I'm Ryan North, Creator of Dinosaur Comics, and This Is How I Work

Ryan North says he has "basically the best job ever," and we can't help but agree. As the creator of Dinosaur Comics, Ryan has been churning out the beloved webcomic nearly every weekday since 2003. He's also the guy behind the Adventure Time comic series and To Be or Not To Be, a choose-your-own-path version of Hamlet that recently became Kickstarter's most funded publishing project ever. When he's not comic-ing, Ryan uses his professional programming skills to build stuff like Project Wonderful, an online ad service, and Oh No Robot, a searchable text database for comics. We stole a few minutes of Ryan's busy schedule to chat about apps, gadgets, Patrick Stewart, and more. Did we miss something? Ryan is chatting live for the next hour?ask him yourself!

Current gig: Writer and programmer! Writing projects include Dinosaur Comics, the Adventure Time comics, and To Be or Not To Be. I'm also a computer programmer, and Project Wonderful is the advertising network I wrote after wishing there was one out there that didn't suck.
Location: Sunny, unseasonably warm Toronto, Canada
Current mobile device: I've got a Samsung Galaxy S III which is the first phone I don't hate. My previous phone was a Motorola abomination and before that an iPhone 3G. I don't really upgrade phones that often, but the past two died and I took the opportunity to upgrade.
Current computer: I have a Lenovo Thinkpad, mainly because they're one of the few laptops that support three monitors via a dock. My other machine is one that I built myself, parts being swapped out and upgraded over the years. It used to have a floppy drive in it that went way back to when I was six, but it never got use and eventually the motherboards didn't have connectors for it anyway.
One word that best describes how you work: Distractedly

Above: A Dinosaur Comic.

What's apps/software/tools can't you live without?

There's a few things that have changed how I work. Dropbox is great both for painless, automatic backup but also for keeping data in sync on different machines. I do most of my writing (both words and code) in Textpad?it's a pretty great text editor that supports regular expressions. I'd include my phone as one of the tools?I use it to jot down ideas wherever I have them. I used to email them to myself, but Evernote solved that problem nicely too.

I've been using Winamp for music for years and years, mainly because it supports global hotkeys, so I can pause, skip, rewind, etc. by pressing, say, CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+PAGEDOWN in whatever program I'm in. That sounds dumb but it's great?it means I can control the music without losing focus on what I'm doing. Sometimes I'll skip songs without even noticing it: it's like second nature. I'm all about efficiency. I have the task bar at the top of the screen on my Windows machine, because I mapped it out and if my hand is on the mouse, odds are it'll be closer to the top of the screen than the bottom, so by having the task bar at the top too I save valuable milliseconds.

Basically put me alone in a room with a computer and internet access and I can be happy for days. Weeks? I guess I'd need food and water at some point.

Above: Ryan's Winamp.

What's your workspace like?

I work mainly from home in my office, where I've got a desk (I'd love to get a standing desk just so I can move around more) and a fancy office chair that I spent a lot of money on. After my bed, it's the piece of furniture I spend the most time in, so I figured it was worth it. Sometimes I'll go into the Project Wonderful offices?there's a similar desk there, but there's other people too, if I'm craving social interaction. I am the #1 fan of multiple monitors: two is odd because it means you're always turning your head to the side the monitor is on, and three is a really nice sweet spot. Center screen for work, left screen for research/status stuff, and right screen for email and Twitter. If I'm really focused, I'll minimize the email.

I usually work to music, but if something's not working, I'll turn the music off. I've tried coffee shops once or twice but it's not exactly productive times for me. I work best alone, with distractions that I can manage and control.

What do you listen to while you work?

Music! Tons and tons of music. Here's the thing: anything with words or actual content will be distracting, so NPR/CBC/Savage Love podcasts are out if I'm trying to be productive. And music that is super awesome is out too, because it'll be distracting how good it is. I generally listen to "just okay" music when I have to focus, and save the awesome stuff where I don't have to be as productive. I really love mashups because I really love listening to more than one song at the same time I guess!

What's your best time-saving trick?

