'Artist,' 'Take Shelter' lead Spirit Awards noms (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The silent movie "The Artist" and the doomsday drama "Take Shelter" led the Spirit Awards honoring independent film on Tuesday with five nominations each, including best picture.

Also in the running for best picture were the cancer tale "50/50"; the action thriller "Drive"; and the family dramas "Beginners" and "The Descendants."

A black-and-white throwback to early Hollywood, "The Artist" also earned a lead-actor nomination for Jean Dujardin as a silent film star whose career crumbles as the sound era takes over in the late 1920s. The film grabbed directing and screenplay nominations for Michel Hazanavicius, along with a cinematography slot for Guillaume Schiffman.

"Take Shelter" star Michael Shannon earned a lead-actor nomination as a family man who comes unhinged amid visions of a coming apocalyptic storm. Co-star Jessica Chastain was nominated for supporting actress, while "Take Shelter" also received nominations for director Jeff Nichols and a prize for emerging producers for Sophia Lin.

Other lead-actor contenders were Ryan Gosling for "Drive," Demian Bichir for the immigrant drama "A Better Life" and Woody Harrelson for the police story "Rampart."

The lead-actress field included Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn." Also nominated were Lauren Ambrose for the single-mom story "Think of Me," Rachael Harris for the road-trip comedy "Natural Selection," Adepero Oduye for the teen drama "Pariah" and Elizabeth Olsen as an escapee from a cult in "Martha Marcy May Marlene."

Presented by the cinema group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards will be handed out the day before the Academy Awards, at an afternoon ceremony on Feb. 25. The show will air later that night on IFC.

The Spirit Awards nominations are one of the first key honors on the long road to the Oscars, which often are dominated by big Hollywood films but generally include many nominees from the independent film world.

Last season's top winner at the Spirit Awards, "Black Swan," also was a hit with Academy voters, earning a best-picture nomination there and winning the best-actress Oscar for Natalie Portman.

Notably absent from the Spirit Awards lineup was Academy Award winner George Clooney, considered a strong prospect for a best-actor nomination at the Oscars for "The Descendants."

"Like Crazy," the top winner at last January's Sundance Film Festival, was completely overlooked, receiving no nominations.

The stars of Woody Allen's romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris" ? among them Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Oscar winners Marion Cotillard and Kathy Bates ? missed out, too. But their relatively unknown co-star, Corey Stoll, picked up a supporting-actor nomination for his scene-stealing role as Ernest Hemingway.

Clooney's young co-star Shailene Woodley, who plays his daughter in "The Descendants," earned a supporting-actress slot.

Nominees in the supporting categories included Christopher Plummer for "Beginners," Oscar winner Anjelica Huston for "50/50," Albert Brooks for "Drive" and John Hawkes for "Martha Marcy May Marlene," who won the supporting-actor prize at last season's Spirit Awards for "Winter's Bone."

Along with Hazanavicius and Nichols, directing nominees were Mike Mills for "Beginners," Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" and Nicolas Winding Refn for "Drive."

Spirit Awards nominees were chosen by panels of film professionals. Members of Film Independent, who include filmmakers and movie fans, are eligible to vote on the winners.

Eligible films must have production budgets of no more than $20 million and meet independent-cinema criteria that include uniqueness of vision and original, provocative subject matter.

___

Online:

http://www.spiritawards.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_en_mo/us_film_spirit_awards

ama awards 2011 ama awards 2011 uekman uekman music awards music awards giants eagles

Motorola's MOTOACTV available Dec. 1 in the UK

Motorola this morning announced that its MOTOACTV exercise/music accessory (read our full review) will be available in the UK starting Dec. 1. Available for £249.99 (suggested retail), you get the SF200 sports wired headset, wrist strap, clip and USB charging and sync cable. Another £39.99 gets you an arm band, bike mount and wall charger. You'll be able to get the MOTOACTV at Sweatshop stores (apparently that means something different than here in the U.S.) and at sweatshop.co.uk.

Source: Motorola

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/QIQNHBrXNbg/story01.htm

faith hill cma awards 2011 cma awards 2011 western black rhino western black rhino jefferson county alabama marine corps

Personal Umbrella Insurance

As long as there are lawsuits and judgments, there will probably be insurance to pay for them. But auto insurance policies have relatively low limits on liability insurance. To mitigate the financial impact an at fault accident would cause you, where do you get higher limits to protect yourself? You might need Personal Umbrella Insurance.

