Here?s Another Reason To Avoid Giving Gift Cards

By this point, we’ve probably all given or received gift cards during the holidays. But most consumers don’t know how easy it is for scammers to steal value from these cards, and what a pain in the butt in can be to get that money back.

See, around this time of year, scam artists are going around and getting peeks … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/12/14/heres-another-reason-to-avoid-giving-gift-cards/

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One Tale Of Heroism From Inside Sandy Hook Elementary School

sandy hook elementary shooting

Hours after unspeakable tragedy struck the Connecticut town of Newtown, we're beginning to hear some incredible tales of heroism from the people who were inside.

Diane Day, a therapist at Sandy Hook Elementary School, told a remarkable story to The Wall Street Journal's Lisa Fleischer.

Day was with the principal and some other staff members when the gunshots rang out. She hid under the table, while the principal and school psychologist bolted out of the room to see what was going on.

And then, a teacher did something heroic. From the WSJ:

Without a lock on the door, the school’s lead teacher pressed her body against the door to hold it shut, Ms. Day said. That teacher was shot through the door in the leg and arm.

“She was our hero,” Ms. Day said.

The principal and psychologist were both killed.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/_x2SBchwp8Q/newtown-shooting-heroes-2012-12

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Why Google Just Made iPhone King: Ads

By releasing new versions of Google Maps and Gmail for iOS this month, Google helped make the iPhone the best mobile phone on the planet. Why is Google, the owner of Android and Motorola, helping its ostensible rival?

The answer boils down to advertising. Google’s smartphone operating system, Android, has always been incidental to Google’s ad business, the source of virtually all the company’s profits, and Google’s Motorola handset division is, for now, a similar sideshow. Google doesn’t particularly care what operating system you use to view its ads or engage with its sites; it just wants to pull you in. Google pumps money into Android mainly to ensure that companies like Apple and Microsoft can’t push its properties off of smartphones.

Click here to read more > 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Y-U6OJrVobA/

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Kim Jong-Un Smokes A Cigarette While Watching His Rocket Launch [PHOTO]

Sprint May Partner With Dish For A Joint Wireless Service

While it is unclear what the terms of any potential agreement would be, or even if the talks will proceed further, it does seem possible considering that Sprint has been looking for a replacement ever since its deal with LightSquared met an early demise after the latter failed to receive approval to use its satellite spectrum for LTE earlier this year

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/13/sprint-may-partner-with-dish-for-a-joint-wireless-service/

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Creative Budgeting Tips for Christmas and the Entire Year

Before anyone talks about how it?s too late to save for this Christmas, we would like to point out that it?s never too late to save for an upcoming gift-giving celebration. Obviously, it?s better to start early, which is why putting a plan in place now for your 2013 special occasions is a great idea.

But it?s never too late to save.

Just figure out how much you want to spend, lay out a plan for doing it (such as working extra, selling something, or just simple budgeting), and you?re on your way! Our free custom Christmas budgeting form can help too.

So how do you put together a spending plan in April, or nine weeks out from the event, or while planning for a party that?s 11 months from now? Leave that to the members of My Total Money Makeover! Check out their budgeting tips below. They are easy to implement now and throughout 2013 so you?re set for success all year long.

Extra Paychecks

For people who are paid every two weeks, there is generally an extra pay period twice a year. I use the extra December check this year to cover Christmas. It?s easy. It does not alter my regular monthly budgeting. It is a set, predictable amount. I then create a separate budget for that check. It has to cover presents, special food, Christmas cards, postage, Christmas charities like the Salvation Army bucket, office treats, etc.  ?Jana in Minnesota

A Better Way to Regift

For my budget, I purchased one gift per month starting in September. Also, any birthday gift cards I receive, I use to buy Christmas gifts for other people. It's still for me, but I used my gift to alleviate budget stress and to give to others. I like it. ?Kristie in North Carolina

Got Any Quarters?

Each year I save all of the quarters I receive throughout the year. The quarters I get after filling the car with gas, the quarters received after purchasing groceries ? the list goes on and on. Each year I have around $500. I simply take my jug to the bank so they can exchange it for paper bills. Whatever is there is what I get to spend on gifts. ?James in Minnesota

Gift the Cards

I use the points I earn from my debit card to ?buy? gift cards for my family. They are none the wiser, and my points usually end up right where I need them to be! I don't go into debt, yet I still can get gas, food and merchandise gift cards. It's a win-win to me! ?Jamie in Ohio

Plan Ahead With This Simple Strategy

The overwhelming number of submissions we got on mytotalmoneymakeover.com suggested a very simple and basic strategy. At the beginning of the year, determine how much you want to spend on Christmas. Factor in all the people you want to buy for, spending limits, etc. Divide that dollar amount by 12 and save that amount each month. If you want to spend $1,000, then you set aside 83 bucks a month.

It?s much easier to save $83 a month than it is to spend $1,000 in a mad panic. Even more than that, when you put Christmas on a credit card, you won?t just spend $1,000. Between buying more than you need and paying interest charges, it will be considerably more.

