Blockbuster UK finds a rescuing buyer, keeps staff and stores afloat

When Blockbuster's UK brand entered administration at the start of the year, there were concerns that it would ultimately prove just another casualty of the inexorable move toward online video. Not quite: Gordon Brothers Europe, a private equity firm known for rescuing troubled companies, has bought Blockbuster's British assets. The acquirer isn't disclosing the cash involved, but it plans to keep 2,000 workers and 264 stores in full swing while it plots a turnaround. That recovery is only described in vague terms at this stage, however -- Gordon Brothers plans to bring "new products" and "new technologies" to the bruised retail chain. While we're glad to see a one-time cornerstone of video rentals get a second chance, we hope that its bounce-back strategy involves a more futureproof selection than aisles full of plastic discs.

[Thanks, Steven]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Via: Sky News

Source: Gordon Brothers Europe

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/24/blockbuster-uk-purchased-keeps-staff-and-stores-afloat/

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How women interact online and how men respond to them

This is an issue I've tried to ignore for quite a long time. Mostly I just get treated as one of the guys, and that's fine by me. Even offline, I can't think of any time I was treated differently, for or against, because I'm female. I have resolutely avoided joining any kind of women's groups, because I don't put myself in that camp. I will converse and compete on equal terms with anyone, regardless of their sex. I don't want to be in any group for "women in business". I don't see it as being a useful thing to do.

It's just that recently I seem to have been a bit of a magnet for women who see me as a kindred spirit. Also, I'm seeing more and more groups and forums for women. I really don't like this. It's putting us on a different side of the fence. It's also sending out the message to women that men are the enemy. It's also portraying us as being victims of this male-dominated society. I don't think that's the case at all - step up to the plate and deal with it on equal terms. What's the big deal? OK, there's jokes sometimes - if you can't cope with a joke, then you're too sensitive a little flower to be active online.

One of the worst insults I ever had to deal with was from a woman who informed me that she'd stuffed up but women over 50 couldn't possibly be expected to understand the technology of how to post properly on a forum. You can imagine how well that comment went down.

I don't know why these women need to go and huddle into their little women only groups. What are they frightened of?

Source: http://experienced-people.net/forums/showthread.php/11135-How-women-interact-online-and-how-men-respond-to-them

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Israel apologizes to Turkey: how Syrian crisis helped Obama make his case

Motivated by increasing concerns over the crisis in Syria, US officials say, Obama implored Israel's Netanyahu to reach out to Turkey. Erdogan's office said the apology was accepted.

By Howard LaFranchi,?Staff writer / March 22, 2013

President Barack Obama listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their visit to the Children's Memorial at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, Friday.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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Behind President Obama?s surprise brokering of a mending of ties between Israel and Turkey Friday stands a deepening regional crisis ? namely Syria ? that suddenly trumped the dispute that had soured relations between two key US partners.

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US officials say that almost since Mr. Obama arrived in Israel Wednesday the president had been working on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach out to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an effort to repair broken Israeli-Turkish relations.

Just before Obama departed from Tel Aviv?s airport for Jordan, the president and Mr. Netanyahu stepped into a trailer, and the Israeli leader placed a phone call to Mr. Erdogan. Obama also took part in the call.

The US officials also suggest that the growing and increasingly worrisome impact the Syrian conflict is having in the region ? some aspects are of growing concern in particular to Israel ? was a key motivation behind Obama?s go-between efforts.

In a statement issued after the phone call, Obama said the United States attaches ?great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them in order to advance regional peace and security.?

In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, a senior administration official emphasized the importance the president places on regional cooperation ? and in particular on good relations between Israel and Turkey ?in dealing with regional security challenges that both of them have a significant stake in.?

Netanyahu began his call to Erdogan by telling the Turkish leader that he had been ?discussing with President Obama the importance of regional relations, the importance of Turkey-Israel cooperation,? according to the US official.

Once-warm relations between Israel and Turkey went into a deep freeze after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship destined for Gaza that left nine people dead, all either Turks or of Turkish descent. Diplomatic ties were severed, and Turkish rhetoric toward Israel grew increasingly caustic as Israel refused to apologize for the deadly raid. Israel maintained that the raid sought to enforce what it considers a legal blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, and that the loss of life ensued after Israeli soldiers were attacked.