There are no guarantees of prevailing in a lawsuit, there are too many variables. No one can predict what the other side will be willing to settle for, how far into a case the other side is willing to chase you, and how a judge or jury will decide. You can?t even decide if your insurance company will settle the case with the other side, even if you feel you were not at fault.

Personal Umbrella insurance coverage is designed to give you added liability protection beyond the relatively low limits your auto (and home) insurance. Depending on your claims history, usually amounts of $1 to $5 million are available. Personal Umbrella insurance is secondary and only pays after your auto (and/or home) insurance limits are exhausted.

Liability insurance is the part of your auto (or home) insurance policy that pays for expenses such as the injured persons healthcare expenses, litigation, and lost wages from negligence. The liability portion of your car insurance policy also covers litigation, but without the high limits of umbrella.

It often makes sense to get umbrella coverage because if you add the healthcare expenses of a plaintiff that?s been seriously injured and your legal fees, standard auto insurance limits are not nearly enough. Each state has laws that will hold at fault drivers accountable for injuries. The driver will probably be sued for the damages. Personal assets from the at-fault driver could be seized after securing a judgment. You could also end up with lien on your house and/or damaged credit. Even if you don?t make much or have much now, you might have income or assets in the future.

Personal liability umbrella insurance does not have a large added cost for $200-400 per year (around $1 million). Additional liability coverage is an even better deal per million, with probably more underwriting. Just remember, liability insurance usually covers your personal (non-business) activities.

Written by Craig J. Casey

Craig J. Casey is a financial writer, blogger, former insurance agent and stock broker. He has help thousands save money on their auto insurance via his website, 4carinsurancequotes.com

Source: http://www.jrapublish.com/personal-umbrella-insurance.html

boxing news boxing andy dalton miami marlins waterboarding corporal kelsey de santis corporal kelsey de santis

The Sing-Off Finale Plummets While CBS Reruns Rule (omg!)

The two-hour finale of The Sing-Off plummeted 37 percent in the coveted demo from a year ago and some 20 percent in viewership. Instead, people got into the holiday spirit by watching the umpteenth showings of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Shrek the Halls on ABC in the first hour of Cyber Monday's prime time.

Also beating new programming: a slate of repeats on CBS, which won every half-hour in audience and in the industry-prized demographic of 18-to-49-year-olds, led by 2 Broke Girls. Notably, the repeats also beat an original episode of Fox's dinosaur drama, Terra Nova, which simply is failing to leave a big footprint in the ratings.

Check out the rest of the day's news on TVGuide.com

Without the benefit of following Dancing with the Stars (and a finale performance program, to boot), You Deserve It ?got less than half of last week's premiere viewership (4.36 million vs. 10.05 million) saw its demo rating sink (1.4 vs. 2.1). (Hmmm, so maybe it will do worse than Skating with the Stars.)

8 p.m.
CBS: How I Met Your Mother [rerun] 7.99 million viewers (2.9 demo rating); 2 Broke Girls [rerun] 9.15 million (3.3)
ABC: How the Grinch Stole Christmas 7.67 million (2.5); Shrek the Halls 7.66 million (2.6)
Fox: Terra Nova 7.19 million (2.2)
NBC: The Sing-Off ?6.43 million (1.7) {8-10 p.m.}
CW: Gossip Girl 1.34 million (0.6)

9 p.m.
CBS: Two and a Half Men [rerun] 9.69 million viewers (3.1 demo rating); Mike & Molly 8.53 million (2.7)
ABC: You Deserve It 4.36 million (1.4)
Fox: House 7.33 million (2.6)
CW: Hart of Dixie 1.87 million (0.8)

10 p.m.
CBS: Hawaii Five-0 [rerun] 7.85 million viewers (2.1 demo rating)
ABC: Castle [rerun] 5.52 million (1.3)
NBC: Rock Center with Brian Williams 4.98 million (1.2)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_sing_off_finale_plummets_while_cbs_reruns_rule194300566/43748334/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/sing-off-finale-plummets-while-cbs-reruns-rule-194300566.html

klipsch image s4 chris bosh world series october 28 2011 october 28 2011 jenelle evans jenelle evans

Efficiency metrics for energy storage devices need standardization

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) ? Solving the mystery of prematurely dead cell phone and laptop batteries may prove to be a vital step toward creating a sustainable energy grid according to Drexel researcher Dr. Yury Gogotsi. In a piece published in the November 18 edition of Science, Gogotsi, who is the head of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, calls for a new, standardized gauge of performance measurement for energy storage devices that are as small as those used in cell phones to as large as those used in the national energy grid.

