DBD 12.16.11 Snow Day!

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I own the original Monopoly on iPad and it’s super fun actually. I’d imagine this version should be just as fun.

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Turns out there’s billions to be made from FarmVille cows and crops. Zynga priced its initial public offering at $10 a share late Thursday, a mark that values the gamemaker at about $7 billion.

Zynga is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker “ZNGA.”

In a filing earlier this month, Zynga said it planned to sell directly 100 million shares in its IPO to raise up to $1 billion. That edges out Groupon and makes Zynga’s the largest U.S. Internet IPO since Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) 2004 debut.

Zynga’s $7 billion valuation is impressive, but $10 a share is significantly below the $17.20 per share valuation the company used for a recent round of stock grants. As of August 2011, Zynga’s outside consultants estimated the company’s worth at $14 billion.

Whether it’s for pay or just the smiles, these real life Santas (and Mrs. Claus too) tell why they love this job.

I look forward to this annual tradition each and every year, finding it both emotionally gratifying and financially lucrative.

As an entertainer by trade, most of my Santa Claus appearances are for private events such as company parties, daycare centers and family homes, where my improv skills are brought to bear to bring this beloved character to life. I’ve even performed as Santa at last year’s birthday party for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and on stage introducing the band Twisted Sister!

Sometimes I’ll emcee the holiday proceedings and sometimes I’ll simply pose for photos, but it’s always fun and always enjoyable. The fee can range anywhere from $150 to $500 an hour, depending on the gig.

I wanna be Santa!

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The team is putting in additional work this week on their red zone offense, although we won’t really know what that entails until Monday. Coach Harbaugh was asked about Vernon Davis and his use in the red zone, but of course he did not address scheme issues. Vernon has been a bit of mystery in the Harbaugh/Roman offense. He’ll get a big play here or there, and then disappear from the game once in a while. Given how little we know about what exactly is going on week to week with scheme adjustments, we can’t really say why that is. At times Vernon is being doubled, but we’ve seen a lot of times where he is held back to block. Mix in some ugly drops at times and it becomes all the more complicated.

I have no idea how the 49ers will improve their red zone performance, or even if it will improve. They face a Steelers defense that Football Outsiders ranks 12th overall in the red zone, tenth against the pass and 12th against the run. The Cardinals actually now rank fifth in the red zone, but given that the Rams rank 21st, it hasn’t made a huge difference in the red zone struggles.

At some point, Alex is simply going to have to simply take more chances. He discussed the value of taking a sack over turning it over, but at some point field goals are just not enough. Maybe it requires some different play-calling, better execution or something else entirely, but the status quo the last couple weeks has been unacceptable

It’s cheaper than India


The cost of outsourced legal work is nearly as cheap in some parts of the United States as in India, according to a new report.

Contract lawyers in the Midwest are charging $25 to $30 an hour, while offshore outsourcing vendors charge $25 to $35 an hour, according to the report (PDF) by Fronterion, an international consulting firm for outsourced legal services. "Wage inflation abroad and soft labor markets domestically in the United States and United Kingdom have significantly narrowed the cost differential," the report says.

The narrowing wage gap is also affecting companies outside the legal field, forcing them to pay more to run overseas operations. The report notes a salary survey by Aon Hewitt that projected wages in India would increase 13 percent in 2011.

http://www.hulu.com/plus/lg_offer

Jump on it

Just realized sometime between now and when I got dressed I tore the elbow out of my shirt. Second one this month.

MBB takes on WState:



Game #11
California (8-2) vs. Weber State (6-2)
Haas Pavilion | Berkeley, Calif.
Friday, Dec. 16 – 7:30 p.m. PT
Series Record: Cal leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Cal 75, WSU 65 (Dec. 12, 1970 | San Francisco)
Radio: KNEW 910AM (Roxy Bernstein and Todd McKim)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 93 and XM Satellite 190
TV/Web: CalBears.com All-Access
Opponent Web: www.WeberStateSports.com



Game #12 | 2011 Pete Newell Classic
California (8-2) vs. UC Santa Barbara (5-2)
Haas Pavilion | Berkeley, Calif.
Monday, Dec. 19 – 7:30 p.m. PT
Series Record: California leads, 8-0
Last Meeting: Cal 87, UCSB 66 (Dec. 29, 2009 | Berkeley)
Radio: KNEW 910AM (Roxy Bernstein and Todd McKim)
TV/Web: CalBears.com All-Access
Opponent Web: www.UCSBGauchos.com

Mens Swimming goes to Colorado:

The California men’s swimming team will be traveling to Colorado Springs, Colo. over Winter Break to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The Golden Bears leave Berkeley on Dec. 27 and will be in Colorado until January 10.

The Olympic Training Center houses USA Swimming’s National Governing Body and Cal swimmers will have the opportunity to totally immerse themselves in training and conditioning in the same environment as the United States National Team.