Multitasking. I have a dog which means at least one to two hours a day is spent outside walking, or standing around at the dog park. I used to think "Oh no, wasted time!" but now I use the time to work out plots, figure out jokes, that sort of thing. It's lower-intensity work and lets me recharge, but I also get to be productive while I'm recharging and playing with all the dogs at the park. I'll talk to myself while I'm walking too, because I like dialogue to sound natural, and saying it out loud helps with that. It makes me look a little crazy, but whatever. Really I guess my greatest life hack is to not care what strangers think about you!

What's your favorite to-do list manager?

I've tried a few, but I always come back to my tried-and-true "todo.txt" that lives on my desktop.

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without?

Glasses! Otherwise I can't easily see my phone and computer and it's so sad.

What's everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

I believe I can state with authority that I have spent more time thinking about the novelization of Back To The Future than any other alive human. My page-by-page review is my proof of this. I know you wanted an "everyday thing" but who among us can truly say they don't think about Back to the Future at least once per day?

Above: Part of an Adventure Time script.

What's your sleep routine like?

When I was a kid I had to get up at 6 to catch a 7 AM bus into school, and once I started grad school I relaxed that to 7 AM. So I'm usually up at 7 sharp (alarm set so I can hear the news) and then in bed when I start to get sleepy, which is normally between 11 and midnight. I really value my sleep. And I wish it were somehow super awesome to say "I really value my sleep."

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

Oh, total introvert. But I love pals and that slides me more towards extrovert, I guess? I just want all my friends and I to live in a giant house which I call "Pal Mansion." Is that so wrong?

Fill in the blank: I'd kill to see ________ answer these same questions.

Patrick Stewart, but only if I'm the one asking the questions. And he invites me over to his place for the interview. And we start talking and he asks me in his stentorian voice about my hopes and dreams and we talk about our lives and loves and fears, and it's just?it's just so real.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

"Never stop learning." Also "if you find a job you like it won't feel like work." So let's assume at some point in the past my father pulled me aside and said "Never stop learning, also, on another topic, if you find a job you like then it won't feel like work. Randy out, yo."

Anything else you want to add for readers/fans?

I love getting email, but there's only so much time in the day to write back to it, so please don't hate me if I never do. I have such good intentions!

---

The How I Work series asks heroes, experts, brilliant, and flat-out productive people to share their shortcuts, workspaces, routines, and more. Every Wednesday we'll feature a new guest and the gadgets, apps, tips, and tricks that keep them going. Have someone you'd kill to see featured, or questions you think we should ask? Email Tessa.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ykRY5Yl4tNg/im-ryan-north-creator-of-dinosaur-comics-and-this-is-how-i-work

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Why Pluto can't have a moon named Mickey

NBC News' Alan Boyle joins the SETI Institute's Mark Showalter and Franck Marchis in a Google+ Hangout marking the end of the "Pluto Rocks" moon-naming contest.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Vulcan and Cerberus (or Kerberos) emerged as the people's choices for naming Pluto's tiniest moons in the SETI Institute's "Pluto Rocks" contest, which ended on Monday. But in the course of running the contest, the organizers fielded 30,000 write-in suggestions ? and you may well see some of those suggestions surface in the future.

"I've been delighted by the response," said Mark Showalter, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute who played a leading role in the discovery of Pluto's fourth and fifth moons. Showalter was the point person for the moon-naming contest, which drew more than 450,000 online votes over the past two weeks.

---

More than 20 names were on the ballot, including Vulcan (the Roman god of fire) and Cerberus (the watchdog of the underworld). Vulcan was added to the list after the contest started, at the urging of "Star Trek" actor William Shatner, and grabbed the lion's share of the votes. But there were scads of other suggestions that weren't used, mostly because they weren't in line with the International Astronomical Union's tradition that the moons of Pluto should be named after figures from Greek or Roman mythology with some sort of connection to the underworld. Pluto was himself the mythological god of the underworld.

It's the IAU that has the final say over the names for the moons, which were discovered over the past couple of years and are now known merely as P4 and P5. Now that the crowdsourcing contest is over, Showalter willl be meeting with his colleagues on the discovery team and discussing whether to go with Vulcan and Cerberus or some other names. The names selected by the discoverers will then be considered by IAU committee members for adoption or reconsideration.

