UPDATE 1-Soccer-Spanish King's Cup last 16 results

Jan 8 (Infostrada Sports) - Results from the Spanish King's Cup Last 16 second leg matches on Tuesday
Last 16
Tuesday, January 8, second leg
Valencia - Osasuna 2-1 (halftime: 1-1)
First leg: Osasuna - Valencia 0-2. Valencia win 4-1 on aggregate.
Malaga - Eibar (III) 4-1 (halftime: 0-1)
First leg: Eibar - Malaga 1-1. Malaga win 5-2 on aggregate.
Next Fixtures (GMT):
Wednesday, January 9
Sevilla v Real Mallorca (1830)
Real Madrid v Celta Vigo (2030)
Real Zaragoza v Levante (2030)
Thursday, January 10
Getafe v Atletico Madrid (1830)
Barcelona v Cordoba (II) (2030)
Real Betis v Las Palmas (II) (2030)

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More than 400 Million Devices Are Connected in U.S. Homes, According to The NPD Group

There are 425 million devices connected to the Internet in U.S. homes, according to a new Connected Intelligence report from global information company, The NPD Group.

Port Washington, New York (PRWEB) January 02, 2013
There are 425 million devices connected to the Internet in U.S. homes, according to a new Connected Intelligence report from global information company, The NPD Group. The Connected Home report found that while computers are still the primary connected device, numerous others are diminishing the computer’s relevance to the broadband content marketplace. This trend is being fueled by devices such as gaming consoles and Blu-ray Disc players adding to the number of Internet connected HDTVs, and the connectivity piped directly to the TV itself. Strong consumer retail sales in developing categories such as tablets and smartphones are also impacting the traditional computer’s share of Internet connected devices.
By the end of 2013, a shift towards more screen-sharing across devices is expected. Smaller screens such as the smartphone have the greatest reach now with an estimated 133 million users, with tablets contributing another 31.8 million screens. The development of the shared screen experience, by throwing content from a smaller screen to the TV, is converging device ecosystems and will allow for over-the-top content to become even more prominent on the TV.
“Mobile is adding another dimension powered by screen sharing technologies that allows users to project their tablet or smartphone onto their TV,” said John Buffone, director, NPD’s Connected Intelligence. “Through 2013, multi-screen and multi-device synergy will lead the growth in the broader connected device market, but only if services consumers desire are delivered in a simplistic manner. In this connected world, content providers and consumer technology OEMs need to determine the optimal mix of services and have them on the right devices.”
Are consumers embracing the ability to access apps on their TVs? Read John’s blog to find out.
Methodology

More than 4,000 U.S. consumers, age 18 and older were surveyed in the fourth quarter of 2012. The number of installed and internet connected devices includes those that deliver broadband applications such as computers, tablets, smartphones, HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc Players, video game consoles, and streaming media set top boxes. These devices must actually be connected to the Internet not just be Internet capable. Networking devices and others such as routers, modems, mobile hot spots, and pay TV set top boxes were excluded from this analysis. E-readers were also excluded due to the limited content array they offer.

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NewsWatch Features Creatoverse, a Sandbox App that Fosters Your Creativity, on AppWatch

NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Creatorverse”, a new tablet app by Linden Lab. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 02, 2013
NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Creatorverse”, a new iPad app by Linden Lab. The segment aired as part of AppWatch, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.
NewsWatch recently discovered Creatorverse, a sandbox style app that fosters a user’s creative side. Creatoverse is produced by Linden Lab, the developers of Second Life, and it allows users to design unique creations, from circular objects to motors, to ramps with jumping cars, and then set those designs in motion with simple commands.
The Creatorverse interface is intuitive and easy to understand for users of all ages. Andrew Tropeano, host of AppWatch, performed a demo of the app and was able to draw a car with two wheels on a road with several jumps. He added directional commands, gravity, and motion, then sent the car flying. It was easy, fun, and thought provoking.
Users can create their own designs or they can remix other Creatorverse user’s designs already made and shared to the cloud-based “Creatorverse Galaxy”. Once users create their design, they can save it to their device or share it to the Creatorverse Galaxy for everyone to play with and make their own. Creatorverse is a unique product that stimulates user’s creativity while still being fun and easy to use.
Creatorverse is currently available for iOS, Android, and Amazon devices for $4.99.