In his conversation Friday with Erdogan, Netanyahu apologized for ?operational errors? in the military action against the aid flotilla that led to loss of life.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gU34z6SRr54/Israel-apologizes-to-Turkey-how-Syrian-crisis-helped-Obama-make-his-case

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What Games Are: ?Twas The Night Before GDC

The annual Game Developer's Conference rolls into San Francisco next week. The event is always worth attending if only to see what the future will bring. This year's, more than most, will be a real bellwether for what shape the industry will take over the next five years. And perhaps that shape will have much to do with microconsoles.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5EV1yJ4guWE/

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Alterations in brain activity in children at risk of schizophrenia predate onset of symptoms

Mar. 22, 2013 ? Research from the University of North Carolina has shown that children at risk of developing schizophrenia have brains that function differently than those not at risk.

Brain scans of children who have parents or siblings with the illness reveal a neural circuitry that is hyperactivated or stressed by tasks that peers with no family history of the illness seem to handle with ease.

Because these differences in brain functioning appear before neuropsychiatric symptoms such as trouble focusing, paranoid beliefs, or hallucinations, the scientists believe that the finding could point to early warning signs or "vulnerability markers" for schizophrenia.

"The downside is saying that anyone with a first degree relative with schizophrenia is doomed. Instead, we want to use our findings to identify those individuals with differences in brain function that indicate they are particularly vulnerable, so we can intervene to minimize that risk," said senior study author Aysenil Belger, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine.

The UNC study, published online on March 6, 2013, in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, is one of the first to look for alterations in brain activity associated with mental illness in individuals as young as nine years of age.

Individuals who have a first degree family member with schizophrenia have an 8-fold to 12-fold increased risk of developing the disease. However, there is no way of knowing for certain who will become schizophrenic until symptoms arise and a diagnosis is reached. Some of the earliest signs of schizophrenia are a decline in verbal memory, IQ, and other mental functions, which researchers believe stem from an inefficiency in cortical processing -- the brain's waning ability to tackle complex tasks.

In this study, Belger and her colleagues sought to identify what if any functional changes occur in the brains of adolescents at high risk of developing schizophrenia. She performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 42 children and adolescents ages 9 to 18, half of which had relatives with schizophrenia and half of which did not. Study participants each spent an hour and a half playing a game where they had to identify a specific image -- a simple circle -- out of a lineup of emotionally evocative images, such as cute or scary animals. At the same time, the MRI machine scanned for changes in brain activity associated with each target detection task.

Belger found that the circuitry involved in emotion and higher order decision making was hyperactivated in individuals with a family history of schizophrenia, suggesting that the task was stressing out these areas of the brain in the study subjects.

"This finding shows that these regions are not activating normally," she says. "We think that this hyperactivation eventually damages these specific areas in the brain to the point that they become hypoactivated in patients, meaning that when the brain is asked to go into high gear it no longer can."

Belger is currently exploring what kind of role stress plays in the changing mental capacity of adolescents at high risk of developing schizophrenia. Though only a fraction of these individuals will be diagnosed with schizophrenia, Belger thinks it is important to pinpoint the most vulnerable people early to explore interventions that may stave off the mental illness.

"It may be as simple as understanding that people are different in how they cope with stress," says Belger. "Teaching strategies to handle stress could make these individuals less vulnerable to not just schizophrenia but also other neuropsychiatric disorders."

The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Study co-authors from UNC include Sarah Hart, PhD, postdoctoral fellow; Joshua Bizzell, MS, lab engineer; Carolyn Bellion, study coordinator; and Diana Perkins, MD, MPH, professor of psychiatry.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina Health Care.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Sarah J. Hart, Joshua Bizzell, Mary Agnes McMahon, Hongbin Gu, Diana O. Perkins, Aysenil Belger. Altered fronto?limbic activity in children and adolescents with familial high risk for schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2013; 212 (1): 19 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.12.003

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/WAazjPj3YsI/130322174343.htm

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What might 2 popes discuss over lunch?