"It could take one to two months for the final names of P4 and P5 to be selected and approved," Showalter said on the "Pluto Rocks" website. "Stay tuned."

M. Buie / SwRI / NASA / ESA

These two pictures of Pluto represent the Hubble Space Telescope's most detailed view of the dwarf planet, but pictures from NASA's New Horizons probe should provide better resolution.

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During a Google+ Hangout, Showalter mentioned the two most frequently suggested names that were left off the ballot. No surprise there: Considering that Pluto is a Disney cartoon character as well as a dwarf planet, you'd expect that Mickey and Minnie (as in Walt Disney's talking mice) would be the favorites.

"Yes, I am a big fan of Disney myself, but no, they are not compliant names," Showalter said. Although Mickey and Minnie make a cuter couple than Orpheus and Eurydice, they're not Greek or Roman mythological characters connected with the underworld.

Some of the other names, however, may come up again. When NASA's New Horizons probe sails past Pluto in 2015, still more mini-moons might be spotted. P6, P7 and so on would provide additional opportunities for the "compliant names" on Showalter's newly expanded list. And that's not all: New Horizons' camera could to snap pictures of previously unseen features on Pluto and its moons, That opens up a new frontier for names.

The names of planetary features don't have to follow the rules about Greek or Roman mythology: On Mercury, for example, craters are named after famous writers and artists. The hydrocarbon lakes detected on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, are named after the earthly lakes they resemble. Titan's mountains are named after the fictional mountains from "The Lord of the Rings" and other works by J.R.R. Tolkien, while the Saturnian moon's dark plains are named after planets from the "Dune" science-fiction series.

For Pluto and its moons, "we have all kinds of options," Showalter said. He noted that the naming suggestions followed some potentially appealing trends ? specifically, Norse mythological figures as well as characters and locations from the "Star Wars" movie series and H.P. Lovecraft's fantasy and horror tales. Might we hear about Mount Loki, the Hoth ice sheet or Cthulhu Crater in the years to come? Will some scientist pick up on the Vulcan connection and start naming the hills of a Plutonian moon after Worf, Quark, Chakotay and T'Pol? To paraphrase another character from the "Star Trek" saga: "Make it so!"

More about planetary names:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17092305-why-pluto-cant-have-a-moon-named-mickey-but-may-get-cthulhu-crater?lite

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Airport security questioned after diamond heist | Buying Business ...

Security at major airports has been questioned by two leading business travel figures following last week?s diamond robbery at Brussels airport.

Greeley Koch, executive director of ACTE, and Geert Behets, president of the Belgian Association of Travel Management, said that the robbery had ?shaken confidence in the fortress nature of the world?s airports?.

Koch said: ?Thieves cut a hole in an airport security fence ? big enough to accommodate a Mercedes van ? and drove two vehicles across the tarmac.

?They then confronted a private security team, looted the aircraft of $50 million in diamonds, and drove off unchecked.

"Most travellers have an expectation that airport security in 2013 would make robbing a loaded commercial passenger jet slightly more difficult than robbing a train in 1890.?

The gang of robbers dressed as police officers struck at Brussels airport on February 19 just as diamonds were being loaded on to a Helvetic Airways flight to Zurich.

Behets added: ?Considering what has been spent on airport security, including technology, manpower, and constant system evaluation, the perpetrators were in and out in under five minutes.

?While their motive was robbery, it could have easily been something else. This daring crime merely illustrates what is still possible despite existing preparations.

?It is likely that BATM and ACTE will be filing a formal statement with the appropriate branch of the European Commission.?

Koch and Behets were speaking as ACTE/BATM held an executive forum in Brussels on Friday (February 22), which was moderated by BBT editor Paul Revel.

Source: http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/2520384-airport-security-questioned-after-diamond-heist

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Exclusive: Credit Suisse faces U.S. probe into mortgage products

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey is investigating Credit Suisse AG over mortgage-backed securities packaged and sold by the bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. Attorney's Offices in other districts are focusing on other banks in related investigations, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. It was unclear how many U.S. Attorneys were involved.

