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From us here at BeyonceWorld, we want to wish ALL of our visitors a very safe and very happy Christmas.  Give thanks for those people and things that are important to you in life, keep Jesus in your hearts and minds and have an amazing day God bless.

May you and your family enjoy a joyous Christmas Day with good health and much happiness in 2010. 

Christmas image: sxc.hu

This is one of those days that children anticipate eagerly.  When you’re a grandparent, you’ve experienced this holiday in many types of celebrations with various family groups over the years…from childhood, newly married to new parents, parents of teens, then grandparents of youngsters who, too, evolve over the years.

Christmas, in its many forms, produces a family bond and many memories.  Record yours in a Christmas Journal to share with family and future generations.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Post from: Blisstree

Merry Christmas from Mary Emma at Parenting

What holiday fable was adapted for the stage as a musical by Mel Marvin and Timothy Mason? Answer by January 8 to win. (Enter Here)

Las campañas virales son una herramienta de doble filo pues dependiendo la percepción del usuario puede beneficiar a la marca o desacreditarla terriblemente.

En esta ocasión he quedado completamente decepcionado pues hubiera preferido una buena coreografía a ver como las modelos tratan de superar el frío moviendo el cuerpo de cualquier manera.

Fiat cerró por unos minutos la Plaza del Rey para promocionar la versión descapotable del Fiat 500 en el centro de Amsterdam, suponemos que la estrategia se enfocaba en la sorpresa que causaría el bikini contest con el clima actual.

En fin, nos gustaría que compartan su opinión acerca del video.

Vía | World Car Fans

The new “artists” are curators of other people’s created content, if sites such as Tumblr, Ffffound, WeHeartIt and newcomer Awsm.fm are any kind of zeitgeist.

Awsm.fm is a digital multimedia scrapbooking app that regards copyright issues with a gleeful abandon, allowing users to pick images and group them with text, tags and uploaded songs. But, licensing aside, the app does allow users to display their lovely and deeply sensitive tastes in pop music and evocative photography.

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The Awsm.fm user interface borrows liberally and haphazardly from a few sites we know and love, notably Vimeo. It’s a very new product and is still buggy with a UX that’s less than intuitive and occasionally frustrating.

Although there is an attempt to attribute the uploaded songs by incorporating existing track information and letting users edit the artist and track title, there is no standardized way to link back to the music creator or ensure any work on the site is licensed for this kind of sharing. Images do link back to their original source, which may but will not always satisfy the copyright holder.

Here’s an example of an Awsm.fm post, featuring an image, some text, a few tags, a comment box and a song I uploaded:

You can check out this profile page to see more Awsm.fm posts we created.

As I’ve written in the past, users have been given more and more tools for grabbing, spreading and remixing content over the past 10 years since Napster’s birth. Most of those tools have been free or nearly so, and many of them border on piracy or explicitly enable it.

The founder of Awsm.fm, who introduced himself to us as “Wan,” wrote that he is “sad by the lost of imeem, muxtape” and “frustrated at not being able to listen to lala.com.” A self-proclaimed indie music fan and programmer, Wan has created a tool that does something to help distribute independent music to listeners but nothing to help independent musicians track and profit from their music.

However, as legendary rock music producer Steve Albini wrote in a comment on the above-linked post, “Internet file sharing is profoundly beneficial to bands in that it serves to promote them to a worldwide audience at no cost… I saw it in action myself last year when my band conducted hugely profitable tours of both South America and Eastern Europe, including places like Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey, where our music has virtually no formal distribution. People came to our shows, knew our music and bought anything we had to sell them. They were familiar with us because the Internet allowed them to hear our music for free, and they developed a taste for it.”

While independent musicians may receive some ancillary benefit from users’ getting to hear and distribute their music free of charge, other copyright-holding songwriters hold opinions very different from Albini’s. We read about lawsuits over this kind of issue every year, and as a musician myself, I certainly wouldn’t want a stranger scattering my songs to the four winds without my being able to track and monetize those listens, likes, shares and web traffic. There is, after all, something to be said for putting Ramen on the table of every starving artist.

