BCS ticket prices falling (but so is the number of available seats)




















Procrastination pays.

For those fans who waited until the last minute to buy tickets to Monday night’s national championship football game in South Florida, now’s the time to buy.

Ticket prices have fallen by about half since Dec. 1, when the University of Alabama clinched its spot in the title game. The average price is about $1,500 as of Monday morning, with the cheapest seats costing $865, according to the ticket-tracking services SeatGeek and TiqIQ.





But there are only about 2,200 to 3,000 tickets available from third-party brokers right now. So though the price could fall more, this is probably the best time to buy.

“We always see this: Prices are highest on the day of an announcement for the latest concert or a national title game,” said Will Flaherty, SeatGeek’s communications director for the ticket-tracking firm.

“Fans think: ‘Oh no, I need to act quickly and get the best price for my tickets.’ But that’s often one of the worst times to buy,” he said. “Ticket prices tend to fall when you get closer to game time.”’

Assuming a buyer times his purchase properly, Flaherty said tickets could go for as low as $700 (a little more than double the face value of the cheapest wholesale tickets). He said that the average overall ticket price for this event is about $1,700 — the most-expensive event since the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami.

“I’d recommend buying from online retailers who have some sort of guarantee that you will receive legit tickets and not fakes (safest way),” Chris Matcovich, TiqIQ’s data and communications director, said in an email.

“There maybe good deals on Craigslist and amongst scalpers outside the stadium, but doing that you run the risk of losing hundreds of dollars if the ticket is a fake,” he wrote. “If people do decide to buy from people outside the stadium, one way to protect yourself from buying fakes is by asking the seller to walk to the gate with you to make sure you get in.”





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Janel Parrish Pretty Little Liars 2013 Interview

January is shaping up to be a huge month for Janel Parrish, not only is she guest-starring on CBS' Hawaii Five-0, but ABC Family's white-hot Pretty Little Liars returns with a string of 12 new episodes!

Last we saw, Parrish's character Mona was relishing in the revelation that Toby was on her "A" Team and the season 3B premiere unleashes her back on Rosewood High as Mona 2.0 re-matriculates with the masses.

But is this new incarnation the result of a successful rehabilitation or simply the latest phase in Mona's masterplan? That's what I asked Janel Parrish when she rang up ETonline to talk all about the season premiere!


ETonline: What was your reaction to finding out Toby was the one working with Mona?


Janel Parrish: "Noooooooooo!" When I found out it was Toby, I was depressed because I really loved Toby! He was my favorite PLL boy. Thankfully 3B is more about finding out how and why Toby joined Mona on the A Team; it connects the dots a lot, so hopefully fans will get some answers come January.

VIDEO - Lucy Hale Talks Season 3B


ETonline: I was surprised this season starts with Mona back at Rosewood High.


Parrish: Yeah, that definitely surprised me as well, but it was exciting they let me go back to school to play a different side of Mona. She comes back and says she's all better now -- she's suddenly this good girl with this chaste image, but it's definitely going to be interesting to see how the girls reacts to Mona being so close to them again. I'm interested to see if the fans think Mona is better now or not.


ETonline: Mona faces a lot of haters when she returns, which she had to anticipate. So, should we assume there's another reason for her return?


Parrish: Mona has a reason for everything she does. She's a mastermind. She's incredibly smart, people constantly underestimate her and she takes advantage of that. I think you should always question her actions because she never does anything without a reason.

VIDEO - Adam Lambert Gets Glam on PLL


ETonline: Spencer refers to her as "Mona 2.0" -- how do you describe Mona 2.0?


Parrish: Mona 2.0 is seemingly humbled. There's a scene in the premiere where she admits to being bullied and tortured when she was Geeky Mona back in Junior High and almost blames the four main girls for her breakdown. That's the Mona 2.0 Spencer talks about. She's basically a totally different character now, but they still don't trust her because all the girls know what Mona is capable of. The first few episodes are about who believes that Mona's truly changed and who doesn't.


ETonline: Lucas also plays into the episode, and Mona's Rosewood return, in a big way. What can you say about those two?


Parrish: In the first episode, there's a little hint that Lucas is working for Mona -- fans will find out what that is and what it means for Poor Lucas. I mean, he's always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think fans will have to decide if he means well or not, and what his ultimate agenda is as well.