The investigations show that authorities are still trying to build cases over the alleged misconduct by banks that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

The New Jersey probe came out of a working group created by President Barack Obama in January 2012, one of the people said.

The task force, called the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group, was supposed to coordinate a series of federal and state investigations into shoddy loans that were packaged and sold to investors. Those securities spread risk throughout global markets and were a major contributing factor to the financial crisis.

The Justice Department said early last year that it had sent civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions as part of its investigation of the RMBS market.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman of New Jersey is examining how Credit Suisse handled the mortgage-securitization process, step by step, according to one of the people.

Matthew Reilly, a spokesman for Fishman, declined to comment.

Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Jack Grone, a spokesman for Zurich-based Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second largest-bank, also declined to comment.

Credit Suisse has been the target of other U.S. probes over mortgage-backed securities. In November, the bank agreed to a $120-million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over civil charges stemming from the bank's sale of risky mortgage bonds to investors before the crisis.

The bank settled the SEC case without admitting wrongdoing.

Separately, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a civil lawsuit against Credit Suisse in November. The complaint accused Credit Suisse of misleading investors who lost $11.2 billion in mortgage-backed securities sponsored by the bank.

Schneiderman is a co-chair of the RMBS Working Group formed by Obama.

Schneiderman also filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co in October. That case is over mortgage securities sold by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired in a fire sale in 2008. The JPMorgan case was the first lawsuit to emerge from the working group.

The Justice Department in Washington is also investigating JPMorgan over allegations that Bear Stearns provided misleading information about its mortgage products in the lead-up to the financial crisis, as Reuters reported Wednesday.

Earlier this month, in one of its most ambitious cases tied to the crisis, the Justice Department filed a $5 billion lawsuit against McGraw Hill's Standard & Poor's unit. Filed in Los Angeles, the lawsuit claims the credit rating agency schemed to defraud investors in mortgage-backed securities that collapsed in the financial crisis. Standard & Poor's has said the lawsuit is "meritless."

During his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama said he created the group investigating the packaging of risky mortgages to "hold accountable those who broke the law" and to "help turn the page on an era of recklessness."

(Editing by Karey Wutkowski and Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-credit-suisse-faces-doj-probe-mortgage-products-184219241--finance.html

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Copper green fireball streaks straight down over California, 21 February 2013

lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:59 CST

21 February 2013 - Brittney Mcconnell, Pleasanton, CA 22:30 PST

Between 5-10 seconds duration. Lime green color with orange trail. Sun white hot in brightness but also lime green. No fragmentation observed, just the flaming trail behind it. It wasn't heading straight down but angled at about 30 degrees. I estimate that it landed in the Pleasanton/Sunol area.

21 February 2013 - Mark S. Dobkin, Costa Mesa, CA USA, Approx. 22:30 PST

2-3 seconds duration - I was facing West. East-West direction. Bright white ball of fire, then broke up. I was stationary in my car, so did not hear any sound. As bright as moon, but not as large. Considerably larger than Venus. Fragmentation observed. Fairly large. One of the largest I have seen.

21 February 2013 - Chloe Michaels, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA 10:30 PST

2-3 seconds duration. I could only view it from my window. North-West direction. It was a white ball and streak of light, with a tail. As bright as the moon.

21 February 2013 - Kris, Los Angeles, CA 22:50

2/3 seconds duration. North-West direction. Green color, as bright as Venus. I'm curious as to what that was.

21 February 2013 - Jasmine Brown, Los Angeles, CA, U.S. 22:35

7 seconds duration. I was facing West. It went from orange color to bright blue, heading straight down. I couldn't hear any sound. The piece itself looked as though it came off of something. It went so fast, I was pulling out of the parallel driving spot to head for work. I turned and went the other way in case it hit the ground. I've seen a few fly across but this was heading straight to the ground without disappearing in mid-air.

21 February 2013 - Nick Bishop, Sacramento, CA, United States, Approx 22:50

2 seconds duration. I was looking south in a vehicle. Meteor started at approx 165 degrees and moved nearly directly vertically downwards. Maybe 5 degrees of horizontal movement to the west. Green (exact color of burning copper), with orange/red debris trailing behind, which rapidly (1/4 second) burnt out. Brighter than the Sun, less bright than the moon. Very rapid movement, hard to judge size but it seemed to be quite small. Object totally disintegrated before reaching the horizon.