Note: For demo purposes, I’ve uploaded images that belong to me and close friends and music from bands I support and/or went to college with. Because I’m using their content and they deserve the plug, check out Chris Merritt if you’re into indie-type pop rock and Year Long Disaster if you’re of a more head-banging persuasion.

For revenue, the site seems to plan on sponsored posts and advertising. If Wan has any idea about the cost of hosting and playing copyrighted music, he might consult imeem (sold at a huge loss because licensing fees were overwhelming the company) or Pandora (just now beginning to see profitability as a possibility), he must have some radically profitable alternatives up his sleeve.

What do our musician/music startup friends have to say about Awsm.fm? Is it, as the name would imply, simply and clearly awesome – both for users and for the musicians they want to promote or share? Or is it just more 2.0 content theft? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Discuss

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 chilled seitan cutlets (about 1 1/2 lb / 675 g)
• 4 T coconut milk
• 2 T brown rice syrup
• 1 t Thai red curry paste
• 3 T minced fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves
• 1 medium Vidalia or mild onion, sliced into thin half moons
• 10 – 16 oz / 285 – 455 g fresh spinach, washed and patted dry
• 1 large orange, red or yellow bell pepper sliced into 1/4 inch / 7 mm strips

  
  For the marinade:
  

• 3 T sesame oil
• 1 T toasted dark sesame oil
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• Freshly squeezed juice from 1 lime
• 1/2 t garlic granules
• 1/4 t black pepper
  

METHOD:
In a medium bowl, combine the marinade ingredients and mix well. Slice the seitan cutlets into thin strips (1 x 2 x 1/8 inch / 2.5 x 5 x 0.5 cm). Add the strips to the marinade, toss well, and set aside for 20-30 minutes, turning frequently.

In a 10 inch / 25 cm frying pan, combine the coconut milk, brown rice syrup, red curry paste and cilantro. Heat for 3 minutes over medium heat.

Reserving the marinade, remove the seitan strips and add them to the pan along with the onions. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn the seitan and onions, add the reserved marinade, then cover and simmer 5 minutes more. Uncover and continue to simmer until the sauce is reduced by about half.

While the seitan is simmering, tear the spinach into bite size pieces and place in a salad bowl along with the bell pepper strips.

Add the hot seitan with the sauce to the salad bowl and toss carefully. The heat will cause the spinach to wilt.

Serve the salad hot or at room temperature.

Filed under: TUAW Business, Holidays

a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

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TUAWTUAW wishes you… originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stephanie Okereke, famous for her numerous Nollywood movies, is bringing the New York Film Academy (NYFA) to Nigeria to provide an intensive hands-on training workshop on film making, directing, screen writing, editing, broadcast journalism, 3D animation, and master classes exclusively designed for professionals, marketing communications executives, lawyers, advertising agencies and government institutions. 

Stephanie Okereke

The NYFA is coming as part of an inititiative by Del-York International to bring the Academy’s world-class training courses, facilities and tutors to Abuja, Nigeria on February 1st 2010. Registrations for classes have already begun. Orientation for the program will be held from January 18th-29th of 2010 at the prestigious Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Abuja, where classes will also be held starting from the 1st of February, 2010.

Del-York International is a media and marketing communications company that offers services that range from advertising, film production, events planning,  to digital design and broadcast communication. The company also facilitates the entry of international companies to Nigeria, creating an enabling environment for them to operate as a legal entity.

Stephanie Okereke serves as the Executive Director for Del-York International and brings a wealth of acting experience to her job. An A-list actress in Nollywood, the second largest film industry in the world, she has extensive experience as a film maker with national and international awards under her belt.

Linus Idahosa serves as the Managing Director for Del-York International and is an international media consultant and agent for CNN in Nigeria. He has helped maximize CNN’s visibility in Nigeria and has helped the company earn strategic business relationships from the international community.