Gogotsi is one of the featured experts, along with Bill Gates, tapped by Science to address problems that must be solved en route to the widespread use of renewable energy. His piece, co-authored with Dr. Patrice Simon of the Universit? Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, is entitled "True Performance Metrics in Electrochemical Energy Storage."

"A dramatic expansion of research in the area of electrochemical energy storage has occurred over the past due to an ever increasing variety of handheld electronic devices that we all use," Gogotsi said. "This has expanded use of electrical energy in transportation, and the need to store renewable energy efficiently at the grid level. This process has been accompanied by the chase for glory with the arrival of new materials and technologies that leads to unrealistic expectations for batteries and supercapacitors and may hurt the entire energy storage field."

The main type of energy storage device addressed in the article is the supercapacitor. Supercapacators, which are built from relatively inexpensive natural materials such as carbon, aluminum and polymers, are found in devices, ranging from mobile phones and laptop batteries to trams, buses and solar cells. While supercapacitors tend to store less energy compared to standard lithium-ion batteries, they have the ability to charge and discharge energy more quickly than batteries and can be recharged a near infinite number of times, and operate in a wider temperature range with a high efficiency.

Typically, the performance of both, batteries and supercapacitors, is presented using Ragone plots, graphs that show a relation between the energy density and the power density. For example, a Rangone plot for the battery used in an electric car shows both how far it can travel on a single charge -energy density- and how fast the car can travel -power density. An ideal energy storage device is expected to store plenty of energy and do it quickly.

The issue that Gogotsi and Simon bring to light is the idea that current metrics for grading energy storage devices, including the Ragone plot, may not provide a complete picture of the devices' capability. According to the researchers, other metrics, such as a device's cycle lifetime, energy efficiency, self-discharge, temperature range of operation and cost, must also be reported.

"This paper calls upon the community of scientists and engineers who work on supercapacitors to present data on material performance using metrics beyond the traditional Ragone plot," Simon said. "Although such plots are useful for comparing fully packaged commercial devices, they might predict unrealistic performance for packaged cells from extrapolation of small amounts of materials."

Gogotsi and Simon have a longtime research collaboration, investigating materials for supercapacitors. Their joint work has received global coverage and various awards and distinctions. Funding for the collaboration between Gogotsi and Simon is sponsored by the Partner University Fund (PUF) which supports innovative and sustainable partnerships between French and US institutions of research and higher education.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Drexel University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Y. Gogotsi, P. Simon. True Performance Metrics in Electrochemical Energy Storage. Science, 2011; 334 (6058): 917 DOI: 10.1126/science.1213003

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129185929.htm

stop loss thurston moore the island the island mcdonalds beating dreamcatcher georgia tech

Dutch transfer killer whale Morgan to Spain (AP)

AMSTERDAM ? A plane carrying a young killer whale has departed the Netherlands Tuesday afternoon heading for a Spanish amusement park after conservationists lost a legal battle to have her released into the open sea.

Around dawn Tuesday, the 1,400-kilogram (3,085-pound) female orca named Morgan was lifted from her tank by a crane, resting in a hammock that restrained her movement and protected her fins. Trainers kept her wet during the transfer into a blue-painted box on a truck, and her breath stood out in plumes as she exhaled through her blowhole from time to time while hanging several meters (yards) aloft in the cool morning air.

More than 50 trainers, handlers and other workers were involved in the operation moving Morgan onto the plane that left Amsterdam around 1 p.m. local time headed for the Spanish island of Tenerife. There Morgan will be transferred again onto a truck and finally hoisted into a much larger tank in Loro Parque by early evening, the Harderwijk Dolphinarium said in a statement.

The city of Harderwijk had issued an emergency ban blocking "Free Morgan" demonstrations during the transfer, though a coalition of conservationists who sought to have her released said they never planned to interfere with the operation.

"We would never do anything that could endanger Morgan," said coalition spokeswoman Nancy Slot.

Morgan, who is estimated to be about 3 years old, weighed only 400 kilograms (880 pounds) when she was rescued in shallow waters off the Dutch North Sea coast in June 2010.

