Macie April

Jan 15, 2007 UPDATE!

THE RESULTS ARE IN! (released within 28 working days)

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD NURSING BOARD EXAMS DECEMBER 2006

CLICK HERE FOR NURSING BOARD EXAMS JUNE 2007

CLICK HERE FOR NURSING BOARD EXAMS DECEMBER 2007 

I was wondering how long it would take before they made it official, EA Sports has announced today that   Stirkeforce will be  “a premier league” in their upcoming MMA video game.  Will other “league’s” be added such as DREAM? We will wait and see. Check out the press release after the jump.

With this partnership, the STRIKEFORCE cage and the league’s commentary team of Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, as well as ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., will be incorporated into the game. Legendary mixed martial arts referee “Big John” McCarthy will preside over the in-ring action and bring his in-depth knowledge of the sport to help deliver a truly authentic MMA experience.

“We are honored that EA SPORTS has selected STRIKEFORCE to serve as a premier league in its forthcoming MMA title,” said STRIKEFORCE President Scott Coker. “EA SPORTS has long been recognized by gamers as a highly innovative, ground breaking provider of sports gaming entertainment. We are confident that EA SPORTS MMA will function as a great ambassador for STRIKEFORCE’s fighters and effectively promote our sport to a new audience as well as to longtime fight fans.”

“We are very excited to be working with STRIKEFORCE and feature them as a premier league in our game,” said Executive Producer Dale Jackson. “They have a wealth of mixed martial arts expertise, put on great shows and have a great stable of top-notch fighters. Together we look forward to growing the sport and delivering an immersive interactive gaming experience.”

EA SPORTS MMA will feature the most authentic, intense and broad mixed martial arts experience to date – complete with a vast array of top fighters and fighting styles from around the world. EA SPORTS MMA will be available on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system in 2010.

There has always been a certain hustle and flow to the economy.

Guys buy cigarettes for $20 a carton in Indiana and sell them for $7 a pack in nyc.

The end around economy is nothing new to the real streets.

But now it’s become legitimate.

Can’t get a loan from a bank?

Do an end around with Prosper.

Can’t afford that Infiniti G35 you leased last year.

Do an end around through Swapalease.

Can’t get the local news to cover the town dump issue?

Do an end around with a blog or even get some investigators with Spot.us

As people get tired of the static, noise and red tape associated with doing business with you they’ll find a way to get around, with an end around.

If you run any business that plans on surviving through the current recession it’s imperative you do everything you can to make your product or service end around proof.

There’s even a movie about it. You can download it here.

When we beseech Allah by His names, we should do so with dignity, composure, and understanding.

There are two ways that we call upon Allah. The first is to beseech him with our petitions, to entreat him with the concerns we have about our worldly lives and our hopes for the Hereafter. This is what we usually understand by supplication (dua).

The second way we call upon Allah is through our devotions. We do so by invoking His names in our remembrances, by meditating upon the meanings and significance of those names. We do so by praising Him and glorifying Him as His noble attributes warrant through devotion in our prayers, our remembrances, and in our God-consciousness.

Ibn al-Qayyim observes: “Allah is Knowing and He loves those who have knowledge. He is Beautiful and He loves beauty. He is Merciful, and He loves those who show mercy. He is Kind and He loves those who show kindness to others.”

When we take to ourselves something of the light of Allah’s beautiful names by learning what they mean and developing ourselves and our temperaments accordingly, then we have truly comprehended His names.

It is as Ibn al-Qayyim explains, that Allah is Oft-Pardoning and He loves to pardon. Therefore, He rewards and blesses those of us who pardon their fellow human beings. He is Generous and loves for us to be generous as well. He is the Concealer of Faults, and He loves it for us to conceal the faults of those who might have wronged us. He is Merciful, and He shows His mercy especially to those of us who are merciful to others.

One way that we call upon Allah’s names through our devotions is by reading the Quran. This is because the Quran is full of the mention of His names. We also do so when we call up their meanings in our minds so that they become a constant part of our lives. In this way, we become more fully reliant upon Allah, more penitent, more mindful of our conduct, and stronger in faith. These are all ways in which we bring Allah’s names to full realization in our lives.

Compiled From:
“Calling Upon Allah with Our Words & Deeds” – Salman al-Oadah

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.

Elie Wiesel

Stripped of ethical rationalisations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.

Freda Adler

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

Nadine Gordimer

Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

Paulo Freire

Power takes as ingratitude the writhing of its victims.

Rabindranath Tagore

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

Theodore Bikel

After not following the MVNO (“Mobile Virtual Network Operator”) space very attentively for a number of months, I was stunned to learn that Disney’s much celebrated Disney Mobile service is being terminated as a money-loser.

(MVNOs are companies that offer another company’s wireless service under their own brand — for example, people who had Disney Mobile service were actually using the Sprint network, but didn’t necessarily know it.)

Last year the MVNOs were supposed to crowd out the branding and marketing presence of MNOs (Mobile Network Operators, like Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T Mobility) because the MVNOs (like Disney) “get” marketing, while the MNOs don’t. And I, like many others, found this intuitively made sense — I was just talking to another friend this morning who has a horrendous “customer experience” with his mobile carrier (I didn’t even bother to ask which).

But the truth is, MVNOs have been really stinking up the place. As reported by Cassimir Medford at RedHerring.com, besides the demise of Disney Mobile, there was another Disney-owned MVNO that shut down recently — ESPN mobile. And besides the inglorious end of somewhat lower profile Amp’d Mobile, the really telling revelation was that Virgin Mobile USA announced, on the occasion of it’s IPO, that it had accumulated well over a half-billion dollars of debt over five years time. Since the Disney marketing juggernaut and Sir Richard “Marketing-Meister” Branson have are both taking this bath, I’m emboldened to say that the common wisdom about this marketplace is way off the mark. What happened to the walled garden, where a veritable monsoon of ringtone downloads and SMS overcharges reigns supreme, where the spoils belong to whoever can herd the most sheep in the gate?

Meanwhile, hardware manufacturer and yes, quasi-MVNO Apple Computer has put together an uber-MVNO business model based on a wi-fi enabled (albeit not open platform) device. As Ari Greengart deftly points out in his 10/1/07 RCR Wireless News article, Apple receives:

• a hefty, non-disounted hardware margin on the iPhone (Apple offers no rebates or other incentives),
• a share of airtime (voice and data) charges,
• the ability to drive traffic directly to their lucrative iTunes service without first passing through their MVO partner (in the U.S., AT&T; in Europe, O2, T-Mobile, and Orange),
• a share of music, movies and ringtones downloads revenue,
• freedom from the responsibility their MVO partners must bear to acquire and maintain network capacity, and handle customer billing,
• shelf space in their partners’ sizeable networks of stores.

As Ari says: “Wow.”

Warren Buffet, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

- Aficionado