Saturday, April 6, 2013

Could the Ford C-Max Be Getting an Update Already?

It sure looks that way. An updated Ford C-Max disguising Ford?s new Aston Martin nose has been caught winter-testing in Sweden.

Ford C Max prototype front 300x187 imageFrom the looks of this early prototype, Ford may only have minor updates in store for the C-Max, which just landed on our shores last year, and has only been on sale in Europe since 2011. Based on this mule, the major changes we should expect to see on the updated Ford C-Max consist of a new nose, with the Aston Martin-styled grille that?s graced the Fusion and updated Fiesta. Revised headlights with LED running lights, and tweaked rear-end styling may be in the cards as well.

We expect the updated C-Max to hit Europe first with a range of gas and diesel engines late this year. The U.S.-spec C-Max will remain hybrid-only, and will likely be updated next year. When we compared a Ford C-Max hybrid with the Toyota Prius V, we picked the Ford because it drives better and is quieter than the Toyota, which still saw better observed mileage on our testing loop.

How do you think Ford should update the C-Max?

Source: CarPix

Source: http://wot.motortrend.com/could-the-ford-c-max-be-getting-an-update-already-352127.html

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Essential Creative | 18 Big Video Marketing Statistics

Have you climbed on board the video marketing train yet? If you own a small business or are in business for yourself, there?s a lot of compelling evidence suggesting that online video marketing should be a major focus of your advertising and marketing budget. Here?s just one big number that should make you sit up and take notice:

1.8 Million Words

That?s the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

Do you have the time and energy to write 1.8 million words? That?s the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages. If you write an average of one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute of video.

When you look at it that way, online video marketing is the single most practical use for your marketing time and energy. Not convinced yet? Here are 15 more big video marketing numbers that should make you sit up and take notice.

What?s The Market for Online Video?

45.4%

According to comScore, which measures online engagement and use, that?s the percentage of Internet users who view at least one video online over the course of a month. The average user is exposed to an average of 32.2 videos in a month, increasing the chances that your marketing message will be seen. But what does that work out to in real numbers?

100 Million

That?s the number of Internet users who watch online video each day. Granted, a lot of those are watching the latest viral video with a goofy cat or a cute kid, but an awful lot of them are looking for advice on how to do something or how to make something work better. And a whole of them are looking to buy a service or product.

90%

The percentage of online shoppers at a major retailer?s website who said they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions. Retailers who provide online video to show off their products report that the products with video sell a lot more than products with no video.

75%

That?s the percent of executives who told Forbes that they watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week. The results breakdown:

  • 50% watch business-related videos on YouTube
  • 65% visit the marketer?s website after viewing a video

16 minutes and 49 seconds

According to comScore, that?s how much time the average user spends watching online video ads every month.

Takeaway:?If you?re not using video marketing, you?re missing out on a huge market opportunity. It?s not just the number of people who are watching videos that?s important ? it?s the reasons why they watch it. When you post an online marketing video to a business website, you?ve got a great chance of engaging with a busy executive who is specifically looking for your services but might not have reached out to schedule a meeting for a presentation. Your marketing video is a great way to get your elevator pitch out into the ether and let it reel in leads.

What?s the Payoff for Online Marketing Video?

8 Big Video Marketing Results Numbers

80%

According to the Online Publishers Association, that?s the percentage of Internet users who recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. It gets even better. Of that 80%, 46% took some action after viewing the ad. In fact:

  • 26% looked for more information about the subject of the video
  • 22% visited the website named in the ad
  • 15% visited the company represented in the video ad
  • 12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad

64%

That?s how much more likely website visitors are to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. In addition, visitors who view videos stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don?t view videos, comScore says.

Online Video Marketing Is Not Just for Retailers

403%

An Australian real estate group reports that real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos. In other words, real estate ads with videos generate quadruple the leads of those without videos.

59%

According to Forbes Insight, that?s the percentage of senior executives who?d rather watch a video than read text. About 65% of those who view a video click through to visit the vendor website, 50% look for more information and 45% report that they contacted a vendor after seeing an online video ad. About 50% of those who viewed an online marketing video went on to make a purchase for their business.

And It?s Not Just Online

96%

In 2010, an Implix email marketing survey found that including a video in an introductory email increased the click-through rate by 96%. That?s nearly twice as many people clicking through to your website when you include a video in your marketing emails.

200%

The Forrester Marketing group surveyed businesses in 2010 and found that video did even better. When marketers included a marketing or explainer video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200% to 300%.

75%

Do your email subscribers drop like flies? Eloqua, an automated email marketing provider, noted that including video in an introductory email reduced the number of subscriber opt-outs by 75%. Maintaining that contact is a vital part of establishing a relationship with prospects.

51%

One online marketer reported a 51% increase in subscriber-to-lead conversion rates when video was included in an email marketing campaign.

Takeaway:?Video marketing increases sales and leads. If you?re not using video marketing, you?re losing customers to those who do. Businesses that incorporate video marketing into their overall marketing strategy see higher engagement rates, higher click-through rates and higher conversion rate. Why would you leave all that value sitting on the table?