The Dutch government permit that originally approved her capture said the dolphinarium could hold her and restore her health so she could be released. But after the park assembled a team of experts for advice on what to do next, they found she had little chance of survival in the wild unless her natal pod, or family, could be identified.

Analysis of her vocal patterns showed only that she was from Norwegian waters.

Opposing experts for the "Free Morgan" group said the dolphinarium was guided by financial interests, rather than concern for the animal's well-being, and proposed a plan for reintroducing her to the wild.

International treaties prohibit the trade of killer whales ? which are actually classified as oceangoing dolphins ? without difficult-to-obtain exemption permits. Fewer than 50 orcas are held in captivity worldwide and the bulk of them are owned by SeaWorld, a subsidiary of U.S. private equity giant the Blackstone Group L.P.

A female capable of breeding and introducing new genes into the pool of captive orcas is worth millions of euros (dollars).

The Dutch dolphinarium is owned by France's Compagnie des Alpes. Loro Parque, owned by a German businessman, received four orcas on loan from SeaWorld that Morgan will join. Though Morgan cannot be transferred to the United States, any offspring she has may be.

The Harderwijk Dolphinarium, which put Morgan on display after her rescue, has not disclosed financial details of her shipment to Loro Parque, though spokesman Bert van Plateringen said it will not make money from the deal.

Orcas are thought to be among the most intelligent and social of mammals, and the idea of reintroducing captive whales into the wild garnered widespread public sympathy after the 1993 film "Free Willy."

Real life releases have a mixed record at best, however. Keiko, the animal that starred in "Free Willy," was released in Icelandic waters after 20 years in captivity. He died, apparently of pneumonia, after surviving two months on his own and swimming about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) to Norway.

Though the "Free Morgan Coalition" says it will continue to seek Morgan's release, it concedes her transfer to Spain is a major blow to its hopes.

Experts agree that chances of a successful release into the wild decline the longer an orca is exposed to humans.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_netherlands_orca

gone with the wind nba lockout news nba lockout news gifts for mom gifts for mom patti stanger pepper spray

Da Vinci code for trees provides wind protection

Trees may get their beautiful shapes from battling the elements. A mathematical model shows that the pattern some branches make, first noted by Leonardo da Vinci, is the best at withstanding gusts of wind.

Da Vinci observed that at any height above the ground, the total cross section of some trees' branches has roughly the same area as that of the trunk. This pattern was thought to accommodate the tree's plumbing, as water flows fastest when the branched pipes can hold as much water as the original pipe. But Christophe Eloy at the University of California in San Diego thought trees contained too little plumbing to be the reason behind the pattern.

Instead he thought wind might play a role. So he built a model to simulate the bending forces exerted by the wind, and found that trees with branch thicknesses fitting da Vinci's rule resisted breakage. The work will appear in Physical Review Letters.

The model could help architects design wind-resistant buildings that mimic tree branches, says plant biophysicist Karl Niklas at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Reference: arxiv.org/abs/1105.2591

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1a82119b/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn212240Eda0Evinci0Ecode0Efor0Etrees0Eprovides0Ewind0Eprotection0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

republican presidential candidates bet hip hop awards 2011 bet hip hop awards 2011 kraken kraken calvin johnson calvin johnson

Fool Me Once (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/167740750?client_source=feed&format=rss

osteopathy osteopathy diphtheria diphtheria victoria secret fashion show ginger white chapter 11 bankruptcy

My Pillow Pets Lavender Unicorn, $10.39 + Free Shipping with Prime

Check out this deal on Pillow Pets right now at Amazon, prices start at just $10.39! This?My Pillow Pets Lavender Unicorn is only $10.39 + Free Shipping with Amazon Prime, or Free Super Saver Shipping with orders of $25! These 18? Pillow Pets are normally $24.99, but on sale now! You can also get My Pillow Pets Miss Lady Bug for only $10.80, or Friendly Frog for $12.95.

There are even more styles to choose from, and prices depend on the style you choose!

Thanks, Money Saving Madness!