Making a budget for Christmas is good?making one for every month of the year is even better! There are thousands of My Total Money Makeover members making and living on a budget every month. It?s easier than you think! Our budget wizard will get you started in minutes. Sign up for a free trial today and see for yourself.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/christmas-budgeting/lifeandmoney_budgeting

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China Wins, U.S. Loses In A123 Bankruptcy

It is a triple irony. U.S. borrowed money from China to subsidize a battery company to compete with state subsidized Chinese battery companies. The American company gets bought out by a Chinese company for about the same amount of money that the U.S. government gave it. The U.S. still has to pay the money back to China. The Chinese company buying the American company makes a lot of money by providing auto parts for the cars that Americans drive.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/12/china-wins-u-s-loses-in-a123-bankruptcy/

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James Cameron Swears He Didn't Rip Off The Idea For 'Avatar'

Avatar

After seeing "Avatar," there was something that seemed slightly familiar.

Cameron has received a lot of flack claiming his beautiful world of Pandora and the Na'vi was nothing more than the equivalent of two '90s animated pictures intertwined

Since 2009, he and his company, Lightstorm Entertainment, have also received a flurry of lawsuits from others claiming "Avatar" was their idea.  

Just in case anyone else wants to stake a claim in what Cameron has described as his "most personal film" to date, he wants everyone to know that he had the idea for his film long before both "FernGully" and Disney's "Pocahontas." 

In fact, Cameron claims he's had initial concepts for "Avatar" floating around since the '60s. 

In a lengthy 45-page sworn declaration filed at the end of October, Cameron once and for all laid out the details of how he came up with the idea for Hollywood's blockbuster. 

Rip-offs? No.  

In the document which you can read HERE, Cameron details how basically every single element in his film was inspired from previous artwork, themes, and characters from never produced projects and films made before 1991. 

Essentially, Cameron claims "Avatar" is the byproduct and combination of four early sci-fi projects: "Xenogenesis," "Chrysalis," "Mother," and "Wind Warriors." 

Here are the plot synopses for the three films Cameron claims "Avatar" borrows: 

"Xenogenesis":  

"Xenogenesis is the saga of the voyage of Cosmos Kindred, a mile-long spaceship employing a fusion ramjet interstellar drive unit. In the face of destruction of the Earth, scientists engage in a last-ditch effort to preserve a nucleus of humanity by trying to find a new planet on which to live … "Xenogenesis" explored the concept of actual “linking” between human and machine, or mind-machine interfacing." 

"Chrysalis":

"The script describes a cosmic journey of self-discovery and transcendence taken by a wheelchair-bound man who elects to surgically remove all external sensory input, so that he can journey through his own mind."

"Mother":  

"Humans have plundered Earth and look to exploit another planet. As I wrote in 1980-81: “It was a … plan, born of desperation. For Earth was becoming hell too, crushed beneath a sea of homo sapiens, and they needed new territory. Not simply a new continent: an entire world was required. And so they came.” This effort is spearheaded by an international and interplanetary consortium called Triworld Development Corporation, or “the Company,” which sets up mines on another planet, possibly Venus or an extrasolar planet or moon such as Titan." 

"Wind Warriors":  

"An aviatrix crashes into the Brazilian rainforest and mysteriously disappears. Her daughter travels to the jungle in order to search for her mother and, together with an archaeologist who speaks the language of the natives, hire a bush pilot to take them upriver in his converted World War I bomber plane. They are attacked by mercenaries under the command of a greedy industrialist, who is seeking a mysterious but extremely valuable metal. The industrialist has an airship, which the indigenous warriors believe to be a god, and he uses the airship to make them dig for more of the metal." 

Here are some of the detailed examples Cameron says are borrowed from the films:

"Xenogenesis": 

avatar pandoraHis idea for Pandora (the world featured in "Avatar") was modeled after another location featured in the late '70s science-fiction script. 

"I modeled Avatar’s Pandora on one of the planets that the characters explore in Xenogenesis. This planet in Xenogenesis, the Luminous Planet, has a beautiful forest with a vast network of interconnected, bioluminescent trees. The human characters cannot survive on this planet because of its deadly atmosphere."

Note that the original idea for Pandora stemmed from a drawing of an alien jungle landscape drawn in 11th grade.  

"For example, in the eleventh grade, I did a pen drawing entitled 'Spring on Planet Flora' ... This drawing depicts an oversized jungle environment of an alien world that I conceived, which I called “Planet Flora.”

"The landscape depicted in “Spring on Planet Flora” is essentially the same in concept and detail to the alien jungle landscape on the moon Pandora, on which much of the action in Avatar takes place." 

AvatarCameron's "Xenogenesis" provided so much detail for Pandora, down to its "translucent stalks" and pastel colors that pop out at night.

"Just as in AvatarXenogenesis’s Luminous Planet comes alive at night. As the Xenogenesis script describes: “The planet’s sunlit side seems Earthlike, but the night side glows softly with reticulated radiance of pastels of blue and green.”

The blue Na'vi people are inspired from a painting Cameron did for the film.

