Katy Perry Inspired By Madonna For 'Darker' Next Album

Queen of Pop 'kept everybody interested because you never knew what she was going to do next,' Perry tells L'Uomo Vogue.
By Jocelyn Vena

Katy Perry on L'Uomo Vogue
Photo: L'Uomo Vogue

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1688744/katy-perry-album-madonna-inspired.jhtml

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Stop Air Max Smoking And View Your Social Lifestyle Soar | Submit ...

You could not comprehend Nike Air Max it, but smoking affects your social lifestyle and your bodily well being. How often have you ever avoided heading areas because they were non-smoking, or ducked away from a celebration in the peak in the action to fulfill your nicotine cravings

Once you quit cigarette smoking, you could also improve your confidence, meet up with new men and women, and be part of new activities. An enhanced social lifestyle is just a single a lot more purpose to give up Air Max cigarette smoking!

Obtain confidence.

Smokers turn into addicted towards the nicotine in cigarettes and tobacco. Cigarettes, cigars, and pipes all emit smoke that holds a large number of other chemicals, in addition towards the nicotine. When a person?s physique gets addicted to nicotine, the chemical temporarily generates nice bodily and psychological consequences, which retains the smoker coming back time and once again.

When you effectively Nike Air Max quit cigarette smoking, you conquer this physical and psychological addiction. Overcoming this kind of a potent addiction is no easy process. Once you?ve accomplished it, you?ll have additional self-confidence to encounter other complicated duties inside your existence, armed with all the understanding which you have succeeded at certainly one of by far the most difficult hurdles lots of people today encounter. In case you can stop smoking, what exactly is there that you simply can?t achieve

Satisfy others trying to give up.

Ideally your loved ones and pals are going to be supportive of your efforts to stop smoking cigarettes. Nevertheless, non a single can genuinely empathize with you besides someone that is certainly really going by means of the same trials and tribulations. Sign up for an online or neighborhood community that provides support to folks that are quitting smoking.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) presents telephone counseling at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. WhyQuit provides discussion groups for both first-time quitters and ones that have attempted prior to. WhyQuit focuses on abrupt nicotine cessation (rather than smoking cigarettes cessation using a gradual decrease in nicotine consumption).

Lots of forums are geared toward quitting with all the help of a distinct medication. Having said that, forums which might be a lot more general include:

American Lung Association?s Liberty from Smoking provides modules to walk a quitter by means of the process and related message boards.

The Quit Smoking cigarettes Company?s communication boards are visually sparse, but provide visitors quite a few opportunities for dialogue with others wanting to quit.

Quit Smoking Help continues to be helping smokers stop for over 9 many years by way of peer-to-peer help and encouragement.

To meet people inside your nearby location and have a face-to-face dialogue on quitting cigarette smoking, take a look at Nicotine Anonymous, Smart Recovery, or examine along with your insurance coverage and wellness providers. Get much more support for your efforts, and make new buddies!

Learn new actions.

Many professionals recommend getting up new activities to fill up your time and keep you from thinking about smoking. As your well being improves, you are able to sign up for a nearby fitness center, recreational sports league, or get health and fitness classes.

To keep their palms busy and away from cigarettes, some people choose up hobbies like knitting, crocheting, or performing puzzles. What is going to you do with your new energy and time The options are endless!

Get out of the house.

When very first quitting, smokers are frequently urged to spend a great deal of time in public areas where smoking cigarettes is prohibited, just like libraries, malls, theatres, or museums. Revel inside the fact that you can stay within provided that you like-no need to run outside and fulfill a nicotine craving!

Make a stage to fulfill friends and families for supper at non-smoking restaurants which you may possibly have averted previously. As the amount of time because your final cigarette raises, your sense of style will boost and it is possible to take pleasure in the meals much more.

Enjoy your economic independence.

A massive element of quitting cigarette smoking is providing oneself rewards once you attain an crucial goal, no matter if it?s going per day with out cigarette smoking or six months. How can you reward oneself

Tally up all of the income which you will be investing on cigarettes and think of strategies to spend it. You could preserve up for an Air Max major trip or bigger purchase, or invest it on weekly social activities like dining out, going for the theatre, or taking hobby or health and fitness classes. Use your added capital to strengthen your social daily life and reward oneself for resisting the temptation to purchase one more pack of cigarettes.

When a person quits smoking, their bodily, psychological, and psychological well-being all strengthen drastically. Quitting smoking cigarettes can take your social existence to new heights given that you?ll have time and dollars for brand spanking new hobbies, and will probably be in a position to enterprise out in public without worry of getting someplace to smoke your next cigarette. As soon as you have quit Air Max smoking cigarettes, your social lifestyle are going to be on fire!

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Source: http://www.submitarticlesforfree.net/stop-air-max-smoking-and-view-your-social-lifestyle-soar.html

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LinkedIn Drops Twitter Integration

The three-year partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter ended today, when LinkedIn announced that it will no longer integrate tweets.

Under a partnership that kicked off in 2009, LinkedIn users could link their accounts to Twitter, with messages posted to Twitter automatically showing up on the LinkedIn news feed. That will no longer be the case.

LinkedIn's Ryan Roslansky pointed to a Friday blog post from Twitter product team director Michael Sippey, in which Sippey said Twitter is focused on "providing the core Twitter consumption experience through a consistent set of products and tools."

"Consistent with Twitter's evolving platform efforts, Tweets will no longer be displayed on LinkedIn starting later today," LinkedIn's Roslansky wrote in his own blog post.

The connection to Twitter isn't completely lost, though. LinkedIn users can still push updates through the networking site to Twitter via the "Share" button, which will update LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers.

Twitter's Sippey did not specifically mention LinkedIn in his blog post, except to say that Twitter has "already begun to more thoroughly enforce our Developer Rules of the Road with partners."

Sippey talked up the company's new "expanded tweets" feature, or Twitter cards, which allows for a "richer" tweeting experience.

