Rihanna will executive produce 'Styled to Rock'

NEW YORK (AP) ? Pop star Rihanna is getting into the TV business.

The 24-year-old singer will executive produce and star in the new series, "Styled to Rock," for the Style network. Style Media made the announcement Wednesday.

The 10-episode series, to air next year, will give 12 aspiring designers, chosen by Rihanna, an opportunity to style A-list stars. The weekly celeb guest will decide which designer did the best job. One contestant will be sent home, and those remaining will advance to the next week's challenge. At the end, one aspiring designer will be named the winner. Prizes are still being determined.

A casting search is under way on Style's website.

___

Online:

http://www.StyleNetwork.com/

___

Style is a division of NBCUniversal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rihanna-executive-produce-styled-rock-204646062.html

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Cavemen Trump Modern Artists at Drawing Animals

Paleolithic people living more than 10,000 years ago had a better artistic eye than modern painters and sculptures ? at least when it came to watching how horses and other four-legged animals move.

A new analysis of 1,000 pieces of prehistoric and modern artwork finds that "cavemen," or people living during the upper Paleolithic period between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago, were more accurate in their depictions of four-legged animals walking than artists are today. While modern artists portray these animals walking incorrectly 57.9 percent of the time, prehistoric cave painters only made mistakes 46.2 percent of the time.

Modern artists are also worse at capturing the gait of horses and other quadrupeds than taxidermists, anatomy textbook writers and toy figurine designers, the researchers report today (Dec. 5) in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Four-legged gait

Four-legged animals walk by moving their legs in the same sequence. First, the left-hind foot hits the ground, then the left-front foot, followed by the right-hind foot and finally the right-front foot. Only the speed at which four-legged animals complete this sequence differs.

But this simple gait often escapes the notice of artists. In 2009, biological physicist Gabor Horvath, a researcher at Eotvos University in Hungary, found that 63.6 percent of the animals depicted in anatomy textbooks were drawn in impossible gaits. Half of toy horses, lions, tigers and other quadrupeds were also wrong. Even depictions in natural history museums failed much of the time: Just over 41 percent of those showed errors.

In the new study, Horvath and his colleagues wanted to look at the same question over the history of art. In the 1880s, photographer Eadweard Muybridge used motion pictures to show how horses and other quadrupeds really walked. This knowledge spread, so Horvath and his colleagues split their analysis into three time periods: prehistoric art, historical art made before Muybridge's work, and art made after 1887, when Muybridge's work would have been public. [Gallery: Where Science Meets Art]

Getting animals right

The researchers plucked 1,000 examples of art from online collections, fine art books and Hungarian museums, as well as on stamps and coins. Chance alone would dictate that artists mess up depictions of four-legged gait 73.3 percent of the time, the researchers calculated. But art produced after prehistory but before Muybridge showed more errors than chance would allow. In fact, 83.5 percent of depictions from this time period were wrong.

The erroneous drawings even included one sketch of a horse by Leonardo da Vinci, known for his anatomical sketches. In the sketch, the horse has its right-hind foot and left-front foot down with its other two feet lifted, an unstable position. In fact, four-legged animals keep three legs on the ground at any given time.

It's possible that the high level of pre-Muybridge errors may reflect artists mimicking their peers' un-anatomical work, the researchers wrote. But Paleolithic man seems to have been a keen observer of four-footed fauna. Cave art got its depictions right about 54 percent of the time, far better than chance.

Muybridge's work did improve depictions of four-legged walks, the study suggests, but with a success rate of 42 percent, post-1880s artists still aren't doing as well as cavemen. Taxidermists squeak by with a success rate of about 57 percent, according to Horvath's 2009 work.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cavemen-trump-modern-artists-drawing-animals-220459396.html

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Different Worships And Their Horoscopy Significance

Astrology plays a crucial role in the lives of many. This practice is more prevalent in India and among Indian than any other community in any other nation. India is known as a religious country. There are many religious celebrations and festivals been celebrated in the country. Different worships are offered to respective gods on their due occasion. Here I am going to tell you of some popular worships and their horoscope significance.

Narsimha Jayanti Narsimha is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, which he took to finish notorious demon Hiranyakashipu. It will fall somewhere in the last week of May 2013. The worship is performed in the evening hours on the specific day. This worship is said to bring prosperity to the performer. One can seek the help of an astrologer to perform it exactly in a specified manner to gain desired outcomes.

Karwa Chauth This worship is solely meant for married women, for the well being and long life of their husband. There are very strict fasting measures to offer this worship. This has astrological significance for unmarried women too, as it is said to help them acquire a desired spouse in their life.

Kaal Bhairav This worship is said to have a very significant positive impact on present of the person if performed in stipulated manner. This helps one achieve health and manage time in a better manner. This deity is specifically worshipped by male members only. Ma Kaali, the goddess, is worshipped to achieve equal benefits for women. This is very much, and very often, recommended by astrologers for those suffering from health, and other problems in life.

