This new app can tell what you are watching just by listening...I see a new way of connecting TV advertising and social media marketing.
It's time to put Wall Street's business as usual out of business. Let's end finance 1.0's abusive relationship with the world. Let's send the charlatans formerly known as the masters of the universe back to the used-car lots their lemon-selling was meant for. Godzilla, meet Mothra.
Umair not only points out the flaws in the system, he also provides several suggestions for upending the industry.
FOR THE AVALANCHE-JOURNALAfter months of ramming their taped knuckles into punching bags, sacrificing holiday feasts, and picking their battered bodies off the floor, Lubbock area fighters will have their shot at a title and hopefully, a reputation that precedes them.
January’s amateur Mixed Martial Arts competition is not about winning or losing for 24-year-old Shane Fleeman. The possibility of broken bones, rolled ankles, a bloodied face and an assortment of bruised body parts does not seem to worry him either.
For the Texas Tech student the opportunity to face a formidable foe and to prove the 25 hours he spends a week training (much to his girlfriend’s dismay) have not been worthless is vindication enough. More importantly, Fleeman said, is the fact that his chosen sport has transformed him.
“It’s just completely changed my life. I’m just more confident in everything I do,” Fleeman said. “I used to be afraid to talk in class and I was completely terrified of public speaking, and now I’ve conquered that.”
George Trujillo, a co-founder of the South Plains Association of Mixed Martial Arts, said first-time fighters like Fleeman will have the opportunity to gain recognition and use the competition as a spring board to launch a professional career as well the chance to fight closer to home in lieu of traveling to cities like Houston or Dallas to compete.
Trujillo’s Co-Founder and SPAMMA Coach Joel Narbaez said fighting on home turf gives much-needed recognition to Lubbock’s MMA scene and helps fighters hone their talents with coaches and sparring partners who are legitimately concerned with the advancement of their students.
“If they have a dream, why not live out your dream here?” Narbaez said.
The combined disciplines of kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and karate that comprise the modernized version of Mixed Martial Arts all boils down to physics for Danny Kraft. As an instructor at United Martial Artists, Kraft said he has seen the mightiest of men walk confidently into his gym and leave ashamed after being beaten by someone half their size.
“If I can isolate anything away from your muscles just by knowing how to use leverage, so when I hit you I can multiply how strong I am just by knowing how to use my frame,” Kraft said. “Using proper physics and proper leverage someone small can suddenly become someone big.”
While Kraft contends there is a huge adrenaline rush involved in hand-to-hand combat, he too has grown in confidence. As one of the smaller kids in his Louisiana middle school Kraft said he received his fair share of bullying, which led to him seeking refuge in boxing and eventually on the mats of martial arts gyms.
“You feel like it’s completely OK to be who are,” Kraft said. “It makes you secure as a person if you can defend yourself.”
And although Fleeman, the introverted business major who once cringed at the thought of speaking up in class, is satisfied with his ability to protect himself he still has one clear goal for his very first fight.
“I just want get out there and knock the guy out.”
Ms. Senior, doing big things
Protest spreads in the Middle East
The issues in Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt differ, but yesterday anger boiled over in all three countries as grievances were brought to the streets. In Tunisia, where protests have already overthrown President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, continued demonstrations sought to depose his allies still in their positions. Meanwhile Tunisia's interim government has issued an international arrest warrant for the former president and members of his family. In Lebanon, Sunni supporters of ousted Prime Minister Saad Hariri took to the streets in a "day of rage", burning tires and blockading roads in Tripoli and Sidon. It was in Egypt where the most dramatic events unfolded as the largest protests in a generation rocked Cairo. Demonstrators, many inspired by events in Tunisia, called for an end to nearly 30 years of rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Collected here are photographs from all three countries. -- Lane Turner (34 photos total)A protester carrying an Egyptian flag runs through clouds of tear gas at a demonstration in Cairo January 25, 2011. Thousands of anti-government protesters, some hurling rocks and climbing atop an armored police truck, clashed with riot police in the center of Cairo in a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)Lebanese soldiers fall back as protesters wield sticks and pursue them during a protest in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon January 25, 2011. Sunnis protested the rising power of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah as Lebanese lawmakers gave the militant group's pick for prime minister enough support to form the next government. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar) #Supporters of the Future Movement rip a poster of Najib Miqati during a demonstration in support of the caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Tripoli January 25, 2011, as hundreds of people took part in a 'day of rage' over the likely appointment as prime minister of Hezbollah-backed tycoon Najib Miqati. (JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images) #Lebanese soldiers patrol a street in Tripoli after protests by Lebanese Sunni Muslim supporters of Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri January 25, 2011. Telecoms tycoon Najib Miqati, who is backed by Hezbollah and its allies, was appointed as prime minister-designate. (REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir) #Tunisians continue their demonstrations outside Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi's offices in Government Square in Tunis January 25, 2011. The government square has become a makeshift camp as protestors defy the emergency curfew and sleep on the ground. Many vow to continue until the interim cabinet resigns. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) #Tunisian pro-government demonstrators hold a national flag during a protest on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis January 25, 2011. Hundreds of people taking part in the first rally backing Tunisia's new interim government were chased away by protesters calling for the leadership to resign. (FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images) #Protesters from Tunisia's poor rural heartlands chant slogans outside the prime minister's office in Tunis January 25, 2011. Protesters demonstrated in the capital to demand that the revolution they started should now sweep the remnants of the fallen president's old guard from power. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
More links and information
Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – as it happened - Guardian.co.uk, 1/25
Egypt protests: 'We ran a gauntlet of officers beating us with sticks' - Guardian.co.uk, 1/26
A Region’s Unrest Scrambles U.S. Foreign Policy - New York Times, 1/26
You can feel the emotions in these pictures.