"Twitter cards are an important step toward where we are heading with our platform, which involves creating new opportunities to build engaging experiences into Twitter," Sippey wrote. "That is, we want developers to be able to build applications that run within Tweets."

This comes a little over a year after Twitter placed a moratorium on third-party apps. "That guidance continues to apply as much as ever today," Sippey said today. "In the coming weeks, we will be introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used."

LinkedIn recently made headlines with a password snafu, when the site was hacked and about 6 million of the network's 161 million users' keys were stolen. The website was subsequently hit with a lawsuit accusing the social network of failing to properly secure users' data.

For more from Stephanie, follow her on Twitter @smlotPCMag.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/0Qvrs-ZRSB4/0,2817,2406565,00.asp

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What Business Continuity Lessons Can Be Learned From The Algo ...

Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes occur in nature all the time. Although there are seasons when certain types of natural disasters are more likely to occur, something like a flash flood, for instance, can happen anywhere in the world at any time of the year. So, when managed IT services providers recommend that their clients create disaster recovery plans, the clients often focus on the natural disasters and forget about things like structural failures, power outages and cyber criminals.

A roof collapse in the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, a city in northern Ontario, on June 23, 2012, killed one person and injured several others. At least nine people remained missing as of June 27. Water damage is the suspected cause of the collapse.

This type of tragic event could happen anywhere. If the roof of your office location suddenly collapsed ? we hope while everyone is gone ? could you continue to do business as usual, or would you have to start making apologies to clients because everything you need is trapped under heavy debris? That?s why disaster recovery plans are so important. Disaster can strike anywhere at any time ? and it doesn?t have to be natural.

Too often, business owners put off or simply refuse to create disaster recovery plans for their businesses because they don?t live in ?disaster-prone areas.? A roof can collapse on any business. A car could crash through one of the walls of your building and take out your server room. The area where your office is located could suffer a black out. A hacker could infiltrate your company?s network and upload a virus that corrupts or deletes important company files. A careless employee could accidentally delete important company files, or a disgruntled one could deliberately dump valuable data just for spite. The list goes on and on. Life is unpredictable. If you?re truly committed to the success of your business, you must have a reliable disaster recovery plan in place.

Some steps you could follow are:

1. Establish reliable backups for all of your company?s systems. With things like VoIP technology, even phone systems and email can be backed up and accessed within minutes if necessary.
2. Create a schedule for checking backups to ensure that important company information is indeed backed up, viable and stored in a safe and secure remote location.
3. Create a list of people to take responsibility for tasks such as contacting clients, vendors and employees if a disaster strikes, etc.
4. Create an action plan that includes naming who takes over if you or someone else is injured or otherwise unable to work.
5. Have disaster recovery drills, maybe on the same day as you have scheduled fire drills. This will ensure that when disaster does strike, everyone will know what to do.

Disaster comes in many forms. ?Don?t discount your need for a disaster recovery plan because you don?t live in an area that?s regularly plagued with hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires. Consider more likely events such as structural failures, power outages and villainy.

Does your Calgary business have a disaster recovery plan in place? ?If you are not sure and you think your business data maybe at risk, call CTECH right away. ?We can help.

Source: http://ontariocomputerservices.com/what-business-continuity-lessons-can-be-learned-from-the-algo-mall-in-elliot-lake/

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4 European Jobs.com | Display Job Head of Channel Management

Job Description:

Realex Payments is a leading payments service provider with over 6,000 clients processing over ?15bn in online payments per annum. Operating closely with financial institutions, we provide a suite of services around payment processing, fraud & risk management and currency tools.

Come and help us build the future of payments in a growing company with real potential for professional and personal growth! We will develop your expertise and skills, working together to excel and grow.

?

Our direct sales teams in the UK are having major success across various sectors and tiers of business.? Some of this success has been achieved through a number of partner relationships that includes financial institutions, web developers, industry bodies and software platform/system integrators etc. We now wish to build a specific channel management function to aggressively accelerate and grow our partner portfolio and are looking to recruit a tenacious individual who has the appetite to build and grow a market leading partnerships team.?

What you will be doing

Reporting into the UK BD Country Manager, this role will be accountable for the channel management strategy and driving the recruitment and management of SME and Corporate partners. The individual will be responsible for an existing team which includes an SME telesales/business development function.

?Working with the team on the continued development and implementation of our channel strategy in the UK. We expect the candidate to drive the ?refresh? of this strategy introducing models and processes they have adopted in previous roles.
?Core channel responsibility is ultimately to identify and actively recruit new business partners that deliver high quality, new, corporate and SME leads. This includes the full life cycle of the partner sale from prospecting through to commercial and contractual negotiation and signing.
?In addition the candidate will be responsible for the development and retention of existing partners driving new business leads from these organizations. Particular focus will be on the financial institutions where we have strong existing relationships ? driving engagement and lead generation.
?Representing Realex Payments at external events ? public speaking experience would be an aspect of the role.
?Day to day line management of the channel managers as it grows over time including the sales closing team (internal telephone sales).? There will also be a level of accountability over marketing activities supporting channel development and lead generation.
?Key Measurement:
?The number of converted/closed monthly SME contracts against target ? these are all driven through channel (including online).
?The number of closed corporate leads generated through channel and the resultant committed revenue. They are not accountable for corporate revenue targets ? these are driven by both direct and channel.
?The role will require the channel team liaise closely with technical account managers and corporate sales people to ensure alignment of activities.