Navgrah As the name suggests, it is worship of 9 planets. Here the word 'Nav' means 'Nine' and 'Grah' means 'Planets'. As Indian astrology is strongly based on the planets and their positions, this worship is crucial for everyone of any horoscope. In order to appease any of the planets, or reduce the ill effects because of their adverse placement in a person's horoscope, this worship is performed. When a person is meeting failures at all fronts of life, he starts calling it bad luck. This worship, therefore, is said to be capable of resolving all such planetary issues and bring luck to the follower.

Rudrabhishek This is the worship meant to please the greatest of the gods Lord Shiva. This is said to be the greatest of all spiritual worships. There is a very specific procedure to perform this worship and help of an expert astrologer is recommended. This is said to reduce bad or negative impact of several other planets.

There are several other important worships in astrology such as Shani worship, Baglamukhi worship, Durga SapthShati, Ganpati Abhishekam, Ketu worship, Rahu worship, Purushottam Month worship, Adhik Month worship, Mercury, Jupiter, etc. Each one has its own astrological significance for individuals. Those who reside out of India can also get these worships performed with the help of some experts available online. There are some very famous astrologers running their own websites, and offering all such and several other warships, and other horoscope solutions to devotees.

About the Author:
Mohit Roy is a professional writer with over 8 years experience in astrology and horoscope related articles. You can visit website for more articles about upcoming events in Shaligram, Online Homam, etc.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Different-Worships-And-Their-Horoscopy-Significance/4306039

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Black Friday: Think it's crazy in the US? You should see China's version.

China doesn't officially celebrate Black Friday, but Nov. 11 has become the biggest shopping day on the Chinese calendar. E-commerce sales alone reached $4.6 billion this year.?

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / November 23, 2012

Chinese workers sort packages on November 12, the day after the largest Chinese online shopping day.

China Daily

Enlarge

If you think America goes shopping mad on the day after Thanksgiving, you should look at China.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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They don?t celebrate Thanksgiving Day here, of course, but Nov. 11, has become the biggest shopping day on the Chinese calendar.

That?s because it is known as ?Singles Day? (11.11 ? geddit?) ? a type of Valentine?s Day for those without lovers, but with friends to whom they give gifts.

Online stores have cashed in on the idea, offering mouthwatering discounts on everything from cars to clothes to tempt consumers online on Singles Day, turning it into a retail bonanza? and it works.?

?I hadn?t planned to buy anything but I heard there would be great discounts so I went online to have a look,? says Liu Na, a 20-something book editor. ?I bought a blouse and a bag for myself, at 50 percent off.?

This year, e-commerce sales on Nov. 11 reached $4.6 billion, according to an estimate by the Economic Herald, a specialist daily in Shandong province.

That may not look like much compared with ?Black Friday? spending in the US (which topped $11.4 billion last year), until you take a couple of things into account:?

First, average Chinese salaries are 10 times smaller than average American salaries.

Second, this is just online. A comparable day in America might be ?Cyber Monday,? coming up after the weekend. Last year online US shoppers shelled out $1.25 billion ? little more than a quarter of what their Chinese counterparts spent two weeks ago.

The Chinese government may not be keen on the political corners of the Internet, but it loves the commercial aspect; its current five year plan for the economy foresees a fourfold jump in e-commerce?from 2010 levels to $2.9 trillion by 2015.

China has the world?s largest online population, at 538 million, and has more online shoppers than anywhere else too: On Nov. 11, some 213 million people ? nearly half of all Chinese Internet users ? visited one of Alibaba?s two retail platforms. Alibaba, which runs the two biggest e-commerce sites in China, reported sales of $2.94 billion on Nov.11.

Ten million consumers ? more than the population of Greece ? clicked on an Alibaba site in the first minute of Nov. 11, in the dead of night.

The massive Singles Day sales promotions are expected to boost the number of online shoppers even further. Ms. Liu for example, says she has normally shopped in bricks-and-mortar stores, but her Singles Day experience has converted her.

??Apart from the discounts, it?s a lot more convenient,? she says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/Zw8XVjYMcfI/Black-Friday-Think-it-s-crazy-in-the-US-You-should-see-China-s-version

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Invasive grass fuels increased fire activity in the West

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2012) ? An invasive grass species may be one reason fires are bigger and more frequent in certain regions of the western United States, according to a team of researchers.

Researchers used satellite imagery to identify cheatgrass, a plant species accidentally introduced by settlers in the West during the 1800s, in a disproportionately high number of fires in the Great Basin, a 600,000 square-kilometer arid area in the West that includes large sections of Nevada, as well as parts of Utah, Colorado, Idaho, California and Oregon.