The helicopter carrying Pope Francis, sitting next to left window, flies on its way to Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Crowds are beginning to gather in the central square of Castel Gandolfo to catch a glimpse of history: Two popes meeting for lunch and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis flies by helicopter Saturday to the papal residence in the Alban Hills south of Rome where Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has been living since resigning Feb. 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The helicopter carrying Pope Francis, sitting next to left window, flies on its way to Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Crowds are beginning to gather in the central square of Castel Gandolfo to catch a glimpse of history: Two popes meeting for lunch and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis flies by helicopter Saturday to the papal residence in the Alban Hills south of Rome where Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has been living since resigning Feb. 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis meets with ambassadors from the 180 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See at the Vatican, Friday, March 22, 2013. The Pontiff called Friday for more dialogue with Islam and offered an olive branch to China and other countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. In his first foreign policy address as pope, Francis delivered his remarks in Italian rather than the traditional French ? another indication that the Argentine-born pope is less than comfortable speaking languages other than Italian and his mother-tongue Spanish. (AP Photo/Tony Gentile, Pool)

The helicopter carrying Pope Francis flies on its way to Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Crowds are beginning to gather in the central square of Castel Gandolfo to catch a glimpse of history: Two popes meeting for lunch and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis flies by helicopter Saturday to the papal residence in the Alban Hills south of Rome where Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has been living since resigning Feb. 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The helicopter carrying Pope Francis flies on its way to Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Crowds are beginning to gather in the central square of Castel Gandolfo to catch a glimpse of history: Two popes meeting for lunch and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis flies by helicopter Saturday to the papal residence in the Alban Hills south of Rome where Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has been living since resigning Feb. 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) ? Pope Francis has arrived at the papal residence south of Rome for an extraordinary date with his predecessor Benedict XVI, who met him at the helipad and escorted him to his library for a private chat followed by lunch.

Outside the villa, the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo was packed Saturday with well-wishers hoping to catch a glimpse of history: two popes breaking bread together and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church. They chanted "Francesco! Francesco!"

Benedict has been living at the papal summer villa since he resigned Feb. 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years. He has said he plans to live out his final years in prayer and remain "hidden from the world."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-23-Vatican-Pope/id-fce0b71a97154c3091fc928efb67fa6c

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BlackBerry Z10 Review

There was a time, not so long ago, when I was in love with my BlackBerry. I owned a Curve, my wife had a Pearl. We thought that they were incredible. For their time, they really were powerful devices. When the iPhone came out, I remember seeing the commercial and thinking aloud that it would be incredibly cool if it could actually operate the way that it showed on TV. I, like many others, abandoned my BlackBerry for an Android phone, and then an iPhone. But if RIM has its way of things, the release of the Z10 will start shifting the winds back in its favor.

What It Isn?t

I think that, in order to best understand what the Z10 is trying to accomplish, we have to first look at what it?s not trying to do.

In that realm, it?s not trying to out-iOS the iPhone, nor is it trying to out-Android an Android device. iOS is known for its simplicity, Android for its ability to be customized. The Z10 is neither overly-simplistic, nor is it highly customizable. It?s a bit of a WYSIWYG device, but it works well for how BlackBerry is operating. It?s not the thinnest, or the lightest smartphone on the market. It doesn?t boast the best camera or screen that you?ve seen either.

So why would you want it? Because it has a load of redeeming features that the BlackBerry devout will love, and the company has spent its pas couple of years doing some serious homework. The decision to buy a Z10 comes down to how you feel about BB10, and we?ll get into more on that in a bit.

Aesthetics

About the closest thing that BlackBerry (RIM, at the time) ever did that resembled aesthetic design was the release of the Pearl. The device wasn?t as wide as the rest of the BlackBerry lineup, but it managed to still be very much a BlackBerry in operation. It wasn?t groundbreaking by any means, but it was well received.

The Z10 could be seen much the same way. It?s thin, but not the thinnest. It?s light, but not the lightest. The screen is good, but not the best and the feel of the materials is solid, but not on par with, say, the iPhone. What?s left, however, is a rather great-looking device that fits well into your pocket, is easy to hold and operate with one hand and manages to be better in just about every way than non-flagship devices from any maker.

The outside of the Z10 is sparse. There?s a volume rocker, a screen power button and two ports on the side ? one for micro-USB and another for HDMI. There?s a silver BlackBerry logo on the bottom, and another on the back. The patterned feel to the back of the device is nice, and manages to keep it from getting slick when handled for long periods of time.

Overall I found the Z10 very pleasant to use. It didn?t elicit oohs and ahhs when I took it out of my pocket, but that?s probably not what you care about. Though I will say that it?s by far the best looking BlackBerry device to date, the utilitarian design is almost surely done with business-oriented people in mind.