How to Make Video Marketing More Effective

4 Big Numbers About User Engagement with Video Content

10 seconds

That?s how long you have to grab the attention of viewers in a video marketing clip. According to research by Visible Measures, 20% of your viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or fewer.

And it doesn?t get a lot better than that. You?ll lose about 1/3 of your viewers by 30 seconds, 45% of them by 1 minute and almost 60% by 2 minutes. And those numbers remain the same no matter how long the video is.

5 minutes

There?s good news, though. While desktop viewers tend to stick with videos for 2 minutes or less, mobile users seem to have a longer attention span. iPhone users tend to watch for about 2.4 minutes. Android users give a video three minutes to engage them and Symbian users stick around for just over 4 minutes. iPad users have the longest attention spans of all, sticking with a web video for an average of 5 minutes.

16%

That?s the percentage of YouTube videos that are embedded, linked or shared on Tuesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to Sysomos.

15 seconds

According to research conducted by Jun Group (2011), videos that are 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37 percent more often than those that last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. If you make your video longer, that stat goes down. Those shorties are only shared 18% more often than videos of longer than 1 minute.

Takeaway:?Effective video marketing has to be engaging right from the start, but how do you know where your video is going off the rails? That?s where video analytics comes in. Detailed video analytics will tell you who?s watching your video, how long they stay engaged and exactly where they click away. Armed with that information, you can sharpen your message and target it more precisely. If you haven?t started your own video marketing campaign, isn?t it time you jumped in with both feet? There?s nothing to lose and about 403% more profit just waiting for you.

FULL POST at http://www.videobrewery.com/blog/18-video-marketing-statistics?

Source: http://www.esntl.com/social-video-marketing/18-big-video-marketing-statistics/

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Facebook Mom Blocked Over Breastfeeding Pics; Company Apologizes Amid Backlash

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Antarctic blue whales pinpointed with sonar

Kylie Owen

The blow hole of an Antarctic blue whale.is easily seen as it breaks the ocean's surface.

By Becky Oskin
LiveScience

Whales may be the biggest animals on Earth, but finding them in the vast open ocean isn't easy.

Now, an Australia-led research team has demonstrated a novel idea for chasing down the massive marine mammals. To search for Antarctic blue whales, the group dropped sonar buoys in the Ross Sea west of Antarctica, and listened for whale calls. They triangulated the whale's location from their calls, and then sailed to the right spot.

During the research cruise, the scientists photographed 57 blue whales, collected 23 skin biopsy samples and stuck on two satellite-tracking tags. They also spotted 11 pygmy blue whales and eight humpback whales, among a total 720 cetacean species (the group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises).

"In many respects our expectations of what we could achieve have been exceeded," the scientists wrote on the expedition's blog.

The deep, resonating song of Antarctic blue whales travels hundreds of kilometers across the Southern Ocean, Brian Miller, of the Australian Antarctic Division?and the lead marine mammal acoustician of the mission, said in a statement. The team returned with 626 hours of recordings, with 26,545 blue whale calls analyzed in real time. [See how they found the whales]

Virginia Andrews-Goff

The Amaltal Explorer is dwarfed by a tabular iceberg during the Antarctic voyage.

The whale's satellite tags will transmit never-before obtained data on how the whales feed near the edge of the Antarctic ice, marine biologist Virginia Andrews-Goff of the Australian Marine Mammals Center said in a statement.

The International Whaling Commission estimates the population of Antarctic blue whales is between 400 and 1,400 individuals. The leviathans were slaughtered to near extinction in the early 1900s by whalers, who took some 340,000 whales, according to a statement from the Australian government.

Researchers worldwide have used acoustic technology to track whale species for decades, including blue whales, humpback whales and right whales. This is the first time that scientists have located whales for tagging and identification by identifying their positions with sonar, the statement said.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a61f26e/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A50C176177620Eantarctic0Eblue0Ewhales0Epinpointed0Ewith0Esonar0Dlite/story01.htm

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Infected

After infection, the virus "plugs in" and activates junk DNA in it's victim, resulting in biological changes that create (and recreate) sentience within the infected creature cellular makeup. It acts by affecting the protein encoding regions of the promoter introns in each cell. As a retrovirus, it contains both RNA and the reverse transcriptase enzyme, allowing it to insert its own genetic codes into living cells. It enters, re-purposes and changes the cell, replicating previously dormant non-coding segments of DNA.

Image More often than not, these changes are too drastic and 99.99% of subjects die from massive organ failure and cell saturation. However, some variants have yielded other beneficial results; endowing the infected organisms with incredible superhuman genetic prowess, that greatly increase their natural abilities to levels far exceeding human capability, these variants include DX-1120 and DX-1118 C.

The virus is highly contagious and can infect organisms through a multitude of means.
Physical Contact: If a non-infected person is bitten or scratched by an Infected person, or Hunter, the virus can spread directly to the victim resulting in their infection.