21 February 2013 - Joe, Fresno, CA, USA 22:31 PST

3 seconds duration. I was driving, traveling west. I was looking forward, but something suddenly caught the corner of my eye out my driver's side window, which was facing outward south. The meteor appeared to be coming from the east/southeast, headed west/northwest. Fluorescent green, no noise. As bright as the moon. There didn't appear to be any fragmentation. It had a long tail. Very large object, equivalent to approximately 1/6 the size of the moon.

Source: http://www.sott.net/article/258698-Copper-green-fireball-streaks-straight-down-over-California-21-February-2013

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Kim Kardashian "Used Kanye for Sperm," Tabloid Claims

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/kim-kardashian-used-kanye-for-sperm-tabloid-claims/

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AP Source: 3 former Miami coaches want case tossed

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) ? Three former Miami assistant coaches filed a motion on Thursday with the NCAA asking that their infractions cases be dismissed because of the mistakes that governing body for college athletics made in their long investigation of the Hurricanes.

Former football assistant Aubrey Hill and former basketball assistants Jake Morton and Jorge Fernandez had their motion delivered to the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither side authorized the release of any information.

The motion, according to the person, says the three coaches believe the NCAA's alliance with the attorney for the former booster at the center of the Miami scandal has created a scenario where they cannot "get a fair and reasonable proceeding."

A conference call on the matter is scheduled for Friday with the NCAA.

"It's unprecedented that all this is happening, and happening this way," the person said.

The NCAA believes Hill and Fernandez provided them with misleading information during the probe into Miami athletics, and cited them as believed to be in violation with what's known as Rule 10.1 ? the broad one governing ethical conduct. Morton was also cited in the case against the Hurricanes, after the NCAA said he, among other things, accepted "supplemental income" of at least $6,000 from the former booster, Nevin Shapiro.

Miami received its notice of allegations from the NCAA on Tuesday. In that letter, the NCAA said the Hurricanes had a "lack of institutional control" for the way they failed to monitor Shapiro, a convicted felon who provided cash, gifts and other items to players on the football and men's basketball teams over a span of about eight years.

Shapiro is currently serving a 20-year prison term for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

It's unknown when the committee will decide anything related to the motion. The NCAA has told other coaches named in the notice of allegations, including Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith, that responses to the letter are due by May 20 ? and that the case may not be heard by the infractions committee until July unless all parties involve agree to an expedited schedule.

The case that will be presented on behalf of Hill, Morton and Fernandez is also expected to include the assertion that since the NCAA cooperated with Shapiro attorney Maria Elena Perez ? who deposed two witnesses that the NCAA wanted to hear from as part of her client's bankruptcy case and used subpoena power to do so, a tool the association does not have in its arsenal ? that fraud was also perpetrated on the bankruptcy court.

The news of the motion was just one part of yet another busy day as it relates to the Miami-NCAA saga, which almost seemed to be dragging along for the better part of two years before this wild week filled with acknowledgements of wrongdoing by investigators, the delivery of the actual charges, two extremely sharp-tongued statements issued by University President Donna Shalala about the process and now what essentially amounts to legal wrangling.

And one Florida state lawmaker has now called the NCAA's probe of the Hurricanes "a witch hunt."

At Louisville, the Cardinals have made the decision to keep assistant coach Clint Hurtt on staff while he answers NCAA allegations of ethical misconduct while he was an assistant with the Hurricanes. Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said he doesn't see a need to change Hurtt's role or status with the program right now, but that he couldn't say whether Hurtt will be with Louisville next season.

"Clint is due his due process," Jurich said. "I think that's the only fair thing that we can do as a university. Clint's side of the story is much different than the allegations are so I think we wait the 90 days and see how it unfolds then."

Like Hill and Fernandez, Hurtt faces a charge that he breached the ethical-conduct provision from the NCAA.

A person familiar with the matter told The AP that the Rule 10.1 charge against Hurtt largely stems from the NCAA's belief that he was not truthful in a November 2011 interview with investigators, one that included questions about whether he provided improper meals, transportation and some lodging for a small number of recruits and players.