ETonline: I felt like the Halloween episode marked a serious shift in the show's tone. It was easily the darkest episode of PLL ever. Does that darkening in tone continue throughout the season?


Parrish: We're constantly making the show darker and darker each season. Which I love, and I think what our fans love as well. This is the darkest season we've ever had, and it will only continue to get darker well into the finale, which offers up some interesting answers to some long-lasting questions. It's going to be a really unpredictable season for everybody.

Pretty Little Liars premieres January 8 at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.

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Kuwait sentences second man to jail for insulting emir: lawyer






DUBAI (Reuters) – A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country’s ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second to be jailed for the offence in as many days.


The U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state has clamped down in recent months on political activists who have been using social media websites to criticize the government and the ruling family.






Kuwait has seen a series of protests, including one on Sunday night, organized by the opposition since the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, used emergency powers in October to change the voting system.


The court sentenced Ayyad al-Harbi, who has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, to the prison term two months after his arrest and release on bail.


Harbi used his Twitter account to criticize the Kuwait government and the emir. He tweeted on Sunday: “Tomorrow morning is my trial’s verdict on charges of slander against the emir, spreading of false news.”


His lawyer, Mohammed al-Humidi, said Harbi would appeal against the verdict. “We’ve been taken by surprise because Kuwait has always been known internationally and in the Arab world as a democracy-loving country,” Humidi told Reuters by telephone. “People are used to democracy, but suddenly we see the constitution being undermined.”


On Sunday, Rashid Saleh al-Anzi was given two years in prison over a tweet that “stabbed the rights and powers of the emir”, according to the online newspaper Alaan. Anzi, who has 5,700 Twitter followers, was expected to appeal.


Kuwait, a U.S. ally and major oil producer, has been taking a firmer line on politically sensitive comments aired on the Internet.


In June 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media.


Two months later, authorities detained Sheikh Meshaal al-Malik Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, over remarks on Twitter in which he accused authorities of corruption and called for political reform, a rights activist said.


Public demonstrations about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, and Kuwait has avoided Arab Spring-style mass unrest that has ousted four veteran Arab dictators in the past two years.


But tensions have risen between Kuwait’s hand-picked government, in which ruling family members hold the top posts, and the elected parliament and opposition groups.


(Reporting by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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EXCLUSIVE: Hurricane aftermath sends Mandee and Annie Sez into Chap. 11









Hurricane Sandy blew these stores into bankruptcy.

The company that operates Mandee and Annie Sez declared Chapter 11 last night, saying it can’t pay the bills because its insurance companies won’t cough up the cash owed from millions in hurricane-related claims, The Post has learned.

“If the insurance companies had been working with us through the process, we wouldn’t be in this position,” Alan Mandelbaum, the CEO of Big M. Inc, told The Post this morning. “We’re very disappointed. We were making significant progress.”

New Jersey-based Big M plans to keep its 129 stores open through the reorganization process while fighting for reimbursement from insurance carriers, totaling more than $6 million. There are no immediate plans to cut any of Big M’s 1,200 jobs.




Big M had been making a comeback through most of 2012 and was on track to turning a $1.9 million profit – a dramatic improvement from its $8 million loss the previous year, executives said. Then the monster hurricane hit, forcing Big M to shut its corporate offices and distribution center in Totowa, NJ, for a week. Sandy also caused major disruptions in sales and inventory heading into the retailer’s critical Christmas season.

josh.margolin@nypost.com










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Florida company provides electrical power for the world




















More than 4,000 miles from its home base in Doral, Energy International is helping keep the lights on and the power grid humming in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

Energy International, a global provider of power plants and energy solutions, sent a temporary plant that will provide power for at least the next two years while a more permanent fix is sought for the territory’s erratic and aging electrical system.

The Doral company was founded 14 years ago as MCA Power Systems and its initial goal was to pursue energy contracts in Latin America. It began 2000 with a name change and in recent years its focus has become global.





“The world needs energy,’’ said Brett Hall, EI’s vice president of finance.

While the 2007-2008 recession curtailed the growth of worldwide energy demand, the U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that global demand for electricity will increase by 2.3 percent annually from 2008 to 2035.

The potential is especially strong in developing nations. The International Energy Agency estimated that in 2009, 21 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — didn’t have access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of people without power rises to 69 percent.