For more information or to download the “Creatorverse” app, go to the Creatorverse website.
NewsWatch is a weekly 30-minute consumer oriented television show that airs on the ION Network Thursday mornings at 5:30am across the nation. NewsWatch regularly features top travel destinations, health tips, technology products, medical breakthroughs and entertainment news on the show. A recent addition to NewsWatch, AppWatch is a weekly segment that provides viewers app reviews and game reviews of the latest and hottest apps and games out on the market for iOS and Android devices. The show airs in 180 markets nationwide as well as all of the top 20 broadcast markets in the country, and is the preferred choice for Satellite Media Tour and Video News Release Distribution.

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Adapting To An Evolving U.S. Economy: Charitable Giving And “The Fiscal Cliff”

Avrum D. Lapin to join the founder of EJewishPhilanthropy.com to host a seminar for nonprofit leaders that fundraise in the United States and Israel

Jerusalem, Israel (PRWEB) January 02, 2013
Avrum D. Lapin, Director and Senior Partner of the Philadelphia fundraising firm The EHL Consulting Group, will join Dan Brown, the founder of popular philanthropy blog EJewishPhilanthropy.com, to host a seminar that explores fundraising ideas for Israel-based organizations seeking to innovate and adapt to an ever-evolving American marketplace. The two experts will discuss the newest trends in global philanthropy, and highlight the techniques that successful nonprofits employ as they plan for future success.
The free seminar, “Adapting to an Evolving U.S. Economy: Charitable Giving and The Fiscal Cliff” will be held on Monday, January 7th from 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM at PresenTense Hub, Hillel 14, 4th Floor in Jerusalem, Israel.
“As donors slowly recover from the Great Recession and re-prioritize their personal finances, nonprofit organizations around the world are significantly impacted,” notes Mr. Lapin. “How will the charitable marketplace in the U.S. be impacted by the outcome of the negotiations between the President and Congress around the so-called ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ and what are the implications for Israel-based nonprofits?”
Topics for the presentation will include:

    Giving in Response to Possible "Fiscal Cliffs": Learning how factors such as tax breaks, politics, and charitable deduction limitations may impact the scope of giving in 2013...and beyond.
    Personalized Donor Pages: Discovering how the most successful nonprofits are leveraging their social media connections to engage new donors online and expand their networks.
    Cause vs. Org: Understanding how online "investment models" are changing the way philanthropists identify potential nonprofit partners.
“Smart nonprofits are finding ways to adapt to the ‘New Normal.’ New technologies and techniques are being introduced into the marketplace. Our job is to ascertain if these strategies are working and to help perfect them,” Mr. Lapin concludes.
The EHL Consulting Group
The EHL Consulting Group is a nonprofit fundraising consultant firm located in suburban Philadelphia, and is one of only 38 fundraising management firms that belong to the Giving Institute. Founded in 1991, the Philadelphia fundraising firm guides nonprofit organizations across the United States and around the world in understanding and implementing the most effective ways to raise money and sustain support. For more information, visit http://www.ehlconsulting.com.

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Native protest disrupts Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal rail service

TORONTO (Reuters) - Aboriginal demonstrators disrupted passenger rail service on routes connecting Toronto with Ottawa and Montreal on Saturday, a day after Canada's prime minister agreed to meet with First Nations leaders to discuss grievances behind a growing native protest movement.
About 1,000 people traveling on four trains were stranded on VIA Rail routes in eastern Ontario when the railway stopped service in both directions Saturday evening, said a VIA Rail spokeswoman, Annie Marsolais. The passengers were completing their trips on buses provided by the railway.
VIA Rail could provide no firm timetable for the resumption of service, saying it was awaiting further information from local authorities about the protest, which was blocking tracks near Marysville, about 205 kilometers (127 miles) east of Toronto.
Authorities on the scene of the protest could not immediately be reached for comment.
It was at least the third major rail disruption in the past month by demonstrators from the loosely organized Idle No More movement. Protesters blocked a Canadian National Railway line in Sarnia, Ontario, for about two weeks until Wednesday, and there were shorter blockades elsewhere in the country, including one that delayed passenger trains between Montreal and Toronto for several hours last Sunday.
There were also scattered demonstrations on U.S.-Canadian border crossings in the Niagara region near Buffalo, New York, and in eastern Ontario, according to the media reports.
OLIVE BRANCH
Saturday's protests came even though Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended an olive branch to the angry aboriginal movement on Friday by agreeing to a January 11 meeting to discuss social and economic issues.
The meeting is a key demand from Theresa Spence, a native chief from northern Ontario who has been on a hunger strike for 26 days on an island within sight of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.
Harper said next Friday's meeting would address economic development, aboriginal rights and the treaty relationship between the government and native groups. He described it as a follow-up to a meeting with aboriginal leaders last January as well as talks in November with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.
DISMAL CONDITIONS
Many of Canada's 1.2 million aboriginals live on reserves where conditions are often dismal, with high rates of poverty, addiction and suicide.
Treaties with Ottawa signed a century ago finance their health and education in a way that many experts say is now dysfunctional.
Idle No More was sparked by legislation that activists say Harper's Conservative government rushed through Parliament without proper consultation with native groups and which affects their land and treaty rights. But it has broadened into a complaint about conditions in general for native Canadians.