Also Thursday, a member of the Florida Senate wrote the state's Attorney General, asking that the NCAA be investigated for what he called "lack of institutional control" on the association's part.

Sen. Joseph Abruzzo wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying that NCAA investigators "engaged in corrupt behavior in an attempt to manufacture misdeeds against the University of Miami" and in doing so, may have actually violated Florida law.

"I am requesting that the NCAA's admitted wrongdoing be investigated immediately before the NCAA's witch hunt against the University of Miami causes further damage," Abruzzo wrote.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-21-Miami-NCAA%20Investigation/id-e2433c65fffe440ca80f950a5b27d50f

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LHC shuts down to prepare for peak energy in 2015

Fresh from its discovery of the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is taking a two-year break. But there is no vacation for the engineers who run the collider, nor the physicists who crunch its data.

Since 2009, the LHC, at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, has mostly been smashing together two beams of protons. The beams each reached peak energies of 4 trillion electronvolts, enough to discover the Higgs, the particle that bestows mass on others.

Over the next two years, engineers will be giving the machine a revamp that will push it to 7 or 7.5 TeV per beam, its maximum design energy. The interconnects between the LHC's 1695 superconducting magnets will be rebuilt, for example.

More energy should reveal more new particles, such as evidence of dark matter, so-called "superpartners" to complement ordinary particles, and hints of extra dimensions.

Physicists, meanwhile, are busy determining the exact nature of the Higgs boson using existing data.

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.

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/28ba8325/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn231920Elhc0Eshuts0Edown0Eto0Eprepare0Efor0Epeak0Eenergy0Ein0E20A150Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Poor Social Media Practices Can Kill Businesses [Report]

A new research on social media says that, businesses can no longer adopt a trial-and-error method on social media. The research finds that there is a connection between social media and business metrics such as consumers? probability to purchase or interact with companies through leading social channels.

The study is consists of responses from more than 23,200 U.S. online consumers who have interacted with a company via the companies? social media channel. The study was conducted across more than 100 U.S. brands in six industries: airline, auto, banking, credit card, telecom and utility, from November to December 2012.

The research also measures the overall consumer experience in terms of consumer engagement with companies through their social channels for needs of marketing and servicing. The study spotlights on social media engagement, marketing and servicing. Marketing engagements include connecting with consumers to build brand awareness and likeness, plus to promote coupons and deals. Servicing engagements include answering specific consumer questions or resolving problems.

The study sets up performance benchmarks and industry best practices that provide insights to companies to help them make the most of their social media efforts.

The report also highlights that, companies need to understand how their consumers use social media and then keeping that as a basis they need to develop a strategy to address their usage model.

Social Media Marketing

The study finds that engagement ability changes by age group in social marketing engagements. About 39% of consumers aged 30-49 years and 38% of respondents aged 50+ years interact with a company in a social marketing engagement perspective. But only 23% of consumers aged between 18 and 29 years interact with companies.

The study finds that the automobile industry is the only industry that performs well in both types of social media engagement.

Social Media Servicing

Companies that throw away discount coupons should not ignore customers who need the service and want the company?s help, adds Anderson.

On the contrary to social media engagement, 43% of consumers who are aged between 18 and 29 years use social media for servicing interactions, while 39% of consumers aged 30-49 years use social channels for servicing needs. Only 18% of consumers aged 50+ interact with a company through social networks for a servicing.

The wireless industry is performing well in social servicing, and the utility industry in social marketing.

Satisfaction Rates:

87% (satisfaction scores of 951 and higher on a 1,000-point scale) indicate that the online social interaction with the company has increased the purchase probability from the company.

On the other hand, 10% (500 out of 1000) of the consumers who are less satisfied consumers show less probability to purchase from that brand/company.

The study?unveils?that some industries are more effective in applying best practices into social media engagement strategies than others.When looking across industries the only industry which performs well in both marketing and servicing social media interactions is known to be ??auto industry?. Other industries performing well are wireless in social servicing interactions and utility in social marketing interactions.