Screen, Camera, Battery

If you?re going to move away from physical keyboards and make the screen the showcase of your device, then it had better be good. For that task, BlackBerry went with a 4.2-inch,?1280 x 768 pixel display at 356 ppi. That?s a slightly higher pixel density than the iPhone 4S, which means that it does look incredibly good. Colors were?rendered?well, video looks excellent and the entire spectrum is delivered accurately.

The camera on the Z10 is good, but definitely not great. Photos tended to be darker than I?d have liked to seen them, and were most definitely darker than comparison shots that I took from my iPhone 4S. The camera app tends to lose focus easily, and operating it with one hand is more difficult than it needs to be. Adjusting focus points requires you to manually drag the reticle to the area that you want and then wait for the software to focus the lens again.

Battery life on the Z10 wasn?t fantastic, with the 1,800 mAh power cell clocking in a bit over 8 hours of straight video. I was able to make it all day, using primarily WiFi, without having to charge the device, so there are points to be given for the Z10 accomplishing something that my iPhone can?t do.

BB10

I promised myself that I wouldn?t make this a review about BB10, and I?m going to stick to this as best as I can. But you really can?t talk about the Z10 without mentioning the OS, so I?m going to take a few sentences to talk about that now.

BB10 is the most radical?departure?from previous BlackBerry OS versions that the company could have made while still holding true to its rabidly-loyal base of fans. Multitasking is probably my favorite feature of the OS. It uses WebOS-style ?cards? for apps that are running in the background. Tapping the X on the bottom right of one closes out the app, while tapping anywhere else brings the app back to the forefront. It works exceptionally well.

Gestures within BB10 are also well done. Swiping up from the bottom edge of the device wakes it up and takes you to your last-used screen. Swiping all the way to the right reveals the BlackBerry Hub, which is an integrated inbox of your email, BBM, Twitter, Facebook and just about every other communication account that you can add to the device.

Peek is the feature that I think most people will ignore, but it?s very powerful. Swiping about halfway up from the bottom of the screen will show your unread message count. If you then swipe to the right (making an upside-down L shape) you?ll go straight to the Hub from whatever screen you?re presently on. Swiping down from the top of the screen takes you to the settings for whichever app that you?re using. If you?re on the home screen, it takes you to shortcuts for WiFi, rotation lock, Bluetooth and others. I found that most apps didn?t take nearly enough advantage of the Settings feature, but those that did were a pleasure to use.

The apps are a bit lacking, but you?ll find the standards such as Twitter, Facebook, Kindle and many more. Though BlackBerry is touting a catalog of over 100,000 apps, it?s worth noting that many of these are local?translations?of the same app, or they?re simply trash apps that you?ll never want to use so the number is a bit disingenuous. The OS itself is fantastic, even if the apps aren?t. It?s apparent that BlackBerry has spent a lot of time making BB10 true to what its core users would want, while trying to find a method by which to claw its way out of a rut.

Should You Buy It?

The Z10 is launching in the US today, and it?s going to be a big deal for the future of the company. There?s the Q10 cousin if you want a physical keyboard, so BlackBerry isn?t betting the farm on the touchscreen. But it really does need to sell well in order for the company to keep moving forward.

Whether or not you?ll want to buy it comes down to a single question ? Do you want the BlackBerry OS? Facing facts, everything about the Z10 is very good. But nothing about it is fantastic. As a device, it?s on par with top-tier offerings from other OEMs. If you like the BlackBerry OS, there?s really nothing to be disappointed about when it comes to the phone itself.

But herein lies the problem ? As compared to Android or iOS devices, there?s nothing to be overly excited about. Yes, it has NFC, a great display and perfectly acceptable battery life, but so do many other phones on the market today. The excitement is truly limited to those people who have been waiting to see BlackBerry translated into a more modern device. For that market, the Z10 is the first, major step in the right direction.

If it sells well, and if the BlackBerry faithful can make it a hit, then the company can perhaps chip away at the massive domination that iOS and Android have on the mobile market. With 98% between these two, a few points shaven off and handed to BlackBerry could give it a strong #3 spot and bring the company back from the edge of obscurity.

Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/03/22/blackberry-z10-review/

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