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Navy supply ships set to join F-35 as political lightning rod in 2013

OTTAWA - The navy's long-delayed, much-studied joint support ship program is expected to come under the political microscope within weeks in what is likely another defence equipment embarrassment for the Harper government.
The parliamentary budget officer has been examining the program and is poised to release his findings soon after MPs return from their Christmas break later this month.
Kevin Page's incendiary analysis of the F-35 fighter jet program sparked a raging political fire that continues to burn.
Now, documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information offer a glimpse of a troubled ship program set to deliver less capable ships than originally envisioned.
The $2.9 billion program to replace the navy's nearly 45-year-old supply ships with three new vessels was originally announced in 2004.
The program was later scaled back and relaunched with a $2.6 billion budget, but factoring in inflation, by the time the ships are delivered in 2018 they'll end up costing more than the original program.

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'Gangster Squad' actor Josh Brolin arrested for public intoxication in Calif on New Year's Day

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Actor Josh Brolin spent some of New Year's Day and the following morning in a Southern California jail cell after getting arrested for misdemeanour public intoxication.
Santa Monica Police Lt. Darrell Lowe says the actor was not given a citation for the Tuesday arrest, which means he likely won't have to appear in court.
Lowe says Brolin was arrested just before midnight January 1, when officers found him heavily intoxicated on a Santa Monica sidewalk. He was booked into jail and released about six hours later after he had sobered up.
A call to a publicist for Brolin was not immediately returned Sunday.
Brolin is starring in the crime film "Gangster Squad," which opens this week.

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Report: Lance Armstrong weighs doping admission

The New York Times reported Friday that Lance Armstrong, who has strongly denied the doping charges that led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, has told associates he is considering admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The report cited anonymous sources and said Armstrong was considering a confession to help restore his athletic career in triathlons and running events at age 41. Armstrong was been banned for life from cycling and cannot compete in athletic events sanctioned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Yet Armstrong attorney Tim Herman denied that Armstrong has reached out to USADA chief executive Travis Tygart and David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Herman told The Associated Press he had no knowledge of Armstrong considering a confession and said: "When, and if, Lance has something to say, there won't be any secret about it."
Armstrong, who recovered from testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain, won the Tour de France from 1999-2005. Although he has vehemently denied doping, Armstrong's athletic career crumbled under the weight of a massive report by USADA detailing allegations of drug use by Armstrong and his teammates on his U.S. Postal Service teams.
The report caused Armstrong to lose most of his personal corporate sponsors and he recently stepped down from the board of Livestrong, the cancer-fighting charity he founded in 1997.
Armstrong is facing other legal hurdles.
The U.S. Department of Justice is considering whether to join a federal whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis. A Dallas-based promotions company has also said it wants to recover several million dollars paid to Armstrong in bonuses for winning the Tour de France. The British newspaper The Sunday Times has sued Armstrong to recover $500,000 paid to him to settle a libel lawsuit.