“This is a great time for our team to really extend themselves as athletes, become better students of the sport, and to develop the chemistry as a team that can only be created by living together for two weeks,” said Cal coach David Durden, who led the Bears to the NCAA team title in 2011 and has twice been named national coach of the year. “We are looking forward to the experience.”

Fans of Cal men’s swimming will have the opportunity to follow the Bears in Colorado Springs as the team will be posting videos on the Cal men’s swimming and diving Facebook page Cal men’s swimming and diving on Facebook.

Christopher Hitchens si actually dead:

Christopher Hitchens, the Clinton-loathing, religion-mocking, Kurd-loving, war-mongering, ball-waxing British drunk who contained multitudes and seemed to be insulting you somehow even when you agreed with him, which was precisely 59% of the time, has died of complications from esophageal cancer at the age of 62.
He left his language in far better shape than when he found it, and the world is in worse shape at his passing. Pedants and sophists rest easy tonight, and heartless manipulative frauds like Mother Theresa will flourish in his absence. Whoever wrote this is a monster.

Hella Sesame Street educational episodes for free; drop it on your iPad and let your kids run wild

Staley/Willis sit out practice:

Normally when I put together the weekly injury reports, I post the combined reports for the two teams. However, this week injuries could have a much more significant impact as both teams are dealing with big names on their reports. We’ll start with the San Francisco 49ers Thursday practice participation report.

The report only includes four names, but they have two significant DNPs. Patrick Willis and Joe Staley both sat out Thursday’s practice, while Bruce Miller and Braylon Edwards were limited in practice. Miller and Edwards are both dealing with some knee issues, but are expected to play. We’ll want to keep an eye on Miller’s name through the weekend, but limited appearances in practice have not been a big issue with the 49ers.

The big question marks are Willis and Staley. While Staley has not yet been cleared to return to practice due to his concussion, Willis is still working to recover from his hamstring strain. He sat out against the Cardinals and still has not begun normal running, at least based on what the media can observe.

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It’s all part of a push by specialty chocolatiers to make candy more manly, and to get men to reach for a stout caramel or India Pale Ale bonbon as eagerly as they might grab a nice cold one.

Last month, Vosges Haut Chocolat, a chocolate company with an estimated $23 million in sales, rolled out a “Smoke and Stout Caramel Bar,” made with a beer brewed from dark-roasted malt. Gourmet retailer Dean & DeLuca sells a six pack of Roni-Sue’s black-stout and India Pale Ale caramels for $16.95. Anette’s Chocolate Factory has won industry awards for both its Beer Brittle and Firey Beer Brittle, accented by cayenne pepper.

Beercandy.com, a website launched last year by technology entrepreneur Steve Casselman, sells lager caramels, stout taffy and “Hopdrops,” little hard candies flavored with hops. Sales were about $20,000 in the first year, Mr. Casselman said.

Beer-infused marshmallows coated in chocolate with beer-and-pretzel crumble..

Silver And Black Pride look forward ot Lions game:

Alright my personal pity party has been appeased. I owe a thank you to Saint and also to Ghost Raider for posting OMGitsjamerson’s article from Raiderfans.net. I am ready to go back and be optimistic again. We are going to be playing at the O.Co. this Sunday against a talented team that is having problems themselves in the Detroit Lions. This game is a game that we can win if we don’t come out like zombies again. We need to be ready to play and compete and if we are able to do that we are still in the heart of the playoff race.

The Detroit Lions are getting Suh back for this game and he is going to be extremely hard to control. So hard that we are not really going to be able to do it that well without double teaming him the whole game AND chipping him with the running back. I am serious here. He is always a handful but now he is a pissed off giant that is ready to show that he will not be corralled from his overly aggressive playing stance.



Personally, I think he should be a little more humble after his mistake was another black eye for the NFL amongst the people that believe it to be a league of thugs. However, it does not seem like that will be his approach. He still seems to think he is some type of victim here and he will be coming at Carson Palmer even harder because of that. I don’t know if that is true since I obviously do not know the man. It is just my own opinion and view of where he seems to be after his 2 game suspension for treating a Packer offensive lineman like he was a doormat to wipe dirty shoes off on.

Sharks beat Avs:

This one was a doozy. No doubt about that.

There’s been a lot of talk about the Sharks early game struggles this year; while that may be true in regards to the compete level, the Sharks have been getting on the board quickly. Again tonight, the Sharks got the first goal of the game, a gift from Semyon Varlomov.

As the puck entered the zone, Varlomov turned the puck over to Couture who quirky put the puck on net. Although Varlomov got back to his crease quickly, he sent a rebound right to the stick of Ryane Clowe, who roofed one past the Colorado netminder for the score.