What qualities you will bring

?The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate a very strong track record of outbound selling to large corporates or partners.
?A minimum of five years proven direct or indirect senior business development experience. Previous channel sales/management background would be a distinct advantage.
?Previous experience of line management is an advantage but not a ?must have?.
?Very strong presentation and negotiation skills.
?Experience in a long, consultative sales cycle is required ? with a strong attention to detail.
?It would be beneficial that the candidate has an extensive network across a variety of areas including the web development community, shopping carts, system integrators, industry bodies, sector focused software suppliers and has a detailed appreciation/understanding of the partner value chain and how products create value for customers.
?Strong level of financial, business, entrepreneurial acumen, in order to have creative and commercially led business discussions.
?Understands how partners make money and how Realex can add value to their overall proposition.
?Can adapt to changes in business direction, products and needs both from a partner and client perspective.
?Ability to influence vs control others.
?Strong analytical and strategic ability.

We are offering an excellent basic salary, all expenses, with an opportunity to command a significant OTE ? further details on application.

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A Nation Of Meat Eaters: See How It All Adds Up

As Allison Aubrey and Dan Charles reported today on Morning Edition, meat has more of an impact on the environment than any other food we eat. That's because livestock require so much more food, water, land, and energy than plants to raise and transport. (Listen to the audio above for their conversation with Morning Edition's Linda Wertheimer.)

Take a look here at what goes into just one quarter-pound of hamburger meat. (Mobile users: To see the images, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "View Non-Mobile Version Of This Story.")

What It Takes To Make A Quarter-Pound Hamburger

?

And that's not even including the animal's waste or the methane emissions from its digestion.

Still, there are fewer cows around these days: Beef consumption per person peaked in 1976, as Dan Charles reported on Tuesday.

But to be clear, if you look at the last century, meat consumption in the U.S. rose dramatically. It's only in the last few years that it has begun to drop a bit.

U.S. total meat consumption, in billion pounds

Though meat consumption in the U.S. has dropped off slightly in recent years, at 270.7 pounds per person a year, we still eat more meat per person here than in almost any other country on the planet. Only the Luxumbourgers eat more meat than we do.

As U.S. beef consumption began to decline in the 1970s, poultry began to rise quickly. A couple of years ago, chicken surpassed beef as our no. 1 meat of choice. Our consumption of pork has also risen slightly over the years.

U.S. meat consumption per person, in pounds

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Clean Your Plate! Cooking Tips For You! : restaurantesanmarco.net

Cooking can be quite enjoyable and therapeutic. Many people think that only chefs can cook outstanding meals. That is simply not the case. You can use the tips below to learn how to turn any simple dish into a culinary delight by using just a few techniques. There is no need to fear cooking.

If you are baking, one thing that you can do is to leave your eggs and butter at room temperature overnight. This will prepare them to be used as ingredients when you bake the next day. Understanding the temperature to store certain ingredients will help to maximize the ease of creating your meal.

Fresh lemons are a very versatile garnish in many recipes, but getting juice out of a lemon can seem like a huge chore. Rather than pulling out the big juicer, try this trick. Roll the lemon on the counter top for a few seconds, then place it in the microwave on high for 15 seconds. Take it out and cut it open ? you should be able to squeeze twice the juice as before!

Buy your food at fresh markets. Food you buy from farmer markets and private gardens is going to be healthier for you. These foods are often free of the harmful chemicals that infect out mainstream grocery supply. Look out for the health of yourself and your family, and your cooking will automatically be better.

When you want to make a soup using stock, follow this tip. Be sure to make a large amount of stock, pour it in a plastic bag, and place it in the freezer. This will allow you to quickly make soup whenever you want to by simply thawing out the already made stock.

Cook small quantities of food at higher temperatures for a lesser amount of time. Bite-size cookies only need a few minutes in the oven if you put it a higher temperature because there is only a small surface area to cover and it will not take long to cook. This way you will be able to enjoy your meal in minutes.

Use a few tablespoons of sugar in the boiling water when cooking orange and yellow vegetables. Foods like squash and corn have a natural sweetness to them that is brought out when cooked in sugared water. This is a great way to get some healthy veggies into a kids diet as well as yours.

When cooking on a budget, make Mexican meals your friends. Tortillas, beans, rice, and onions are inexpensive and filling, and can serve as the foundation for a variety of meals, including tacos, enchiladas, and salads. You can also use whichever meats are most inexpensive, plus veggies like tomatoes, avocados, corn, and peppers.

Keep it familiar when you are having guests. Cooking can quickly go from fun to entertainment disaster when you try too many complicated things at the same time. A good rule of thumb successful cooks follow is to never-mix a new ingredient and new recipe in the same meal.

For a juicier turkey, soak it in brine for at least 12 hours before cooking. You can make a simple brine by combining ice water and sea salt. After seasoning the turkey, submerge it fully, cover, and leave to sit for 12-24 hours. Then, cook the turkey as usual. Not only does the turkey come out juicier, but it tends to have more flavor than un-brined turkeys.

Read the recipe fully before you begin any cooking endeavor! Just reading the list of ingredients does not ensure that you are fully prepared to complete the meal. There are many different techniques and tools that may be required so do not be too ambitious when tackling a new recipe.

Try making stir fry. Stir fry is the perfect dish for inexperienced cooks ? or for anyone who just wants to make something quick. Stir fry is simple to make. It isn?t even necessary to follow the recipe. If you mess up while making stir fry, you can almost always fix your mistake without losing anything.

Use either a steaming or a stir-frying technique to cook your vegetables. These two methods help the vegetables retain both their color and their nutrients, providing your family with a healthier side dish that also looks attractive. Your children, in particular, are more likely to eat their vegetables if they look nice.

The most difficult and time consuming thing about cooking is doing all of the prep work. You can buy pre-prepped vegetables or prep your ingredients the day before to cut down on the time you are in the kitchen. This is very helpful if you need to get dinner out in a hurry.

Try cooking your favorite baked casseroles in muffin tins. Not only will you have individually-sized servings, but each person can have some of the crispy, brown edge pieces. As a bonus, the casserole freezes well in these portion-sized pieces, so you can pull out leftovers for lunches and thaw them more quickly.

When one is cooking something it is important that they follow the directions as closely as they possibly can. Forgetting an ingredient, putting in too much or too little of an ingredient, or not cooking something long enough are all problems that can arise when one is not paying attention to the directions.