  • Exposure: Coming into contact with an Infected Water Tower, or a Hive can result in the infectious agents spreading to nearby humans.
  • Bodily Fluid Contact: Infectious bodily fluids and materials are capable of infecting through open wounds.
  • Injection: As used on the Project D-Code soldiers, the Virus can be spread through direct application via injection.

A group of scientists led by Dr. Alex Mercer managed to synthesize a new virus Image strain which they named Blacklight. The Blacklight virus' effects are variable and far more infectious than the Idaho strain. The Blacklight virus outbreak does not follow the pattern of the Hope outbreak: it causes too many infections, spreads over too wide an area, and leaves too many surviving entities. The Blacklight virus mortality rate is lower than that of the Redlight virus, and the incubation period is much longer. The full capabilities of the Blacklight virus were unknown, but were discovered in New York.

In 2006, the Redlight virus from Hope, Idaho was released in New York. Alex Mercer, code named Zeus, was an abomination of a different strand of the virus, the Blacklight Virus. Through the hard work of Blackwatch, the infection was purged from the city.

This peace, however, only lasted for 14 months. Alex Mercer started a new outbreak, this time of the Blacklight virus. An infected marine, James Heller, gained powers immensely similar to those of Mercer. In a final confrontation between the two titans, James Heller killed Alex Mercer, and consumed all the infected in the New York red zone. Just after the battle, the city was completely destroyed by a hydrogen bomb. The city, and miles around the city, were destroyed beyond repair. The events were labeled as an attack on terrorism, and fear of nuclear weapons exploded among the American public. James Heller has not been seen since the incident, and has been classified as dead.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/wqfQHY6lxys/viewtopic.php

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HTC First hands-on (update: video)

After endless months of speculation, the collaboration between HTC and Facebook has finally been revealed to the world. It's not a Facebook Phone per se, it's simply a skinned Android smartphone that just so happens to bestow deep social media integration upon the OS, a move which makes the First -- as well as future devices that feature the newly announced Facebook Home interface -- an appropriate candidate for the term. The First will be available April 12th for $100 on AT&T, but it can be pre-ordered starting today.

While Facebook Home is taking the spotlight, let's examine the first piece of hardware it will be featured on. On the spec sheet, the First isn't going to take anybody's breath away: it's a midrange phone with dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB RAM, 5MP rear camera, Android 4.1 and a 4.3-inch 720p display. We're just getting our hands on the device right now and will continue to offer up our First impressions, along with a full gallery of images.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/htc-first-hands-on/

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Friday, April 5, 2013

7 great lines from Roger Ebert's reviews

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Roger Ebert, who died Thursday at age 70, became a television personality, a Twitter legend and a beloved American icon, but what he was first and foremost was a movie critic.

Movie critics are as plentiful as popcorn, but there was truly no one like Ebert. He never buried his reviews in academic language or flowery comparisons. A down-to-earth writer, he brought his whole life and his entire understanding of human nature, plus a great sense of humor, into his writing.

Sure, he was known for his commentary on classics such as "Citizen Kane," but often, the movies that made him suffer the most gave us the most delightful reviews. Here are some of his gems. Rest in peace, Roger.

The Pullet Surprise?
Perhaps his most classic line references Ebert's own 1975 Pulitzer Prize, the first awarded to a film critic. Back in 2005, Rob Schneider complained that another reviewer who didn't like?"Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo"?wasn't qualified to review it because he didn't have a Pulitzer. In response, Ebert wrote, "Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks."

Where the stars don't shine?
"I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine."?? ?From review of?"The Human Centipede"

Tell us how you really feel, Roger?
"I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering, stupid, vacant, audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it."?? ?From?"North" review

Soft-soap job?
"One of the details that 'A Christmas Story' gets right is the threat of having your mouth washed out with Lifebuoy soap. Not any soap. Lifebuoy. Never Ivory or Palmolive. Lifebuoy, which apparently contained an ingredient able to nullify bad language. The only other soap ever mentioned for this task was Lava, but that was the nuclear weapon of mouth-washing soaps, so powerful it was used for words we still didn't even know."???From"A Christmas Story" review

A kiss is still a ...?
"(Rhett Butler) tells Scarlett in a key early scene, 'You need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.' For 'kissed,' substitute the word you're thinking of." ?From?"Gone With the Wind" review

Over the rainbow?
"... The elements in 'The Wizard of Oz' powerfully fill a void that exists inside many children. For kids of a certain age, home is everything, the center of the world. But over the rainbow, dimly guessed at, is the wide earth, fascinating and terrifying. There is a deep fundamental fear that events might conspire to transport the child from the safety of home and strand him far away in a strange land. And what would he hope to find there? Why, new friends to advise and protect him. And Toto, of course, because children have such a strong symbiotic relationship with their pets that they assume they would get lost together."? ?From?"Wizard of Oz" review

What they really, really want is an acting coach.
"(The Spice Girls)?occupy 'Spice World' as if they were watching it." ??From "Spice World" review

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/04/17604124-7-great-lines-from-roger-eberts-movie-reviews?lite

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