For more information about the training classes, please visit the Del-York International website.

Hello to all who read my blog and thanks for making this year a great one for me through your support over the last year. I want to also thank my great sponsors for making it a profitable year and hope that you will continue to benefit being on my blog site.

Thanks for all who left comments on my posts and they are very welcome regardless if you agree with me or not. I welcome the student nurses and student NPs who have stopped by ( I see you on my sitemeter). I just wish that I could visit your boards and see what is being said about my site. Email me a password or something will ya? It’s killing me!

I have been blessed with a new grandson this year and the oldest one is growing like a weed and is just as cute as ever. It’s hard to believe that I am a Noni at the ripe old age of 42. It’s an entirely different love to give. You should try it! The hubby is doing better at taking his meds once he found out his cholesterol was 700 and his triglycerides are 4400. His AIC was 13.9. Yes…. He knows that he is a walking heart attack but is promising to take his doctor’s and my advice and has already lost 50 lbs this year.

The Navy son is home for two weeks before going to Jacksonville for some more training. He gets dropped off somewhere for survival training soon. I hope all that time playing in the woods paid off when he was little. The youngest son is doing great in 6th grade this year. Not such a hassle being picked on now that he is growing a little taller. It’s hard to resist going down there are giving those little devils the what for!

If you haven’t heard, I got awesome news this year recently having been accepted by the HRSA National Student Loan Payback program and will receive 50,000 off of my student loans for working an additional two years at my current job which I love! How cool is that? I also have the opportunity to extend it another year for a additional 25,000 off I think. Don’t let that slow you all down “supporting the site” and you have been doing so well. Remember to let me know when you have done it so that I can make sure to return the favor. If I see ads on sites, I always “support the sponsors” because I know how bad the loans can be. Thanks again!

There have been a few sad events this year. Emily found out that her Mom has breast cancer, Barbara lost her Mother, and my neighbor lost her husband to a stroke the other day after 42 years of marriage. One just never knows so make sure that you take some extra time to say I love you to all those you hold dear this year.

Off I go to make some more pies for tomorrow and feed my fish and do some farming on Facebook! When you get a minute, Change of Shift if up over at Emergiblog for your perusal. Enjoy!

PhysOrg has an article on “glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used” from Sandia Labs – Glitter-sized solar photovoltaics produce competitive results.

Sandia lead investigator Greg Nielson said the research team has identified more than 20 benefits of scale for its microphotovoltaic cells. These include new applications, improved performance, potential for reduced costs and higher efficiencies.

“Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing,” he said. This would make it possible for hunters, hikers or military personnel in the field to recharge batteries for phones, cameras and other electronic devices as they walk or rest.

Even better, such microengineered panels could have circuits imprinted that would help perform other functions customarily left to large-scale construction with its attendant need for field construction design and permits.

Said Sandia field engineer Vipin Gupta, “Photovoltaic modules made from these microsized cells for the rooftops of homes and warehouses could have intelligent controls, inverters and even storage built in at the chip level. Such an integrated module could greatly simplify the cumbersome design, bid, permit and grid integration process that our solar technical assistance teams see in the field all the time.”

For large-scale power generation, said Sandia researcher Murat Okandan, “One of the biggest scale benefits is a significant reduction in manufacturing and installation costs compared with current PV techniques.”

The Guardian reports on a large new solar thin film and PV factory being built by LG – LG Electronics to enter increasingly crowded solar market.

The growing attractiveness of the global solar energy market was underlined this week when South Korea’s LG Electronics (LG) announced that it is to start commercial production of solar cells and modules next month.

The company said that it plans to manufacture approximately 520,000 solar modules a year using silicon wafers, at a plant 200 kilometres to the south east of Seoul with a total capacity of 120MW.

LG said that it planned to set up another production line for operation by 2011, increasing total output to 240MW.

Kwan-shik Cho, vice president of the solar business team at LG Electronics, explained that the goal is to become a global player in the world’s solar industry.