When it comes to baking, a great tip to follow is to be sure that you bake smaller items at higher temperatures and for less time than larger items. This is important because you will have your food quicker and it will be less dry than if you were to bake it slower.

Store cooking chocolate correctly. Cooking chocolate must be stored below 70 degrees, which means the refrigerator, especially in warm weather. Wrap it tightly and keep it away from any strong smelling foods. When it comes time to use it, leave it in the wrapping until it reaches room temperature. Dark chocolate will keep in the fridge for up to one year, milk chocolate for up to six months. All chocolate can be kept in the freezer for up to one year.

While some foods need to be cooked at a high temperatures for short times, larger foods need to be cooked at lower temperatures for longer times. Doing so will allow the larger foods to slowly release their flavors as they cook and to be cooked evenly without under or over cooking.

Cooking should seem a little less challenging now that you have read the information in this article. It is important to give cooking a try and to realize that any dish can be made to be a masterpiece with just a little bit of know how and a lot of heart, from the cook.

If you want to look for the best food blog, then I suggest you check out the food blogs Singapore now. Or if you are looking for good foods, then find out more about Gurney Drive Suntec now.

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Kraft Foods: Rainbow OREO a ?reflection of our values?

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Russia's Putin in rare West Bank trip

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PFT: 20 years later, Eagles remember Brown

AP

Since it?s supposed to be a slow week, here?s an item that is best suited for consideration during a slow week.

Colts owner Jim Irsay has taken to Twitter to call me out personally for a joke included at the bottom of a Saturday item regarding Irsay?s position that marketing rights aren?t holding up an eventual contract with quarterback Andrew Luck.

Since most of the latest available pictures of Luck show him wearing a mortar board and a gown tied and draped over his shoulders like an Andy Bernard sweater, and given that the topic of the item was Luck?s marketing rights via the poorly-crafted tweets of Jim Irsay, I closed with this:? ?Luck likely will be free to endorse whatever he wants to endorse, including the use of images of his Stanford graduation to be included in a campaign for online courses aimed at teaching rich, middle-aged white guys how to type legibly on Twitter.?

It was a slap at Irsay?s notorious habit of oft-indecipherable Twitter messages, and using the term ?rich, middle-aged white guys? was aimed at describing Irsay?s overall demographic.

Irsay didn?t see it that way.? On Monday morning, Irsay started the debate with this:

Then, without a response, he said this:

I considered not taking the bait; after all, the guy owns an NFL team.? But like I mentioned above, it?s slow right now.? Also, I wasn?t entirely comfortable with the not-so-subtle effort to suggest that I expect only white people to type legible Twitter message.? (For the record, I expect everyone to type legibly on Twitter.)? Besides, Irsay asked a question.? The least I could do was answer it.

A loyal PFT reader (I knew there was at least one) thereafter responded to the kerfuffle. Irsay then replied to Wes LaFever?s tweet with this:

So, basically, Jim Irsay thinks I?m a racist and I don?t like old people (even though I?m now seven years into the legally-protected class of old people) and I don?t like rich people (even though I?d very much like to be one, someday).

Wow.? He really has cracked the code.

Now if only I could crack the code for interpreting 99.8 percent of his Twitter messages, this job would be a lot easier.

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Learn that tune while fast asleep: Stimulation during sleep can enhance skill learning

ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) ? Want to nail that tune that you've practiced and practiced? Maybe you should take a nap with the same melody playing during your sleep, new provocative Northwestern University research suggests.

The research grows out of exciting existing evidence that suggests that memories can be reactivated during sleep and storage of them can be strengthened in the process.

In the Northwestern study, research participants learned how to play two artificially generated musical tunes with well-timed key presses. Then while the participants took a 90-minute nap, the researchers presented one of the tunes that had been practiced, but not the other.

"Our results extend prior research by showing that external stimulation during sleep can influence a complex skill," said Ken A. Paller, professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and senior author of the study.

By using EEG methods to record the brain's electrical activity, the researchers ensured that the soft musical "cues" were presented during slow-wave sleep, a stage of sleep previously linked to cementing memories. Participants made fewer errors when pressing the keys to produce the melody that had been presented while they slept, compared to the melody not presented.

"We also found that electrophysiological signals during sleep correlated with the extent to which memory improved," said lead author James Antony of the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Northwestern. "These signals may thus be measuring the brain events that produce memory improvement during sleep."

The age-old myth that you can learn a foreign language while you sleep is sure to come to mind, said Paul J. Reber, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern and a co-author of the study.

"The critical difference is that our research shows that memory is strengthened for something you've already learned," Reber said. "Rather than learning something new in your sleep, we're talking about enhancing an existing memory by re-activating information recently acquired."

The researchers, he said, are now thinking about how their findings could apply to many other types of learning.

"If you were learning how to speak in a foreign language during the day, for example, and then tried to reactivate those memories during sleep, perhaps you might enhance your learning."

Paller said he hopes the study will help them learn more about the basic brain mechanisms that transpire during sleep to help preserve memory storage.

"These same mechanisms may not only allow an abundance of memories to be maintained throughout a lifetime, but they may also allow memory storage to be enriched through the generation of novel connections among memories," he said.

The study opens the door for future studies of sleep-based memory processing for many different types of motor skills, habits and behavioral dispositions, Paller said.

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---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Antony, J.W., Gobel, E.W., O'Hare, J.K., Reber, P.J., & Paller, K.A. Cued Memory Reactivation During Sleep Influences Skill Learning. Nature Neuroscience, June 24, 2012

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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tilomitra: RT @FastCompany: How Missile Tracking Cameras Are Remaking The NBA http://t.co/xC0l6OQI via @FastCoDesign

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iPad App Evaluation for the Classroom

?

?Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano ~ GloballyConnectedLearning.com

Considerations

Remember

: Theapp requiresstudents toremember facts.