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Friday's Sports In Brief

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Alabama coach Nick Saban sent home two backup players from the BCS championship game for violating curfew.
A person with knowledge of the decision said the players were freshman linebackers Dillon Lee and Ryan Anderson. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the school didn't release names.
A statement from Saban announced the disciplinary action. Alabama's student newspaper, The Crimson White, first identified the players.
Lee played in eight games, mostly on kickoff coverage. He did intercept a pass in his college debut against Michigan in the season opener and made his only tackle in that game.
Anderson didn't play this season.
The second-ranked Crimson Tide will play No. 1 Notre Dame on Monday night.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M became the fourth FBS quarterback with 20 touchdowns passing and 20 touchdowns rushing in the same season.
Manziel got his school-record 20th rushing touchdown on the Aggies' opening drive of the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma when he tiptoed 23 yards down the sideline. He added a 5-yard TD run before halftime. The first freshman to win the Heisman, Manziel also has 24 passing TDs.
The other 20-20 quarterbacks were Auburn's Cam Newton and Florida's Tim Tebow, who like Manziel are Heisman winners from the SEC, and Nevada's Colin Kaepernick.
Three other A&M players had 19 rushing TDs in a season, the last Jorvorskie Lane in 2006.
NHL
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal mediator held over 12 hours of separate talks with the NHL and the players' association before stopping for the night with a promise to get going again in the morning.
The sides remained apart all day, buffered by the presence of federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh, who shuttled back and forth between the hotel where the union is working, and the league office. He started at 10 a.m. EST and wrapped up discussions for the day shortly before 11 p.m.
Similar talks were scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
It still isn't known when the league and the union will get back together at the bargaining table. Neither side provided details, but the all-day discussions may signal progress.
NFL
NEW YORK (AP) - With the ink not even dry on the New York Jets' dreadful season, Rex Ryan fled to the Bahamas only to be photographed lounging poolside at a resort hotel, book in hand, with an interesting tattoo gracing his right biceps.
It showed his wife, Michelle, wearing an unmistakably green Jets jersey emblazoned with the unmistakable No. 6 of embattled quarterback Mark Sanchez - and nothing else.
The Daily News ran a front-page photo and by lunchtime it was an Internet sensation. That's pretty much the way the NFL team's soap-opera season played out. Ryan was criticized for sticking with Sanchez despite losing efforts when Tim Tebow was available. The Jets finished the season 6-10.
NBA
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Kobe Bryant is no longer a holdout. He's on Twitter.
With five words - ''The antisocial has become social'' - the Los Angeles Lakers guard sent the first tweet from his account. About 365,000 people were following his verified account, (at)kobebryant, within a few hours.
Bryant tiptoed into the Twitterverse last week when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account, sending out things like a photo of him hanging out with his daughter, an ice bath that he was dreading and even a suit he was wearing to a particular game.
Heat star LeBron James has 6.8 million followers, the most of any NBA player.
GOLF
LONDON (AP) - World No. 1 Rory McIlroy said he may skip the 2016 Olympics because of the dilemma over which country to represent.
McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, is eligible to compete for either Britain or Ireland when golf returns to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. McIlroy said in a BBC documentary that missing the Olympics is ''definitely an option'' because ''I don't want to upset too many people.''
McIlroy stirred controversy last year when he said in a British newspaper interview that he felt ''more British than Irish.'' He then posted a letter on Twitter saying he grew up ''a proud product of Irish golf'' and had not made a decision on the Olympics.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - The seven Catholic schools that have decided to leave the Big East and form their own league continued to plot the future, retaining Proskauer Rose LLP and Pilson Communications, Inc., to aid in their defection.
St. John's, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence and Villanova all decided last month to set off on their own as the Big East continues to reshape itself.
The university presidents met in New York to discuss the future of the new league. They vow to ''Honor the history and tradition on which the Big East was established.''
There is no timetable for when other schools will join the league.
CYCLING
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The New York Times reported that Lance Armstrong, who has strongly denied the doping charges that led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, has told associates he is considering admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The report cited anonymous sources and said Armstrong was considering a confession to help restore his athletic career in triathlons and running events at age 41.
Armstrong was banned for life from cycling and cannot compete in athletic events sanctioned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
But Armstrong attorney Tim Herman told The Associated Press he had no knowledge of Armstrong considering a confession.

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Report says Armstrong may confess to doping

Lance Armstrong is reportedly considering a change in course, dropping his years of denials and admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs.
The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported late Friday that Armstrong has told associates he is thinking about the move.
However, Armstrong attorney Tim Herman says that the cyclist hasn't reached out to USADA chief executive Travis Tygart and David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles last year and issued a report portraying the cyclist as the leader of a sophisticated doping operation on his winning teams.
A USADA spokeswoman declined comment on Saturday while Howman was quoted by the Sunday Star-Times in New Zealand, where he is vacationing, saying Armstrong has not approached his group.

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