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Source: http://www.dazeinfo.com/2013/02/19/poor-social-media-practices-can-kill-businesses-report/

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Heritage Makers, Inc ? Digital Scrapbooking: If Only I Had Known!

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> Did You Know, Studio Tips > Digital Scrapbooking: If Only I Had Known!

We recently posted on our Facebook page asking our fans to fill in the following blank: ?If only I had known ________________ before I started scrapbooking.? ?To be honest, your answers?didn?t?surprise us! There is a common thread among those who make the move from traditional to digital scrapbooking and it boils down to simplifying their lives. Time, space and cost are all factors that motivate us to make changes to the way we do things, and going digital is just one more way to save you on all of them. That?s a key reason Heritage Makers is a preferred option for?creating photo?keepsakes.

If you?re new to digital scrapbooking, these responses might give you some ?insider? knowledge. If you are a seasoned veteran, then you can probably relate to most of these! We pulled some of our favorites to share with you.

• ?How easy and cost effective digital scrapbooking is! I got behind when I started having kids, because it was such a hassle trying to keep my kids out of the mess, and having to clean it up wasn?t ideal either. I love that I can sit at my computer with one or two kids on my lap and still get my scrapbooking done! Plus, I love that by using the heritage makers program, I will never lose my pages. If my computer crashes or my house burns down, I can always reprint my memories. Totally awesome!? ? ?Joshua and Kimberly T.

• ?If only I had known the impact scrapbooking would have on my family before I started scrapbooking, I would have started sooner.? ? Tammy

• ?That digital pictures could be made into scrapbooks without the mess of scrapbooking and made so easy to use.? ? Jackie L.

• ?To NOT chop up my photos with ?Fancy? scissors.? ? Val P.

• ?About Heritage Makers before I invested all that $ on scrapbooking papers, embellishments, equipment and closet space.? ? Phyllis

Some people enjoy the tactile, physical nature of traditional scrapbooking, but many are discovering that there is a place for digital scrapbooking in their memory keeping hobby.Whether you?re a digital die-hard or enjoy both, your projects are pieces of you and your experiences that can be shared with those you love.We?d have to say, our favorite responses are the ones like Tammy?s. Hearing about the positive impact your digital scrapbooking projects have on you and your families is why we love doing what we do!

Now it?s your turn ? what do you wish you?d known before you picked up those ?fancy scissors??

dlehnhof Did You Know, Studio Tips

Source: http://blog.heritagemakers.com/?p=1344

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Amazon fires German security firm amid probe

BERLIN (AP) ? Online retailer Amazon reacted to mounting criticism Monday by firing a security company named in a German television documentary about alleged mistreatment of foreign temporary workers.

An Amazon spokeswoman in Germany said the company had ended its relationship with Hensel European Security Services "with immediate effect."

"Amazon has a zero tolerance limit for discrimination and intimidation and expects the same of other companies we work with," spokeswoman Ulrike Stoecker said in an email to The Associated Press.

A documentary shown on German public television channel ARD last week showed staff of the security company ? whose initials spell out the surname of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess ? wearing clothes linked to Germany's neo-Nazi scene. It also interviewed people claiming they were intimidated by the security guards, who were stationed at a holiday camp where the temporary staff were housed.

The company, hired by one of Amazon's subcontractors, last week denied it supported far-right opinions. "We employ Christians, Muslims and Buddhists," the company said in a statement Friday. "The allegations of far-right sympathies can't be reconciled with that."

The ARD documentary alleged a broader climate of intimidation at Amazon's seven logistics centers in Germany, including threats of random staff searches, constant pressure to perform better and firing of workers who complained.

The ARD report echoes allegations by German union ver.di, which says Amazon's temporary workers face particular difficulties because many have been brought in from other European countries and don't understand that they are protected by Germany's stringent labor laws.

The German government said the Federal Labor Agency is investigating an Amazon subcontractor, which it didn't name, in the wake of the documentary.

"We expect the results of the special investigation during the course of the week," Labor Ministry spokeswoman Christina Wendt told reporters Monday.

"There is the option, if mistreatment actually took place, of removing (the subcontractor's) license," she added.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-18-EU-Germany-Amazon/id-80e55df12be94a7c9847d1b51643bf0d

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