Understand:

Theapp requires studentsto demonstrateunderstanding of aconcept.

Apply

:The app gives studentsthe opportunity toapply what they havelearned.Analyze: The appsupports students'efforts to analyzedata, content andconcepts.Evaluate:The app facilitatesstudents efforts toevaluate informationin a variety of mediaformsCreate: The app allowsstudents to create avariety of products,demonstrating evidenceof their learning.

Gardner'sMultipleIntelligences21stCentury?Upgrades

Official Scribe:App allows studentsto take notes,collaborativelydocument contentand learning in theclassroom. Appallows to easilyshare notes.CollaborationCoordinator:App allows studentsto communicate,collaborate, andconnect withcollaborationpartners around theworld.Tutorial Designer:App providesopportunity forstudents to createtutorials to teachabout their areasof expertise andhelp classmatesand peers.Contributor toSociety:

App helps studentsraise awareness,solve problemsand disseminatefindings to helpothers and makea difference

.

Researcher:App facilitateseasy access toinformation toevaluate, analyze,categorize, curate,organize, store anddisseminate theirfindings.CurriculumReviewer:App allows creationand disseminationof materialscreated to helppeers reviewcurriculum content.

communicateconnectcreate

?

critical thinkingBasic LiteracyMedia LiteracyDigital Citizenship

The app?supports:

?

collaborate

Bloom's?Taxonomy?November'sDigital LearningFarm

Global LiteracyInformation Literacy

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Anderson Cooper to Guy on Plane: B!tch, What the F Are You Doing?!

Things you didn't expect to see today ... Anderson Cooper recalling to Kathy Griffin about the time he tore some guy a new one on an airplane!

The CNN anchor appeared on Griffin's Bravo show Kathy Thursday night and described how someone was recently trying to take his photo on a plane.

When he saw the guy was trying to clandestinely "do the reverse iPhone thing" and snap a pic of AC - even as AC watched incredulously - he snapped.

Anderson Cooper on Kathy Griffin

"I've lately become emboldened and grabbed the guy on the shoulder," Anderson said, followed by, "Bitch, what the F are you doing?"

Bet you didn't see that coming ... nor did the guy with the iPhone.

The Silver Fox then added, "It was just one of those things where, as soon as I said it, I thought 'I can't believe I just said this to the guy!"

Neither can we, but it's pretty hilarious.

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Philippines seizes illegal China-bound ore

Philippine authorities said Thursday they had seized a huge amount of iron ore intended to be smuggled to China, as part of a long-running battle against illegal miners.

The 50,000 tonnes of iron ore, believed to be worth more than $2 million, were found stockpiled near a private wharf at a coastal mining town in the eastern province of Camarines Norte, mines bureau head Leo Jasareno said.

"A cargo ship was seen anchored at a distance, and it was believed to be waiting for the ore to be loaded when the raid happened," Jasareno told AFP.

"The shipment was supposed to go to China and they were clearly intending to smuggle it out."

Jasareno said the ore was extracted illegally because the mining companies involved did not have a mineral export permit, adding one was suspected to be a front for a Chinese firm.

Initial estimates by the bureau's experts placed the shipment's value at $50 per metric tonne, or $2.5 million, he added.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines last year warned of Chinese companies using Filipino fronts to take advantage of a law reserving small-scale mining for locals.

The seizure last week came four months after the government deported eight Chinese nationals caught working illegally for a mining firm. More than 100 other Chinese have been detained for similar offences over the past two years.

In 2010, a diplomatic row broke out between Manila and Beijing after police detained but eventually freed 80 Chinese found working illegally at a mine site on the main island of Luzon.

The Philippines is believed to have some of the biggest mineral reserves in the world. The government estimates the country has at least $840 billion in gold, copper, nickel, chromite, manganese, silver and iron.

But the mining industry remains relatively small because of laws that discourage investment and a very strong anti-mining lobby led partly by the influential Catholic Church.

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Writer Unboxed ? I Have No More Advice Left to Give

Have you ever run across this quote, commonly attributed to Goethe?

?What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.?

Or, some might prefer the Zen saying, ?Now is the right time.?

It occurred to me sharp and sudden this week, as I was staring at my calendar deadline for this article, that I have no more advice to give writers that I haven?t already offered.

I?m done. At least for now.

I?ve been writing, editing, and publishing advice for writers since 2001. I?ve seen a lot of change since then, and I?ve enjoyed tackling new topics related to that change since 2008. I still love teaching, speaking, and contemplating how writers succeed in this digital age. I still love challenging people to think different about what it means to be a writer and author. That all remains.

But I have no more sound bites to offer a general audience on a regular schedule.

For those of you who follow my blog at JaneFriedman.com, you?ll see a dramatic pull back from me personally on the writing advice end. I?ll still host guests and book excerpts?and Porter Anderson?s Writing on the Ether column will continue?but I?ll be more silent.

As some of you know, I just took a new job as web editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, and that does play a role in my decision. My energy and attention have shifted. But also, I have my own long-term projects I?d like to pursue?book projects (for writers and not-for-writers) and multimedia projects?that will never move forward unless I save time somewhere.

Now is the right time.

My parting advice:

• Be bold once it?s clear what you want.
• Be patient.
• Be persistent.
• Don?t be afraid to fail. It?s what you do after that counts.

Thanks for reading me all these years.

Photo credit:?Striking Photography by Bo

Jane Friedman is the web editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, and the former publisher of Writer?s Digest. Jane is a frequent speaker at publishing industry and writing conferences, and has appeared at more than 200 events since 2001, including South by Southwest, BookExpo America, and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Find out more at JaneFriedman.com.

Jane Friedman

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NFL Legend And MPIF Announce 1st Annual Colorado High School ...

?

