react. But a couple of guys blowing off some steam and slapping at the air is not going to get anybody in a whole lot of trouble."

France noted that drivers are encouraged to show their emotion and settle disputes ? which is all Stewart was doing on Sunday.

"We have no problem, and frankly encourage drivers to go up to one another to discuss whatever they think they need to that happened in the race," France said. "And then every once in a while there will be some emotions, and that's what happened Sunday and crews stepped in between them and we don't think it rose to some level of anything."

France said NASCAR will intervene when feuds go too far and when emotions run too high.

"We're not going to allow a boxing match to take place every time they have a disagreement," France said. "But on the other hand, we're not going to prevent the emotional exchanges that occur after a race. Everyone has the right to walk up to someone and say, 'What the? What happened there? What did you do that for?' And they explain themselves and usually work it out."

It remains to be seen where the Logano and Hamlin feud goes from here, although Sunday was viewed as a racing incident.

The two former teammates have feuded since the closing laps of the season-opening Daytona 500 and it escalated after contact from Hamlin sent Logano spinning into the wall two races ago at Bristol. Logano angrily confronted Hamlin after the race before being pulled away by crew members.

The two moved their feud to Twitter for at least the second time this season and then came Sunday's race.

They were racing side-by-side on the last lap for the win when they banged into each other. Both cars spun and Hamlin's hit head-on into an inside wall not protected with energy-absorbing SAFER barriers.

He spent Sunday night in a Southern California hospital, where he was diagnosed with an L1 compression fracture in his lower back. He saw Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates on Tuesday, and Petty determined the driver will not need surgery but needed a minimum of six weeks to heal.

NASCAR is off this weekend, so Hamlin could miss only five races if the healing process meets Petty's estimate. But the next five weeks include stops at Martinsville Speedway and Richmond International Raceway, where the Virginia-raised driver has a combined six Sprint Cup victories.

Hamlin also races in his annual charity event at RIR, and will now have to sit that out, too.

Darby did not think Logano intentionally wrecked Hamlin.

"It was the last lap of the race, and the last time they were both going to see turns three and four. They were side-by-side. If somebody was of the mindset to retaliate, they probably would have been lined up nose-to-tail and somebody would have drove into the other car and spun him around," Darby said. "In this case, that is so far from the opposite, that it never even crossed anybody's mind that I'm aware of that paid attention to the race."

Meanwhile, NASCAR is still going over data from Hamlin's accident and will need to meet with officials from the University of Nebraska, home to the engineering school's Midwest Roadside Safety experts, and IndyCar before making any recommendations on whether a SAFER barrier should be installed where Hamlin hit.

When NASCAR first began installing SAFER barriers following the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt, the priority were locations where cars frequently hit the wall. Officials at Nebraska also make recommendations not to install the barriers at certain points at a facility because of various issues, including the potential for a car to sling-shot back into traffic after impact.

Track officials usually follow the recommendations.

Tom Gideon, senior director of safety research and development at NASCAR, said where Hamlin hit was not an area that cars frequently make impact.

"Each point on the track we look at the application and you don't want to put (barriers) in places where the angle of impact may not be appropriate for a SAFER barrier," Gideon said. "We also look at the possibility of impact and the frequency of impact, and when you look at the frequency of impact, especially at oval tracks, it's reasonable to think they are going to be with outside walls."

NASCAR doesn't race at Auto Club Speedway again this season, but IndyCar's October finale is scheduled at the track. IndyCar officials said the series is working with NASCAR, Nebraska and the Fontana track officials to study the accident and see if "any changes need be addressed prior to our race at Fontana."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-nascar-penalties-issued-california-race-190726619--spt.html

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