Source: http://www.passionforsavings.com/2011/11/pillow-pets-starting-at-10-39-at-amazon/

regis philbin regis and kelly reno fire regis philbin last show regis philbin last show ray lewis crystal cathedral

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is, depending on how you're counting, either the eighth game in the Call of Duty series or the third game in the Modern Warfare subseries. It's the standard modern military game, with realistic weapons, relatively frail (i.e., not able to absorb dozens of bullets like an action hero) main characters, and intrigue involving terrorism and special forces. It offers the action formula we've been enjoying since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out in 2007, with a very few tweaks. It stands against Battlefield 3 and matches it in features and content. The two games have a few significant differences, but they're a matter of taste rather than either game being better than the other.

Modern Warfare 3 picks up where Modern Warfare 2 left off. I mean, exactly where it left off. Russia is at war with America, Makarov is at large, Soap's injured, and everything is blowing up. If you didn't play Modern Warfare 2, which served as a decent starting point and didn't require the first game to understand it, you won't have any idea about what's going on, and the game doesn't do much to get you up to date. It feels very much like the third movie in a trilogy, and the second movie ended on a cliffhanger. That said, Modern Warfare 3 still tells an epic story and wraps up the Modern Warfare trilogy very nicely.

Gameplay
The gameplay, both in single player and multiplayer modes, is identical to that of Modern Warfare 2. You can carry two weapons and two types of grenades (one offensive, one special) at one time and you have to hide behind cover and employ tactical savvy in your approach firefights if you want to kill your enemies. It's an established and functional style that captures modern, "realistic" first-person shooter games. If you get hit a few times, you need to hide behind cover until you heal, or a few more stray bullets can kill you. It's unforgiving, but balanced.

The single-player campaign will last you about six hours, and it takes you everywhere from New York to Africa to Germany. It's short, but exciting and full of big set pieces and lots of action. Most of the game takes place on foot, but you'll take control of mounted guns on vehicles and drones to takes out groups of enemies during chases and attacks. The gameplay is extremely linear, with every level leading you through a set path like a guided tour of a firefight. Unfortunately, these firefights keep to the Modern Warfare Combat Randomness Pattern: any time you get pinned down by enemies, there's a 50% chance you have to kill them all and a 50% chance you have to rush through because they'll keep spawning. There's little indication which is which, and no logic for the endlessly-spawning firefights that force you to run to the next area. It gets predictable and frustrating, especially in open areas where the only way to find out the right way to move on is by trial and error.

Besides the single-player campaign, you can play Special Forces missions either solo or with a friend. These are shorter, standalone missions that give you extra challenge with time limits and different difficulty levels, along with a leveling system that gives you additional equipment as you play through them. They're a nice boost of extra content, but they play like remixed versions of the single-player campaign's levels, and you'll probably drop them after a single playthrough and move to the multiplayer game.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer is the big draw of Modern Warfare 3, and it pays off just as much as it did in the other games in the series. There are the same seemingly endless customization options, with an experience system and the ability to build your own class with different weapons and abilities. The killstreak system from previous games has been refined into a points-based system that gives players more balance. Instead of getting points for each kill, players can choose Assault, Support, and Specialist modes that give them different rewards. Assault is the traditional killstreak system, where you get new abilities like missile strikes for more kills in a single life. Support counts your kills and other actions between lives, constantly moving up and giving you support-based abilities like UAVs. Specialist gives you more perks for your kills, instead of new weapons it effectively turns you into a super-soldier who's faster, stronger, or able to take more damage.

The different multiplayer options and the Hardcore and Advanced lists keep the game interesting even when you raise your levels and unlock all your weapons. While Team Deathmatch and its variants are some of the most popular, objective-based game modes can also hold your interest. Activision also offers Call of Duty Elite, a premium online service that community features, statistics tracking, and guides to the Modern Warfare 3 experience. It's free, but gamers can pay an additional $50 per year for access to monthly DLC, clan advantages, and other things that enhance the game. However, since the premium access costs almost as much as the game itself, we're not including those features as part of the game.

The multiplayer options offer a benefit over Battlefield 3, which only has six cooperative missions compared to over a dozen in Modern Warfare 3. Competitive play is pretty evenly matched, with leveling in Modern Warfare 3 universal and steadily unlocking weapons and skills and leveling in Battlefield 3 and rewarding your class as you play it. The big difference between the two games is that Battlefield 3 has vehicles, which can change the nature of a game dramatically. To go to extremes, Modern Warfare 3 is more suitable for Counter-Strike fans, while Battlefield 3 is more suitable for Halo fans, but the distinction between the two modern combat games are far smaller than the rift between the two classic shooters.