"Over the past decade, cheatgrass fueled the majority of the largest fires, influencing 39 of the largest 50 fires," said Jennifer Balch, assistant professor, Penn State's Department of Geography and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. "That's much higher than what it should be when you consider how much of the Great Basin that cheatgrass covers."

The average size of the fires in cheatgrass grasslands, which dominate only about 6 percent of the Great Basin, was significantly larger than the average fire in most regions dominated by other vegetation, including pinyon-juniper areas, montane shrubland and agricultural land.

In addition to targeting the influence of cheatgass on major fires, the researchers, who reported their findings in the online version of Global Change Biology, also found that the plant may play a role in increasing the frequency of fires, said Balch.

"From 2000 to 2009, cheatgrass burned twice as much as any other vegetation," said Balch.

One of the consequences of more widespread cheatgrass fires is that landscapes dominated by the grass have a shorter fire-return interval -- the time between fires in a region -- of 78 years, compared to other species like sagebrush, which has a 196-year fire return interval.

"What's happening is that cheatgrass is creating a novel grass-fire cycle that makes future fires more likely," said Balch, who started this work at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. "Fire promotes cheatgrass and cheatgrass promotes fires."

The ability of cheatgrass to rapidly spread and fill in the ground between other plant species may be one reason the plant is involved in larger and more frequent blazes, said Balch, who worked with Bethany Bradley, assistant professor of environmental conservation, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Carla D'Antonio, professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology, University of California-Santa Barbara, and Jos? G?mez-Dans, research associate in the department of geography and the National Centre for Earth Observation, University College London.

Balch said the cheatgrass-influenced fires create a difficult management challenge. The fires can threaten agricultural lands and, since more people are building homes in the west, residential areas as well as habitat for threatened native wildlife, such as the greater sage grouse.

While cheatgrass-driven fires have been recognized for decades, remote sensing technology has allowed the researchers to take a regional approach to assessing the problem. They compared burned area detected by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer between 2000 to 2009 to regional land cover maps that included cover of cheatgrass.

"Historically, the way remote sensing worked, you could only tell the difference between broad land cover classes such as trees versus wetlands, for instance," Bradley said. "It is very difficult to capture those details at the species level."

However, by noticing what conditions favor the growth of certain species, the researchers were able to use the satellite imagery to better pinpoint the growth of different species. For instance, cheatgrass grows during wet periods while many other species do not, Bradley said.

"What you end up seeing is that most years when it is dry, the cheatgrass doesn't grow much," said Bradley. "But when there are wet seasons that occur due to the El Nino cycle, cheatgrass cover is very dense and continuous."

Bradley added that this is a concern because cheatgrass now dominates more than 40,000 square kilometers, an area that is more than 100 times the size of Salt Lake City, Utah.

According to the researchers, those changes in the vegetation can be detected in the satellite images.

"Being able to detect cheatgrass and burns really enabled us to ask the important question: 'How does an invasive plant change fire activity across the entire Great Basin?'" Balch said.

The National Science Foundation and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis supported this work.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Jennifer K. Balch, Bethany A. Bradley, Carla M. D'Antonio, Jos? G?mez-Dans. Introduced annual grass increases regional fire activity across the arid western USA (1980-2009). Global Change Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12046

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/fy1ZAPG2yRk/121205132357.htm

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The ArtsCenter's Second Sunday Film Series presents "The Films of ...

?

Todd Tinkham

Tickets can be purchased online at www.ArtsCenterLive.org
or at the ArtsCenter Box Office
Todd Tinkham longed to write and direct films since he was a boy growing up in a small fishing community in Massachusetts. But it would take years of working with at- risk teens, mentally ill adults, and incarcerated men, before Tinkham would ever make his first film.

Todd Tinkham founded TinkhamTown Productions in 2005 after losing both of his parents to cancer in 2004. Realizing that his parents had never really pursued their dreams,Todd decided that he could not wait any longer. ?After my folks died, I realized that I wasn?t going to live forever, and that if I wanted to go after my dreams, I?d better start now.?

His first film, And Then There Were Nun, screened at more than 30 film festivals. But it was his third film, Sadie Turns Seven, that took the festival circuit by storm, screening at more than 100 film festivals on five continents and winning many awards along the way. In 2009, Todd was awarded the prestigious Founder?s Award from the Secret City Film Festival. That same year, he was also the recipient of an Indy Arts Award for filmmaking. Todd completed his first feature film, Southland Of The Heart, in 2011.

Films to be screened include:
And Then There Were Nun
Here?s a recipe for disaster: One slacker boy. One angry girl. A heavy dose of Catholic
guilt. Mix. Stir well. Serve.

Forever
Through memories and dreams, a young boy experiences the love of his deceased
mother ? and helps his dad do the same.