Energy International has expanded sales from Latin America and the Caribbean to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, boosting revenue from $100 million annually in 2009 to more than $300 million today, Hall said. This year, EI is anticipating revenue of $350 million to $375 million.

In the next seven years the company, which is privately owned by American shareholders and affiliated with Gecolsa — the Caterpillar dealership in Colombia — hopes revenue will top $1 billion, he said.

Even though Energy International is based in the United States, it does little work domestically. Its sweet spot is emerging economies and contracts of $100 million or less.

“Our focus is to do whatever makes the most economic sense for a particular market,’’ said Hall.

“We’re not going to be building a nuclear power plant,’’ he said. But EI will accommodate its solutions to local fuel supplies whether it’s biofuel, natural gas or heavy fuels that are more prevalent.

When it comes to the type of temporary power solution needed by Gibraltar, which had been plagued by a string of power outages at its archaic electrical facilities, EI can have a temporary plant up and running in 30 to 40 days, supplying the engineering, rental turbines and other equipment and doing the installation.

“We were able to support Gibraltar’s power needs on short notice,’’ said Andres Molano, EI’s vice president of sales. “Some of their equipment required major maintenance and they needed to stop their plants.’’

EI, one of the world’s largest suppliers of interim energy solutions, signed a $12 million contract with the government of Gibraltar in November and the plant was operational by Dec. 21. The agreement includes an option for a three-year extension.

The equipment now in use in Gibraltar is considered part of EI’s fleet and will move on to other energy emergencies when its service in the territory famed for the Rock of Gibraltar is complete.

But when it comes to its permanent power plants, EI will build a facility for a client looking to generate its own power or construct a plant, run it and sell power directly to the final user.

“We can do all the work ourselves. We have all the skills in house — finance, design, operations, maintenance, building and the equipment,’’ said Hall.

Energy International has moved into the Middle East, completing projects in Oman and Yemen and establishing a subsidiary in Dubai in 2012 to pursue business in Africa and the Middle East, said Molano.

“Africa is new to us, but we believe there are opportunities there,’’ he said.

The company also is looking for continued growth in Latin America, especially in Colombia, which is now attracting foreign investors who previously had been spooked by violence.

Remote areas of the Amazon where temporary power solutions are needed also represent opportunity for the company.

“EI is very fortunate to be in a position in which we have more excellent opportunities than capital.’’ said Hall, so this year it will be concentrating on raising equity to finance growth.

“One of our biggest challenges in 2013,’’ Hall said, “will be to find investors or joint venture partners to provide capital that will enable EI to perform these projects so our aggressive revenue growth targets can be achieved.’’





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Mystery surrounds raft found near Black Point Marina in south Miami-Dade




















Mystery surrounds an abandoned makeshift raft that washed ashore near Black Point Marina Saturday afternoon.

Boaters spotted the wooden raft with some personal items inside at about 2 p.m. They posted pictures and a video of the raft on the shoreline to Facebook.

Still onboard were wooden oars. Inside the raft, photos show some sort of clothing or tarps, a backpack, and a wallet with money and what appears to be an identification card with a man’s photo.





The whereabouts of the person in the raft are unknown.

It is also not clear, whether this marina was the intended destination or whether anyone on board the raft might have come ashore somewhere else.

Black Point Marina is in South Miami-Dade not far from Cutler Bay. In the hours after it was found law enforcement boats arrived at the scene.

The Coast Guard would only say that this is the subject of an ongoing investigation.





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10 Vintage Photographs of Snowflakes






Photo courtesy of Flickr, Smithsonian Institution.


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: 5 YouTube Videos to Help Winterize Your Home]


If for some reason you didn’t believe no two snowflakes were alike, here’s your proof.


In 1885, Wilson A. Bentley successfully photographed over 5,000 snowflakes by attaching a camera to a microscope (and in turn honing the field of Photomicrography). His photographs supported his and others’ beliefs that all snowflakes were unique.


[More from Mashable: 20+ Online Resources for Planning a Winter Getaway]


Bentley become fascinated with snow as a child on a Vermont farm. He later spent time experimenting with ways to view individual snowflakes and their crystalline structure, which eventually came in handy when he had to be quick enough to capture a flake in a picture before it melted.


These photographs quickly became popular with dozens of scientists who studied Bentley’s work and published the images in several scientific magazines. In 1903, Bentley sent about 500 of his photographs to the Smithsonian, hoping they would be of interest to Secretary Samuel P. Langley.


