Angelina Jolie wows Oscar rehearsal actors

Actress introduced herself as "Angie" to a group of college students serving as trophy carriers this year

LOS ANGELES (AP) — To the world, she's a humanitarian, superstar actress and half of Hollywood's most glamorous couple.

But to the workers who met Angelina Jolie Thursday at Oscar rehearsals, she was just "Angie."



The 38-year-old Oscar winner, who was honored with the film academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award last year, came to the Dolby Theatre to run through the lines she'll say in front of millions on Sunday.

Afterward, she hung around chatting to show producers and introduced herself as "Angie" to a group of college students serving as trophy carriers this year.

More: 2014 Oscars coverage

"You'll help make the night a fun night," she said warmly to the star-struck students. One told her, "You were great out there."

"I didn't fall!" Jolie replied with a smile, confessing that the silver peep-toe pumps she paired with capri pants and a sweater for the rehearsal are her actual show-day shoes.

"After you've done this a few times, you learn to wear the shoes you're going to present in," she said.
She also learned she needed the teleprompter text to be made a bit larger.

"I used to wear glasses," she said.

Jolie presented an award on stage, and when a rehearsal actor stepped up to claim it, she gave him a hug.

"For this rehearsal only," he said, "I am one lucky bastard."

source:
http://t.entertainment.msn.com/angelina-jolie-wows-oscar-rehearsal-actors?toc=movies

9 Diet Plateau Hacks: Get Back On The Road To Lean

It's time to get lean. Get your diet moving full steam ahead and reach your fat loss goals with these nine tips and eating plan tweaks from bodybuilder Brad Borland.

Brad Borland is a strength & conditioning specialist, cancer survivor and the founder of WorkoutLab.

The devil’s in the details as the old saying goes. Sometimes the tiniest detail or the smallest adjustment can move mountains when it comes to our diet and training goals. We so haphazardly tend to think we need constant overhauls in order for our eating plans to cultivate the type of change we want to see.

Do you see yourself as that type? The type that feels the need to wipe the slate completely clean regarding your diet? Do you find that when faced with a difficult circumstance or roadblock that you must make a big change in order the see results again?

Don’t. Many times, no, most of the time small, gradual adjustments are called for instead of reinventing the wheel. Staying the general course and adjusting a few critical components is, many times, all that is necessary to get you back on the road to lean-town.

Below are a few common questions you may encounter at some point on your personal journey. Some or all may be just what you need to get the fire stoked once again and reap big dividends by making small changes.

9 Hacks to Reach Your Diet Goals

Hack #1 - Make a minor calorie adjustment

Has the scale stopped moving? As watching the scale isn’t a realistic tool in the war on fat it can still be frustrating when you know the fat isn’t melting off like it used to. Instead of throwing in the towel try a minor adjustment in overall calories. Either decrease or increase (yes you read that right, see #2 for more) your calories by only 200 to 300.

Also, give any new adjustment time (two to four weeks) to make an impact. Being too impatient and demanding overnight results is a surefire way toward frustration.

Hack #2 - Take a training break and bump carbs

Are you becoming too drained during training? This can be a sign of too much of a calorie deficit. If you feel stale and your training, energy levels and overall wellbeing are suffering then you may need a few days off from training in addition to a few more calories in your diet – namely carbohydrates.

When you eat too little the body tends to slow its metabolism down and conserve energy (it thinks it’s starving and wants to surplus energy in the name of fat storage). Increasing calories slightly and taking a short break from training will lead you back in the right direction. See also #7.

Hack #3 - Get creative & spice up your food

Have you lost motivation and enthusiasm on your current diet? A diet doesn’t have to be boring. Research interesting and tasty ways to prepare your food. A bland chicken breast and lifeless brown rice shouldn’t be what’s on your menu every day.

Look up how to spice-up certain dishes, how to prepare low-fat dressings and marinades and don’t be afraid to explore new tastes and new foods that you’ve never tried before. Spark your curiosity and get creative.

Hack #4 - Salvage your efforts by hitting the reset button

Do you keep getting of course with your diet? Does it seem like you are always trying to play catch-up? Do you feel like you are constantly getting knocked off your horse when it comes to sticking to your plan of action? Adopt a new perspective and work with what you have.

Instead of throwing it all away and starting over once again, pick up the pieces where you are currently and move forward. If you had a bad day of eating one day, simply do a little better the next day. Salvage your efforts and soon you will see that discipline and consistency is built over time.

Hack #5 - Inject a tweak into your plan

Is your diet stale and lifeless? This can easily be relatable to #3. In addition, try different techniques such ascycling your carbohydrate intake, increasing some healthy fats and/or install a weekly cheat meal or two.

Take time to prepare your food and add in more flavors, research fast ways to prep food and use unique meal combinations. Exchange ideas with others and create a small community of support. Healthy diet food doesn’t have to be bland and boring.