"In or about 1979, I did a large painting which shows a tall, thin woman with blue skin, who is wearing skin-tight purple pants … These tall, slender, blue-skinned, and genetically engineered characters became the basis for the appearance of the indigenous people, the Na’vi, and the genetically engineered avatars in 'Avatar.'"

The giant willow tree referred to as "Tree of Souls" in "Avatar" appeared in the script.

"Xenogenesis’s Luminous Planet has a unique sort of willow tree, which is described in the script as “a glorious hybrid of a fiber optics lamp, a sea anemone and a willow; a fountain of gossamer tendrils swing from each delicate stalk.” 

willow tree avatar

The fact that the plants in "Avatar" are all-knowing.  

"In Xenogenesis, the Luminous Planet itself is sentient – i.e., it can sense and react to others – like Pandora in Avatar. In Xenogenesis, the Luminous Planet reacts to the arrival of the main characters and seeks to trap them and keep them on the planet by lulling them into a state of bliss, like the “Lotus Eaters” of Homer’s epic The Odyssey." 

The "purple dire-horses" in "Avatar"? Yes, those were also in the "Xenogenesis" script.

Avatar Direhorses

"Chrysalis":

The idea for Jake Scully originated from the early film concept which also dealt with a disabled, wheelchair-bound man, going through a transcendent journey.

"In or about 1973, I wrote a story called Absense for a college project, which was developed in 1974 into a short film script entitled Chrysalis … The script describes a cosmic journey of self-discovery and transcendence taken by a wheelchair-bound man who elects to surgically remove all external sensory input, so that he can journey through his own mind. In this mental journey, the man is able to stand and finds himself in an alien landscape and a forest full of giant trees."

jake scully avatar wheelchair

"Mother":

The idea of a company setting up mines on another planet they plan to exploit.

"I used this same scenario in Avatar: The international consortium called the Resources Development Administration (RDA) sets up mines on Pandora, a moon that orbits an extrasolar planet, whose atmosphere is toxic to humans." 

Cameron's idea for creating a duplicate of an alien life form on another planet (aka an "Avatar") was first seen here.

"Because the planet’s environment is dangerous to humans, a “xenomorph,” my term for a genetically engineered alien creature, is created based on a local life form in order to serve the needs of the Company. As my notes for Mother show, I conceived the idea that these genetically engineered aliens could be used as workers in the mines."

jake sully avatar

The psychic link to control the Avatars:

"As stated in my notes for Mother, these xenomorphs are controlled via a '“psychic link w/ an ‘adept’ or an 'electronic link w/ a trained controller.' In Avatar, I combined these two ideas to create the technology called “psionic link,” which encompasses both the natural mental power of the individual to link with his genetically matched avatar and the idea of technology used to focus and project that connection over great distances." 

"Wind Warriors" elements included in "Avatar": 

Villains searching for a rare metal who were willing to destroy whoever and whatever (the natives and their jungle) to obtain it. 

avatar villain

Natives fighting with simple weapons as opposed to the powerful machinery of the military.

Avatar arrow

The air battle that takes place over the jungle. Avatar

Despite all of this, near the end of his declaration, Cameron acknowledges references to outside films and stories including "FernGully" and the story of Pocahontas among others ("Medicine Man," "The Jungle Book," and the sci-fi novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs). 

On page 20, Cameron full out tells us "Avatar" is essentially his own retelling of "Pocahontas":  

"Avatar is a science fiction retelling of the history of North and South America in the early colonial period. Avatar very pointedly made reference to the colonial period in the Americas, with all its conflict and bloodshed between the military aggressors from Europe and the indigenous peoples. Europe equals Earth. The native Americans are the Na’vi. It’s not meant to be subtle." 

Since Cameron wrote his first treatment for "Avatar" in 1995 – the same year "Pocahontas" debuted, and three years after "FernGully" was released – we imagine he began to see his ideas coming to fruition on the big screen and he needed to finally put them to work. 

Cameron held off on production for another decade though after deciding the technology to create the film wasn't readily available

So, yes, "Avatar" may have been based on Cameron's ideas, but it was also inspired by the beloved animated classics. 

SEE ALSO: The most expensive movies ever made >

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/HEdG0004a7w/james-camerons-45-page-declaration-proving-avatar-was-his-idea-2012-12

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Some For-Profit Colleges Taking ?Unlimited Data Plan? Approach To Tuition

A number of recent studies have cast a negative light on the for-profit college industry. A disproportionate number of students are not graduating or unable to find jobs that pay enough to allow them to repay their student loans. With so many people concerned that these schools might be debt traps, some programs are taking a new approach to tuition.… [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/12/13/some-for-profit-colleges-taking-unlimited-data-plan-approach-to-tuition/

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Do-It-Yourself Dividends From Total Return Investing

Your grandfather invested for income and crammed his portfolio full of dividend stocks, preferred shares, convertible bonds, and more generic bonds. The mantra was to live off the income and never invade principal. They selected individual securities based on their big fat juicy yield. It sounds like a reasonable strategy, but all they got was a portfolio with lower returns and higher risk than necessary.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/12/do-it-yourself-dividends-from-total-return-investing/

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