Legendary Denver Bronco Karl Mecklenburg and MY PASSION IS FOOTBALL formally announced on Friday the 1^st Annual MPIF Colorado High School Combine. The event will be held on Saturday, August 4^th at the Family Sports Dome in Centennial in conjunction with the South Suburban Parks and Recreation District. The ultimate mission of this event is to help elevate football players to the college level, while helping improve their fundamentals in the process.

?Colorado football players, do not miss this great opportunity to advance to the next level,? said Mecklenburg. ?I worked with Warren McCarty at his MPIF Texas Combine, and found it to be well run and instrumental in helping overlooked Texas athletes land college scholarships and tryouts. We have so many capable athletes here in the state of Colorado that fall through the college recruiting cracks every year. With the exposure, coaching, and advice that you?ll receive at this camp, your dream of playing college football is one step closer to becoming a reality. I?ll personally be working with Defensive Linemen and Linebackers, and I?m looking forward to working with all of you on August 4^th.?

Mecklenburg was a 2012 Pro Football Hall Of Fame Semi-finalist, and is a member of the Colorado Sports Hall Of Fame as well as the Denver Broncos Ring Of Fame. He played 12 seasons in Denver, and is believed to be the only player in NFL history to start games at all front 7 defensive positions. He went to 6 Pro Bowls, played in 3 Super Bowls, and was named the AFC?s Defensive Player Of The Year in 1986. He racked up 79 career sacks as well as 5 interceptions.

In the last four years, the Texas Panhandle has witnessed a dramatic turnaround in the recruitment of high school football players in comparison to the previous 25 years. 122 players have earned scholarships since 2008 after attending the MPIF Combine, including three young men who are now starters at Colorado State (Weston Richburg, Crockett Gillmore, and Austin Gillmore). From 2000-2007, the Texas Panhandle produced only 7 scholarship football players total. A similar gap exists in the Rocky Mountain region.

?Only 23 players from Colorado signed with D1 schools in February,? said MPIF Founder Warren McCarty. ?That number is too low, and it just simply doesn?t reflect the talent that is in this state. With the help of former NFL and college standouts like Karl Mecklenburg, we are going to change that. The sooner we get athletes in the program, and educate and empower the parents, the better. There?s an ugly side to college football recruiting, and many parents across the country are being fleeced by recruiting services. Not only are we helping get these players noticed, but we are going to save parents money and stress in the process.?

The South Suburban Parks and Recreation District, which operates the Family Sports Dome, will handle athlete registrations and assist in the coordination of the combine.

?We are very excited to bring this event to the Sports Dome,? said Sports Dome Director Jeff Sweet. ?This will be a great opportunity for young athletes to learn about the recruiting process and to interact with former football stars. We think this program will be a great step towards growing the sport of football in Colorado.?

Players will be tested in NFL combine-style measurables, including height, weight, 40-yard dash, pro agility, vertical, and the bench press. Additionally, each athlete will go through position-specific drill work and receive an evaluation from a former NFL or college standout that played their position. The data and evaluations are then compiled, and sent to all 849 college football programs in the U.S., including every NCAA, NAIA, and JUCO program, at no charge to the schools.

The camp fee is $85.00, which includes a camp T-shirt, lunch, and an autographed copy of Karl Mecklenburg?s best-selling book ?Heart Of A Student Athlete?. Athletes can register online with South Suburban Parks and Recreation by clicking: COLORADOCOMBINEREGISTRATION

The Family Sports Dome is located just off of Arapahoe Road at 6959 S. Peoria Street Centennial, CO 80112. Questions related to the combine can be directed to Warren McCarty via email at: warren@mypassionisfootball.com or by calling (303) 809-7896.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 2:23 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Iran sanctions trap Apple clerks, customers alike

By Kari Huus, msnbc.com

Updated:?3 pm ET?

An Apple store employee refused to sell an iPad to an Iranian American customer, citing company policy that aims to comply with U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran, WSBTV in Atlanta reported this week. The customer left empty-handed, in tears, and complained of discrimination to the reporter.

The case is more complicated than that, legal experts say. The incident and others like it highlight a dilemma created by the U.S. trade embargo against Iran ? and other sanctioned countries, including Cuba, Syria and North Korea ? which makes even the humblest sales associate responsible for enforcing the embargo?s provisions.?

?

Those employees ? as well as the store and the company ? could be hit with civil and criminal penalties if they sell products to customers who they have reason to believe will export them to Iran in violation of the embargo, legal experts say. But if the same clerk refuses service on the basis of the customer?s language or ethnic background, they may run afoul of civil rights laws.

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"If I walked in and told them I want to buy this and send it to a friend in Iran or Cuba, they can?t sell it to me," said Clif Burns, an export control attorney at Bryan Cave, a law firm in Washington, D.C. "If they had that information, they were absolutely within their rights" to refuse the sale.

"The tricky question is if you hear someone speaking Farsi?(also called Persian)?? then the issue is: Should you be more alert to the possibility that they might export the item to Iran? And by being more alert in that situation are you in violation of civil rights statutes? It?s not any easy question."

Under U.S. sanctions against Iran ? dating to 1987 and expanded several times since ? exports to the Islamic republic are illegal, with exceptions for items in a few limited categories, such as books, movies, agricultural goods, medicine and medical supplies. These sanctions are enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.S. Commerce Department?s Bureau of Industry and Security. Sanctions are not intended to affect the sale of goods used in the United States.

"There is absolutely no U.S. policy or law that would prohibit Apple or any other company from selling its products in the United States to anyone intending to use the product in the United States, including Iranians and Persian-speakers," said Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department.

Click here?for an overview of the sanctions from the Treasury Department

But the government does not spell out how an individual working in a retail store should judge whether a customer intends to send or carry a product to a country under sanctions, and technically the onus could fall on store clerks. And Burns says anyone in the chain who touches a transaction that violates of the sanctions can be held liable if they knew or should have known that the item was being shipped to a sanctioned country.

"The standard applies to the retail clerk, shipping manager, corporate headquarters," said Burns.