“While we recognise this is a crowded playing field, LG has the necessary skills, know-how and business strategy to make this a profitable venture for the long-term,” he said.

LG sees the solar business as a key area of growth, and claimed that it had been preparing to enter the market since 2004.

The firm will manufacture large-area thin-film solar cells, as well as the more widespread crystalline solar cells.

In July 2009, LG announced that the company had achieved the world’s most energy efficient large-area thin-film solar cells in a trial.

Technology Review reports that Applied Materials is also focusing on the solar market, and moving production to China – Applied Materials Moves Solar Expertise to China.

The world’s biggest supplier of solar-manufacturing equipment has opened a research and development center in China, and its chief technology officer will relocate from Silicon Valley to that country next month. Applied Materials, founded in 1967 as a semiconductor company, has manufactured in China for 25 years, but is expanding its presence to be closer to its customers and develop products suited to the country’s urban population.

“We’re doing R&D in China because they’re becoming a big market whose needs are different from those in the U.S.,” says Mark Pinto, Applied Materials’s CTO. Going forward, he says, “energy will become the biggest business for the company,” and China, not the U.S., “will be the biggest solar market in the world.”

Indeed, the move by Applied Materials is just the latest sign that China is rapidly moving to the forefront in adopting renewable energy technologies. China is no model for addressing climate change–its greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to nearly double by 2030. The lion’s share of demand for photovoltaics comes from Europe, which accounted for 82 percent of the photovoltaics sold in 2008, according to a report by Solarbuzz. China currently makes up less than 1 percent of the demand for photovoltaics, but its demand for photovoltaics is expected to grow; Beijing aims to produce 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020.

this is not my place

Happy holidays, folks. I’m alone with Panda Express right now but it’s all family time once the wife gets out of work, so you’ll have to forgive me if I keep this short and sweet.

Eclair for G1

Android Spin is reporting that they have the inside scoop on some T-Mo updates and that 2.0 and 2.0.1 are in the pink… rather, in the magenta, ready for handset beaming. I haven’t read confirmation anywhere just yet, but this puts a nice spin on DroidDog’s next giveaway.

New DroidDog contributers

Speaking of the extension of G1′ s welcome, check out videos by Carlos Graves demonstrating a really fast SuperD ROM and a utility called SwitchROM used for backing up and restoring your Android environments. Another new contributor was born out of the myTouch giveaway when I saw some of the winner’s articles on Android. Andrew Steffy has written a piece on the fragmentation of Android app stores, and also covered the leak of Nexus One specs.

Nexus One

Speaking of the Google buzz monster, some new videos and images leaked this week, including an unboxing and a sort of walk-through. There was also some news about the possibility of the N1 being released only to those invited by Google on January 5th. Looks most of us will be living vicariously through a lucky few.

Cliq

I put together one of my questions and requests videos – this one for Motorola’s Cliq, which was recently rooted.

O.K., peeps. Time for me to get my holiday on. Here are the crumbs:

OPPO

Calgary is Devour – headed for Verizon

Flan on Droid

Opus One specs and video

Backflip sports AT&T logo

If you’re reading this, you already know you’re screwed.

Someone, somewhere has been forgotten on your gift list, and you’re scrambling. As per usual, we at RWW have got your back. Here are five ideas that will not only save you from certain disgrace but just might make you look a little more with it and wired than your loved ones expected.

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1) Of-The-Month Clubs

Flowers, beers, books, even dog treats – for every hobby, there’s a club membership that will bring the recipient monthly or even weekly gifts. With this kind of gift, you’ll be the hero all year round – in fact it’ll give you and the lucky recipient added incentive to communicate more often if you don’t now.

2) Netflix Membership

For the movie buff or couch potato in your life, this gift says you condone and embrace the cinematic lifestyle. Memberships are tiered, so you can be as budget-conscious (or as generous) as you like.