Sadie Turns Seven
On her 7th birthday, a young girl takes daring action. (followed by Short Sadie Doc
4:30)

American Short
American Short is a story of wanderlust and hippie longings, of found treasure and lost
spirituality. A rambling American road movie in a stalled car with four eccentric travelers.

American Saints
Miracles do happen. But sometimes too many can happen in one day. Then what?

Mary & Jennifer
Two homeless friends find shelter in an empty house. Complications arise as
they attempt to live together for the night.

Trailer for Southland of the Heart
Part road movie, part comedy, part drama, SOUTHLAND OF THE HEART, is a truly
unique independent film about life, loss and many lessons love has to offer.

For additional questions, you can reach Todd Tinkham directly at:
Email: toddtinkham@gmail.com
Cell: (919) 450-7760

For general questions about the film series contact:
Adam Graetz / marketing@artscenterlive.org / 919 929-2787 or
Jim McQuaid / jim@turnipfilms.com / 919 619-3220

Programs at The ArtsCenter are supported in part by The North Carolina Arts Council and the Orange County Arts Commission.

The ArtsCenter is a non-profit teaching and presenting organization founded in 1974. The largest?employer of artists in Orange County, NC, it serves nearly 60,000 people annually, through classes,?studios, concerts, theatre, spoken word, gallery displays, more than 80 school shows, and more. The?ArtsCenter exerts a local economic impact of almost $2,900,000 which generates the equivalent of 78 full?time jobs and $231,000 in state and local tax revenue.

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Source: http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/event/the-artscenters-second-sunday-film-series-presents-the-films-of-todd-tinkham-on-dec-9th/

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5 Reasons Real Estate Prices Have Been Rising

5 Reasons Real Estate Prices Have Been RisingHome prices rose by 0.1% in September from the prior month and by 3.6% from one year ago, the largest gain in six years, according to a report released Monday by Lender Processing Services.

Compared with one year ago, prices are up by 17.7% in Phoenix, the largest gain among the nation?s 40 largest metro areas. Other notable year-over-year increases include Detroit (11.7%), Las Vegas (11.5%), San Jose, Calif. (11.3%), San Francisco (10%), and Sacramento (8.3%).

Among the top 40 metros, only a handful have posted year-over-year declines, led by St. Louis, which was down by 4.1%. Bridgeport, Conn., was down by 2.3%, while Chicago (-0.5%) and Cincinnati (-0.1%) also posted declines.

The LPS figures serve as a good reminder that it?s still hard to generalize about housing. Some markets are up sharply amid big declines in both prices and the share of distressed sales, while others are still soft. Generally, though, there are at least five significant contributors to rising prices:

Housing affordability is attractive based on traditional metrics such as price-to-rent and price-to-income measures, largely because prices have fallen so far. Housing is even more affordable considering today?s low mortgage rates. Many buyers judge their decision based on the monthly payment of a mortgage. The average payment on a median priced home last month, assuming a 10% down payment and not including taxes or insurance, fell to $720 at prevailing rates, down from nearly $1,270 at the end of 2005.

Household formation is revving up. The U.S. is on track to add 1 million new households this year, up from 630,000 last year and an average of 570,000 over the past five years, according to economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Based on normal population growth, that rate should be closer to 1.2 million households. The upshot is that some pent-up demand is being unleashed, in part because job growth has picked up.

Rents are rising.? Falling mortgage rates and improving job growth didn?t do much for housing last year, in part because buyers didn?t have much confidence or urgency. Rising rents have changed that. Initially, they spurred more investor purchases of properties that could be rented out. More recently, they?ve given buyers a reason to get off the fence.

The share of distressed sales, such as foreclosures, are down, and in many Western markets, they are down sharply over the past year.

Why are distressed sales falling? For one, mortgage delinquencies peaked 2? years ago. Banks also slowed down foreclosures as a result of the robo-signing scandal, and they?ve stepped up foreclosure alternatives, notably, by shifting short sales into a higher gear. The share of distressed sales is still high, historically speaking, but because they have fallen from their peak in many markets, prices have stabilized.

Judicial foreclosure states such as Illinois, New York, and Florida that require banks to process foreclosures in courts still face large backlogs of potential foreclosures. But states such as California and Arizona that haven?t required banks to process foreclosures by going to court have seen large drops in the volume of outstanding bad debt.

Low inventories have led to multiple offer situations, as rising demand leads more investors to chase after fewer properties. In some markets, foreclosure discounts have disappeared.

This isn?t to say housing is out of the recovery ward. Credit standards are tight. Millions of homeowners are in some stage of foreclosure, and millions of others still owe more than their homes are worth. If the economy weakens again, the housing market could relapse.

Source: http://www.noradarealestate.com/blog/5-reasons-real-estate-prices-have-been-rising/

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