Individuals can be fined up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison for export sanctions violations. Corporations can be hit with a $1 million criminal penalty, he said. "In theory there?s no intent (to commit a crime) requirement. They will look at whether you knew or should have known."

In reality, there are only a few reported cases of retailers denying individual sales on this basis, all involving Iranian Americans and Apple stores.

Apple: Silence
Apple did not?initially respond?to requests for comment.

After this report published, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling contacted msnbc.com with the following statement:

"Our retail stores are proud to serve customers from around the world, of every ethnicity. Our store teams are multilingual and diversity is an important part of our culture. We don't discriminate against anyone."

In the case of Sahar Sabet, from the WSBTV report, who was refused purchase of an iPad at an Apple store in Alpharetta, Ga., some of the facts are unclear. She said the clerk refused to sell her an iPad after hearing her speak Farsi with her uncle. The iPad was intended as a gift for her cousin in Iran, according to the report, but it was unclear how or if the clerk was aware of that.

Calls to Sabet were not returned. A call to the Apple store at North Pointe Mall in Alpharetta was referred to corporate headquarters.

A second Iranian American interviewed in the report also said he was barred from purchasing something at an Apple store in the Atlanta area when he was helping an Iranian student buy an iPhone. Zack Jafarzadeh said he and the friend were speaking Farsi when the sales rep denied their purchase. "We never talked about him going back to Iran or anything like that," Jafarzadeh said, according to the report.

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a non-profit rights group, says it was in discussions with Apple to revise its policy even before this week's news story, because of a complaint from an Iranian American who was refused a purchase in an Apple store in northern California in March.

Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com

In that case, a sales associate refused to sell him anything ? even things he was buying for his own use ? after he mentioned that he intended to send an iPod Nano to Iran as a gift for a relative, Rachel Roberts, civil rights coordinator for CAIR, told msnbc.com.

"He claims that when he asked the associate how he could get the items he needed, she told him to go to a different Apple store if he wanted service and to not reveal that he is Iranian," Roberts said ? adding that he found that answer to be degrading and inconsistent. Ultimately the store made an informal apology and sold him items for his personal use, Roberts said.

"The concern ? is how store employees balance their obligations under embargo law and civil rights laws," said Zahra Billoo, an attorney for CAIR in San Francisco, adding that the U.S. government should clarify how retail stores should comply. The other concern, she said, is "how employees are being trained to implement this."

Apple's policy regarding sanctions, published on its website, is closely tailored to the language of the U.S. trade law itself.

The National Iranian American Council, a nonprofit organization, said the Apple stores were "overzealously enforcing the sanctions." "In singling out Persian-speakers for interrogation about how they intend to use Apple products, these Apple employees are clearly engaging in racial profiling," the group said in a statement.

But the group provided a fact sheet on sanctions and conceded that "it also appears to be the case that many Iranian Americans do not understand the implications of how U.S. sanctions on Iran affect them."

The very notion that sales clerks could have to make decisions on purchases under the sanctions raised red flags for?some observers.

"The responsibility for enforcement should fall on border patrol, law enforcement, the U.S. post office, customs -- government agencies," said Nahal Iravani-Sani, president of the Iranian American Bar Association. As it is, the law "promotes dishonesty and invites profiling.?When you come down to it, it's absurd."

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It is estimated that one in seven American adults live alone. An ...

It is estimated that one in seven American adults live alone. An international study of stable outpatients who were either at risk of or suffered from arterial vascular disease, such as coronary disease or peripheral vascular disease has now discovered that individuals who live alone have a higher risk of mortality and cardiovascular mortality. The study, published Online First in JAMA's Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that social isolation may be linked to poor health outcomes...

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Greek-German soccer clash mirrors fiscal feud

Bartlomiej Zborowski / EPA

Greek fans cheer for their team in downtown Gdansk, Poland, before their match against Germany on Friday.

By NBC News' Andy Eckardt and Reuters

Greeks were hoping against hope that their national soccer team would triumph over mighty Germany in the Euro 2012 championship, restoring lost pride to the debt-stricken country by getting one over its economic paymaster.

Friday night's quarterfinal fixture, in the Polish port of Gdansk, pits two nations against each other whose ties have rarely been so sour, so bristling.

---

Greece fans are seeking respect for their country after its humiliating economic collapse and Germany?s predominant role in lending bailout money ? along with strict austerity measures.?

"It's not good that sports and politics are together, but today we have no other choice," said Greece fan Michalis Kalotrapesis, wearing a white national team shirt and training top. "We are playing for our country and for our image in Europe and all over the world."?

Frank Augstein / AP

An artist, himself painted in German colors, paints the face of a soccer fan with the colors of the Greek national flag in Gdansk on Friday.

Germany will be cheered on at the game by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a hated figure in Greece, who for many personifies the painful bailout conditions and the euro zone's strict approach to the debt-strapped state.

Merkel loves football and loves the German team. Earlier in the tournament, she went to visit their training base. She attends high-profile matches and was once photographed with bare-chested midfielder Mesut Ozil in the changing room.

'Bye-bye Greeks'
A crunch meeting between Merkel and other European leaders in Rome on Friday was moved up to an earlier start time so that she could attend the game.

"Bye-bye Greeks, we can't rescue you today!" Germany's top-selling Bild proclaimed on its front page on Friday in the colors of the Greek flag.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

A man takes a copy of the German "Bild" newspaper from a stack in a newsagent in Berlin Friday. The headline reads, "Bye, bye Greeks. Today we won't be able to save you!"

"Bankrupt THEM," blared leading Greek paper Sport Day.

Even the respected Greek daily Kathimerini drummed home to Greeks that this match is against a foe popularly blamed for saddling Greece with a punitive austerity program, chronic unemployment and years of deep economic recession.

"Whoever thinks today's match is just a game is wrong," the paper wrote, vowing it was "politics (maybe even war) by other means."