Then, the period became a battle of special teams. And in those battles, you might as well call the Sharks the French; they’ve rolled out the welcoming mat for invading armies this season and tonight was no exception. After failing to convert on the power play, the Sharks gave up two power play goal in two straight shorthanded situations.

I’m not racist, I just like antiques

An Ohio landlord accused of discriminating against an African-American girl with a "white only" sign at her swimming pool told ABCNews.com that the sign was an antique and a decoration.

"I’m not a bad person," said Jamie Hein of Cincinnati. "I don’t have any problem with race at all. It’s a historical sign."

The sign in question reads, "Public Swimming Pool, White Only." It is dated 1931 and from Alabama.

Hein, 31, was unapologetic about the racist origins of the sign that she displayed at the entrance to her pool. She said she collects antiques and was given the sign as a gift. She also said that even though the sign seems to indicate that the pool is public, the pool is on her private property and "everybody has to ask before getting in my pool."
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The Ohio Civil Rights Commission found on Sept. 29 that Hein did violate the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign, but Hein has asked that the decision be reconsidered. The sign has since been stolen.

"I’ve never said anything to that [African-American] child [who used the pool]," Hein said. "If I have to stick up for my white rights, I have to stick up for my white rights. It goes both ways."

SilverScreenAndROll talks about dust clearing:

Unless you were hiding under a rock yesterday, you are aware of two rather large developments that reverberated throughout the basketball world. One was that Chris Paul saga finally ended with him going to the Clippers in return for Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman, and Minnesota’s 2012 first round pick. The other was that Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski dropped the interesting bombshell that the Magic were taking Dwight Howard off the trade market and intend to see how the season goes with him at the helm until the trade deadline. So in short, the Lakers’ top two trade targets are, at least for the moment, out of their reach, and in the aftermath of the Lamar Odom trade to Dallas, this obviously has ignited a bit of a crisis of confidence in Laker Land.

As such, is it panic time? Should we throw our championship aspirations in the bag? Hardly. This isn’t to say that more moves aren’t needed, or that Kupchak shouldn’t find a use for the Sasha Vujacic traded-player exception (TPE) that will expire on December 16 — and not today, according to Hoopsworld’s Eric Pincus — but rather the Lakers’ biggest strengths haven’t diminished to the point in which the Lakers suddenly shouldn’t be taken seriously, or are in any danger of not finishing among the West’s top seeds. After the jump, we’ll review the particulars behind the Howard trade saga, go more into detail on how the Odom TPE can be utilized, and look for what the team can do before the start of the season.

ClipsNation talks 10 Qs on Paul:

What could possibly go wrong?

Lots and lots of things. For instance, Chris Paul could get injured. Paul missed 37 games two seasons ago with a bad knee. But then again, he played 80 games last year. There may well be an injury risk with Paul, but there’s injury risk with everybody. If you believe he’s going to get hurt, then it was a bad trade no matter what the Clippers gave up. He played 80 games last year, and you have to make the trade assuming that he’s going to play. Also, Paul could leave after two seasons. As part of the trade he agreed to not opt out of his current contract in the 2012-2013 season. But if Paul leaves the Clippers via free agency in 2013, it will have been a very expensive two years for the club. So they’ve got two years to convince Paul to stay with the team. This is not a risk free transaction by any means, but it’s worth the risk.

Has he been slowed post injury? Is he on the decline?

Well, he hasn’t been as productive the last two seasons as he was the two before that. But he’s still wildly productive. Not to mention that he was at his best in the playoffs last year. Even if he’s slowed, he’s still plenty great.

Will the Clippers make the playoffs this year?

They’d better. With only two years during which to convince Paul that he wants to remain a Clipper for the foreseeable future, they can’t really afford any lottery trips in that time. This is clearly a playoff worthy roster at this point. This also comes at a time when many Western Conference teams are on the decline. New Orleans just sent their best player to the Clippers and also lost the second best player this summer. Denver, another playoff team, has half their roster in China. If they don’t make the playoffs with this group, given the importance of getting Paul to stay, it would be a disaster. Portland has seen Brandon Roy retire and is actively talking about rebuilding. That’s three playoff teams from last season right there. Houston finished ahead of the Clippers last season, but has struck out on all of their free agency plans, while Phoenix is on it’s last legs. The Clippers are good enough now to make the playoffs for sure, and it definitely helps that the door is wide open.

Kings games ot be on TV:

The Kings sent out a press release today announcing that Comcast SportsNet will be broadcasting both Pre-Season games. The game on Dec. 17th will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and the game on the 20th by Comcast SportsNet California. Jerry Reynolds will join the Warriors broadcast team during the 2nd quarter of the game on the 17th, and Warriors color analyst Jim Barnett will join the Kings broadcast team during the 2nd quarter of the game on the 20th.

NBA TV will also be airing the game on the 17th in Oakland.