The Smithsonian now has his vintage pics on display, undeniably proveing that snow is just so, so pretty.


Gallery photos courtesy of Flickr, Smithsonian Institution. Thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr, AMagill.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Celebrity Apprentice 6 Trailer 2013

After five seasons of celebrity boardroom battles, Donald Trump is bringing back the biggest and best personalities for another shot at getting hired in the sixth season of The Celebrity Apprentice -- and ETonline has your first look at the returning crop of stars!


VIDEO - Arsenio Hall Talks About His TV Comeback

LaToya Jackson, Trace Adkins, Stephen Baldwin, Gary Busey, Penn Jillette, Marilu Henner, Lil Jon, Omarosa, Lisa Rinna and Brande Roderick are just a few of the former contestants headed back to the boardroom on March 3.

Check out the just-released trailer to see the bitching, back-stabbing and brawling you can expect when these celebrities attempt to wrap up their unfinished business on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice!

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NY legislators say gun-safety measures will be a priority for state government








ALBANY — Several state senators say new gun safety measures will be a priority when they return to Albany this week following the school shooting in Connecticut that left 20 children dead.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Sen. Catharine Young, a Republican from Olean, say any legislative agreement should include a stronger version of Kendra's Law, authorizing court-ordered mental health treatment for individuals who won't seek help but are deemed to be a safety threat.

Sen. Jeff Klein, a Bronx Democrat who heads the Independent Democratic Conference, says after meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo they are in agreement they need "to do everything possible to ban assault weapons in New York," as well as ban high-capacity magazines and make sure people with serious mental health issues don't possess guns.











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Billionaire Phillip Frost an ‘entrepreneur’s entrepreneur’




















For that blind first date, a half-century ago, the young doctor, Phillip Frost, showed up at Patricia Orr’s family house in suburban New York, with an unusual gift: a miniature mushroom garden.

In the 50 years since, Frost, the son of a shoe store owner, has gone on to amass a fortune of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine, becoming the 188th wealthiest man in the United States by developing and selling pharmaceutical companies. Along the way, he and Patricia have become major philanthropists in Miami-Dade County and they’ve signed a pledge to give away at least $1 billion more.

“He’s a relentless guy,” says Miami banker Bill Allen, who’s know him for more than 40 years. “He’s not afraid to take risks. ... He knows the intimate details of the chemistry of products, and he’s the kind of guy who can examine 50 deals while eating a sandwich.”





CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently praised Frost’s “incredible track record” for developing companies, calling Frost’s latest endeavor, OPKO Health, a “very risky” investment while noting it could offer huge gains under Obamacare.

But back in 1962, Patricia’s first impression was that Phil Frost was a bit of a nerd, finishing his medical internship with a strong interest in research — including mushrooms. She figured an academic career loomed.

“My mother was very impressed,” recalls Patricia, not so much by the M.D. behind Frost’s name but by the gift, something more serious than the usual flowers or candy. Serious was fine with Patricia, who was living at home while working toward a master’s degree in education at Columbia University. For their first date, they listened to a classical music concert.

Frost’s rise to riches may seem highly distinctive, but in an odd coincidence he has much in common with another prominent Miamian. Frost, 76, and car dealer Norman Braman, 80, both frequently appear on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. Both grew up in Philadelphia — Frost the son of a man who sold shoes, Braman son of a barber. Both are Jewish, well-known art collectors and philanthropists.

“He’s an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur,” says Braman. “We have a lot in common, coming from very poor families. But he went to Central High (a public school for exceptional students) and I was not qualified to go there.”

There are other differences. While Braman is voluble and highly visible in the causes he supports, Frost tends to be a reticent, almost shy speaker, given to careful pauses.

‘Lucky chances’

Told that a former colleague had called Frost “lucky,” Frost thought for a long moment. He could have cited many national business stories about his business acumen. Instead, he responded crisply: “I’ll be satisfied with lucky. I benefited from chance meetings.”

Frost spent his first years living above the shoe shop within an Italian market in South Philly. His two brothers were 15 and 16 years older. “I was an afterthought.”

The family was religiously observant, and Frost recalls his father singing him songs in Yiddish when he was small. He lived at home while attending the University of Pennsylvania, except for a year abroad in France. He took many science courses, but his major was French literature.





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