"To many Greeks, victory will represent the triumph of the weak against the wealth, might and arrogance of the powerful -- the victim would humble his executioner? If the Germans win, they'll see it as confirmation of their diligence, strategy, talent and thrift," it added.

Some German car manufacturers, like Volkswagen and Daimler, are making special arrangements that will allow their workforce on shift to watch the match.

Greece has never beaten Germany
Officials from Volkswagen told NBC News that employees will be able to leave early on Friday, but that workers will have to make up for the free time at a later point.

Greece have never beaten Germany but now would be the ideal time to do so in order to cheer up the public back home and give them hope that Greece can repeat their amazing run to the European Championship crown in 2004.

The chances are slim to say the least. The Germans, among the favorites to take the tournament title, go into the match on the back of 14 consecutive competitive victories stretching back to the 2010 World Cup.

For Germany, playing in Gdansk, which prior to World War Two was the German- and Polish-inhabited free city of Danzig, will feel like a home game.

Thirty thousand Germans are expected to travel to watch the game. Only 6,000 Greek supporters are expected. Most Poles say their hearts beat for the underdog.

Back in Athens, not everyone was drawn into the spirit.

"I couldn't care less," Said Panagiotis Pappas, 22, a chemistry student. "We're on the brink of disaster and all they care is about is football for Christ's sake."?

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Sports world artist LeRoy Neiman dies in NY at 91

NEW YORK (AP) ? Painter and sketch artist LeRoy Neiman, best known for evoking the kinetic energy of the world's biggest sporting and leisure events with bright quick strokes, died Wednesday at age 91.

Neiman was the official painter of five Olympiads and was a contributing artist at Playboy magazine for many years. His longtime publicist, Gail Parenteau, confirmed his death at a Manhattan hospital on Wednesday but didn't disclose the cause.

Neiman was a media-savvy artist who knew how to enthrall audiences with his instant renditions of what he observed. In 1972, he sketched the world chess tournament between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland, for a live television audience. He also produced live drawings of the Olympics for TV and was the official computer artist of the Super Bowl for CBS.

Neiman's "reportage of history and the passing scene ... revived an almost lost and time-honored art form," according to a 1972 exhibit catalog of his Olympics sketches at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

"It's been fun. I've had a lucky life," Neiman said in a June 2008 interview with The Associated Press. "I've zeroed in on what you would call action and excellence. ... Everybody who does anything to try to succeed has to give the best of themselves, and art has made me pull the best out of myself."

Neiman's paintings, many executed in household enamel paints that allowed him his fast-moving strokes, are an explosion in reds, blues, pinks, greens and yellows of pure kinetic energy.

He has been described as an American impressionist, but the St. Paul, Minn., native preferred to think of himself simply as an American artist.

"I don't know if I'm an impressionist or an expressionist," he told the AP. "You can call me an American first. ... (but) I've been labeled doing neimanism, so that's what it is, I guess."

He worked in many media, producing thousands of etchings, lithographs and silkscreen prints known as serigraphy.

But Neiman's critics said his forays into the commercial world minimized him as a serious artist. At Playboy, for example, he created Femlin, the well-endowed nude that has graced the magazine's Party Jokes page since 1957.

Neiman shrugged off such criticism.

"I can easily ignore my detractors and feel the people who respond favorably," he said.

Neiman was fascinated with large game animals and said he twice traveled to Kenya to paint lions and elephants "in the bush" in his trademark vibrant palette.

But it was the essence of a basketball or football game, swim meet or cycling event that captured his imagination most.

"For an artist, watching a (Joe) Namath throw a football or a Willie Mays hit a baseball is an experience far more overpowering than painting a beautiful woman or leading political figure," Neiman said in 1972.

With his sketchbook and pencil, trademark handlebar mustache and slicked back hair, Neiman was instantly recognizable.

At a New York Jets game at Shea Stadium in 1975, fans yelled, "Put LeRoy in," when the play wasn't going their way.

Neiman's decades-long association with Playboy began in 1953 following a chance meeting with Hugh Hefner. It was the start of what he called "the good life" and inspiration for much of his future work.

He regularly contributed to the magazine's "Man at His Leisure" feature, which took him to such places as the Grand National Steeplechase and Ascot in England, the Cannes Film Festival in France and the Grand Prix auto race in Monaco.

Hefner said "R.I.P." to his "long time friend" in a tweet Wednesday night.

Neiman was a World War II veteran who participated in the invasion of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a self-described workaholic who seldom took vacations and had no hobbies. He worked daily in his home studio at the Hotel des Artistes near Central Park, which he shared with his wife.

"What else am I good for?" he said in 2008. "I don't think about anything else."

One of his projects, a 160-foot-long sports mural, hung in the Sports Museum of America in Manhattan.

Neiman also was a portraitist who captured some of the world's most iconic figures, Frank Sinatra and Babe Ruth among them, in a style that conveyed their public image.

"I am less concerned with how people look when they wake," he said. "A person's public presence reflects his own efforts at image development."

One face he recorded over and over again was that of Muhammad Ali. Those paintings and sketches, representing 15 years of the prizefighter's professional life, permanently reside at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky.

Over the years, Neiman endowed a number of institutions, donating $6 million in 1995 for the creation of the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University and $3 million to his alma mater, the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught for a decade.

He also donated $1 million to create a permanent home for Arts Horizons, a community art center in Harlem.

Neiman earned numerous accolades. He was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Other awards included a 2002 Friars Club Tribute and a 2004 Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

His works are in the permanent collections of many private and public museums. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., was selected by Neiman to house his archives.

"I just love what I do," Neiman told the AP. "I love the passion you go through while you're creating" and the public's "very thoughtful and careful studied and emotional reaction of what you're doing."

He added: "It's a wonderful feeling."

Neiman is survived by his wife of 55 years, Janet Byrne Neiman.

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Associated Press writer Tom McElroy contributed to this report.

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Online: http://www.leroyneiman.com/

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