Hack #6 - Stop starving & increase calories

Are you starving all the time? Having that starving feeling is no way to live. The hunger reflex is your body’s signal that it needs fuel. Normally a sign of too few calories, feeling constant hunger pangs is a surefire way of running yourself into the ground.

Slightly increase calories over the next few days and keep track of how you feel. You may need to increase some healthy fats or complex carbs in order to properly fuel your muscle especially during intense training.

Hack #7 - Satisfy your cravings for missed foods

Do you miss your favorite foods? As I see it, this issue can be solved two ways.

One, if you need that binge fix after a week’s worth of dieting then schedule a cheat day at the end of the week. This will have you looking forward to a “reward” and will make the week easier to get through.

Two, as stated above, you can research ways of preparing your food differently to make it more appetizing each day. Who wouldn’t love marinated meats, grilled and spiced vegetables and quinoa?

Hack #8 - Lose the right kind of weight

Are you losing too much of the wrong kind of weight? We all have looked at the scale once or twice or 100 times in our lives but who is to know if it is the right kind of weight we are losing.

A weight loss or gain of one to two pounds per week is about the limit when it comes to putting on muscle or losing fat respectively. Again, as a lot of over dieters are guilty of, having your calories set too low will go against many or all efforts in the gym. You must feed your body to function and recover and have a slow and steady mindset regarding getting lean.

Hack #9 - Forget "perfect" and just start

Have you quit and are finding it impossible to start again? The biggest hurdle to any big endeavor is to just start. Start somewhere, somehow but the most important thing is to just start. You don’t need the perfect plan, with perfect execution to be successful and to start seeing results.

Every little action no matter how small will add to your self-discipline, consistency and effectiveness building each and every day until you can step back and see the monumental path you have taken. Your journey is made up of many single steps that build a foundation of positive habits and incredible willpower getting you closer to your goals.

muscleandstrength.com

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  
  

  Brad Borland

  Brad is the founder of Workout Lab. He has a Master's degree in Kinesiology and is a consultant, writer, strength & conditioning specialist, husband and father. Brad is a military veteran and a cancer survivor.

  View all by Brad Borland »

Earth marks close encounter with enormous asteroid

The 295-year Asteroid 2000 EM26 was streaking past Earth at a distance of about 2.1 million miles and moving at about 27,000 mph.

 

An asteroid estimated to be the size of three football fields whizzed close to Earth on Monday, roughly a year after one exploded over Russia and injured 1,200 people.

Slooh Space Camera tracked the approach of the asteroid as it raced past the planet at about 27,000 mph (43,000 kmph), starting at 9 p.m. EST (2 a.m. GMT, February 18), the robotic telescope service said in a statement on Slooh.com.

The Dubai Astronomy Group provided Slooh photos of the part of the sky where the rock was expected to be seen, but its motion could not be picked out immediately in a live webcast against the backdrop of night-time stars.

The 295-yard (270-m) asteroid was streaking past Earth at a distance of about 2.1 million miles (3.4 million km) little more than a year after another asteroid exploded on February 15, 2013, over Chelyabinsk,Russia. That asteroid injured 1,200 people following a massive shock wave that shattered windows and damaged buildings.

Chelyabinsk region officials had wanted to mark the anniversary by giving a piece of the meteorite to each 2014 Winter Olympic athlete who won a medal on Saturday at the Sochi Games. However, the International Olympic Committee at the last minute said it could be done only after the games and separately.

Slooh's flagship observatory on Mount Teide in Spain's Canary Islands was iced over and unable to be used for the 2000 EM26 viewing, Paul Cox, Slooh's technical and research director, said on the one-hour webcast.

"We continue to discover these potentially hazardous asteroids - sometimes only days before they make their close approaches to Earth," Cox said in a statement before the show.

He added, "We need to find them before they find us!"

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Nick Zieminski and Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://t.msn.com