3) Pro Apps or Paid Features

For all the free web apps we use and enjoy, there are often pro versions with special benefits. I’ve personally enjoyed a pro Flickr account for ages, and the RWW gang love the speedy, unlimited-HD goodness of our pro Vimeo account. If you have new parents in your life, try a kid-centric subscription model web service such as LilGrams.

4) Multimedia Gifts

Piracy is a dying art, so for the music, movie and game aficionados on your gift list, look around the web for legitimate sources of multimedia content. Gamers will love Microsoft Points for XBox Live or similar goodies for Wii and PS3. And for the youngsters and musicians, you can’t go wrong with an eMusic or similar subscription.

5) Know Thy Geek: Fonts, Domains, and Software

I’ve been lusting after a particular domain name for a few months now. If someone knew me well enough to buy it, that lady or dude would be the most awesome Santa to date. And I won some brownie points myself for buying a special person a very special font he’d been wanting for quite some time. Likewise, if you’ve heard a hobbyist or nerd enthusing about a software update that might qualify as a bit of a splurge, the holiday is the perfect time to surprise him or her with a shiny, new email notification or ZIP file.

These kinds of gifts show that you know the person well enough to understand and support his or her need to geek out. And what better gift is there, after all?

Discuss

The other day we took a look at how to start planning your landscape and garden. Today let’s look at some questions you can use to help sort out the type of garden plants you want to grow.

Note that before you can plan for some plant you’ll need to also figure out your soil type along with the other questions in the first garden planning guide.

What type of plants do you like and want to grow? The possibilities are endless although you’ll do better with plants that grow well in your area. Some choices include…

• Broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs
• Annual flowers
• Deciduous trees and shrubs
• Perennial flowers
• Vegetables
• Herbs

Also I’d check to see which native plants will do best in your area.

Do you like plants with heavy, light, or barely there fragrance?

Favorite colors of plants plus plants that will look good with your home color.

How much lawn do you want? None / Small / Large? Lawns require more water and reduce the garden plot size.

Is anyone in your family allergic to specific plants, fruits, or veggies?

Where do you want to grow plants? In containers, a dedicated garden plot, along your fence, etc. Plan for plants that work in the situations you have available.

Are deer, moles, or other pests a big problem in your area?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Plan garden plants to grow

Back in the fall, we told you about NYC’s BigApps competition, which encouraged technological innovation to benefit government and civic engagement. Public voting for the submitted applications opened this week.

One of the submissions to come out of this competition is Blocks and Lots, an interesting app and API that essentially expose all the property records – more than 5 million records, total – for New York City. For site owners, there’s a customizable widget that can be embedded in just about any kind of site.

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Blocks and Lots’ API allows developers to integrate detailed property information into any web or mobile application. Sample code is available in PHP and JavaScript.

Blocks and Lots comes from BlankSlate, an NYC startup offering a web platform and set of read/write APIs for making, sharing, monetizing, and monitoring web apps. The company provides capabilities such as data, file, user and payment management through REST APIs.

Using the same platform, BlankSlate was able to gather the city’s data files from 45 file sources from three different city agencies, import them and instantly export APIs. This process took just a few days.

For example, you can use the Blocks and Lots widget to dig into the property valuation for Ellis Island, which is apparently worth about as much as Zynga these days.

In the near future, Blocks and Lots will add location-aware iPhone and Android apps (i.e., the user’s mobile device will automatically retrieve property data depending on where the user it), and enabling the writable APIs to add user-generated content to the city’s data (e.g., photos, documents or text).

To vote for Blocks and Lots – or any of the other apps submitted in the BigApps competition – check out the app gallery and voting rules.

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Every day I troll SEC Form D Filings to discover new startups, fundings and investments. I put everything I find into CrunchBase. For everyone else I give you the daily digest, a quick hit of the latest and greatest SEC Form D filings in the TechCrunch sphere:

Center’d – Local Search and Discovery
Lexy – Audio Content Distribution
Accelerate Mobile Apps – Mobile Apps for Business
Brickfish – Social Media Marketing

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