Modern Warfare 3 is a solid follow-up to Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, and if you loved those games you'll love this one. It doesn't change anything big, and the single-player campaign wraps up a story with most of the exposition lodged in previous games, but it offers a great multiplayer experience and a solid, if predictable and occasionally frustrating, single-player experience. It's an incremental sequel, but it's just what fans of the series need: even more of the same, with slight improvements and tweaks. If you have to choose between Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, ask yourself whether you prefer vehicles or more cooperative mission content. Those are the biggest distinctions, and they're not enough to make either game clearly better than the other.

More Game reviews:

??? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
??? Nintendo Wii (Fall 2008)
??? Rage
??? Madden NFL 12
??? Duke Nukem Forever
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wyzsSnc2dN0/0,2817,2396833,00.asp

the replacements fleet week scarecrow festival scarecrow festival texas longhorns texas longhorns oklahoma state football

DBSports: RT @SamStrong: UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said he feels he has "moved the needle" enough to warrant another year. "Program is headed in t ...

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said he feels he has "moved the needle" enough to warrant another year. "Program is headed in the right direction" Il y a environ 2 heures via web

Source: http://twitter.com/DBSports/statuses/140932347242627072

benetton ads cornucopia best buy black friday deals thanksgiving crafts matt cassel snowman google music

Who Won The Sing-Off? (omg!)

[Warning: This story reveals the winner of Season 3 of The Sing-Off. Read at your own risk.]

After 16 groups and 11 weeks of competition, it came down to the final three groups on the Season 3 finale of The Sing-Off Monday.

Urban Method, from Denver, CO, was the first group eliminated after they sang Gym Class Heroes' "Stereo Hearts" and performed with judge Sara Bareilles on her new single "Gonna Get Over You."

Watch full episodes of The Sing-Off

Dartmouth Aires, the 16-person club from Dartmouth College, was named runner-up. They chose "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf as their final performance and collaborated with judge Ben Folds on his classic chart-topper "Not the Same." The Aires would have been the first college group to win the singing competition.

Finally, host Nick Lachey named Pentatonix the winning group of The Sing-Off's third season. The five-person ensemble from Arlington, Texas walks away with a Sony recording contract and $200,000.

Check out photos from The Sing-Off

Before their victory lap, the group sang a rendition of David Guetta's "Without You" and took on 98 Degrees' "Give Me Just One Night" with former 98 Degrees lead singer Lachey.

"I don't even know what to say, I can't believe it," member Scott Hoying said. "I'm just so humbled to share the stage with my best friends. They're my family. These were 16 amazing groups ? I can't believe this has happened."

Do you think the right act won The Sing-Off?

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_won_sing_off032700946/43740415/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/won-sing-off-032700946.html

demi moore and ashton kutcher mark sanchez tebow meteor shower kathy griffin playstation network down martin scorsese

Baidu to invest 3 billion yuan to help Chinese SMEs (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China's largest search engine Baidu Inc said on Monday it will invest 3 billion yuan ($470.6 million) by the end of 2015 to help 2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises expand their businesses.

As part of the investment, Baidu will groom 100,000 search marketing professionals, help small- and medium-sized enterprises develop their service platforms, provide free marketing about less developed regions and help government departments in their research on business, Baidu said, confirming a Xinhua report issued late on Sunday.

China, with more than 485 million users, is the world's largest Internet market. Yet, with Internet penetration hovering around 36 percent and user sophistication outside the big cities still low, the potential for growth is huge.

In the third quarter, China's online search market grew 77.8 percent to 5.51 billion yuan. Baidu had a 77.7 percent share of the market, while Google had 18.3 percent, according to data from Beijing-based consultancy iResearch.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111128/wr_nm/us_baidu

delmon young sprint chris tucker phoenix jones danielle chiesi walter payton oneiric

Miley Cyrus? Birthday Video Shows Her Admitting She?s A Stoner

Miley Cyrus’ Birthday Video Shows Her Admitting She’s A Stoner

Miley Cyrus was given a private birthday party by her friends, celebrating with a Bob Marley cake. In the video of her 19th birthday party, [...]

Miley Cyrus’ Birthday Video Shows Her Admitting She’s A Stoner Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/11/27/miley-cyrus-birthday-video-shows-her-admitting-shes-a-stoner/

thurston moore the island the island mcdonalds beating dreamcatcher georgia tech big east expansion