Could Be Part Of Larger Holiday Cyberattack On U.S. Retail

In the weeks following Thanksgiving, Target became the unlucky victim of a massive attack and data hack, which reportedly affected as many as 110 million people and exposed an array of personal data, including names, addresses and credit card information. With a second retail giant beginning to notify customers that it, too, has been hacked, it seems that we may just be scratching the surface of a larger cyber attack that took place during the holiday season. This morning, Krebs On Security reported that upscale retailer Neiman Marcus has teamed up with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate its own data breach which led to the theft of credit card and personal information. The company reportedly discovered the cyber attack in December from its credit card processor but has still yet to disclose how many shoppers have been affected by the hack. However, the company said via its Twitter account that it is beginning to notify customers whose credit card information has been “used fraudulently” since the breach in December. The company said that the forensics team it has been working with had discovered that customer personal information had been compromised, but that it has “begun to contain the intrusion and have taken significant steps to further enhance information security,” it said in a statement about the breach. Beyond how many of its customers were exposed to the attack, the company has yet to share details on how the breach occurred. There is no concrete evidence that the two attacks on Neiman Marcus and Target were linked, as, at least according to Krebs. Target has yet to publicly share details on its investigation which could help other retailers discover whether or not the attacks were perpetrated by the same hackers. However, Reuters has since reported that Neiman Marcus and Target were not the only victims of the Holiday Hack Attack ’13, as I’m calling it. According to Reuters, at least three other “well-known U.S. retailers” were subject to data breaches, which used “similar techniques” to the attack on Target. Not only that, but those investigating the events indicated that similar breaches may also have “occurred earlier last year.” The report claims that hackers used “malicious software” to infiltrate the retailers’ databases and steal credit card information. Reuters’ sources indicated that one of the Trojan horses used by hackers was a “RAM scraper,” which allows the burglar to snatch encrypted data at a moment of vulnerability. This happens when the data appears in plain text as it moves through the live memory of the customer’s computer, according to Reuters. Visa apparently warned of a series of attacks using this method that had been attempted on its network earlier last year, but while this kind of “RAM scraping” attack has been around for years, the report said that the attacks on Target and others were much more sophisticated. While cyber security itself has increased dramatically (and improved) over the last few years, it appears there’s still headway to be made. While the attacks reportedly took place during the holiday season, the major retailers affected have delayed any public announcement about the cyberattack. The reason is that many credit card companies and banks are “forbidden” from naming merchants affected by attacks unless “they disclose that information themselves.” Naturally, big brand merchants would rather protect their image and business, rather than publicly announcing a breach. It’s an understandable move to protect their business and prevent mass hysteria, but it’s also frustrating to customers, banks and many others who may not become aware of exposure until days, weeks or months after the attacks occur. Many states require companies to contact customers when their information is exposed, and usually it’s payment processors who bear that responsibility. But that’s not the case everywhere. As more information on this comes to light, we may learn that the hackers ran a series of test-runs of their new methods involving RAM scraping and other techniques, which could be (or could have been) a harbinger of things to come. We also may learn that a host of companies have been exposed to these sorts of attacks, even though those companies may resolve try to prevent that information from coming to light. Source: TechCrunc

Starz shares rise on Q2 results

Starz shares rise on Q2 results profit increase in premium cable channel is falling, but the company beat forecasts
Published: August 1, 2013 @ 08:09 print this pageTweet by Brent langfollow @BrentALang

Net income fell 7 percent at Starz in the second quarter of 2013 on higher production costs, but premium cable channel beat analyst projections.

His report shares of the Starz rose 6.54 percent to $23,96 from 10:56 EST strength.

The company behind shows such as "Magic City" and "Da Vinci's demons" gains $63.9 million, or 52 cents per share to below $68.7 million, or 57 cents a share reported in the same period a year ago. However respondents analysts by Thomson Reuters projected the result 42 cents a share for the 3-month period ending in June.

Sales at the company surpassed projections to climb 29 percent to $517,4 million. Wall Street had Starz report $406,77 million revenue expected.

Subscription to Starz jumped 5 percent to an all-time high of 21.8 million, while the company beat sister channel Encore 3 percent to 35.1 million saw subscriptions rise.

In addition, Starz said it had has "Power", a new series of producer Curtis "50 cent" Jackson and expected that they air in 2014. It has also a second season of his upcoming pirate show "Black Sails" order before an episode has even debuted. The show premieres in January.

 

 

 

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Time Warner Cable sees profits rise revenue in Q2, but misses projections

Time Warner Cable sees profits rise in the second quarter, but missed revenue projections mixed picture for the country the second largest cable operator
Published: August 1, 2013 @ 04:31 print this pageTweet by Brent langfollow @BrentALang

Time Warner Cable saw sales climb 2.7 percent to $5.5 billion, while 14.2% 2013 rose to $1.69 per share for the second quarter profits.

Despite these gains, the cable company missed revenue Wall Street projections even as his result surpassed estimates. Analysts had anticipated revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, and earnings per share of $1.66.

Reported on the results of the second quarter while locked in a fierce dispute with CBS Corp. over the charges they pay popular cable channels such as Showtime carry Time Warner. If an agreement is not concluded, can it carry a programming blackout.

Net income at the company hit $481 million, an increase of 6.4 percent from the same quarter of the previous year.

In historically a weak period for cable operators, Time Warner shed 191,000 residential video subscribers in the quarter. It saw improvements in the high-speed Internet business, but his role add 8,000 residential broadband subscribers.

It was also more money from its broadband operations to rings, after one cable modem rental fees. Sales in the Division rose by more than 12 percent to $1.42 billion.

 

 

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